Facts Are Your Friends...Not Feelings

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“Normal is broken, common sense is weird,”

so we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio, this is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Jade Washall, and the Ramsey Personality Number 1 of selling author is my co-host today.

The phone number is AAA, 825, 5225. The call is free, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Nick is with us in Philadelphia. Hey Nick, what's up? Hey Dave, I'm just, I don't talk a question

and concerning how to get out of debt. Okay.

So, I am a sanitation worker.

I make a lot of room, 75,000 a year. I just got married about two months ago. Congratulations. Thank you.

“Our combined is shipping anywhere from 1 to 25.”

So close to around 95,000. Okay. I am currently $41,000 in debt across personal loans, credit cards, and a car loan. Okay. How much have it's car?

I'm halfway paid off my car. It's about 15 and a half almost. Okay. And what's the rest of it again? 21 of it is personal loans and five of it is credit cards.

Okay. What's your personal loan? It's just at the bank? So, when we got, when she got pregnant a couple of years ago, it was a really quick thing. We had to move out quickly and I had to cover the maternity leave and all that stuff.

So, I took out a quick little six-randland. So, I could be secure after we moved into our apartment and just have the money to talk to helper. And then I just, what I started doing is I just started wrapping up personal loans because I was stupid with my money.

Okay. And would get me credit card that needed to take out another one, another one. Gotcha. And then the last, then I took out one to get her insurance. So, what happened the other day?

They stopped here for her and you said, "I got to call Dave and Jade and we got to change. What happened?" I just wasn't paycheck to paycheck and there's something you're working and it doesn't make sense to me. I just should not be having it.

You're a good man. You're a good man. You're calling. You are a while we're here, brother. Okay.

So, how old is the baby now, too? She'll be too on Friday. Okay. What does your wife do and why does she not work full-time? She works four days a week, she is a dollar an hour.

Wow. Yeah, that's a lot of time working and not a whole lot of money being made. What's the type of work? She's a dog trainer, she makes, it's a baseball commission, she can make anywhere between 20 to 25.

And she's not working as much as you said. I must wonder if she could dog train on her own and make more money instead her own

“clients instead her own pay because she'd probably, here's the thing, she'd probably”

do more, she'd probably do more money in less time doing that freelance and she could probably make that a side hustle and get another job. Yeah, I mean, I'm also looking to get back into eye also, I don't know if tax pay is through the eye delivery drivers, so I work on get cash under the books although I haven't been doing that for the first two months because I have like issues and there's summertime

slow-up so they let me go for a couple months. Why are they paying you after the books? Why can't you have a job where you're paying it above board?

I don't know, I need people to travel there to deliver that, people always pay it under

the books. Okay. All right, so here, one part of the equation, the reason we're poking at that is the income part, the other part is the outgo part, okay, so we're going to get up above this problem because what happens is when you get down in the weeds, you get lost and it becomes

overwhelming and really, really scary and that's chaotic and that's kind of the way you were feeling right before you called us. So what I want to do is I want to get in the drone and want to get up above the weeds, want to get up above this situation and say, okay, there's two parts income and outgo. You and your wife sit down the night and start talking seriously about what we can do to add

to your good $75,000 job that is reasonable with a two-year-old in the house. What can she do to double triple quadruple her income, what's kind of side hustle, can

later and that is steady, sounds like these guys come and go and then on the outgo side, we're just going to sit down and say, all right, gang, we're two grown-ups with a baby,

“game on because that's why you called, game on and we're going to say beans and rice,”

and beans, no eating out unless you can't see the inside of a restaurant, unless you work there. Do you have a budget, Nick? Um, you know, I'm not really okay though, there we go, that's a start, let's start with that.

I need that, that's a start with it. Every dollar budget, Jay. Yeah, we'll give it to you.

We'll make sure the phone screener picks up and gives you that, but here's the thing.

You've got to do it tonight with your wife. You both sit down, you fill in the numbers, you make sure you're both in agreement on how we're going to spend our money and that's it. That's how you do this going for it. And the biggest number to look for when you plug in all your numbers, Nick, because the goal

is to go through and think of all the things you might spend money on. And at the top, it's either going to be in the red or it's going to be in the green. Whatever's in the green is your extra margin. That's what goes to your smallest debt. Okay, after you make minimum payments on everything, whatever's green, that number goes

towards the smallest debt.

“We're going to do them smallest to largest, and that's how you guys are going to work”

this out. Yeah, I'll list the debts. I actually just want to weigh a good like $5, $600 of credit card debt. Okay. Good.

Do you have any money saved? Do you have any money saved? We have the remaining of our wedding. Okay. Wedding gift.

Which is how much? One thing around $5,000. Okay. Good to know.

So here's what I would do.

Get rid of all your credit cards. All right, pay them all off and shop them up. That's your wedding gift. Oh, I like that. Credit card debt free.

And if I gave you a wedding gift and you were a sharp young couple and you had a new

“baby and you told me that that's what you did with your wedding money, I would be very”

proud of you. That's what I want to do with it. Hang on. I think you just blew it. Find.

We're going to put you to action, man. That's right. What you've been doing sitting on the sidelines and letting all this crap happen to you.

And now you're about to happen to it.

That's what's going to get. It's called proactive and it's one of the seven habits of highly effective people according to Mr. Kovie, Dr. Stephen Kovie. And so check it out. You happen to two things.

It's the things happening to you. Most people in America, Nick, are right where you are right now. Broke, chaotic, disorganized because all these banks and car companies are more than willing to happen to you. Your job is to screw you and they are better at your job at their job, screwing you than

you are keeping enough of rampant. So not today, today it changes. Nick's a dad, Nick's a husband, and we're going to get on it. We're going to get grown up land, no eating out, no vacations, no buy and nothing until we get this debt cleaned up because if you didn't have any payments and you had two good

solid jobs, y'all'll be making some serious money. Oh yeah. That's where you're headed. You're going to be in a position. Think about what to be like.

We've had no payments. Holy. That's what's going to happen if you do what we teach you to do, and we're going to show you how. It's possible.

Hang on. We'll pick up and get your signed up for every dollar, it's our gift to you. Oh, there's another wedding gift. Hey guys, it's Rachel Cruz. When it comes to life insurance, and most people fall into one of two camps.

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Well, at Ramsey, we recommend term life insurance that 10 to 12 times your income, with a 15 to 20 year term, for the years that your kids are at home and your mortgage is still being paid off. That's why Winston and I have our term life coverage through Xander Insurance. They're an independent broker who works for you, shopping all the top companies to find

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Candy is with us in Philadelphia, high-candy, how are you? Hi, good, thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? My husband and I are 53, we have no debt, we have a fully funded 6-month emergency fund.

Our investments were contributing to 15 percent, most is in a traditional, and some

is in the 4-1 tank through his work, which is a traditional. Wait a god. We have a house fund, it's almost 250,000, a year ago we sold our home that we raised each and we're basically empty nesters. We decided to rent for the past year just if you were a youngest ended up, but we're looking

to move to Northern Virginia, which is a pretty area. At this point, I'm just concerned that being my age, I'm going to have to take a somewhat of a mortgage, obviously, 15 year.

“How do you feel about, like, I'm hoping it would only be about 200 or so?”

What's your household income? We're a little 205. How much of the 250, did you say you had 250,000 saved? Yeah. Yeah.

If you're going to Northern Virginia and you're thinking, you're going to spend 450? Yeah, I know. Is that what you said? I know. It's probably nearly no.

No, I mean, 450 in Northern Virginia is not much, you know, it's not. So you were looking at the outskirts. Yeah. Yeah. We're looking to put out down.

Okay. And how much of the more good is that the plan?

That's what I want to ask you out.

Yeah. And your household income is too old. Okay. And your household income is too old. Okay.

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And your household income is too old. And your household income is too old. And your household income is too old. And your household income is too old. Yeah, absolutely.

I think I do that. Yeah, you're going to be fine. OK. You're awesome. OK.

“The good news is with people like you that if you just are smart enough to ask the question,”

you're already on the way. Right. And you're already. You're already. You're already dialed in.

You've got everything else dialed in perfectly the way we teach. OK. Great. 15% going in. 15% going into retirement today.

250 sitting in an investment account from the last house is sold. You've got an emergency fund in addition to that. You've got no consumer debt, no debt at all today. And you're going to make this move to be with family. This is why you work to be near family.

Good for you.

Well done.

“And then the mandate is that that little turkey has grandkids.”

If you moved to northern Virginia for that little turkey, that little turkey needs to have grandkids. That's your job little turkey. The number of my friends and my age group that are following kids. Oh, wait a minute.

They're following grandkids. Yeah.

Around the country moving from places they've lived for 40 years is amazing to me.

You probably do the same thing if you had to. Yeah. Sharon would. And I have to go with her. That's how it works.

Yeah. They've just. It Dave loves to see. That's all right. Dave loves to see.

It's all right. Bless America. He lodges Indiana. Hey, Elijah. What's up?

Hey, Dave. How you doing? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Yeah.

So my boss put me on the Ramsay plan just a few weeks ago. So I've been reading the books. Even that. All that good stuff. But just the other day I went back in.

Use my credit card. So I can explain why I did that. Forgive me, father for I've seen. Indeed. Yeah.

There was some. There was some paint on my sink and I didn't want to gouge the surface with a metal scraper. So I found my credit card actually works really well. That's fine. Okay.

Well played. You guys. You got us. Okay. You're real to San or hooked.

Yeah. There was some frost on the windshield. Yeah. All right. Well, so I do have a question.

So about money gifts. So in a situation where a friend or a family member gets you money for like a specific purpose. Should you just use the money for that specific purpose or is it kind of disrespectful or dishonorable

“to instead just throw that money in debt and try and get out of maybe step two?”

I don't think it's dishonorable or disrespectful. If it would be one thing if they said, here's some money for you to. We do a family vacation and here's the money for you to go on the vacation with us. Right. That feels a little different than just happy birthday.

Here's a couple hundred or however much money cash. But yeah. How much was the gift and what was it for and who was it? Uh, so my fiance's parents. Uh, gifted us $5,000 to help cover wedding costs.

Oh. Okay. So they're paying for the wedding. Uh, important. Yeah.

They wanted to just say how much were you planning on spending on the wedding? We had a 10, $15,000 sort of window that we wanted to stay in. Um, and. Yeah. That's more than five.

I miss that. Where's the problem?

The problem is I, you know, I've sort of paid for a lot of things myself.

And like we could use that money to make the wedding like a little nicer. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. So the wedding budget you had already covered some of it. And they refunded you. Oh, that's a good way to look at it.

I guess I guess that's one way to look at it. Yeah. If we had a 15,000-dollar wedding budget, they put in five. And I've already paid 12. I'm pulling my two out.

So refund. Yeah. I mean, that's fine. Okay. Nothing wrong with that one.

Yeah, did they say did they give it saying?

“You have to spend the time on your wedding.”

Then was that specific? Sorry. Did they say 10 to 15 is not enough. We think you need a nicer wedding. Here's $5,000.

Well, they just like love helping and being involved with the wedding. And they felt like they weren't doing enough. So they're just like here, like have some more money. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. That sounds like code for your fiance was wanting that she wanted something she didn't have.

Not the wedding. So mommy gave her some money. So what is your fiance think about this money? So what does your fiance think about this money? Every wedding.

Otherwise, they're 400 grand. Yeah. When you said to your fiance, hey, I'd like to use this money to pay off some debt. What was her response to that? I haven't asked her yet.

But you know. Okay.

Let's pretend this code never happened.

All right. Let's go through a couple of possible scenarios. And then you go work it out in the real world. Okay, scenario number one is that you guys are in agreement. We're going to spend 15,000 and you've already prepaid some of it.

And you're going to refund yourself for the 5,000. That's perfectly fine. I don't think that's what happened. scenario number two is your fiance was wanting to her mother. Because she wanted a better XYZ for the wedding.

So her mother said, oh, I'll give you some money to do that. Well, now you got to deal with your fiance. Not your mother-in-law. You better get some clarity on communication here, brother.

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Brianna, Brianna, I don't know why you say this. Brianna, Brianna, is it Brianna? Yes. Hi, how are you? I'm Dave.

Good to meet you. Welcome from Indianapolis. What's up, Brianna?

Yeah, so I just had a quick question.

A little bit of a background to my question is I am a 20 year old college student that currently has no debt. I have almost a $15,000 emergency fund. And I am some of the girls trying to get better at budgeting.

“My question is, what advice do you have for somebody that is looking for somebody who is on the same track for your life partner?”

Um, isn't too much to ask of a guy to have an emergency fund to have no unnecessary debt to be able to budget. Um, and how do I explain that to people who think I'm just being picky. What all I want to do is be able to be smart financially. I love this question. I love that you're thinking about this.

Is there somebody that you're seeing now? Or if there's nobody, there's nobody in the picture right now? Well, about three months ago, I just ended a relationship.

That was about a, emotionally and financially.

Okay. So three structure. Uh-huh. What I'd be looking for more so than dollar amounts, I'd be looking for someone who has the same financial philosophy as me.

And is working towards the same goals as me. And we might be at different points along that path and that's okay. But if we see eye to eye on money and just the basic philosophy of money and debt and spending and wealth, that's a really, really good sign. Um, that being said, I'm not interviewing every guy I go on a date with.

“I'm not interviewing them on the first date, right?”

Because there's also opportunity for people to evolve. And so I'm looking for the things that show this person is interested in personal growth. This person is interested in growing and growing and getting better, not necessarily changing towards me, but getting better. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, because the relationship I just got out of. There was no. No sense of knowing how to do a budget unnecessary purchases for a vehicle. Mm-hmm. And just multiple.

I don't know what we call red flags. Yeah. Yeah. And that's fine. Yeah, too much, like, is unrealistic to have some financial expectations for it?

I don't know financial expectations are the question. It is, it is, it's not what we would recommend that you say,

“okay, you have to have a $10,000 emergency funding be doing it monthly budget.”

Let me see your budget or you're not, or you're not available. No, that's not, that's not eligible. No, that's not what I would say. I would not tell my own kids to do that and I did not. And I'm freaking Dave Ramsey, okay?

So my kids were taught to look for someone like Jade said that's in the personal growth. They have character, they have some maturity. Because a lot of times financial irresponsibility, just complete irresponsibility is just tied to him maturity. Mm-hmm.

It's like, it's like a four-year-old in the cereal aisle. I'm keeping my four-year-old grandson taking him to the, to the fair. And he has a complete meltdown if I don't give him what he wants. That did not happen, by the way. But it would be like the dating that person, right?

I want it. I want it. And I get it.

I'm going to go into debt and I'll get whatever I want.

And I don't need to. You know, you just hear this kind of pattern in their emotional, our lack and their emotional maturity or lack of it. And so maybe they don't have an emergency fund. Maybe they didn't come from the exact same background.

You came from, but they're going somewhere. And you can see that and you believe that.

“That's what I'm looking for more than, let me see your budget.”

And let me see the balance on your emergency fund account. I agree. That's very good. You know. And because you can get a budget on an emergency fund in about 20 minutes.

That's right. And I also want to say this because this is just part of, I think, dating people and meeting that person is, you have to go on dates to, to get to know that person. You're not going to be able to avoid getting to know someone.

And liking someone. And then maybe they don't meet the standards. And so there's a little bit of heartbreak. Sometimes you can't avoid that. And that's just part of finding that person.

So this is not something that you can figure out.

The prerequisite and save yourself from it on the first date.

If that makes sense. You have to go through the process a little bit. And that's just. Yeah. It's been so long ago.

I forgot. So you got. Dave, I'm not going to, I'm not going to. No, really. I mean, I've been married 45 years.

All I remember is I chased her till she caught me. That's all I remember, so. Oh my gosh. Tommy's in Dallas. What's up?

Tommy, how are you? Very good. Very good. Thank you. How can we help?

I have a question. I'm 84 year old man. I'm still working.

I have an office that I have other people run for me.

So I don't have to do a lot of work. But I have recently gone through the divorce and I'm looking at trying to recover. And I have. I have a good income. And I have some debt.

And I'm my question is. Which comes first. Should I pay off the debt? And then.

“Stacks the money away for retirement or how much debt do you have?”

I have. Twenty. Twenty thousand dollars. Twenty thousand seventy and sixty dollars and debt. And what is your income?

Two hundred seventy eight and two hundred and ninety. I'm sorry. Two seventy eight. Okay. Nine point four.

It seems like that you could pay off that twenty thousand fairly quickly. Couldn't you? I could. I. I probably have the money in the account right now to pay it off.

I do. Okay. So if you paid if it's me. And I paid it off. It would give me peace.

I'm solving for peace. Yes. I mean, I don't think we're working with a 30 year time horizon here that you're going to go build wealth. You're 85. No.

I'm 65. I don't think I'm working with a 30 year time horizon. All right. So, you know, I'm making decisions today on what give me peace or what influences and helps my family tree that I want to change. So long term with the kids grandkids. That kind of stuff.

So how long were you married? Twenty years. Wow. Oh, man. So you got married at 65 to that lady and at 85 you all get divorced.

That's wild, man. What's in your nest egg? I'm not much. I'm about $100,000. That's it?

How much do you have in savings? $50. Okay. All right. Well, what was the 20,000 in debt?

That was a credit card for $3600 a car for $13,000. And a personal loan for $4,100. Wow.

“So when you are not going into this office at all, will you continue to rent it?”

Is it something that you still own that you'll continue to make income off of after you retire? I continue. I continue to make income as long as I'm in the picture. That's when I step away walk away income ends. Sure.

So I'm hanging on as long as I can. Yeah. I'd ride a check today and pay off the 20,000. And I would not borrow another dime the rest of my life. And then I would start setting somebody aside adding to that 100, which gives me the ability to step away.

The bigger that number, that 100 number becomes the easier it is to step away when you want to. Yeah. That office rental is that a building that you own that you can sell? She's going into business. Okay.

It's not on a business. Yeah. When he goes to the office, it's going to the business. Yeah. All right.

And so yeah, that's what I would do. I would build the emergency fund.

At that point also to someone. They ought to be worth something if you're making 270,000 out of it. So I don't know how you're structured or what you've got there. But that's a good question to go with it.

First thing I do is pay off the debt.

Second thing I do is start stacking cash. In good investment and adding to that 100 while you're making 270, that's pretty easy to do. And third thing I do is assess if there's anything in that business that and we don't know that because we weren't talking to you long enough that you can sell and make money on. [ Music ] As a dad of young kids, I'm starting to think a lot more about the world of growing up and how I'll help them make sense of it as they get older.

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Skyler is in Richmond, Virginia. Hey, Skyler, what's up? Hey, day and out the government. Better than I deserve, how can I help? Sure.

I am 19 years old. I have an eight month old daughter. And if we obviously, I'm making about $10 or $11,000 a month consistently for the last eight months. Doing what? The question for you today is pressure washing and it's sure you're going to clean.

Wow. Buy yourself. Yes, sir. Pull it on myself. I thought about hiring technicians.

I'm trying to get as long as I came without hiring people.

“But my question for you is how do I get out of debt at 19?”

With the money I'm making, my problem is I don't feel like we're seeing the money that I'm bringing in. I have about $58,000 in debt. That is from two cars. $600 in credit cars and that's $35,000 a personal loan.

Okay. It's part of the reason you're not seeing the money you're bringing in because you're not subtracting expenses out of what people are paying you. Do you have it separated in the right ways? Yes, man.

I think the problem is not a budget.

I wish you guys a lot. And I've been talking a lot to the fiance. We are on a complete scattered budget. Okay. We know what the bills are.

And then it's constantly going to Walmart buying this by that. Eating out seven times a week. Her or both of you both of us. Okay. All right.

Well, let's stop for a second. And let's make sure we've got some basic structures in place that the statistically tell us you have a higher probability of winning.

You're 19. And you have a fiance.

When is the wedding scheduled?

So wedding is scheduled at the end of this year. And we're not looking to stand a lot of money on a wedding. Honestly, I think what she wants to do is just go to the courthouse. You're getting married like that. I don't know.

Maybe have a little get together. How about next week? If it's a courthouse, how about next week? Next week. Statistically, she and you have a higher probability of your marriage working.

Your relationship working. And your wealth building working. And your career is taking off as a married couple. Then you do is to checking up. Thinking there's a courthouse five months in the future.

Okay. Just giving you the date of points.

“And so if you were my little brother, that's what I would tell you to do first.”

This weekend, we're having a wedding and a get together. Okay. Now, then let's move on.

With your business, you are kicking butt because you are not afraid of hard work.

And you're showing up on time and you're pricing yourself reasonably. I know all of this because you're making freaking $120, $130,000 a year as a pressure washer by your freaking self. You're going to have a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day.

I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. I'm going to be a good day. Got it? Got it.

Now what about? Just a minute. Let me finish. I'll walk you through it. Then you're going to ask.

The second thing is nothing comes out of the business account except you and the business

expenses. You don't buy groceries or lights or car payments out of the business account. I'm going to get there in a minute. What expenses do you have at the pressure washing company? You have gasoline.

“You have to buy for your pressure washer and your truck that pulls it, right?”

Yes, sir. What other expenses do you have? Chemicals, you know, like mop squeegees, right? You write a check for those or use the business debit card for those. You don't buy anything else out of the account.

So in business, you're revenue minus your expenses equals profit. Follow me. Sir, profit is months was 9/5. Good. Perfect.

Now when you take, if you want to leave a little bit in there for next month's expenses, that's fine. So when we take 8500 out of that account or $8,000 out of that account, we leave a thousand bucks or something in there. We don't want too much in that account, but we're nothing, nothing.

They're running the business and we take $8,000 home. We write a check to Skyler that he's going to deposit in his personal account. No wait, taxes have to come out. And taxes on self-employed business, your size are about a fourth of your net profit. So on $8,000, that's going to be $2,000.

So you write a $6,000 check you put in your personal account and a $2,000 check you said in a savings account for your quarterly estimates. Remember this and go back and watch it on YouTube.

“Your quarterly estimates have to be filed on this and you have to file and pay your income”

taxes quarterly and they're going to be about 25% of your profit. So now you're not going to get behind with stinking IRS and mess up this whole thing. Now I've got $6,000 in my account to now start working on $58,000 worth of debt. Now we sit down and say, all right, I got a budget this month of $6,000 and we put that in every dollar.

Yeah, I think that was your problem having when account you and your fiance were seeing, oh my gosh, there's $10, $12,000 in here. We can add out if we want. Yeah, and we can do whatever we want. Can't eat out unless you sell both cars.

And now that Dave is separated that for you, I think you guys are going to have a more realistic approach that combined with every dollar. Now I just want to know, you said you have two cars. We might be able to clear some of this out really fast. What are the cars worth?

Yes. I have a truck that's right here for the business.

A lot of scientists pay 32 for it and the Kelly B book is 16/5 and it has a sourced

title. Yes. Okay, what about the other one? The other is her car. It's a little bulk to our, we paid 24 to our 20.

Okay. That's a lot of cars, you mean, for what you're earning, you're right on the line, but it sounds like you're interested in being debt free, so I'd work on either knocking these out or selling off at least one of them. Yeah, I get them.

I get them paid off very, very quickly. Here's the good news. You guys aren't used to making this kind of money. So quit spending it, you know? You just spend it like you're in Congress, man.

So your dad's right.

Get your every dollar budget out and write it down, put everything down, and do your way

to smart to be acting this way. All right. And so in a way to good other parts of this. We're give every dollar a name, $6,000 at the top, every dollar has an assignment, and don't go out to eat again.

She gets to cook.

“Well, my last question is, should I tackle every extra dollar on payments?”

Yes. Yes. By the bullet and get rid of the truck of the car. You might get rid of the car, but let's just attack the debt for a month or two and see how it feels.

You're fighting it and fighting it and not going out to eat and not going on vacation and not doing anything except paying off debt, because you've made a mess that you could clean up fast if you lean into it. But if you screw around with it, you're going to be looking like this when you're 35. Then you don't want to do that.

The good news is for your truck. Since it is your business truck, you could use your business money to pay it off. No. No, I would just say, I would just pay it off out of it. It's a personal sign for it personally.

It's just started this business. It's not up. Yeah. Now, I just knock it out. Let's just knock it out.

It's not up. Okay. You can't. There's nothing you can ride off on it anyway at this stage except maybe appreciate it. And that might be a nightmare or so.

Now, let's just lean into this thing and take $6,000, $7,000, $8,000 a month after taxes.

“And let's attack the 58,000, how fast can that be gone?”

Crap, man. 6 or 8 months. You're done. But you live on nothing, dude. As your business grows, everything becomes more complex.

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

Jade Washaw Ramsey personality, best selling author number one, best selling author is my co-host today. Alice is with us in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hi. Alice, how are you?

I'm good. How are you? That other than I deserve. What's up? First of all, I can't believe that I'm talking to you guys right now, and I am so anxious.

So if I sound completely dumb, please forgive me. You'll be fine.

We've never lost a patient.

Okay. Okay. So my question is, how do you get over the fear of not being ready financially ready to start a family? Okay.

Tell me what that means. You're not financially ready to start a family. Okay. So my husband and I are in a little bit of debt. We've paid off a lot of our debt, and I'm very proud of us so far, but we still have some

to work on. We have a $20,000 student loan that's in mind, and then we have a $45,000 student loan that's my husband. But he's about six months away from the public student loan forgiveness program. So right now we're kind of just paying the minimum monthly payment on that and hoping that

forgiveness comes and first so close to the end.

And then later, the only other debt that we have is our house and our mortgage.

How much have you paid off so far? Our student loan. No, you said you paid off a bunch and you're proud of that. What did you pay off that much? We paid off our credit cards, that was about $6,000, and then we paid off both of our

cards. I lost my mom last year, and I got some inheritance money, and we were able to pay like

“$50,000 worth of cost payments off, and yeah, that's what we'll get to the house so”

then. So if you make $110,000 and you have a $20 and a $45,000 student loan, why can you not have kids? Because I just feel like there are so many things that I would want to do if I became a mom and like standing with the five, well, I would love to stay at home, but I just

know that that option is not possible.

I think that's where we, I think that's the first step in this is clarifying what

that means to you, and having a really clear picture of, if I want to have kids, this is the way I want it to look and solving for that. So it's not the, yeah, she's exactly right, because you're not, it's not the debt. The debt's not the problem. It's not the debt, and it's not the kid, it's what you want to do because there's a

kid. Yeah, and what's the income breakdown, I think I heard you say you make $110, what do you make and what does he make? We both make around $55,000, so it's pretty split down the middle.

“So, you already have a mortgage right, I think I heard that.”

Yes, so our mortgage with like taxes insurance and everything is like $2200 a month. All right, so yeah, that's, that's the game you've got to play is if I want to have a child, I want to stay at home, now I've got to run out the budget on $55,000. Or if I don't want to stay at home, and I want to do other things, associate with the kid, maybe it's the other things that are brought, the problem and not the kid.

Right, my biggest concern is like, I want to contribute to a $529 plan and I don't know. Yeah. We get out of that, finish getting out of doing, and then do it. Yeah, we're trying to do it. Well, I mean, you'd have 20 years to work on that, the kid's just boring, the kid's not

even boring yet, so. Right, right.

I know like daycare and things like that, like it's such a common, like here's what you

got to do. But for people, and so I'm just like, I've got to do it. You've got to run a photo, but you've got to run a photo budget, running a budget and seeing the actual numbers is going to give you real answers to your questions. Right now, they're just a bunch of things floating around in your head, and you're thinking,

I think it's this, it might be this, it could be that, just give real numbers to it. And you can do that. You can run the budget as it is, looking at your margin and saying, OK, looking at the margin we have now working extra, this is how quickly we're going to pay off the $60,000 in debt. Once we've paid off the debt, this is how quickly we can have the 3 to 6 months of expense

to save. Do that after we start investing 15% this is how much money we can put in the 529. These are all numbers you can know this evening. Your child is going to be fine. You make another money.

If you pay attention to the money and you continue on the track that you're on, you guys are going to be fine. You make another money to have a child. What you may not have enough money to do, it's been $462,000 on a nursery. I mean, like, go nuts, OK, or $46,000 on a nursery, either one, neither one isn't

going to work. This is a very small human, they don't even know what's in the nursery, it's only the mother that does. The father doesn't even know what's in the nursery. So, and people go bananas.

So, if the things like that and you feel like, well, we'd have to get a bigger car. No, you don't, it's a very small human, they'll fed in that car. They don't take up that much room, their car seat takes up more room than I did. But it do.

“And you have to decide, what are you thinking that you're going to stay home?”

Because that is the biggest part of this conversation. Because if you do, that does reflect on your comfort of living with the $2,200 mortgage. So you guys have to look at, OK, if you make that choice, what's your husband going to do? Are you going to work part-time?

There's got to be something that you do so that mortgage doesn't become half of your take home. So, the answer to your overall question is, facts are your friends. When you don't, Jade is exactly right, lay out a budget for the way you see this going. And the budget will look at you and say, no, you can't spend that on a nursery.

And here's your daycare budget. Go out and shop some daycares, talk to five or six or ten daycares, get actual numbers. Not what your friends said, not what you heard on the internet, because both are liars. And so, let's go find out what's really going on and what the real cost is. And honestly, diapers and formula, they're not that much, you know.

Diapers wasn't the thing. I don't feel, I feel like there's too much emphasis on diapers. Everybody goes crazy talking about it.

I think our kids got like two years worth it all the baby showers.

Yeah.

“I think we had a warehouse for diapers, but um, but all that being said is I think it's”

what she's trying to do is plan for this. And if you plan for your anxiety, it'll go down. Yes, planning for when you're going to have a family is so important. And that's exactly what you're doing. That's what this is called.

That's what it looks like. This is what it looks like to plan for children is what you're doing. But if you use some common sense in your choices, yes, is mathematically sound, you should have no trouble and you're eligible based on the numbers you gave us today to be a responsible person and have a baby.

Okay. Let's play this out because I have to say this because we get this call. But what there is the potential for is I have this baby. Now I want to stay home.

Now I'm down to a $55,000 income with a mortgage that's 22 and I never paid off the $60,000.

Now that is the call that we get and that's the person calling and stressed out. The answer is sorry. Exactly. And that's the part that I just want to call out is there are things you can do to make this a better, easier process for you and if you have the ability to do that and you would

like to do that, it's a good thing to do. Yeah, like get the debt paid off. Yes. As an example, build your emergency fund. Yes.

The further along the baby steps you are, the easier this all of this is going to be. Yeah, that's right. But you can't just go, "Oh, I'm really sad. I'm really sorry. And you get to go to work.

You might, you know, play grown-up games, get grown-up prizes." I know this right. So that's how it works. Yeah, that's the deal. But the actual, shiled thing of, I can't afford to have children, I mean, if you've got

too many kids and you just keep spitting them out, you've got to have trouble, okay? That's not the issue.

“But you need to think about, you know, what is a reasonable process here with the income”

that you have and, you know, the typical family size and you will be fine. 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.

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Hi, Alex. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on, long time listen, I appreciate you, I find it time to get me on today. Our owner, sir.

How can we help? So I have a question for you. I think my wife and I are in a phenomenal position based on how old we are and everything that we've been able to accomplish so far. But I have one point of contention with her.

I think you'll agree with me, but I want to make sure I'm not violating another rule while I try to accomplish this. So my wife and I are disagreeing about paying off the one vehicle that we have a note on right now. So we paid off for vehicle, we have my car, it's about a $60,000 balance on it.

I'd like to paid off with what we have in savings, but I want to make sure I'm not violating any other rules based on our income so on and so forth. What's your household income? It's 150k a year. Okay.

Did you say you had your mortgage paid off, did I hear that?

our first home. So it's just a new one car. Did you buy the car after that? No, I bought the car before. Why did you not pay off the car too while you were at it?

“Well, I wanted to, that's what I'm saying.”

Did you want to keep a car payment? What's the difference between the car and all the other debt? We want to keep the cash, she wants to have more in our savings and I think we have way more that we need in savings. How much is in savings?

150,000. Okay. So it makes her feel uncomfortable to take 60 of the 150k to pay off this vehicle and be taken to the delivery. Correct.

As with anything, I mean, there's more of the story.

So we had a second child and at the time we were concerned about medical bills.

We've gone through a fertility. So we didn't pay off the car at that time, but now I think we're in a position. Babies healthy, you know, and I think we're in a position where we could pay off the car and be completely debt-free. And I think at that point, there's really nothing else for us to do and into the 50% make

sure we're fun in the 5.9s. And you make 150 a year. Correct. We're just on my salary. She stopped working back and I told her, which is another thing that happened that changed.

So if you run out the number, pretend that you pay off the car today, you have 90,000 savings. How quickly?

“If 150 is the magic number, how quickly could you get back to that?”

Yeah. Well, again, I don't want to get back. That's like part of the contention as well. Because I'd like to shift anything additional to, you know, I agree. I agree with you.

I agree with you. Okay. Let's back up this way. Let's back up this way. Let's back up this way.

Let's back up this way. Okay.

Guys, should be is your emergency fund should be about $30,000, maybe $40.

Yeah. I should have 50 in investments and no car payment. That's where you should be. Agreed. Okay.

And so now what we've got to figure out is why we're not there in her mind. So if we have no car payment and we have 50,000 in investments that we can get to on a one day's notice. If it's in a good mutual fund with a smart vester pro, you can send them an email and you'll have the money in 24 hours.

Yep. Okay. Maybe maybe $40,000. But somewhere in there. Okay.

So it's not like it's not liquid and accessible. And it's going to be making a good deal more than that stupid savings account. And I've got $30,000 or $40,000 sitting there in $40,000 in this case for an emergency fund. And we've got no debt.

Now what's the problem? Yeah.

That's what I want to ask her.

And I would, it sounds like it's mythology in her head. I would play this out with her because there's something that's causing her to freak out.

“And you should probably ask her the question, what is the worst in your mind that you see”

taking place and what would it cost? And how could we, and why could we not handle that with this arrangement? The roof blows off the house randomly, right? What truly in her mind is the worst thing. And that's how you run this back and help her see.

I mean, even medical bills with a child with issues when they're born, you've got freaking insurance. You're maximum amount of pockets probably 20 grand and you're sitting on 150 worried about it. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I totally agree. Well, what we got to deal with is facts are your friends. And we need to say, okay, with these facts explain to me what the fear is. Yeah.

Right. and then let's get into it rather than just fighting about, no, I don't want to pay off the car. Right. Okay. Bokeh.

Now why? Well, if we have 50,000 in investments in 40,000 and no debt in the world, and we make 150, and what, Jay's right, what is the scenario that you're worried about that you've dreamed up this catastrophized in your head? And let's talk that through and then you go, oh, okay.

And so, and an example of that is my wife and I were considering a large generosity gift, okay. For us, what's a large gift? And she's like, I'm kind of nervous about this. No, I'm not. Okay.

Well, let's just pretend that we took that much money and we put it in the middle of the floor, and we burned it. Are we okay? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, we got this and this and this and this and this and this. We're okay. Is it your nervous about? I guess I'm playing tapes from the old days. Oh.

Okay. That's fair. Because our tapes and our, the old days, the best of and the Ramsey House sucks. It was bad. You don't want to play those tapes, right?

got cut off coming up in my throat and we started talking about giving a gift with that many zeros on it. Oh, that's fair. That's a great conversation to have.

“But all that is is admitting that where we are is different than where we were and just as”

Deloni says, just because your body is reacting doesn't mean that those are facts. Yeah. It's a time you remind yourself. The facts are your friends and the facts are that your family is in great shape. Your family has done a wonderful job.

Such a good job that you covered all the infertility issues. You covered her quitting work, you covered any issues that came up with the child that was born with issues, you covered and you're dead free house and everything but one stupid car. I mean, you guys have done great.

Y'all are amazing. You're in the top 1% of Americans. So yeah. So that's a fact. Now what are the, what are the fears and what is the thing we're believing that's the

boogey man? Well, let's turn on the lights and see if there's really a boogey man come look onto the bed. Yeah. They know boogey man under the bed.

Okay. Let's look in the closet. No boogey man in the closet. Can you tell I've been keeping it there? Yeah, yeah.

And so, you know what I mean? It's like, but this is, what are we afraid of? Yeah. Facts are shut, you know. And it's not to speak down to her in a condescending way.

That's not what I'm doing. No, it's to get to understand. But I understand. But I understand. But I understand.

But I understand. But I understand. But I understand.

“And you need to, as a grown-up woman, who's staying at home with your children, as a result of”

our financial decisions, you need to have a grown-up adult reason for this, not just to hang in line with you. Bull crap. Let's have an adult discussion here.

Because here's the thing.

That 50,000 bucks in investments would be 100,000 if you'd have put it in an investment back then, because it would have doubled when you all did this since then. So you've lost $50,000 for screwing around with a stupid savings account. That's expensive. Yeah.

That ain't okay. You know, and so we're going to have this discussion. That's called Opportunity Cost, folks, when you miss out on an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's scary, you're then letting go of the 60,000 missing out on all that money. Yeah. But I'll tell you what happens, and it happens at my house, too. Y'all probably don't do this.

But sometimes you get to argue about something like that, and you finally go, any worth it. Oh, yeah. I'll just leave the stupid 150 over there. It's not the right thing to do.

It's wrong, but when you didn't worth it, I did that with life insurance for years. Uh-huh. Okay. Yes, double you are. Sure.

And once there's no reason I should have had life insurance. I had millions of millions of millions of dollars. And if I die, she had millions of millions of millions of dollars. She was fine. But she said, I want $1,000 on you.

I'm like, "Why?"

She's saying, "So you got another million?"

I mean, why am I behind the stupid life insurance? And it wasn't that expensive. It was like, I don't know, $1,000 or something. I'm like, "What ever any worth it, I'll just buy." Yes, double you out.

And then one day, finally she went, I don't think I need that. And I went, "Oh, you didn't need it all the whole years ago." But there we go. Okay. Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruz.

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All right. Today's question comes from Cooper in Maine. He says our household income is $2225,000 and our only debts are $9,000 in student loans and are $300,000 mortgage. We pay $150 a month on the student loan and her employer matches our payment.

Should we include this loan and our snowball and make larger monthly payments when we get to that point or should we keep taking advantage of the employer benefit and let this thing ride for another two years?

Well, first off, yeah, two plus years.

Well, first of all, you said your only debt is the $9,000 student loans and the mortgage. So you're not debt snowballing the mortgage with the student loans. You're just paying off the student loans and yes, I would 100% go ahead and knock this out. You make $225,000 a year. This should be done in one month.

It should be gone out of your life forever, not squeezing out two or three plus years. Of $150? I mean, gosh, what is that? Well, yeah, are you clippin' coupons, too? I mean, my god.

That's not necessary. No. It's amazing how, like in the name of math, we do some of the dumbest, smallest, little dinky butt things and act like we're financially sophisticated. Well, yeah.

Because it's past your body, I'm getting a free airline mile, which you will never use.

You fool 78% of them are not redeemed. That's the actual number. Eight out of ten, never get used. And yet you went into credit card debt in the name of airline miles. So let's see, this is the kind of stuff people do with.

Or the guy who's like, "I get one percent back on my discovery." That means for every $100,000 you overspin'.

“They give you 1,000 back under what planet does that make you a millionaire?”

Yeah. That's interesting. 100 out for one back. Hello. Are you in Congress?

What in the world? Who thinks that works? It's a very good point. All of a sudden you're interested in $150, but when it was $25,000. When it was time to take the debt, you didn't care about the money.

Exactly. Oh, my. Yeah, pay it off yesterday. You probably have the money in savings right now. Put the green around with, don't major in miners.

Madeline is in Los Angeles. Hi. Madeline, how are you? Hi. I'm good.

Thanks, guys, for taking my question. Sure. I guess this question is coming more out of fear than anything, because for the last 10 years I've been in real estate prior to that, I used to work. Then told practices, and being that the current state of the real estate market is what

it is right now. I'm feeling like I'm back in, you know, the dental field, where I cap that, you know, whatever 20 dollars an hour back then, and I guess that's where my question is coming from. I need to know, if I'm doing the right thing, if I have-- What is your question?

“My money and I have way too many accounts, and I feel all over the place, I think.”

How many accounts do you have? Do you mean the right thing? I have two cities, one IRR, two business accounts, another just savings account, sitting there doing nothing, and, yeah, and cash that I don't know if I-- You know, should put them the cash into more of a--

Not much money and cash do you have, huh? Um, I think it's like, any-- 80. What are you trying to accomplish by having all these separate accounts? Is that your way of diversifying?

What are you telling yourself by having all those? Um, yeah, and I really didn't know that I could have a step. IRR, and then, um, I just thought, okay, well, I'll just put them in cities, and-- Okay. Then I did well.

Simple as that.

In my last 10 years, yeah, I'm really straight, and I have two rentals, and basically

that's where my income is coming from right now, and that's why I feel like I'm back

You know, 'cause now I have to pay a mortgage, um, where I live, my condo is paid off,

and the rents are what's keeping me afloat. I pay the mortgage, and then I'm back to-- Okay. I'm not sure what this has to do with the dental, but let's go through the numbers and see if we can simplify this.

So we've got to pay it off condo. That's great.

“The two rentals, uh, do you carry mortgages on those?”

Oh, one mortgage. Yes, I just paid off a healer that helped me build the 80 new that I rent, um, you know, from that. So how much debt do you carry on the rentals total? Uh, a 3, 3, 6, 5?

Okay. And then the 80,000 in cash, what's in the savings account? Combined in either, so it's almost-- No, no, no, just the savings account. What's in the savings account?

Oh, uh, the savings, that's like 30. Okay, and then what's in the two CDs? That's the-- there's three CDs, um, that's almost 300. 300,000. Okay.

And when do those mature, when are you? When do they reach their target date? Uh, they have different dates, uh, some on-- are on five months or six months. How old are you? I'm so nervous.

That's okay. Don't be nervous. How old are you? Yes. I'm 50.

I send it to the mom.

“What's your best year in the real estate business?”

Oh. My best year was 2020, 2021 through 24, 25, I sold in that thing. You can like 0, and 26, I don't know. Why did you sell 0? In 25, um, I was exhausted.

I was burned out. I was building my ADU in 24. I got the occupancy certificate of occupancy in 25. I was burned out. I was so tired.

I'm a single mom. I-- everything is on me.

Um, my daughter is amazing.

She just graduated from CSI and um, you know-- Why are you burning? You may more money you're making your life. You're tired. That's right.

I'm tired. What are you going to do? Why are you burning? Um, I have sold like big kinds of times. Yeah.

It doesn't kill you. Yeah. Every day from 70 until 11 p.m. You want to cut your hours back to a normal hours instead of going to zero houses sold. Just cut the number of houses you're selling back.

Why didn't you die on purpose? I think I was-- I was working-- You said you quit because you were burned out. That is on purpose. And you said you're mostly living off of the rents.

The rents all right. Okay. So you go ahead.

Um, here's what I would do.

And because I don't touch it. There's two parts to this question. There's two parts to this model.

“And number one is, if you feel like you need to cut back on working,”

uh, you can do that, but you still need to be working in some way. Uh, I don't think there's any reason that you shouldn't be selling any houses. I think that, um, there's just something there that you've got a mental block there. As far as this money, I think there's ways that we can clean it up. I would take the 300,000 and I would invest them.

You can do a set if you want. You can do an individual 401k, maybe get with a smart investor and decide what the best option is for you for retirement. I think the savings for you, I would keep six months of savings and a high yield savings account.

If six months for you is around 30, 30 to 40k, that feels fair. And then the rest of that cash, I'd put it with the 300,000 and I'd invest that. And then if you want to simplify even further, I'm not sure, uh, but you might get to the point where you sell off one of these rentals to pay for the other. And that way, you have one paid for in cash rental that's generating cash.

And then your own condo is paid off. How does that sound? I don't know what it's all about. It doesn't cost much to exist at that level. And you need to be working.

You don't have to work 7 to 11, but you could work from 9 to 4 and do a lot of house sales. Because you're good at it, um, you just talk yourself into the corner of saying, oh, oh, I'm dying. You're dying. Yeah, go back and listen to this call.

You don't need to quit, though, because you have the potential to earn a bunch of income. And so yeah, what I would do is go to Ramsey Solutions and hit Smart Vester Pro, sit down with them. They'll help you put some of this cash together and do some real investing. But that only works if you're not sitting on your butt, trying to live off the rentals

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Amanda is in Minneapolis. Hi, Amanda. How are you? Hi, I'm doing well. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So, thank you for taking my call. So my husband and I are on baby step number five and before we kind of go into saving for our children's future, we were kind of met with mandatory kitchen runization that came

up. It was a kitchen back from the '80s and we had riding cabinets and appliances were falling apart. It was time. And so we felt with our finances where they were, we were able to save up.

We did about a 25k budget for that with about 5k in fluctuation and case something came up. But the problem with that is that we experienced a huge mold problem that we had no idea. And so my question in this goes into, we have about 30 saved up for the renovation and then we have another 30 in what we call our emergency fund.

And my question is, should we be going into our emergency fund and just to give a little bit more detail? We were told last Friday, I worked for a big corporation that layoffs are coming and then our manager followed up shortly after and stated that our group was not safe. Okay.

So my question is, what do you want to be, right now I make about 105. What do you do? I work for Med device. What do you do? Swarcing for the big Med device company.

What's your husband make? He makes about 135. Okay. So did you start your job on last Friday? No, you didn't, you allowed to make it.

Hey, the guy told you he's getting ready to fire you. You need to listen. Okay.

“You need to, you need to, you need to, you need to, you need a job by next Friday.”

Make it 120. What's the mold rate? And then give them the fingers you all cut the door. Corporate America is trying to piss on you. You better get ready.

Okay. It's come. It's coming. I mean, they're not kidding. When they say your group's not safe.

That's code for pack your best. Yeah. Okay. What's the mold remediation cost? Right now they have told us it's looking about an additional 12,000 based on the

rotting that they continue to find as they move forward. Okay. I have mold remediated many, many, many properties.

owner typically. And the mold remediation companies have a spectrum of work that they can do from safe to crazy and drama. And so that industry does not have good credibility. Because in other words, I hear stuff anywhere from 30,000 to 4,000 and 4,000 absolutely

will fix it in that case. And I've personally experienced that taking bids and remediating mode. But it's like your children are going to die. And so that's where they start. Right?

And it's a problem. And I've got, you know, we've got rental properties, the rental calls is up and go, "My children are going." No, they're not. We're going to remediate it and remediate and simply means get rid of mold.

That's all it means. So I want you to get three more bids on this mold issue.

Because any time someone says that their mold has taken over the house, I always want to

make sure that really happened and is there something else we can do and what's the process we do? Basically, we need to be rid of the mold and we need to seal so that it doesn't come back and get rid of whatever water problem it was that caused the mold in the first place. Have you identified that part of it?

Yes, it was a renovation that we did about five years ago that caused it where a storm came in and it just caused a major leak. And so we know where it came from, it's already been dealt with. Okay. So we just got to tear out whatever rot there is and seal it and do the proper remediation

and that might not be 12,000. It might be. It might be 12,000 doesn't sound completely unreasonable.

“So, but I'm guessing you've already torn the you got no kitchen right now, right?”

Nothing there. We have no kitchen. No kitchen. No job. This is great.

What a great week.

And so, yeah, you've got to put it back, you don't have a choice.

Yes. Okay. So, I want you to get three more bids on the mold and the mold and the mold associated rot repair get some more bids, it's different than the kitchen guy. You may or may not use the kitchen guy after that.

And then if it is 12, you've got 30, 12, you got 30 in your remodel budget, right? Correct. And you've already given them some of that, right? Yes. We've put down about 90% of our money already.

Oh, work that has a done. Oh, yeah. That's right. On work that's not done. Well, it was to get everything kind of delivered and, yeah, it don't take 90% to get

it delivered. Oh, that's scary. He had a scary.

I hope they helped me meet your standards.

Yeah. So they have 27,000 of your 30. Correct. Oh boy. Can't breathe.

Okay. And right now, you've just got a hole in the wall, no cabinets, no nothing. Nothing. Okay. Um, all right, so, um, it'll be careful how you talk to this contractor because he owns

your butt. Um, so, uh, in terms of getting the other bids on the mold and stuff, but I would get some of the bids just to say, I need to make sure we're safe and make sure our numbers are

“right because I think I'm losing my job.”

Just tell the contractor that and then get some other bids. And then you have how much in your emergency fund again? 30. 30. So it's 30 and 30.

The two numbers are both 30. Okay. And you need 12 of that in addition, the way it's bed out today to be able to finish the mold remediation and put the kitchen in. Correct.

Um, and just a question. Which leaves you $18,000 in your husband makes how much? 135. Can you live on your husband's income when you get laid off if you hadn't gotten your new job yet?

Yeah. I hope so. But have you plugged that into a budget just to see what it looks like temporarily? Yes. Okay.

And it's scary. We have two kids in daycare, which is obviously not cheap. Our mortgage is about $2,500 a month. It won't be there if you're not working. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Um, I mean, if you're sitting at home, we're living on his income. It takes about a couple months, yeah.

“So, um, all right, so here's the thing one is get more beds and finish the kitchen, 12,000”

or less. Okay. Leaving you 18,000 in his 1305 to live on when you get laid off. Thing two is, go get a job right now as fast as you possibly can, making 120. And then quit and go, well, my group laughed.

I mean, that, yeah, your group is not safe.

That's some scary, but words, right? Sorry. Yeah. All right. So, um, there's something about that process that makes people think it's

not going to happen to me. Maybe it'll be everybody else but me. Yeah. No, I'd be trying to get a job now while you have a job. Yeah.

Out of there's your mentality. You're good. And make more money somewhere else. It's fast as you can. Well, I'm not going to get a severance.

I, well, my severance is see you wouldn't want to be you. I'm done. Getting out of this place. Phew. Hey, what's up, guys?

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$25 forever requires customers to remain active on boostmobile unlimited plan. Welcome back to the Ramsy Show in the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. Jade Washall is my co-host today. Greg is in Seattle. Hi, Greg.

How are you? I'm doing good. Actually, better than I should be. Hey, man. How can we help?

Well, I'm seven years old retired, I have an $81,000 mortgage, is there any reason I should not pay that off? Nope. You should pay it off. Well, I guess there is.

“If you only have 81,000, how much do you have in your nest egg?”

About 150. Oh, that's a total nest egg to live on. Oh, let's take that cash. 150. No, no, no, no.

I said nest egg. What is your net worth? That's a $1.8 million. Now look at this. That's what I thought.

I kind of smelled that. Why to go, Greg, congratulations. I don't guess you would hear it to that. Did you? No, I worked for it.

The old fashioned way. Yeah. Right, Greg. Check, pay off your mortgage today, Greg. Okay.

Let me ask you another way. Okay. Let me reverse down here.

“There's sometimes what I'm making a financial decision.”

I use this reverse engineering thing to check my logic.

You've got 150 in cash on a $1.8 million net worth.

I heard that right. Correct. Okay. And an 81. Anyone else?

Okay. So if instead you had called me and said, Dave, I have a paid for home. By the way, what's your home worth? About 600. Okay.

I have a paid for $600,000 house with $1.8 million net worth. And I have $70,000 in cash. I'm thinking about going and borrowing 81,000 on my house. So I've got 151,000 in cash. You wouldn't have made that call, would you?

No, I wouldn't. No, I wouldn't. I guess one reason I made the call is my interest rate is $3.75. Yeah. But you didn't get rich on borrowing on your home.

To invest. Exactly. You got rich by avoiding debt and investing steadily. Okay. Am I right?

You're correct. Because you're not a debt guy. The only reason this debt's around is because it was so cheap you just made you think about it twice. So the other debt you got read of years ago.

Correct. Yeah. That's how you got here. Because you're what we call a baby steps millionaire. You follow the stuff where the principles that God and Grandma talks about that you and

me grew up with, only most people didn't do them even then. And you're one of the unusual ones that did. And so now you're what we call sitting pretty well done, sir.

Yes. That's free. Greg's that free. And he worked for it.

How did you get that money?

I'll work for it. So he's one of those guys like me when somebody says, "You're so lucky. You just want to smack 'em?" Oh yeah. No, I'm blessed.

But I'm not lucky. Luck came dressed and worked close. I know this, right.

“That's how I came to look, knocked on the door and said, "You got some calluses handy.”

Put your hand to this." And that's where that came from. Now, it's not accidental and it's not random and it's not a lightning strike. Greg followed the age-old principle of living on less than you make and investing it. I'm so proud of him.

Way to go. Very cool. Very cool. Gabby's in San Antonio. Hey, Gabby.

How are you? Hi. I'm doing good. Good. What's up?

What's up? What's up? So I've recently got laid off of the night of job two weeks ago. I've previously deployed that. I had a last year, actually.

I had the company close that I was working for. They had been and I had been laid off for nine months, so I was just starting a new job and I was starting to get settled. I had moved to the cultural work and I really enjoyed that new city to take grew up in overall area and I was agitating and starting to get into the swing of things.

I didn't go on a part-time job that we can make sure I had a buffering my budget and then I got laid off.

“What kind of work do you do that you've been laid off twice?”

I do. I do work.

The first time it was because the company shut down.

Again, we would be something a little area and it was a government job they closed off. In this time around, they just started not to board with me after the six month probation. Why? It was due to a project that I didn't know how to do and I thought like, and I would ask the manager for help and I didn't get the help that I needed on that budget and nor did I get

all the information clearly for that project. So he based off my six month probation on that one project. What kind of IT work do you do, huh? That one was a network, so I was doing with switches and things like that, but when I first started I told them that I was willing to learn, but I was not, that's not what I would

do help that. You think like that, so they still had me on, even though I knew my background that I would do, you know, help that six computers, you pick that, but that was a higher level. And they said okay, no door, you can learn it, of course, I was in, they expected

to do the project without training me.

Okay. Okay, the way you've approached this each time, I don't want you to ever tell anybody that again. Okay. That's three times you blame them and you took a job knowing that you didn't know

how to do the job and then you did not force help and you're blaming them. Yes, they are also at fault, I don't really disagree with you, but if you're ever in an interview and you blame your former employer for not training you, you won't get the new job in the interview. You gotta have some personal responsibility.

Does that make sense? You follow my logic here? Yeah, so I want you to reframe that in your head and go, this was a bad choice, I should not have taken the job and I certainly shouldn't have settled in like I was going to get to keep it forever knowing that I didn't know how to do the job and that I was,

you know, there's a gap between your knowledge and your ability to perform and that's, that's okay, we all have that and something, but then, and this company was not set up to do that and you're young and you're just starting your career, so you don't know yet, you're learning the hard way to be forceful on, before I take a job doing something, I don't know how, I have to be forceful about the processes that are in place to make sure I can learn

fast enough so you don't fire me later and that's, you know, that's the part of the interview process for you.

“So I think your position is simply this, you need to get another job and you learn from”

these last two things, okay, I had a rule thing that folded up because it was government supported, learned something there, took a job but didn't know how to do, didn't work out, learned something there, so now let's go do it again, I think you still have a good knowledge based on IT and I think you land yourself a new one, hang on, we're going to send you a copy of finding the work you're wired to do with an assessment in it, I want

you to take that and see if this is really the stroke where you want to go with your

young and you're learning and this is an experiment, we found two things that didn't work,

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I'm just four lines and just three hours, I mean all we do, we love you, we want to get to you, but we could do this 24/7, it's still not get to everybody, but guess what, we can now, because we have something this 24/7, it's called Ask Ramsay, it's free, it's a free AI tool, and it's built and trained only on Ramsay answers, AI can only spit out what you feed it, so we only feed it Ramsay and it only spits out Ramsay, how cool is that? You get an answer the same

exact way we'd answer it right here on the show, free Ask Ramsay, ask your question today at RamsaySolutions.com Ask Ramsay is the tool or click the link in the description you're listening on the podcast with YouTube and you'll find out exactly what we would say about that. Sarah's in Boston, hi Sarah, how are you? I'm so great, thank you, thanks for taking my call. Thank you, how can we help? So I'm just wondering if I am missing anything here. My husband and I, we make about 90 a year,

I do stay home with our three young kids, and we have a two family house, and if my mom is

“going to be moving and upstairs, and I think my mother was upstairs before, who was upstairs before?”

We had a run-ter before, who was there for four years? Okay, so it is a duplex, it is actually two sets of utilities, two operating domiciles, correct? Yes. Okay, cool, all right, and mom, you're going to let mom live up there. Is she supposed to pay you around or what? Yes, so the plan is that she would pay us 2,000 a month. My concern is that we debt as a part of our income, and long term does that make sense, because she is 64, and she's been to retire next year, and I'm not sure that I'll be

going back to work anytime soon. Our youngest is one, our oldest is five. I don't think you're working as anything to do with it. Are you saying she won't be able to, she won't have any income after

“she retires to pay the two, the rent is that what you're concerned about? I think, no, I think she”

will have the income. I'm just concerned about never being able to increase it. Okay, I don't know if

that's something. Okay, so I started a year from now, she could be none of the five. Yeah, yeah, okay. So is she selling a home to move in there? Yes. So she's going to have a big lump sum. Why is she not just purchasing something for herself? She wants to be close to the grandkids. Purchase something close to the grandkids. Either that or be treated like a normal rent or where the rent goes up periodically. Yeah, but if she's 65, when she's 85, I wouldn't have wanted her to,

if she just called said I want to rent for from 65 to 85, I would tell her not to do that. I would tell her to buy something for her own good. All right. So that was a thought I had to invest. She moved in temporarily as she looked for like a condo or something. Yeah. Another reason why she's moving

Good. Good. So how much is her home selling for? Right now it's off market starting off markets 765. Is it paid for? No. What does she owe on it? Maybe five something. Okay. All right. So she could put a 265 or $200,000 or whatever down payment on something that is smaller. Maybe a 400,000 a nice condo that's near you. So she can be near the

“grandkids and then her life is stable. She's not stable as she moves in with you unless you take”

the hit and don't increase the rents. So I think the mom here's what the plan is. The most you

can stay here for your own good is two years. During that two years I want you to purchase something that's good for you for you to go forward and have a great retirement in. Because here's the thing. You tell her you talk to the financial coach and he told you that because I am. Okay. Because for her if she just asked me if you hadn't called me if she called me and said, hey, I'm selling my house and I'm moving my daughter. I would say do that only as a temporary measure

and get out of there and get you a condo 3,400,000 put down the 260, 250, whatever. Get the condo paid off. So when you go into retirement, you're living in a paid for property and that's stable.

As is your most expensive part of living, which is housing. But I will say, I mean, I'm just this is a

caution to you. Even if you put the caveat out there that this is only for two years, the minute you welcome her in there, there's a risk associated with that because if she gets comfortable and you guys get comfortable and you get like a day's a call on your own deal, this gets messy real fast. Yeah, I've already seen it in the past and I think my other concern is she enables a lot of if they don't do it. Listen, don't do it. You've already said enough that you have enough

misgivings about this. Don't do it. Okay. Tell her to go rent a one bedroom somewhere and while she looks for a house. I think you think this is going to go sideways. You keep saying it in different ways. No, you think it's going to go sideways. You're nervous for good reasons. You've observed your mother's enabling. You've observed her inadequate behaviors around money and you think it's going to end up in your lap and you're right. Yeah, listen to your good. Okay. Yeah, it's not

“mean. Mom, I think you need to own a house. I don't think you need to be a renter and to encourage”

you to do that. I want you to rent a one bedroom. I found a really cool one over here in the neighborhood. I'm going to rent mine out. You shouldn't be paying $2,000 a month for rent. I want you rent something cheap while you look for your new house or new condo. So you're not spending much on rent. I'm going to charge too much over here. It's not going to be good for you. And I'll help you. I'll coach you and you know, we want you to be around the grandkids. We want you around

but it's not going to be good for you to be upstairs. And so if for so many reasons, so I'm going to help you not do that. And just be kind and forceful and say no. Because you told us for different ways why you don't think this is going to work. We kept trying to say, oh, you could do this. You've been stuck out of it. And there's like, no, that's not. So you know what this is going to be. You just know and you want someone to say out loud. So okay, you talked to a financial coach and

they told you not to do it. I'll be the bad guy. There you go. I'll be a bad person. It's Jade's dad. Tell her Jade said. I'll take the blame. I'll take it. That's okay. I'll take it. I can handle it.

You know, the funniest one was the first two years I was doing talk radio show a lady called

and she goes, we've been married three months and my mother and lost coming to visit for a week and we don't have a couch. And I said, well, you don't have to be money. You can't buy a couch. And she said, yeah, but my mother and I said, tell your mother and I'll sit on the floor.

“And she said, what do you mean? I said, you don't have any money for a couch. You need to be a”

grown-up. No couch. Yeah. And she's laughing and she's like, she's not going to like that. And I said, she's going to love it. She's going to love it because she used to have to do that. And she has to use to have to put up with her mother and law. And you be kind and you say, we got no couch because we're broke and we're getting out of that and we're going to get a couch later. I'm sorry. We appreciate you coming to visit. But here's the interview. Welcome to the

camp and share. You know. And so I go out to dinner that night. Lady comes over to me and she goes, hey, I was your caller today and this is my mother and I. Oh. Oh. And the mother loves laughing. She goes, you are right. That's so funny. It's so awkward. So hilarious. That is awkward. This is my, I was your caller this afternoon. And when you do local talk radio, that stuff happens. You know,

you tell her you sit on the floor. Yeah, that lady going to call up Jade and say,

hey, I want to meet you. You and my daughter will answer me. Yeah. We'll meet you in a back alley. Sorry. I'm pretty strong. You don't feel threatened. No, no. She's probably what? She's 60. I can take her.

“You could take her. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, Jason. Oh, that's what. That's a new story. I've never heard”

that one, Dave. Oh, that's a good one. You new talk radio long enough. You've done a lot of dumb things. I can just tell you. That wasn't dumb. It was just interesting. Yeah. Too funny. . 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. If you didn't know, you're more than welcome to visit us at our headquarters where we do the show from. We're on the glass in the lobby and

“generally speaking, there's 50 to 200 folks out here closer to 50 today watching the show. I think”

school's back in. And we've got a big lobby, big bookstore. We've got free homemade chocolate chip cookies and coffee for those visitors. And you can sit and watch the show. We do it from one to four central time every day Monday through Friday. Also, in that lobby is our debt free stage and guess who's on the stage. It's Kevin and Ashley. Hey, guys. How are you? We're great. How are you? Better than we deserve. Welcome. Where do you guys live? We're from South Bend, Indiana. South Bend,

very cool. And how much debt have you guys paid? We paid off 30,000. All right. Oh, and how long did that take? 12 months. Good for you. That's quick. And you're range of income during that time.

“We started with 30,000 and we're at 65. Wow. What do you all do for a living?”

I'm an administrative assistant for a women's ministry. And I'm a full time seminary student and then also work part-time for the school. Ah, very cool. So how do you pay off 30 K? Making 30 K? Well, we lived in a family-friends basement so that brought our rent down and we were just for on the same page and we just knew that we wanted to pay off our debt so we got a few extra part-time jobs. But did you let Kevin eat at all? We had a lot of 15 bean soups. 15 beans. Okay. Well,

that's not as much as a 20 beans. There we go. Wow. Look at you guys. So I mean, you're acting like a bro college kids to knock out this debt. What kind of debt was it? 23,000 of it was student loans. Seven was a car. Very cool. Okay. So now you're free and you're continuing in seminary. Yep. And you're continuing as an administrative assistant. And so the plan is to get out of seminary and go into a pastor or what? Yeah. So I'll graduate in about two and a half years and then

would be a pastor and then I've also talked to a school about staying on there. So I'm willing to serve wherever God calls me so. And pastor role would be great. Good to be available. Good for you. And educate it. There we go. Both. Very good. Congratulations. So what put you on this track? What made you decide to go all Ramsey? Yeah. So finishing up college right after we got married. We have the debt in the Carlin and we were making payments and realized we were just making no progress.

And we said we're just never going to be done making these payments. And that was discouraging.

And we have listened to Ramsey the show a little bit and we just said we need to sit down and talk about this and figure out our money with a real plan. And so we got every dollar and we're like we're just going to go for it. And so we made our first budget because we said someday we want to have a house and we want to have things something that we want and that would

budget and started doing it. So what about the friends basement? Did they approach you or you approached them? We approached them. I had none of them for a while and none of that data housed some other people who were especially looking to go into ministry. So I just said hey, we need somewhere to keep to live or you guys available and they said yes. So that's where we started.

“What there you go? All right. Very cool. Is it cool to ask what they're charging you?”

Well, we're actually not there anymore. So that was like the first step we were there for

a little less than a year. Okay, that knocked the dead out. So we're at the basement? No, we're out of the basement. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Yeah. I actually was happy in a real apartment now. Yeah. No more basement. No more bean soup. I love that for you. Life is so much better and life is more free. Okay. This does set you up though. I mean you guys really you sacrifice that a time when things were already pretty lean because you're in school and and then on top of that

you sacrifice even more to go ahead and clear the debt so that when we can come out we'll come out swinging, right? And there's a lot of stuff you'll be able to do now because you don't have this weighing you down. But it was kind of an an opportune time to attack this. Agreed? Yeah. But you

“both did it. Right? Actually, did you have to talk you into it or did you talk him into it?”

I have first. I was a little bit hesitant but it didn't take very much time. You're like,

I'm committed to this. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's get rid of this mess and get it behind us. Does it? How's it feel to be a hundred percent free? It feels really great, Dave. It feels free and we are able to save for a home now and when I finish some degree we know that we're going to be ready to move wherever wherever God calls us to serve so it feels very free. You know, as a person of faith, as a fellow Christian, I've run into this a lot over the years of

people who are serving one way or another. One of the places I run into is like people that young people that want to go on the mission field, but I've got $187,000 in student loan debt. You know, and well, you're not going on the mission field because you've already made that decision accidentally when you decide to go so far in debt, you couldn't breathe because on the mission field, nobody's going to give to you to pay off your student loans. They'll give to you to eat and

you know, maintain a household while you do mission work, but nobody's excited about supporting $187,000 in student loan debt. And so you really do get to live out in that setting. You keep you mentioned twice wherever God calls me to serve, wherever God calls me to serve. You're living out that scripture where Jesus said, it's tough to serve two masters. You will love one and hate the other. And what that means, of course, you know, as a seminar student, is that you got to make a

choice. And I got to pay the bank or I got to go where I feel like God's calling me and I can't go because I got to pay the bank. And so the borrower truly is slave to the lender, then you, you can't listen to God's voices clearly and you can at least you can't respond to it as clearly as you can now that you've set yourself in this situation. It's very cool. I'm very proud of you. Thank you. Who was cheering you on? Parents and grandparents, really? Yeah, they helped us out in any way they

could and they're just always there for us and we did laundry at their house. So that's fabulous.

Yeah. Very cool. Good for y'all. Well done. Well, we're proud of you. I don't know if they're proud of you. Congratulations. And so how long before the seminar is finished? Two and a half years.

“Two and a half. I think you said that, but I want to make sure I heard it. Okay. Very good. And”

paid off $30,000 in 12 months, making. All right. Here we go. Kevin and Ashley South Bend in Vienna, making paid off $30,000 in 12 months, making anywhere from 30 to 65,000 and lived in the basement. Whatever it takes to get debt free. Count it down. Let's hear a debt free screen. Three, two, one. We're debt free. Yeah. I love it. Well, a major sacrifice. I can't tell you how many people I know that are people of faith, Christians. You do too. We've both experienced it and watched it

that that got us blessed in financial aid. They've done really well financial aid and they let somebody live in their basement or live in their condo. Yeah. And I've got one friend who has one condo that's just dedicated to missionaries when they're home. They just leave it open and they have a place to stay when they come home. That way they don't pay a hotel, they don't live in a hotel which is not as fun as a condo. When they, you know, they come home for three months or something like that.

It's a sort. And it's all he does is what he does with the whole thing. And sometimes he has weird stuff happened, but most of the time it's just a great joy to be that we're able to be generous.

live and give like no one else. They're on the other side of that letting this little seminary

student couple brand new marriage have a place to stay for almost nothing. Not fancy, but we're not trying to be fancy, we're trying to get out of debt. Yeah, get the job done. And that's, you know, that's truly beans and rice only they did 12 bean. 12 15 bean 15 bean. Have you had 15 bean? I don't. I didn't know there were 15 beans. Well, that's not a southern thing to make soup out of 15 beans. That's not something I've run into. We'll have to

learn about that when we talk to them. Yeah, we will. We will have to learn about that. It's a different, when I said beans and rice, I didn't know I meant 15. That's to a whole different level. Yeah, a lot of 15 beans soup, but in the south I guess we'd have pinto beans, white beans and corn bread, black eyed peas. That counts as yeah. Yeah, we'll keep counting up. We might get to 15. Two in a fish. Oh, go away. Get away from me. Gross. I knew that gets you.

Uh, uh, my always just runs a little chilled in my background. It's, it's a scary sandwich.

I love it. Kathy. I am proud of them. Great, great young couple. How fun is that? Way to go, guys. . Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade Warshot. Listen, summer spending adds up so fast between vacations and road trips and camp fees and events. And all the extra gas and grocery runs, money can get tight before you know it.

To really get your money under control and keep it that way, you're going to need a plan.

“And that's what you'll get with the every dollar budget app. It helps you track your spending,”

free up cash to put toward debt and savings. And it's the simplest way to make a plan for your money before the month begins. So no more wondering where your money's going. You're telling it where to go. Download every dollar in the app store or Google Play and start for free today. Our Scripture that I cautioned 317 and whatever you do in Word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

John F. Kennedy said, "I would rather be accused of breaking precedents than breaking promises." There we go. Shooting sacred cows instead of breaking my word. I like it. Janette is in Pittsburgh. Hi, Janette. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband found out about two weeks ago that he's going to be losing his job

“on at the end of December. And my question is, should we stop contributing to his 401k now?”

Or should we wait until his time is done before we stop contributing? And then also what should we do after he's done with the company? How should we refinance or will over that money to make money for us?

Good question. We teach to always take your 401k with you and roll it to an IRA.

What I would tell you to do is go to RamseySolutions.com and find a smart vester pro which is someone in the investment business that we recommend. They'll have the heart of a teacher. And then you do what's called a dr-- when he leaves, you do a direct transfer roll over. Now, what that means is that you sit with a smart vester pro and you say, "I want to put the 401k and these four mutual funds." And I want to roll it over into an IRA and those four mutual funds.

And you sign all the paperwork. The paperwork is then sent directly to your husband's HR or former HR department and they will send the money directly to the mutual fund.

“That's called a direct transfer. You have to do it that way you're going to get messed up.”

Because if they send you the check, they are required by the federal government to withhold 20%. How much is in his 401k? And I'm here with $200,000. Okay. And so they would withhold $40,000. You'd get 160. But you're required when you do a

within 60 days or you will be penalized. And you don't have all of it in the scenario I'm talking

about because they sent 40 of it to the government on withholding and you won't get it into a pro. Okay. So don't do that. Let the money be direct transferred and pick out the mutual funds. We suggest an I personally do. Jay does. Sam David Sharon put hours across four types of mutual funds. Growth, growth and income. Aggressive growth and international and a put a fourth in each.

“So about 50,000 in each. Now, what does he make a year?”

Um, he is making about $48,000. Okay. What's he do? Uh, he's a warehouse employee. So he works for a communications company. But he does, you know,

we're doing, taking all the stuff in and taking it back. Why are they laying our by off?

I think they're just looking to close down that warehouse. There's kind of a merger going on. And how long has he been there? 26 years. Wow. They're offering him a severance. I mean, he is going to get a severance. So I'm not saying 39 weeks, I've rented his current rate. Okay. So at least we have that. And then I, I, as soon as, you know, the summer comes. We're going to start looking for a job for him. No, I'm helping. No, we're going to get a job now between

now and December that starts at the end of December. But you start looking at it. Okay. You know, how fast Christmas is going to be here? You blink and it'll be here. Don't, don't blink and go, well, we got 39 weeks. Now, listen, here's the plan. The day he gets light off and they put in signing up for the severance a week later he starts the new job. That means you just gained a signing bonus of 39 weeks. That's right. Okay. Now, should we stop contributing now to his 401

“K and work on paying off our debt? I mean, we do have a little bit of a show. Oh, you should have already”

done that. Regardless of being laid off. I'm sorry. Yeah, how much do you have? I mean, we're, we're definitely trying. I mean, I've been trying to stop it. You haven't stopped contributing to it. Well, the problem was, I was like, I, I was like, oh, last year unexpectedly and that kind of that doesn't keep you stopping to contribute. No, what David is talking about is the best way to pay off debt quickly is to temporarily pause your investing so that you have all of your income

to throw out your debt so that you can pay the debt off as fast as possible. So in your, in your situation, no matter how much debt it is, go ahead and temporarily, it's a temporary pause, right? Pay off the debt and then once you've stacked up three to six months of expenses, now we can press play on investing again. Do you guys have any savings? No, not really. I've been really just trying to pay off the debt and then like I said, I lost my job so we kind of got to set back a little bit.

How long ago did you lose your job? I lost it last November, but I got a new job in January. So I've been, you know, trying really hard. My son just got married so we were helping them with the wedding as well. So there was just a little bit of a delay there, but we are definitely back on track like he's gotten a second job to just we're just trying to pay to stop off. So we got trades right temporarily stop all investing and saving and focus every ounce of energy you've got on

reducing debt. How much debt have you got? It's 13,000 credit cards and then we still own our house. Okay, so only 13,000 in you're done. The feeling you've got to have a, the feeling you've got to have

around this is is a never again feeling because you experienced the job loss last November. He's

experiencing the job loss now and that would feel completely different if you had no debt with six

“months saved. Wouldn't it? Right. So that's what you've got to tell yourself is there's going to be”

another storm at some point in the future and when that happens, I'm going to be ready. I wasn't ready last November. I wasn't ready this time, but the next time I'll be ready in that prepared ness starts today. Right. Yep. Yeah, very good. So Janette, I want to reiterate because I really thank you drove by this on me. Get a job. You haven't get a job now. Start working on it now. Do not wait because it's going to sneak up on him and December's not a good month to look for a job.

No, it's not. Right. So September for sure, I want it to have several good leads if not already figured out. This says, okay, I'm going to have to start late. I can't start until January because I'm getting 39 weeks severance unless you want to pay me for the 39 weeks. I can't start early, but I really want to come to work here and I want to come in January. And he starts shopping around and looking for that position. It's going to take a little while to land something.

So don't wait. It's just because there's severance. That means he gets to sit on his butt.

“No, no. He definitely doesn't know. But he's going to be sitting on his butt if he doesn't have”

a job. I'm trying. So we got a lot of job. He's got to be ready to go. January first, if they

lay him off, you know, first week of January that lay him off last week of December. Wow. But 39 weeks of severance. So six months, seven months, eight months. Uh-huh. Which is not much for 20 years. It's not much. Yeah. And if you're, if you're not careful, it can make you kind of

“low you to sleep a little bit. Yeah. It's like it's a lot of money. Oh, I got I got eight months. No,”

you don't. Yeah. You get to put that eight months in your pocket extra money to build wealth with

and turns this job lost into a blessing. That's right. The goal is not to have to touch that. That's the goal. That's the thing. And turn it into a turn it into a signing bonus by getting your timing lined up in your dominoes lined up and then push that end dominoe and go go, baby, go, here we go, go, go, get it, get it, get it, let's go. And that makes all the difference in the world. But the human tendency is to act like December's a long way away. 39 weeks is a lot of exit rent. I'm okay,

everything's okay. And you're going to look up and it's going to be December the next year and you're going to be going, well, that's when we went through the hard path. Yeah, because I didn't get off my butt and go get a job. No, I'm by the way, if someone offers him a job for 75,000 this week, forget the severance. Gotta go get it. Take it. That's more than your severance is going to be. Take it. Yep. He might have, he might figure out he's worth more than they've been paying

him for the last five years. This could be, if you treat it, right, the biggest blessing has happened in years, because it pushes you out of the nest and makes you go fly. Oh, yeah, you got to,

“you have to believe that that's the possibility. It's as big a possibility as a crash. Yeah.”

Maybe better get after it while you can. It's good, good stuff. That puts us out of the Ramsey 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.