Financial Peace Requires More Than Good Intentions

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Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we are here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsy network in the Fairwins Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsy show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshot, and we are fired up to take your calls about life and money.

The number to call is triple eight eight two five five two two five. I can see we have one or two phone lines open right now.

“So if you're that person who's going, why should I call them?”

Never going to get through. You might win the Ramsy show lottery today and make it through

if you're kind to our phone screen or Christian. Triple eight eight two five five two two five is the number to call. Susan is in San Francisco kicking us off. What's going on, Susan? Hello.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. I'm calling up regarding my father-in-law. My father-in-law lost his retirement money due to bad investments in a divorce. Now he's barely scraping by with Social Security.

My husband comes from a family of three other siblings. My father-in-law has told us that he's in or my husband and I told us he told us my husband I. He that he's in $33,000 in debt from credit cards and is barely scraping by between the

credit card debt, food, living expenses, et cetera.

He has about a hundred dollars left over a month.

“He has started asking us to buy him things after a knee surgery he had.”

We bought him a recliner, also read did his shower to help him get in and out easier. That's great. And then he asked us for $1,000 more to help with some other expenses. Now he's asking us to buy him hearing aids. My husband and I hasn't talked to any other siblings to help with their dad.

He doesn't think they can afford it. When do we stop? Wow, how old is the father-in-law? 84. OK.

OK. Gosh, I'm so sorry that that took place and it sounds like he just didn't have the financial literacy to invest correctly and then it sounds like the divorce was kind of a double whammy there. Did he get divorced very late in life?

Well, he's divorced twice, so this one yet he was a second marriage.

What I want to know first before I talk about him, I want to know about you guys. What's your financial situation? We're doing well. We do have two children that are still in school, so we are paying for them to finish school.

They'll be here done in about a year or so. College. Financial. College. So financially wise, I mean, we're doing good.

In the way if there's no debt, you guys have plenty of retirement. I should be clear by that question. Any debt? No. We pay off our credit cards every month.

We're doing well with retirement. We're putting away with money with that. I mean, we are, I mean, to pay stuff for him. I mean, yes, so I mean, we have to tighten the budget a little bit to pay whatever the father-in-law needs, so that does put like some kind of strain on us just because

we aren't able to do the things that we would like to do. Right. Because this is costing you, this is costing you a lot so far, and I mean hearing aids are not cheap. I mean, we're talking a couple of thousand dollars.

How much? Well, he's anywhere between, you can get them from $1,500 to $5,000. Right. Well, what is your husband thinking about all this? Does he want to continue helping dad financially?

Does he want to put a stop to it, a limit to it? Well, he's now, you know, after this is like the fourth time he's asked us for things. He's like, okay, when is this going to end? Like, what is next? Like, it's a car breakdown.

Yeah.

“Well, the truth is it won't end until you end it.”

Right. Because life keeps life thing and things keep popping up, so I agree with George, it's not going to end. I mean, I don't know what his health is like at this point. Is he able to take care of himself?

Does he live alone? Yeah, he lives alone, he's able to take care of himself, he lives in a small apartment. So, you know, I mean, that's health-wise, he's okay.

I think you thought of this, but it's worth saying out loud for the call. We're very around here. We're very much self-starters, autonomy is good, be in charge of your own life, that sort of thing. And so for that reason, I don't think that you have a moral obligation to take care of this

person. So, hear me say that. However, the two things that you're holding in your hand are, I have my life going over here, I have money that I want to spend on my life and my family, what have you.

“And then you have this guy over here who, the truth is, he's not going to work.”

He's 84 years old. He's not going to bring in any income. And so what you're balancing is his quality of life and how that is affecting your quality of life. And this is not a selfish statement, but it is kind of like a mental calorie, soul-tax statement,

which is, is it going to drain you more to know he's over here? He needs hearing aids, he doesn't have them, his cars broke down, he's having trouble eating, like those sorts of things are those going to bother you to the extent to where you go, you know what, maybe it's just worth it for me to help out, maybe that actually does improve my quality of life.

And I'm not over here worried about it all the time. There is something to be said for that. And I think that you've probably weighed that out mentally. And I think only you know, is this something that really is a need or is this something that there are measures that he can take to a lower lifestyle?

Can he sell his home and downgrade to an apartment? Are there things that he can do to kind of fund this out for another 10 years? If he's healthy, so does, I mean, does he live in a house?

“Is there things that you can sell off that can kind of stay this off from you guys fitting”

the bill? Not really, no, because when he did lose his house through the divorce and they had a cell that they were already deep in debt at that time, so he didn't make any money from selling the house. So he basically has, you know, he lives, like I said, in a small apartment and stuff.

What's his room? I'm not exactly sure what it is to tell you the truth. I don't know. If you're going to give him a single dollar more, you're going to be very involved with his finances and understanding exactly how much is coming in and how much is going

out. Because that controls how much you're going to end up having to give every month. And it gives you a very clear picture about the future of this. Is he even making the minimum credit card payment? Is it in collections and they're coming after him?

You guys need to get clear on that as you step further into his financial life. And I would have your husband talk to the siblings, right? Now we're assuming that nobody can chip in and nobody wants to help.

I would have come to Jesus meeting with them going, hey, listen, here's what's going on with

Dad. Not doing well financially. Are you guys willing and able to chip in a certain amount per month? Put it limit on it, even a time limit and a number limit. So that they know this is not an eternal funding of Dad's life.

That's right. Because he could live another 15 years, right? Right. If he has no assets, truly, I wouldn't even worry too much about this credit card debt. If they sue him, there's nothing they can take.

It's unsecured. And it's not going to pass to you guys. So that would not be something I would jump in and say, well, we've got to pay off the credit card debt.

“No, you know, you can keep paying minimums if you want to.”

But if they do come after him if he does miss a payment, I would be contacting Guardian litigation. They're a nationwide law firm that can help with this debt settlement collection issues. They'll assign him a attorney to help with all of this. And you can reach out to the MacGuardianLit.com/RAMSI.

But right now, we need a game plan with some timelines. We need limits to all of this.

Otherwise, it will never end.

It is Bank of Susan forever. And he's going to come for a thousand, then two thousand, then five thousand. And you guys need for your own marriage and sanity. This needs to stop or it needs limits. , this show is sponsored by Better Health.

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“Raise and Columbus up next, what's going on, right?”

There you go. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can Jade and I help? Well, first, I'd like to share brief cautionary tale with other Ramsie listeners and

then I'll give into my specific housing circumstance that hopefully you guys can meet some advice on. So last year, I purchased my first home with my fiance and which goes directly against Ramsie

advice and sure enough, the thing happened, not full month into that home, we ended up separating.

Yeah, so that, you know, was very stressful emotionally and on top of the financial aspect of that. So I was forced to sell the home and I can no longer afford it, it made sense of two incomes, but just couldn't swing it with one. So this is a classic kind of circumstance that you all would want to guess.

“How did that work with those both your names on the mortgage and the deed?”

Just me. Who's just me? So we had split the down payment, which is a very modern thing to do and so I had to sell the home and I didn't quite get back to down payment. But I was fortunate enough to be able to make sale without realtors, just to a neighbor.

So didn't have to pay commissions. So I got out of the home relatively clean, but that brings me to now. I moved into one better apartment to try to get my feedback underneath and keep driving along with life. Even though it was very difficult, and not a month and a half after signing that lease

I was laid off for my job. So kind of just a combination of things. So now I'm looking at really potentially moving back to my parents at 32, which is incredibly humbling.

“I guess my question is, in terms of the release, you know, what are really on my options?”

I asked the rental, the proper management company about my potential buyout.

And that will ultimately amount to roughly $16,000 for only three months of occupancy.

And they're not willing to work with you at all on a smaller early termination fee or could you find a replacement that's tenant to take over. Right. So I've explored those options. I requested that early termination fee, which they wanted to be $7,000.

So that would be in addition to the rent that I've paid, and then of course the fees that are not responsible, et cetera. So you can't go back and get the rent that you've paid, but just if you were to early terminate today and how quickly could you move out and what would you still be on the hook for? I can move out of there, I mean, in two days, really.

Or they'd make you pay the whole month. They would make you pay the whole month. Well, I can even give them 30, excuse me, I need to give them 30 days. But specifically, I could be out of the apartment this week. I had offered $2,000 to cover their estimated damages, which is typical for early termination

fees, right, a couple months rent for them to re-market and re-rent the unit, but they were very firm on $7,000 on top of all, like I said, the other rent and whatnot. So I'm worried about is not being able to pay that, and then being sent to collections, and then that impact in my ability to rent for years to come. Yeah.

So, what, did was there a severance with the layoff? No, who was unexpected, and without notice, so no severance? Okay. And what are your job prospects now? What were you doing and how long do you think it'll take for you to get back into a similar

role?

You can need to be especially where I'm living currently, which is why I'm kind of trying

to recruit, like I said, for a just a short period back in my parents to really explore what the next move would be. How much money do you have to carry on? So, I, that's another thing I want to talk to you guys about and get some perspective on top.

Because, particularly, the show has some pre-dramatic scenarios, and maybe, which makes me feel a little better about myself, but it makes me think a lot of perspectives in terms of how you know, well I'm doing. So, I have $20,000 in a raw fire rate, $20,000 roughly in a 401k, $10,000 in another brokerage account, and then about eight grand in kind of a physical checking savings.

Okay, great. So, I do have some money. So, if they were to offer a settlement for an early termination, you could cover it through

the brokerage account and/or you're checking your savings.

True. Yeah. What's stopping you from, what caused you to look at this and go, I don't have the money to do this. I need to call the show.

Why do you have pause on spending your money to get out of this lease? Um, frankly, I just, I wanted to know if there were other options in terms of, yeah, just my, where I stand legally, if I had an grounds for the data or negotiation with them, really, just felt like it would've been a amount of money. Yeah.

Well, there's, there's certain laws in your state and I don't know what those are. I would be caught.

“If you want to contact an attorney, that would be the place to get legal help.”

We are no experts in that field.

But what I would do is push on the negotiation front because if this is at a large, kind of complex, owned by a corporation, yeah, it's a larger management company. Okay. The other thing I would do, just as a resourceful guy, is I would take my lease agreement and upload it to AI and really understand it better than they do because that's what you

signed. That's the contract you're going to hold you to. I don't think they're going to rip it up and go, well, we'll just work with you outside of that because again, this is a big corporation. They want their money.

They're just all doing their jobs and they want their money. And so I would just be pushing on that figure out exactly what's in that lease agreement and contract to figure out what my options are. I don't believe Ohio has any job loss, financial hardship exemption unless the lease itself has a provision for that.

So that's again, some of the homework I would be doing.

“You can contact an attorney, but I think worst case, what is your rent right now?”

What is it costing to stay there? The rent is $1,600, come on, roughly. Okay. What are your other expenses? What does it take to run your life for a month if you want bare bones?

I'm a pretty efficient guy, bare bones would be probably another grand on top of that. Okay. Stay for gaps, food, et cetera. Because you're still a capable man, you can go do seven side hustles and still cover that month without dipping into the brokerage or saving.

So I would try that. I would try desperately to find an actual career job again in the meantime doing all these side hustles and floating you're checking in savings until you can negotiate with your landlord. Maybe negotiate the seven K down if you found a replacement tenant.

So they might be willing to work with you there. So if I find a replacement tenant, will you bring it down to one month's rent as penalty and keep the deposit, whatever. Right. And I think if you're the squeaky wheel and you do the hard work for them of finding a tenant,

they might be willing to work with you. Yeah. It's not us. We would not just go pay 16 grand today to get out of this. Yeah.

I just want to check on though your efficiencies because I want to make sure you're covering your insurance isn't stuff. Do you have insurance? Do you have medical and everything like that? So loss that with the job.

Yeah.

“That's what I'm concerned about is I don't want to write right around here.”

So I would want you to pick up something for the interim. And that should be able to get cobra, even though it's expensive. Exactly. So that's on my list too because I mean, every time you go out in the street, there's an opportunity for you to be in a worse off position than you are now.

So let's make sure all of our bases are covered. And if you look up and you go debt gum with rent, with my eating and gas and cobra and all that, I can't float this, then that's an excuse to say, okay, we might have to dip into the checking just to get out of this. But please, please, please, don't sacrifice lack of health insurance.

Good luck, Ray.

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You can download it in the App Store or Google Play. Next you is in Fort Lauderdale up next, Matthew, welcome to the Ramsy Show. Wow, this is amazing. Get talk to y'all. We're amazed to get to talk to Matthew, we're so excited to help.

Yes, sir. Yeah. So I'll be brief. And my question is, is me and my fiance, we just got engaged in 20 years old. I don't have no debt, and I've made pretty good money.

However, she wants to go to our end school to become a registered nurse, but I'm trying to convince her not to take out spin loans, and I'm in a financial position. I could pay for it, but I don't want to make a mistake saying if she did not end up loving registered nurse that I'm out $40,000.

“Yeah, when does the wedding have you guys started date?”

No. It'll probably be January of next year, but she has graduated with an associate's degree, and now wants to go to our end school. Is she working right now? Yes, sir.

Yeah, she's a latest barber to you doing? So you're un-easiness about paying for this is more about, is this the career that she really wants, it's not about, you know, anything else correct? Yeah, no, I mean, I work really hard for my money, I'm a rancher, and I don't mind helping her out, so if you stay out of debt, because once we all are married I don't want to get

the burden of debt. You're wise, man. I have a 20. That's impressive. And how old is she?

She's 21. What makes you think that this could be something that she's just gotten her mind. And right now, but we'll change her mind down the line.

“Has she shown that to be part of like a personality characteristic?”

Not necessarily, it's just she's never had any family members or experienced a job, and I know

being a nurse isn't super hard job, so I just don't want her to, I don't want to spend this money and then we end up looking back as a huge mistake. Yeah, well, the other piece that you haven't mentioned is covering somebody's education that you're not married to just has a lot of risk. Yeah, I love just like the last call.

You heard it, man. I mean, I paid, listen, you could be calling in a year from now. Man, I paid for her nursing school, and then we broke up, and I can't get my money back.

I hope you guys are married and have a wonderful long marriage, but there's still that

risk factor when you're not married, you have no protection there. And so I love the idea of you guys developing a plan to cashflow her nursing school, and that might mean, hey, you're going to work for this next year and come January, we get married. Let's reassess. Let's see where we're at financially.

Let's have her start saving up in order to cashflow this, because it's going to become y'all's burden once you're married. I'd also look, I mean, you guys have not quite a year, but if you're planning on getting married in January, in the meantime, she can do some programs out there that will allow her to shadow that career and really get in that environment and see, do what can I stomach it,

do I like it, and get a sense of what it feels like, get a sense of the hours, and really do her due diligence before you were to shell that money out. And this is the perfect time to do that while she continues to work and save up. Yeah, I was going to suggest, can she work in a health care environment in an administrative role where she at least gets to see the inner workings of the system, talk to the nurses,

and get a real feel for what it's going to be like, because she might find out, man, I really like health care, but I don't have to be on the business side versus with patients all day.

“And so I do think you're right to be cautious and go a little slow here, and I think”

she's just going nursing sounds good, and it is. It's a great field if you're the right fit for it, and you can get paid a lot of money and help a lot of people. Yeah, she could do a nursing shadowing program. She could volunteer at a hospital for a while.

She could maybe start as a CNA and do that first and not shell out the $40,000 right

away. There's a lot of things that she could do to kind of get her feet wet without spending a ton ton of money. Yes, man, okay, yeah, I'll try to pass it on in my other situation as trying to get her to all love with the rams you claim like I did about four years ago. Well, she fell in love with you.

Is that partially due to your fiscal responsibility? Well, I think she loves a lifestyle, and she loves me, and we live that free. I mean, I live at the ranch, we take care of livestock all day long, and she helps out with it a lot, and I think she's really interested, but the nursing, she doesn't know anybody that's a nursing, she goes on Google and see what a nursing makes and she wants

to do that. And that's the fear. If you're aiming at a certain paycheck, then that scares me, because number one, you may not finish school and may not see that paycheck, and it might be less than you thought, or it might be more stressful than you thought, and she jumps out of nursing after you guys sunk 40 grand into it.

So I do think there's some pre-marital counseling to be done here, and we can help with that. We'll give to you guys financial peace university, and you go through that together, get on the same page, and we'll do the work for you on trying to convince her to jump on the rams you plan.

Yeah, I think we've given you some good solutions, and even for her to, to sus out the

“nursing program, my bigger thing is you need to talk about your viewpoints and philosophies”

around money, and like George said, we'll hook you up with the stuff, but you need to sit

down one night and say, okay, here's the thing, I'm a guy, I built my whole life on avoiding

debt. I don't do credit cards, I don't sign up for debt, it bothered me, or it gave me at least questions when you were so quickly willing to go into debt for a degree. And those are the questions that you do want to start asking now, and not even in a accusatory way or with like a bad, you know, air about it, just seek to be curious and learn about

her. And I want to be aligned in every area of our life and money is a part of that. That's it, that's how you start it. So wishing to the best hang on the line, we'll get you financial peace university to watch with her.

All right, Brock is in Tampa, next, Brock, welcome to the show. Hey, how's it going? Yeah, I appreciate taking my call. Sure. What's going on?

So I know just a small question, I've got a classic car that I've heard to make them put on whether I should keep it or sell it and invest the money that I get from it. I'm a young guy, so you know, I guess, any money that I can invest now will set me up later for the future. How old are you, Brock?

I'm 19. Okay. Do you got any debt? I have no debt. Good.

How much you have in the bank right now? A little over 100, fantastic. At 19. Yes. What do you make?

About 120. Dude, you are crushing it.

“What kind of work do you do, Brock, at 19, making 120?”

Run like like a land game company, kind of deal. Good for you. So tell us about the classic car. So I bought it off a customer about six months, seven months ago. It's a great little car.

I love it. You know, I just kind of sit and, you know, I've got money invested. I don't know. I've heard people are like, hey, are you going to get rid of it? What do you spend on it?

Yeah. I've bought it for 10 and the cars probably were closer to 20.

Yeah. Yeah. Everything I got.

“So you could sell it for 20 and you're going, I might rather see that growing an investment”

account than sitting in a garage and collect dust and be something I have to maintain. And that's kind of where on that with it, too, now, what's even worse is the car's is outside exposed to the elements. It's not protected. Yeah.

Exactly. And you want to pay for storage insurance, all of that. How many other cars do you have? I've got a place to store. I've got two other trucks.

Okay. Can you get another class of car one day or is this the one of a kind?

You'll never see it again and you'll hate that you sold it.

I could definitely get another class of car. This car too isn't even like. If I was to, if I wasn't to get a good deal on it, I would have never bought it because it's not something that would appeal to me. Yeah.

You kind of sound like you're talking, we haven't had to talk you out of this. It sounds like you were set on it. And I'll show you what. Somebody to say okay. From 1959.

You're in a bit though. Well, you'll have a little bit of, you can grieve it. You'll say goodbye and, you know, you'll take that 20 grand invested. And if you just leave it in an investment account from 19 years old to 59 years old, it's 40 years span with an average 10% rate of return, you're looking at a million bucks in that

one account. That's true.

“But also here I say, you don't have to sell it if you want to find it.”

If you were in crippling debt making 30 grand and this thing was going to be your

savior, we'd say sell it today. Nothing's on fire, but you just convinced us you don't want to deal with this thing anymore. . When you've worked hard to buy a car the right way, you paid cash with no payments hanging over your head.

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Ramsey Show live. We traveled to four cities in the month of April and did Ramsey Show live in front of about 300 something people. The show was filled with live questions from the audience. You get to see their faces, see the reactions, bring the spouse up to for the debate.

Jaden, I had a great time. I was on two of those. I think Jaden was on. Were we Phoenix? We were on zero of them, Jaden.

Together. Oh, we were. This year. Yeah. I was with.

I wonder my mind went blank. Rachel can. You were with Deloni and Kevin for one and Rachel and Ken for the other. Sure. It was up with that man.

I know. They split.

What were two powerful together?

You know, it's like you have one person on Air Force 2 for safety. So Charlotte and Denver episodes are out right now on the Ramsey Show YouTube channel, Spotify, Ramsey Network app. Phoenix and Anna Hyme episodes will be coming out soon. They were super fun.

“I think you're going to really enjoy watching them.”

The energy is electric. It's just different. It's just different. That's right. Go check it out.

All right. Let's go to Eric in Las Vegas up next. Hey, Eric. What's going on? Hey.

I was going. I was talking to the kind of a situation with my grandfather and his reverse mortgage. And we're a wife and I are still in baby set too, but he's having some health scares. So he needs to kind of move in with him. Some kind of makes sense.

If it makes sense once we get done with our baby steps, if we try to tackle and get his reverse mortgage paid off or do we just live there? He said he'd let us live there without rent while we're helping them to get our money situated for a down payment on our own house after he passes. We're just kind of not sure where to go.

That's a lot to be handling right now.

Is that meaning you need to move in and take care of him full time? What does that look like? Yeah, I'm sure he's been passing out recently and he's falling around his house and not being able to call for help and stuff, so it's kind of like, okay, it's time to move in.

We don't know how he doesn't have any other family. How does he? He's 80, okay, and so the deal is you move in, you help out, you don't have to pay rent

“and then when the day comes and he's beamed up, you guys inherit the property?”

Yeah, basically, but he's a reverse mortgage and my wife and I just, six months ago we

had our son and so the house is, it's not super old, it was built in the 90s, but it needs some TLC, so I would probably have to front load that before even thinking about the reverse and forget it all, which means if I didn't get the house and pretty much lose that money. Do you know the numbers around the house, like, what does he owe on it, what percentages

the reverse mortgage and what's it worth? Yeah, the house is worth about 530, there are currently he owes 302,000 on the reverse mortgage and I don't know the interest rate, but it's about $1,700 a month that goes up. Man, wow. Well, I would not do anything with the reverse mortgage right now.

You guys aren't in a financial position to do anything anyways, you've got your own financial, you know, messed up clean up, you can still move in with them and it can still be, quote unquote, rent free. I mean, he's basically just using this house as a piggy bank with a lot of fees right now.

These reverse mortgage is, there's a reason they're sold on late night TV with a, you know, washed up actor with a mustache and so it's not a good product, terrible product and I'm sad that he fell into it, but this is the reality for a lot of, you know, elderly people is they didn't say for retirement, but they've got a paid for house and they see this marketing saying, hey, what if we could just send you a check every month, doesn't that

sound good and they take it? So I would just hold, get his health back in order and see what you can do to help take care of him, you keep fighting your own fight to get out of debt. And if this is a win win for both of you, because you get to live rent free with your family and get out of debt faster and he gets to help from his wonderful grandson, I call

this a win, regardless of what happens with the house later on. Yeah, so like if we, because I make about 7 to 9,000, so I could clear this debt pretty quickly if we would gain, so that's my whole thing is like, I don't know, I don't know if it's still worth it. You get out of debt or, well, I mean, you don't have 300 grand to pay it off anyways.

Yeah, you're talking about a full mortgage or something. Oh man, well, I would also get clear on his estate planning wishes and what is going to happen and who inheritance will go to, because I don't want you paying off a house that ends up going to somebody else and you have no recourse. Yeah.

“And so I'm not saying that, you know, you need to say, hey, if I'm paying this off, I get”

to house in the will. You may not even want this house to deal with, because like you said, it's need some TLC. It may not be the house you would have chose for your family to live in, but right now, that's not a problem.

That's a bridge we can cross way later on. That's the best case short side of everything and just live rent free and kind of get out of my own situation.

You get yourself to a financial position and this will be a great wake-up call of, man, I never

want this to be me. Yeah. I'm telling you. That's it. And you help Grandpa live the best life he can live considering his health conditions

and you will have done a good deed on the surface of my friend wishing you the best. Joseph is in Tampa up next on the line. What's going on, Joseph? George, Jade, it's an honor to talk to you both. Thank you for taking my fall.

Absolutely. What's your question today? Oh, guys, I think I made it on the vision, I took out my 401(k) and, oh, I can transfer Greek. I know.

I took it. I have it in the form of a check so I can transfer to a broad array. Wait, was it like a direct roll over check? Yeah, that was my intention. Like, it's not, is it made out to you or to the next institution?

It's made up for the next institution. Okay. That's good. We're still good. But the institution, I'm trying to roll it over to a thing that the account that I have

would have to be closed and liquidated with them so they can open up a new IRA to put this money in that I may face tax implications.

“I think what you're talking about is the pro-radar rule?”

Yeah, that's something you can look into.

So basically, if you have a traditional account that has money in it and you're trying

to convert, do you know what type of money this is? Is it all traditional or all Roth? Is it both? This should, it's just a 401(k) savings plan.

a later traditional IRA.

I've never heard of that one.

Me neither. Tell us about it. Why is it different? I don't know what's going on here, but I don't know what's going on here, I don't know what's going on here.

There's something that I can only have one later IRA, it's their name for their investments to come later with a coin. That's where you're trying to roll this into? Yes. Okay, I would try to use a more reputable institution to roll this over into, like a vanguard,

“fidelity, Schwab, they're going to be much easier to work with, and you should be able”

to contact them and say, hey, I need this check to be voided and made out to this other

institution. Wow, okay, because at this point, I mean, I was getting ready to crash out on these guys at a corns and shut the account and put it back into fidelity. Yeah, I don't know the exact reason, I'm just, I'm trying to think of why they would block you and say they need to close this account, liquidated, open a new one.

And my guess is there's some function where they can't do a roll over into an existing account. Right. They can't have it into an existing account and they won't let me have two of these investments account with their institution. Yeah, I think George is right, I think you just need to knock on another door and go to another

bank.

Because I've done this with my wife used to work at Ramsey for nine years, and so we transferred

her 401k, it had, you know, they ended up doing it as a check, and then I literally took

“a picture of that deposit it into a Vanguard roll over IRA.”

So that's where you're looking for is a roll over IRA with fidelity, Vanguard or Schwab. That's what I would recommend. And then contact the original institution and have to check reassure whatever that's right. Yes, because I don't know enough about a corns, but I don't know that they accept 401k

rollovers, or if they do, they're clearly making it very difficult. They are. Okay. Because I'm seeing here, as I looked it up, a corns later is designed for new contributions only, not for receiving rollovers from workplace retirement plans.

So you chose the wrong, the wrong brokerage to mess with unfortunately, just sorry, but at least you didn't withdraw the funds into your bank account because you'd be on the hook for some taxes, my friend. So direct, if for anybody listening out there, if you leave your employer for any reason, you can do a direct roll over in kind.

So from traditional 401k to a roll over traditional IRA or Roth to Roth, and you want to make sure that you don't see the money, the money goes from one institution to the other institution. That's the way to do it without penalties and fees. Bying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make.

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Lender. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show and the FairWins Credit Union Studio. I'm George Kamel here with Jade Warshaw taking your calls on Money in Life at Triple 8-825-5-225. Sarah is in Spokane, Washington, up next. Sarah, what's going on?

So my question is that my husband and I have been that free from about 2013 up until this year. And my husband is an alcoholic, but got sober in January and replaced alcohol with spending. So now we have 38,000 dollars in debt and so to be is now unfortunately not sober again but now wants to pay off the debt.

“Yes, it's an opposite of what traditionally happened, I think.”

In the 38,000, is that all sorts of different things or was it like one vehicle?

What are they?

“So one is about and one was about to remodel.”

Okay. Bodenibathorem.

One of those we can sell.

So that's good. How much is that boat worth? Yeah. About 28,000. And what's owed on it?

13. Oh, good. So there's some money there. And the bathroom, you were on board without a little bit, I got to believe. Hard to sneak that one past you.

Yeah, so I wasn't tell they came back with the quote and then I said no and he found the papers without you. Okay. Okay. So the good news is there's money to be made back on the boat and then we can cash

flow the payoff of the rest of this. Is he working?

Is he able to hold down jobs?

Yes. Okay. What does he earn and what do you earn? So together we earn just under 300. Wow.

Great income. So that's nice. We'll send this up fast. I mean, if you sell the boat, you'll profit 15,000 and apply that to your 25,000 left on the bathroom loan.

So my question is more, so we have the money. We have, I have 50,000 in savings and I have 35,000 additionally in a emergency fund. Okay. However, the last year of our life has been incredibly volatile with a lot of things that we've not seen coming that we've had to cash flow.

So I'm just worried about draining savings. And he has some docs that he plays with a special to pay for this and I'm worried about the tax implications for that. I just don't know, like we can pay it off.

“I just don't know the best way to do it.”

I'll tell you my thing that I'm a little concerned about. You said your concerns. My concern is if he's back drinking again and you guys have this stellar income, does this have the ability to affect his job and his employment. Therefore, putting you guys out in a really tough situation financially.

Um, it hasn't ever, is all right. So he's a pretty functional. I was very, very happy. Yeah. Well, here's the thing.

You can move around the money, pay off the debt, but it's not changing this underlying problem, which is your marriage and his addictions. Right. You guys are not on the same page. He's making moves behind your back.

You doesn't seem like you have much of a vote here and you're realistically worried about the future. Now I would pay off the debt and I would sell the boat. It's not going to put you in dire straits to do all of this, to knock out the debts. What I would do is put some guardrails in place so that neither of you can make any more

stupid financial decisions. And that means we're going to freeze both of our credits. We're going to pull both of our credit reports today. You can go to annualcreditreport.com, pull those for free, to get everything out on the table.

And he needs to be very much involved in this, is he on board to rectify the situation and get his life and marriage back? Um, that's to be determined. I don't know. I can't answer that.

I think I would go. I think I would go to a further extreme on this. I don't think that you can give access to an addict to the money.

I don't think he can have access to the money because the problem is he's going to spend

it. Whether it's signing a, you know, a bathroom contract that you didn't agree to. To boys. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like he's just looking for every vice possible.

“So I think that you have to have that conversation and figure out on the side and possibly”

with some counsel, what it can look like for you to have access to this. And maybe you, it doesn't sound like he would work with you on this to say, hey, I'm worried. I'm worried about me. I'm worried about you. I'm worried about the family.

Do you guys have kids? We do. How many? Three. Three.

Yeah. I'm worried about the kids. We're unsafe. And so the only thing that I can do to stay in this environment with the kids for it to be safe is I have to have access to the money because I have to make sure that more

it just paid. I have to make sure that the needs are met financially and that you don't mess things up for us going forward for the long term. If you're not able to do that, then I have to make other arrangements. Which means you're the gatekeeper.

And in order to make sure that you're safe. And until he shows himself to be trustworthy, which means he is sober, making wise, financial decisions over a long period of time, I do think it's wise not to quote unquote separate your finances. But to make sure that he does not have access to this money to make bad decisions

with. Right. Because you're still keeping him abreast of what's going on. He can still look at the budget like it's not to say that he can't, there's no transparency.

spend spend. Now I'm going to be the one that pays the bills without our money.

I am going to be the one that handles the money basically.

Does that make sense? Yeah. I mean, I do handle it already. Right. But he's got a debit card in his wallet, and he can go out and he has what I'm worried

about. Like give us the top priorities of things that you would be worried about right now with your finances. My biggest thing is if we were to drain the savings and then we had, we've had a couple of $1,000 emergencies come up in the last year because of other circumstances that we've

cash flowed. And so I just am worried that those may come up and we've already drained our savings to now pay for it. No one's asking to drain the savings. I mean, if you sell the boat and pay off the bathroom remodel, you're still left with

liquid 50 grand. Okay. And you're not going to have a $50,000 emergency and you can probably cash flow that. Now that you're, you'll be completely debt free with a full emergency fund with $300,000 coming in.

And so you guys are under actually a really decent spot financially. But it's more of the what ifs and is he going to get better and will you guys work together and will this addiction get worse? Those are the parts we need to deal with.

“How long was he an alcoholic before he got sober this last time?”

Um, so this is the first and only time so far and it's been 20 years.

Okay. Wow. What, what gave me the ability to get sober that first time? Was it one thing? Um.

It. Our son was also an addict and went through rehab. Wow. And so it was an eye opener, but yeah, it was a nice year enough. I don't know.

Yeah. Our son is one year sober. Okay. That's good. Listen, we're rooting for you.

You've got, you've got your work cut out for you.

“And I think the best thing you can do is control your actions.”

You can't control his. So you can decide what your boundaries are going to be. What you want, the picture you want for money that makes you feel safe and you can act on those things. You don't have to and you can't wait for somebody, especially somebody who's not in a

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show. Hi, thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can you help today? Alrighty, my husband and I have been married for almost a year now.

We've been essentially running from my father-in-law for almost three years. We do not pay a monthly flat rate rent, rather we pay just a monthly expenses like propane electric and minor repairs. So we're very fortunate to be in this situation as it has allowed us to save, but I'm to the point where I want out of this house.

I prefer for my father-in-law to just be my father-in-law at this point if you know what I mean? Yes, I do.

“Is he living there or is it just a house he owns that you guys are living?”

No, this is just an extra house that he owns and paid off and everything. I don't know.

He means no ill will by any means.

But you feel it. Are there some strings attached, relationally? Not exactly and I don't think he intends to do anything purposely but I just feel obligated to do certain things.

“I think it's time for us to get out, but my husband and I do not agree on this.”

He wants to wait until we have enough cash to purchase the home where I'm okay with starting to look now and having a mortgage. So, oh, so he wants to do like the 100% down payment. Not just saving a down payment. Oh gosh.

How much is that going to cost? Number. I'd say 250 to 300. How much do you guys have now? We have roughly 120,000, we have 51,000, 200, and our savings and then we have 68,445

in a CD. Okay. How long would it take to realistically do this, which means you've got a three to six month emergency fund and you've got the cash money for the house? I would say three to four years.

What do you guys make at your? We bring home, while we don't bring home. We make roughly 110 to 120 just depends on over time and I will say this is my first year like with an actual salary. Okay.

“So you're essentially living on 60 and banking 60 in a year if it goes well?”

Yeah. I think I'd like to hear more from you because, I mean, I'm thinking about my situation. My husband and I, we rented a house from Sam's mom, which is my mother-in-law, and we did that for 10 years almost, while we paid off debt, saved up a down payment for a house. And I understand what she mean, which is that part, like Nina is the best.

But she gave us so many breaks, but I still always felt a thing like I was grateful,

but at the same time when it was time to move into our own place, I was really excited to have our own place. But I want to know, because a lot of that can live in our own minds too. And yes, it does affect the relationship, but because he's not living there and because it sounds like he's happy to do this service, it sounds like maybe there's more to it.

But there's part of me that's like, hey, don't block the blessing. Like if there's a blessing here, don't block it. Is there more we should know about it before I say that? I think it just feels like we're leaking off of it. In my opinion, it feels like I'm leaking off of his dad and I don't ever want to be like

rely on somebody else. Okay. Now again, somewhere, what if you pay rent? What if you paid a reasonable rent instead of just, you know, utilities and things like that?

Because I don't think he would take it. He's a very stubborn man. I don't think he would allow us to do it. Well, when it costs a rent elsewhere right now, if you guys were to leave today and go rent, if you weren't ready for the house.

1200 at least, I'd say. Okay, I mean, I'm just trying to do the math of the reality. So 1200 bucks, times let's say a year, that's 14 grand less that you would bank in the year.

And another rent we are expecting our first child in November.

Oh, that's great. So maybe I am just being a little bit dramatic here and I need to suck it up for another couple of years. Listen, since we are having a child. What you could do if you really wanted to, but to your point, he's not going to take

it. You could pay 1200 dollars into an account and just say, this makes me feel better. And when you're ready to move out, you could say grandpa or dad and law. This is, you know, however much money. This is $50,000 and he's not going to take it.

And then you're going to say, well, I really tried, I did my best. And it's okay for somebody to give you gifts, because think about it like this. If you had the ability to do something like this for your children's, children, for your children, would you do it? Absolutely.

Absolutely. So that's a joy that he has to be able to do that.

“And so I think sometimes it's hard to be on the other end of somebody else's generosity.”

It doesn't sound like it's stunning your growth. Like if I was concerned that it was really-- If you guys weren't saving any money, there was a bunch of strings attached or a relationship was awkward and strained. Then I'd say, hey, it's worth getting out and paying the 1200 bucks.

But to Jade's point, it feels like we're just blocking a blessing because it feels weird. And it is hard to accept generosity. It does put you in a place of weakness. But I think that's okay for a season. If this was 10 years and you guys weren't moving forward, but you guys have a baby on the

way. You're banking 60K a year to save up for this house. And I also tell you, Kenzie, it's okay if you guys went and got a 15 year mortgage where the payment was no more than a quarter of your take on pay. And then you pay that off.

That $300,000 house four years from now could be $375,000 house.

Yeah. And I feel like, to a certain extent, the mortgage would make us safe more if that makes sense because right now we're living there kind of rent free. We don't really have, like, yeah, we have a budget. So we're kind of, you can, you can, yeah, you can be a little more comfortable and have

a little more of your luxuries when they don't have it.

“So that's why we're going, could you say 17 set of 60?”

I think you might be able to do it in better if you guys got really focused on what, all right. It's not going to be three to four years. It's going to be May of 2020, eight. We are out of here. And whatever we have saved, that's the, that's the down payment.

That might be a nice compromise because it gives you a timeline. So this is not an endless, well, maybe, but then four years from now, the house price is moved. We want a different house because we have two kids now need to save up 500,000. So that's where I would come to a compromise where you guys land on something a little

more solid. I like that plan. Then vibes. I like that plan too. A good old compromise.

Oh, I want nobody to win. That's how you know the R&B. Yeah. Yeah. That's so great.

Well, congrats on the baby, Kenzie. Thank you. Thank you, guys. That's so exciting.

“That's a good, you know, Jade, this is a good time to remind people.”

The principles around housing.

Dave has always said that the best plan is 100% down plan.

You can do cash. We love that. Yeah. But we will yell at you. If you get a 15 year mortgage, it's the only day we will yell at you for where the

payments no more than a quarter of your take on. Yeah. That's right. I'm doing the crunch in the numbers for them. $300,000 house with 100,000 down on a 15 year, probably looking at about two

grand. Yeah. Good. So if they take home eight grand, they're right there in the perimeter. They could go buy a house today.

Now, they're going to take on the burden of home ownership, which comes with its own. That's true. Joy's highs lows roller coaster. Adulting. Yeah.

What can I say? It needs a new age fact that we can move in with the brand new baby. Yes.

But to your point, the goal post is always going to move here.

And I would hate for that to keep somebody from jumping in with both feet, you know, to save up three or three 50, that's a great thing. But if it's going to take you six years to do it, we'll now suddenly that 350 isn't going to get what you thought it was going to. So for that reason, though, well, I can't save as fast as inflation's happening in

housing. Yeah. And if you saw what happened during the pandemic, I mean, it was insane. Absolutely. That $300,000 home, 18 months later, was $500,000 right.

“And here's the thing you have to remember for the person who jumped in, they were like,”

this is great. If you bought a house in 2019 or we were early 2020, you were like, score. Yes. That's why I'm like, jump in the best time to buy at home is when you can afford it. Not when all the planets are aligned and everything that's perfect is when you can afford

it. And if you can do it, I say jump in real estate is a ladder, you know, start at the lowest run that you can get in on and don't be afraid to climb it until you get into the house that you want. You walk in that mortgage payment for the duration of the loan.

So you're not dealing with that moving goal post anymore. And then set up a proper package in insurance going up, which that's a factor in. And the last piece is, you know, thinking about Kenzie's situation with a kid on the way, but if she wants to stay home one day, well, that might change the figures in facts to or I would be planning for that option.

Always. Which means you don't want to have a giant payment and jump into a house too early. There is this Goldilocks sweet spot and that's that 25% and maybe factor it off his income. And we're that's going to give you that flexibility. So that's the point of the baby steps is to give you option, margin, meaning all of that

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So go check it out for yourself. RamsySolutions.com and you'll see that little search box enter in your question or just click the link in the description if you're listening on podcasts or YouTube. RJ is in Greensboro, North Carolina, up next, RJ, welcome to the show. Hey guys, how you guys doing today?

Doing great. Thanks for having me on, so I'll try to keep this short and sweet, so me and my wife are just starting out getting started with the baby steps and we're still working on baby step one. Okay.

So that goal doesn't seem too unattainable at all. It's most people do it in 30 days, just for a little milestone there. And that's where you should be at. I'm thinking within the next like 30 days, we should definitely be there. Okay.

I guess my question is more towards baby step two when you start paying off consumer debt to us, it seems like we just have so much debt that needs to be paid off and we just feel like we don't make enough money to actually make that happen within a reasonable timeframe. And that may be the case.

I mean, what you're discovering is something that everybody's got to look at, not just you RJ for anybody who's considering the baby steps and looking at their debt. There's really two ways out of this George, you've either got a lower your lifestyle RJ or increase your income or do a combination of both. That's the only options really that a person has.

So if you're looking and going man on our income, this thing is going to take forever, then you already know, income's got to go up. So let's talk about what that is. So how much total consumer debt do you have?

“So right now, I think we have somewhere between the 80 and 85,000.”

And what is your household income? household income, we're about 70 grand. Okay. And in the 80, 85, what's the split there? Break it down for us.

So most of it is student loans from me, wife, doesn't have any student loans. How much? I'm about 50,000 in student loans. Okay. And the other 30, 35, what's that?

So we have about 15,000 in a car. And then just random low personal loans, those are about 300, 400 each. I want to say about maybe five or six of those. Okay. What's the car worth if you sold it, private party?

Private party if I sold it, probably be about seven to eight grand. Oh, wow. How do you get that 400 water on it? Do you roll over negative equity? No, I think we just have just buried that credit, so we just got a terrible interest

rate. Oh, I just did. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, you're right.

I mean, what do you guys bring in home, 48, 49, 100 a month?

“Um, yeah, I think that's what we calculated.”

I know last month we had a little extra because my wife got a bonus from work, which she doesn't normally get. Okay. So that kind of helped us out a bit. And like I said, we're just starting, we're trying to use every dollar app and it seemed

to help us out, you know, that first month, of course, we forgot to budget for the second

month. So we're not using it now. Um, that's the thing about budgets. You got to do it every month. Yeah.

So when you did that first budget and I do want, it's not too late. You can still log in at any time and complete the one for May, even though, you know, we're almost midway through. Go ahead and do that because every day that you get on a plan, you're on a plan. And that's a better trajectory for you.

So on the 4900, when you did the every dollar budget, were you in the, were you in the green?

“Was it an every dollar budget or were you in the red or tell me what you saw first?”

At first we were in the red and then we just kind of sheltered some things around just to kind of make it work to be in the green. So we did kind of figure out how to get into the green.

I guess it's just being realistic like with us, we, we never know when things are going

to come up. So like with three kids and, you know, kids come with us and feel a trip to a school, school things and, you know, some emergency that popped up over the past couple of months. So, so let's talk about how to budget for that because that is life and your budget should be able to be realistic for your life.

I always say good budget is detailed, realistic and flexible.

nature of it because that's going to help you have something concrete month to month.

So every budget does need a cushion, a little bit extra money for you, you know, on 4900. It's not going to be a whole lot, maybe it's $100 there that's just the held for something that you completely forgot about. Oh my gosh, it's a field trip. But really what you need on that budget is a line item for, you know, your kids, whether

it be school lunches or school projects and you set the amount and if it's beyond that amount, sometimes you do have to say, we're not doing this one, you know. And so the more you do a budget for most people, it takes 90 days to lock in what you would call kind of a sustainable, you know, this flows with my life budget. You've only done one.

So that's okay. Keep doing it. The more you do it, you're going to learn each time. Oh gosh, we didn't schedule for the kids stuff now, that's part of the budget from now on.

We didn't schedule for birthdays.

Now we realize that's something we need to think ahead of when we have our budget meeting every month because what should be happening towards is you guys sit down and you're racking your brain for the things that could pop up. She's rocking, rocking her brain for the things that could pop up. And together, you guys are saying, oh, yeah, hey, don't forget about that trip.

Oh, yeah, don't forget about grandma's birthday. Oh, yeah, I don't forget, you know, you're interrogating the kids about what's coming up, looking at their little calendars. They brought us. Yes.

School. Because they, those kids, you can't trust them to remember every little thing. My daughter had, my daughter had like hot dog picnic day today. And I was like, what in the world is this? Okay, put, you know, yet another thing we got to chip in three bucks.

Exactly. So we get it, RJ, um, so that's the first rhythm that I want you to start developing because that's going to be so important to you guys walking these baby steps. The budget must be locked in. Otherwise, George, the wheels fall off very quickly.

“And once one thing falls off, like, well, what's the point?”

Well, it's hopeless. So get back on the wagon. It takes 90 days just to get this budget dialed in. And the other side is, let's see what we can do with this income because you're making 70.

Okay, with both of you working full time. And you've got student loans, which tells me you've got a degree? I do not. So I have a bunch of student loans that kind of, a couple of them kind of racked up.

And I never finished school, um, one of them I did, you know, one of them I did, the main

one that is that one's about 40 grand. I did graduate from trade school. Okay. What's your choice? Sure.

So I originally was an automotive technician. I have since switched, I am now at locksmith, which I just started about maybe a month or two ago. Is that a solo gig or do you work for a locksmith company or are I work for international companies?

Okay. So what are you making? What is your wife make? So as of right now, like I just started this gig about a month or two ago.

“And I'm still getting training pay, so that's what I've been based on my income.”

Oh, okay. Yeah. So my training pay, I make about 1,700 every two weeks, um, and what will it go up to? Uh, so just potential of what it could go up to from what I've been told from some

of the other people who've been with the company for a while. I could potentially be making over a hundred grand, maybe a hundred and twenty. When would that be? Um, that's kind of when you kind of get vested a little bit, that would be, um, later down a lot, maybe within the next year or two.

Okay. So that's, that's really promising and that's exciting. I could change the game for this debt pay off journey. And so that's what we're saying. This is a journey.

Most people do it in 18 to 24 months. It might take you three to four years. And that's okay. And it might speed up on the tail end to me real slow to start.

“But the key is you just keep hunkering down, stay focused, maybe you're doing side jobs”

right now until that income comes up with those promotions. Maybe you get so good at your job, they have no choice, but to promote you sooner. What I would do is I would get really serious about sitting down with your wife and you guys set the tone and say, this year for the next calendar year, how much do we want to pay off and work backwards and say, if we want to pay off, I don't know, $40,000 this year,

what do we have to do to make that happen and work backwards and say, okay, what do we need to do side hustle wise, what do we need to do overtime wise in order to make that happen and you guys set the rules on this and make sure that you're driving the intensity forward. Don't just let life happen.

That's right. That's the same we have around Ramsey as what must be true. Yes. And that causes you to reverse engineer that goal. Statistic show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance, or they don't

have any at all. I don't understand this, John, why don't people want to take care of their family?

Well, I used to be one of those guys.

I didn't even think about it and one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids and I immediately went and got term life insurance. That's a good punch. Well, you're telling me, in for decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse.

“They've lost somebody important to them.”

Me too. They don't know what to do next. Me too. I mean, you're going to have a crisis here and, you know, you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow.

She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not miss this up or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow. That's exactly the two options. And turn your dad gum family term life insurance can replace income theft, debts, cover funeral expenses so your family can actually have the opportunity to just be sad to just miss

you. That's exactly what it's supposed to be. It's saying I love you to your family term life insurance. Jeff Zander and the team of Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years that the only people I'd trust go to zander.com

or call 800 356 42 82. Jonathan is in Boston up next. Jonathan, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. Thanks for having me.

I appreciate your time. Absolutely. How can Jayden I help today? I'm calling because I am on baby step four. My wife and I just became completely debt-free pain off 200,000 a debt at the age of 24.

Wow. I'm going to go man. How long did that take? I'd be lying if I said I didn't know one year nine months and about five days. Excellent.

What kind of debt was it?

It was about 108,000 in student debt and then about 10,000 for the first law card that I bought

right at the college. Oh my gosh. Well, I know you didn't intend for this to be a debt-free screen, but when you say that you paid off that much debt, what caused you to kind of

“make up one day and realize this is not the life we want to live?”

Oh, I got a job in the financial industry and I started helping people in best and I realized that I should probably start practicing what I preach. Oh, good. My wife and I really have an appreciation for the military, so we joined the military. And I think that very squirtly mindset helped us really get on the right track and start

taking action for ourselves. I love that. Fantastic. So much courage. How can we help today?

This is an exciting stage to be it. I appreciate it. So we were in a spot where we were debt-free and we have about 45,000, probably 50,000 saves now. And personally, I'm a huge card dot and I have a lot of friends who are in those same

financial situation where they have almost six-figure saved up and they're buying these cars that are not depreciating and so I thought I'm going to take a stab at looking at it and I found myself looking at something called a Porsche Cayman and it's about $40,000 and very carefully tracking market of these cars. I didn't know if it was a better idea to purchase a car that might not lose as much value

and maybe being a better option to not have as much depreciation. Well, unless you're buying like a classic car that's going up in value, I mean everything that you buy is going to depreciate. So the idea that their cars aren't depreciating is not true.

Now a lot of nicer cars, they kind of fall off that initial cliff and the first one

to two years and then they tend to hold their value a little better longer, some better than others, but just know if you're driving something with wheels in a motor unless it's like I said a classic car, it is going to go down and value the question is, can you afford a $40,000 vehicle? So tell us about your income.

Well, so my wife and I have your tax bringing in about $210,000. My bike comp is set to go up under this year and to next year to about $200,000 for myself and she's probably on track to make $150. So we should be looking at her under a thousand after tax by taxing some of this time next year.

That's really, really good. What's she driving? She will be able to put him to go on with no money down in 300 a month and then my car is fully dead off. Oh, wow.

She still have the lease. Was that newer, is that a newer decision or is that an old decision that you've now since learned from? So the whole time I can take one was in 2024 and we have a friend that works on the dealership side.

So he got a really good deal and he has kind of unlimited kind of mileage with the car.

“I think it's like 20,000 miles where you don't really drive that much.”

So we got to get the owner car and we didn't want to go into debt to buy another car. So that's what we made that decision. But it's a contract where you promised to make payments that sounds very similar to debt in my book.

But I rescind my debt-free scream until this lease is dealt worth job. What is the buy-out amount for the car? I think it's 21,000, we don't plan to buy the car. So you just want to rent it and then give it back and then you'll restart this process. That's the game plan.

I think we're going to buy a car and cash next year for around 25,000 for her. We don't really want to go through that whole lease or debt process again. Okay. I agree with that part.

I would never at least look at our ever again.

It really is one of the most expensive ways to operate a vehicle. And I think the feeling of we got a really good deal and no money down and all these things.

“But the truth is it's still money that you're on the hook for unless you make a lump”

of some payment to get out of it. So it's risk that you're allowing in your life. When you really don't need that, you guys make such a great income. You've got cash saved and I think you understand that once this happens, never again because truly lease payments, car payments, they are the divide, Jonathan between middle class and wealthy folks.

It's just really the divide there, especially with the amount that you could invest by not having a car payment or lease payment. Okay. So learn less than they're moving on to the poor. So it's $40,000. You guys are making $210,000 a year.

We do have kind of a ruler thumb when it comes to vehicles. George, we say you should never have anything with a wheels or motors. That's more than half of your salary every year.

So you guys would not be, you know, basically cap it up against the 100 grand total

in vehicles and toys. And so if yours worth 40, hers worth 25, you're in good shape. Now, the thing to think about, I wouldn't, at this point, thinking about resale value and depreciation is just going to hurt your soul. That's right.

Because you're paying cash.

“You don't have to worry about being underwater.”

If you're going to drive this thing for, you know, seven plus years, I'll probably close you the time. I'd like to keep this car and maybe even pass it down to my kids' window. Wow. Okay.

Well, they better be ready for those maintenance repair costs. That's going to be the problem with cars of this caliber. You're going to need to have a nice, healthy, sinking fund in your budget, you know, for two to four grand minimum to maintain this car. Sure.

I plan to save about 5,000 years for preventative maintenance and good car and good.

That's good. I just thought, you know, it's a car that I've wanted since I was probably six years old. Yeah. I would do it. You said you've got 45 to 50,000 saved.

That's not including your emergency fund, right? Or is it? That would be all our savings total, but we're saving about five or $6,000 a month right now. Okay.

So we should hit our $100,000 goal by the number of December. So I'd be very, yeah. I'd be very careful to separate that money and make sure that this 50,000, whatever your six months of expenses is, put that someplace separate and then save up for this portion of labor.

Car fund. And that way, you're not going to make the mistake of thinking this car is an emergency. Yeah. Do that. If this is the only 50,000 that you have, you're not quite ready to buy this yet,

but it sounds like you'd be there in the next. Okay. Are you saying you do this in November? Um, well, I just shared it gear in December. So my car is kind of on its last legs right now.

Um, so I'm probably going to get a car from the next month or two. Oh, wow. Then I don't think you're ready to buy this one because, yeah, how, what is your three to six months emergency fund? What would that entail?

What does it take to run your house for a month? Uh, including rent in additional $2,000 a month, buffer will probably sit in your house, fix your $7,000 a month. So that puts around the 25 to 30,000 range. Okay.

So then any money above 25 or 30 is now your car budget. And so that that's a hard line. You guys have to decide we're not going to do half down, half on the loan, we're going to pay cash. We're going to do this the smart way.

And that might mean we need to make this car last a little bit longer. Maybe that's a repair. Maybe that's an intermediate car in the meantime for the next six to 12 months. And you know how to do that. You understand a laid gratification.

You guys paid off $200,000 of mostly student loan debt. So keep flexing that muscle because it's gotten you this far and you've benefited from that. Now is not the time to kind of fall off the things that you know. Do what you know to do that's caused you to be successful to this point.

Because right now if you got 25 an emergency fund that gives you an extra 25 in this car fund. And you said you can add six grand a month.

“Oh, that's what we're averaging right now, it will probably go up, but I don't want”

to underestimate. Okay. But let's say, you know, two months from now, that's 12 grand added to your 25. Well now we're at 37. So you're on the on the bubble of car shopping.

Maybe you get a slightly, you know, one year older or you decide to wait one more month.

And so if you can just wait 90 days, you're going to be able to get the exact thing you

want and pay cash. And I'll be very focused. I'm guessing you've done a whole lot of research on the exact make the model, the engine, the features, all of that. I'm not sure if you don't want to see my little poster.

I have a home that tracks the trend lines of all these cars. Oh, that's incredible. I love the nerdery. But that tells me you're going to make a good decision with this. And it's not flippant and impulsive.

You said you've been dream about this since you were six. Wow. And you've done the work to get there. And so just don't let go. Don't let the foot off the gas pun intended quite yet, Jonathan.

You were so, so close. And you're going to love that car. Because you're going into it. Eyes wide open. Understanding.

It's higher insurance. It's higher maintenance. And it is increased your quality of life, and six year old Jonathan is smiling. Oh, dude. You paid cash for a portion.

Love it. Crushing it, dude. Keep it up. Well, come back to the Ramsey Show and the Fairwins Credit Union Studio. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warsaw this hour.

The number to call is triple eight eight two five five two two five.

“If you want to jump into the conversation about your life in your money.”

Sean joins us in Baltimore up next. Sean, welcome to the show. Hey, guys, how's it going? Great. How are you?

Good. Good. Thanks for having me on. So just a quick back to where my wife and I follow the beach steps minus one. We did purchase a vacation house about five years ago, which I know is these pet pee

that we can't afford it with cash. You can financially afford it, but we do have two mortages right now. So my question is, my wife gets RFU's storage job. We also purchase stock through her and police stock plan, and it's smart to sell those stocks once a day.

That's each quarter and put it towards our mortgages. And, you know, in which one should I put it towards where reinvest it or not sell them and all of that then sit? I love the idea of selling them once they vest. I would do that.

Yes. Because you don't want concentration in any single stock, and Ron would like to have a word.

“And so it's wise to sell them anyways, and if you want to reinvest those into mutual fund”

or index funds or pay off the house, I would apply it to your next baby step, which for you guys is I assume baby step six. Are you guys currently investing 15% of your household income? We are. Yeah.

Great. And you got kids, are you saving a little bit for college if so? Yeah, two kids, my daughter's 11 and my son is nine, and we have about 50,000 in their 5.9%. Fantastic.

And what's left on these two mortgages? So, I have about 270 on my primary and 165 on the vacation. So what's the, when you sell these stocks quarterly, what do you take away from that? When you, when average probably about 25,000 to 40,000 of fluctuates, it's been a, it's probably been a really well recently.

Okay. I love that. I would totally do that.

And I would go towards the principal, your main home first, because I like the piece

of having that paid off, even though obviously it's a higher balance. If you had like a full 165, and you could just knock out the vacation on today, that would be fine. But I'm with Jay that the primary home is usually the focus, because that's where you rest your head.

And so I like that idea of having that paid off. What is the mortgage payment on the primary home? The mortgage payment for your home that you're living in right now. So it's about 1,500, I believe. And what about the vacation?

1800. Okay. Yeah. Cool. I feel solid in that approach.

Much money do you guys have that you could sort of liquidate to put towards these mortgages? Yeah. So that's what we did. We actually just sold a bunch of stock a few months ago, and we still have about 60,000 sitting in our savings.

“So that's what I wanted to call you guys to see what, you know, what we should put towards”

it. Really, we could drop 60,000 really tomorrow, and then we have another dressing period coming out of your warehouse to see if I'm separate. I'm going to see if I'm on his separate. Yeah.

Okay. Great. I mean, I love that idea for you guys.

The number going down faster is always more encouraging and more exciting.

Yes. And once you crack under it, if I always look at the vacation house, it might feel a little the better. Yeah. I mean, either way, you're going to be in good shape.

If you're really going after these with your income, which I mean, you guys are making

About 300. Fantastic.

I mean, if you did one, if you decided, hey, we're going to do the vacation home

first. There are worse things you could do, like lightning wouldn't strike you, nothing bad is there. My thought is just for the purpose of peace, and it doesn't hurt that the monthly payments more on that one, that's the reason that I selected that.

But if you guys sat down together and you decided something differently, I mean, usually if you have seven properties, it's almost like you can sort of debt snowball the properties. Since just your vacation home in primary, there's really it's sort of a, you know, choose

“your own adventure here based on what excites you guys, because that's what's going to keep”

you going. Where is the vacation property? Uh, the notion city of Maryland, so it's about about three hours from my, my primary. Very cool. What's it worth?

Uh, probably about four or fifty more five minutes. Okay. And what's your current home worth? That's why I said be to six hundred. Okay.

Very cool. Guys have done really well for yourselves. I think that's really exciting. Thank you.

What are you going to do?

America wants to know Sean. I think I'm going to drop down that vacation house. I like it. I like it. I like it.

You've done this before with the, you know, the vest that RSU used. You know, the tax implications of, you know, selling off 40 grand of those. Yeah. Well, we figured that out a couple of years ago. Yeah.

Probably turned into like not. I appreciate you asking that. But no, my, my, my account did not tell me that. And, uh, yeah.

“Are you under with held and had a big tax bill now we know?”

What do you under with held and had a big tax bill? Is that what happened? That's what happened. Yeah. That's a good lesson learned for anybody out there who has RSU is a really, you know,

those restricted stock units are employee stock purchase program or whatever it is. If you sell anything and you have a gain, where it counts as income, it ends up in your bank account. The IRS wants their cut.

And you don't realize how quickly Sean, it can bump up into different tax

pack. And you go, oh, now where we went from like 22% effective to 28%. We didn't factor in that extra 6% of 300 grander. You know, whatever you brought in. So I'm proud of you guys, man.

That vacation home is going to, it's going to hit different when there's no mortgage attached to it. Oh, yeah. You'll be even more excited to visit. Yeah.

Thanks a lot, guys. Yeah. Send us the invite once it's paid off. Yes. I'll enjoy it.

I'll be cute. I love that. Barbeak. I haven't heard the barbeque. I like that.

No barbeque. What was I cook out? Yeah. Is there a difference between a barbeque and a cookout, George? Oh, well.

The public wants to know. I will say a cookout is a different vibe. And how say I think a cookout feels a little bit more communal. Okay. Okay.

A barbeque feels like, all right. We're going to be grilling, but that's a one-man show here. Okay. I'm with you. A cookout is an experience.

Cookout is like every party. We're coming over, everybody's bringing a dish. Yes, George.

“That's how I see it from my vantage point.”

Barbeque is like, it could be any weekend. You just throw something on the grill. Yes. Got it. Well, I want to, Sean mentioned something that I think is important to our audience.

And that is when you should be purchasing a vacation home. Yes. Let's talk about that, George. We see that as a toy. Yes.

It's not producing income. And even if it is. If it's an investment property, we still would say, that's risk. Do you want to know what I think? Yeah, I just, the public wants to know, I think our listeners have figured out a way

around, I think they figured out a way. We found you guys after we bought the fish. They know that if they come to us and it's already, the deal's been done. We rarely tell them to sell it because we're like, okay, we can figure this out. I'm starting to pick up on that vibe.

Are you? Yeah. I didn't realize that's a life hack to just go. Listen. That's what's happening here.

And after we bought this giant vacation/solution investment property, yeah, after we started our real estate portfolio of seven houses, well, luckily in Donald's case, they are dead free. They're making 300 grand, you know, dead free outside of these mortgages. But a lot of people, they got a bunch of dead.

They still have the car loans. They have all these properties and they think they're real estate gurus. Yeah. And we go, how much are you making off of this thing? A hundred bucks a week.

I'm actually releasing money. Yeah. But with a vacation home, you wanted to be a vacation. That's right. When you're blessing, hand two mortgages, and it's just really a money sucker.

You've got to realize that thing is a toy, and you want to de-risk your life. That is the goal. So once you've it, baby steps seven, meaning your primary mortgage is paid off, then save up and pay cash for any extra homes on top of that, whether it's an investment property or just a vacation home, and if you're Dave Ramsey, you don't mix the two.

That's right. Hey, guys, Dave Ramsey here.

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.

Today's question of the day is brought to you by WIRIFI. If you've been turned away by other lenders, because your private student loans are at a control, WIRIFI may still be able to help. They specialize in refinancing options built specifically for borrowers in that situation. So go to WIRIFI.com/RAMsey to learn more.

That's the letter WIRIFI.com/RAMsey, may not be available in all states. Indeed. Today's question comes from Elizabeth and New Mexico. She says, hearing the calls on your show made me realize I want to do better for my son.

He turns 18 this year and just started his first job. He makes between $150 to $200 a week as a bus boy. He opened a savings account on his own and deposits 50% of his pay.

I was never taught anything about emergency funds or investing.

I want him to have the freedom to buy a house, go on vacation, and have a good life. How do I set up an IRA for him?

“And what accounts should he have other than the savings and IRA?”

Okay. So let's back it up just a little bit. What I love about Elizabeth's question is she's thinking about her child's future. I don't know any parent who's not doing that. However, you gotta be careful not to put the cart before the horse.

And I think that Elizabeth, if you wanted to have some sort of a, you know, upma or you wanted to do a brokerage account for him, that'd be fine. But for him with his money, George, I think the first thing for him to focus on is, what's in front of him, which is a new car, you know, car intern goals. Yeah, those short term goals.

And so for that reason, I'd like for his money to stay liquid. I would not invest his money at this time. I would do a high yield savings account if he needed it. Obviously, a checking account for, you know, day to day and month to month spending. But if he's saving 50% of his pay, yeah, throw it in a high yield.

And he can save up for, like I said, a car, he can save up for an apartment. He can save up for higher ed, whether that looks like trades or certificates or even, you know, going to a university or community college. And that would be my number one goal for an 18 year old right now. George, what say you?

Well, I love that he has this habit of depositing 50% of his pay. Excellent. That's the hardest part is just to build that muscle of delayed gratification, living on less than you make, because if he's doing that, making 150 bucks, if he can continue that, making 15 bucks a week.

Yes. Good muscle. Now we're actually in business. Now he's not making enough to do any damage when it comes to a home-down payment or vacation. Right now, he's just an 18 year old trying to figure out his life.

Yeah. So that's where you can step in as mom and help him navigate that, ask him really good questions, support him, find him opportunities where he can figure out that thing he wants to sink his teeth into and that might mean education. It could mean trade school, it could be a two year community college, it could be four

year. Yeah. Maybe he's an entrepreneur and he wants to start his own thing. You can support him in that and that's the best thing you can do as a mom and the investing will come.

Like Jade said, one of the time is right, because I don't want him going to get a car loan, because he's been investing all of his money, but he doesn't want to have $25,000 for a car. And I think that's so good.

“I think as a parent, the best thing you can do is teach your kids healthy and smart”

money habits.

I know for our kids, so our kids are on, I mean, they get paid for their chores, basically.

So they can pay. Yeah, commission or just paycheck, whatever. So they get paid at the end of every week, but salmonized rule is you do not get to spend the money until the end of the month. So we're trying to build with them is, I don't spend my money as soon as I get it.

So I get paid every Saturday, but not until the fourth Saturday, can I spend and the other thing that we cause the, that we teach them to do, I can't say we make them do it. But we teach them, okay, if you do want to spend your money, we have them tell us, what's something that you're thinking, before we ever go to the store, what's something that you think you need or that you have your eye on?

That way we're identifying, we don't just go to the store and let the store tell us what we want. Let the shelves speak to us. We say, what are you thinking about? And my daughter said, I'd like to get roller skates and I was thinking about close for my

doll, like give us three things and then when we go to shop, those are the things we keep our eye out for. So I think those are the types of habits and just really mindset that you want to teach

I like that.

“And we always say Morris caught them taught and he's been watching mom, he's continuing”

to watch mom. And so he doesn't, it doesn't matter what you say at this point, he's going to be looking at what you do. And so I love that you're taking this seriously and you haven't opened money conversations, that's a great start to not hide it under a bushel.

No, say. Yeah, hide it under a bushel. All right. Jessica's in Philadelphia up next, Jessica, welcome to the show. Awesome.

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. We are, too. How can we help? So I'm a single mom as of 2 and a half years ago and I have been surviving on my own.

I'm a little bit concerned with my income in the case that it doesn't go up because I don't

have a great income through my career because I always had a job to kind of support my marriage,

not to support myself as a single mom. OK, so I only make about 50,000 years through my 9 to 5 and then I also have a side hustle, but I very much rely on child support to get by to kind of make ends meet. And a couple of years, my child support, I get about 2,000 on child support. So in two years when my oldest turns 18, that's going to be cut in half and while I'm doing

everything I can to find a better job and working my butt on nights and weekends at this side hustle that I'm doing, I'm just worried about kind of preparing for that change that happening in two years because I want to make sure that I'm going to be OK. What do you bring in, so you've got 50,000 from your main job, what is the side hustle bringing in every month?

Um, it's, it's fluctuates a lot, it can be anywhere between, I don't know, 800 and 2000. OK. So it's not consistent and I don't want to rely on that. So that's understanding up your core income and we're talking it's going from 24 to 12. So the gap we need to fill in two years is 12,000 a year, about a thousand a month.

Yeah. What's your margin as it stands today?

“When you do your every dollar budget today, how much margin do you have to put towards”

your next goal? So I actually just started figuring out how to budget because that's meant the last two years just trying to stand on my own two feet.

I never, I'm so financially illiterate and I've had to learn a lot over the last two years.

So and I started from scratch with you at all or absolutely nothing to my name and so I'm only just starting to get into the budgeting thing and I would say that probably I'm able to put right now about 800, 2000 into savings, like I've been trying to dump everything into saving. It's right now.

I do have a car payment too. So I don't know where my money should be going. OK. What? We can help give you some focus there.

Yeah. Us seeing that. So basically your margin would be gone when this happens in two years and I think that there's probably some places that we can find that you mentioned some debt. So what other debts do you have?

That's, I only have a car payment. I have a little bit of debt to a hospital because my son had to have surgery but I'm working with a hospital on figuring that out. So I'm not sure about that one. OK.

How much is that? My payment is about the hospital debt to about 3000. OK. And how much is the car debt? I owe 8500 still.

OK. What's the payment? It's $300 a month. OK. So we're a third there.

If we can clear up that car payment, do you give yourself a little raise just by paying that off?

“How much money do you have to your name right now in savings?”

So in savings I have about $13,000. OK. Awesome. So I actually, the 800 to $1,000 a month that you're putting in savings, I'd actually start applying that to your debt snowball.

So debt snowball is a method of attacking debt and here we teach that taking your income

back is the most important thing that you can do, right?

Your income is your biggest wrong building tool. So we would say, hey, first thing you need, you need $1,000 saved as a cushion. Next thing, we're attacking debt. Debt snowball method. We're paying off the debt smallest to largest.

I think I heard you say you have $13,000 saved? Yeah. I would jump in that today. I would pay off if you paid it off today. And you were left with $4,500, which is still awesome.

And next month, it's $6,500 if you crush it and get that 2 grand. How would that feel? I would just be, it's taken me so long to get to the $13,000 it would make me nervous. I mean, I guess I can always work more. Well, let's do math because math helps set everything straight.

The truth is you don't have $13,000 saved.

So you have $1,000. That's the truth. That's on paper math.

That's the accounting math.

“You only have $1,000 to your name anyway.”

So you may as well pay off the debt and make it so and then keep adding to it. Debt free emergency fund. Then begin investing. You'll be on the path if you just start focusing your money. You got this.

Hey, guys, Rachel Cruz here. And I love summer. There is more fun on the calendar, more time with your people. And way more chances to make memories. But you know what else?

There's more of spending. Oh, between the extra groceries and gas and camp fees and family trips, it all starts to add up so fast. And before you know it, money stress starts to steal the fun out of everything.

And that is why I love the every dollar budget app because it helps you plan your money,

track your spending and find more margin in your budget so that you can put extra cash towards the goals that matter most. Enjoy your summer without the money stress. Download the every dollar app in the App Store or Google Play and start for free today. Buying your selling your home is a huge deal.

And you want an expert in your corner who is fighting for you to find the best deal for the right price or get the most for your home if you're selling.

“And the Ramsey trusted programs the only way to find a top agent you can trust will help make your home”

buying or selling a blessing not a burden. It's easy. Compare agent profiles. You interview them. You choose the right one to work with.

And you can find a local Ramsey trusted real estate pro for free. At Ramsey Solutions dot com slash agent or click the link in the description if you're listening on YouTube or podcast. Mark is in Birmingham up next. Mark, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you guys doing today?

We're doing great. What's going on with you? Thank you for having me. Sure. So I have a little predicament.

I will not have predicament, I guess quick. I'm wondering if you guys think that it is okay for me to quit my job because I'm basically working two full-time jobs with my side business as well that I've built. And I honestly hate my non-to-file. Absolutely.

He got a new ball spin. It has become extraordinarily difficult for me to even get up in the morning and want to go. Wow. What sort of things are happening there? What's your job?

So I can make sure I never do it.

Don't apply George. Well, I'm in retail. I've been in retail for my entire adult life. And I built a YouTube channel up. And basically now it's my dad laughs at me because he thinks that I should just quit.

But I do have insurance through my job. And that's of course a very important thing. You know, I'm 30 years old now. So I'm getting older and trying to take care of my health as well. But what do you make from the YouTube channel and what do you make from a retail?

So retail I bring home a salary of like 3200 a month. Bring home. And YouTube is kind of up and down depending on like if I have brand deals or if it's a good month, bad month, whatever. But on average, here this year I've made around $8 to $9,000 a month just off of YouTube.

So, and what I double the time you're in. Yeah, and like good months, I can like I've made 15 to 20 grand. Off of YouTube in month before. I mean, isn't that enough that you could buy your own insurance? And you wouldn't need to be on the retail companies insurance.

“If that's the only thing keeping you at that job.”

I'm a benefit. I could. I just don't know how expensive that would be. Even though I do have like a LLC and everything. I just really haven't.

I mean, I got your homework assignment right here. Okay. When you're down to the call, go to healthtrustfinancial.com. There are health insurance broker that we recommend that can shop for you to find you the best coverage of the best price.

So, once you have that information, you're going to feel more confident. Okay, it's $1,200 a month for the coverage I need. Great. I can stomach that considering your mental health is on the line. And you're making triple with YouTube pretty consistently.

How consistent has this been that you've made more than, you know, four grand a month on YouTube every month? For the last year? Last month was my worst month I've had in like the last three years and I made five grand. Okay.

So, you know, that's the floor right now. Yeah.

And, you know, it's quite a good.

What kind of change is your thing? What kind of content do you do? Yeah. I'm looking it up. What are you called?

I just want to know. Okay. Okay. He got kicks. Who's the name?

Yeah.

“So, we changed my name from Mark to something else.”

Because I don't like everybody knowing how much money I have. You said he got kicks. I see you. Yeah. Yeah.

There we go. Yeah. And I've done that.

And I've saved up like $135,000.

There you go. There you go. There's your offering. What if you need some cushion? This is the channel I need to be following.

You got the right person on the call. Mark, because Jade's a big. She's a shoehead. I think it's what they're called. Sneakerhead.

Sneakerhead. Yeah. That's how old I am. He said a shoehead. That's okay.

I'll take it. That's fine. Yeah. I listen. When you told me the numbers.

If you decide that, oh, man, I want this $3,200 back. Go get another retail job. Right?

Retail will always be there.

They're always going to need marks of the world.

“But right now, you've enjoyed this YouTube stuff, right?”

Oh, it's my passion. It really an honestly saved my life. How many hours are you putting into the right now with your retail job? Well, with retail, I'm at 40 and with YouTube, I'm at least at 75 to 80. I do, you know, but I'm also trying to build another channel as well about technology.

And trying to build that up as well. So I'm really doing what I'm doing right now. Just trying to do what I'm doing tomorrow. Follow the passion. It's been lucrative for you.

And it seems like you have cracked a code that many are trying to crack. So keep going in that direction. Yeah. And you can afford, I'm telling you, you can afford health insurance for yourself. Is it just you or is it an entire family?

It's just me. My girlfriend lived with me. And I mean, she makes like 75 grand a year too. Yeah. And it's just that it's just for you.

You can afford that. Yeah, great. Can go out to Mark. You just aren't another subscriber from Jade today. That's exciting.

Wait, let me go and click this. That's pretty cool. Let me smash that. Let me smash that. That's pretty cool.

And it is true, Jade. I mean, it's crazy. We'll talk to like a 13 year old who's making seven grand a month from YouTube. It's just a different environment and not everyone's going to understand it. But it sounds like even your family's supportive.

Your dad's laughing at you saying, dude, you made nine grand a month from this YouTube channel. It's time to go. Why you spent in 40 hours a week in retail. I love it. That's a great.

Subscribe. Great story. You got kicks. That's the American dream right there. It's becoming a YouTuber.

Liz is an Omaha up next. Liz, how can we help? Hey, I'm Jade and George. What's going on?

“So how can I let go of my savings account that I've built over a decade?”

I'm a workaholic and I work about 60 to 80 hours a week. The only debt I really have is about 500 in credit cards. Just I paid off each year. I'm at each month. Okay.

And I got in the hit run accident in 2023 and I financed the car. Oh, what's left on the balance? About 12,600 in I think $75. How much do you have in savings? So I have two bank accounts.

I moved up here in Omaha and from South Carolina. And in my South Carolina bank account, I have about $12,667. Okay. In a CD actually, actually, it's in a CD. And I have 800 in the savings account that's same bank.

And then the bank that I use right now. I have 38,000 and about 1,000 in checking. I just found you guys in February. In the February beginning of March and now I'm just obsessed with you guys. I list you guys 24/7.

And I did the baby steps backwards. I opened a Roth IRA a couple months ago. And my savings account is now 38,000. So I had 47,000 in my Wells Fargo. And now I just can't.

I can't give myself to. To make that last. So that I could really pay off this car like right now if I wanted to. Yeah, yeah, just take the 12,000 from the one savings account and knock it out.

Look at the reality of this.

“You pay off this car and you're left with $25,000.”

Can you live with that? Can you stack back up some cash? I mean, I work too judge now. I probably could. Yeah.

I mean, you're a workaholic. You're a saveaholic. It's time to be a debt freeaholic. What are you making from these two jobs? Those from these 80 hours a week.

A $15 from covert home culverts and. I'm a vendor. So I make $22 an hour. And I do about. I will say this.

I will say this to you, Liz.

I might look for some jobs that are a little bit higher paying so that you're not having to work 80 hours to get the same result because that'll break your back after a while. If you can work 40 to get the same amount of pay, you'll get your mental health back and you won't have to be so aggressive in every other area. But I would pay off the car today.

“And if you don't sleep good at night with a paid off car, you can always go get another loan.”

They'll give it to you. [Music] Listen, your home is your most expensive asset. And now you're ready to sell fast and for a lot of money. But in this wackadoodle real estate market,

one mistake could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Here's the deal. This ain't amateur hour. You need a pro in your corner. Someone who knows how to price your home right,

market it well, and negotiate the best deal. That's where a Ramsey trusted real estate agent comes in. To find one near you, go to RamseySolutions.com/agent. That's RamseySolutions.com/agent. [Music]

Our scripture of the day, please he asked these three verses one and two. There is a time for everything. And a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born, and a time to die,

a time to plant, and a time to uproot. Michael Altchuler said the bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot. Look at that. All right. Okay. I'm the pilot of time.

In my own life, I guess. Okay. I was like you on that one, Michael. Yeah. Thank you. All right, Neil is in Grand Rapids up next. What's going on, Neil?

Hi, Jane and George. Thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. I'm retiring next year, and my wife and I are both 75 years old, and we've been married for 59 years.

I think we're relations. Thank you. I've been quite great. She financially, my wife is still a little nervous. If you think of me, I simply would have married when we were 16 years old. Wow.

And I was a father at 16, so I talked about big stuff. Wow, amazing deal. Yes. And I was working in a car wash. So I understand why she's a little nervous about money

because we started out dirt poor. She doesn't want to go back to being poor. But I think we're in good shape. Our kids are all grown. They're all financially okay. I don't plan on leaving money to them intentionally.

And I think, here's what we have.

We have our own list with $350,000. We have a $63,000 mortgage at 2 and 3/4%. We have so security after taxes of $41,000 a year. We have a full run worth about $450,000. We have a Roth IRA at about $150,000.

And we usually carry about 40 or 50,000 in our bank checking account. Beyond that, we have cars in the antique's worth about another $100,000. Are the cars paid off? Yes. Okay, good.

I don't have no other bills.

“So the social security, what is that $3,000 a month?”

About yes. Is that enough to, can you live solely off the social security? Or do you need how much do you pull out of the, would you be pulling out of the 401k in the Roth? I would think we kind of get it in. It's going to be a little harder to figure a bit about another $10,000 per year.

Okay. Is what you need out of the retirement accounts? Yes. Okay, yes. We'll call it 12.

So what's your question today? Well, I'd like to take time for travel and entertainment. I'm looking at about $15,000 a year, maybe 20,

So we're the next 15 years that's going to 9B.

“I think I'm aggressively, I mean, you're less than the NFO ones, et cetera.”

But I think I would downplay that down to about a 50% short term after I'm retired, 30% in an index fund and 20 in an FDIC. So I do the math and it looks like we're okay. But again, my wife's a little nervous and I get it. So would you be pulling from retirement instead of pulling 12, you'd pull 24?

Yes. Something like that. I mean, I'm crunching some some napkin math here if you had a 24 run of retirement. Let's say you guys live to be 99. And just using your 600 grand, if you needed to pull 24 grand a year from retirement,

you have a 99.2% success rate. And that's not counting the antiques, the money. So mathematically, you're okay. And I would have her and you sit down with a smart investor, Pro, to actually show her these projections.

To show her just how small the chance there is of failure with these numbers. Now, if you ramp it up, they'll show you, hey, if you ramp up to 36 instead of 24, you could run into problems if you guys live to be 100. And then you guys can have an actual facts instead of right now is just all emotion. Right, right.

And I understand the first 10 years for our marriage, we were struggling.

And then we started investing late.

“I had a business, so I didn't invest in the 401 and kill us by 50.”

So, you know, went from there. What's your wife, Amanda? Pardon me. What's the mortgage payment every month? I think it's $700 or approximately.

Okay. I was just wondering if she, if there was a compromise here where you said, hey, we're going to sell off some of the antiques, pay off the mortgage, that'll free up 700 bucks. Would that make you feel better about us loosening the purse strings a little bit

and enjoying our retirement? I'll tell you it'd make me feel better. Well, yes. Well, she doesn't want to pay off the mortgage. Because I suggest that we do that.

Why don't you want to? Well, because she's earned us. We work through a way to a 2.75 interest rate and she's very proud of that. And she likes knowing that we have paying the bills. She does a good job with it.

And I think there's a little security there. You said she likes paying the bill. There's security in owning your own home free and clear. Not the bank. She's still paying the taxes.

You're right, right. Let her pay the insurance and taxes and she can have a field day. But if she's worried about money, and she's also saying, I want to keep my 700 hour payment, well, now we have two conflicting opinions. You want to keep the interest rate.

Or do you want to enjoy retirement? Yeah. I mean, you said you're going to work for one more year. Yeah. If you reached over and you paid off the mortgage.

And then for the next year, you put the 700 back and reinvest it along with what you're doing now. That feels pretty good to me. Yeah. I think so.

“And that's what I was talking about too.”

So yeah, I think she's going to be okay. She's probably listening. I'm working out of town. But just knowing that somebody else agrees with me. I think she knows.

Yeah. But we just want to enjoy ourselves. What kind of work do you do, Neil? I'm going to see you right now. I did that construction most of my life.

I'm going to see you over 20 years. Wow. Fantastic. Well, let go. Proud of you guys.

Congrats on 59 years.

I was really enjoying retirement because the truth is, Neil, you're 75.

I hope you guys live to 100. But we don't know what the future holds. And some people hoard the money and go well when we're 80 will enjoy it. And then there's a health problem. And now they can't travel and they can't enjoy it.

And so there's a great book too. Called die was zero. I don't agree with everything in the book. But the general premise is pretty good of enjoy your money while you're alive. And spoil your kids while you're alive and not hoard it until they're in their 60s.

And you give them a million bucks that they don't need anymore. It goes right along with our scripture and quote of the day. I guess it's time for everything. That's right. It's time to live.

So I hope she's listening, Neil. And I hope that helps. But I would sit down with a professional who can run these actual numbers and show her the truth. And show you the guardrails. Hey, you can spend between this and this and be totally fine.

Even on a worst case scenario, here's where you'd be. So I hope that helps. Thomas is in Bentonville, Arkansas. Thomas, what's your question today? Hey there.

I make about 50,000 a year take home. And I was just curious on how you guys could have how to afford a house. That income is subject to change due to promotion in the future. I'm only 23 years old. Well, I'm maybe set three right now. And we're trying to build a nice emergency fund because we're all one income household with a little boy at home.

And that's you want to keep it that way.

Let's you want to keep her at home. Keep you working. Yeah. And let's increase the income so that we can become homeowners instead of continuing to rent. Yes.

“What do things cost in your area to have the the type of home that you're thinking of?”

Recently, what would you have to spend?

Right around 300,000 right now.

There's nothing within an hour. There's nothing within an hour of work that we can afford with their 25% role. Yeah. Okay. And I was going to say you know the 25% role.

That's good. And you're bringing home. What is that around 3500 a month? Yeah. Around.

Okay. A little more actually 3900. Okay. Okay. That means a thousand dollar mortgage payment, which as you can imagine.

Very difficult with today's housing prices and interest rates. Which means we need to either save more for the down payment or change the home price. And that's going to take some patience in getting your income up. So that's what I would be focused on. Your 23.

That's a great income. I would focus on what can I do to start making 60 70 80 over the next couple of years. So that you have more margin to stack for the down payment. Yeah. And let me just encourage you that 23 is so young. My husband and I got married at 23.

“And we didn't buy our first house together until, oh my goodness, was that 35 that we bought?”

In the average age now, Jake is like 38 to 40 for the first time home.

That's right. So I wouldn't be in a rush Thomas, but I would be very intentional on working on my income, staying debt free, setting a goal, union wife, sitting down, saying, hey, we're going to save 24,000 year. That's 2,000 a month.

So I go out to this high yield savings account, what must be true for us to get there? I need to go make more money. We need to cut down our expenses. Hope that helps. That puts this hour of the show in the books.

“Remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace.”

And that's to walk daily with the prince of peace. Christ Jesus.