It's Never Too Late To Start Over

>> Brought to you by the Every Dollar App,

stark budgeting for free today. [MUSIC] >> Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Networks in the Fairwins Credit Union studio,

this is the Ramsey Show. And I am at Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with my good friend, a co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour, George Campbell. So we will be answering your questions at from late 825, 5225, but your life ends your money.

>> Let's pre-game before the happy hour. >> I know, we're leaving for a recording right after this. So we're together all afternoon, me and George. >> I apologize already to Rachel, don't worry. >> Alright, let's go to Kurt in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hi Kurt, welcome to the show. >> Hi, thank you guys doing. >> Hi, we're doing great. How are you doing? >> I'm doing good.

So I got a question.

So we have some debt and I'm not quite sure how much.

I know we do have a loan for 25,000. We have a car payment. We have two car payments. And my wife says she has where about three or four years left on the one car. But every time I bring up Dave Ramsey, she and my wife cringes.

Her ex husband, you know, lived by Dave Ramsey. And every time she says, "I hear that name. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to have anything to do with you because I hate that name." I want to follow what Dave says, but she doesn't want that.

So I just feel like we're continuing just continuing to just pile on more debt. And I mean, she wants, you know, we want to do things.

“But it's like, how can we, I don't say it to her, but it's like, how can we have?”

We don't have any money. We're just going deeper in the debt. >> Yeah, how long have you guys been married? >> 20 years. >> How long, oh, okay.

How long was she married to her ex?

>> Just the short time I believe a year and a half. >> Oh, okay. Okay. >> So she has thrown the baby steps out with the bath water here. It's unfortunate.

>> Yeah. >> She's a trigger for her. She associates with her past trauma. And so therefore anything you talk about the baby steps in Dave, but does she actually want to get out of debt on the underneath the surface of that?

>> I don't, I don't think she does. I think she's, I don't want to say used to living like this, but. >> Yeah, it's probably, yeah. >> Yeah, you do the normal for her. >> Yeah, and I think there, there's a lot of situations where people just

can kind of coast. They're not, they're not in the disaster zone, but they're also not thriving. They're kind of just average. You know what I mean? It's just kind of that normal feeling.

>> You've got two hard places to be. >> Yeah, I was going to say, and it is sometimes tough. If there's not a massive motivation for change. And for some people, it's spiritual and emotional. Some people, it's circumstantial.

Like, I mean, it's, you know, it looks different for everyone.

“And so I think more of the concentration would be how you guys get on the same page, right?”

I mean, we obviously agree on a way to handle money here. All right, we have some solutions, but what we want to see you guys is win in your marriage and win with money. So I'm just, I want to talk through a little bit more of how to get you guys on the same page. >> Okay.

>> So when you do bring it up, what's your wording? Because sometimes, Kerry, I'm not going to put you in this bucket. But some, some of our listeners sometimes are very enthusiastic. And it's almost this, like, I'm going to a level of shame. You're doing it wrong.

It's all about her, you, you, you versus less about what you're thinking and feeling and desiring. Does that make sense? >> Yeah, that does make sense. And, and she doesn't, so she does not right now.

She doesn't work. And so she has a work for many years. And so she says her job is to take care of the house and pay the bills. So when I try to bring up, well, how much do we owe on this? Like, flat out, say, what do we owe on this?

What do we have on this? How much is a month of payment? I just kind of nonchalantly, you know, try to get it out of her. But she just, I don't know the exact any numbers. I don't want to say any numbers.

But some of the numbers. >> You don't know a lot. Yeah, I mean, as you're listening, like, I don't, yeah. And, and Kurt, you know, asking how much you guys owe on something. That's not wrong.

That's what you're all stepping there. >> That's not an overstep. And overstep would be like, I can't believe that you keep doing this. And this is your fault.

“And the fact that we're here is because of your decisions, right?”

Like, it's more point out here. >> Yeah. >> But you asking how much you owe on a car loan, Kurt? >> I think that's okay. >> I think that's okay.

>> So I think Rachel's right lead with the eye statements. I feel like I've been in the dark. I feel like I haven't been doing a good job leading in this area. We've been married this long. And I feel like I'm just kind of floundering here.

I want to accomplish some amazing things with you.

Are you willing to go on this journey? And I want to know what's going on with our money. That's okay to say.

“Do you feel like you tiptoe around her and other issues besides just money?”

>> Money is pretty much the only issue I tiptoe. Tits all around with her on. >> I don't know why. >> Okay. >> How old are you, too?

>> We're 50. >> Okay. So what does she want at 52 or 55? Does she have any goals, dreams, desires? >> I know her what she talks about to me.

And is, oh, we want to, you know, when our daughter, she's 13 when she goes off to college. If we want to, you know, move here and have, you know, an acre or two and, you know, buy another house. And she says that.

But I think I'm thinking that while she says that, I'm thinking in my head. How are we going to do that? We don't even have any money saved. >> But what if you go with her on the dream and go,

I love this. Now let's reverse engineer this dream. What must be true for us to have a second home and send our kid to college debt free? >> Well, we need margin.

>> What's taken up the margin? Oh, you know what? What if we got rid of the car payments? Man, that free up some money we could then invest? And what if we save this much over time

and we could afford that second home and cash? And what if I could retire at 56 instead of working because I have to at 78? Now it's a different conversation. There's nothing to do with Dave.

The byproduct might be we follow a plan that works.

“But right now, I think we need to do some dreaming together.”

>> Yeah, and I do agree with that. It's just I'm maybe I'm more of a realist and think that. We can't do that. There's impossible.

>> There's always a how person and a well person in the marriage.

And you are the how. You're like, yeah, that's not going to work. And she's like, wow, way to be a dream killer. Kurt. >> And it's probably she thinks Ramsey is as

a bunch of dream killers that we can't do anything. [LAUGH] >> Fucking daddy. >> My God. >> You know, and so yes, Kurt.

And I want you to, I really want you to step in and it doesn't have to be combative. But two adults in a marriage. Should have equal say in what is going on. And so she has carried the weight,

but also carried all of the influence. And that needs to be really evened out. That, yeah, she can still pay the bills. Like, my husband's the one that goes on and actually hits the buttons and does it.

Thank God. [LAUGH] >> I'm hoping if it paid. >> So that's okay. But you, but sitting down together and agreeing

on what is going on with your money and knowing where it's going. That's not an out-of-bounds conversation. That's actually leading to a healthy marriage. >> Yeah, I agree with that. >> Yeah.

>> So having that conversation with her just to be involved with her and see how she does things and see how it. And then slowly makes suggestions. They stuff what, you know, I'm observing her doing.

“>> Yes, you need to get really good at improv Kurt.”

And the key to improv is yes and. So when she says it go, yes and what if the way to get there was this? What if we crafted a plan to get to your goal instead of,

oh, we're never going to own a house because we got two car payments.

Now it's a fight instead of a dream session. And I think that that vision and dreaming needs to come first. The why has to come first before we need to get on a budget. Your spending's out of control. >> Yeah.

>> It's never going to go well. >> And George, we find in money and marriage when you have those conversations and the conflict arises and you actually learn why. She's frustrated here, why she's scared here, why she is annoyed with that. Like you actually start to get to know your spouse more.

When you avoid the hard conversations, you never get to the depths of really what's going on within them. So it's actually such a positive because you, you get to know your spouse at a better level at a deeper level. And then that's when you can really start to create solutions because

you're a team working together, not just two individuals running on separate tracks. [ Music ] >> As your business grows, everything becomes more complex. There was a time when Ramsey Solutions had too many disconnected systems

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go to net sweet.ai/Ramsey. [music playing] Up next we have Wanda in Seattle, Washington. Hi, Wanda. Welcome to the show. Hi. Hello. How are you doing?

Well, I'm doing okay. Just a little stress. Oh, I'm sorry. What's going on? How can we help? I'm trying to figure out how to get some money in my savings or in a savings anywhere. But we make 102,000 here.

Okay. I have $57,000 in bed. Okay. I have $175 in savings. And that's it.

All right. Are you working and your husband? You know, we're both retired. I'm 73 and he's 76. Okay, but you make $102,000. Is that from pensions? Yeah, he has retired military.

He has disability and his pension and full security. And I have so security. Okay. So is that 102 going to be for the foreseeable future? Yes.

“Okay. Well, that's how we get our next pay raise.”

And with like a cost-living adjustment, is that what the pay raises? Yes. Okay.

So it'll just slowly go up to meet inflation basically.

But it's not like you're getting a true raise. You have a ton of extra margin necessarily. No. Okay. So what kind of debts to $57? Lay it out for us.

I have $14,000 in credit card debt. And 32,000 on a travel trade did I really don't want. And then I get 16,000 on a personal loan. Okay. And that's everything. Yep. That's everything.

I do have a truck that I need to see. If I need to get out of it, I get out of it. Okay. So at least truck. Okay. For the $32,000 trailer, have you--

I'm assuming you've looked to sell it because you said you don't really want it. How much could you get for it? Yeah. But I don't know if we were-- If we were-- if we got when you call it them underneath, you know--

Underwater water on it. Okay.

“But is it worth $30K or is it worth $10K?”

Because there's a big difference. It's worth $30K, it's only two years old. Okay. So you might be able to get out unscathed or maybe you put in $1,000 to get out of this.

But that gets sort of over half your day. Yeah, that's amazing. It's a payment on that. Um, $57 a month. Okay.

Okay. And what's the $14,000 in credit card debt? How did that happen? Well, we showed you how smart we are. We financed our house, paid off our credit cards,

and in two months, we're about $57 each. Wow.

So we never actually fixed the behavior underneath.

No. We just played a little shell game, and we're back to where we are. Well, are you guys ready to change? Yes.

Because that part, we have-- That's the new development.

“Yeah, each of you wanted to be that free.”

So I know that I can't pull me in. I'll just put the money where the mouse is there. Oh, right. Well, because you guys have a great income. If you called in and you were working,

making 100 grand and had 50 to pay off, I'd go great. We can solve this thing within six months. Yeah. Sell the trailer, live on nothing,

and throw it all to debt. You guys are done. And then you have all this margin for the rest of your life to build wealth with. Yeah.

How old are you guys, Wanda? $73 and $76. $73 and $76. Okay. Yeah, so there's a shorter life expectancy here.

No. I don't think we'll make it 30 years. I mean, you made it this far. I mean, we're going to go positive.

You know, you never know.

Because life expectancy is not really-- It doesn't reflect reality. Because you've got people who died super young, people who died super old. So the fact that you made it into your 70s,

and you guys were in decent health, sounds like? Yeah. Okay. So Wanda, here's what we're going to have you do. George, tell me if you agree with my assessment.

Number one, Wanda. We're going to cut up the credit cards. Okay. Okay. You have to stop.

As of right now, I put a lot of stuff on. Great. But cut 'em up. Cut 'em up and close the account. Do you have one near you right now?

I don't know. Hmm. That's unfortunate. My husband has, my husband has his,

Okay. Perfect.

So tonight's the Wanda promise me in George

that you guys are going to sit down at the table. You're going to take all those out. And you're going to look-- And you should be mad at them, Wanda. They've not helped you.

They've not helped you. They've not helped you. They're horrible. They're terrible. They're terrible.

“And so you should want to just demolish them.”

And if you do it in a creative way, just DM me in George and let us know. But yeah, get rid of the credit cards. That's the first thing. Okay.

Number two, I want you guys to do a written budget. And I want to figure out how much money you can get out every single month that's extra. Okay. So you guys, what you bring home every month,

what can we, if we don't go out to eat, whatever we do, month to month, how much money can we get back? And it would be fun just to add to it that if you sold this trailer and you got an extra 300 bucks, right?

Add that in. So it's like, could you get up to a thousand dollars? Could you get to 1500? What does that look like for you all? And I want you to find that margin because I want you to get this.

I think you said you have a hundred and seventy five dollars in savings. I want you to get that up to a thousand dollars. And I want you to do that fast one. I want you to look around and see it's there stuff you can sell. How you can get that.

And I would say, I don't know George, what two months.

“I mean, you should be able to do this in less than 30 days based on numbers.”

And that's, so that's all right, we got to add 250 a week to this thing. What can I sell this week? How can I cut our budget to create that much margin so that we can get to a little bit of safety? Because once the last time you guys had a thousand dollars to your name and kept it for a while. Um, quite a while ago when we were actually that free.

Yep, yep.

So yep, so that's going to be your first step one, okay?

Is that? And then I want you to keep that momentum of that 250 a week or more, whatever you can find to start throwing at this debt. And if you, if you can sell the trailer, then you guys will have thirty thousand dollars of consumer debt, okay?

So if you have a thousand dollars a month, obviously it's going to take you, you know, a little over a year. If you have, if you do 1,500 a month, it'll take you 20 months. So less than two years, you guys could be dead free. And if you could do more, I mean, you guys are bringing home how much every month.

What ends up in your bank account? Okay, so think about that. 8,500 bucks. Could you live off of half of that to cover just your basic bills and your minimum debt payments? Looks like we have before.

Okay, so now we're talking 40, 200 going at this thing. If you used half for living the other half for debt, you're done in six months, seven months. Okay. So we're not talking sacrifice forever.

We're talking about six months. So sacrifice and then six months to build up an emergency fund. It's good George.

I was way less aggressive.

I was like a thousand a thousand a thousand to be. A thousand dollars a month. One, do we can do this week? George is about $24,000. Right?

Because you told me you can live off half of your income. If you guys got serious about this. I mean, seriously. And then you guys are in retirement making 102 a year. It's great.

Yeah. And if you guys wanted to do some extra savings on the side,

“which I think you should, you should be on that debt.”

Get an emergency. Get a fully funded emergency fund. But you just kind of keep that lifestyle going for a bit. And if you could do this in six months, you could get that emergency fund. And five months.

Yeah. You'll get there in no time. Do you guys have a mortgage? Yeah. Okay.

What's the mortgage every month? I'm trying to pouring into. Okay. And how much is left on that? Well, we do three finance in last May.

So three, three, fifty. Three, fifty left. Okay. Well, you guys will be in good shape to keep mortgage and even throw extra at it.

And invest once you knock out these consumer debts. So right now, let's start to really build for this future ahead of us. Let's imagine two years from now. You guys are completely debt free with the emergency fund. Investing for the future paying off the house early.

And no stress in the house. And I'll say one to like the future is now for you all. You know what I mean? I mean, it is like, it starts today. Yeah, it is normal.

Yeah, it has to happen now. I mean, it really does. For you guys to, yeah, to not have stress about this. I mean, you know, you're, you guys are in your 70s. It feels chaotic financially.

You've made some bad mistakes, repeated those bad mistakes. But this, honestly, is the moment that you both look at each other and say, Okay, we're going to have to do something different. Because the credit cards aren't helping us. The personal loans aren't helping us.

What are we going to do? We deserve a better life. Yeah, it's going to do the opposite. Yes. Where you're living on less than you make.

You're getting out of debt. You're staying out of debt. You have cash in the bank for an emergency fund. And it's also doable. And it really is.

So you guys had some hard work in your life to create that 102. And so we want that to go as far as possible for you.

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Let's go to Olivia in Miami, Florida. Hi, Olivia. Welcome to the show. Let's get her on the line here. Oh, my gosh.

Let's the button stuck. The button is stuck. I promise you. Rachel click. I did.

Okay. There she is. All right. We got you. How are you doing?

Hi, Olivia. We can. George fixed the button. I don't know. You're on.

I can't. How can we help?

Um, my husband and I have very good friends spending habits.

He is more of an in the moment kind of person. Like she sees something. He likes something. He buys it. And then what happens is Friday comes.

And I can't think of babysitter. And he's like the wind. And I like to be more organized with money. And I respect that. It's a way of living.

But let's say yesterday we had a negative in our account. We're over a hundred thousand dollars in debt. And he hired guys to like do construction. Fixed in their house. And you know, I respectfully are living.

But I.

“I think he needs to stay perspective on his way of living.”

I don't. He's putting your entire family in jeopardy and in danger. Very stressful. This isn't about this demands respect. This isn't like, oh, he likes a shirt.

And he's going to go buy it. This is. This is battle. You can't. You're not even be.

You're not able to pay for your actual needs in life of which of what you're needing to do. How long you've been married? Five years. Okay. It sounds like you're at the end of your rope.

Like you're like, I've talked to him. I've tried everything and nothing's worked. Is he combative? Is he defensive? What is he like when you approach him going, hey, we're a hundred thousand dollars in debt.

And we can't pay for our bills. Are you not scared?

“Are you, do you not feel a sense of urgency about this?”

How does he respond? You're like, no. I'm going to get a deposit next week or another and a month from now. We'll be fine. And sometimes you'd like.

So what's going to have to change within him is that he may be fine, but his wife is scared to death. And his wife is stressed out. And so in order to love your wife. Well, you actually have to surrender some of the things that you want in order to take care of her, right? And that's where that's where this money stuff stops being money.

And it starts being marriage. It's marriage issues that your husband does not listen to you. And doesn't respect you, Olivia, in order to change his behavior in order to -- And again, you're not -- you're being -- and what you're asking for is not crazy. Like, this is pretty basic map here that he's just completely going against.

What can I -- is there anything I can do without changing it? Like, I don't know, protect myself, maybe just today. I didn't stress about it all the time. For the short term, you can, but that's not a long term solution, because if anything, it just continues to divide your marriage.

And then the money habits and all of that follow.

I don't want you to just avoid the issue by opening up your own accounts for the long term. Now, for the short term, we can talk through some of that. If you really do feel like you can earn a money in your own account to pay the bills, so you don't get -- That's right. -- for closed on.

Yep. How much do you guys make a year? Um, it's luxury that the last year is in one of the high 200s. Okay. Are you both working?

I work for him. You work for him, okay.

“So how much -- do you bring home -- do you bring home a paycheck?”

Like, does that -- Does that -- I don't know who the salary you know. I just work. So you work for him for this business. Yeah.

And then all the money just flows into y-all's checking account. Okay. Okay.

What kind of work do you do?

Um, he does the instructions. And I do his -- I do his books, ironically. Hmm. So you tell us, what is the path forward for him to see this thing for what it is? You guys make $285,000.

And you have nothing to show for it. You're going backwards every single month. I don't know. I get to need to have a conversation with him. But how do I go about the conversation?

Uh, usually the most productive way is more concentrating on you Olivia, because the sad thing is you can't change him. You can -- right. You can tell him and express to him exactly what you're feeling, what you're thinking, what your desires are.

“I mean, and at this point, Olivia, I mean, what your ultimatums are.”

Right? Like, you don't want to live like this for the rest of your life, where you're scared you can't even pay your bills. And so, you know, an ultimatum that if he doesn't do xy and z, meaning like he doesn't, um, he doesn't spend over x amount

without you both agreeing. He doesn't spend extra until xy and z is paid. You know, these kind of things that -- that is a -- that's a normal way to live. And if he refuses to do that, um, then yeah, then --

I mean, I would be taking a salary then from the company and paying myself and having my own account until you guys can get it on the same page, right? And so there's some -- Um, and it's not like -- I'm going to throw this in your face

in a threatening way. It's more of a -- I'm scared to death. And I'm stressed -- I'm losing sleep at night. I feel like I'm losing you as my husband.

I don't feel like I'm being heard at all. I don't feel like we have equal value in this marriage. You know, this is how I'm feeling. And so -- in order for -- yes, and in order for -- for us to move forward if you don't do xy and z,

then these are the steps that I'm going to need to make this work for the short term. Yes, for the short term, absolutely. Do you guys have kids? No.

We have one, Kagan. Okay, how old? How old the kid did he want? Okay. Did that change anything for you guys

in the marriage? Yeah, because now when he spends on the kid, I can't say anything because it's for the kid. For the one year old. What does the one year old need?

Yeah. Other than --

I just saw a million diapers.

I needed $300 worth of toys. Okay, but you can say something Olivia. This is your money, too. Just because the -- just because the purchase was designated to another person,

it's your money. This is your money. It's your money that he's spending, too. It's your money. I mean, it's what I'm trying to say.

You have as much to say, and what is going on with this. And so, yeah, I mean, at that point, if you lay out your heart, and again, and I -- and I'm -- we're being a little bit probably like hardcore because I want to -- I want to --

I want you to fight for you. But you can do this with a lot of, you know, calmness and humility and all of it, but yet be stern in what you're needing because that's survival is what you're talking about.

And this is a solvable problem because if you're high income, you guys could be dead free in 12 to 18 months. So this is not a lifetime of sacrifice if that's what he's thinking. It's, hey, we got a reset here.

We don't have any financial foundation. We are at risk all over. We got payments up to our eyeballs while making almost $300,000. We should be doing better than we are. And if he can't see that, again,

to Rachel's point, you're not going to change him

“and at that point, you need to decide what you're going to do.”

Yeah. But I would not just be putting up with this going well. He's just a stubborn guy. He has a preference to make a stroke forever. It's not like he prefers tie and you like Mexican.

This is far beyond that. Or he sells, you know. I don't want to be the kind of life that's like, I can't do this. He can't do that. He's in on that. Olivia, you're not.

You're not. You're not.

and he wants to go buy a ninja slushy on him.

“It's on and you're like, you can't buy that.”

That's like, this is paying bills. This is keeping you guys afloat. That you're not in the negative in your checking account. So to be out of 10, that is okay, Olivia. It calls for a 10.

That is not you nagging. That's you having money. Yeah, the fact that you guys make 300 grand and you're still going to dead every month. That's a problem.

That's a problem. And Olivia, that you guys may want to go see a marriage therapist because the fact that that's even a thought within you I need to be probably worked out. And I'm not saying that to shame you.

I'm just saying, like, what we're hearing, the language around your marriage and how he needs to be treated. It sounds like you're tiptoeing when he needs to. He needs to get it. Torchina.

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Next up we have John in New York City.

Hi John, welcome to the show.

Hi, we're doing great. Talk to me help. I'm kind of curious if I'm about to commit financial suicide. I'm going to file one of maybe steps for a while. I'm looking at changing jobs.

I've been at this company for a very long time. It's gotten to a point where I'm super frustrated and don't want to be here anymore. What's a long time? How long have you been there? Coming up on 20 years.

What do you do? 19 and a half years. I work in manufacturing. You want to jump ship to what? I'm working on boats.

I'm working on mechanical change. Yes. Okay.

“Do you have the skills to do that with that require some licensing some education?”

I have a job offer. Why? A company that is willing to train. Great. What are they going to pay?

It's a big pay cut for me. I'm currently making about 135. This new job would be about 48,000. Okay. Are you single?

I have a fiance. Okay. What does the fiance think about this? She's kind of down for whatever I'm down for. I'm the breadwinner of the house and I need to keep things afloat.

What does she make? She doesn't make very much to make the $15,000 year. What does she do? She's actually on disability. Okay.

So for the foreseeable future, 15K is the ceiling? Yes. Okay. When you guys get married? I'm not sure about that.

Okay. How old are you guys? I haven't said a day. I am 44. She's 52.

44. I'm 52. Okay. What's your financial situation? Do you have any savings?

How much debt do you have? Yes. So I've been following the baby steps for a while. And now I'm kind of struggling with the other side of actually being okay with spending some money. So I managed to receive up.

I got about 550 and the 401. That's split between traditional and raw. I got about 25,000 in the stock market. About 30,000 in a high yield savings account. About 10,000 in my working checking and savings account.

I owe 57,000 on my house, which is worth how to realtor come out.

She said we would list in between 350 and 375. Nice. Okay. No consumer debt. So you're in really good shape on that side.

Where is this job going to be? Do you have to relocate? Yes. So that's actually down in the Bahamas. So this is like a life change.

Yeah. This is a complete collection. Okay. I'm on a way of the cost of living in the Bahamas. Is it more or less the New York?

So that's actually there's a shared living arrangement with this company. And I would have the potential to stay there and not have to pay rent. Beyonce is welcome as well. However, it's shared living. And I'm not really.

Would it share me? Yeah.

“Would you like to share in the house with other people?”

Yeah.

So it's basically a two bedroom apartment and there's two of the employees live within that apartment.

So you have your own bedroom room bathroom, but you share your living room and kitchen. Okay. Maybe doing that while you're still engaged. When you guys get married and probably not, right? Right.

That's the idea for that. So what? I wouldn't be comfortable with that. Yeah. That's fair.

That's fair. Okay. So have you figured out cost of living down there? How much it would take you to pay rent in everything a month? Yeah, roughly.

I'm thinking probably around $3,000 a month. Okay. So what you make basically for the most part, be going towards living and you may get, I don't know, a couple hundred bucks or a thousand bucks extra a month.

Because after taxes. If you're making full of the gross, right? I'm like, I don't know what the Bahamas tax for. I mean. Yeah.

But if you're making 48 gross, you're going to be probably netting around three grand. Yeah. So they only pay in a charity bond, which is like three and a half percent. Okay. So it's not as much.

I would also feel be concerned about the potential US income tax, whatever that might be.

“But I believe you're not going to be a citizen there.”

Or you don't have to pay. Okay. Correct. Yeah. Man.

Okay. Well. There's also, I am a disabled veteran. I do have substantial income from that as well. Okay.

We call two. That's 45 hundred a month. Oh. Well, you buried the lead there. That really helps us out here with the expenses.

We were scared. You were running it up to the line. But if you have that kind of margin. I'd say. Oh, hey.

Sign an hour. I don't know what they say in the Bahamas. Captain John. I mean, it sounds like a fun adventure. If your fiance is on board and it's not going to destroy your relationships,

even if you did this for a couple of years. I was going to say that. You've got some wiggle room to do this. And then go, oh, that was fun. All right.

I think you'd be fine. Yeah, again, long term.

“I don't know if that's what you want to do.”

And the great thing is you've set yourself up. Well, that your investments are going to continue to grow. You're going to be able to live well within what you are making. Probably hopefully maybe it's still investing. I don't know how that works with taxes and I don't know.

But, um, kind of figuring that out. And yeah. And then maybe you look up in five years, six years. You're like, you know what? I could probably go get a job in manufacturing again.

For 90,000 different company, less stress and keep moving. And then you're going to get some equity from your home when you sell it. To do this move. You'd walk way the maybe 300 grand right there. Yeah.

You could just invest that. Just leave that alone.

And yeah, I mean, you'll come out for sure over a million dollar net worth.

John by the time this is all said and done. Yeah. I mean, I'm sitting at 9.50 right now. And maybe that's part of the block right is continuing to move the gold post. And one is enough enough, right?

That's kind of what I'm struggling with. I'm just wondering, is there an alternative where you go do a different job that you enjoy? And the boat stuff is still a really fun hobby. Maybe it's a side hustle versus jumping ship pun intended. I would say that, but if it's as be differently, he's working on the.

I don't know, Harbor New York versus the Bahamas, you know? Yeah, I mean, it sounds enticing. It just sounds like a different, like it, it's almost like you're just itching to get a different lifestyle too. And it doesn't sound like this is a permanent pay cut. The goal would be, how do I get back to making, you know, close to six figures or more while doing something I enjoy?

If you came back though, but would you be okay with him on a bahot? Well, is there a, is there a room to grow there? But I hate to say it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

He's going to do it for free. But you got a million bucks sitting in the bank. You live off of what you're making. I mean, I don't do have kids drawn. No.

I mean, she has three that are out of the house. Okay, okay. I mean, it sounds like a fun adventure. To me, there's a, there's a low fail scenario.

Knowing that this may not be a forever plan.

Why do you keep saying that? Well, you think John, the ultimate goal would do to own my own go and sail it around the world. Or at least, you know, island up and cruise. Now we're talking. Wow.

That's a vision right there.

“That's what you can invite me and George on.”

We'll bring our stuff. You can thank Rachel for a great advice. Be a super yeah. Okay, so that's great. I mean, in a sense of having, there, there is an external goal, right?

So you're not just sitting idle. Like, there's something you're still working towards, which is your point, George. Like, how can we be growing, working towards something? And the boat thing is great. And you'll have plenty of margin in your budget with, with what you're getting from the military,

and what you're making to make that a goal. So yeah, save up for the boat and do charters. And I think it's great. Congratulations, John. All right, all right.

Well, put in your two weeks.

I'm about to go to HR. Oh, see, all right, good luck. George us, what scares me? You know, we have fun and we get to say whatever we want. But John has to go meet with each other.

And actually take the advice. And then he's got to tell me a Rachel Cruz told me. I do. I do. I do.

I stand by it. But it's a good reminder. You don't have to do work that you hate just because it's good money. That's right. Absolutely.

And you don't have to go to the Bahamas to find a great life. You to your point. He could have found a totally different man. And he could have found a good job. Yes.

But it sounded like-- This was a dream. He was for a long time. He's single, arrow down. What was his age?

40. 44. He on say 52.

You know, and there's not much time.

I'm down. So it's like, you know? If not now, then win. You know, he's still got the energy to do that. I think it's fun.

Send us some picks. I can do it. I can do it. I want to see you working on this boat in the Bahamas. I know.

Beautiful water. Oh. Enjoy it. You worked hard. You got plenty of money.

Here we find it. [MUSIC PLAYING] If you're behind on your bills, doing more of the same isn't going to fix it. You need a different plan.

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and no specific outcome is guaranteed. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwins Credit Union Studio. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with George Campbell. All right, we're going to go to the phones, and in Jackson, Tennessee, we have Ron on the line.

Hi, Ron. Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel and Joe, so we got to do it in a while.

“I have a quick question. Have you ever seen Orho a store offering a significant discount?”

If you find it as a post-apave cash, even if it's 0%. What kind of store are we talking? For sure. Okay. Just to make the numbers round, if my wife and I went to the store,

I found a nice park piece of furniture we wanted. Let's just say the numbers were $1,000. We'll offer the right of a check. And I say, no, we don't want your $1,000 today. Let us pay $800 and do it over 12 months.

Have you ever seen that? Yes. It's almost like, yeah, I'm not asking about this. It is dead. Can I feel cash for us?

That's a question. My business sense is going off as people will offer 20% discount for nothing. And so I'm wondering what is the incentive we need to do something. Well, they have the data that shows how much they're going to make in interest charges when that person can't pay it off in the promotional period.

And so they're making their bets that they're going to make more than the 20% discount they're giving you off of the debt they're going to sell you. And they probably will because what they end up doing is putting, it's almost like a nine day same as cash, kind of scheme, right? So you go.

And if someone that can't just sit there and write an $800 check, and they take this deal, then or the thought or the thousand dollars to take to $800,

And if they miss one payment, then it's all back interest, all back fees. I mean, they make so much money off of those kind of deals. Now, is this one particular store? Are you seeing this at every single furniture store you walk into? Just one particular store.

I mean, we did not tie furniture very, very often. I think for the last time we actually went into a store, but what furniture was years ago. Okay, well, what I would do is I would wave that amount of cash in their face and say, have $800 cash here.

If you don't like it, I'm walking down to the next store. That's it. And just walk away. Yeah, I literally went into them and said, hey, if I do this, I hate doing this.

I've never done a finance company to my life.

“And I know you guys have, and that's why I'm calling.”

I literally said, hey, if I do this, the very first opportunity to get this balance to zero, here's the check for it. And they said, okay, we'll still do the discount anyway. So I'm just really confused.

That's all. Yeah, I mean, it's just a system. This happens in car dealerships too. They'll say, here's the price. And you find, they find out you're paying cash.

And go, oh, no, no, that price was only for financing. Because they make more with the finance. They get kicked back. They're going to make money off the interest. And so I just don't deal with places.

Even a 0%. I don't deal with places that don't have integrity. I say, here's the price. That's what I'm paying. Because if you go and read the fine print of what you're about to sign up for,

I guarantee you that it says there will be a, it's, it's zero interest if you pay on time if you don't pay on time. And, and you miss something or they don't get the check in on time or doesn't clear their system. Then it's all back.

And the interest sometimes on those George is more than credit card. That's insane. Thirty percent. I mean, it's just wild. So no, they know what they're doing.

And what they're really doing is they're just inflating the cash price. They're not actually discounting it. They're just inflating the cash price to where the financing price looks so much better that everyone's going to go, oh, well, why wouldn't we finance? So it's all psychological.

It's just mind games are playing. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah.

So again, I never do the stuff.

I know you guys do and I appreciate you. She had no idea on this. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And, you know, what I always worry about George is you,

simply will try to take the deal to get the 200. Dollars. Thinking they won. Thinking they won. And then I mean, y'all, these companies sometimes they come back.

And I quote didn't clear our system within that 24 hour pay period. It happened.

“And if you didn't read the by-prem, you have to pay by this certain date before the terms are up.”

And what you sign up for you? Yep. And so if you play with snakes, you will get to listen. Just stay away and just play this game buying a car. And they were like, well, here's the price.

And I was like, I'm not paying these random stuff you threw on there. And so I left and went to a different dealership that treated me with fairness and integrity. But great.

Here's the price we agreed on.

I'll write you a check for that amount. That's right. That's one thing of not being emotional when you're buying something. Something as small as a chair at a furniture store or a house, right? Like, we get so invested or a car in this one particular thing.

I can only have this, this right in front of me. And then you lose all negotiating power. Yeah. And the power to walk away and find a better deal. And so you just can't get emotional about this stuff.

And I personally just not a fan of a lot of these furniture stores. Because the margin is high. The sales people are can be slimy. So what? Here's a cry on people that can't afford it either.

Yeah, do any research. Take that exact couch. Take a picture of it. Get the tag. Research it online.

You can even upload a picture of the couch to Google. And it will show you similar couches at a cheaper price. So do your research. People don't just walk in and get hose by a sales person with these financing deal. Oh, it's only today.

It's only good for today only. I'm sure it is, bud. Sure it is. All right. Let's go to Lynn and Knoxville, Tennessee.

I'm going to be taking my call. My question is, I have about $50,000 saved up for a down payment on a house. But I'm not planning on buying a house right now. It would be at least two years. But it could be, but not necessarily less than your four to five year recommended timeline for putting money in the market.

So two years is kind of your window for you want to buy and let's say 2028. Possibly.

“It kind of honestly depends on my relationship status at the time because I would either need significant more savings or to be married for the down payment to make sense and be within your parameters.”

Unless I want to get a little tiny fixer upper. Got us. So two years from now toward afford something on your own with your own savings would be really tough. You're sort of hoping that you'll be married with two incomes by then. Yeah, I don't even look at the quote.

That'd be great. Okay. Is there someone special in your life right now? No, that's why I say at least two years.

Well, $50,000. That's a lot.

How long did it take you to save that?

About the last five years. Okay. Good for you.

“So you can sock away another 10, 15 grand a year at this point?”

Um, maybe not quite that much because I did open a Roth IRA and start maxing that out. You're sounding like an eligible bachelor. Yeah. Well done. So what I invest this money knowing that it could be two even three years.

I personally wouldn't. I would store it in a high old savings account and just let it grow at, you know, three and a half percent.

Instead of what could happen in the market because here's what inevitably will happen because this is life.

You'll go, yay, time to buy a house and the market will be down 15 percent for no reason. And now you've lost money, quote unquote on paper and it's going to be heartbreaking. And so the more time you have, the higher the chances that your money will make more money, that the balance will be higher than when you started. So if it takes me six or seven years, I shouldn't get upset about the amount I could have made because it's better to have the money flexible when it's not a guarantee long-term plan line.

Now, if you told me for sure, I'm not going to buy house for the next five years. I'd say, all right, let's invest it. Let's let it ride. But it sounds like there's just a lot of variables right now in your life that you're unsure of. How old are you, Lynn? 29. 29. Okay. Do you see yourself in that area for a while, where you are? Oh, highly likely, but not a hundred percent.

Okay. Yeah, I'd probably just, I probably lay low for a year or two and if you look up maybe in a year or two and you're like something nothing really has moved about my situation. Then maybe invest, right? Because there's nothing looming, but I probably would just give yourself a beat. [Music] Let me tell you what I get asked all the time. When should I get term life insurance? How much do I need? Is it affordable? Those are the right questions to be asking.

So let's take a quick review. The fact is term life isn't a baby step.

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Today's question comes from Shana in Indiana. I've been listening to the show for years and have never heard anyone mention cell phone debt.

My husband and I were reviewing our bill recently and realized that between the two of us, we owe a thousand dollars on our phones that we bought two years ago. Should we add this debt to our snowball? Juicy. This isn't a newer thing because everybody's just weaving their phone price into the plans and companies love it. Because you literally have a laptop in your hand. It's true.

As do I.

“So is this debt? Unfortunately, yes. It is a necessary payment you have to make for a previous decision and try not paying it.”

That'll tell you a lot about if it's a debt or not. What happens if I stop paying? Well, it'll go to collections. You could get sued. I don't know if they're repeling phones yet, but that's probably the near future. I'm getting it. Apple's now leasing phones. I don't know if you saw this.

Yeah.

At least your car, at least your phones, never own anything.

“And remember, they're doing this, not out of the goodness of their hearts. They always find a way that they are going to make more money doing what they need to do, right?”

So just as the consumer don't, don't fall for it. So should we add this to our debt snowball? Yes. Yes. I would pay it. And then pay cash next time. All right. Let's go to Sam in Washington, DC. Hi, Sam. Welcome to the show. Hi.

Hello. How can we help today? Well, I've been missing for a few weeks now. I'm trying to get started. And I have had historically this, the high yield interest saving account as one of the accounts we've had. So I have that. And we don't have a lot in there.

My husband and I are both IT support as an industry of IT support. I'm totally in comments around 200,000 years. But I went into the every dollar app and put in our stuff for August. And it's showing us that we have more payments than we have income. Wow. How much debt do you have?

Sure. 200,000,000, not including the house. Student loans? What are the debts?

About a third of it is my student loan.

Okay. So will you list out your debts for us? There's a lot of them. You can give us the big chunks. Like credit card debt, card debt, personal loans. About 60,000 total.

Okay. We've made a lot of bad choices. That's okay. We get talked in the buying things. Okay.

Time share. We could probably have stood up. We got out of time shares years ago. Who's talking you in this? Sales people go figure.

You need to stop talking to people.

You need to stop talking to people.

Okay. Is there a lot of credit card debt? Well, we do have credit card debt. But we also have some home improvement that as well. So the last latest one or a move that is in short for 50 years and is good for 100.

Are you trying to sell me on a new rate? Oh my God. You're leading with the features of this roof. What did it cost you? Okay.

I won't be around in 100 years. I could care less about this warranty. But okay, cost you 50 grand for a new room. So we definitely got rip there. That's an insane amount on a roof.

Oh. And we have new HX from three years ago that we've been a turning involved with that. But you owe on that as well. You owe on that and the company that sold it to us for oversholes. And didn't sell properly and the thing isn't worked.

And so I'm going to be honest with you. So far, it sounds like your debt has been everyone else's problem. You were talked into it. I got scammed. I was told this.

“If you want to get out of this thing, the first step is to realize it's not all your fault.”

But it's your responsibility. Yeah. No, like we completely understand that. Okay, so I want to know how you guys have been meant to month now. Because if you plugged in all your numbers and I go, gosh, we're in the red.

How deep in the red are you? 800. 800. Okay, where has that been coming from? The past couple of months.

I mean, if the payments have been consistent. Well, and you guys have been sure, Andrew, 800 bucks. So you're going deeper into debt or do you have savings that you're taking from to cover that 800? No, we don't have savings.

Because every time we try to start something happens. Okay. And it gets drained. So I don't have any living or that.

“So are you using the credit cards to cover any gaps?”

We don't have gaps. We have to electric vehicle. No, it's saying to cover the gap of like the 800 bucks that you need. You're using credit cards to fund that. Uh, someone that, yes, I believe.

Yes, that's where all the credit card debt is ending ending up from. Okay. Okay. Has your, has been looked at this stuff, too? Have you guys sat down and looked at the budget together?

Or is this just you so far? Yeah. No, it's, it's me, both of us are tired of paycheck to paycheck and not. Okay. I get more anxiety over it than he does.

But he does get frustrated.

Okay.

“Well, I'm glad you called Sam because yeah, we're going to be able to really just walk you down.”

What we call the baby steps and and you're going to have to in order to make this work is it's going to have to be a complete 180 of what you guys have been doing. How you guys have been making decisions buying things, how you've not been budgeting, how you know me everything you've been doing. You're pretty much going to just do the opposite.

And so the fastest way to do it is that first step is a thousand dollars and you keep it yep and that high yield savings account and don't touch it.

And then you're going to be looking at a mountain of debt and as you listed out smallest to largest and you said we have a lot of debt. So if it's multiple credit cards, multiple students, I mean, like literally write them all individually out and actually look at it and say, okay, this is where all of our money is going. And it's probably going to be pretty shocking, you may have already done that because you guys said you plugged in your income to every dollar. And then from there, you're going to figure out, okay, we're going to be working extra.

We're going to be selling some stuff to get some cash and fast, we're going to cut our lifestyle. And instead of, you know, acting like you make 200, we're going to act like we make 80, we're going to live on nothing. And in order to get this margin up to start knocking up this debt, but the great thing is to say I'm as as you guys start paying it off paying off some of these debts, it's going to free up those monthly payments. So it's going to cause you to have more and more margin as you go down the debt snowball to pay it off.

But yeah, I mean, as you're looking at it, it's going to it's going to be a bit. And I would look at getting rid of these cars just to give you a quick win. Yes, yes, especially if you're not under water on them, if you can profit off of them and use that cash to buy yourself some cheap cars, five grand each. Mm-hmm. That's going to be your ticket out because then you've got 265 left.

And if you through, like, let's say you take home 12, making 200k, take home 12 a month. If you can throw seven k at the debt, you're done in three years. Yep. So that's the napkin math. And now we now have to reverse engineer and go, okay, we need to come up with $7,000 and live off five.

“And there's a good chance, a thousand of that is in the car payments, right?”

So if you get rid of that, that's going to free up cash immediately. And then, yeah, looking at your lifestyle. But that's it. And Sam and what's wild is that this is so doable and what's crazy too when we see people do this especially as they are working their way out of debt. And when it's over a 24 month period, some people do it, you know, 18 to 24 months.

But when you're looking at a three year journey here, it's amazing the amount of people like it raises in this time.

They find some side hustle. They start working harder to get the promotion. It's crazy. So your income is hopefully going to be increasing throughout this process too, which is going to help bring extra margin. But it's going to take, it's going to feel like with plash of how you guys have been functioning with money.

“But you know what, you want the opposite result.”

You're tired of where you are. And so that means there's going to have to be some changes and it may be uncomfortable for a bit. But you're going to start to have this normal see of what this looks like to have control of your money. A lot of banks are happy to hold your money. But FairWins Credit Union helps you make progress.

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Go to FairWins.org/Ramsi to open your smart bundle and start making progress today. That's FairWins.org/Ramsi. Ensured by the NCUA. [Music] One of the biggest mistakes that people make is thinking that they can skip out on having a will because they're too young to healthy or they just don't like their own enough to make it worth it.

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“But again, if you want to create a will, go to Momabair Legal.com.”

Momabair Legal forms their amazing, always throwing forms in there. That's why the website first, I was like, "Oh no."

I got stripped up, they're shortening the name. I get a little simpler for us to type in, I appreciate that. But they're great, easy state-specific wills you guys. It does not take long and I'm telling you, it is so worth it. Everyone, everyone needs a will. If you listen to the show long enough, you know the heartbreak that happens when someone didn't have a will.

Didn't update the will and the family's left. It's a mess, leaving while picking up the pieces and it causes a relational nightmare. Yes, please get it done. And we'll throw in life insurance. If you have a family, if someone's dependent upon your income or if you're a stay at home, mom, life insurance guys.

My first question when I find out someone passes, did they have life insurance and they say, "No, my heart sinks." Because then the road ahead is going to be so much more difficult. Yes, so yeah, you can go to Zander Insurance for term life.

We'll just throw it all out there, George, but it's important.

The adulting package. It is, so please, please get it. All right, let's go to Nick and Dallas, Texas. Hi, Nick, welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel and George.

Thank you so much for taking my call. Really appreciate it. You'd fan of what you guys are doing. And you guys have my dream job. But anyways, I am calling in bottom line up front.

Not my wife and I are not super sure what we should do with our house. We want to tell it, a little bit of context, we live outside of Dallas, Texas. We've been in the home for since February 2025.

We're planning to be in the home longer than we are, but life happens.

We're planning to move to Atlanta, Georgia to be closer to family. Fortunately, we have a house paid off. I understand that you're not recommending. Yes, I understand you guys are not recommending long distance rentals. And we don't want, we don't want to do that either.

However, we live at a construction community. Our home has been listed for coming up on two months. We've had zero interest. And we want to, I can explain more of why you want to go to Atlanta. But I'll pause there.

We're going to forward to your guys recommendation.

“Have you talked to your agent as to why there's been zero interest in 60 days?”

Yes. So what do they think? Yeah, it's a lunar and a new construction community. They can, the houses that are going up right across the street for Moss, are able to do, you know, about like a 30,000-dollar incentive that we,

you know, just can't compete with. So people would rather build and especially custom and have more options at a lower price. Exactly. Exactly. How long will the development be in process?

You know, how many more, is it how many more lots they need to build out in that area? Well, they're developing a new phase just a stone throw away from Moss. So it'll be years before they're completely down building the home. But there's still people who want a house now and don't want to go through that process. And don't have the timeline to wait for a new build.

Yeah. So I don't buy that as a full excuse of just like, well, they're still building home. So people don't want mine. Is it price too high? I mean, that's realistically for the current market, which is obviously cool to a lot.

Yeah. I mean, it's definitely priced fair. We brought the home at 323. And we listed it initially at 3149. So it's probably priced at fair, but we got zero zero interest.

And that's like definitely runs, runs right with some of the comps. I mean, but to mention though, there aren't there are no resale homes that have sold in the past 90 days. You know, and so it's hard to find good comps because there's not a lot of action out there. Exactly. Exactly.

Man, that is tough. When do you guys have to make this move? What's the urgency? So urgency is we've got two young kids. We've got a daughter who's a year, four months old, and a special needs son who's four months old.

So we're just really itching to be in Atlanta to be closer to family. We can help there. And the house is made for not like, yes, man. Okay.

“So what I probably would do, Nick, is because I mean, how much do you guys make a year?”

Close to, like, between on commission and between anywhere between 175 and 200. Okay. Because what I would do is I would go ahead and go to Atlanta and I would just I would rent there for a year.

And it's going to not be fun because you went from owning to renting. It's going to feel like a little bit of a step back. But I would I would give yourself some time and not be rushed on this house. Because you don't have to be urgent. Like it's not like you're trying to balance two mortgages and you're like we can't afford both mortgages.

So we got to sell one quick time is on your side, which is an amazing thing.

That's part of why not having debt that it allows that time margin, which actually allows you to probably get a better deal on this house. So I would go to Atlanta and I would rent somewhere for a year. Keep the house up. I would look at one of our trusted real estate agents not saying that yours isn't great, but I know ours in the program like we interview them and make sure that they are high quality.

And I would I would look and maybe get a different option with a realtor. And I and I would I would be patient and I would sell this house.

“I think eventually it will sell you don't have to sell it in 60 days.”

You don't have to sell it in 90 days. So I would take my time with it and and then reevaluate. Maybe if it's been. You should be able to sell it. So I'm like I don't even want to put it out there that it will be nine months and it won't sell.

Um, because I really do think yeah, eventually it will. I just don't want you to be in a rush to do it. Right. So I would just budget for the, you know, insurance taxes, some utilities to keep this thing afloat.

While you guys make this move to Atlanta, but you put yourself in a position where you have that option, which is amazing.

So you'll look back on this and it'll just be like an annoying thing you guys had to deal with during a hard time in life. But I like the idea of not making it a fire sale and just knocking down the price until it's at 275. And now you're really you're eating a lot of this costs through fees and selling it for less than you paid for it. Right. Okay.

So it's just a harsh timing of just you guys bought where things were expensive and the market cooled during the last year. And especially in Dallas, where there's just so there's, you know, not a ton of demand.

“People want to buy homes, but there's not a lot at the price they want it.”

And so I would be trying to figure out why our home selling that are selling in my area and how can I start to match that to get this thing to move. Okay. I make sense. Great. I was surprised that you guys that I went with a long distance rental, but hey, I'll take it.

Well, I wouldn't rent it out personally. No, because I, you're going to eventually want it. I'm saying you just sit on it. Oh, just hold, okay, so don't, okay, don't rent it out. Sorry, Rachel. I thought that.

Oh, sorry. No, just sit on it. She was saying go rent in Atlanta for you. In Atlanta. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Gotcha. How's it? It's going to be harder to sell when you go to 10 until I or two.

Yeah. So that's going to slow things down. Yeah, and if you guys aren't coming back to Dallas any time soon, because it sounds like families in Atlanta. No, I wouldn't want to be tied to Dallas. It's like just sell the house, be done, take the equity, and go buy something great.

And Atlanta wants itself. So yeah, no, do not, do not rent it out. If you need a change real estate agents, just to get another flavor in there, do that.

Yeah, the second opinion.

Yep, I would rent in Atlanta until this house sells. And then use that equity in the, any other cash you guys have. To buy, to buy something permanent in Atlanta, because it sounds like that's where you guys want to be. I heard a stat Georgian, I hate to throw it out because I, I need to check. But it was something around like the idea that Dallas Fort Worth had more new homes being built in the whole city California.

That is wild because of how hard it is to get anything built in California with the regulation mostly that. Yes, but also I think it's just like throwing up. It's just like, yeah, it's just booming. I mean, people are houses growing up everywhere there. Yeah, it's pretty wild.

We're seeing that in Nashville and like the downtown area. They threw up all these apartments and condos and gosh, just crazy. There's just too much supply. It's a lot. It's a lot.

So yeah, and those, and those areas, you will feel a little settling back to normal sea. But it's a wild market out there, but yet Nick, I hope that I hope that helps. I hope it gets sold quick for you guys. But yeah, I would make that move with those two kids being close to family and go rent somewhere.

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All right.

Let's go to Claire in Seattle, Washington.

Hi, Claire. Welcome to the show. Hi. I am so excited to be on here. Unfortunately, not under these circumstances.

But no.

“So my question is, should we disinherit our son completely?”

And the circumstances we are the cautionary tale to not do too much or give too much to your kids. So we're retired. We have worked hard all our lives. And my, and got a divorce about five years ago. And quit his job.

He had addiction issues. And he did, you know, to get those under control. And lose weight and do all that. And then he went to school. And we supported him to all of those emotionally financially.

He had a daughter as well. To forget him through all of that. Never did get a job. And we spent a lot of money through all of that.

And like probably close over, close and over to three quarters of a million dollars.

And we asked him, we told him that it was time to get a job. And he quit talking to us. So kept his daughter away, who we raised to a lot of that. How clear I'm so sorry. So we're kind of all done because we just cut him off.

We just said it's time, you know, it's time. So he lives in our church house above our garage. And we cut him off at that point. When he's 50 feet away from you. Wait, what?

I know. Yeah, he lives above our garage. So he gets he's gotten free rent free everything. And you know, it's like it's. It's bad.

And yes, we take full responsibility for that, you know. No, no, it's on your fault. He did make decisions. Yes, were you guys still giving money? Yeah, but also you were not forcing him to make these decisions.

Or lack thereof. That was not you. That was him. That was him. I mean, we told him that, you know, he turned this into this situation.

That was supposed to like get him started to.

“Yes, you know, so how long ago did did you guys cut him off?”

About probably five weeks ago. Okay, so it is fairly new. And then what's going to be happening with the living situation? Well, he has a fiance. And we told him he had until the end of the year or until he got married to.

To be done with that. Okay. So likely it's going to be into the year. I'm assuming he's not going to be married in the next couple of months. No, unfortunately.

So December 31st is his last day living in the carriage house. Is that clear to him? Possibly. That is clear to him. In fact, we're writing up an agreement to that fact.

Okay. And he's not working right now, still. He's looking for a job because he has no money. Yeah. Yeah.

Which he did get money.

“And his fiance is living in the carriage house, too?”

No, no, no, no. She's living in her own house. Okay. Yeah. Well, that the positive is that, yeah, when you cut off the source.

You don't have many options. But to go and find a job to work, right? So when you, that was, that is the right move in and for him. Is he in recovery? Has he been sober?

Yeah. He's been sober for probably four years now.

Okay. Yeah. So you've already cut him off now. But you're saying for the trust, once you guys pass, you're saying, Right.

Should we disinherred everything from to to him? Well, because he hasn't had a job. So, you know, and then he has to keep a job. So he has to prove himself to keep a job. Not just have a job, get a job, but he has to keep a job.

And he hasn't been financially responsible with money. He's had. And so it's like there, you know, that create a pattern as well. Because he's been living the life of Riley. I mean.

Well, you're not obligated to leave anything to anyone. You can give it all to a charity if he's so choose. But also to your point earlier, clear. He is, he was living the life that was, you know, given to him. So I do wonder on his own merits if you look up in a year that this could have been

“the best thing that's ever happened to him.”

Yes. And, and you see, I know, I. All right, God is, I would not do a full disinherringing. Yeah. What I would do is a structured trust that has all kinds of distributions and clauses tied to

a variety and work and education. All of those things you can set up within the trust, where he's not getting a dime unless XYZ are true. Yeah. And the executor of the trust can make sure that these things are.

The obligations are hit in order for him to get the money, right?

And it's never all at once, it's hey, at this age or at this, you know,

milestone. I mean, how much much will be how much will you guys be leaving clear? Um, like how many assets wise, like net worth wise. If the house is closed and all that. Over 20 million.

Okay, how many kids do you guys have? One. Oh, which is him. Yeah. Oh, he's a daughter.

He's okay. Oh, my gosh. Sorry. I might head out.

“So this doesn't go to him where would it go as of now?”

His daughter. All to the daughter. And I just see the way it kind of ruined him. So it's like, you know, we were thinking of possibly a lifetime discretionary trust. Which it doesn't, you know, it keeps generational kind of things.

Have you worked with an estate planning attorney to figure out what's the right one for what you're trying to accomplish? Yeah, we're kind of in the throws of that right now. Okay. But because it's easier to add somebody versus take them out. But it's like, what do we do?

I like the idea of it being a structured trust for now.

And again, you can always change that in the future because that already has a lot of stipulations before he would get a dime.

There's also generational skip, you know, skipping trust to where it would just go to his daughter, your granddaughter. But again, we don't know her future. I would still have provisions there, obviously she's a minor. I'm assuming so he would be a while till she could actually. And Claire, you could do something in a clause that says, you know, for the next, like if something happened to you and your husband in the next 12 months that he doesn't get this money for six years. And he has to establish himself for six years before he even sees a little bit of it.

You know what he means to make sure that there's somewhat of a pattern happening in the positive direction that, again, that that where he is today of $20 million got dumped on him, you're exactly right. It would it would be a it would be, it would be horrible for him. It would not be a blessing. So for him for the for the dignity of him and his character to live out a certain way.

“Before he sees a dime of it, I think is is very reasonable. How old is he?”

He'll be 33 this year and I'm not excited about his new wife. Something else to think about. Exactly. So what makes you not excited about it is a character thing, a financial thing that you're not a good. I think she's she might be in it for the rainbow, the gold pot at the end of the rainbow. Well, well, well, I wouldn't I wouldn't worry too much until they actually are married, you know, his his track record has not been great with with following through, right.

So, but if they get married, I mean, yeah, and and this size of an estate. It's going to be cumbersome. It's going to be annoying to have to go back and redo something, but it would be worth it, right? Like if you have to make decisions today.

I think it's going to be 20 million dollar decisions.

Yeah, I would push it out and make sure that he can't really get anything until I don't make this up 40. Just for him, he needs to hold a job, he needs to learn to work.

And then if he ends up getting married and there's still feelings towards that, you know, if you have some kind of Addendum in in the estate with that. But in a state attorney should be able to work through some of those hoops, but oh, Claire, I'm so sorry. I know that's such so heavy to carry, but yeah, call us back if you need us.

Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruz. If you're working the baby steps, every major expense deserves a second look.

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Go to CHMinisteries.org/budget and use promo code Ramsey. That's CHMinisteries.org/budget and promo code Ramsey. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwins Credit Union Studio. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with George Campbell. And we're taking your calls at Triple 8-825-5225.

All right, let's go to Sarah and Los Angeles. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys doing? We're doing great. How can we help? Hi, so I recently got into some money to a settlement from work.

And I wanted to see how I go about that with wanting to pay off my mom's house. She was about 200K and then kind of afford a house in the expensive neighborhood I live in. Like, how should I go about that? Oh, wow. Okay. What happened? It was basically just getting almost about maybe about a million dollars.

I don't think I can't really talk about that. That's fair. Okay, so yeah, that's fair. Sorry. Are you okay? Are you good? Oh, yeah.

Helped by. It's been a long time coming. It's been a long time. I actually started listening to your show because I knew this is coming. I've been reading the books and listening for the past six months.

Oh, wow. Okay.

Amazing. So you're getting a million dollars.

Is that going to be tax? Is that all tax-free? Tax-free? Okay. And how much do you have in savings right now?

Nothing. Do you have any debt? I do about all together with my car and consumer everything about 31. 31 for you. And then do you rent right now?

I do. Okay. And why do you want to pay off mom's house? She's just, she's been everything for me. I just want her to be stressed for me.

She's just amazing. I already know her. She's not even going to want me to. She's just as a gift. So this is just like a nice thing. Is she okay financially otherwise? Kind of.

Yeah. Yeah. A little bit. Kind of not too dicey. You've credit cards when they know they shouldn't.

And you can talk about that. So like they're fine on the house and everything. But if you pay off this house.

“Is there any chance they would go take a second mortgage?”

Because they need to have a mortgage. Okay. Okay. Are you single about perfect with money?

That's the only always my problem.

Yeah. My mom has instilled. She hated that I even opened up credit cards. She's instilled me not ever doing stuff like that. She's even ashamed.

She had to open one up recently because she's against it. So no. She wouldn't do that. Absolutely not. Okay.

And your single no kids? Yes. Okay. So you've got 31,000 debt to pay off. Plus we need an emergency fund.

So that's a great place to start. Let's put our own mask on first. And how old are you? I am 36. Okay.

“And you want to buy a house in the greater Los Angeles area?”

I mean either that or I'm thinking of moving in three years. Do I, I don't know if I should just invest the money mutual funds like or keep renting? I guess I just don't know my next move. And also I should say I do want to pay off my brother some of my brother's stuff too as well.

Maybe his car is just you know I can't not go without paying his like some of his debt off.

I'll see now I'm wondering well now cousin Jerry he's wondering why you're not paying off his loans too. And dad's going hey I'd like to buy a truck. And so that's my fear is that this turns into people coming out of the woodwork knowing that you've got some you came into some money. So I would just be cautious. I love that you want to be generous with it.

But I also don't want to enable and cause relational chaos in the family.

“Right. I'm decided I'm keeping it between my brother and my mom and I've decided that's what's good to know.”

And that's it. I've kept it that way for years though. Yeah and and the way to kind of look at this too, Sarah just to think about. It's almost the same mindset as like a lottery winner right. And I hate to even say that because I know you went through a lot to get this money. I didn't just go buy a ticket and win this, but the idea that a lump sum is just given to you.

You know, when we think about money money is like a magnifying glass. It makes us more of what we already are and our habits more of what our habits are. It doesn't change us. It makes us more of who we are. And so you are a generous person, which I love. I mean, your natural instinct was to like give this money with some of this money away.

Right. And so you are a natural, generous person. So when a million dollars is handed to you, that's going to be magnified, which is beautiful. But also if there are bad money habits that you got to be aware that this money is not going to fix those. And over time, this money may be gone and the habits still remain. So you do have to remember to change your behavior.

You have to have some absolutes in your life. Like I'm absolutely not going back into debt.

I absolutely will always have a three to six month emergency fund.

I have some absolutes that you fall back on. That are different than today. And because you don't have money saved and you do have $31,000 in consumer debt. So I don't want those attributes to be magnified with this money. I want the opposite if that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And that's funny because I've been scared of this happening. So soon because I'm like, man, I want to get out of the debt on my own and start doing things before this happens. Because like, I've been doing pretty good with not using my credit cards. We'll send you guys and you know, so I agree. I do this is something I do want to change.

I have it 100%. Yes. How much do you make a year in your job? Probably around 90. 90. Okay. So yeah.

I need you a hundred and 90, about 90 to 100.

Okay. So what I don't know.

“My, my instinct right now is I think you're pretty set on helping your mom.”

So I would be okay. I would, again, I would tell her not to talk about it because just like George said, I feel more going to become another woodworks. I would do that. And then I, I would pay off your debt and get that fully funded emergency fund and a high yield savings. And then the remainder, which may be 700.

I almost would park in a high yield savings for like a year. Okay. And just, I don't know, it sounds like you've got some life changes coming up the next two to three years. Yes. What you mentioned.

I wouldn't buy right now, especially if you're going to be moving in three years. And there's a part of me that I would still have a handle on my lifestyle of what I make per year in your job. And again, you're going to have no debt and you're have a fully funded emergency fund. But learning to live off of that 90 of what you make. I think we'll create and instill some like very disciplined habits.

So that way, if you do choose to pull some money out to buy a new car or something, there's still that constant rhythm of living within your means. Hmm. That makes sense. That's a good idea. And if you just park that money.

“If you park 700 grand in a high yield savings account with the current rates,”

you probably net about two grand a month just doing that, just letting it sit. Wow. So make sure it's in a high yield savings account, a not a traditional brick and mortar bank. And fairwinds.org/rames. You can set up a whole smart bundle, including that.

But I would have wise counsel around you. So if you don't already have these three, you definitely need them. You need a good real estate agent. You need a good CPA for the tax side. Because even gifting money to your parents.

Gifting 200 grand. You got to make sure that you're filling out the right forms. Otherwise, it's going to go against your estate. And so you may want to be strategic with how you give. And then you also want a good financial advisor.

As soon as you're talking about making these big money moves. Lot of zeros on the end. They can help you make sure that you understand what you're doing while keeping you in the driver's seat. So you're going to have to build some muscles. You don't currently have.

But I feel like the fact you've been researching. I've got to watch the show. It tells me that you are very cautious. Yeah. You want to be like this.

I go slow with this Sarah. You know, we even say if people go through an event like they lose a loved one and they get life insurance, we say don't don't make any major decisions for a year. And just sit because there's just something emotional about seeing that many.

And there's like there's kind of a part of you that just wants to just settle in.

And not make any big need your, you know, decisions right now. But getting some of those people in your corner are going to be smart. But it's awesome Sarah. I'm so happy for you with this. Hey, it's Dave Ramsey.

If you or someone you know owns a small business, listen up.

“What if you could build the kind of business you'd be proud to hand down to your kids?”

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We wish that we could get to every call and question here on the show.

But if you do have a money question and you want to answer.

Make sure to check out Ask Ramsey. So this is on our website and it's our free AI tool and it's built and trained on Ramsey principles. So you'll get the answer the same way as if you had called in on the show. And even some of the follow-up questions of getting the right information about your situation to give you the perfect answer. It is there.

It's amazing. This is a great tool. So go to RamseySolutions.com and check it out and we'll put a link down below if you're listening on podcast or YouTube. All right. Let's go to James in Boise.

Hi, James. Welcome to the show. My name is Rachel George.

Thanks for taking my call.

Absolutely. How can we help? So I have a job working for a hospital making 150K a year and I have a 47,000 emergency fund and no debt except for a couple hundred thousand left on the house. Right. And got us provided some side hustles where I consult on the side for some hospitals and little hospitals and most of them pay and the one.

So the one is about seven months behind and charge 1.5% late fee. Now we're up to about $1500 a month and late fees. Would you, well, this keep rolling with a late fee or would you press them for the 87,000.

“I mean, are they going to pay you anything at this point?”

What's been the communication? Well, I mean, I keep saying it anymore, so they've been behind before up to maybe 40,000. But, you know, I think I don't know if they're just, you know, the use of the money is maybe they get more use out of it, you know, than 1.5% and I'm charging them. But, you know, I think they pay on the squeaky wheel and I'm just collecting late fees. But they've paid the late fees before.

Okay, so there's a precedence here that they're willing to pay the late fees, knowing full well they signed the contract with you, saying we agreed to the late fee. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with you. Collecting the late fee. Okay, they just not built up quite as much debt yet. Yeah, it's not fun when someone owes you that.

I mean, this is a lot of money, though, you said 87,000. Yeah. Okay. Is it a hospital that you say you're an individual? Awesome.

Okay.

“Are you, would you be willing to take them to like a small claims court for this?”

Well, I mean, I don't think I would have to, but I mean, you definitely would. You don't want to just blow this off. Yeah, so I would ask for the full. Yeah, I would ask for the full. Yeah, I would, I would go and ask for it.

And then I think I would be done with business with them. So I think it's just add some stress and make sure your books all wonky and... It's taking a lot of time in your part to deal with this. Well, I mean, I just check on the one point. I mean, if I'm collecting $1,300 next month, $1,500 in just like...

Well, you're only collecting it on paper until they actually pay. Sure. Sure. And if they do pay, yeah, I imagine they would. So I can personally, for some of them, they're probably pay.

It's just, I don't know, one advantage. It's nice when to get that there, but... Yeah, but it's just a lack of integrity. If they're not paying you on time, and it's been seven months. It's not like a mom and pop.

This is an actual hospital. Correct. That's making a lot of money. Yeah. Well, so they have the money to pay you on time.

Yeah. Okay. I would press them for the full amount and go, "Hey, guys, I just need this final payment, but where our relationship here is done."

it goes to small claims court. I don't know what they sign, what you say up with them, but I would enforce whatever they sign. You said, "You feel kind of weird, like, do I just say here, just keep collecting late fees?"

I mean, I guess you could, but I would always have something in the back of my head

of like, "Okay, they owe me." I don't know. I think I would just add it to the tab. Yeah.

“I think I would ask for the amount and be done.”

And then if they want to start over this whole process, and you choose to engage that, then that's one thing. I'd be having them pay up front from now on. Yeah, just for you to have your money. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, let's go to Alex in Minneapolis. Hi, Alex. Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel. Hi, George.

Thanks for taking the call. Absolutely. How can we have it? Yeah. So my wife and I are just starting off with the baby steps.

We're on step two. Right now we have $16,000 in debt. Of the $16,000, $34,000 is a car. That car is $12,000 under water. We want to sell the car, and then save up to buy a car with cash.

But we're kind of like unsure on how to do that, because it's a cure loan. And so if we sell the car, I guess we're kind of thinking that we have to have the $12,000 to get the difference. Yeah. They can't clear the title until you have that loan paid off.

Yeah. So a lot of people go to the actual lender that's holding the loan, and they do the whole transaction there. Okay. That's the easiest way to do it.

Have you got actual quotes on what the car is worth? Where is this $22,000 number coming from? Cully blue book. Okay. And is that private party or trade in?

Private party. Okay. And you've actually looked up. Have you looked up listings for similar cars? To see that they're actually selling for $22, or if they're listed for more?

That might give you a good picture. Okay. Okay. And then I would get quotes from every single place possible. Every dealership, the carvana, the car max, to get a sort of a floor of, okay.

I know I can get at least this much for it. If I did it this way versus listing it on my own. But where is case?

“You need to save up the cash or get a loan for the difference from a credit union.”

Yeah. You may have to go get a $15, $16,000 loan just to have some margin to go buy a car. You know, a $5,000 car. Pay this one off. And at least that takes your loan from 34 to 16,000.

Do you know what I mean? That feels better. How much do you guys make a year? Uh, together to 75. Oh, fantastic.

Okay. So either way, you could get rid of all this debt. Yeah. You may not, you don't have to get, I mean, you could get rid of the car. But the car's not killing you.

Yeah. You guys could just pay it off if you want to. It not goes to the trouble of our partners. If you can pay off the car under two years and you love the car. And it's less than 50% of your total income, as far as all your cars are concerned, then you can keep it.

Okay. But the fact that you're wanting to sell it tells me there's, there's another piece to this. Yeah. I think it's just following the debt snowball method. You came off the lowest debt.

Yeah.

Like it would have been reasonable to basically reprioritize the car.

So we can pay it off within two years. I wouldn't reprioritize it. I would still put it where it falls in the debt snowball.

“Because the truth is your income is the winning piece here.”

You don't think you can pay this car off in two years, Alex, with all the rest of your debt? No, I don't think so. Okay. What are you guys taking home every month? Oh, boy.

I want to say the 13,000. So we're, yeah, we also have six kids. The van, no surprise. It's a mini-pan. The car is a mini-pan.

Okay. Yeah, I would consider keeping it and just going, how can we be more aggressive in other areas? Because you've still got to come up with the difference. And so that's still going to be a hurdle. Yeah.

What are the debts before the car? Personal loans or credit cards or what are they? Credit card, credit card, personal loan. We have legal debt. We have a student loan.

And then we have medical debt. And then we actually have a substantial tax bill. And the car's the largest. Okay. Peace is a lot.

I would put the tax bill at the top.

We always prioritize the IRS before anybody else, because they can destroy your life.

Garnish your wages. So I would attack that first and then do the debt snowball traditionally. But I'm just wondering if you guys bring in 13. Could you live off of, let's say, five or six? I'll throw the rest of the debt.

Yeah. I want to say yes. I think that's, I'm sure we probably could figure something out. Have you guys done a budget? A pretty detailed budget for the month.

We just started it.

“I think we're on like our second week of doing it.”

Okay. Okay. Nice. That's great.

I'm just doing napkin math.

And I'm going, okay. If we throw $8,000 at this debt, it's gone in 13 months. Just over a year. Sure. Just to learn how to live off five for our household bills.

For one year. Can we do that? And it's going to be. Yeah. It's going to be tight.

Shopping a lot of Aldi. It's in rice. Rice and meat. TV and Jay is all around for the kids. Yeah.

It's not going to be fancy dinners. But we are going to make it through and save on the grocery bills. Six kids. That's probably where a lot of money's been. I mean, man.

We're shopping in bulk. I'm sure you guys already have to be strategic with the food. But that I feel it was really serious. Yeah. If you have this much debt making $275, they may not be that strategic with it.

They may just be. Let's eat it. I don't know. I don't know. So yeah.

Places that you can cut things you can sell. Eating out for a family of eight. That's like 200 bucks. I mean, you're too full. You know what, itself?

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Hi, Mary. Welcome to the show. Hi, George. Hi, Rachel. Hi.

I just wanted to add that I actually grew up listening to Dave Ramsey. So I have low key resentments for all the Ramsey kids because my parents would listen to something Dave did to his teenagers. I guess what I then had to do with. So sorry, Mary.

My therapy bill is so large. So you're probably a little bit. I'm just kidding. No, it's great. Sorry.

My parent. No, my parents from my graduation present gave me Dave's book. The whole money makeover. And I read it. Right after I graduated.

And I remember rolling my eyes. And they like, this is the spirit of this book. Everybody knows this. Well, I don't understand why somebody makes a whole much money by writing me obvious. And then, of course, by the time I made it through my freshman year, I was like, oh.

Oh, wow. That was just amazing. Oh, my gosh. It was like, oh, yeah. It was the foundation of my marriage.

Like, my third dating, and we like talked about Dave Ramsey.

And I fell in love with him because he like already had a retirement to count. So it's Dave would be tough. That's hard. I'm sorry for the Roth IRA. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, man. Really?

“The first three introduced three two is like, do you have a retirement account?”

I was like 18. And I was like, he's the one. That's what I knew. Oh, my gosh. So I didn't.

I love it. That was so good. So my question is for you. We've been making the day, Ramsey, and we kind of use our own language over the 18 years. But like, we're in like three four, three four and five, right?

We're like, supposed to be paying us our house. So we bought four years ago in seven years. Like, we're doing really well. But one of the things my question for you is how do you go about knowing how much money to put towards a dream? And that's kind of my question for you.

So you can ask me our finances and you can ask about the dream and how much money it wants. Like, what would you like to hear? Okay. So you're dead for you with an emergency fund, and you have a dream to do what? Okay.

So I just finished writing my fourth novel. Wow. And the third novel. Thank you. The third novel I wrote.

I spent the last year and a half trying to find representation. So editing, writing, sending it through some things. Rewriting and I mean, you guys have all published books. You know the industry is really difficult. And so like I sent it to one agent that she was asking for a book.

It sounded like my book was exactly right. She was open for a week.

“And she posted later that she got like 800 submissions, right?”

In the span of a week. So I know this is a really hard process to go through, especially from the blind.

But not like thinking it's going to be magical and amazing.

And using your method of like getting yourself out there and needing these agents, right?

And I at the state home mom who's like really conscious with our money. I'm having a really hard time putting money towards the dream. I can't prove it's going to be worth it. But my husband is incredibly supportive. Like we literally were just in the car having this conversation where he was like,

“Dave said, if you had $5,000 in it burned, would it be okay, right?”

He's not wrong. Yeah, but like my heart is, but my heart is dying. Like with $5,000, I could make a beach trip, right? It seems really selfish to put it towards myself. So that's kind of how do you go out thinking about like,

How did you would dream and also like not growing money at a dream? And being a thinking fund if that makes sense. You're very wise.

And I always remind myself this, there are guys that spend way more golfing

that are terrible at it and make no money doing it. So just if that makes you feel better with your hobby. That's a good way to think about it. Have you published a novel yet or are they all just sitting there? No.

So they're also sitting there. So I'm not in like a huge hurry, right? I know like if it's not this novel, it might be the next one. That's how a lot of authors work. But why haven't you published anything?

Well, um, I, you mean like self-published? Is that what you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Trying to Amazon.

They can do. So I'm not going to do self-publishing. Yeah.

“So one of the things is it would take, it takes quite a bit of money.”

And then it takes a lot of like going out and using social media and paying for that to get advertisements and like going and doing stuff, which again, from my research, I haven't seen that a lot of people actually make it that way. And so again, that's kind of the thing where I'm like, I don't know if that seems worth it. And there's no green numbers as well with $20,000 to get out there up to 50.

One of the things that I was looking forward towards that my husband was talking about me doing is like you can go to these conferences and meet agents, face to face, or like go through these classes where they go through your novel and at the end of it, you meet these agents. So would be getting to be face to face.

But again, they're anywhere from like $500 to. What are you paying for? What are you paying for? There's no career. It feels like a scam.

What are you paying money for? I feel. Yeah, don't buy like a $10,000 publishing package where you might get to meet. Exactly. I would say the agent is not your problem.

Think about it like a musician. I know independent musicians who are not on a label who crush it. And they own everything they do without giving up their soul. And I just don't want you to think that a publisher or an agent is your ticket. Because they might write you a check for 20 grand one time.

And they never recoup the costs and you never make a dime.

And nobody reads the book. So I'd rather you out there hustling, getting in rooms and social spaces where people are reading those types of books. I was supposed to create a following online and then you make it. Yes. And then either you can choose to keep going or if you have evidence of books that have been sold,

that is more enticing to a publisher than someone who hasn't done. You don't even have anything sold. Yeah. They're looking to see can we sell these books? And if you're an unknown author, no social following, that's going to be a tough time.

So I would spend my time building a social following and getting in spaces where people are interested in these types of books. And trying to network as much as I can. Okay. Without paying the dot to one. Yeah.

Who won? Who has done that? And she did tell me that she has ended up spending like $10,000. Like from like things like going to conferences to get in there. Like printing them herself, so she can sell them to bookstore.

Yeah. That's a better use of your time. I think that's yes. But I wouldn't just like buy some package that's supposed to get you in the right rooms. What are the conferences?

Sure. Pay to do that. Pay to sell publish the book. But at that point, you got to build a following. Yeah.

People that want to read this. Because there's almost four million books that are published a year. Totally. You know what I mean? So I know you know this industry probably in and out because you've been.

I've been loving it and it's been you know you're hobby. So it is. So it is.

“Have any advice on like, could you like put a number on it?”

And you're like, you go here and then you don't go beyond it or you just do it. Yeah. I think it's a good way to do it. How much do you guys make a year? We make about 175.

175. Okay. And you guys are. I'm also with a homeschool mom. So I like do homeschool.

So like again, these conferences that we can totally do. Do you add there are other things that are part of the equation as well? Mm-hmm. But I can do this on the other side of homeschooling, too, right? There's no like time limit on this.

But again, my husband's like feel free to spend money and I'm like, I don't know. I don't see that it's like proved that it'll actually work. Well, we're not looking for a direct ROI. If I put a dollar in, I get $2 a second. Okay.

What I would do is set goals for here's what I want to do this year.

I want to go to two conferences. I want to do. I want to print a hundred books. And then you got to make 30 social reels.

And do all the hashtags of book, you know, doing like the type of novel it is.

And start, yeah, have some goals. Yeah, that you're shooting for.

“But I think the truth is it's just a lot of work on things that don't cost money,”

which is creating content on your own around the contents of the book. Which that won't cost you money. It costs you time. But there's no way to leap for that. And just say, well, if I just put $10,000 in this vending machine,

I'll sell a thousand books. Yeah. But if you know that money is going towards conferences that you should be at. You know, whatever, playing tickets to get there, you know, whatever that looks like for you. And that you and your husband are feel good with, okay, if we put this money out.

You know, you're, I mean, you're kind, it's a little bit of a gamble. But you know what, you're like, what else you're going to do? Like you guys have done well financially. You're not talking about taking out a hundred thousand dollars. Small business loan to get something started.

You're moving at the speed of cash. And just keep re-evaluating. So yeah, be okay spending, you know, five, ten grand. If you guys are good with that. And just say, okay, let's see where this gets me.

And then let's talk, you know, March of 2020, you know, March of 27. It's kind of our next pillow. Right. Here's the milestone.

Here's what I want to be.

That's right. Just haven't happened it out.

“But I think you'll naturally get weary over time.”

If it's something isn't happening and you're like, okay, I am throwing money at the thing and it's not happening. But put some out there. You guys have to cash for it. And yeah, try to make the dream happen, which is always fun.

Exciting. As a fellow reader. Rachel, my reader. Love her again with the book. Love a good novel.

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 seal 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. Our scripture of the day comes from Jeremiah one nineteen. They will fight against you, but will not overcome you for I am with you and will rescue you to clear as the Lord.

Elon Musk said the first step is to establish that something is possible and then probability will occur.

Probably will occur. All right. Yeah. Yeah. I saw probability.

Probability. Is that a tough word? No. It just feels like something Elon would say. I can hear him say.

The probability of this situation, I don't know if you're just like, or you love math. If that's. Yeah. That works. You slept.

Oh, man. All right. Let's go to Kate and Indianapolis. Hi, Kate. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Rachel. Hi, George. Thank you for having me on the show. Yes. Absolutely.

How can we help today? So I just found out that my husband gambled 121,000 dollars in daily trading. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. So sorry.

And yes. These were the money we had from our previous town home that we sold. And we're in a process buying a new home that we paid 50,000 dollars deposit. It's a non-refundable deposit. So we need to like process with this purchase of the new home.

So you already paid the 50 grand. It's locked into that new house. And we don't have the funds to put down on top of that. Correct. Oh, my goodness.

Okay. How'd you find out? Yeah. Yeah, what happened? Well, I kind of like I saw like the money we're not there.

He was telling me he invested and and stalks and crypto. And I kept asking me, asking him to show me the money and he's like everything's fine. But the money are safe. Like, I'm like, why did you take the because we had the deal to put 20% down for the new house. And the rest of the money he would like invest in stocks and cryptocurrency.

And so he lied about that. He was actually day trading. He did. He did lie about that.

And it's not the first time where you lost money in the past and not just amounts of money.

But yes, here we at. So he has a gambling addiction. As he's been seeking out any help for that. He doesn't know where to see. Think he doesn't have a problem.

He thinks he doesn't have a problem. He thinks he invest. But he failed at investing. How old is he? Yes, I get his 43 and I'm 40.

We have two kids. How long have you guys been married? Well, it's been 17 years now. Okay. Do you work outside the home?

Yes, I work full time. Yeah, we bring home together like to 40 a year before tech. What do you make on your own? About 90 or 100. Okay.

And what is he saying this next step is going to be because he knows that there's a house. He's saying he'll take care of the payment. He says he's going to pay for kids activities and our kids go to private schools. Obviously, we need to switch them to public schools. And he says he's going to take care of everything.

And I said down and I showed him like he financially. He cannot take care of everything. Does he still have access to all of your money? No, not to what I make, no.

“So you've separated accounts or has it always been separate?”

Yes. We separated a while back. But sometimes he wouldn't be on time with payment. So I would have to cover what he couldn't cover because. How much debt do you guys have?

Well, he has personal debt like $20,000. And a credit card and also and business loans like $120,000. I don't have any personal debt. Are you sure that's all the debt he has? Because what I would do is pull credit reports for both of you from all three bureaus to make sure.

That's what he pulled me. I'm not going off of what he tells you anymore. I know. So tonight you're going to pull all three reports from all three bureaus. Both of you.

Okay. Because you need a full picture of the damage here because I think if he's lying about this, there's other debt. And we need a clear picture of we're going to move forward at all. Because I don't know how you're going to forward this house now.

Because the rest is going to have to be on a mortgage. And he's saying I'll handle it. Correct. Yes. What's the house cost?

It's $550.

So you're talking about taking on a half million dollar mortgage.

Yes. Correct. Okay. And he's totally fine with doing that. You guys will qualify based on your income?

Yes. Oh boy, this scares me. There's so much more than that. The house is the least of your problems at this point. Okay.

You have someone who is a gambling addict, a pathological liar who's committed tons of financial and fidelity while you have two young kids at home. I understand. So if we don't solve that problem, the house isn't going to fix anything. Even if we solve that one.

“Well, how do we solve this problem if he doesn't see it as an addiction?”

You're going to need to reveal that to him and it might take other people. To reveal that to him. I don't know that. Yeah, I think you guys. I mean, regardless of whether he admits it or not, I think you guys need.

You need marriage counseling. ASAP. Because we had a session and he didn't like it. And he said he'd just wanted to do it anymore. Well, I think he's telling you something then.

Kate. I know. And that's a really. He's sad reality. He's choosing his gambling addiction over his family at this point.

He's opting out of it. Yeah.

Dr. John's only always talks about how your actions are basically the words you're not saying.

And if he's not willing to fight for this marriage Kate, that puts a hard strain on decisions in the future, probably. I probably would not go through with buying a house with him right now. Because you already told me that he has not been consistent on payments.

“So what happens when you guys have a bigger mortgage payment?”

And he doesn't have the money because he gambled it all away. Well, and Kate. And from a marriage perspective, he's telling you he doesn't want to work on your marriage. I know. He's convincing me that I don't like I see it differently.

No, you're not the crazy one, Kate. The kids call that gaslight. Yeah, that's right. Yes. He lost a hundred and twenty-one thousand dollars by quote-unquote day trading.

Yeah, before that he lost like fifty thousand. Right. Before that he lost like ten systems.

And again, I'm always so cautious when we get to this point in a conversation with the call

because we have about three more minutes with you.

“And then you have to go make these decisions about your life, Kate.”

I mean, there's some ultimatums that, I mean, if you wouldn't put up with this, if it was drugs, right? That, well, he, you know, fits in this or you put something else in the money slot, the gambling slot. And that in it should be how you feel. And I'm so sorry. And so I think for UK, I would go, I would go find a great therapist because I think you're going to need some language.

And some, um, I didn't even work to be able to stand really strong for you and your kids.

And then, and then he's going to have to make some decisions based on what you need. Because he's the one that broke the trust, not you. He broke the trust.

“And so there's going to be some things that he's going to have to do to repair that trust for this marriage to move forward.”

And, um, yeah, you can't force him into recovery, but what you can do is put up from very clear boundaries. That you're going to separate your money so that he can't do damage to your family any longer. And that if he wants us to continue, then he's going to need to see a gambling addiction specialist who can assess him. Yeah. Yeah.

That's how I see it. Yeah. So do we process?

We have to, like, go buy this house because there's no way back.

Do we buy it and sell it? Um, because of this point. I would talk to the lender and see what your options are. And see what the contract you signed says, see if there's a way to get out of it. And you may have to forfeit a penalty or something, but I wonder if there is a way for you to get out.

Because I would not put my name on a house with him right now. I think your marriage is on the rocks. And even if you lost that deposit of 50k, he's done more stupid tax in the last year than that 50k deposit you'd lose. And he'll continue to do it if we don't put an end to this. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. The behavior's not changing on his end. And he doesn't care to change it is what it sounds like. He'll make 50k in the next three months.

So we can build that. But what we need to do is focus on his inability to to lead this family well. Okay. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

But I would find a great counselor in your area and have them walk with you through this process. But I'm so sorry. Well, thanks for a great show, George. Thanks to everyone in the booth.

“And remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace.”

And that is to walk daily with the friends of peace Christ Jesus. [Music]