Slow Money Moves Still Matter

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“>> Normal is broke, and common sense is weird.”

So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwins Credit Union Studio, this is the Ramsey Show. And I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with my good friend Nicole Hose's heartfunding at the hour.

Short camera. We'll be answering your questions. So give us a call at Triple 8-825-5-225. And we're going to talk about your life and your money. All right, first up, we have Amanda in Portland, Oregon.

Hi, Amanda. Welcome to the show. >> Hi. >> Are you doing? >> I'm okay.

I'm nervous.

I've never done this before.

So, yeah? >> I'm brushing it so far. >> You're doing great, Amanda. >> [LAUGH] >> How can we help?

>> Well, I guess I'm trying to gain an outside perspective on if my opinion on hiring an outside exterminator

“is warranted or is justified because me and my fiance”

have different opinions on that. >> What needs your exterminator? >> George is not the rodent kind of fella over here. >> I mean, who's a rodent fellow? That's a weird thing to be.

>> What needs to be exterminated? >> Well, I guess we've just been dealing with a rodent issue or a house who's kind of old. It's been on and off for a few years now. I am a state home mom so I deal with it.

Well, if I see one, what is it? >> A rat, a rat. >> Oh, no. >> It's gotten into our pantry. >> Oh, yeah.

>> Into our food. >> When you say it, I'm guessing there's more than-- >> No. >> There's usually just one, right? Is it the same guy?

>> It's first up. I trapped one in our closet at the beginning of the year. It escaped. We patched up a hole. We found now one is back.

I haven't seen it. My fiance has it shoot through our pantry. We took everything out. They're destructive. >> Yeah.

>> They go get behind the dishwasher and like chew more of it. >> I know. And so we have a small child. And so my anxiety through the roof because I don't want our child to get sick. I don't want our child to get bit.

They're young enough where they think it's fun. Like, oh, I want to play with the mouse. And I'm like, no, you don't. You scream and run. So my anxiety through the roof about it.

I would feel better hiring someone to find holes. Figure out where they're coming in. Create a better plan. And I know it can be expensive. So that's reasonable on my fiance's part.

But she feels like what are they going to do that we can't do. But I feel like all of our resources weren't really working. Like the sticky traps. Snap traps. Uh, rat poison.

We did actually just catch a rat this morning. But it's definitely, I feel like put a strain on us. So it's made me feel very like distant. And like my anxieties aren't being heard. So it's just like, like, I've kind of been like, don't talk to you about it.

Don't. >> Okay, just a minute. So he's getting dismissed with you. >> Sorry. >> He's tired of talking about it.

He doesn't want to pay for it. So he's like, I'll deal with it. We'll figure it out. It's going to be fine. And you're like, it's not fine.

>> Yeah. >> Yeah. And it's like, it's understandable that the finance aspect they understand. >> I don't know what you're talking about. >> I'm going to deal with the rat. >> Yeah.

>> Yeah. And it's, you know, like, I'm. >> Is it a thousand dollars? >> I'm trying to go. >> Oh, you know, I was looking up like estimates.

And it was saying maybe like 350 in our area might be like the highest. But I think it could be less than that. >> I mean, the infection. >> Okay, so from his side of the fence. Are you guys financially in a good spot?

Do you have money that you were like, yeah, we can write a check. >> I'm going to be done with. >> We have like, we have cash in a face that we could use.

But then there's like, you know, this is on the list of a million other things that need to be repaired or fixed.

“Or, you know, so then there's that, like, what does that money go towards first?”

>> I'm a 20-year-old. >> I think you're right. >> I think you're right. >> I mean, I mean, you're the same. So we have a thousand dollars saved in cash. We don't, I wrote all this down, sorry.

We have a thousand dollars saved in cash. We own our house, we own our cars. We do pay rent on the land. So there's that. And we have more like roughly three grand and get just from, like, just credit cards.

>> Okay.

>> So your total consumer debt is $3,000.

>> Mm-hmm. >> Okay. >> How much does he make? >> $3,800 a month. It kind of fluctuates.

>> Okay.

“>> So I think the real problem, obviously the red is the real problem.”

So we'll give, we'll give them that standing. The issue to me, Amanda, is there's a $350 swing of you not feeling justified and heard and valued and what's important to you in this moment. And your fiance is dismissive. I mean, I don't want to put words in his mind.

Be little, like, it is, it's affected your relationship as what you said. Like, you sure the rats give you anxiety.

But ultimately, you're living in a household that you don't feel like you get a vote.

>> Mm-hmm. >> Is he the same way with the other repairs in the house? Where he's like, dad, I'll deal with it. I don't want to pay someone, I'll get around to it. It's not that big of a deal.

>> Some of the, yeah, but, I mean, yeah. >> Yeah. >> And there's like a point where, like, because I, he's very handy. He can work on cars. He can build, you know what I mean?

Like, he's a realtor. He can do all sorts of stuff. But it's kind of like, okay, well, when, when are we going to, you know, let's add a lot of time to it. >> It's a lot of time to it.

>> Yeah. >> Yeah, yeah. Or it's like to the point where, you know, until it's like, okay. Now, we really have to because this is happening with the car now. Or now we really need to repair this because this is falling apart.

Or, you know, so. >> Okay. >> So I think when it's coming up. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.

>> Okay. So I, no, no, no, no. I, I feel like the discussion needs to be had of the bigger picture of, there's, I don't want to throw this word ox, if like it's overly used. But like, you, it's almost like you don't, you don't feel safe because

we have to wait till something is an urgent emergency to have any attention towards it. And you want to live. >> Yeah. >> That is, you know, somewhat well-kept, but that you feel like he's taking care of things.

“And when that's being removed, it starts to kind of shake this, this safety feeling that you have in general, right?”

It's more of a pattern. It's not this one thing. >> Yeah. >> Even though this is bright, would you agree? >> Mm-hm.

>> Yeah. >> Sorry. >> No, it's okay. What makes it, why is that emotional for you? Is that?

>> I mean, yeah, it's just, I'm, I'm aware you're in stress a lot. Go, go play, please. Sorry, my talking. I'm, I'm aware you're, I stress a lot. And so just, even he brought up the other day, upgrading my engagement ring is paid off, go play.

And I was just kind of like, like, why it, like, are you serious?

Like, why, how can you bring that up when there's a million other things on our list that need to get done, you know what I mean?

So it was just, like, and then he kind of got a sad that, or like upset that I, like dismissed that thing so quickly. And I get it, like he's trying to be sweet and wanted to do something nice. Trying to be sweet, he should value the things that you currently value, which is fixing these issues that are not wants their needs at this point. So you guys need to have a real conversation about what this relationship looks like, what the commitment looks like. I mean, I don't know how long you guys have been on the fence here, but we need to start really combining our lives and our shared goals and values and let's start with the rat.

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Jessica, are you there? Hi, how are you? Hi, good.

Welcome, welcome, how can we help?

Thank you, so I recently lost my job just on Tuesday. I'm late in my career. I'm late in my career. I'm late in my career. I'm late in my career.

I'm late in my career. I'm late in my career. I'm late in my career. I'm late in my career. I'm late in my career.

I'm late in my career. Okay, as far as real estate goes or what?

“Do you want us to help you figure out what business you should do?”

Yes, and how do you obtain the money for buying a business? I see a lot of this on TikTok, I think our algorithms are similar for different reasons, but I get a lot of these. Just buy up small businesses and it's great by a car wash by a boring business that generates 10,000 in revenue month. So easy. It is not.

It's expensive and we never recommend anybody take on debt in order to finance a business.

Let alone anything else, but especially business because there's high risk. Yeah, Jessica, how old are you? I am 39 in November. 39 in November.

“Okay, what were you doing before was the job you had that you just got like go of?”

So stormwater management like under ground civil work and I have a background in architecture. Okay, well for many, many years it's what I want to school for design and peer protection. Design, okay, perfect, and how much student loan debt do you have? About 150,000 dollars. Oh my gosh.

Well, is that your delivery? Um, it wasn't as much a degree as it was by the lack of knowledge and, you know, not knowing what we were getting myself into.

I'm the first one of my family to go to college here at the United States.

Okay. So I think, yeah, some lack of knowledge we were going to ask to that and also since they were so high. They were supposed to be less, but once they graduated, told me it was more. And, you know, income or... How much were you making at your job?

About 60 years, about 100,000. 100,000. Okay, bonus. Well, if I were to paint the next two years of your life, Jessica, of what I would recommend, it's probably not what you're thinking.

“But can I just say, if I woke up in your shoes, what I would do?”

And George probably has a plan of his own too. But, um, so I think because of this debt, because, and you do have, you have some savings. You have 8,000, 20, and crypto. Um, I think my goal for you in the next 24 months is to be completely free. Have a fully funded emergency fund in the bank.

And, and as I take long into yours. And, and to find a career path at which you are, you're qualified. And, and that you enjoy that you're good at that can bring in a similar income. So that's a very, that's very, where I would probably take you for the, for the short term, meaning the next two to three years is very different. Then starting going and getting a small business loan and starting up a business, because that, what that's going to do is continue to add to the risk that you're already in.

So, I would be looking to replace that income.

“Anyway, I could hear in the next little bit, um, because my goal would be to get out of debt, right?”

And not start something new right now. Because you're, you're financially in the hole, and I would want you on solid ground before you start something. Yeah, that makes sense. So this might be, we're going to start. This is a side hustle business three years from now.

And we're going to do something that we actually enjoy doing, not something that we saw that could make money from social media. And so you love architecture, you love design, you love, you know, all, all the civil work that you've been doing. Find the thread in that and go, how can I turn this into something that I own? That's a better path than I heard real estate is good. Let me go take on a $300,000 loan on an investment property. Right, right.

Is that a lot of fun in your face? Sure.

The other thing that I had started, prior to me was in my job was, um, perhaps shipping like online sales,

so taking a course and that which was very economically. How much was the course? It was like $500. Yes, who got rich off of that, the person who launched the drop shipping course. The person who sold you the dream that drop shipping is going to make you so much money.

So how much money did you make drop shipping?

“Well, I haven't been able to start you because I just told him that honestly was getting in the way of things that are mine to their sheets.”

So I feel like now I have the time to pursue something and maybe I could continue where I left off with it. Um, I understand how I work and there have mentors that got you over a simple way. Well, this day. Please don't buy another course selling you on an entrepreneurial idea. And I don't know if you have time just get to start something new right now.

Like you need money. Right. Yeah. So, um, I think A1 is is finding a job. Any job right now.

And then what George is saying is on the side at night, um, or on weekends, put some of your time in an energy into something else to see if we can grow that. Um, but yeah, starting. Yeah, the the urgency of getting out of this hundred and fifty thousand dollars of student loan debt, let alone being able to pay for food next month. I think is what I would be what I would be focused on. Right.

“So what's behind us, Jessica, if I said, why are you urgently chasing after these business ideas of drop shipping a real estate?”

What's behind it? What's the ultimate goal?

So that's always been an interest of mine.

I've never thought I'd be working around to find the rest of my life. I always saw a building. But what's been an interest of yours? Um, working for myself, um, made perhaps sales since I was a very young child. I always had this entrepreneurial spirit where it was being ten years old and, um, learning how to do play to and teaching my friends and charging them or learning how to make all this intricate.

Uh, you really buy myself, um, back in my home country, Columbia and, you know, making it and selling it there. And then taking it here when it can be night of space, like, hand right up a lot. I love it. So it's great. So follow that thread.

What is the problem that you're trying to solve? And who are the people that you're trying to help? And what is your unique solution that can stand out in the crowd? If you just write, write, take that as a homework assignment and do not start another thing. Don't buy a course until you finish that homework assignment.

Because right now, I think you're just chasing after the wind and you're going to spend a lot of money that you don't have in order to start businesses that won't succeed. Um, um, versus just taking the time to slow down, pay off the debt like Rachel said. Get a full-time job with benefits doing the work that you're already equipped to do. And then start this other thing on the side for fun and then start charging. And then see if you get traction there to the point where you go, oh my gosh.

Yeah. So I started doing this 40 hours a week and scaled it. I could outpace my current income. Absolutely. And that, and that's how it grows.

I mean, the, the mistakes of me who will make starting something is they take out the loan. They try it four years down the road. It's like, oh my gosh, it's not done what they thought. And so there's stuck with a failed business and still alone to pay back. So move at the speed of cash.

Just go slow with the ideas. Now, um, I would say we should give her, uh, King Coleman's book. Find the work you're wired to do. There's an assessment on the back of the book. And and take that assessment and see if some ideas generate.

But, um, and our, our team will pick up just a few stay on the line. But yeah, I think I think A1 still is is finding an income to get this. I'd get the crypto out and I'd start paying down the student loan debt and doing something on the side. So I hope that helps Jessica. When you take your car to the shop, you're probably thinking two things.

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See store for details. [Music] Are you sick and tired of working so hard and having nothing to show for it? Well, that is normal and the sad thing is normal is broke but you don't have to live that way. Every dollar budgeting app is here to help you find extra money every single month.

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So, check out every dollar. You can start for free in the App Store or Google Play. All right, let's go to John and Charlotte. Hi, John, welcome to the show. Oh, hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call. Absolutely. I hope this is a lifesteering. I'm in desperate need for some. Try to figure out how to get out of this situation that I got myself in.

Okay, my margin is 15. 87.88 a month. I open 175 on the house. Oh, sorry, you're breaking up on us, John, speak directly in your phone. I'm sorry.

See if we can hear you better. Okay. So, 15.87. Then you got 175,000 left on the mortgage. Correct.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. My.

Oh, my. So close.

“We'll try to get you a better connection, John, and jump back in with you.”

You sounded. We will be back, John. Oh, let's try again. Hold on a second. Okay.

Is that better, John? I mean, I can see it. It was a good. Okay. Yes, too.

He said he can hear us. We'll jump to our next call and see if we can get you connected. We'll have our. Yeah, we'll have our phone screen. Let's get back home with you to get a better connection.

Okay. We will get back to you. But let's go to Ryan and Asheville. Up next. Hi, Ryan.

Welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Yep. Absolutely.

How can we help? So my wife and I are on baby steps three. We're quickly approaching baby step four. Just for quick context between us both. We have two pension funds.

Two 401k's and two Roth IRAs. My question is with similar rates of return. If I have approximately 32,000 in a company 401k. And only 9700 in my Roth IRA. Is it still better to prioritize my Roth IRA?

Do you have a Roth 401k option? Yes. Okay. I contribute 120 a month as a Roth contribution.

“What's the match are they giving you a match at your company?”

So it's not a match. It's actually they contribute 5% regardless of. Oh, okay. You did zero dollars. There's still put in 5% of your income.

That's correct.

Yeah, I'm a first responder within a local government.

So that's kind of the standard practice. One of the perks. That's great. Let's talk about your investment strategy here. Is the pension is that automatic enforced?

Yes. So it's a 6% from my check into the pension fund. And of course, I can't change that. I mean, it's based on the average four highest consecutive years in salary at full maturity. Okay.

So we recommend 15% of your income going into retirement. Once you hit baby step four. So once you get the fully funded emergency fund. And the order you would do that in is match beats Roth beats traditional. So you said you get a match regardless.

So that's kind of nice. It's kind of a mood point. But if you have a Roth 401k, you sort of get the best of the both worlds from your Roth IRA. Meaning it's after tax money, but it's going to grow tax free. So that might help with your conundrum.

What a lot of people do if they don't have a Roth 401k, they'll go to the Roth IRA first.

Fill that up that's 7,500 bucks for this year.

But in your case, you might say, I want to do all 15% of my Roth 401k and be done. Okay. But the good news is the balances don't matter. So you're going to see this, it's not like if you invest in the 32,000, 401k, it's going to have higher growth than the IRA.

“Ryan, how much do you go, how much do you make a year?”

So between my wife and I, the growth is 102 a year. How about you though, like because we're talking about your numbers and your stuff, what's mine? Mine 65 a year. 65, okay.

Because I'm thinking if the 6% of the pension that you have going in, we always say that half of the pension is what counts towards your 15% on babysat 4.

Because there is money going in, which is great. It includes some of it, but you don't have a lot of control. And sometimes they put it in pretty conservative investment. So it's not very aggressive. So that would be, so 3% of your pension is the 15 or you fall on me.

So you got 12% left of your income. And you'll be investing a total probably of around $9,000. So you really could go fill up that Roth IRA at $7,500. And that leaves you, you know, $1,500 left. You could just throw at the 401k if you wanted because you're getting 5% right. We don't count the employer's match or the employer's contribution in the 15%.

But it's still good to know that because, you know, 7% going in the 401k, it's probably what I would do. Yeah. And here's what I mean, it rams you for a long time, it's just 15% into my Roth 401k here. And that way, I never saw the money. So it sort of forces the discipline because it shows up before you ever get your paycheck.

Versus some people going, hey, I've got extra money.

“Should I fund the Roth IRA or should I go on vacation?”

Sometimes it's just nice to force yourself to eat the vegetables, which is kind of what you do when you dial up that investment in your 401k to 12% in your case. But going from a pension to a Roth and some in a 401k, that is great. And you guys do in that and your wife and you know, your wife do in the same on her side. How old are you guys? Amazing.

That's impressive to be at $127 and she is $126. Oh, good for you guys. Well, you're going to, you're going to kill you. Oh, absolutely. All right, let's go back to John and let's see if we got him online.

John, are you there? Yes, man. Oh, you sound clear. Clear as day. Okay, perfect.

Okay. So we have your mortgage and then you're saying what you had left on it was about $175,000 on your house. So what is, what's your main question? I have $23,000 and roughly $23,000 credit card in loan debt. Okay.

And now, my Social Security is only 1561 a month. And I only get an I only net around $500 from the rental property that I have. Okay. Show that average is out to about $2,000 a month. That's all they're income.

So that's it. How old are you John? I'm an old man. Oh, my God. I'm 74.

Oh, I'm at two old. You're good. Oh, thank you. Young 74. A young 74.

Oh, God bless you. Put that one. Thank you so much. I accept that. So you make a little over two grand a month between Social Security and the investment property.

What are your expenses every month? Between the minimum debt payments and your bills? All right. Now, well, I pay the, I have a rental that I pay rent in North Carolina at 625 a month. Then I have my credit card debt is 1200 a month.

And that's about it. What's the rental that I was care line of for? Because of the house that I rent. I don't because of the house that I own is in another state. Okay, see if two mortgages.

No, no, no, one mortgage and one rent.

“Okay, so who's in the other house that has the mortgage on it?”

Oh, my rent is my rent is, you know, my tenant. Oh, is that's your, you're making 500 bucks a month between the mortgage payment with versus what they're paying? Yeah, you're right. All right. Well, something's got to give here.

Yeah, how much, if you sold that house, how much equity is in that house? Well, it's worth, as though it was got it up there for about 3310. And you owe 175? Correct. You might need one 10, one 15 year effort fees.

And you're renting for your, for where you're living right now. Okay. Correct. Okay, gotcha, okay. Um, I mean, I'm, I don't, I'm still.

I wanted to do like a home equity or a cash out, but I don't know because I just,

this, this basically, well, this two mortgages on the house now.

If I were to try to get a cash out, pay off the credit card. That's just moving around. Well, what we need to do is get out of the debt, which is going to require deeper sacrifice. So I would be looking at selling this whole thing and using that proceeds to pay off the debts. And maybe you'll be able to at least get by.

Yeah, and maybe you'll have a lot of security and maybe some part of time work. And after everything's paid, hopefully it's 100 grand left. And then the hope would be that maybe you can find something small. Um, yep, that's probably what I would do, John, is probably sell this rental. And it's in another state.

You don't want to be a long term, a long distance landlord. [Music] Hey, it's Rachel Cruz. I don't know about y'all, but I can build something up in my head until it feels way harder than it really is. I'll convince myself it's going to take forever, be super complicated, or cost a fortune.

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So don't make a mountain out of a molehill. Go to Mama Bear LegalForums.com and use promo code Ramsey to save 20% on your will. That 20% off is exclusive to Ramsey fans only. Mama Bear LegalForums.com with promo code Ramsey. Well, if you're new to the Ramsey show, it's important to know.

The way we filter our questions, we give our advice. We think through scenarios is an a pretty consistent manner, if you will, because there's a plan that we follow called the seven baby steps. And it really is the plan to get yourself in control of your money. Get out of debt, save, invest, pay off your house everything.

“You really need to do in your life when it comes to your money and the order at which you should do it.”

So if you're not familiar with it, make sure to check it out. We'll put a link down below for those of you watching on YouTube or listening on podcast. To check out the seven baby steps, because this is one of the most helpful things that you can do for your financial journey. All right, let's go to is at Luis in Indianapolis. Hi, welcome to the show.

Hi, thank you. Thanks for having me. So basically, I'm calling because I'm trying to figure out whether filling my cars actually a smart financial decision, or whether my partner is right about me being impulsive again. So a little backstory, basically in December, my old car broke down.

I tried buying a cheap to the 3K car. But the very next day, when it's dark, I got frustrated. I made a Muslim decision and bought a $43,000 car.

Even though I always told myself I wouldn't buy a new because of new car because of depreciation.

So basically now I'm considering selling it, but I'm not trying to upgrade or buy another expensive car. I started as a side of business, mobile detailing, so I bought a van. So right now, I wouldn't be in brush buying a different car. Probably in the next month or so. My partner thinks I should just leave everything alone because I have a history of making impulse of decisions.

And sometimes we're getting them later. So she also thinks buying the detailing that was also impulsive. So my question is basically what's selling the new car and going back to a cheap car, maybe me correcting it that financial decision or am I just making another impulse of decision and should keep what I already have. I wonderfully phrase question.

So so far, it doesn't sound like you think you're making impulse of decisions. So I don't know what Luis thinks about his own decision making because so far, just my partner thinks it's impulsive.

“Do you think it was impulsive to buy this brand new car?”

I definitely think it was impulsive. Like I said, I did bought that.

You know, I've always had that mentality of like, I wasn't sure you guys are still for since I was in high school.

So I've made sure to buy a $3,000 car.

But how much did you have? You know, there's a middle ground here where you know, it doesn't have to be from a 3 to 43. There's a gap here, $40,000 gap. We can talk about something. Is it on payments?

Um, so I actually bought it a January, like I said, I don't know, December of last year. Um, and I actually paid it off of end of February. So okay. That year, the I graduated nursing school of January 25. Had about 15K in savings and brought that 2025.

I, um, saved up total of like 35,000.

“Um, so, so did you spend a whole winter money on this car?”

I am the car and I had a $24,000 student loan. So it was both. Oh, so you did okay. I think we all of my, yeah, all of my savings and earnings. I, I spent on the car.

Yes, so that probably is not smart. Do you have any other debt or are you debt free now? I'm debt free now. I'm not sure.

You know, I don't have a budget.

I don't do a budget or anything like that. But, you know, the kind of go I would, I picked every two weeks. So I just kind of go. Do you think to spit ball anything a budget would help you make less Impulse of decisions?

I think so. I definitely think so. I tend to be very. Um, yeah, I just, I just tend to be, um, kind of go with the flow. And I usually like structure.

Um, but for some reason when it comes to budgeting. I think to find different kinds of budgeting apps. But nothing, I don't know. I don't know. Nothing really dressed my attention.

So I just end up going to, you know, just kind of mental budget. Clearly that one's not working. So let's try a, a downloader app for now. I'm going to gift you one called every dollar. I'm going to give you the premium version.

It'll connect to your bank account. That's step one. It was, we got to make a budget and your partner can be your accountability partner and saying, hey, that brand new car was not in the budget this month.

“Now, if you want to save up and get a car,”

let's put it in the budget and say a thousand bucks a month. Yeah, put away in a sinking fund and buy the end of two years. We got 24 grand. What, and how much do you make a year? So I make a total of like, many thousand.

Pick up some extra shifts in the side business. So I'd say about a hundred. Okay. Okay. And the vans paid off.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So, you know, this is in post of two right.

And somewhere I basically had a savings of like $15,000.

I was putting $10,000 on like the $4,000 or $5,000 on the van. The equipment. So then basically right now I have $5,000. You know, in savings. Okay.

So I honestly, because you're under that we say that you're anything with motors and wheels that you own should be no more than 50% of your take home pay. But, but let me get this right. The car, the $43,000 car, is different than the van, right? Yeah.

Correct. That's just more of the van I usually just use it to like go from. And how much is that worth, would you say? The van, I'd say it's probably worth about 3500. Oh, okay.

Okay. You know, you're on, it's paid off at this point. I think you would, I don't know if I would sell it. Because I think that you're going to take the hit of a being a one year old car. And I don't know.

You know what I mean? Like I, at this point, the car isn't the issue. You're the issue now with your money. Yeah. If you may like to control yourself, blood oath to yourself and God and your partner that no more

Impulse of decisions, we're going to budget for all these things. Then it's okay to keep it. Now, it might be a stock reminder of your past decisions. And if that's the case, it's going to keep you up at night. You know, slamming your head on the desk.

I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have done that. Then sure, sell it as just so you can stop letting that live in your head rent free. But as far as our perimeter goes, it is a lot of car for a young guy. You know, you're making good money.

“But it's not violating the framer so much that I would say you need to go sell this tomorrow.”

Your broke. It's not freeing up a payment. You're not needing it to pay off any other debt. So if you love the car, you can keep it. What kind of car is this?

It's, uh, basic. I'm 225 on the court. Is it hybrid touring? Okay. Yeah.

That's a sweet ride. I was obsessed with that. But now it's just kind of just sitting there. You know, I mean, I don't even want to put the mouth on the right because eventually I do want to sell it. No, you gotta just drive it to the wheels fall off.

Yeah, you bought it. You got it. That should be the pact you make. As I have to drive this thing for 10 years to prove to myself that I don't impulsively jump in and out of decisions. So your goal needs to be to build up an emergency fund of at least three months.

Put that aside and start investing your income. Because at least you, you can start making smart decisions today. Because the guy you've been at this point is a little bit. You know, on a whim and an expensive whim that you go on. And that's how you're going to live your whole life is kind of this like whim to whim.

I have fun and I enjoy my money.

But I'm going to have a plan around it and some level of control when it comes to my spending so that I know what is going on.

“And that's what the budget's going to help you do.”

And you put all that together, you're going to do fine. Like you, you are, you worked hard. You mean you paid off, gosh, the car and $24,000 in student loans in a year. So you obviously have a strong work ethic. I think you're going to be able to make some great money.

You just want that money to be put to good use. So I hope that's helpful. But yeah, stay on the line. We'll pick up and get you every dollar premium for free. I like these promises.

I will not go into debt ever again unless it's a 15 year mortgage. And I will not make impulsive purchases. And I'm going to let my partner advise me and give me wisdom. Because they know we better than anyone.

She's probably like stupid.

What are you doing again? What are you doing? A lot of business. Everybody came home. That's what he said.

He's like, listen, I bought a car dealing. Every time it comes home, there's a new decision. And I bought a new car. Just what? And it's jumping from extreme to extreme, which can happen.

But you go from a beat or $2,000 car that won't start. Sounds like you had money. Just treated. We don't tell people, go buy $2,000 cars for the rest of your life. If you have money, yeah, you could have gotten a great.

If you're in crippling debt, you need something to go far. Go get a $15,000 car.

“There's that middle ground there that's important.”

Versus letting your emotions take over. Oh, he's so. Logic is going to help you, my friend. All in. Move slow, slip on it.

Just sleeping on it. Might change your life. Whatever it is, $10,000, $10,000. Give it a rest first. When you're trying to hire, you don't have time to dig through stacks of resumes,

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Meet your match on zip recruiter. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwins Credit Union Studio. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with George Campbell, and we are answering your questions at Triple 8-825-525. So give us a call, we're talking about your life and your money.

Up next, we have Brooke and Salt Lake City. Hi, Brooke. Welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys? Hi, we're doing great. How can we help? Good. I am just curious. How do you stay humble,

but stand up for yourself when your family members make comments

“about you not having money, but they don't know the whole story?”

No, what happened? We just, we try to live a humble lifestyle, and you know, use the every dollar app, and we just get comments sometimes randomly, mostly for my husband's mother,

and she says things like, "Oh, I wish you did things like your uncle, and you were smart with your money instead of buying this, I don't know, two thousand dollar hunting, both. What happened yesterday?"

Your husband bought a hunting bow for $2,000? Yeah, he's going to. Okay, and she said-- She doesn't think that's wise decision. She doesn't think that we say for it and pay cash for things.

Would that make a difference to her? Or does she just think this is a stupid purchase? Um, she, her comment was mostly like, "Your uncle saves and saves, and then buys what he wants when he wants to."

Well, do you? You don't have to respond to anything she says. She doesn't get a vote in your life, but did you not say that's what we do? Yeah, we did, and she just said,

"Well, it doesn't seem like that." It's just hard like to, when people say things like that, and without wanting to be like,

Without needing to prove yourself? Yeah, yeah.

Has she always been this way?

Do you guys have this kind of relationship where most things she says bothers you? Oh, a little bit. Okay. Just maybe the part for the course with mother-in-law's,

I don't know,

“but I think this is maybe tip of the iceberg.”

Of she's just this kind of a judging your person and rubs you the wrong way. And, like, until she doesn't know your life. And super rude. Yeah, I just--

Can you imagine telling if this is my mom? I'm-- I really wish you-- Why doesn't your husband step in and take her aside and go, "Hey, Mom?"

Yeah. Listen, we don't know this. We don't need your opinion. Yeah, he did last night after the fact. And we've gotten comments sometimes from other family members

that we have to not like to this extent. It's been a little more subtle here and there. But he did pull her aside last night, but it's just he, like, "How much do I tell her do I tell her?

We have all this money. Do I tell her how much we make? Do I tell her we have all this retirement?" Like, but she doesn't-- She worried about us, you know?

I don't think he needs to show her a spreadsheet. I think he can just have a conversation saying, "Hey, Mom, appreciate your comments. They are unneeded. We're doing fine financially.

We don't go into different things. We save up." You can mind your own business. Like, I feel like she doesn't even-- I mean, I'm one extra.

I'm just trying to shut this down. You know what I mean? We don't need to have conversations like this. We're doing fine if we need help for struggling. Well, you'll know.

No, we let you know if we need help. I mean, I won't let her know. Well, if they want the comments to look for your opinions, we will ask for them. That's it.

I think it's that. If we want your opinion about money, we will ask. But how is she doing financially? It's just a rude thing to say to someone. Do you think she's projecting her?

She definitely--

I don't think she's doing amazing financially.

I don't think she's doing awful, but I don't think that she's at a point where she should be at her age. But-- okay. Yeah. Well, this is easier said than done broke.

But I mean, I honestly, you're whole life when you try to dance around what other people are thinking and trying to prove yourself. That's just a long exhausting life. So there does have to be a level of, which is easier said than done. I know.

“But where you have to be like, this is our story.”

This is what we're choosing to do. And other people can make judgments, make comments. But it is what it is. And we're secure enough in our plan. We know what we're doing, that we don't-- we don't even need the affirmation

of the outside people to feel good about what we're doing. We don't need them to even know. Because it's not of their business. That's usually what we're like. Yeah.

But this is bothering you. This bothered you. Yes. What other comments are made? You said that this was the most obvious comment.

Are there like passive aggressive? It's just been-- No, it's just been things like we're-- we make it a point to say in front of our kids and say, we don't have the money for that.

We say it's not in the budget, right? So we say that to people when they're like, hey, do you want to go to St. George next week? And we're like, oh, no, sorry, that's not in the budget. We didn't plan for that this month. And then they say, oh, okay, you know.

Like, so it's just little things like that where you can tell that they're like, oh, like, like, I can't just do it. Sure. Yeah.

And it's hard to-- And you can't, right?

“Like, you guys aren't at the point that--”

I mean, we could, yeah. We're on baby steps six. And we have, like, your money we make about, like, 240 a year, 18 to 20% away, like-- Oh, wait a minute.

Just fine. But we just-- Yeah. We just budget. Well, you different priorities and other people.

Some people want to go on vacations every couple months. And you guys spend your money on a crossbow. Like, it just depends on your personality. So as long as you're living out of your values and you're not, you know, sort of shorting yourself by saying,

we can't spend. Instead, go, you're what we choose to spend on. That's what I do when I make sure, bro, because that you guys are enjoying your life. But you're comfortable with the decisions you've made.

Oh, yeah. Okay, that's great. That's what I want. I don't-- Because sometimes we get people--

I don't want trips. And stuff all the time, but we just-- The children aren't suffering. Yeah. And, you know, to shift the language a little bit,

just as a thought, since you guys are on baby stepsics. And since you could technically put it in the budget, if you wanted to, right? Right. It--

I do wonder if the sentiment of-- It's not in the budget.

Usually means that we don't have the money for it right the second.

But we-- But when you have the ability to, you know, you could just say, sorry, we can't-- And the kids start to hear more. We get to make decisions based on our value.

The system. Because mom and dad have done so well. And because we follow the budget for so long, we actually have the ability to do some of this. But we're just choosing not to.

Does that make sense? Yeah, sure. Versus villainizing the budget. Not to other people. I'm thinking more of the kids.

Even though I tell my kids the whole time. I was like, we don't have the money for that, stop it. Stop it. Yeah. Shut up.

Shut up. Shut up.

Shut up. Shut up. It does. It does.

“But I always do wonder, because you guys are on the side.”

Right? It would be different, too, if you were getting out of debt and you're on baby step one, two, or three, and you're, then it really is not in the book. You really don't have the money to do it. And that's a fair reality. But I wonder the narrative at which you, you talking to get it. This is less about other people.

Maybe more within your home and for yourself to give yourself. I don't know. The permission to be like, yeah, we're able to do this. But we're going to just, we're going to just choose to say no. Because we don't want to spend the money there.

Does that make sense? Well, you want your kids and everyone else to see that you're making decisions out of confidence and who you want what your value are instead of a place of weakness of this like, well, we just, I don't know. We can't sound the budget. I do think the language matters. Yeah.

And we always say Morris caught them taught.

So the kids will grow up thinking, well, we never had money for that. Instead of, we had the money. That wasn't a priority for us. For Mom and Dad. Yeah.

And that they're grown up enough that they don't feel like they're having to be swayed in every situation. Things because someone else asked them or pressured them. That's right. Yep. I don't know.

Just a thought broke. I appreciate the call though. But yeah. Yeah. The mother-in-law thing.

“I think there's just a point that you have to say, of course.”

Of course, she'd make these comments. It is what it is. And you can't move it on. Don't let it pin you down and ruin your day.

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Well, George, I think some of my favorite memories growing up were trips. It's probably my love for travel. Ramsey's love travel. We love, we do, we do travel.

And mom and dad, they would always, we would like,

we went from camping and tents as they were getting out of there, you know, trying to out of the bankruptcy and all of that. And then, by the time I hit, probably late middle school high school, we actually went on like vacations. We went on trips and mom and dad made it a priority.

They do love to travel and they still do. But one of the things we did all the time is we, we cruise. We were cruising. Wow. So you're either cruiser or you're not.

So I'm here. And we've done, we did the big ships. Even as adults, we've done some in Europe. They've taken us before we had kids. But it was like Winston, my sister and her husband.

And we did like a Baltic sea, like a smaller boat, like some really fun experiences. And there's some of the best memories. Again, I've had are these trips. And so thanks, Dave and Sharon, for that.

But the great thing is is that Dave's love for cruising has, has spilled over into-- In full trade, it brings me salutes. Ramsay lands, you can say. And the idea of going on a cruise called the live,

and Nelson Cruz came about a few years ago. We did our first one. It was two a year ago. It's when we were there. March.

March is 25. And this is for people in baby steps. Four, five and six. So when you're out of debt, you have your family five. You can come if you're on--

Oh, sorry. Yeah. A lot of seven or six. And sevens. What's the thing?

We've got about seven. I know, sevens. A lot of sevens, actually. And it was like, this, hey, we talk about the sacrifice

“and everything you have to do to get yourself”

in a good financial position. And so you live like no one else. And then later you get to live and give like no one else. So let's do the live like no one else cruise for those people. And let's celebrate and have fun and create memories

And to enjoy it with other people.

“And so we are-- we're so pumped because we're doing it again.”

And this next one coming up is in March of 27. And it is-- it's filling up George. Seven nights, Western Caribbean, Bahamas, Jamaica. Oh, I want to take yeah, we got Grand Cayman, CosML. The entire ship is Ramsey fans.

That's it. And the Ramsey personality, Dave and all. And look at it. It's beautiful. It is a nice ship.

Paul and American.

Dave had to, had to approve.

You know that. He had to say that he would--

“Well, he said he doesn't want Walmart of the season.”

Yes, I know. He wants it to be classed. It is. It's such a beautiful, nice ship. My kids, they're coming from part of it.

Can't wait. They have lots of their spring break. I know. And so yeah, it's just-- it's so fun. it's so fun you guys and all the ramsy personalize will all be there every night will be

um yeah hanging out during the day and we have all the content we're going to do the world's largest ed free scream life tapings of your favorite ramsy shows maybe even smart money happy hour who knows oh look at us Lord George just laughing we got to make a drink that I want to say it was disastrous and hilarious it was great it was great but yeah uh join us if you will again if you're on baby steps four or beyond um and let's let's celebrate together so you can secure

“your cabin and if you want to go to ramsy solutions.com/abents to book or we have a little QR code”

on screen if you're watching on YouTube that you can that you can click on but we want to we we want to hang out with you next March March and 27 come cruise with us to be some good memories all right let's go to Houston Texas and we have a core Mac so how we would say is that it did I pronounce it correctly good core Mac yes some core Mac okay perfect hi welcome to the show I think yeah yes how can we help so my last night I have uh over previous few years between

bad luck and bad decisions we write up about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars in bed 9 including our home um feel in the pinch trying to get things right I've discovered the program a few months ago and uh have the thousand plus saved up um just trying to get out of bed however what I've noticed is because our minimum payments are so high we're making such a small dent we're working if we're a bit off doing a chapter 13 uh bankruptcy just consolidating everything

or cashing out um one of my uh Roth IRAs which is almost covered the full debt and trying to rebuild hmm wow can I ask what is the 120 what kind of debt is it combination of the vehicle of the mostly credit card vehicle and credit card okay how much you owe on the vehicle today 20 thousand and that's about what it's worth 20 thousand and that's about what you can get for it okay um any money saved besides the thousand I've got a couple of doubts here

that I do have a some uh federal employee so I have my TSB which is like the 401k a plus uh before I doing that I had a Roth IRA saved up which I have about 110 thousand dollars in okay um so it's so it's a hundred thousand and credit card debt yes it was there of did you try to start a business or what was what what was I used on um unfortunately I went through uh so over the past five years there was a divorce that was contested um I was heated um I ran mother and my father passed away

within several months a couple months of each other okay wow and then good stuff did happen where I met my now life and we every married we have two beautiful children of our own um but those what was the cost money yeah yeah so that's all you've had a lot of a lot happened it has been an active couple of years yes okay so how much money do you and your new wife make a combined about 250 thousand a year oh well that's great well yeah are you guys investing right now

at the exact moment no because I've been I pulled out my uh my auto pull out of my paycheck I the through all that or see Mary stopped all that to try and get a handle on the debt good and

same with your spouse correct okay so I'm just looking at all the options here so we never

encourage bankruptcy of course it will destroy your life for the next ten years a lot more than it might help it especially with the chapter 13 where you're just restructuring and getting on a payment plan and so I would look at this amazing income and then your expenses to go what can we cut out of our lives how do we make more so that we can get ahead of this because right now you're saying the interest alone on 100 grand a credit card debt what is the minimum payment

per month and what's the interest every month um I I've taught my head uh the combined payments are well over 3,000 a month okay and we're all the and the average if you ever took the the interest

first marriage so that it has a good dip into it and then just medical expenses as well as

“we have a second home that we are trying to unload and that but in the meantime we're still”

costing us money as well well the proceeds be from that if you sell it I mean I just want to work out to sell it for just costs just to get out from under it okay but that'll free at least a morning payment correct or to be about including the tax payment about 2,000 a month okay great will that help you get ahead would you be above water here if you know it's a two grand my concern is my job has a mandatory retirement of 56 and I'm 38 I only have 18 years left to work

well and because I do not have a college degree I don't feel like I'll be able to get another similar job pay scale wise so I I'm just the dry I am hesitant to drain my of one the one retirement account

“is because I'm just not I'm worried I will not have enough time to rebuild it before I am forced to”

retire sure that is a concern and we only tell people if you're gonna if you're facing bankruptcy it's the only time that you would ever even consider dipping into retirement but I would still use that as a last ditch effort not a let's go green light drain your rough IRA today I would do everything in my power to use your current assets in future income to knock this debt out over the next couple of years yeah which I think if you took a good hard look at the budget you could find some money yes that's

what I'm wondering some like okay say you guys lived off of 4k a month which will feel very different than probably how you have with some child support payments you said I mean I feel like you can I feel like you could you guys could find 4 or 5,000 in a month yes over the past six months we've cut out sold the car we like so we're trying to get rid of the spare house we have cut all streaming things we're we're we're we're women I picked up that can job okay good good because 5k a month

“thrown at this debt you're done in about two years yeah that's what it's a fine 5k out of this”

amazing 240,000 dollar a year income and plus extra maybe some extra yes you climb out of this

yeah I'm gonna take some time but do not touch retirement don't fall for bankruptcy you guys have the income and the work ethic to get out of it it may take two years if you're behind on your bills doing more of the same isn't going to fix it you need a different plan and that's why I tell people about guardian litigation group if you've missed payments if collectors are calling non-stop or if you're getting letters about legal action that's your

signal and it's where a lot of people wait too long because the longer you wait the fewer options you usually have and once it turns into a lawsuit things can get more expensive and more complicated fast guardian litigation is a law firm not a call center from day one you are assigned an attorney who represents you so if a creditor moves forward you're not caught off guard and you're not hit with surprise legal fees guardian litigation only gets paid when the debt is negotiated and the

client accepts the settlement offer this is about stepping in early while you still have leverage don't ignore the problem take control of it go to guardianlit dot com slash ramsik right now that's guardianlyt dot com slash ramsik attorney advertising results may vary in no specific outcome is guaranteed so one of the sneaky things about debt I would say and building a life around it and we're talking everything from putting vacations on credit cards to financing furniture to all the above

is you see the price of something and you assume that's that's it that's it but the problem is when

you use debt there's a little thing called interest George that uh that'll get you it don't get you so the um people think let's know big deal and they don't teach this stuff in school yes they're not telling you what 20% APR actually means that's right it comes to that purchase yep so we wanted to kind of do the math if you will on what it actually really is costing you the hidden cost of this quote unquote american life that people build and when you do it on debt again

out of there with that thing yes regardless of what payment you can afford and what the interest rate is

“that they'll tuck into the fine print so let's talk about sticker price versus actual price”

let's start with a new couch that's a famous one you go into any furniture store they always have

some deal happening with the interest yeah no down 0% for the first whatever so let's talk about a new couch let's say the sticker price is 1500 bucks and it's 20% APR for 36 months so when you hear the word APR that's an abbreviation for annual percentage rate this is essentially the full cost per year of borrowing that money so it's not just the interest rate it's actually the interest rate plus whatever fees they have all baked into one final rate so 20% APR for 36 months will you

actually pay for that 1500 dollar couch is two thousand and seven dollars gross so over 500 bucks an interest alone five hundred dollars but think about that that makes the effective interest rate about 33% about a third of that couch is paid extra an interest extra to go that's crazy okay

“let's look at let's look at credit cards let's say you got a six thousand six hundred dollar balance”

and you know you have a 22.8% APR and you'll be paying about 300 dollars a month so if you do that it's gonna take you about two years and five months to pay off this credit card and the final price of the credit card is eight thousand six hundred and twenty eight dollars so over two thousand dollars an interest alone just by saying hey we're gonna just uh we're gonna live life on a credit card may or may not be able to pay it off fully every month so we're gonna kind of just keep it

around and then it ends up with a balance of you have six thousand six hundred dollars wow okay okay that's not even minimal payment okay that's your paying extra okay you're ready for this so then option two we have here same APR 22.8% and you just do minimum payments okay the pay off time is 20 years and one month and the final price will be 17 thousand and 60 dollars so you're paying ten almost 15 I mean ten thousand five hundred dollars in just interest if you're

just paying the minimum payments that's wild and if you are able to watch on YouTube Spotify we've got the charts up to visualize all of this and it is staggering just to look at the numbers on this to think now I hope nobody takes 20 years to pay off six grand no it's surely not but listen the fact remains a lot of people are just making minimum payments because they can't or don't know for years yeah maybe 20 years but for a good amount for sure can you imagine that whatever that

thing was you put on the credit card you long ago like the 20 years ago that's a lot of stupid tax to pay it's go back 20 years you got a little 2006 action what did you buy in 2000 what decisions was I'm making at 17 years I don't want to know the stupid stuff I was buying wow okay now let's move on to a to a bigger one a car yep so sticker price 35 thousand dollars financing at seven percent for five years final price 41 thousand five hundred and eighty two

dollars so in extra we'll go sixy six hundred in interest alone and think about this that car is

no longer worth 35 thousand dollars because we know that you know cars go down value about 60 percent

and five years yeah so that 35 thousand dollar car you'll be lucky if it's 15 to 20 grand well what's hard is 35 and that's before sales tax registration dealer fees warranties all that so that easily could be out the door at 40 42 out yep so you're watching what it is it is why financing the car is one of the biggest wealth killers for the middle class in America today you don't realize just how bad it is when you're paying interest on our depreciating asset

going down and value all right finally the house now this one can feel like the least dumb decision because it's a house it's an asset it's going to go up and value over time so let's talk about a sticker price of 350 thousand dollars for that house and you're going to put 20 percent down so 70 grand down and you're going to do a 30 year mortgage at six percent APR well the final price of that 350 thousand dollar house is six hundred and seventy four thousand dollars around three hundred

twenty four grand an interest which is almost as much as that house that's crazy wild wild and if you did a 15 year mortgage then you pay a hundred and seventy nine thousand dollars less an interest so almost two hundred thousand dollars you save an interest just by paying it off

in fifteen versus thirty which is why we always tell people yes just get the fifteen don't get a

“30 and think we're going to pay it off like a 15 for sure self in it yeah and I think what's hard”

is is again you in these individual situations it may feel like a good idea like sure let's just put the vacation on the credit card or we need so we need some new furniture so in this one situation we're going to do this but what happens is that this builds over time and for a lot of people you're not able to pay it off in in six months to a year if you're just living paycheck to

nine months twelve months after the other decision right and it just keeps piling up and then you realize how much money of your money you're sending not just for the item because it's not just

“the secret price but all the interest to the banks and everything in these industries are there”

to make money and they know how to do it for an America especially oh my gosh how much people take out debt amount of interest lenders are collecting every year with boggling your mind so here's the thing to remember wealthy people earn interest broke people pay interest you want to be on the

wealthy side earning it instead of paying it and remember this the sticker price is never the final price

so anytime you see that anytime there's a salesperson involved they are trained to sell they are trained to let you focus on the features and the benefits and all how you're going to feel when you leave with that thing not the fine print not the APR not how much you're gonna pay in full and the taxes and fees will add a little the interest will add a lot that's right yep and minimum payments it's a debt trap like that kind of system that systematic thinking of I'll just pay the minimum

“payments for the rest of my life that keeps you keeps you guaranteed you in a cycle of debt for a”

really really long time versus saying hey I want to get out of this I'm going to stop going into

debt and I'm actually going to aggressively pay it off beyond the minimum payments to get out of

debt as soon as possible and lastly cash changes the math and the mindset yes saving up fuel slower yes you're gonna have to say no right now but it's actually the fastest path to taking control of your money and it makes you think twice when you would to save up and actually see that amount of money leave your bank account you think twice about that couch you don't want on Facebook marketplace because we're like are we good it took us three months to save up for that couch I don't

know if I want to let go my heart and money think about how much of your your working hours are spent just giving it to a lender that's crazy to think about absolutely and and I'll say this too when you spend in cash and like larger purchases you do you do realize okay I may not need that like if it's if that cash is there right in our plan we would say you can pay for it like if you have the money for it that is fine but so when we've run into this with with our van even furniture we've

we've had our furniture for a gosh it's going on how many years seven years and so there's a couple of things we want to upgrade but you're kind of like well the kids are still yeah I almost find myself being like oh do we need to I don't know you know because I I don't know if I want to we

may hurt to spend that kind of money but you don't have that emotional attachment always with your

money when debt is being used it is just a sign of a you know it's a big part of your brain that's the logical side and goes straight to the well I want it now it's the toddler in you yes when it do not let the toddler win so the average individual the average American the average broke person just asks how much per month how much down that's the problem financially wise people wealthy people they ask how much what is the full cost total cost and if I don't have that amount I'm

not buying it and if you do that you will take control of your money so we've got an app that helps you do this it's called every dollar you can create sinking funds for that next big purchase and do it with confidence and peace we'll drop a link in the show notes if you're listening on podcast or YouTube to that app okay guys it's Rachel Cruz when it comes to life insurance and most people fall into one of

two camps the ones who make a plan to protect their family and the ones who hope everything will just work out but hope isn't a financial plan when you get married or have kids your money decisions aren't just about you anymore your income helps keep the lights on pay the mortgage and put food on the table and if something happens to you will your family have protection or uncertainty well at Ramsey we recommend term life insurance that 10 to 12 times your income with a 15 to 20 year term for the

“years that your kids are at home and your mortgage is still being paid off that's how Winston and I”

have our term life coverage through Xander insurance they're an independent broker who works for you shopping all the top companies to find the most competitive prices on coverage you need get instant quotes online in just minutes at Xander.com or call 800 at 356 4282 to get your family protected with term life insurance that Xander.com or 800 356 4282

when you share the show and you tell your friends and family about it it is so helpful because

we want to be able to help and talk to as many people as possible to get them in control of their money so if you would like comment subscribe share the show that helps us out a ton mentioned it your next dinner party yeah just start out there play it in the background and then what is that

“what is that about sit a spot that's so pretty boy yeah it's George Campbell that's that's what's”

happening now we aren't clocked in play list here no no no we got the Ramsay's you got me yeah it's all you need all right let's go to Ben in a chat a new guy hi Ben welcome to the show hi hello how can we help today um so my main question is should I stretch for a 1.1 million dollar family farm dream on 186 thousand dollar salary my wife's grandparents owned a 28 acre farm in

the northwest Georgia mountains my wife has always dreamed about living on property like this about

six years ago her grandparents put it up for sale we found that we were in a position to make an

“offer so we offered five hundred thousand for it we were living in the Boise area at the time”

and that would have been contingent on our house however they ended up selling it to someone who offered a higher price close to the full price it was 586k we believe the real estate agent kind of had some influence on that and this has been kind of the lasting source of disappointment for my in laws and the family um now we've relocated to the northwest Georgia area um the current owners have offered to sell us 17 acres of the farm land for 500k however the county blocked the lots split

on after we completed the survey due to a maximum number of six residents is on a private road

“we went through the variance process with the county it was denied after that owners”

offered us at least a purchase arrangement where we put up the price for the 17 acres 500k with no payments and then after 36 months we would purchase the remaining 11 acres I countered with it just an idea of leasing the land outright for $300 a month and then having a first right of refusal that when they're ready to sell we could get the land for 1.1 which they said they like that um they're thinking about doing that in a year or two

my financial situation I have about 700,000 in retirement funds about 450k in cash from the sale of our previous house about 50k in the stock portfolio

about 20k in emergency funds and about 30k in HSA in an HSA and so that's about 1.2 million

for my net worth I the my in-laws have offered to pay $1,000 a month if absolutely needed to pay for this so that it can come back into the family however that would come out of there equity in their house at this time and no worker rail hard for this piece of property yes so everybody's working really hard and so my concerns are just affordability for myself that's a big debt for my salary are you guys renting right now sir 50 I'm yes we're renting

okay would you think about putting the 480 down as a down payment because that'd be almost half of it um yeah I would be putting down at least the 450 and keep my money fund is what I am what about the stocks could you liquidate those um I would like to keep those and well okay it might be growing okay my quick math you I would tell me this been if you did put down 480 it looks like the payments then and this would be on a 30 year or not a 15 and we recommend a 15

but it would be around $4,000 a month and you guys bring home around 15k I'm just trying to figure

contributions or health care premiums what is your after tax monthly income um so after tax without any

“of my benefits would probably be around let's see it probably be around like 12,000 okay”

or probably more like 11,000 so if you did a 15 year like we recommend that'd be about half your take home pay and so you're worried about that legitimately yeah that's going to make you a house pour now what is the future hold can you buy this thing can you set up an agreement where you purchase this thing let's say two years from now and you guys just sock away cash I mean that is kind of what I'm thinking that I would need to do in order to

because no one else is jones and for this property right and yeah and the people on it don't really take their okay get now yeah do you want to move to a bin um yeah it's a beautiful property I mean I'm sure I mean the North gosh North Georgia mountains are gorgeous

my issue is always just to do the does the math add up and am I going to feel like this is going

to weigh down on me with that amount of debt for three years like that's always my concern yeah I would not do this today I think there is a future where this can make sense and you're not stressed out about it I mean you guys have waited this long for the dream so let's make sure the dream is a blessing and not a burden once we get into it now ish do you guys have kids yes we have five kids okay I'm 12 and under does this move make sense for you guys like if you just did this

thing next year would this work with your jobs oh yeah so I I would need to commute but I'm already commuting we live nearby this is all reason we moved here okay yeah well I would say if you can set up a two I mean if this is really what you guys are wanting and you're like this is going to be a long term play for us then yeah I would say give it two years because I think after talking away some cash and then maybe cash out some you may have to cash out some stocks just

“to make it work because you have plenty in retirement you guys have 700 thousand that's what you said”

yeah so your retirement I mean all of it you're just kind of you're going to be really real estate heavy in general after this but but over time it's going to it will it will even out which I'll be honest but that's what I mean when my husband and we built and we moved in 19 we're pretty real estate heavy yeah I was the same way yeah and and over years you you worked to to even it back out right and then have more cash and retirement all that but um so I think that's

okay for for the short term so if this is something that you both really really want to then there's going to have to be some sacrifices made and that's going to be putting away money seeing if you can get an agreement with them that in a purchase in two years holding the value within not going up okay if you can hold the purchase price today and do it in two years and and then possibly having to cash out some stocks just to make up a difference because I would

rather have breathing room and rebuild in the market investments when you're not penalized like I'm not talking about retirement don't take any of retirement but um I would do that to it because

it sounds like a dream I mean it just it sounds amazing and beautiful and it's been in the family

like it would be worth going in and sacrificing for two years to get it and then knowing the next three to four years we may be real estate heavy but it's not going to it's not going to sink us it's not going to sink you um yeah I mean I would highly consider it and then see what you guys can reasonably put away to go can we put six seven grand away for the next two years and have a hundred seventy grand on top of what we currently have to make this thing make sense and

are you guys working with a good agent um we have not an agent yet about any of this I would get them involved to see is it actually worth 1.1 million are they just squeezing you because they know you really want the property is this thing really worth 800 thousand okay so that's that's what I want you to do your homework on not just go what's 1.1 it has to be 1.1 you might be able to get it for a lot cheaper if you have some negotiating power and that's the power of a great

“agent so Ramsey Solutions dot com slash agent if you want to get a second opinion and I would”

to make sure that you save the most on this thing and don't get squeeze just out of it's our dream what's just doing out or what well and you've already played the emotional cards because I know it's a family property you know to be in like it's you're gonna have to yeah do some good negotiating with it but yeah the answer today Ben is no it'll be 50% of your take-home pay the payment and that would not be worth it but wait two years possibly

good to go wrong the fact is Medicare premiums networks prescription coverage and benefits can

all change even if your health doesn't so doing nothing could cost you hundreds or even thousands

“of dollars a year with annual enrollment time coming soon you need to talk to chapter right away”

chapter is the only Ramsey trusted Medicare advisor and they save Ramsey fans and average of $1100 a year they explain your options simply and help make the smartest decision for your situation and whether they find you a better plan or confirm you're already in the right one chapter services don't cost you a thing Medicare annual enrollment runs October 15th through December 7th so review your plan with chapter now and avoid expensive mistakes later

to talk to the unbiased Medicare experts at chapter go to askchapter.org slash Ramsey or click the link in the description that's askchapter.org slash Ramsey welcome back to the Ramsey show in the fair winds credit union studio i'm Rachel cruise

“hosting the sour with George Campbell co-hosts of smart money happy hour with me as well”

and we're answering your calls so the board is full as we speak but call in triple eight eight two five five two two five we'll see if we can get you in in the next hour to answer your questions about money all right let's go to Fort Wayne Indiana and we have Tyler on the line high Tyler welcome to the show hey thank you so much

for taking my call this is incredible absolutely so you know quick and short to the point

my job moved a year ago due to building closure and my 15-minute commute turned into a minimum 70-minute commute so yeah so my question is is the unreadable to Fort for it or to consider for forting are only debt of a hundred thousand for looking at mortgage

“a three percent interest rate or payments only eight hundred nine dollars and exchange to get”

you know let's say forty minutes or a half hour closer to my job the issue we've had and making this is we've purchased our home pre-COVID for 174 typical ranch out in the country poor bar and et cetera it's worth three hundred and two fifty depends on who you ask that to keep our mortgage the same moving closer to the to work that same price point I don't want to say less nice but we wouldn't be happy with with that so we'd have to go up

to four hundred four hundred and fifty to have an equal wedding situation that you will and we just don't want to talk about one of your expertise on that what's your income mine this year on fact of make one forty my wife around forty so around 80 in a row okay for us as she's born eight one eighty total okay nine thousand a month of being home after every time it's taken out how much would that be

before retirement second out um also say my checks about twenty two twenty five hundred a week

um about the same every two okay nice so here's the deal even if you moved up in house as much as a little hurt because your mortgage payment is so tiny right now it's still going to be such a reasonable part of your take-home pay so if it's less than twenty five percent of your after tax monthly income go for it because you're going to increase your quality of life yes because right now a hundred and forty minutes round trip every day is what you're talking

about uh ninety minutes yes an hour and ten um in which ultimately translates to about forty thousand miles annually on a vehicle and I've sold up the my truck I had because the gas goes on you know about a paper cash little small easy car that cut that bill and you know just to a fraction of what I was paying and fuel cost but you know still my wife has been eight away yeah on the whole life yeah and what were your new mortgage people how much would you take on

it to get an equivalent what we have out in the country is closer it would be almost about two thousand yeah I just ran the numbers it was like eighteen hundred but you could go up to twenty five

just on a retrospect to like loosen a little bit of like you you guys would be fine I know it would hurt but your quality of life I'm like oh my gosh if you could get thirty minutes close to work right or twenty I'm what you're saving almost an hour and a half almost two hours like it's pretty wild right and it's been nice you kids pay casher but we have we do we have one that is graduated

we're paying cash for her no you turn down to school and then we have a first grader that's obviously

our next concerned is we don't want to wait until we're supposed to totally best in with him being

“in school right I get that right we've been in first grade so that's why we want the kind of”

make a move to really later is what we want to do is the area that you guys would be moving to a good area like as a for a family and school system and you know life like your your life in general not just the commute side would it be a good move because I excite you I mean I don't agree with it we would enjoy it I mean we live out into the proverbial bonus right now so we don't want to go into town necessarily and have neighbors but also that comes at a cough hey listen the way

pesky neighbors and the way AI's going you may want to be off the grid so Tyler you might be yes the boonies sounds mighty nice you may end up moving back out there no I'm just kidding but that don't draw a question I found this to be true that the low interest rates are a curse for

“many people it's become golden handcuffs to where they go well we wanted to move but we can't”

let go of this low interest rate I'm going the way Tyler's going you guys could pay off this house in seven years and have a zero percent interest rate and so that would be my goal for you guys is to choose the life you want and you know date the rate knowing it's going to change

it'll fluctuate you can always refinance later and more than likely you'll just pay the

dang thing off by making extra payments to where it's a mood point a couple of years from now but overall it sounds like this is the right mood for your life right now and very conservative still just so you know I mean you guys I was jumping to 6% rate was going to make this payment 50% of your take home pay we'd say well just too much house in general that's right all right let's go to Avery and Tyler Texas hi Avery welcome to the show hello hi Avery there I'm here hi how are

you doing great are you guys we're doing good how can we help um so I am 19 years old I have a job that the payment is kind of different and I may anywhere from 5,000 to 9,000 dollars a month okay and I'm kind of in the stage where I'm saving up for a down payment on the house and I'm having trouble trying to I guess to get myself to have a little fun with my money what does that look like for you um what's something you know you should be doing more of

specifically something I should be doing more of yeah you're saying I need to I need to have more fun what does that mean is that going out with friends is that going on a trip is that buying something a car yeah I mean it's kind of like I have a fun life I enjoy my life but I guess like tickets like events stuff like that but I'm just kind of I know I can't afford but three hundred dollars for a ticket is also three hundred dollars away from a down payment on the house so I'm

just kind of curious if like my M.I supposed to do that I guess well first and foremost I would not

“feel like you have to or should you know X, Y and Z I think it is what you want to do”

what you enjoy doing the problem people get in trouble with with money when they are of saver which it sounds like you are is they end up being controlled by money so much that any decision they make where they have to let go of anything create such anxiety that the money now is a burden and it was supposed to be the thing that actually frees you to make decisions and have options so yeah I would say I would I would personally budget every a percentage of your income

that you can just spend and enjoy and force yourself to do it you'll free but there's a limit right you could say up to this point because you have a goal for a down payment and you're going to need X amount saved each month for that to hit that goal so if you map it out in a budget you actually give yourself permission to spend so I would I mean I would force myself to spend a percentage of my income to enjoy it because that's part of this whole holistic part of money with you

Okay guys Dave Ramsey here every day on this show we help people work through real money problems

ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show whether you're

“making a decision or just want something explained ask Ramsey is here to help it's fast simple”

and free to use go to RamseySolutions.com and try ask Ramsey today that's RamseySolutions.com Our question of the day is brought to you by Y ReFi sometimes the hardest financial step is the one that you have been avoiding and if your private student loans are past due Y ReFi can help you explore low fixed rate refinancing options and payment plans tailored to your circumstances so go to yreFi.com/RAMsey may not be available in all states today's question comes from a

Elizabeth in Nevada or Nevada as they say Nevada in Nevada there we go I'm a Nevada girl Nevada forever Elizabeth says I'm fortunate to work for a company that puts 15% of my salary into my 401k without me having to contribute anything once we wrap up baby step three and star baby step four

“should I add my own 15% in addition to my employer's contribution or direct that money toward”

paying off our house instead my husband plans on contributing 15% in his company will match 10% goodness gracious these employer matches are crazy well done Elizabeth passed out uh that's a good plan well the plan doesn't change you're still going to invest 15% of your own salary which I know sounds crazy but you're putting 30 let's see you make a hundred thousand dollars you're putting 30

grand away only 15 of that is yours yes that's pretty incredible so I always tell people if you have

too much money in retirement you can write me hate mail you can send me a check whatever you want to do it's up to you but I love the idea of building that muscle of investing because you may not have this job forever that's right and so it's great to just go I can live off 15 I can live off of 15% less than I make yes no matter where I work I'm really good at investing that muscle is built up and I think it's easy to get a little acadaisical when the employers doing all the work for you that's

“right and that's why we even say the employer match in general even if it's 3% obviously not 15”

if three five percent it doesn't count towards your 15% because you're exactly right George you're

there's something about putting your own money away and knowing that hey I can do this you always say

eat the vegetables first like you have like a lot of freedom then to say well we really can enjoy and be very generous like there's there's so much freedom and knowing that what is taking care of that needs to be taken care of is done and I'm telling I mean I don't know how old they are but if they've got a couple of decades on them and they're investing this much it's insane that you say how much you make no they don't say I don't know but I feel like this is a pretty

you're you're doing pretty well this is uh this is not like a I'm making $12 an hour in my employer matches 15% of my salary right it's as probably they're making good six figures together well done way to go good job Elizabeth all right let's go to Valentina beautiful name and Nashville here at Nashville hey welcome to the show hi how are you guys doing today hi we're doing great talk can we help yeah well I was calling because my husband and I just

welcome our first baby a little boy all congratulations thanks so much we're we're over the moon

about him but we currently have $33,000 in debt and we've been working on changing off our debt we don't have much in our savings my husband works a full commission job so meaning that his income is like it's a variable I do have a base pay I return I go back to work next week actually I work as a paralegal the last question is how should we be prioritizing paying off our debt saving money with his variable income into all well really it stays the same with the baby step

so that $1,000 is is still that starter emergency fund and then everything else you guys will throw at that debt how much do you guys make a year together so together we need this year we'll clear I just got a raise so it'll be $160,000 oh good well the good thing about this is you guys won't be in debt for too long I mean how quickly do you think you could pay this off well our goal is to have it within a year or sooner okay yeah and if you really ramp it up

and you do it in nine months then again that that starter emergency fund is only there for nine months and everything is being thrown at that and then if something does come up and this is true for anybody regardless of you know you have kids or not if something comes up then what you were

if an emergency happens don't throw it at the debt that month fix the emergency and for sure

“that amount of money should fix most things that 4,000 and if you have to pause for one or two”

months to fix whatever life throws at you you do that and you just do it at the speed of cash and so instead of it going to debt you use that money to fix the emergency but for you guys for nine months we'll just yeah you kind of you say a prayer and be like all right I think we can we can go through this but I see making zero in a given month or is it like a fluctuates between four and six so for him actually it's fluctuated between like six thousand two hundred dollars to eight

thousand dollars oh right so he hasn't had a zero dollar month no that's correct so here's what

we're going to do we're going to budget based off of the floor his lowest month in the last couple months we can say we know it's going to be at least six let's add that to yours let's budget off of that and then anything above that goes toward the debt yeah so you guys will be budgeting

“you're income with saying we're going to be throwing x amount of debt and then if he if he makes”

extra that's an extra two grand to throw out what was already budgeted to pay off the debt so yeah this'll this could speed it off I would have I would have an aggressive goal of how are you guys with this awesome income and this small amount of debt comparatively just aim for six months and if it takes seven we're still going to cheer you on but that's five and a half that's 5500 bucks going toward the minimums plus extra if you can just say 5500 bucks a month goes toward the debt no matter what

then we're going to we're going to make sure our bills are paid of course and insurance and all that but if you guys can just focus as a team and go 5500 must go towards debt this month you'll be done

at six months yeah it's amazing incredible great let's go to I know congrats let's go to Daniel

and Sacramento hi Daniel welcome to the show I read your own drawings how you guys doing today we're doing great how can we help all right so I have a question for you guys about whether be wise to sell my house it's like in cash flow nursing school to give you guys some quick stats on me 37 years old no kids not married 100 5000 is my gross income I do have $30,000 in a personal loan and $9,000 remaining on the student loan my house is valued at anywhere from five 2525,000 to

550,000 and I owe $375 on it still the two programs I'm looking at they're both vouchers of nursing programs so one of the two year state program that's about 30,000 for the two years the other one

“is a accelerated one year program that's almost $100,000 for the one year and so that's why I don't”

want to go back into debt obviously for that but seem like the house would be a way to cash flow

that but also I'd hate to sell the house and you know yeah because you'll be getting like $175,000 an equity to fix a $30,000 problem it feels out of balance to me yeah and with with the salary being that I mean I mean 105 as a nurse here in California it probably be you know one 50 to 180 is what I kind of research around there and obviously it's a big enough jump but I don't know if it's worth it's enough to offset selling a house considering how expensive houses can be in California

yeah what are you doing now for work work for the state government and what is the what's driving the urgency around this does this have to happen in two months from now or can I happen a year and two months from now no so I mean I finish the most of the pre-rex so I'll right now I'm kind of in preparing for the application season so if I were to into a program it probably either the summer 27 or the fall 27 okay so do you have I mean if it's 15 if the $30,000 for two

years is that 15,000 then per year yeah that's my guess the 30,000 I mean I don't know damn what I would just work extra and save and yeah can you kind of just cash flow this thing and you can like yeah like a thousand bucks a month will get you to the fall of 27 well because the only other thing is with these programs it given the nature of my work I can only work money to Friday 8 to 5 and these programs are full time so I'd have to leave my job in order

to do these programs so I have no income for two years correct yeah yikes well that's not really going to work so you're thinking about living off of the equity of your home to do it that yeah and I have an uncle that has an ADU I've already talked to him and he's considered you know let me stay there for the year or two years that I read for you and I just have to support myself can you work nights after doing school not in my current job I don't know but while you're in

school okay I mean if you could figure out a way to save up 15 grand between now and then cash flow it and then figure out hey can I work nights and live on nothing while I'm in school I would

now I would try to keep it man you're obliterating your wealth building plan by going backwards

and having nothing to show forward by the end people ask me all the time George what's your number one money saving hack I'm glad you asked nothing makes me happier than helping another frugal friend so here's the hack get on a budget seriously how he's supposed to save money if you don't know how much

“you're spending in the first place and that's what makes the every dollar budgeting app a”

game changer with every dollar you'll get a clear picture of your spending and from there it's easy to see where you can get more intentional cutback and save more money how much money are we talking well the average every dollar budgeter frees up $395 in their very first budget and if you ask me I think you're way above average so why are you still listening to me go download every dollar for free and start saving more money right now

we wish we could get to every call and question here on the show but doesn't always happen

the last there's only so much time in the day so much show I know so if you do have a money question though and you want an answer to your situation head over to our website and use ask ramsie so this is our

“free AI tool that's built and trained on proven ramsie principles and you will get your answer”

your money question answered the way we would answer it here on the show in fact it's even so smart George it has some follow-up questions to get your specific numbers and exactly what you need and it's even the questions we would ask you here if you were calling in so really

a lot of people there in the DM's I'm like hey listen ask ramsie is going to be way better than

me trying to fat finger and answered the DM's it's much smart so true I know so go and ask your question today at ramsie solutions dot com or you can click the link in the description if you're listening on podcast or watching on YouTube all right let's go to Lynn and Nashville Tennessee hi Lynn hello thank you for taking my phone call yes my husband and I had been married for over 40 years we're dead free my husband still works I'm not sure when he wants to retire but

we I recently found that he has been taking money out of our cities we have a couple of cities that are the steps cities and they mature at different times and he takes the interest and the principle out of those accounts and I don't know what he's been doing with the money he's been doing this for over a year I just found out about it when I have confronted him he said he doesn't remember what he's done with the money I went to the bank and I found out that there's another

city that he opened up my name is not on it and I know that there's a large sum of money in that I feel like I'm I just don't know what to do I this is just totally out of character for him I just don't know what to do I don't want to open up my own account and throw money in there

“because that's what he might be doing and that's not how I roll sure how much money are we talking”

how much is in the new CD? The post to 40,000 okay and how much is in the CD that is that you have your name on as well that he's taking money out of? Well there's a total well of between a while for all them probably 150,000 okay and how much has he taken out of that 150? Is it 40,000 total? No well no out of the CD's the past year he's taking an $8,500 out okay and I don't know what to do yeah he won't tell me that I don't think he's telling me the truth

and I don't you know the bank won't tell me if he has you know secret account somewhere yes so you're worried okay all you can see is with straws that are on the CDs your name is also one yes because they're part of our trust okay so it comes out to be about $800 a month kind of is what he's been taking out of these CDs yes okay yeah and she's taking cash yes and then the cash is disappearing and we don't know where it's going and when you can

front him he says I don't remember yeah he said just stuff and then you found a $40,000 CD

yes I did and he's well it is when we set up our trust in January I asked him in front of the

“lawyers you know do you want to should we tag some of this money for our grandkids and he said no”

we'll just you know our children can you know do that one word dead well this CD is for our grandkids which is fine but he didn't tell me about it and my name is not on it and he's been contributing to that so and when I did ask him about that CD for our grandkids he said I said why did you do that and he said because I want to make sure that they get some money so how much do you guys have total your net worth oh golly over probably 1.2

and that exact include your home yes it does okay okay um yeah I mean I I guess my concern would be what you're probably calling in about because 850 dollars a month at this point I mean that's kind of like a it's not the end of the world I just don't like that he's not being honest with you and then there's a count over to the side that he's funding and says it's for the grandkids which is great but it's just that you you feel out of the loop financially do you guys

do you have a history of talking about money do you feel like you were on the same page up into this point oh most definitely I mean whenever we wanted to get our children some money you know I would say what are you thinking and he would say an amount and I said well yeah that's about what I was thinking

with like 98% of the time we've always been right on but this is just a stab in the heart

does he know that you feel betrayed yes and he does not he has not often an apology and that's you know that's a tilt flying to me as well how do you feel like you guys have been pretty distant in your marriage in general yes okay yeah for how long now yeah um quite some time um how old are you guys

“270 um 66 okay okay um yeah and I mean I think what you've presented to him is totally fair”

and that you have a lot of fear is what it sounds like like you're scared you know that you're

he's scaring you because it's out of character it's not how it's always been and um and I

would lean on that less about the amount of money here or there and it's more about keeping you guys unified you know for for the for the next you know hopefully god willing two decades right or more um and so I think that would that would be my my suggestion to you I don't think you fix this by going and opening up your on account all of that but but if there is a weird pattern land and I hope there's not I hope he's just a seven-year-old

man and he's just I don't know his heads in the clouds a little I don't know I want to give him the benefit of the doubt but I also we've heard crazy stuff you know on the other side of the spectrum too on the show and so I do want to honor your fear and not just brush it off that if there does seem to be something weird going on pattern wise um over a period of time that

I would I would pull I'd pull in even a third party I don't know if you'd go to fair you know

counseling at 70 years old probably not but um that or um yeah I don't know figure out keep having this conversation to see how much you can actually extract from this to see how much you can get to the bottom of it I mean if you just said I need this to stop I need to see everything every account the transactions the balances no exceptions I need you to rebuild the trust that was lost here and if this is about something else just tell me we can be honest with each other

we've been married 40 years if there's something going on just give me the respect to tell me

“and if he can't even do that then you need to decide how are we gonna move forward in this marriage”

do you need to go talk to a family law attorney just to know how to protect yourself out of fear so that could be a step down the road if he is unwilling to budge and that's him that's him opting out I don't want you to feel like you've done anything to deserve this but I think you

big spender lin like would there be any reason that he hesitates to like keep in account because

he's scared you know you mean like has there been anything in that end on your side no I I'm really conservative okay yeah and and I had part you know I had full-time jobs was the state home mom for a long time and I had jobs and but nothing was good enough as far as income that I brought in

“to justify anything else yeah well I think the rebuilding the trust at this point from an emotional”

standpoint is gonna be huge for you guys but I'm so sorry that does feel like whiplash on what

a direction you thought everything was going and then you kind of get this this bump in the road

hey guys Rachel Cruz here and I'm so excited to tell you that the brand new 2027 Ramsey Gold planner is available now guys this is the only planner with exclusive monthly content from John Deloni Jade Warsha and me to help you set clear goals and actually stick to them all year but here's the thing these sell out every single year so don't wait order your new 2027 Ramsey Gold planner for 49 97 at Ramsey Solutions dot com slash store that's Ramsey Solutions dot com slash store

“our scripture of the day comes from Proverbs 14 23 and all the toil there is profits but”

mere talk tends only to poverty opportunity is missed by most because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work Thomas Edison and just just the overalls I generally avoid overalls I was gonna say I don't know if George would think he might pass on that opportunity I'm gonna had a reason to get a pair that's all that's all all right let's go to Andrew and Charlotte and North Carolina hi Andrew welcome to the show hey guys how are you we're doing great how can we help

good will I have a new coming up like we next summer I might go say Charlotte moving up to the northeast we own our home we have about 180 locked on

“the question is do we take the equity of the home when we move because you don't want to be”

long-term landlords and pay off debt or do we save it for the next house how much debt do you guys have a lot two fifty-ish oh man what's that in student loans is most of it so about one thirty is my son one twenty is my wife and then by the time we move we should have like we have a car payment uh credit card and taxes better I'll do and the I expect those will be done in the next nine months oh so what's the total balance of all this so the car payment or the

car loan is 18 the credit card is about fifty five and then the taxes is 3,000 55,000 and credit cards no fifty five hundred sure okay yeah that's better okay so how much equity do you guys have on the home I'm thinking around two hundred two to two fifty okay so you could clear most of the four co-good so what does y'all's degrees in well you don't want to know yes we do what is it education what are you guys doing for work my wife is an educator she's in the admin side now

and then I I'm warehousing I run a warehouse what do you guys make um make about one ten and she makes about 80 good okay so you'll be making 190 when you make this move and what what's the reason for the move so promotion so I'll be probably making 50 is more okay great she'll go up to 160 and she'll still make 80 well she'll find the job yeah she'll probably go up to ninety or ninety five

oh incredible we're good we're seeing comparable roles so think about this future you guys sell

this home you take all the equity dump it onto the debt now you're making 250 and you can knock out the remaining what 25 grand in a couple of months making that kind of money and then save up for a down payment from there because that's really the order of home ownership is to be debt free

would just be going into that baby step order at this point which means a rental for at least maybe two years max yeah so one it was you know it's kind of what I expected you guys to say the one of the quote one thing that you're being kind of reverse engineer this a lot say five wasn't going to move would I still sell the house and use the equity to pay off that

I've never heard that exact analogy we just say selling a house is one thing you can do but it's

usually a last-ditch effort but since you guys are already planning you're already going to have to move so the home's going to have to be sold because of the situation what do we do equity yeah I don't know who the baby steps that's right that's right yeah yeah I don't know if we would make up that situation of selling a home if you didn't have to but you guys are forced to anyways and so at that point yeah there's going to be money there and so if there's any extra money we say apply it

“to the baby steps and so that's what I would say I mean even if you called in and you had like a”

lawsuit or you got money from a relative right like we would say don't use that to pay off the home we'd say use it to pay off your consumer debt so any amount of money you get in your hands you apply it to the baby steps and think about freeing up all those payments I mean what are the middle payments and all those debts every month um so my my life student loans are still zero which is the last degree of deferment or whatever my student's 1200 the truck payments about five

credit cards are going like during a box and then IRS I'm paying 500 minimum a month but I'll pay more so just alone you're going to clear 2500 without her student loan payment which I'm sure is going to be another you know what 1500 bucks yeah I'm sure so that's four grand you'll clear that's now back in your pocket every month for you guys to build wealth you're not paying interest

“on and to throw it at an emergency fund and then finally a down payment I'm like that's”

especially with this raise you're going to be new people how old are you guys Andrew 30 okay it's great you got time to claim this now it sounds like a good career move to for you all you know all moving up and and income and I think it's just yeah it's just kind of reordering the priorities of where your money should be going what's best you know where's the best place for it and at this point paying off this consumer debt getting that done with oh it's going to feel so nice

yeah for sure yeah and I do think the the battle of going from owning to renting can be really hard for people it feels like you're going backwards you're throwing away money on rent and putting this in giant air quotes because I don't believe that I review that I know and I do what people don't consider because we get this call to all the time is how expensive home ownership is you know you are unless you're living in a condo I mean you're in charge of so much so much that can go wrong

“we love home ownership we want it but you have to understand what you're walking into from everything”

from age back to roofs to landscaping and fixing stuff when it breaks I mean it's just it is a

there's always something you want to do and need to do yes and when you got four grand and

dead payments on top of no savings just to say we got in the home it's not worth it it's going to get stressful real quick you'll call the show a year from now going should we sell the house we bought two early this was a mistake that's right I don't want that for you yep because we get that we get that call all right let's go to Steven in Portland high Steven welcome to the show hi thank you for taking my call I want to find out if you had any advice for somebody who's

distance 60 this week and I'm literally starting over after your horse and some really really poor spending choices by my ex why from was a real number of 24 years making a credible money and then also making horrible choices expensive cars private schools only money to the IRS and she was self-employed I won't go on two or one to bore you with all that

but basically from going from a really nice situation or you speak directly in your phone Steven

we're having a hard time rearing you I'm sorry can you hear me now that's a little better yeah I I have a bad cold so that could be it so anyway I am trying to figure out I have a 27 thousand dollar for another payment five thousand dollar credit card I used my return that money to recently get my daughter to school pay off 25 thousand dollars to the IRS that was it that wasn't mine I basically got out of a horrible financial

not but 40 what's the car worth oh probably about what I want it and how much do you make a year

“so I quit my job to go to a little less stressful job so little I will be making about”

eighty five a year okay okay do you have any savings right I have anything liquid cash

I don't all I literally have helped my kids everything I have so Steven we got to stop that because your your children will have to cover you in a time and and that's not going to stop

there's going to be down payments for the first home there's going to be weddings all of it

“you have to take care of you first you got to put your oxygen mask on first Steven so you can't you”

don't you can't afford to be helping anybody but yourself so you need to take your income you need to be paying off this debt you may even want to sell the car and get a beater just to ease up the payment and then start refunding your retirement and all of that has to for your help in anyone else but I'm sorry it sounds like a hard hard year oh thanks for the call all right thanks everyone in the booth George

“always a great host co-host and remember there's ultimately only one way to financial piece and”

that's to walk daily with the principal piece Christ Jesus