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

So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fairwins Credit Union Studio, this is the Ramsey Show I'm John Deloni joined by Jade Wars. I'll take in your calls live. We've got to Fort Myers Florida and talk to Martha.

What's up, Martha? >> You're a smile. >> How are you doing? >> I'm doing great. Thank you so much for taking my call.

>> You got it, what's going on? >> Okay, so I've been watching you show for many years,

but just recently, me and my husband were kind of set up

with the way we've been living and we are trying to make a lot of changes. And it just seems like we're being thrown curveballs. Now that we're trying to get our lives on track with money, everything's coming up. I mean, there's a lot of things coming up,

but one thing that's during us in the phase right now is our safety cake. It's fun, yeah. And it's backing up. And we're having a lot of issues trying to make sure

that we're providing a sanitary area for our kids to live. We have five kids. And my husband is the only one currently working full-time. And I'm trying to find odd jobs to cover some credit card debt that we have, but I got a job at a hospital

and I'm starting my orientation in August, but I need money now.

>> Yeah. >> And we don't know what to do with a septic cake. We're actually, I'm ashamed to say, we're about $100,000 in debt, and we only make $136,000 a year.

So we are up to our ears with a debt, and we just don't know what to do about this septic cake. We make the six thinking that we need to maybe get into more debt to cover this, but we don't know what else to do. >> What's it going?

>> I was going to say, is it not an issue where you can pay somebody $4,500

“to pump it and get you to limp along until for a few months?”

>> That's what we did back in March. >> Okay. >> We noticed that it was back then, so we got that pumped out, and then it's been only about four months, and we got to pump out again today, and it's failing.

So we don't know what else we can do. It's going to cost up to, it can be from 10,000 to 18,000. >> Yeah, I mean, I've gotten quotes on septic to replace them. I had one up to 60 grand, because they're going to have to go through rock up here. I mean, there's a whole thing.

So yeah, it can be expensive, let's see, when you pump the tank, it gets you two more months, is that what you're saying? >> Two to three months. >> Yeah, so it was March, April, May, June. >> So you've got you four months, I'd rather you spend 400 bucks every four months

until y'all can get up the cash, then to go backwards. But I'll let Jade walk you through the dollars and cents, because y'all got a mess on your hands. >> Yeah, and it does, by the way, I just want to acknowledge that.

“This is normal, this is a normal thing, people face.”

When you start working a plan, and you say I'm going to get serious about it, it's almost like the universe says prove it. >> It's everything, right? >> I'm going to start eating healthy, and then someone's like, "Hey, we just made you a cake, we're going to drop it off at your house."

>> Exactly, exactly, so this is not abnormal, you're not alone in that. So what I want to find out is, is there any money, any word that we can utilize? So do you guys have vehicles, tell me about the 100,000 in debt, and tell me more.

>> Okay, so we bought a house, when we thought it was about 35 years old, and nothing was renovating on this house. So we thought we were going to update this house as we live in it, and as we grow, we had three kids when we moved into it, now we have five kids, it's a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home.

So it feels small, but we're trying to make it as homey as possible. >> So is the 100,000, is that a heat lock on upgrading, or what's the 100,000 of debt? >> Okay, so during COVID, we were backed up on our mortgage, and we were behind like $10,000, so that's on the mortgage.

Like if we fell in the house, we have to make sure we cover that, but we're not paying that much base. Our most that I would say is cars. We have a big Chevy suburban car that we're paying about 45. We still have 45,000 on it, that we owe, but we can only sell it for 20.

>> Who said that? >> It's a huge, nearly blue book. >> On private sale. >> On private sale, probably 25. It has a lot of myologists, a lot of myelts on the car.

>> They need to get a vehicle in there? >> Or that's just. >> We had a van, and we rolled it into the new wall. >> Okay, because we had a circumstance with family. >> What about the other neighborhood that we're car?

if you give me an excuse on why you did it, I'm going to cut you off,

because we got to get past that. >> It doesn't matter, right? >> I get it, and we did it, and we didn't think it through, but I mean, we do love the car as this, our whole family. >> Right, but you can't really make it.

>> You probably can't afford it, and we'll figure out if we can get you out of it.

“But you said so this suburban, what's the other vehicle?”

>> It's a small Toyota that my husband uses to travel, to the front work, it's the O17 on it. >> And what's it worth? It probably is exactly what it is. >> Okay, I think it's market.

>> Okay, good.

And then from there, anything else,

notable is our student loans credit cards? >> I have a student loan of $6,000 that I've been paying, like must be on, but just $6,000 on it. I'm going currently back to school, trying to get a technician job certificate, and $3,000 that I'm paying monthly on, and have your interest every month.

And then we just have a bunch of credit cards. We have a $15,000 credit card when we're doing home renovations, so we're paying that off. >> Okay.

“>> And I didn't ask it in this, but what do you bring home every month?”

Like, when you guys get your paychecks, what's it total to? >> About 8,000, my husband is currently working full-time, and I'm trying to get back into the workforce after being home with my daughter. >> Okay. >> But you said you make $136.

>> It feels a little-- >> Yes. >> So 8 seems pretty low to me. >> Maybe I miscalculated, but what that means about the employer. >> Are you putting into retirement, too? >> Yeah, but currently we've stopped doing that because we're not keeping up with our payment.

>> Okay. >> Good. Now, how much is the mortgage? >> Currently our mortgage is $1,550, and that's really good. >> Yeah, that's not bad. >> Yeah, that's excellent for what you're at.

>> Okay. So, I think there's some money in these cars that is going to help you not only pay off your debt quicker, but solve the septic tank issue, do you have any money saved? I didn't ask. I'm guessing no. >> No, every time we try to save money, like, everything comes out.

Like, either we have to. Our battery died last week on one of the vehicles, so we have to pay $200. >> I mean, and that's all we have to do. >> So some of this is-- >> You know, we're talking about--

>> Yeah, some of this is emergency, and some of it's just better planning. So we do need to be planning for maintenance. I mean, one of the things with cars is they need batteries every so often. They need tires every so often, they need oil changes. So let's get in the habit of starting to think ahead a little bit more, and I know it.

You've got five kids in us, but you got a lot going on. But I think starting to learn to look forward in the budget, if you're not using every dollar, we'll make sure to get you that, but John, I think there's some money in the $17,000 vehicle getting that out of your car. >> And by the way, I was a dean of students at a law school in a $3,000 truck,

and I did two years on this show, driving an old-used Prius.

“You should have seen me pull that Prius up next to Dave Ramsey's Raptor, right?”

And we had a lot of bicker back forth. Your husband's going to be fine, but you'll need that $17,000 margin today. So that car gets sold this week. Okay. And then we're going to just put us up, we're going to stack up as many thousands as we can. He can drive a $3,000 beater. They're out there.

My old Cadillac is worth $1,500, and it drives just fine. So they're out there. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, we need to kind of look into that. Yeah, that might be something that we didn't consider. We thought. >> Yeah, it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of planning. Hey, George Campbell here. A few years ago someone stole my identity.

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And so she's still in the line here.

“I want to make sure we get her an outline of a plan.”

She got $100,000 in debt. They make $136,000 in bucks. But it's credit cards. It's two giant car payments. And now they got septic issues.

The one thing I heard throughout that call was,

yeah, but here's what we have this debt.

And yeah, here's what we have this debt. And there's a story, there's an emotion in it. The only time I've seen people be successful in just saying enough is enough. We're going to take back ownership of our home and our money is a... I don't care why it happened. Here we are.

And I don't get a crap. Come what may. We're never bar and money again. Yeah, it's not about what you did. It's about what you did next.

And you're so right. The first two things that she's got to do is to your point. Decide she's never going to borrow money again. The people that walk the Ramsey plan. That is the line in the sand that they draw.

Otherwise, it's all for not. Like, what are we even doing here?

Second thing she needs is a budget.

Christian is going to hook her up with every dollar. You need that. That's the basis of the plan. More tactical into her numbers is we've got to sell the $17,000 toyota or whatever that was. That's going to leave them with no car but also no car payment.

“And so just before we do that, you should be able to within a pay period stack up”

2,000 bucks that we're going to do to buy a car and cash. A beater like I said before the break. My car, my old car, it was a Cadillac SRX. It had 200,000 miles on it. It's worth $1500. Somebody's going to buy that for $1500.

I'm not buying that. You might buy it. It's a fancy looking car. Absolutely. I might give it to her. It's just in the driveway.

Maybe I will. So that's thing one. Sorry, I'm really thinking about giving her that car. That's that's thing one. The next thing is.

Why don't you take over because my brain is really thinking about that right now? The next step is we have to start looking. Listen, these debts out and smallest to largest. And you got this old mortgage back pay hang out there. You got all these credit cards out there.

You've even upside down 20 grand on this car that you just had to have that we love. You might be able to go to the credit union and get a loan for that difference. And if you're willing to hold on private sale for a little bit more than 25,000, that could be worth it for you. And then the numbers out because maybe not if you say okay, I'm going to get a 30,000 dollar loan.

That means you're your 15,000 lesson debt is the way to look at it. Because that means I'm paying off the 25,000 and I'm buying a $5,000 van used. That's what that looks like. And people will talk about you when you drive down the road. Yes.

And what we're suggesting is I don't care what other people think. As for me in my house, we're going to choose freedom. And the only way that works by the way is if you have a better interest rate. That if your interest rate is credit because your credit is bad, I don't know that I would do that.

I might just write it out.

“But look into that because that might be the key to such a free.”

Yeah. All right. Let's go to low-volt Kentucky and talk to Whitney. Hey, Whitney, what's up? Hi, John and Jade.

How are you? How are you? I'm good. What's up? So my question is my son is starting college in August.

And as a parent that wants him to learn from being an adult before he actually gets out on his own, I wonder how much or when I should start charging him rent to live at home. Because he is going to stay at home to go to a cheaper college. And he's going to try not to take out any student loan. So he is going to be cash flowing in scholarships.

Oh, I have a hot take on this one. I might have one too. I want to hear John's hot take. My hot take is if my, I have a 16 year old. He's heading into his junior of high school.

Two years from now if he says, hey, I have a small scholarship at a local college. I want to go there on a cash flow it. But I'm not going to be able to afford room and board. I would invest in him and let him live at my house for as long as he was in school full-time enrolled. Also working a part-time job and he kept his grades up.

I, I wouldn't, I'm way more concerned about the young people who graduate. And then just kind of aimlessly wander back to mom and dad's house. I don't even mind folks who graduate and they're starting a new job. And they want to get ahead and so mom and dad. And this young adult sit down and they come up with a plan for six months or a year with no rent.

I got no problem with that. It's the unintentionality, the aimlessness that I struggle with. If I'm you Whitney and, and Jade, I wouldn't charge my kid rent. Because it sounds like he's trying to do this the right way. And this is the way you can invest in him moving forward.

But that's that's my thought on it. I 100% agree with what John said.

When you said it Whitney, my first question was going to be,

you could end up kind of for lack of a better word caching in on this for your own needs.

Yeah, do you need the money? So I'm a baby stuff one. And I do work three jobs. I work really hard to try to make sure that, you know, I'm as busy as I have time for. So I don't feel like that I need it.

I just don't want him to miss out on the learning experience of paying rent. He does have, he doesn't have a car payment. He saved up and he bought a car. And then it broke down at that point. He was planning on going to IU Indy, which would have been away from home.

And at that point, he realized, oh wait, stuff is expensive.

“And so he was like, hey, are you okay if I stay at home?”

And that way, I don't have to pay like room and board. And then he can eat at home and have meals and stuff like that. And so I feel like he's on the right path. I don't want to charge him, but also I don't want to rob him of that learning experience of doing his budget every month and knowing that at some point he will have to pay a rent or a mortgage.

You could split the difference. I mean, you could not charge him rent, but say you still have to have a budget, which is if you are bringing in money, you've got to plan out for how you're going to spend that money, which I do think is a valuable tool. And maybe he does kick in some for groceries. Yeah, and yeah, he can buy his own milk and cereal or whatever.

Are you a single mom? I am. Okay. I need you to hear me say this.

“How you're handling this and how the action steps he has already taken when life through”

him little bits of adversity, like a car broke down and he started looking at the room and board cost. And he also has this underlying principle in his heart and mind that I don't want to owe anybody any money. I want you to hear me say directly. He's learning from you. You're doing a great job.

Thank you. He's watching his mom scratch and claw and grind it through. And so you part of changing your family tree is maybe investing in him. And you don't have the cash to do that right now. You're digging yourself out of the hole you found yourself in.

But just that little gap of you can stay in this room. And I love the idea of every month you're going to sit down and you're going to go over family expenses together. And I want you to learn how this house runs and how expensive things are, et cetera, et cetera. And yeah, maybe after a sophomore year he can kick in the light bill or the water bill or whatever. But I think you're doing a great job.

I don't think this kid has any notion that his life comes with a free ride at all. Plus he asked you, what do you think if I stayed home, it wasn't just like this entitlement of, I'll just stay home and sit on the couch, right? Yeah, my mom heart was definitely like, yes, he's going to stay at home. I was like dreading looking forward to, you know, moving day, moving him away. Oh, I'm pretty excited that he's staying home even though, you know, we pretty much see each other in passing.

And even when we do him like have to force him to hug me sometimes he's like, mom. Okay, so I'm I want you to drop a lease.

“And at least might say you have to have dinner with me once a week or every Sunday.”

And you get to do the laundry in the house. I start to think if you're working three jobs, if you had the ability to hire a five hour week personal assistant, what would you have them do? Okay. Your job is the air filters and make sure all the light bulbs are changed every month and make sure that like the trash is taken out. Like take some of those things off your plate and he can start to learn how a household runs underneath it all.

But as for me in my house, I would just I would just support him do it. Yeah, I think so too. So not such a hot take more like a room temp room temp. Yeah, reasonable take. I'm so torn right now.

Jade is my sales time on college. I'm like, you could just a hear. But I know he's got to go. But I'm like, you could just take forever and ever and ever. [ Music ]

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It's got the South Bend, Indiana, and talk to Rick. What up, Rick? Hey, what's going on? What's going on? We're doing great, man.

How about you? Well, I guess that was doing great. I wouldn't be calling. But I wouldn't be calling. That's fair.

That's fair. What's going on? So I guess I've listened for a few months and I hear some of these really intense saving goals when you're in step two and earlier. I guess you'd say I'm in 3b/456.

No, that saving for a house. My wife and I are in our mid-30s.

We've never owned a home and we live in Indiana now.

But we'd like to move east to the DC region, which is much more expensive someday. And I guess I just love some perspective on what is the right setting for saving per month to make this happen? I love that question. So tell me right now, what are you doing?

“How much are you putting towards the down payment and how much are you investing?”

Yeah. So we're both doing 15% for a 1K through work. We take home 5800 every two weeks combined between two of us. Around like 11.5K a month. Okay.

And so of that, right now we're targeting 3,000 for the house and then 450 or so for a 529 for our son returns two in a couple months. We want another. Yeah, for the 529. Good.

Yeah. But we keep chasing kind of against it. And I'm wondering is that just because that number is really high. And we should keep fighting for it. Shoot for the moon.

You'll end amongst the stars or you know, should we try to pull back somewhere else? 450 is a lot. I feel like that's kind of a lot. And also it all depends on how quick the problem we're solving for is how quickly do we want this home.

“So I think that's the guiding principle here.”

I agree with John 450 is a lot. I mean, it depends on how long you plan on doing that. What's your target amount? All of those questions I would ask.

But I think first things first is making sure we're not focused in the wrong area.

And I really do think the house needs to kind of wag the tail here. Let me ask you this dude. You talked about some of the people you listened to on the show. And some people are very aggressive. Once you don't own anybody any money.

There's we're talking about building wealth so that when you get in your 60 70s and 80s and 90s and maybe even beyond by the time we all get there. That you because you were diligent when you were younger, you're able to take care of yourself and your family in those in those years, right? As my buddy Arthur Brooks says, we way over index our 20s and 30s and we forget about our 40s, 50, 60, 70s, 80s and 90s.

So the question that people have to ask themselves after they're at a debt is, what kind of life do I want to have? And I want you to own a home so that nobody can come in there and take it away from you. So that come what may mean my family of the house. We have a place that we can put a flag on front of. I want you to have some retirement savings.

I want you guys to have some fun too. I want your kid to be able to go to school whatever that looks like. I don't know if he's going to have some college robot teaching your child. Yeah, who knows, right? But the question you and your wife have to ask yourself is, what kind of life do we want?

In my house, I'll call it pathological, a psychological problem with owing people money.

I don't sleep, it keeps me up. I spin out all the time. And so for me in my wife, there was, I'll call it a panic on my part. She's like a walking Xanx for me. And so it was much more intentional on her part.

We focused on getting a house and getting a smaller house. And we could have qualified for from a mortgage standpoint. And we got to pay off as quickly as we could.

“So that I could have some peace because I was solving for peace, right?”

And so you and your wife ask in each other, what kind of life do we want to create together? And then you're talking just math problems at that point. Yeah. And let's run out some of those numbers. Let's run out the math that plays next to what John is saying.

So if you say, hey, we're going to get a house in the area. What's that cost you? What's that look like? So in, yeah, in DC, I mean, it's, you know, the county that I grew up in in Maryland.

I mean, you can't, you can't sneeze in there without spending half a million bucks.

I mean, just, it's gotten crazy expensive. Like looking out, you know, you can, you can find, you know, $400, $500,000. If you're willing to drive a little bit to work. You know, some of these details are kind of hard to forecast because there's career changes involved

and making this happen, right? Sure. But let me, let me, let me call this out. You and I were told to lie. You and I were told if we just go to school or and/or we just get a good job.

And if we get a good, right or dice spouse that we can live wherever we want. We can quote unquote follow our passions at this work job thing. And it would all work out. And that's not true.

“The truth is you, me, Jade, our families, everyone listening to this.”

Has to make uncomfortable choices. Do you want to go back and live where you grew up or you were raised. You have this picture of your head of the perfect childhood. That's amazing. Here's the math problem associated with that.

And if that math problem costs you the life you want to have. Going out to dinner, going to concerts, being silly. Like buying your kid in a nice basketball shoes. And then you're going to have to make a team like those kind of things. Then we're going to have to be sad and grieve the fact that we can't do everything that we,

what we want because the world didn't hand itself to us. You and I'm saying. I hear that. And part of our calculus for trying to move out there is we're basically alone here in terms of, we have a, you know, we have to save a son.

Sure. We want to, we want another child. And we just, we don't have really any help out here. I totally, I can't get that. But let's put our, let's put our heads around the numbers.

“And then that'll help you make the choice on this.”

Because if you say, hey, we're in baby set three right now. You guys are investing 15% and you're saving 3,000 a month. But if I plug in, if I, and I'm just on the Ramsey mortgage calculator.

You said in the DC area, it's around half a million.

So 500,000 dollars. If I plug in current 15 year fixed rate interest rate. 5.9. Let's say you get that. And I know this is in the future.

So I'm just, this is napkin map. Um, but in order for that to be a fair portion 25% of your 11.5,000 dollar income. That mortgage with everything all built in HOAs, home insurance taxes insurance. It can really be no more than 28, 2700 bucks a month. 2900 on the highest, right?

So if I am solving for that, you're going to have to put down at least 230 to 240. Right now we're saving at a rate of 36,000 a year. So taking that data, we can say, okay, if we want to do this. If we're serious about doing this in the next, I don't know, three to four years.

We've got to, we've got to be serious about saving more. So I would be okay with you backing down the 15% that you're investing. For the next three years, even. I wouldn't surpass three years because I don't want you to miss out on time in the market. But do you see what I'm doing there?

Yeah, I really hadn't thought to touch that. And we do have about 55,000 dollars in a specific account. Good. And then I do have 125,000 in a managed brokerage that I'm hoping not to touch. You're very in the lead.

You're there. Start with that. Next time you call. You have it. You don't get that.

Look, ask Ramsay. Told me to try to avoid touching it. I get it. I don't let that become generational and see if you can get there without it. It's just in the brokerage.

It's not broken. It's not broken. It's not broken. Sorry, it is not retirement. Yeah.

As long as it's non-retirement money, I totally would be interested in touching that for this reason. Because this is a, owning a home is a major part of building wealth. And so for that reason, it's not like we're sacrificing wealth building in that way. Did you put in there? I want to buy a house and I put down 15% in retirement and the thing that was my life story.

I got to get with the team and we got to get that fixed.

Because yeah, if you sit here, I have this money in a brokerage account. I'd say yeah, I don't touch it if you can avoid it.

“But if you want to buy a house, that's what that money is for.”

That's exactly what that money is for. Yeah. So if you pulled back even for a year and made that 36,000, I don't know, 50,000. You're there in two years. Right.

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Alright, let's go to Rowanoek, Virginia, and talk to Chris. Hey, Chris, what's up, man? Hey, how are you guys? We're doing great. How about you?

Good. I really appreciate you all. I'm a big fan of the term Sol for peace. Has changed my life when I was viewing finances. It's awesome.

Thanks for doing that again. You got a brother? Yep. So our question. My wife and I make about 200 to 250 year, and we own five homes.

They all have mortgages. That's what we're solving for peace. That's a lot of houses. Yeah, no. I know.

That's what I'm calling you, bro. So our primary resident has 290 in the mortgage. And then our rentals have 91, 95, 125, and 139. We have 250 grand in cash. Do you know all the rentals?

Or do you pay off your primary? Well, I am interested in paying off the primary. I want to know what each of these. You told me what you owe. I'd love to know.

Can you go through and say what they're worth? Sure. The 91's worth about 1/50, the 95's worth about 1/50, the 1/39's worth about 200, and the 1/25 is worth about 1/60. And is there one of them that is a pain in the butt that you like tell me which ones that you're like if I had to sell it be these ones and here's why. Yep.

So the 125 we would sell because it's an HLA. A lot of mistakes are from my life. I'm a real estate professional. And we've narrowed it down to just sing from home. That's all we're going to get at. So the 91, the 95, and the 139, we're going to keep, but the 125, I would sell.

Okay. And so if you do so, there's 75 in equity there.

“Maybe when everything is all said and done, what do you think you'd take home?”

On the 125, if we sold it, you probably only take 30k home. Okay. Okay. Okay. And so that gets you with the cash to 50. That gets you pretty close to what you owe on the primary.

Okay. So is that what we're trying to solve for? Is just getting that primary paid off? Would that be enough for you and then cash low in the rest? To pay off?

We've went back and forth so many times doing this. My life and I, on whether it's the pay off your primary residence or the pay off. The rentals and leave and get better cash flow on them.

So ultimately they're all going to be paid off anyway.

Why not buy any more until we get to that point. But you have this huge chunk of money right now. Yeah. And let me tell you, nobody. My renters are not going to be paying, living in a paid off house while I live in a house with a mortgage.

I could tell you that right now. You know what I'm saying? I like to appreciate that. Yeah. You guys are the ones working hard.

At all day, every day, I want my primary mortgage paid off. Here's why. And this is just, this is just life experience. Whenever the, the stuff hits the fan, right?

But, you know what I'm saying? When somebody loses their job, when things shift and change, the number one thing that people want to protect John is their house. That's the number one thing they look at is they go, oh my gosh. As long as my house is secure,

I don't want anything to make me have to, you know, give up my mortgage. No foreclosure, right? That's the scariest thing that we can imagine is the place where we lay our head to be in jeopardy. And so that's why I say what I say,

which is, take this cash and pay your house off first.

“And do you have, I'm assuming you have a fully funded emergency fund, right?”

Yeah, we do. About 30 grams of six or a month. With the having five houses or four houses right now, hopefully you'll sell one of them and you'll have three houses left. Yep.

I was, I'm biased right now. I seem to tell you I had a day a week ago where I got it before work. I took one vehicle with one of family members to one shop. I took another vehicle to another shop and had another family member drive me back. My primary air conditioner in my house went out.

My well wasn't working, so the house had no water in it. And it all happened on the same day. And after I've unwound all of that, just let me tell you, it's very, very expensive. So you've got that times three or four. And so your emergency fund, I would want to hang on to some more cash.

Because you've got, unless you've got retained earnings, I need to one of these rental houses, which I doubt you do.

“I mean, if the air conditioner goes out on these things, you've got to pay for, right?”

Yeah. Well, that brings me to the next point.

Like, you paying off your first mortgage, that was thing one.

But the next step that I would take, because I'm all with John on solving for peace, is now I'm looking at mortgage number two, number three and number five. And I'm going, okay, amongst these, is there one that I can sell to make good on the other properties? Because my goal would be, my goal would be to have as many of these paid for as possible as quickly as possible. Even if that means letting one go, because again, we're, we're, we're, you know, cutting down on the risk.

And I know what it is that you're trying to do, but you do have a lot of risk right now. So my question to you is, really how well are these cash flowing? Day, they break even at best. Oh, the, um, oh, yeah. I mean, after the mortgage you get a figure, you set aside for your expenses.

And we do have retained earnings for things like that that happened in the business. Yeah. But um, the only one about 40 grand. I just don't know that these are a success. I think they're just something you have.

Yeah. For instance, the only one I'm, we are absolutely opposed to selling would be the one for 139.

So ultimately, it's ten and two, you know, it's more difficult.

So property with ten and two, if ten it leaves, we're not opposed to selling in 1995 either. And I, and I love that. I, I, I, I actually think that's really good. But this is what came to my mind when you told me this. Uh, I bought a pair of jeans and they were expensive.

Uh, but they didn't fit. I put on too much weight. And I didn't get rid of them because I spent over a hundred dollars on them. And I felt like I needed to keep them even though they're of no use to me. They don't make me feel better about my life.

And every time I go on the closet, I'm like, come in this, you know. And, and, and that's the way these properties are. It's like you bought them. They're not cash flowing. They're a pain in the butt.

They're keeping you from paying off your current mortgage. Just accepted and ended. And you're, you're one of me a week ago from having one air conditioner, a roof on another. And then somebody trip on a driveway. And this whole house of cards you built up is over.

Like you're in a mess. You know what I mean? And so go back to this all from basement. Here's a fund. And again, like, I'll tell you my friends who are in the banking industry laugh at me.

Because they tell me I'm too risk-averse, whatever. The world, they'll actually say, like, how do you stage dive off of a, off-a-stage at a punk rock show, but you won't even do it like right. So I'm risk-averse on, on something's been on another.

“But here's the thing, I want you and your wife to just imagine.”

You don't know anybody for your primary house. It's yours. You don't know anybody on this one mortgage or maybe two on these other two houses. And you don't know anybody anything. And so you're making 230, 240 a year.

And 100% of that is your money minus what the government takes. Is that going to give you the exhale that you're looking for in your own home? You go and I'm saying that. Well, that take the edge off the electricity of the angst of what about this? And did you get this?

And hey, this guy called him. Is there just this notion of like, who we got peace in our house now? And so people like the electricity in their house, man.

I got friends like that.

“But like you said, when you first call like, that's for me, my house dude.”

I love owning properties. I've got properties. I like them, but I just don't want to worry about him. Hmm. So pay off the primary and then sell these simultaneously.

Into you just no dating. Until like, and I would roll that equi. Jay, I'd probably babysit two of these because I, these are big debts you have outstanding here. So yeah, I would sell what I could in reverse engineer.

Until I've paid off the remaining three or the remaining two. Or the remaining one if I have to. And then I would take that cash flow and start building them back up. You're not buying 600,000-dollar properties. And so would take you another year or year and a half to save up another 150 grand

to buy another one of these houses. Yeah. So with money that we have now, pay off the primary. Yeah. Then go back to sustainable.

Yep. And I would go ahead and sell number four since you identified that right off the bat. I'd go ahead and do that as quickly as possible. Yeah, pay off the primary. And then as like you said, as those leases go up, knock them out one by one.

Some of them all. I appreciate you. So I got to know who won you your wife. Oh, we have the same page. We both want to pay the house off.

Good. Absolutely. All right, good deal. Yeah. Look at me and Jade bringing families together.

Look at this. Usually Jade is one of the other, but I like it united family every now and then. This guy is a smart guy. Yeah. Well, and what I love about him is he's really smart.

And then he got all, he did all the smart things that smart people tell you you're supposed to do. And then he heard the message, what if I felt different though? And if I'm doing all the right things, what is it? My home feel more at peace and he's going to solve for peace. Hey, guys.

It's Rachel Cruz.

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It's got to Minneapolis, Minnesota,

and talk to the great and powerful Laura.

Hey Laura, what's up? Hi guys. My question is, I have three kids. We are currently in Babies Step Number Two. We use the every dollar app and we budget for what we call adventure day.

A couple of times a month. So our kids still get fun memories, just in a smaller, more intentional way. Well, they're still paying up debt. And my question is about teaching contentment and financial responsibility at young ages. I have a five year old who, especially noted, says,

when his cousin would get really big extravagant gifts. And he doesn't understand why we don't do those things right now. He will be heading into kindergarten this fall and he'll see even more kids with more experiences and things that he doesn't have. And some of my questions, what are some either appropriate conversations,

their ways that we can talk about money, comparison and contentment, so that he understands why we're choosing to be responsible and that he's not missing out while we still work on Babies Step Number Two.

“Okay, so I'm going to reframe a lot of this, is that okay?”

Yes. So he is missing out.

And contentment is a lifelong journey that I would never,

it's not developmentally appropriate for a five year old to have the understanding of contentment and like innate joy when I've got youth shoes and my cousin just showed up here with rocket shoes, right? And he is missing out because that kid's got rocket shoes and he doesn't.

you should be feeling this way instead of what your body's telling you,

sit with him in that frustration. Because you probably know you probably have friends and family members that have a nicer car or newer clothes, et cetera, and you know how that feels too. And so it's not about taking a five year old and trying to disassociate them and they're body from their own feelings. It's showing your five year old,

six year old, 10 year old. I'm not scared of your feelings and I'll sit in them with you. You get the difference there. Yeah, yeah. And so a conversation we have a lot in our house is like when we go to Dave Ramsey's Lake House, Dave has us all out once a year and we'll go ride the jet skis and do all the

well stuff and then we'll come home. And my son was with us during the days when we were trying to figure out how to keep the lights on. But my daughter doesn't have that lived experience and she's like, "Dad, why don't we have a lake house? Can we get jet skis?" And so we have the conversation like as for our family, this is how we do life.

And we're so blessed to have friends that have this cool stuff. And that doesn't mean that she doesn't want to lake house and that doesn't mean that she doesn't think her dad's cheap and that, you know, all this, she's a lot to have those thoughts. She's 10, right?

But the conversation always comes back to us for our family.

“Here's what we do. And you have to be able to hold that space when your kid gets frustrated”

with you and they get mad at you. Why can't I have this? And why can't I have it? They're not going to understand complexities of budget when they're 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. They will understand mom and dad hold firm and they still love me. You get that. Where I see most parents struggle here is it begins. You want to be able to give your kid

nice stuff, right? You want to be able to give your kids some of these things. And then you start feeling less than. So it's you being able to hold your own. Like, no, we're making the right decision for our family now and into the future. Yes, I love that main position. But yet, I always want to caution parents when kids have big feelings and when they get when they

get really sad, really mad, really frustrated. It's easy to a treat them like an adult.

Don't talk to me like that or you shouldn't whatever. And it's also easy to turn into a moral

issue or a character issue. I like to look at it as a tools issue. This kid's feeling big kind of ways and they don't have the toolkit yet. My job is to give them the tools and that tool comes from I'll sit right here with you. And by the way, not every behavior is acceptable. You can't talk to me like that. You can't throw things. You can't break things.

But your feelings are fine. I'll sit here with you. And I'll tell you, man, it's, I hate it. I hate it when my son or daughter's upset with me. I still don't like it. You know what I mean? Yeah. But it's my job to sit in it with them.

I feel that, yes. I hate that feeling as well. Yeah. Can I tell you, I'm proud of you? Well, thank you. For putting a stick in the, like, just plant a flag in the ground and say, and as of now, we're going to weather this storm because the future's worth it.

Y'all are worth it in the future. And that's really the only tool that I have that I keep repeating. And I have to feel like I keep repeating and telling him, like, not today, but someday we will get there. Some, someday for a kid is abstract. Yes.

It's, it's why, like, Christmas feels like a thousand years for a five year old. And it feels like 30 minutes for me.

“I feel like I'm, it was just buying Christmas presents, right?”

And we're already entering into, like, the fall season here, right? And summers all this over. Can I also float out there that part of this though, kids want whatever it is that they don't have. Yeah. Like, it doesn't even have to be like a money or like a standard of living thing.

My kids, I introduced them to original Nintendo because I had one in the attic. And I was like, I'm going to see if they, like, play, they love it. It's so, it's so old. But they were already arguing about who got the controllers. And it's not fair that he gets to play more and it's unfair that, right?

And it's, it's an old game, but it's just because somebody else had it. That now they want it. And that's the developmentally appropriate. Yeah. For, for young kids.

“I think it probably has less to do with lifestyle than it does to do with, it's just a thing I want and don't have.”

And I think because adults understand what money can get and not get, we make it more about lifestyle. Exactly. Yeah. Probably back off, not today, but one day because you're confirming, we're less than now, but one day we won't be less than. And maybe shift the conversation to, yeah, they've got, they got a cool four wheeler.

And maybe when we get to go visit them, we can write on that four wheeler. But our family, we like to go on walks.

And we like to do, I love how intentional you are with your kids.

“They're going to get special laser beam time from their mom and dad.”

I promise you for their nervous system, for their brains, for their relationships down the road. You're putting in some major deposits in their relational bank accounts. Yeah. You're still there? I'm still here.

I'm still here. Okay. She was, she was letting it marinate. Oh, she was letting it sink in. Are you, are you tearing up?

Hey, we're on your team. I'm so proud of you.

I can hardly even, I mean, it's amazing what you're doing for your family.

Thank you so much. You betcha. You betcha. Jade, I, I, I'm still haunted by that. Hey, Dad, can I have this?

And it's, it's like now. Yeah. And it's harder now. It's harder now that I could. And I'm choosing not to.

Yeah, right? True. Because it's not a part of the value set or it's because we don't need anything new or, I don't know. I don't know. And I'm just, I'm just going to say this just in the spirit of being old school.

Because I'm, I feel like I'm getting older and older.

When I was a kid, we didn't get nearly this kind of treatment. It was just like, my dad would just be like, we ain't got no money. And that was that. And we just adapted. So on the one hand, I get it.

And on the other hand, I'm like, they'll be strong. Like, they'll be fine. They'll be fine. Especially for parents and babysitter too. You can't buy them all the stuff.

You can't buy them all the fancy birthday parties, whatever. But what Laura's doing, but I will give you a half a day of directed time. If I got it, it's magic. Yes. Magic.

“Way more important than any old plastic trinket you can buy.”

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That's netSuite.ai/Ramsey. All right, let's go out to New Orleans, Louisiana, and talk to Desiree. Hey Desiree, what's up? Thank you so much for taking my call. Yeah, thanks for calling in. What's going on?

So, my husband and I need to get a new car and we're debating between getting a $10,000 older vehicle, or a $20,000 5,000 newer used car. We currently have both of these paid foreign cash, either option. We have another vehicle that has 130,000 miles on it, and my husband, DRIVE, he commutes for work. And so, he puts about 27,000 miles on a car per year.

And so, I'm expecting the current car that we have to go out within the next three to five years. What? You're talking to two people that drive their cars into the dirt. Is it like a Ford Fusion or something? No, I mean, is it Toyota?

Is it a square here? A Toyota? It hasn't even started. It is, but I guess I did the math, and I was just thinking, like, with it at 130,000. Oh, yeah.

That Toyota is going to last longer than y'all. Yeah. Yeah, buckle up on that one. Y'all have the cash to pay for it. Do you have an emergency fund?

We do, yes. So, we have a $40,000 emergency fund outside of. So, we have $28,000 save in addition to our $40,000 emergency fund. Good. So, what's--

So, if we were to go-- Y'all have the money. Y'all have the cash.

“What's the congestion in your heart over this decision?”

I guess my big--

We've always had a larger emergency fund.

And so, it bring us down to, like, what I would consider our term emergency fund is.

And so, yeah, yeah.

And then, if this car were to go out or--

I don't know if something were to happen. I would have to actually pull from. We're else. And this is the pop talk into the kettle here. Give me another thing to totally not money related.

Where you're anxious about a future thing happening. And not money related? Yeah. I don't know. I guess.

Are you--are you a warrior? No, I don't think so.

“I think it really just comes down to having the financial.”

We're not able to save as much as we used to. So, like, we have two kids now. And so, we still save, but there are months where we don't. And, I mean, we're budgeters. But if you use some of this $40,000,

it's going to take you a while to build it back up again.

And you don't want to do that.

Yeah. I get it. So, if you solve for peace, which one do you want to have? Would you rather have a nicer car? And let's money in the bank account.

You snuggle in every night. You check your bank balance and you go, "Ah." Or would you, I mean, a crappier car in that? Or not a crappier car, just an older used car. Or do you want a newer used car?

I guess I don't look forward to if we were to do the, like, a $10,000 vehicle that's, like, 10 years old. I don't look forward to, like, hey, what's the, and, like, are there any underlying issues with it? They were not able to see, like, at purchase price.

Well, then spending the money up front. Let's look at a bigger picture of your money.

“So, what do you guys bring home every month?”

And what do you bring home every year? Nearly we bring home 130,000, and then monthly we bring home 8,000 a month. Okay, everything. So, what we, let's use this to kind of be our framework and how we think about this.

So, two things are true. We do have a framework for cars. Things that go down in value. And we don't want any more than half of your annual take home to be tied up in cars.

So, for you, that's somewhere around 65,000. And you're nowhere near that. So, that's thing one that kind of gives me a green checkbox that, okay, we're not, we're not breaking any rules of, we're not being unwise.

We're not being unwise here.

The second thing that I want to bring up is,

you've got 40,000 saved, which you yourself has said, like, that's six months of expenses. Like, that's a full emergency fund. Something that I find, and I want to call this out with you because I think it'll help the greater audience is,

when we teach our seven baby steps, the first three, right, get a thousand dollars saved, pay off all of your more consumer debt using the debt, so no one saved it three to six months. Those are intended to be extremely intense.

We sacrifice everything. We give up what we want to do those things. But then once you cross that line, now we're going from intense to intentional, and the same way that you had to practice

what it feels like to say no, to cut back, to change your habits. Once you cross over into baby steps, four, five, and six,

“you have to do those same things only in the opposite direction.”

Now we have to practice what does it feel like to actually enjoy my lifestyle in a responsible way because I'm now a financially responsible adult. What does it feel like for me to know what my limits are and feel good about making that choice?

And instead of doing the easy thing, because the easy thing to do is just avoiding go, that feels weird. I'm just going to buy the thing that's less expensive. That's what I know to do, right?

But that would not be really enjoying what you're working so hard for. So I actually, in your case, I would push you to enjoy the work in the money that you have. And I'd say, hey, you're no longer in this season of life

where you have to drive the cheap poop D, not that 10,000 is cheap, but the less expensive poop D that's got already has 100,000 miles on. You've actually earned the right, and you have it in your margin to get the $25,000 car

and feel really great about like, hey, this is the nicest thing I've ever bought. What about that? Mmm, yeah. And as a guy who has commuted

and multiple different states in multiple different jobs with used Toyota's, I like the idea of my wife and our two kids being in the $25,000 car. That's just me.

I wouldn't like that. How does that mean you feel? I think I released. Hey, yeah. I think, um,

just because I want to make sure that we're making like what y'all said, a wise decision. And so, um, this is what it's about. I've got to tell you like, this is, this is what it's about.

We get a bad wrap around here for it's like, we're cheap and you got to, you got to live. You got to live low forever and I'm like, no man, you got to make the transition. I was just seeing that recently.

It's kind of come out all over the place. Dave Ramsey's stupid because he wants you to sacrifice your whole life.

You've never had dinner with Dave.

You've never been to a party with Dave. Yeah.

“You've never been out to dinner with Rachel.”

You've never been out to dinner with Jay, right? Dude, the only person is George. He's the worst. But other than that, I mean, with you, with you,

the whole purpose of sacrificing like bananas in your first second, and the first second third baby step is so you can have finally have a real version of the life that you want, right? And it's not unrestricted. Even Dave has to keep a budget, right?

But like, it's not unrestricted. But inside of that, dude, it's the best, man. Yeah. So yeah, you guys have worked your butts off. You'll save the whole bunch of money.

You got two young kids. Yeah, I'm with you. I'd get the nice car.

Yeah, and this is something I think we're saying.

This is because I think we've all struggled with it to a degree because it's true. Your brain isn't one form. Like you have to be a certain way to do baby steps. One, two, and three.

And you have to do a complete in many ways in about face. Because in baby step two, you have told yourself. Spending is bad. Yeah. Spending is not good.

“And then you have to train your brain to be like, you know what?”

All spending is not bad. Yeah. This spending is good. Right. This is fair.

You know, like you've told yourself anything extra. We don't want it. And now you have to go back and say it. It does right. Let me call us out with you because you sound like me.

Here's the deal.

You know this about yourself.

I know this about myself. If you went to the store and you and your husband bought a $10,000 car, you would get home and you'd immediately have regretful feelings. You know that. And if you go by that $25,000 car, you're going to see your bank balance.

And you're going to have regretful feelings. So just knowing that no matter what I do, I'm going to have the little feeling monster inside of me. Be like, you know, you should have, you know, you should have. Just know that's coming.

And then say, gotcha. I got it. I feel it. I'm not even going to find it. And then I'm going to do the next right thing after that.

And that's emotional maturity. I have this feeling. And it's real. And then I'm going to go do the next right thing. And it's getting right back on the same plan.

But yeah, all you people out there think Ramsay followers live boring awful lives. Come to the Ramsay cruise, man. It gets wheels. Yeah.

I could tell you that I relate to that. I put off buying a new car for the longest. I said in the other segment, my catalog SRX. It's worth 1500 bucks. It's got over 200,000 miles on it.

And I just would not buy myself a new car. And I talked to Sam about he's like, I don't know man, she won't. I won't. And then finally I did.

And I'm like, what was I waiting for? I saw you roll up in your new car. And I was like, whoa. They see me rolling. They hate it.

They hate it. I'm just joking. But just do it. Enjoy when you can afford it. [Music]

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Hey guys, thank you for taking my call. You got a brother, what's up? One question is my wife is currently making about 75k a year and our household pay-com pay is between 150 and 175k a year.

We're actively saving the buyer first house,

but you got to access the digital program to go back to school which will require us to take an about 80k out of student loans. After a degree is done, you'd be expected to triple or income. With our goal of buying a home, do you take an 80k out of student loans that is a smart decision or would you recommend delaying school?

What's the program that's going to triple her salary? That she's going to be making 2-10 the day she graduates. It's here at a school. She's a nurse currently right now in our end. Okay. It would be a nursing experience for a loan.

Any of the things are on the blank.

“But there's data that shows that that's what her income is.”

What her income will be right out of school? Yes, man. How long is the program? How long is the program? It's going to do your program with a year of clinical in it.

So she gets paid during that year, but it's very minimal. What you make during that one year. So she's going to be in school full time. So she's going to lose her 75 year salary. She's going to work and go to school full time.

She'll be in school full time. I'm making anywhere right now. I work in out of season with my jobs. It's not completely guaranteed, but I make anywhere between 85 and 100. But it should go up to around 150 here soon.

I just started. So what I hear is, I hear this is a decision about what do we want to do the most?

“I think you can do a lot of this over time, but something's going to take the first”

seat, right? You're either going to say, right now we're focusing on the house. And we're going to, you know, try to buy this house or you're going to say, you know what? Putting the house to the side and right now we're going to focus on her going to school. Because what's off the table, at least in my book is dead.

A student loan is 100% off the table here. So we have to figure out, are we going to cash flow and save up 80,000 to go towards education? Or are we going to save up 80,000 dollars to go towards a down payment on a house? How much do you have saved for your house yet? So far.

Well, we're 21 and 22. We just got married. Okay. A few months ago. So here's just started our jobs not too long ago.

So right now I only have 20 cases. Okay. I already bought, well, we built many house with cash without paying. Okay.

“That's what we're living in right now about 600 square feet.”

We don't have any debt.

We don't even have credit scores because they've never owned a credit card.

Okay. So let me tell you this. I'm 25 years down the road from you more than 25 years. Okay. And I understand what it would have been like talking to 21 year old me.

I was a dummy in a box of hammers. You don't sound like that. You sound like you're wet ahead of where I was the 21. Okay. So I'm pleading with my 21 year old self here through you.

Is that cool? Yes, sir. If you and your wife will just make a scratch and claw commitment for 36 months. Three years, 36 months. Make one of those construction paper chains.

They just has 36 months on it. And y'all will take that 20 grand. You've got saved. Actually, you've got emergency funds. I'd hang on to that and cash flow this school.

Let's come up with 26 grand a year. And that means you're going to have to really contract how you'll live. But you've got to paid for tiny house. Y'all you're just living at the age of 24. Based on the numbers you gave me y'all will be making 307 grand a year.

You know what that will make you at 24 rich. Yes, sir. You at house you can buy whatever house you want. If you're 24 years old, making $370,000 a year, you at 150 and hurt 210. Our 360, I'm sorry, 360 grand a year.

It's just going to take you deciding at this early part of your marriage as for our household.

We don't borrow money because we always want to be in control of our lives.

And I'd rather us have tuna fish sandwiches for dinner and us have eggs. I breakfast for dinner for three years. Then to ever be beholden to somebody else. And I've worked.

I've got young kids, right? I want them to be out there in the world and licensed and credentialed. I want that. And I want them not owning anybody any money, so that they can make the next right ethical choice and not be stuck between some machine because they got to pay their student loans off.

You know what I'm saying? Well, I guess my main question was being being concerned. I completely understand what you're saying.

You know, my goal was to never really take out a debt besides my mortgage.

But CRNA school was very competitive. And she got in and I'm sure she can get in again. But I asked she's nervous about that too.

“Maybe what if they don't take her back in next time we want to apply?”

Let's, you know, our monthly take home right now is about 13. And we spend about three a month. Right. So why can't we cash flow it? Go.

If you're only spending, if you have 10k of margin every month, there's no reason that you can't cash flow this. Yeah. Go. Okay.

Yeah. She shouldn't put it off. Plus you got 20 in the bank.

You already have this, you already, you almost completely have the first year tuition

in your bank account right now. Yes. And so that puts you basically a year up. First year, I think we would possibly, because I mean, investors coming up soon.

“And we possibly have to pull out a small loan.”

No. You don't have to do. Why do you think that? Well, let me think about this tuition. That's 20k right now, we're making about 10k.

And all you do is put it on a semester payment plan. And you pay him every month. For over the course of that month, they're going to charge you an extra 50 bucks for that. And you cash flow it.

So put it on a payment plan. Yeah. With the university, I'm going to take you out alone. Yeah. I was just thinking about paying it up front for that.

I understand what you're saying. If you can pay it up front, that's great. I don't think you can even work. Oh, no, you're doing a great job. No, you're doing awesome, man.

Here's the thing. If you take debt off the table, you'll figure it out. Is what I want to hear. I want you to hear me say, right? If that's not an option, you're like, OK, you got in.

We're going to figure this out. And if you had the, if you had the stack of cash to just pay for the whole semester, that's, that's fine. But what John was saying is making it more palatable. So you can do it bite size every month with this 10k margin that you have every single month.

And by the way, you have the first semester's two issues going to be about 13 or 14 grand. You have that even got out right now. Plus you'll have 6,000 left over. Write that first semester check. And then you all start living September, October, November, December.

Your Christmas is going to be different. Because you'll intentionally are sacrificing for a whole lifetime of winning.

They could never take her CRNA license away from her.

This is a good degree, dude. I understand. But you're in a position to do it and never owe anybody anything. Which means if she gets pregnant you're two and she looks at you and says, I don't want to be a nurse anymore.

You're like, that's cool. We don't own anybody money. The hard part about being 21 and 22 and having a lot of goals is you want to do them all at once. Yeah. And it's like, if I'm not doing them all at once, you almost feel like you're failing or you're,

you're just not achieving. You need that loan and then you don't have to change your lifestyle. And I want people if you're going to make an $8,000 investment. Like they're doing that I totally support. It's going to come at a cost.

I have that cost being now, not for the rest of your life. [Music] This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Some are as a time when people escape whether it's relaxing or going on vacation. We've all been told this lie that if we could just escape from it all,

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Go to betterhelp.com/Ramsie to get 10% off. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P, dot com/Ramsie. All right, let's go to the 806, Lubbock Texas and talk to Caleb. What's up, Caleb? Hey, how's it going? This is the other scale.

What's up, man? How are we doing? All right, good, good, good. So what's up? Oh, sorry, I just found that was much better to talk to the question. Yeah, I got a question for you.

I work in safety for a big solar company. I was here with their nationwide budget, just having to be in Texas. And my wife is starting, so she's in a internship for the same company. I'm going to be starting a salary position here in probably the next three months. Two to three months here.

And it'll bring our total income with child savings.

“Staying for better use needs now, but a little over 200 and I think 10 or 15K”

After all, it's hit and done. Not including bonuses. And we're on 22 and she just turned 21. And we don't have to really enjoy our job at all. I actually don't mind my job presenting the circumstances for my job.

I really don't enjoy where I'm located at this level. And everything like that. But I definitely don't enjoy where I'm at personally. And saying to this my wife, you know, she's going to be dealing with the same issues that I have. And it's going to be good.

Is it the people or the tasks? I'd say it's people. And yeah, I'd definitely say it's the people. It's not my favorite type of people. I mean, they're more blue colored workers, you know, all the end of the day.

But in solar, it's kind of a funny thing. But, you know, it's kind of like boozy construction, building these solar farms out here. So not necessarily your typical blue colored workers. And I don't know if that's quite the environment for my wife long term as well. Which is maybe also fracturing into my, you know, concern here.

Okay, but I've lived out in your part of the country for half my life. Okay, so I know that area well. And I know there's some places where it's tough to be around some folks. And I know the aesthetic is pretty tough.

“And I know in the middle of the summer it's miserable, right?”

There's a lot of hot, it's hot. The wind is blowing, right? It's miserable out there, right? Yes, yes, 100%. Okay, so I get that.

And closer into city, it's a cool place to be. But also it comes with a lot of stuff. I want you to think about your 21 and 22. What would three years of y'all doing this hard job in your early 20s? And living on like minimal, just deciding.

We're going to, we're going to, the first couple years of our marriage. We're just going to go all in hard on this deal. And yes, there's going to be goofballs that we have to work with. It's going to be not beautiful out here all the time. It's going to be miserable when it gets hot in the summer.

And we're going to set up our entire family lineage. Because we worked really hard when we were 22 and 23 and 24. I just think the whole follow your passion thing is one of the most nonsensical, moronic things.

I don't want people to be miserable and I never want someone to work in an unethical place.

But there's a, I don't know, man. I look back at 20 year olds and I'm like, dude, this is the season to work. Like crazy to set yourself up. Let me put this way brother. I'm living the life I have now.

Me and my family based on working like a maniac in my 20s and early 30s. You and I'm saying, okay. I would agree with John.

“I think most of us in our 20s and even into our 30s did jobs that we knew were not the end game.”

And we knew we didn't like very much. The only difference is we weren't making it to win in this kind of money. Yeah. We were making 18 bucks a day or 12 bucks an hour or whatever. Yeah.

What baby stuff are you guys on? Um, I honestly have no idea. I don't know. I don't know. My parents I see about Dave Ramsey.

They were like 25 years ago and he was always brave Dave Ramsey.

And I did the stupid college earned teenager thing. And he was like, Oh, that's cool. But I remember out to like really think about money. Well, let's see if we can diagnose you. Well, hello.

How big is your truck? Oh, I'm sitting right now. It's pretty big. Is it a, is it a 250 or 350? No, no, no.

It's a, it's a 26 150. Okay. 26 150. Yeah. That's my suspect.

Oh, my God.

Yes. No, no.

It doesn't have payments.

This is actually. Wow. This is from work. Oh, it's a work truck. I don't pay.

I know it's a personal vehicle. We have an option to buy it at the end of under it. And it usually ranges about 10 to 12k with one of our fleets that we work with and save on it for the, it's a, it's a pretty sweet deal. No, I, it'll be at the end of the end of the.

Okay. What is so bad about your life? Okay. So I, to throw a wrinkle on this. I probably just stated this earlier.

I'm leaving in love with right now. We moved to love it with our wife. But we, I work two hours away from love it. Well, that, to throw a wrinkle. We're not working in isn't love it.

I'd try. I leave before in the morning. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Every morning, I don't get home.

Okay.

“Would you still, are you all going to move out there?”

No, no, there's nothing out here. I, I don't know if I could say names on the show. But I'm next to a really big ranch. That's Texas. That's a, the eight largest ranch.

I love it. Sure. Yeah. So we're, it's, I hear in the middle of nowhere. It's really just this ranch into small down those 120 people.

And there's no houses. There's no anything. No RV spots. We looked in everything. We looked at it every option.

So you're in the car for hours a day? Yes, sir. I guess, man. Sorry, four hours a day. Oh, no.

Okay. But that's pretty bad. It is bad. That's a, that's a brutal command. It's a brutal, brutal commute.

But I also know there's other towns in between there. No, no. I live a privilege. It only if you look at the ground. I don't know.

I don't know. Between luck and nothing Texas. There's, there's nothing. There's, there's spur, which is about. Yep.

20, 30 minutes closer. There's no houses for. And there. So we're going to be making 210,000. Go write somebody a check for 78 grand for their home.

Well, let me ask this. Can you do the same work someplace else? That's why I asked you earlier. Is it the people? Or is it the, the tasks?

Are you able to do this type of work? Is it transferable? Yes. With this company specifically, they're, we're almost nationwide. Okay.

So we're here at blue. We're like 26 states.

My main issue that I've just started this position or I'm at with all this money, which is why I'm concerned because I've never been in charge of this much money.

Yeah. You don't feel like you could ask to transfer? No, not not. There we are because of where we're at specifically. It's such a hard position to get people to come over here.

Our, our people and our salary people. So basically it's like you're locked in for the next two years here. I won't lie. I won't lie. You have a tough.

Four hours a day. Four hours a day in the vehicle and it's hot. That, that's, that's very tough.

“Now, are you, you and your wife are doing the separate or are you commuting together?”

No. We can eat together. So that's. So at least you're together. Yes.

I would don't pay for gas. I don't want to make it feel like I'm paying for all this stuff. I don't, I have a gas card. So let's get back to your baby step right quick. Let's get back to your baby step right quick.

Because that, that'll help us know if you really need to do this. Do you have any consumer debt? Is that like credit cards? Yes. Credit cards do it alone cars.

I have no, no student loan. I have a car payment, which is going to sound so dumb. But I also have a Chevy Colorado, which I got right before starting this job. What do you want to do? I was going to need a truck.

I was 17 K on it. Okay. Anything else? Anything other than mortgage debt? Anything that you owe to anybody?

No. Just, um, I think I have like $500 on a credit card. And that's it. And do you have any money saved? That's not retirement.

I have. I have without looking actually into it. My actual savings only has $800 in there. But I don't transfer anything else for the life checking. How would I get paid to my savings account?

So I, I don't know. I'll tell that. I would assume with what's in my checking. I won't come out this month. You know, if that's how people do it.

Then it's probably close to three or four. Okay. Okay.

Here, before we hit the break, here's what I think is necessary.

At the bare minimum.

“Before you can quit this job, you have to do three things for me.”

Four things. Number one, you have to have a budget. You have to budget your money and you need to be budgeting your money for at least three months to see how much money you have and what it's going towards. So promise me that.

Number two, you need to pay off all of your debt. The 70,000. The 500. What if you sell it, I don't mind if you paid off. I really don't mind.

But you need to get out of debt. And number three, I want you to save up six months of expenses. And I'm going to add a fourth thing to the list. Is your fourth thing of homework. You and your wife need to have other jobs secured before you leave this job.

And if you do those four things, I think that that it's a smart way to exit. I would not come back to hunt you for that choice. And I'll just say right now. I can't remember what I was doing. I was 21, 22.

And so if you think about 30 year old you or 40 year old you,

Other than you and your wife got to spend a lot of time together,

I still vote for two or three years of just sucking it up and making a Jillian dollars. [music] Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwins Credit Union studio. I'm John Deloni joined by Jade Warshal.

It's got to Savannah, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, and talk to Robin. Sup, Robin. Hey, how are y'all doing? Thanks for having me. We're doing great.

Thanks for calling in. What's going on? All right. I am 45. And I want to go back to school to be a physician assistant,

but the only school that offers it near me is private. And it's 136,000 dollars. For a year for the entire program. For the entire program. Okay.

To your program. And so I talked to my husband about it. He thinks well, he literally said call Dave, he would Dave thinks. But he doesn't think that it's responsible.

“What's the difference in cost between a non-private institution?”

What's a non-private cost? The non-private I think is like, well, I called wine. And they said that it was 40,000. And I'm not sure I have to have to be per year because I looked up another school. And it was the school I did my bachelor's in.

And it was 40 per year. I mean, so the cost is all over the place. Yeah, usually it's about half. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But the non-private school is a two hour drive for me. And I would have to read you all of my pre-rec. So let's back out a little bit. Why PA?

What about the medical profession? Do you want to get into? Well, I love the independence of PA versus nursing. But I'm kind of having a midlife crisis. But it's kind of one of the things that I've been looking at is what makes life feel meaningful.

And I'm looking back at like high school years.

And it's always been when I went overseas when I was involved in some sort of mission work.

And so I've been thinking what would be meaningful to me.

“And the next part of my life is if I have the opportunity to”

go to see hands on with third world country and make a difference in that way. But also we would have to do something that I could do here as a career sustainably and enjoy working. So this is going to be a strange question. A strange next question.

What about this idea? Yeah. Had your husband, did your husband's first response be? That's a, that's not a good idea. It's called Dave.

Is it that he's seeing you struggling? Is it that he knows my wife faints every time she sees blood? Is it like, or is it we don't have the money? Like, what is it about that? It's been 130 say $140,000 on my next phase.

Then that's the $140,000 we don't have for whatever else. Yeah, but that's a foolish argument because you're going to make a bunch of money and be in a PA. Yeah. And what is whatever else?

Right. What is whatever else? Like for retirement, we started a little bit late for retirement. So we only have probably, excuse me, about 600 say for retirement. Don't be fine.

Yeah, y'all are going to be fine. So you think that it would be here? Well, here's a deal. No. You have these feelings, you're having a, what yourself diagnosed as a midlife crisis.

You want to, you're having a crisis of meaning. Like all that stuff, all that stuff is important and it's awesome and it's good.

Let's move that aside for a second.

What you have in front of you is a math problem. Do you have $136,000? Or over two years do you have 70 grand and 70 grand? Yeah, I mean, and my mom just passed recently and she left like 80,000. So there's that, but we were going to, you know, give that to our son, give him a leg up.

So that would be taking away from him.

“I really think that I'm looking at this and I think it's important that people do, to quote,”

can do the work they're wired to do and I think it's important that you have a career that gives you meaning.

I also think your 40s is when you really start to be like, okay, like I'm, this is who I am.

And this is what I'm doing and this is the contribution I'm making and then when you get into your 50s,

“like that's when you're really just kicking it, right?”

I think going back to the retirement, you have 600,000 there if it's invested well. If it's making at least 10% and seven years it's going to double. And you're not going to stop contributing it to it. You're going to keep contributing the 15% right. No one is saying stop doing that.

So you're going to be fine there. But you do have this money in front of you. And you do have options. Some of them may be uncomfortable, but you do have the non-private option. And if you did that, then you'd have the cash to cover it through this inheritance.

And nothing says that you can't continue to put some money away for your son. I think there's a way to tick all the boxes here. But there is going to be some level of sacrifice if you choose to do this. Whether it's okay, we're not giving our son a lump of 80 grand like we thought. Or I'm going to have to be in the car for four hours a day.

That's different than I thought, right? There is going to be some given take on this. But I do think that it's worth it to pursue the thing that you know and your guts you're supposed to do. Now, if you don't know and your guts that you're supposed to do this, that's a different conversation. Yeah.

And before I did anything, I would spend $3,500 in go as an assistant on a medical mission strip. Because what used to give me life was mowing. I could spend all day mowing people's lawns mowing my lawn. I love it. Now, man.

So if I look back at 18, 20, 25 year old me, I was like, do you know you used to give me life this?

They used to be always my stock answer.

If I won the lottery, you know what ever seen me again and I'd have a huge lawn business. I would not do that anymore. Right? Because it doesn't, it used to give me life. And when I think back on those, those days, I romanticize them.

It's not real anymore. So before I did anything, I would spend the money and go spend 10 days doing medical missions as an assistant, handing a surgeon gauze and doing whatever I need to do. And if their real country and see, is this still what lights me up? And if it is, can you get that from coordinating medical missions?

Can you get that from 50 other avenues before I go back to quasi med school? I love that. Right?

“If you want to be a physician's assistant in the States, day in and day out, deal with managed care,”

deal with insurance companies and help people day in and day out. And then a couple of times a year go overseas. If that's who you want to be for the back after your life, then, yeah, do you all have the cash? It's a worthy investment and you're not robbing Peter to pay Paul here. And we're going to give our son a leg up in other ways, right?

But, man, there seems to be a bunch of other steps before you're just like, you know what? I don't know. I don't know. Let's put $140,000 to yours in my life down on the table. It just seems like a huge, a huge bet without knowing convincingly.

This is what I want to go do. So step one, let's give you Kin's book, find the work you're wired to do. And let's do the career and assessment that's inside of that. And that's going to help you kind of put the pieces together. And then in the book, it's just a little short read.

He walks you through what to do with the results.

“So I think that's the one thing, too, is if everything still points to kind of this field ish,”

then do exactly what John said and test it out in multiple areas. There's nothing that stops you from testing this before you invest any money into it. And so I think those two things are your homework that must be done first. Before you sink even a diamond to this. [Music]

You work your butt off for your money, but your money's never going to return the favor.

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Learn more at Ramsey Solutions dot com slash smart vester. [Music]

Nice to have you on.

Listen, the words get stuck in the old mind sometimes.

The Y refi question of the day. Our question of the day is brought to by Y refi. When past you private student loans keep pulling you backwards. It's hard to focus on what's ahead. Y refi helps borrowers with low fixed rate refinancing options that fit your budget.

So you can focus on the future again. Visit Y refi.com slash Ramsey may not be available in all states. All right. Today's question comes from Keith and Tennessee. He says I found out today that my brick and mortar bank allows children with a joint account

to get a debit card as young as three years old. Wow. I was mortified thinking of a preschooler walking around with a card in a world of marketing. Okay.

“What age do you think it's appropriate to give a child a debit card?”

Keith, I think you're overthinking this. I mean, I'm just saying, obviously we're not giving a three year old.

I think a fair time is when they get their first job because then they actually have a little bit of money to speak of.

I think I got mine when I was 15 or 16 when I started working at Croger, bag and groceries. And my mom was on it, had a check in a safe, you know, a debit card attached to it, checking in a savings. And I'm trying to think what else I think there was she could see the transactions I was doing. And it was just a great way to kind of like be connected on there. But yeah, I mean, what say you 16 whenever they get their first job?

Yeah, I think when, yeah, my son sort of working. Yeah, we got he has it online. It's a telecount, but yeah, so we can transfer money back and forth. But now that he's in school when he goes on school trips and things, it's easier just to make sure he's got eating money and stuff like that. But yeah, if somebody wants to get a debit card and hand it to a first grader, that's a madness.

Like right. There's no point. No, or a second grader or whatever with the debit card, there's just no, there's no point to it. But yeah, I'm with you. I think when when kids are getting their first job.

Yeah, you get your first job then it teaches, I mean, you can do all the stuff together.

It's like, okay, we go down to the bank together, we open up the account. Obviously, mom or dad is, you know, listed on there just to be able to see what's going on. And then it's a great way you start teaching budgeting. You start teaching, you just set basic next steps in managing money. So I, I'm so old, Jade, my dad.

I remember it was like a cool day we had, but he took me and got me my first savings account. But I had a checkbook attached to it, but it's because I had a mailing business.

“And I think it was 10 or 11, but I had to ride my bike to the bank to deposit checks that I got from customers,”

or to get cash out to do it, or maybe my no credit friends wanted to do. Isn't that so funny? George and I were talking about this on the previous show. Just checks in general is crazy work. The fact that it's a piece of paper that you just hand out to people that has your account and routing number on it.

Oh, well, now that now that it can all be done electronically, it is, it is mad. It's crazy. And the funny thing is there's this real circulating on Instagrams and TikTok, where it's, I guess, Jen, why? And they're like, if you can read what this says, you can have it.

And you know, when you ride a check, it's like, if you ride a check for 3000, 3000, 100 dollars and 26 cents, it says it's written out 3000. And then it has zero over 26 as the change. The kids don't know what that means. So no one can read the check.

They're like, what is this? I don't know what it is. I saw an, I don't know, it was a website about two or three years ago that said, like, how to ride a check.

“And it was a website for young adult men.”

Like how to shave like your granddad and how to shine your leather shoes. But it was like, how to ride a check. And I was like, oh gosh, I'm old. Yeah. I still ride two checks every month.

For what? I deposit into an account for my kids. And I ride a check. And it's a strange. It's going to sound ridiculous.

And I know this is nutty. It's a, I'll call it a spiritual discipline for me. I want to stop and pause and write this check. It's going into an account for my kids that they don't know about. Okay.

And it's a moment. And then I still to this day, right, my, giving checks to my church and on a check. I can respect it. And there's one guy that I hand them to.

And he's like, I'm a private service. It's you. Yeah. He smiles.

It says thanks, man. Or we'll put it in the box. But let me tell you why. I sometimes will hand it to. But usually I give those checks to one of my kids to tell them to go put it in the box.

Remember, it's not our money. And she's like, Oh, yeah. You want to know what, John, I'm so glad you said that. And Kelly, I'm taking a detour here because the people need to hear this. You know, I'm so glad you said that because I ran into something very similar in my life.

You, it's harder to show your kids the things that you're doing.

So they can learn from it because everything's on our phone.

“So if we're doing something on our phone, they don't necessarily know that that's what we're doing.”

So, case some point, you writing the check. If you had just gone on your phone and did the little, you know, Apple pay or his help. However, they do it. They would have no idea that mom and dad are generous. And this is a monthly rhythm or weekly rhythm that we have of generosity, right?

So taking the time and doing it the manual way. Same thing with, like, I don't know. I'm just going to go ahead and say it like the Bible app on your phone. I'm like, you want to know what? Let me get back out this paper one.

Because my kids need to see me open these texts and seeing the text. That's what my mom used to do. So it's like, well, let me see it. Jade, even in my house, like, over the last couple of years, my wife has started reading more and more on her phone.

Uh-huh.

And because she used to have a Kindle and now she can just get an ebook on her phone,

I thought she was just texting and texting the text all the time. Doomskroll. Yeah, I was like, hey, who are you texting? And she's like, I'm reading a book. And that, I mean, it affected me even, like, um,

your kids and the people around you are just going to see you staring at the screen. Yeah. They're going to make up what you're doing on that screen. Yeah. Yeah, analog.

Yeah. I do. I still, I still order checks. I'm probably one of 10 people. You want to know recently, I ordered checks and the reason was because of this place right here.

I had forgotten one of the receipts I needed to turn in. And if you don't have the receipts, you got to check the Ramsey every month. And they were like, you got to check. I was like, a check. I was like, a check. Yep.

I arrived to check the Ramsey every month because I always lose my receipts.

And I'm at on the road every time. Let's go to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and talk to Jane. Jane, we're right up against a clock. So jump right into your question. Okay.

Thanks for being a call, guys. You got to. So I am looking for, uh, what the Ramsey calls like, Council. You got it.

“I have, I think it's an iceberg question night.”

Not an iceberg or an iceberg question. So I'm 33 years old. I have $35,000 to $250 in debt. Uh, it is that that is exclusively what Dave also doesn't refer to as stupid text. I have no mortgage with paid off my home.

Um, I've got a 18 year old about the start college. But she already has her associates. Um, I am wondering. I've been doing this out of order. What is the best way to pay this off?

Do I continue to tackle this monthly? Or do I just cash out some investments? That's some of it taps into a little bit of retirement? Or I'm not sure exactly what the right path is. Um, so I'll pause there and let you guys talk.

And then we can. We can go on from there. I just want to make sure I wrote down the amount of debt correct. Did you say 33 or 35? 35,000.

Okay. $35,000. $35,000. And you did say you, you're out of order. So you've got no mortgage.

I think that's a great thing. Do you have any money saved any cash money? Yep. So my net worth even with just 35,000 is a little over 700,000. But all that's in retirement.

Except for I do have some in a brokerage. And I have some in a high yield savings. Okay. Tell me what's in the high yield savings. Um, I got $12,000 there.

Okay. And tell me what's in the brokerage. Bookerage is 16. Okay. I think there's your.

There's your debt pay on your right there. Um, but I don't. How would you make every month? Okay. What's your monthly take home?

Uh, a lot. Um, so the reason that this is an ice for question is because. Um, I'm not sure how long I will have it. Um, my daughter has been. I've been working over 80 hour, 90 hours a week for over a year.

My daughter is tired of it. I'm tired of it. Um, and where I live currently. The market is not very good. So all of this is reason to all of this that you're saying is reason to get this under control.

And get this debt paid off because when you don't have payments, suddenly you have options. And you don't have to work jobs that you don't have to work. And you don't have to stay in situations that feel, um, unsafe for you or unsustainable for you. So I would. I would reach over and I would pay off this debt.

And then I would stack up three to six months of expenses in the mean time.

“And then if you have to transition jobs, you're in the perfect situation to do that.”

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[ Music ] We're taking your calls live, triple eight, two, five, five, two, two, five. Let's go out to Indianapolis and talk to Veronica. Hey Veronica, what's up? Hi.

How's it going? Oh, guys. I'm good. Excellent. We're doing great.

How are you? I'm good.

So I just had a question.

So my boyfriend and I are looking to combine our finances when we get married. And I end up free except for my home mortgage. My boyfriend makes a little over six figures, but he does have 50,000 incident loans. In addition to his car payments. So I own my own home and he owns his own separate home.

He thinks once we're married, we should tackle his loans together. And once I get my house put in both of our names. But I would like to keep my home pay off my mortgage and just kind of have him finish off paying off those loans. Before we get married. So how would you advise us to structure this?

Okay. I mean, it, it, it, it sounds like he wants to get married now. I'm thinking probably in the next year, year and a half or so, like, we'll get engaged. Well, let me put it this way. When you get married, your stuff and his stuff becomes y'all stuff.

Yes, I'm thinking maybe like if we move in together, we would just be engaged and have a long engagement. So then I would be able just to pay off my mortgage and then he would live in the home, but to pay off utilities. I think you guys are making it to complex. I think we can make this really simple and clean. Do you want to hear what I'm thinking?

Okay. I think the simplest cleanest way to do this is until you're married, you have your things, your money, and your residence. And he has his things, his money, and his residence. And then when you guys get married, wherever you guys are at the point of marriage, everything combines. So if your home is paid off by then, it's our house and yeah, you could add them to the deed, you know.

“I think you should add them to the deed, y'all stuff.”

And even if you're not, it's not finished paid off. Yeah, you still add them to the deed because it's yours and it's ours together. And then if he still has a little bit of debt left, that's ours together and we'll combine our money and pay it off together. But I think it starts getting complex when you start doing unit things, but you're not a unit. So like if we were to be engaged, would you guys advise that he move into my home?

Because at that point, we're not married. We're just about to get married and then just have him aggressively tried to pay off those loans. I wouldn't. I wouldn't because engagement is I intend to be a unit, but I'm still not a unit yet. So let the intention, let the intention period, play itself out because there's a reason that it's there.

Let it play itself out until it's the intention is actually realized and oh, we are a unit.

And then because if for some reason, if for some strange reason, because it happens every day and I would never, you know, project it on to you.

But if some reason, one of three things that could take place, number one is you start living together. You decide we don't really like each other that much and you've already got everything tangled up and mingled up. And then it's like, oh man, that sucks. And then number two, what happens all the time is it kind of just gets comfortable. And before you know it, it's like, I thought we were getting married, but somebody just gets comfortable with this intention to marry situation.

“And they just want to stay there and then you end up calling me five years later, wondering, how do I get this guy to budge?”

And you've already comengled everything up together and it's just a kind of a web there. Or the third thing happens, which is somebody starts to be codependent on the other. And it's like, I don't even know that I really want to be with this person, but we're all comengled together.

So I kind of feel like I owe it to where it gets messy.

Where are the expert on the job? The question I asked, all three of those things are excellent. And I'll tell you the, I just finished a two year marriage project that ended up in a, in a marriage book that I hadn't superintendent to write, but it, I'm proud of it. And it'll be coming out next year. One of the data points that surprised me the most was the everything from life satisfaction to net worth to amount of sex, to health outcomes, even between the differences between co-habitating couples and married couples.

And my wife and I have, we've talked openly. We've been, today's our 24th anniversary. We've been right at I for almost a quarter century, that's today. But there's, thank you, but there's been seasons where we're only married because of what a pain would have been to go to the courthouse and wind everything.

“I know that's right. So here's why that's important.”

Even people will tell you in Hollywood, well, that means the relationship's over. No, that means there was a hurdle that we both put up to protect us from ourselves sometimes. And that's a good thing, right? So my bigger concern for you is, if you're not ready for your stuff to be all stuff, then just be his girlfriend and pause the marriage talk for a while.

Okay. Because if your identity as a homeowner is more important to you than your identity as a wife and a co-creator of an amazing future with another person,

where you all are creating a singular, a future for you all, that's going to, it's going to have two independent people in it merging over time, but if it's, if your identity is more, this is, I'm a homeowner, I'm, I'm, I'm a boss, I do my thing. That's awesome. You get to pick that, but don't try to do that and get married to. Because it's going to be you getting in a boat that is your marriage, but you're going to have one foot in your other life. And it's a recipe for getting yourself hurt, for getting him hurt, and yalling up, ending up, and drifting into two different oceans, right?

So are you saying, like, if we were to get engaged to still live apart?

I would, because you actually make it. You don't have the legal protection unwind the relationship of something go sideways.

And again, like Jay said, I don't wish that on you, but Jay and I only have jobs because people's plans don't work out. Yeah.

“And I also ask, what's the rush? Why do you feel that you, you need to do that so quickly?”

I guess, like, I just wanted to be completely in debt before we, like, enter planar lives together just to put us in, like, the best financial position to hopefully buy, like, a future home together and cash. I mean, we both have homes of our own that I know we're going to praise. And so I guess, like, the bigger picture would be to, since I am on baby steps six to be able to buy, like, my next home together with him and cash. Okay, but here's all that matters. That means let's get married tomorrow.

And I'm going to help you and together we're going to pay your stupid student loans off so fast. And then we're both going to sell our homes and buy this other house. Like, or I'm just going to sit here and wait on you to pay off your 50,000 delaying, like this future house that we want to buy together. The end date may still be the same or you may be able to accelerate it if you all get married and work together. But it's that it almost sounds like you want to, like, you did this.

“And so you clean up your mess and when your mess is cleaned up, then you can join me. Is that, is that part of it?”

If it is, it's okay to say that. I mean, I just feel like I worked really hard to wear, you know, I'm at financially, you know, took me a really long time to be able to get to baby steps six. I put 25% down on my home. And so, you know, I've been picking up extra days at work, but I also know how hard he works. He also picks up extra days weekend. So you can look at it. You can look at it. You can look at it two ways. You can look at it. I did all of this. And so until you bring yourself up to my level, I'm going to, I'm not going to engage in this future thinking with you and this future action steps with you.

Or you can say, thank God I worked so hard so that when we join, all we have to do is get over this 50,000 dollar hurdle together and then we are off to the races. If you view yourself in like a lifeguard stand at a swimming pool, looking down at him swimming and thinking when you climb up here, then you'll be up here with me. I'll tell you right now, your relationship isn't as on the same footing. But if you climb down off that stand and you pull him out of the water and you'll come up together and then you'll accomplish anything.

And if you take that same way of thinking and you transfer out of money and to other areas of life world spiritually when they get where I am or, you know, relationally where they get where I am, you start to realize that it's not really a wonderful way of thinking.

The problem with online investing advice, you hear so many different opinions and you're left wondering if you're even doing it right.

“And that's why we created investing essentials.”

Join me in Dave Ramsey at this two night virtual event to learn Dave's playbook for investing and wealth planning. We'll break down 401k's mutual funds passing on wealth and more. So join us September 1st and 2nd. Take it start at 199 bucks. You can get yours today at RamseySolutions.com/events or just click the link in the show notes.

Today's scripture of the day is Luke 1215. And he went on to say to them all, watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed because your true life is not made up of the things you own no matter how rich you may be. Nathan W. Morris says, "Edit your life ruthlessly and frequently. It's your masterpiece after all." Love that.

Just got to Dallas, Texas and talk to Ross. Ross, I need to let you in here. There we go. What's up, Ross? Hey, how you guys doing?

Doing great. Brother. You guys. Yeah, great. Thank you.

“I have a quick question about a Roth IRA account.”

I'm a freelance musician and I'm pleased to make like a decent amount of money for the first time.

A few years of not making the time and I'm just trying to set myself up for retirement. And I'm kind of confused on like which type of retirement account to open Roth IRA versus traditional. I love that you're asking that question. The first thing I want to find out is if it's time for you to start investing, if it makes sense for you to start that path yet. Because there's kind of a good better and best way to look at this.

And so we found over time that the best time to start investing, so that money can actually stay invested and you don't end up pulling it out for an emergency or anything like that. Is after you've paid off your debt and after you've stacked up three to six months of expenses. Have you done those things? We are currently paying off student loan debt and they're a little bit of credit card debt. Okay, how much do you have left to go?

Um, we got about 38,000 of student loan debt about two or three thousand. I think in credit card debt. Okay, two to three thousand. And how old are you? We're doing the baby steps recently.

Oh, good. I'm sure 31. Okay, great. So what I would advise and I'm going to tell you the answer to your question. But I would advise for you to pay off the student loans and the credit cards.

Stack them smallest to largest and pay minimums on all of it.

“But put any and all extra money that you have to that smallest that's probably a credit card right now.”

Unless you have the student loans broken up into smaller pieces.

But whatever the smallest debt is, that's the one that you attack first.

And the reason for that is it's going to allow you to invest an amount that really is going to move the needle for you. Um, because ideally, we want you investing 15% of your gross income. That's where we want you. And if you can do that, that's that's the magic number that you have we have found that over time. If you do that, it really is going to build wealth for you and your family.

And it's going to set you up for retirement in a major way. So that's kind of the, you know, underlying thing there. And then the second part of that is now we want you to save up three to six months of expenses because that's your emergency fund. That's kind of your insurance policy against debt in the future. If you've got, uh, let's spit ball, what would you say six months of expenses for you?

Uh, time of $12,000. So if you had $12,000 just sitting in a bank, I mean, what would you really need to go into debt for, right? You know, the car could break down. You could do a roof repair. You could do a new a home on it.

It depends on what kind of guitar he needs. All right. What kind of musician are you? I'm a classical musician. Oh, see.

Like he's got like a upright base. Yeah, or violin. Like those are the violins can get real real expensive. Yeah, what do you play by the way? Uh, I play the trombone.

Love that. I'm almost like a good OG trombone cost. Uh, mine costs about four grand. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. So you got enough money.

So now you have that money there. If anything pops up, you don't need to use the credit card. You don't need to go back into debt. So that's kind of your buffer against going back into debt. And then from there on, yeah, you're investing 15% of your gross.

So whenever you get that check, 15% of the gross amount goes straight over into a Roth IRA. And I would suggest Roth because that's one where we're paying the taxes up front. That's really one of the biggest differences. Traditional, uh, you pay the tax when you pull the money out in retirement. And Roth, you pay the taxes up front.

So that later in retirement, you don't have to pay the taxes. Because the money is also growing tax-free, which is so important, not just for you, but for your airs. Because the goal is you're going to keep investing that money is going to keep stacking up. And at some point, you're going to leave this earth in that money. Whatever was left is going to transfer your to your airs.

And guess what? They're not going to have to pay taxes on it either because it's already been the bills already been fitted. See what I'm saying? Yeah, totally. So that's kind of the nuts and bolts on it.

“Can I celebrate you as a musician thinking about this?”

Yeah, so good. I hang out with a lot of musicians.

And I've never had the IRA conversation before.

So good on you, brother. Uh-huh. It's, yeah. Very good. That's impressive.

You know what? It's because I hang out with punk rock musicians. And he's a classical musician. So maybe that's it. I don't know.

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Talk to Andrew. Hey, Andrew. What's up? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

You got it, brother. Everyone on me.

“I recently graduated from nursing messages school.”

This is, you know, the end of an 11 year process for me. And now I'm at the point where I'm trying to put away as much money as possible. And also, you know, get my mortgage payment down. I'm very lucky to have no student loans. And I'm really trying to see if I'm being a little too aggressive with it.

Because I've been picking up a lot of overtime to try to make this, you know, my current plan work. How old are you? I'm 29. 29, are you married? No, I'm not.

So you're just cruising and crushing all by yourself. Yep, cruising and crushing. It's been a good six months since I got out of school. Congrats on that degree, really. Really good.

Thank you. And how'd you do with no student loans? I was very, very fortunate. My mom and dad helped with my bachelor degree and my master degree. Wow.

And I was a travelers for two years, which allowed me to save up enough to pay for my graduate or my doctor. All right, so hold on. I want you to change your story up a little bit. I'm going to share your question. Yes, you were fortunate.

And you had some help along the way.

But unlike me when I got my first big boy job, you made a choice.

And that was to save money because you had a different vision for your life down the road. And it allowed you to cash flow a really critically important credentialing and education that now has changed your future. And a pretty dramatic way. So yes, you get you were pretty fortunate. I'm not sure if you're going to pay for that, but you also, you made some pretty important choices on your own.

And I'm proud of you for that. That's good. So. Well, thank you. Thank you.

So how aggressive are you?

“I mean, you're like, am I being, am I going to go into Ham?”

Let's decide how much are you putting aside? Like percentage wise for retirement and how much are you saving towards your mortgage? Um, so my mortgage currently is a 5.49 percent. It's a $3,100 month mortgage and I'm paying 6,100 every month towards that through retirement funds. My employer contributes 8.5 percent of my monthly take home pay.

So that ends up being around 2,500 that they contribute. I also max out my 403B and my 457. So that is right around 2,500 each. And then through a brokerage account, I'm putting a little over $1,000. So total right around 8,500 a month I'm putting.

So 1% of your take home is that. More of your gross. My take home is if I don't work any overtime would be 17,000 a month with the overtime I've been working. That can be anywhere from 25 to 30,000 a month.

Okay, so here's what I'm putting away a good amount.

You are. Here's what I would suggest. I would suggest capping at for the time being. I would suggest bringing your investing to 15%. So 15% of your gross.

Okay, not of your take home.

And that's a great place to start.

You're going to build plenty of wealth like that. And then whatever is left.

“If you want to be aggressive about paying off your mortgage, you can do that.”

Now the question is how aggressive.

Because we do want you to enjoy life a little bit. Go on some day, dude. Go on some fun. Get some friends.

“Go do go bowling or trivia nights and stuff.”

You're 29. You have so much time.

I mean, this is, this is the time.

Here's a question I want you to ask. Okay, we're going to run out of time here. What kind of life do you want to have? And you've worked so hard to give yourself tons of options. I want you to have some joy in your life.

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

And that's to walk daily with a prince of peace. Christ Jesus. This has been The Ransy Show. Thanks for joining us.