Take The First Step Toward Financial Freedom Today

>> Brought to you by the every dollar app,

start budgeting for free today. [MUSIC] >> Normal is broken, common sense is weird. So we are 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, and the war show taking your calls, triple eight, two five, five, two, two, five. It's going to Charlotte, North Carolina, and talk to Alyssa. What's up Alyssa?

[MUSIC] >> Hi guys, thanks so much for taking my call. I appreciate what you guys do so much. >> Of course, thanks for calling in, what's up? >> Okay, so the simple question is,

we are wondering, has it an eye or wondering if there is any way

“and how you might suggest the best way is to get out”

of the car leaf early.

We have no consumer debt other than this car leaf,

which we refer to as our stupid tax system. But we are expecting a baby and I just found out from early on and just re-evaluating our budget and had known for a while that this car leaf wasn't the best decision, but are now at the point of trying to look into possibly getting out

of it and just have no idea where to start. >> Okay, how much is the least, what do you pay every month? >> We pay $4.99 a month and we have about $22 months left on the payment schedule and the buyout amount is about $29,000. >> Okay, and do you have any money saved anywhere?

>> We do, so we do, we have about $15,000 liquid, but two things with that, you know, one we are expecting and I am a high risk pregnancy, and so I have the type of diabetes, so there's just some interesting things with the pregnancy there, and then two, you know, we do have about $15,000.

We have thought, well, if we are able to get out of a lease, we'll need at least a portion of that to purchase a car. So those are kind of our old 18 thoughts there.

>> Oh, so if you, the only cash you have is that basically

your emergency fund right now? >> That is. >> Okay, so if you got out of this lease, you'd have to take a chunk of that to buy a car for you in this new baby, right?

>> Yeah, correct. >> Well, let me, let me put you on pause for a second,

“because the truth is you, I wouldn't do anything today with this.”

You are in Stork mode, I would not jump into that savings. You need it there, that's cushion, that's for your piece of mind. And you've been paying this for a 99 payment. I'd pay it a little bit longer until the baby comes. When does the baby get here?

>> A good 9 months, so we're brand new. >> Oh, it's brand new. >> Found out. >> What's your husband earned? >> He is in sales, he earns about at a safely 80,

but this past year was actually closer to 100, so but safely 80,000. >> And you're a high risk, are you able to work through the pregnancy or any portion of it? >> Yeah, I'm working, yeah, I work, I work from home,

I work remote, and I'm able to do that throughout the pregnancy. Our plan, our hope is for me to go part time, if the only thing that is preventing us from me going part time, is this stupid least. >> That coming, and what do you make when you work full-time?

>> I think about 70.

“>> Okay, so we're just stacking cash right now.”

I mean, that's our plan, yeah. >> What other debts do you have? Nothing, oh, that's the only debt. >> Sorry, besides the mortgage, besides the mortgage. >> Okay, so is it possible that on 15,150,000,

you can cut back a couple of areas so that this paying this lease feels a little more tenable. And in the meantime, you continue stacking cash, whatever extra margin that you have. Because I don't like the idea of you going down

to no emergency fund, and then feeling the pressure of having to stack that up very quickly. Do you see what I'm saying? 'Cause you are gonna have to get a new car if you do that. >> Right, right.

>> And that's the part I don't want to talk about. But I have a feeling you're gonna say, no, we do have both of us do have raw IRAs. >> No, no, no, no. >> It's not desperate, you're not in a desperate--

>> It's not desperate times, right? >> You're annoyed. >> I don't get desperate, yeah. >> I didn't know it's mine, I mean mine, we just have 7,000 in, so it's not a huge amount.

>> No, I didn't know if you'd say, and it might be good to just-- >> No, because it's locked in, okay. >> It's locked in, and by the time you take it out, not only are you gonna have to pay taxes and penalties on it,

but yeah, if you just-- if you just up and pull that money out and take it out like a contribution, you're gonna pay a 10% penalty. So I would not touch that one on a Roth IRA, you pay a 10% penalty.

>> Well, are you talking about just pulling out the money that you've invested, not the growth? >> Yeah, I'm talking about the contribution, just 7,000 that we put into it. >> I still would not do that by Roth IRA.

You could pull that money out and not have anything attached to it, but I wouldn't do that for the simple principle of you're in a situation or a season of life where you're changing your behavior with money. And what that means is I'm going to start doing the smartest things

as I possibly can with my money. >> Sure. >> And you know what I'm saying? >> Yes. >> So once you know the information just abide by it. >> Mm-hmm. >> So last question is there a world in which you would suggest

getting like a smaller, like refinancing the lease

“or going to like a credit union or something like that to get?”

>> I'm thinking about that. I was thinking about that, but here's where you're at. You would still be out your emergency fund, right? Because you'd have the 15,000 and then we'd have to come up with another, oh, 9,000 to fill the gap.

>> Right, that's where we were thinking about the Roth, but you're saying no. >> No. >> And that, yeah, it doesn't solve your problem. For me, your biggest problem is you need cash when the baby comes and you need as much cash as you can

because to your point, it's not just the baby anymore. You're at a high risk status, too. So I'd want, if I were in your shoes, I'd want my deductible. >> I'd want it.

>> Put a sign. >> You know, the family deductible, put a sign. I'd want money set aside, so if we need meals and extra help,

you know, all of those things 'cause you just never,

don't get me wrong. I wish you nothing but the best. But you just never know how these situations go. >> Or suddenly two months in, you can't work. You've got to go on bed rest because you're your diabetes.

Because yeah, I think, Jade, I think, this is the first time I've, in years of doing the show, I've ever told somebody stay in the lease.

“>> Well, you, at this point, you have to listen.”

If you called me today, and there was no baby, I would consider saying, hey, go down to the credit union, you know, get a $15,000 loan, you know, so that you have the money, you can buy this thing out. Yeah, I would do that in a heartbeat.

But even, I'll be honest, even with your numbers, it's, it's close. And the reason I say it's close because I'm like, okay, you'd have to take out a $15,000 loan. They need to have to turn around and take,

I don't know, five or eight thousand more, just to get a vehicle, and you'd end up at the same, you'd end up pretty, pretty close to where you are now. So that's the only reason I don't even know that I would mess with it.

I think that I would just start tackling the cash to buy it out. >> Yeah, and we have piled, stripped out our budget to bear, I mean, you know, when we hit that store, we were like, okay, everything goes, YouTube TV, you know? >> Mm-hmm.

>> Our car wash some footage in, like, everything goes. >> Yeah. >> But, you know, it's just, it's just a lingering amount that we're just hoping to, you know, get rid of. But yeah, that might just be our super tax.

>> And honestly, it is, because when you really run out the math on both sides, it's not really worth it. To go and get that loan from the credit union and then have to add more cash to it, it's just, at that point, I'd say, hey, just pay the thing off.

Because here's the thing, in the time,

in this next nine months, you're gonna stack up a bunch of money. And as soon as this baby is born and everybody comes home healthy, you're going to completely buy this lease out.

“If you want to, you might buy then, you might think,”

well, we'll just run it out and then, from there on, we'll just buy a car, we're gonna turn it in and buy a car. >> Yeah, exactly our plan, yeah. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Hey, it's a good question.

And I love that you're thinking about it. I would just take a chill pill, push pause for now, and get it rolling in nine months. >> And never, he's a car again. I know that's, you already know that.

>> It's the most expensive way to operate a vehicle. >> Exactly. >> Period. [MUSIC] >> Listen, identity theft doesn't just happen just because you're careless. You can do everything right and still become a victim,

whether your information is skimmed online, stolen through a scam, are exposed in a date of breach, which happens every day. Then it becomes your problem, your time, your money, your paperwork, the lower. That's why I've told people for years to have identity theft protection,

and the only plan I've ever recommended is from Zander Insurance. Zander monitors for signs of fraud, even home title fraud, and they send alerts when something looks off.

Most important, if something happens,

you're not stuck spending hours on hold, filing forms and arguing with companies, trying to fix it. Zander's dedicated restoration team, steps in, and does the hard work to help restore your identity. You can even protect your kids for free on their family plan.

Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282 to protect yourself today.

Zander is how you fight back, zander.com. [MUSIC] >> All right, let's roll out to one of my favorite places in the United States. San Antonio, Texas, man, they do K-S-O-Rite and let's talk to Harley. What's up, Harley?

>> Hey, John, hey, Jade. I'm so excited to talk to you guys. >> You two, man. >> My question is right in your group.

“I think my question is right in your real-house.”

>> Perfect. >> I'll just dive right in. So I'm getting married to the love of my life in about 30 days. >> Gross. >> That would point out, all right.

So at that point, we're going to move in together. We're going to combine finances. We both want to combine finances. We both want to be totally united as a couple. I'm the nerd and she's the free spirit.

So for myself, I've read it when at home. Could you guys just go over some of the reasons why we combined finances with our spouse. Some of those benefits become with being united. And then for myself, how do I engage her on this topic without sounding pre-cheat and in a way to kind of excite her?

“Like how do we set these shared goals and run after them together?”

We want to stay for a house, want to have kids, maybe set her up to stay at home too. >> Very cool.

>> The first thing I'll tell you is there's some, what I would call nerd work.

There's some research data that some researchers went down the rabbit hole and trying to see if was there a causal or a correlative link between couples who shared their accounts and couples who didn't. And not to our surprise, but to surprise out in the world there was couples who shared a single account were forced to make planning decisions together.

And because there was the artificial environment that was the research study, there wasn't a way out of it. So they agreed to do this. And so that forced them to sit down on a table and figure out what do we value? Organic foods are non-organic foods.

This kind of car, the temperature at 78 or the temperature at 72, which is going to cost us an extra this much money every month. There are forced to have those kind of conversations that so many couples just blow by. And their relationship quality was higher. And so I think the, the in and of itself sharing the account, that isn't the magic sauce.

What's the magic sauce is it forces you to have big, real, authentic, deep conversations about how you're going to do life together. And that leads to your next question. The fact that you already have this level of self-awareness is pretty impressive. Most people call us seven to ten years into their marriage and they're like we hate each

other because he always tries to hit me over the head with his spreadsheets or, you know,

she wants to look at spreadsheets and I just want to go, you know, by Pokemon cars or whatever. And so the fact that you already know, like, oh, I can, I can be a lot with my spreadsheets. And she likes to have really nice things all the time. The fact that you already know that now, that's a good thing. Dave has taught this for years.

And he passes this wisdom along and, and I'll pass it along to you. He says when you're, when you're combining it for the first time in one of you's, like a, like, died in the world nerd and one of you is a free spirit. The nerd makes the first pass of the budget. And then to quote Dave, they pass it across the table and then they shut their mouth.

And they let their spouse look at it and a, there's going to be what I would call principle things like, hey, you have $19 a week for us to eat on. Actually, I've been to a grocery store, food costs $300 a week. So we have to adjust that. And so there's the practical changes, right?

You have $9 a month for water bill, I like to shower more than 32 seconds. And you're like, we're, we're nerd family. We can get done with showers quick, right? And so then there's a practical. And then there's the, hey, what if we enjoyed our life, too?

What if we lived? What if we smiled sometimes and as a nerd, you're like, no smiling, just savings, right?

And so it, but it's, it's you saying, hey, I made a first pass at this, but your voice

at this table really matters.

“And both of you have to practice letting each other speak up.”

Does that make sense? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I kind of figured maybe that would be a good way to do it, but I didn't want to come off as like, here's my idea and what I think we should do and do your degree. Well, and the conversation of a voice.

The conversation before that is, you going first with, I'm a nerd. Would it be cool if I made a first pass at a budget and I'm going to hand it to you because I know I'm going to miss some stuff like joy and fun and laughter and meals.

And if she says, yeah, that'd be awesome. Think that that's fantastic. If you think she's going to look at it and she's already nervous to challenge you and she's going to hand it back and say, it looks fine. Dave would say, I'll say, she has to change at least one or two line items.

Like get in the practice of I'm going to change something.

“You get in the practice of smiling and saying, I'm glad you, I'm glad you're here, right?”

Not. Well, I did the research and I, that kind of thing, right? Absolutely definitely. We think, Jay, what do I miss in here? I mean, I think you're right.

I mean, yeah, a lot of the data does show that the couples that combine their money. They just have a higher relational satisfaction. And I mean, I can tell you anecdotally, I really think it's because it's like that scripture where your treasure is, your heart is there also. And I think that when you combine money and you see people spending habits and you see

the things that they value and you see their little quirks, it causes you to get to know them better. And you go, oh, okay, it's so weird that she, you like, to your points. Oh, so weird.

She only buys, you know, the, the national branch, she never buys, you know, the knockoff

brand. And then you can ask questions about that. Like you just get to know each other better. You figure out, this is what they value, this is what they don't value. This is what, you know, is a trigger for them.

This is not what it, you know, this doesn't trigger them. I just think that that's such a cool thing to have from the very beginning. And it, it costs you nothing, just, just put your name on the account and then just let it fly. It's hard to help. It's hard to help, it's hard to help.

It's hard to help. I feel like I feel like I've ever lived together. I know. Okay. So it's going to astonish you that what you used to accomplish with one bottle of multipurpose

soap. She has 19 different bottles that do different things. And don't question it. And you have one half used tube of lotion that you got from a hotel once. She's got a 117 different lotion.

It's all right. But it's all these, you don't even know, right? And she's going to probably want you to wash, socks, and underwear like after every time you wear them. Right.

And not once a month. And it's grouped with the right colors, please. Exactly. So all this stuff is like part of those, it's the conversations beneath the conversations

that almost always go undiscussed.

And it leads to her going, uh, and you're going cheese. And then you look up and two years of, uh, and good grief. And one of y'all putting the thermostat up and the other one putting it down without telling you the person, it builds this, it tells the soil for resentment. And having this, just having something as simple as joining accounts, man, it changes

your life. You also say this, you want to be a real gangster. Ask her if she wants to go ahead and keep her bank. Interesting. Why not?

Why not? Yeah. Why not? I mean, if you have a case for, my bank is superior to your bank and what, like, so be it. But I'm just trying to think of ways that you could be extra hospitable in a situation

where she already knows you're kind of the money guy and that's kind of your identity and your kind of the kind of the spreadsheet, bro, a way to come in and already say, do my

“whole life is going to be in service to you is, hey, I'm going to pull up my money out of”

my bank and I'm going to reroute my direct deposit to your bank. Is that cool? Hmm. Yeah, that's great. That's, that's really insightful.

It's just, it's a little bit easy. I take my call. Yeah, you bet, man. And when do y'all get married? Uh, May 23rd.

May 23rd. Friday. You all spending a bunch of money on it. Is it going to be awesome? Yeah, I, it's going to be fun, it's going to be nice.

We both have good jobs. We're able to cash, loathe, I probably would have said a lower budget as she, like, well, hey, we want to have something nice and we can, I said, you know what you're right, we can. Why wouldn't we do that?

Dude, you're already so far ahead of me, brother, that's, that's exciting. Good for you. But she's also, I say she's a free spirit. She is very responsible. She has good habits.

It's not blowing things out of proportion.

“So I think there'll be a lot of middle ground for us to be able to meet on and deal like we're”

both doing the right thing. I think you guys are going to be just fine. I think you're a good guy. I think she's a great lady. And this is going to be good.

John, I'll tell you, to me one of the best things about combining finances is you align on shared goals and you get to build the trust of saying, I do what I say I'm going to do. And my spouse does what he says he's going to do.

And that is like relational equity that is so, so powerful on down the line.

And it's not just with money, it shows up when you face other hard times. You know you can depend on each other and you know you can trust each other. And that is just one of the many non-financial benefits of combining your finances.

And most of the time it feels completely out of your control. But there is a better way to handle it.

“Christian healthcare ministries isn't health insurance.”

It's a health cost sharing ministry where Christians share each other's medical bills. And it's not a new idea. THA has been around since 1981. It's predictable and proven.

And they've shared over $13 billion in medical bills for their members.

Unless you get more flexibility, there are no network restrictions and you don't have to wait for open enrollment. Now let's talk about how CHM helps your budget because programs start at just $115 a month and many families save hundreds of dollars a month compared to traditional options. So if you are tired of feeling stuck, check out Christian healthcare ministries.

Right now, CHM is offering new members a 50% credit towards their first month of membership. Go to CHMministries.org/budget and use promo code Ramsey. That CHMministries.org/budget and use promo code Ramsey. Buying or selling your home is a big deal. And with all the click bait nonsense headlines and conflicting data out there, it's

hard to know what's really happening in the housing market.

“We're here to make the latest trends easy to understand.”

Last month, the average 15 year fixed rate mortgage ticked up a bit to 5.56, but it still below 6%.

If you're financially ready, a small rate increase should not hold you back, especially

since waiting could mean facing higher prices as the busy home buying season ramps up. Medium home median home prices went up to 415 grand last month, which is typical for the spring market and with more homes available and more buyers entering the market, it's a great time to buy or sell. To learn more about housing market trends and get free tools to help you buy or sell

with confidence, go to RamseySolutions.com/market or click the link in the show notes. If you're listening on podcast or on the YouTube, let's go to Chicago, Illinois and talk to Chelsea. What's up, Chelsea? Hi.

How are we doing? Doing good. How are you today? We're doing great. What's going on?

So, I've been working through the baby steps on baby step number two and I'm really proud

of the progress. I've made actually keep the quote list like no one else now, so you can live like no one else later in a couple places just so that I stay focused on my long term goals. Awesome. I've been struggling with feeling like whether it's worth it, I'm a single 30 year old with

no kids and it's just starting to feel like I'm constantly missing out, I'm saying no to friends, family vacation, and I'm not putting myself in spaces right where I can meet people because I'm not going out and it's just getting really romance. How much do you have left? I still have about 60K in student loans and then I'm working on my car payment now, which

is sitting at about 10, so about 70, all the time. How much have you paid off so far? I was at 120 when I started. Wow, wait a minute. Yeah, halfway home.

Man. Yeah. Yeah. How much time? And what's the timeline on this 70,000?

I probably should sit down and like remap that out, because I haven't done that for a while. Now, but I am on year two of like working this program. Okay. So, I love this question and hopefully I can say something that'll encourage you. So, my husband and I, our timeline was seven and a half years of pain off debt.

Now, granted, we were married and so I had somebody to kind of, you know, look over to when I... Come visit her. Yeah. Somebody to limit with.

And yours is a little bit different, but you can find that person. I think that person's out there. But a couple of things out of, I just want to throw out their two. Number one, you got to know a timeline. I think for you, even if it's shifting and it's not the same as it was, I think every

once in a while looking up and recalculating it and recalibrating it, that just does so much for you. Anytime you can recalculate numbers and it looks a little bit better, that's going to give you a little bit of a boost. Even if it's just a little bit, oh, it's three weeks closer than it was.

“I think that you need to sit down and do that tonight, and anything that you can do to”

slightly rev up that timeline, so you calculate it out and you're like, oh, man. And then you say, well, what would happen if I, you know, added a little side hustle on Saturday? And then suddenly you see the timeline go down a little bit. So I think you could really use the motivation that that brings. So that's thing one, and I do think that you also, in that, you need to carve out a couple

average person, John, when they walk the baby steps, they're out of it in 24 months, out

of baby steps too. That's kind of like on average. It's like a two, one and a half to two year sprint. When you're one of these people, like Chelsea or like me or John, I don't know how long was yours?

Well, I was an idiot, so it was a long time back. But my point is when it's longer than that one and a half to two year sprint when you're getting into four or five, seven years. It's a beating. It's a beating.

And honestly, it's not good for your mental health to say, I don't do anything, I don't go inside of a restaurant. I don't do this.

“So if you're a person who's beyond that timeline, you need to be thinking, like for Sam and”

I was like, okay, after a certain point, we were sleeping on an air mattress for so long.

We're like, hey, we're four years in. We're buying a mattress and we're buying a bed and we're for crying out loud, right? And then there was a, I think at the six, the six year point, we needed a new vehicle. And so we stopped paying off debt and we bought another vehicle. It was, you know, cash flowed and it wasn't, you know, overly priced.

But when you're in a longer stint, you do have to be very intentional about planning, okay, I gotta do something to keep myself going. Some points, maybe it's a pizza at some points, maybe it's like, I'm just going to like drive to the beach and have, you know, have a good time and I'm not going to stay more than one night now hotel, but I'm also not going to take a flight, right, at your fourth year, right?

So I want you to hear me on that because at that point, yeah, you're not going to, John, you don't disappear from society for five years. Right, and Chelsea, you called something out that's, it's, I think, it's really important.

And I'm challenging you, but I want to, I'm challenging you like on your team, does that make sense?

Mm-hmm.

“What does saying no to everybody and everything?”

Tell me more about that. So, okay, most recently, I'll say, I feel like I'm kind of like feeling in my friendships where they'll be like, oh, I just need like a girl's night, like, today was just so hard, like, can, you know, I get all my friends together and they want to go out for them. No, I'm going to the crew.

And I'm like, no, I can't, you guys, it's not in my budget and so I feel like I'm feeling in my friendships. Okay, so I, this was like a big eye opener for me. Well, I mean, I'm in the same spot you are now granted, like, like, Jade, I was married and so I had someone to be sad with, but I had some buddies who, when I say light years

ahead of me financially, I mean, comically, light years ahead of me. I was there, like, it was brutal. So we just started, like, Monday or Tuesday nights, everyone would just clean out their fridge. And so I had some of the wealthiest people I knew at the time, bringing over half, half

eating casseroles, a bottle of wine with like half of a glass left in it. And those ended up being magic Tuesday nights or Monday nights. And everyone would just show up at the house and bring what they had. And there was times I went out and we all hung out and I drank water. I drank Diet Coke or I had enough in my budget for one drink and that was it.

“And so it was like, I, it was part of, it was like, from my meal budget, right?”

But it was not an excuse to go crazy, it was not an excuse to whatever, but it also was an excuse to withdraw from society because being lonely is going to, this is going to kill you too. Yeah, this is a, this is creative, like, this is just you creatively solving that problem because I'll tell you this, I think the best hangs are at the house.

Yes, yes. You know, to your point, it's a pot luck, everybody brings a little something because then you're just there to chop it up about whatever happened, right? Your girlfriend can talk about her breakup, you can talk about what happened at work. And you're just, you just want to be together.

It's not about, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the egg rolls at chilies, you know what I'm saying? You'll find, you'll find now, um, again, like the folks I meet now who you might think are famous or have a big Instagram food, almost all those gatherings are hanging out of people's houses. Yeah.

People weren't shorts and t-shirts and having a great, great time. And it, it, once you get the hang of the creative, like the creative spend time with your friends time, um, man, you look at restaurants differently and you look at going out all night until 3 a, like, you just look at all that differently and you actually get rejuvenated from hanging out your friends and in your situation, tell people to bring over other friends

that you'll have a mint yet. And that can be super weird and awkward and like, oh, that guy is just eyeballing. I can. But also, um, the research tells me that at work and a friend of a friend is a great way to meet people in the new world.

Now, where dating has been so outsourced to apps, I'm terrified of that. Good. Good. I should be. Get off of them.

They're, they're nonsense. But, but all to say is, I don't want you to think you have to pick a, a life or a, um,

You can absolutely be buzzing through your deck and if you have a group of friends who

“are right or die with you, um, they're going to support you and also, you can show up and”

just say, no, I'm drinking that coke tonight. It's all good. And let me also say this. I will tell you after seven and a half years of sacrifice being on the other side of that and the debt being gone and me being at different phases of my life.

I never looked back John and was like, man, there was a pair of jeans I wanted back

in 2013 and I never got him or there was a movie that I wanted to see in the theater. And I never saw it. Like, I, you don't think about it. No, it's what time is passed. But when you're born, you're 40 and you got your person and you don't own anybody

money. Come on. You can pay for four seats. That's right. The concerts.

Right.

“Bying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make.”

But too many people base the decision on opinions or what the market is doing that week.

Churchill mortgage has been our trusted partner for over 30 years, because they do things the Ramsay way. A lot of people think buying a home starts with going to a bunch of open houses. But if you're buying a home the right way, you start with a budget and a trusted guide like Churchill before you even think about house shopping.

Churchill will show you the real numbers. Not what a bank will approve. Playing before being ready is how people end up house poor and stressed out. Churchill will tell you the truth and they won't push you into more house than you need. And once you understand what you can actually afford, you can move forward with clarity

and confidence. So if you're ready to buy a home, choose the right guide and stick to a plan. Go to ChurchillMorgage.com and get started. That's ChurchillMorgage.com. This is a paid advertisement in MLSID, 159.1 in MLS consumer access.org Eagle Housing

Lender. Let's roll out to Pensacola Florida and talk to Monica. Hey Monica, what's going on? Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Of course. Thanks for calling. What's going on? I'm 47 and I have been this 49, we have two teenage daughters. We make a very comfortable income, but seven years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson's.

Oh, man. I'm sorry. Thank you. How's it play on now? Well, I just recently stopped working.

Okay. Yeah, it's starting to get a little harder. But we're technically in baby step two cleaning up some financial messes and my question is, so after baby step three, should we prioritize funding retirement paying off the house or like experiences with our daughters while I'm still well enough to travel and things

like that? Yeah, all of the above, all of the above, you know, tell me more about the baby step two, tell me what's left to pay off. Yeah, we have, so at the beginning of the year, I was taking a look at our finances and this realized, you know, I feel like we're trading water constantly.

And so I said, a pull-in husband, we just need to get rid of the super credit card. I hate seeing that thing. So we've paid off 7,000 in credit card debt and then we owe 39 in $30,000 in two core loans.

“And there's earn, you said you live real comfortably, what do you get, what's the income?”

Yeah, between my husband's military retirement is VA disability week and then my, I was very fortunate to get a disability retirement from my employer, we earn about 26,000 a month.

And that's never changing.

He has, I guess, he has a very stable job. Did you say 26K a month? Yeah. Yes. So his military retirement, that portion that goes on forever and your disability will

Correct.

The retirement age, which is the problem, I don't know that I will actually reach retirement

age. Right. And we have 1.2 already in retirement. Okay. So the good news is, yeah, you're exactly right, you have a wonderful, comfortable income

coming in. There's no reason in the world that this 39,000 in cars shouldn't be paid off in the next couple months.

“Look at the split two months, you know what I mean?”

And I mean, yeah, you're used to, right, you're used to enjoying $26,000 a month, but I think you tighten the purse strings a little bit in several key areas. And I think you can have these cars knocked out in three months and be rolling. Absolutely. Now, what about the mortgage?

It's quite high, we have 648,000 less on it. And what's it worth? It's probably worth about 800, 850. Okay. Okay.

So, yeah, I think that you're in Baby Step 3, well, I didn't ask you, do you have any liquid cash? Sure, you do. And we have some, but we've decided to throw that at the cars, start throwing, throw that at the cars this month.

And how much was that?

“It was actually not as much as you would expect.”

Okay. It was 13,000. Okay. So, did that clear it out your liquid cash? Yes.

Okay. So, that's exactly right. I probably would have kept maybe 1,000, but you guys have such a great monthly income. Next check, just pull out a thousand dollars, keep it aside for Baby Step 1. And yeah, keep checking away at these two car loans right quick.

And then you're quickly going to save up three to six months of expenses in your case. I would do six months of emergency expenses. And then from there, yeah, my whole entire goal would be, of course, we're investing 15% of course, we're putting aside a little bit for college. But John, I would set a vacation and experiences fund for sure.

And I would just fill that bad boy up. You guys have a lot of expendable cash. And yeah, I would do it up. I would have a great time because as long as you're doing the things that cause you to be a financially responsible adult, which you are in the process of doing, and that checklist

is it's five things. If you're a person who is living on a budget, which it sounds like you could tighten yours up quite a bit, if you're a person who is debt-free and prioritizing being debt-free, if you're a person who carries the proper insurances, if you're a person who is prioritizing savings in the way of having your baby step three, making sure that you're putting

“away for, you know, 15% for retirement, putting extra on your house, right?”

Your home is a force savings account.

And finally, if you're prioritizing generosity, as long as you're in that land, then yeah,

start putting money aside. And yeah, I think that you do need to enjoy life. There are certain things that jump right to the top of the list. Do you know what I'm saying? And Monica, I've had the fortune of sitting with a lot of folks who lost loved ones over

the years, okay? And again, this is anecdotal, so take it for what you want. But I heard, I've heard people talking about, in their grief, about the trip, they took one time me and my husband did XYRZ or one time me, I've heard that some, but man, the things I hear over and over again are the meals and the really hard laughs.

And so as you're thinking through this idea, you have of shared experiences. Of course, you all talk about the vacation, Joe, and go on, and I call them the funeral stories, right? One time we all went to Italy or whatever the thing is, you all want to do. But a really valuable way to just extract the soul out of the life you have, going for

you, that's left, right? Schedule a weekly breakfast with your kids, one on one. You'll a time that, like, they're going to tell that story that mom, after seven years, right? And then the next 10 years, as this, as this challenging disease slowly took over, we went

to breakfast every week and show, he's got the same weird pancakes and I always tried

something like those are the stories, right? And so think of the big things, but invest in the little things, and here's the beauty of those little things, they're relatively inexpensive financially. They come at a cost of time and tensionality and planning, but man, they don't cost a lot

And then when the big concert comes to town, good grief, you better go and be on the front

row, screaming with all you got, right? Because you'll have the resources to do that. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, thank you. And be careful about, it sounds bananas to most of our listeners, because they're sitting

“there going, you make 26 grand a month, that's what comes in your house.”

But you know, as well as I do, that can just slip to your fingers. So jades wisdom on, make sure you're budgeting and you're intentional with this money. You all will be astonished at how much you actually have. Yeah. Y'all can be out of debt here, like completely consumer debt.

And then ask the hard question, you and your husband go on a one day retreat and just say, hey, what do we want the next five to 10 years to look like? Do we need an $850,000 house, or do we want a downside? Kids are about to go to college. Do you want to go ahead and sell now?

Where we got a quarter million dollars equity in this thing and get a smaller place so that

we can spend more intentional time together and not have a mortgage, right? Things like the most kind of, what do we want our life to look like the next five years? 10 years is probably a long for you, but next five years, next three years, right? Have that dreaming conversation and set that thing in motion? Yeah.

And we do me a huge favor for your, it's not doing me a favor at all. It's doing it for your kids. Will you make a regular practice once every six months or so upon the calendar to write them a letter and if slowly this Parkinson's takes your, your writing hand, a speak it, record it, write your kids a letter, tell them how proud of them you are, write your husband

a letter and read it to them. Don't let anything go on set. Just chairs the moment you got. It was an honor to talk to you, you're saying, we'll be right back. When you've worked hard to buy a car, the right way, you paid cash with no payments hanging

over your head, the last thing you want is to worry about it every time you drive it.

“That's why we trust Christian Brothers Automotive as the official auto repair partner of”

the Ramsey Show. See, most people don't stress about their car because it's older, they stress about it because they don't know what's happening under the hood or trust the people that are working on it. But Christian Brothers Automotive uses digital, vehicle inspections.

You can actually see what your technician sees and know what's urgent and what can weigh. Plus, Christian Brothers stands behind their work with their nice difference warranty, three years or 36,000 miles, whichever benefits you more. So if you want real peace of mind with the car you worked hard to own, go to cbac.com/Ramsie.

Here's the promo code Ramsey, and you'll save 10% off your visit, up to $250. cbac.com/Ramsie, see store for details. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwins Credit Union Studio. I'm John Deloni joined by Jade Warshall. This is the Ramsey Show.

We've got to fill it out via Pennsylvania and talk to Madison. What up, Madison? Hey, thank you, thank you for answering my call. Of course, thanks for calling. Let's go on.

“All right, my question essentially is, do we save up for a new car or a new house?”

Our situation is we just moved across country and you might have been in our two kids under two years old.

Both of our cars are old about the croak and we're currently renting and have never

owned a house before. All right, so we're trying to figure out what to do with our assets. How much cash do you have saved? We have about 16,000 of liquid cash, like our emergency fund/evailable spending money. Well, wait a second.

Wait a minute. Thank you. It can't be both, so just real quick, and then I want, you know, why don't you go ahead and finish talking and then I'll come back to that. Um, my husband's the one who made me imagine quiet and the boy, I said that way.

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Doesn't strike too mad, I said. Keep going.

I'm sorry. No, we're playing. We're playing with you. It would be good. I know.

Um, 14,000 and a 401k, we've got 2,500 in stocks that my husband manages zero debt, two bars that we own outright, and then my husband, he just took a new job and the base salary it's going to be 70,000 a year with horses. Cool. It's kind of the financial situation we have right now.

Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Hey.

Kudos on not having any debt.

I think that's fabulous. How old are you guys? I am 24 and he's 26. Yes. Absolutely.

So good. Zero debt.

“Here's where I'm going to give you good news and bad news, which one would you like”

first? Good news and hit me with bad news. Okay. The good news is you're so far ahead of so many people your age because he don't have any debt.

You have a fully funded emergency fund. You've got a little bit working in your 401k and that's a fabulous fabulous place to be. And you got two healthy little kids. It's a husband that likes you.

And a husband that's, you know, he's got his job cooking, he's starting to take off. You're winning. Yes. So please plant that as a very good seed in your brain because the bad news is you're

not really in a position to do either of the things that you said and you're not far off. It's just I want to reframe that so that let's talk about the emergency fund. The way we teach in the way that I experience it and what I do in my life and what John

“doesn't his life is we set aside money for an emergency fund and that means we don't”

touch this money unless it is a flat out emergency, which means it has to meet a little bit of criteria to be discerned as an emergency. It has to be completely unexpected. Like, oh my gosh, I didn't know this was going to happen. This came out the blue.

It needs to be urgent like, oh, I got to do this like immediately and it has to be completely necessary. Like, I must do this thing.

So here's what's going on in your mind.

I must do this thing today that I had no clue was going to happen. Like, that's how it goes. And so obviously buying a new car or a new house doesn't fall underneath those parameters. So the good news is you are in a position that today you could begin saving up money to do either of the things that you think is more pertinent, whether it's man one of these

cars is literally like on its last leg, let's start saving up $10,000 or whatever amount of money you think you want to spend no more than your vehicle should be no more than half of his annual income. But you could start to do that, but I wouldn't be in a huge rush to buy a house. No, no, no, and Madison, how old are your kids?

They're both under two, so one's like, year and a half, one is pretty much all the way. Okay. You've probably already experienced this, but if you haven't, as a father of two kids, sitting next to a woman who's also got her own two kids, I can guarantee you they will use this emergency fund.

They will break things, they will set things on fire, they will destroy it all of it. And so please, please, please give yourself your nervous system, your home, your marriage, the safety that is having that 16 grand in the bank that we don't touch. Just pretend like it's not there. The second thing is, I want you to give your nervous system your spirit, the piece it needs

and deserves by not just outsourcing the finances to quote unquote the finance guy in the house. You all need to do this thing together.

“You need to know where the accounts are, you need to know what bills are paying, you all”

need to be on the same page with your vision for things. The third thing is, I know, I've been there. I wanted my wife to have the nicest car possible when we had little ones.

The reality is you'll can't afford the nicest car, and that's okay.

And so even if you'll save up the money by a 10 grand car or a 15 grand car, not a $45,000 car, because you're building something together and appreciating asset won't get you there. I'd say no more than 15,000 each, like if you have a car, yours is 15, if he has a car, his is 15, that total 30, that puts you at that parameter. Can I ask you a personal personal question?

Yeah, sure. I'm super okay being wrong. I'm wrong a lot. The folks on Reddit tell me that, but here's the thing. I'm finishing up a long multi-year project and something that kept coming up in my conversations

with stay-at-home moms, especially young stay-at-home moms, was this. This feeling of, I need to do something. I should be, it's that phrase, I should be in a house, I should be driving a nicer car. I'm not providing any economic value to the house, because I don't make a salary, so I need to be filling the blank, and it just was this sense of this built-up pent-up energy

Looking for houses we should probably buy, reading all these blogs, telling me why I'm failing

“at this version of Motherhood or that version of wifehood or whatever, is that your situation”

at all? No, I wouldn't say so. I grew up at a stay-at-home mom, I had them did. We're not flashy people, we drive on the older cars. We just know that we've been so blessed, and we're like hyper-aware of the head start we

were given, and we want to make sure our kid has the same thing, so it's kind of like, we do to, like, because they were now, so it can be as close-up. The tortoise wins every time, every time you read that book, the tortoise wins. And all your stuff, you have, it's kind of like if there were like different containers that you needed to fill up, you've got a little bit of each container that's ready to grow

and ready to keep going, like you've got a little bit of your 401k keep doing that.

Keep putting 15% at this point, you're on baby step four, right?

So keep 15% of your husband's gross income every single month into that 401k. Maybe husband sells his $2500 stock that he's playing with, and that's the seed for your new car fund. Exactly, exactly. And yeah, just keep working away at it, and once you've funded the cars that you think

you need, then yeah, I would start, and I would kind of go back to 3b, and which is saving for the down payment of your house.

“And if you want to do that at the same time as you're investing, you can, or if you want”

to unplug investing for two to three years, you could unplug your investing that 15% you could stop that and put that towards your house fund for a little while. And Jade, I don't know about you, but there's been times of my wife and I save up for a car, and we get that chunk of money in there, and then we're both like, hey, the cars are fine.

Let's put that on the house.

Or let's put that on the, like once you get that big pile of cash, it's hard just to go throw it at a car sometimes. Let me tell you something I see all the time, people are working hard, trying to get control of their money, and then their phone bill shows up higher than expected again, and they don't even know why, that's why I want you to switch to boost mobile.

Here's the truth, your phone bill should fit your budget, not the other way around. Your wireless company is counting on you just paying it without asking questions. With boost mobile, you can unlock big savings compared to the so-called big guys.

“Bring your phone, keep your number, and pay just 25 bucks a month forever on their unlimited”

plan. No contracts, no confusing fees, and that $25 price is locked in forever. And if you're skeptical, that's fine. Boost mobile backs it up with a 30-day money back guarantee, meaning you can try it without feeling trapped.

So stop overpaying for something you use every day. Go to boostmobile.com/Ramsy to make the switch today. That's boostmobile.com/Ramsy. $25 forever requires customers to remain active on boostmobile and limited plan. Let's go out to the A.T.L. Atlanta, Georgia, and talk to Hannah.

Where is Hannah here? I'm trying to find her on the thing. Here it is. Oh, I like to. What's up, Hannah?

Hey, how are y'all? Doing great. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for taking my call.

You got it. What's going on? Um, okay. So I just need some guidance with the situation that I have, so I'm myself in. My husband was a married 10 years ex-month, and in January he very abruptly shut down his

small business permanently after about three years. After he did that, I found out a few days after he decided to do that, that he was indeed financial trouble with the business. Somewhere between 100,000 to 250,000 is a rough guess, but I have and then found out yesterday that we are about $42,000 behind none of the mortgage.

We are about, um, with the business and all about $40,000 behind in taxes, um, I got to notice that the water would be shut off today. Yeah. And yesterday, um, got a call that he had about $7,000 in a credit card that I didn't know about.

And to, I'm sorry, I'm not going to say no more. Because you know, I am home with our three children, you left two days ago to attend a police academy, and it's completely inaccessible, um, and until next week. Wow. So, um, that shaking in your voice, that terror inside your chest, that's, it's right.

Hear me say that you're not crazy. Okay.

“We call this here, um, financial infidelity.”

The trust that was the foundation of your marriage has been turned to ash. Okay. So, you feel like you're free fall and you are. All right. So, here, here, I'll say that we're with you.

Okay. Okay. Okay. This is scary. Scary.

Situation. I'll let it also like to throw in here that, um, about a year and a half in to our marriage, um, a very similar circumstance happened, um, very similar to what I'm saying. And we work.

They're all of that. And then about four years later it happened again. Oh, no. And work there again, and is it him starting in a, it's him starting businesses and them failing?

Or it's just, yeah, some sort of a first time, yeah. It's just like he had, um, two cars with carlons, but I didn't know about it. Multiple credit cards that it note up and, um, a lot of purchases and money out and just, it's been a pattern for our entire marriage. Does he shut you out of knowing about the finances or, or is he just going, is he

saying, here's the account that we're spending money on and you know everything that's going on with that. But then he goes to the side and just does obviously God knows what, or are you pretty much like I'm out of everything? Um, now I'm pretty much out of everything because, um, he was using the business account

for all of our personal finances, which I'm not on any of. And how did you have money to spend? He would transfer money into our personal checking account, which I had a debit card for. Oh, oh, boy. And well, just a little bit a month for you to do what you needed to do.

Okay, anytime that I need to purchase anything, um, the picture was painted that we had, I'd turn up money and so if I wanted to go first shopping day or book a trip or anything and it was not a detail at all. He would just slide it over to you. Okay.

Um, here's what I want you to do today.

I have, uh, a feeling in my guts that this is not the bottom of, uh, of the mess. But there's more out. Yeah. I want you to pull your credit report and if you are able to pull his, get his too. And at least get a picture and if you can't pull his, I don't want you to commit fraud.

But I want that to be the first thing, um, when you're all able to communicate, um, because you're in a, you've got three little ones.

“You need to focus on four walls ASAP because they're about to take your house.”

You're about to take your, um, the shelter water off, about the shelter electricity off. Right. You're in, you're in a five alarm fire right now. Okay. Um, do you have access to any cash at all?

Um, before he left, he gave me about $500 in cash. But there's no money in a checking account or anything. I think there's about $100 in our checking account. Oh my gosh. Do you have, do you have family nearby?

Um, I guess, I guess, I guess, sorry. That's mom and dad or sisters and brothers. What is it? Just mom and dad. Okay.

Um, here's what I'm thinking about, um, and John, jump in at any point.

Um, you've been a stay at home mom. Have you, have you been in the work force at all at any point? Yes. I don't know. I just shared nurse, but I decided to, I don't want our children for a little while.

Okay. Fabulous.

“To, if you have to exit the situation, um, how can you stay on your feet?”

How can you keep yourself afloat? Um, because it sounds like there's going to be a lot of, um, there, if this comes to a point where it goes before a judge, all of this is going to come out and it's, it's going to be a lot more there. Yeah.

And I just want to make sure you're okay. And so for me, it's great that if you have family, community friends around you that can help you for a season of time, if you need it. And I love that you have a career path. If you have to go back to work and if kids, gosh, end up having to go to daycare or something

like that, um, I feel confident after hearing what you said that you'd be able to make that transition. Yeah. Do you? Yeah.

The reality is you need to come up with $5,500 like today.

Um, I mean, you've got to write down and you might call the mortgage company and tell them what's going on, that you're just getting notice of this and you're going to try to make it right and just let them know, I'm, I'm a terrified scared, stay at home, mom,

Right.

Um, and I would write down and they'd be my first call since you're behind $4200.

I don't know.

“Is that two months or three months, how far behind is that?”

I, I think it's about two months, postseason. Okay. I would call them and just let them know. I hear you. I see this.

I'm getting this like you all are and I need to come up with a plan here and they might give you an extension or a plan. I don't know the, the terms of your mortgage. I don't know your relationship with your mortgage company and then I would write down what's still, what's the electric bill?

How far behind are you? What's the water bill?

Like these four walls we talk about.

Do you have transportation? Do you have electricity? Do you've got water? Do you have a home? Do you have food?

Right. And you're at that level and it might be that, um, uh, I don't even think it might be. I think you're at a position now.

“This is scary enough that you need to call your family and say, hey, I got to go start”

applying for nursing jobs this afternoon. But even then you won't get a paycheck for another month at the earliest, right? So, but it's like I need to drop my kids off starting now. And none of this is what you plan on, this is what you wanted.

But this is, you're a scared, basically a scared single mom who's in a big, big, big

mass because you were betrayed by your husband again and again and again and again. And so this is just choosing reality. We'll grieve later, we will be sad later, we'll be mad and angry later. I got to go get some money right now. And I would hate for you to run down to the credit.

You didn't see if you get another loan because unless the last thing you'll need is you have another pile on, right? Yeah, the good news is you probably have the cash to keep the water on. You probably have some food in the house, keep some groceries going. My question, and I'm not trying to get dramatic, you know for a fact that he went to police

academy, like he's coming back. Yes, you have contact with him, okay, I'm trying to make sure he didn't skip out.

“But I mean, that's going to be a $50,000 job, right?”

I hope so, I think so. I mean, not only is in a academy, it'll probably be much less than that until he gets out. But even then, that's not going to cover this mess, y'all are in. Right. And I don't know the fullness kind of what you're saying about going before a judge in

all of that. But he has had some police reports filed, and I've had people who are looking at Facebook to try and remedy some of those things going on. Yeah. Someone's rejected.

I get security cameras at my house, so. It might be time for you to, yeah, to go stay with your family members and leave the house for a bit. And not, I'm going to ask you to do that. I want you to go stay with your family members, step out of this situation for a minute,

and I want you to call on attorney, and they'll walk you through getting to the bottom of the mess. So sorry you're going through this. If you run a business, you already know this. Bad information leads to bad decisions.

And right now, AI is everywhere. But AI is only as good as the data behind it. The best AI is built on the best data. That's why I recommend NetSuite. NetSuite is the number one AI cloud ERP, and more than 43,000 businesses run on it,

including us here at Ramsey Solutions. Their AI isn't bolted on, it's built in, and it connects everything that runs your business. Accounting inventory customer data all in one place. Because when your numbers are connected, AI actually works like it's supposed to. NetSuite's AI helps flag cash flow problems, spot inventory issues, close your books faster,

and cut down on manual reporting. And if your revenue is at least seven figures, go to netSuite.com/Ramsey for a free product tour. That's netSuite.com/Ramsey. Every call in question here, but if you have a money question, and you want to answer

for your situation, head over to our website and use AskRamsey. AskRamsey is our free AI tool that's built and trained on this show. It's got proven Ramsey principles that will answer some of your money questions and get you where you need to go. You'll get an answer the same way we'd answer right here on the show.

if you're listening on podcast and YouTube. Let's go out to Lexington, Kentucky, and talk to Lisa. Hey, what's up, Lisa? Hi, how are you all doing? Thank you so much for taking my call.

You bet, thanks for calling. What's going on? Yeah, so how do my husband and I have the conversation or should we try to have a second

“conversation with my father-in-law about the importance of getting life insurance?”

Just while backstoring, he's the sole and commander of school or their family, my mother-in-law has been a state home mom for the last 20-some-odd years. My brother-in-law has some disabilities and has unable to work with us as well.

My father-in-law, he's kind of of the impression that you can always get it later.

It's not important right now. He doesn't have a good opinion on it, and so as me and my husband, we have life insurance actually to the value of it, my mother-in-law, she was like, "Hey, tell me about life insurance. What should I be looking for? What should I not be looking for?"

And so we're not just wanting to get a sense of what's the advice to them, but how do we have a second conversation or how should we get person subject? Well, it says like there's two things going on. One is mom is, say, feeling exposed, I'm worried about dad, and then dad is saying, "I don't really care if she feels exposed.

I'm not doing this." Mm-hmm.

“Yeah, they don't have any consumer debt.”

They just have their mortgage.

She said that they were looking, they've been shopping for life insurance. They have a person that's looking for them, but the idea of mortgage insurance, but the value that they were being told and that he's convinced about, it's not even going to cover their mortgage. Well, the problem with that is you still have a stay at home mom and a special

need son. Yeah. Right, so I'll tell you, this is going to sound like an ad, but I was using Zander insurance for my term life insurance for my me and my wife for years, before I even thought about coming over to Ramsey, because I trust them.

And when I got to Ramsey, Zanders, who we endorse and who we've been talking about for years and years and years, but that's where I would go. Because Zander tops, this is like a commercial Zander, they shop all of the top companies.

And, or many of the top companies defined you the best price, they work for you, not for

the insurance companies. And so they're going to bring you, here's how much money you got, here's how old you are, here's how expensive it's going to be, here's the price. And depending on his age and all that, it's going to factor into it. But that's where, not where I would go, that's where I did go.

Yeah. I would bring your husband into this. Yeah. He's going, yeah, he's fully, and he had a conversation with his father, and his father kind of like he blew up, and if he got mad about it, he was saying that, you know, it's

only greedy people that have life insurance, and he believes that this is like crack plot idea. And we're like, but no, it's like, because you love people, and because you want to make sure that the people that you care about, you know, as you all say, like you want to solve for cash, you want to make sure they have cash when they're grieving, right?

You know what I have to do it. I've sat with people who lost their husbands, and they've got nothing. And they're looking at going to work on Monday. Right. I mean, it's a harrowing experience, sitting with a widow who realizes, oh, we got nothing.

This kind of, like, I'm going to be honest with you, this kind of ego and older men pisses me off at a, at a way I can't even comprehend because they're going to bleed me because of the shows on the radio. I get so mad at this kind of arrogance and ego and dismissiveness of your wife, your specialty, kids, like, it makes me infuriated, but here's the deal. You all can't do anything about it.

Yeah. And I'm just curious, because, you know, if Ken were here, he would say to just ask questions

“instead of, instead of saying, you need to do this, you need to do that.”

A couple of well placed and well thought through questions that you just let hang in the air, when you say, okay, if the worst happens, dad and, you know, on the way home, you get in an accident, how is mom going to pay the mortgage, how are, you know, I don't know what the, how are the, how are we going to take care of little Bobby, how are we going to, I'm just wondering what your plan for that is, or have you considered what your plan

for that is, right, maybe come up with one or two questions that your son can ask at the right time with dad, it's not in the middle of a heated argument, it's not, you know, when they're already talking about one thing, and now he brings this up to it's, they go to breakfast, they go out just the two of them. And at the right time, he says, you know, we've had a lot of questions.

We've had a lot of conversations about this. I'm just wondering, you know, and he asked the two questions and just let it sit there, sit there. And I might look at, at him and say, she's going to be your problem, right, that may happen.

And then to which he can say, no, that's not an option. You're going to have to come up with something, but I mean, yeah, I mean, like, we,

we're, you know, I have more of those first four in kids, like my mom currently lives

with us, you know, so we've, we've kind of taken that on ourselves, we're both very funny and totally stable. And so like we've, we've kind of prepared our culture that, you know, if we do have to stay here, if my husband's mom is well, like, we would be able to, but again, you know, like, I'm not going to take you to them, so I've got to be her husband.

Right. Well, and like, and here's the deal, it's, it's just, um, it's choosing reality. Yeah. Right. We, it should be and he's looking at you all and saying, looking at his wife and saying,

no, not going to, um, which again, I just cannot wrap my head around that kind of ignorance

and ego, but it is what it is.

“So we're going to choose reality and, um, we're going to start making a play and I think”

you've got a tiny crack in the door in that mom asks for it. So I'm going to give mom the Xander contact for term life insurance do not do not do not buy some non-sensical whole life policy. I know, um, yeah, I've been listening to you all long enough. Yeah, you know what, you know, the deal.

Yeah, we're going to send it on to them and we're going to go from there. Let me tell you something, John, I'm, I'm getting frustrated because I feel like the number, the, the top two calls that we've been getting lately and it, and I'm not, I'm not picking on men. I'm just telling you what I'm getting.

The top two calls are a wife who calls in and her husband is either walking around to the money, doing something shady with the money. She's kind of been, you know, removed little by little from the situation and now like all hell is breaking loose or it's families who the parents cannot get their act

“together and they're leaving and burning their, their children with things that they”

should be taking care of themselves as adult, grown people with grown jobs and grown houses. And I'm just like, what's going on? Yeah. Get your life together. Get your act together.

What's going on? It's like, that's my question for for the heads of families here. It's a water y'all doing. You need to get yourself together. I can't wrap my head around. I mean, I can't, I, I'm going to sound like a broken record.

I can't get my head around the arrogance and the, I mean, I can. Your father-in-law should not have to call into a national YouTube and radio show saying he doesn't care enough about his own wife to take out coverage that's going to cost him. I don't know, 300 bucks a quarter.

My father-in-law has such deep-seated arrogance that when his son came to him, he blew

up and threw a third grade temper tantrum because he couldn't handle a hard conversation

with his son. Well, that's the through line is arrogance, his arrogance on both both of those spectrums. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, for folks listening, um, the previous segment, we had a call or a name

as Hannah and talking about the financial mess and multiple, um, issues. Then as we, as the call kept going on and on and on, um, she brought up issues of personal safety and maybe she needs to get security cameras. I want everyone listening to know, off air, we obviously circle back and providing her with some resources and, um, we'll do our due diligence when it comes to paying for financial

coaching for her and things like that, but also with contacting local police and authorities because a woman with three young kids does not need to be worrying about should I go get security cameras because the mess that my awful, terrible husband has left me in is now in jeopardize our safety. So just know listeners, we're taking care of folks behind closed doors too.

We're not just gonna leave people hanging, um, fathers, husbands, take care of your families.

“That's how low the bar is, we'll be right back.”

Welcome back, Jade, my blood pressure still up. Listen, minus two, but you know, at the end of the last segment, we kind of went in on that like dads, men needing to step up, but let me also say for the ones that do, because that it's such a blessing and we were talking over the break. I was telling him about something that Sam, my husband did that.

It's like just showing up, just doing the best you can and if you do have, I'm, I'm, I'm I'm totally taking this from you. If you do have a man in your life that is a real man, like do in the best he can, leading for the family, financially, you know, doing all the transplant, please tell him, please

Thank you for being the opposite of what sometimes calls him to the Ramsey show. We need men like that. We need leaders like that. We're grateful for you. Keep doing what you do.

And I'll just say, from my brothers up there, the bar is so low, show up, like just show up. Show up. When she calls, it says, hey, what's that? I got you.

I got it. Yeah, I got it. And it's just, yeah. Put your ego aside, man.

“And by the way, when you set your ego down, life is so much more fun.”

It's so much more fun. Yes, to just let somebody see who you really are. Yes. That's all I'll say. All right.

Let's roll out to Atlanta. Let's go back to Atlanta and talk to Chelsea. What's up, Chelsea? Hello. Thank you for having me on.

Thanks for calling. Yeah, so I'll go ahead and just back to you up and say that we are in a positive marriage of very great marriage. What's his name? I'm just a financial experience.

Good. What's his name? For it. Shout out for it. Shout out.

What I'm talking about. Shout out good men on the show. All right. So what's going on? How can we help?

Yeah. So we've been working here today. We steps. We've paid off all of our debt. We have our emergency fund created.

“We jumped ahead and already have 5-2-9 filling for our two children and we have a third”

on the way. Thank you. But yeah. So we're on baby set four, technically, with the investment, trying to save 15 percent. And I guess I'll ask the question in the kind of explain, but my overall question is,

does it ever make sense to work on baby set number six in the mortgage before complete meeting with 15 percent from investment? Oh, you're talking about language. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Why is that? Tell me the reason behind it.

So it makes sense in my head, but it's not always nice.

I am a stay-at-home mom, but I also do freelance marketing, so I'm bringing in about 2,500 a month, and then my husband makes about 125,000 a year. And his company, he has a 401k 4 percent match that he participates in. He also has an ESPP company stock program, so he puts 10 percent away to that every or every or every paycheck, but then every six months, he gets a 15 percent discount for the company

stock if you were to sell it. How quickly is that phase? Yes. How quickly does that vest? I'm not sure, okay, so I'm not sure if I understand that question.

Sometimes with stock option purchases, when you're able to buy stock from the company,

“you have to sit on it for 24 months before you can turn around and sell it.”

Sometimes you can buy it and then sell it the next day, usually if you're buying it at discount, then I'll let you do that, though. Okay, yeah. So it's every six months. I'm going to participate in it, every paycheck takes 10 percent, and then it's every July

first and every January first you can sell it for 15 percent discount.

Okay, so here's -- and that does have capital gains, tax if this is maybe answering your question. Well, I don't care about that. How much is in that account right now? Right now, there's about 15,000, I think?

Okay. So here's -- Generally, this has been our House Project fund and how we had to get new sighting, we had to detect things that would help us not go into debt if we use this. But now our house is at a good place, so we're thinking it's either investment or putting

it to the house. Well, I think you've just got -- I think you've got to recalibrate on your investing because you've got 10 percent going towards a single stock, a single company stock, which is not what we would suggest. I -- I hear you on the 4 percent 401(k), so you're investing 4 percent there.

Your company is matching it.

I would not put the other 10 percent in the company stock.

I would put the other 10 percent in the 401(k). Even if it's a very good well-known -- Yes, even if it is because -- I don't know if I should drop it. No, no, drop the name.

I'll tell you right now, I just had this with a close personal friend of mine got a stock option, windfall, of 2-25 a year ago. And I said, it was a single stock and it was this hole you could move it over here and I said, hey, cash it out now. Sell it. And they said, you crazy were making these investments and this is a global company. That person just recently called -- we were talking on phone and said, bro, that stock is at 1-16 now.

And so it -- it doesn't matter how good they're telling you it's going to be doing this and we're stable.

When you're sitting on a single stock, there's no checks and balance. Yeah, it's just up or down.

“I have a personal lived experience. My mom worked at this tiny little company called N-Ron, which I think was the fourth biggest company on the planet.”

And it went away over a weekend, right? And so I am big on -- if you get one single company stock and they give you a deal to buy on it great. In the moment you can vest it, cash it out and either put it retirement or use it to pay down your house or whatever. But get out of that stock because just holding it and holding it a single stock with all that money. Man, you were playing roulette.

Yeah, if I could -- if I could recalibrate this today, I would make it to where you're investing the 10% along with the other 4% into the company 401k. And if you max that out, then you can move over to a Roth IRA, you can do one, he can do one. And then if there's a little bit of money left or if there's something that he's required to do, that's fine. But I would change that liquidity split because you don't want all of your money tied up in this. And if you're -- if you're saying, well, we're still investing in the 401k, you're only investing 4%.

And our rule here is if there's a match, it's a fantastic thing, but we really just consider that gravy. Like we really want you working the muscle of 15% because what if he switches jobs and there is not a 4% match, right? Or what if something changes with your, you know, your situation?

So we always want you kind of in the driver's seat of what you're doing with your money.

And yeah, consider that 4% like gravy on top of the biscuit is what Dave Ramsey would say. How much do you have left in your mortgage? So we have 252,000 left on the mortgage. And we are also, I should say, we put $100 a month, I know it's not much, but $100 a month to his personal IRA as well. Okay. And then overall investment should probably have over about 200,000 in all of our investments right now.

“Are you putting that in a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA?”

A Roth IRA. Okay. 200 is that include the stock, and the stock you have on the side? The $15,000. Okay.

All right. Yeah, you know, if I were you, whatever company stock you do have, I'm with John, I would, you know, cash that out. Maybe that goes towards your mortgage.

Or it goes in your Roths and you can max them both out this year and call it, like, I, because here's what it sounds like you're doing.

It sounds like you're putting in 4% of your own money into a retirement vehicle. And then you're taking what, you know, approximately the rest of the 15% and you're just putting it into a stock. And you're using that stock as, like, kind of like a glorified emergency fund-ish to deal with house stuff. Right. Which we're done with now and we want to do well with it.

“So even if, even if we didn't do the ESPP at this point though, I think maybe my question might still, like, stand if I can ask that to you.”

So original one about paying off the mortgage first? Yes. Just because thinking about, even if we did the 10% just to regular either 401k or the Roth IRA, we would still need about $400 a month from our budget. But get somewhere in order to hit the 15%. That's right.

And I don't know where we would exactly get it right now, like there would be. Yeah. And he's in what, not here. Yeah, definitely. And you might have to pinch pennies.

So one thing about the baby steps is just because you've paid off your debt and now you're starting to invest. It doesn't mean that you're all of a sudden rolling in a bunch of extra money because you're now investing 15%. So you're going to have to get to your budget and take a look at this because what I don't want is for you to say, ah, it feels better to do to pay off the mortgage instead. And before you know it, you look up and you've neglected your investing, the mortgage is going to get paid off.

You're going to find little bits of money here and there. I'm sure he makes bonuses that you can pay this off. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. I'm John Deloni, joined by the World Famous Jade Worshal. Taking your calls on your money, your life, your relationships, everything.

Triple eight, eight to five, five, two to five. It's got to four worth Texas and talk to Allison. Hey, Allison, what's going on? Hi, Dr. John. Hey, Jade. How are you guys?

We're doing awesome. What's up? Well, I've found the Ramsey information somewhat recently. So although we're in a pretty good spot financially. I really appreciate that it's prompting me to kind of look at our whole financial picture and realize that we need to go back and read just some things or fill in some gaps.

Very cool. Welcome to the call. Welcome.

And I realize I have a question about five 29s that I haven't heard you guys address before.

Okay. We have opened up about five 29 account for each of our kids and they were young and we've been very blessed that each set of grandparents wants to help us save for the kids college. One set of grandparents will make contributions directly to the five 29s that we have opened and the other set of grandparents has opened their own account for each child. Okay. Nice. And I'm unsure of is there any kind of logistical.

I'm going to set you free. Are you ready? I'm going to set you free. It's their money. Uh-huh.

And they're choosing to do it that way.

And so I would open my hands to it. And I would get with my spouse and plan as though that money won't be there. Okay. And because it is fighting them over it like it just is that way.

“And for whatever reason, that's why how they've chosen to do it with their money.”

And I would just say great cool. I don't think it's a bad thing. No, it's not, but it's just how they're doing it.

And trying to talk to them about it or discuss it about it just is what that is.

I don't know. I don't know the logistics of can can a grandparent open a five to nine for a kid and a parent open a five to nine for a kid and both of those accounts be used to pay for the same kid. I don't know the answer to that question. So like the way that ours is my my mother-in-law opened it because it was a gift. There was something she was gifting before Sam and I well before we were out of debt.

And then so she technically was the owner on the account and then she set up me and my husband as like. We would be owner and suggestions like if she died or something we'd be come the owner. But we all have access. We can all add money into the account and then the kids are set up as the beneficiary. So that's just kind of the way it's been and I don't know if we transferred it at some point into our name.

“But I think it's still in her name and it doesn't matter because she's not using it.”

She's you know, 63 years old. And Allison, I got to say I'm super biased. I worked at universities for like 20 years and so the number of students I met with and parents I met with who had a grandparent holding a checkbook saying my kids my grandkids going to study x y or z. And they're not going to be in this program and they're going to go to this school. Man, I was just like, dude, if you don't want to tell like try to play puppeteer over my life with their checkbook I'm out. And so I take my bias for what it is, right?

And if they hold this account just assume they're it's their money and they're going to want to steward at how they best see fit. And that might be turning it over to the parents and saying wherever junior wants to go to college, that's awesome or whatever junior wants trade school or whatever wants to study great. But they might use it as, you know, my grandkids going to this school if they want my money and you can say cool we've already made other arrangements. So my answer is a big bias to it. But that that's just is what it is.

Which that would be I mean if they did that listen, we've heard all sorts of calls on this radio so anything's possible, but if they did it would be such a waste because then it's like they're not going to that school. So now what you got to do. But you know, the good news is you can have multiple 529s that fund a single student like that's fine. It's no problem. If you've got one over here, one over there and one over there.

“Do you sense that that's what they're trying to do or are they just like, hey, it's a financial thing. We want to do our thing over here. We don't want to mingle with up. I get that.”

But there's any kind of ill intent in it. They're being very generous that we definitely appreciate that. I think I was more potential concern like I don't know the logistics around. I saw somewhere when this one's open, which was, you know, maybe 10 years ago. So I don't know if walls have changed in sense, but that and if a child received money from in account other than the parents directly. That it would be counted as income for them and it could somehow, you know, either affect taxes or financial aid or something like that. So are you aware of anything the length of those lines?

I'm not. I'm not. I've not heard that sounds too vague for me to form a clear opinion on it. I would just double check whatever your question it like form a clear question around that. I mean, if the money is used for education expenses, there shouldn't be there shouldn't be an issue. Now, what you said about financial aid. I'm not sure what you're trying to look like.

The goal would be pay cash, use the 529s, use them up, and be grateful to whoever's contributed.

“Yeah. And let's say there is a tax liability at some point down the road. It's still going to be far less intuition was, right?”

There shouldn't be if they're using it for education expenses. Now, if they're just pulling it out, I mean, if you're pulling it out, you're going to be on a 10% penalty for sure, and that's going to be income taxed. But hey, Alison, can we just tell you? Welcome to the gang. Thank you. Yeah. It's a listen to you guys all the time.

I'm just scrolling the baby around the neighborhood and doing chores in the house, so I really appreciate it all your advice.

Awesome. Well, thank you so so much for calling. Really grateful. Hot take. Hot take is, I probably should dial back some of my biases. I just have so many experiences that take my rosy picture of the world sometimes.

“Well, I was going to ask your hot take on on 529s. What do you think about when you are with friends?”

And it's like a gift giving situation like a birthday or Christmas, and they're like, just give to my kids 529 plan, and they're like sending you a link. I, I, well, I, good or bad. I had a buddy with the, I mean, one of my closest friends on the world in the world, the guy who's the executive of my will, he, he opened an account when Hank was born and said.

I, at the time, and this was right, he's like, I don't super trust you. So I am starting an account for your kid and every year on his birthday, I'm going to add money to it.

And when he goes to the coast of school, I'll pass it on. So it was a cool, generous, awesome thing. Yeah. And I mean, like, it's, it's Hank's birthday. And I'm going to send out a link to it. And you send out a link that's like, hey, don't make it to 2529. Is it tacky or hacky? What do you think?

“I think it's tacky. I go with a big capital T. I think it's tacky. Yeah. I know someone who's done it.”

Let's, let's give her name and address on the air. I may have posted with them. Oh, I can tell you, just, let's say. This is dog have a wheelchair. You got to do what you got to do. You got to do what you got to do. That's all I'm going to say. No, I'll go full tacky on that one. And he knows who he is. We'll be right back. Hey, guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show.

Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Why ReFi. Defaulted Privacy Loans can leave you feeling stuck and overwhelmed. Why ReFi helps you explore refinancing options with a low fixed rate and a payment based on what you can actually afford. Visit why ReFi.com/Ramsey. That's the letter why R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey may not be available in all states.

Okey dokey. Today's question comes from Jared and Wyoming. He says I realize that money is a personal topic and it can be volatile. But when I hear my co-workers brag about credit card points, it makes my head spin. How do you recommend discussing financial issues and casual social settings? Should I engage in conversation and try to be helpful or just keep to myself? Um, I'm gonna tell you a story about what I don't do. And I learned it because I was around someone who did do it. So I'm mostly a plant-based eater. I don't eat meat. Occasionally I'll do some dairy.

But I once knew somebody who was so heavy handed with every situation. If she was in a situation when other people were eating meat, it was like I can't believe you're eating meat like this is the word like how could you right?

And they didn't even ask your opinion anyway. And they don't really care what you do. And they like doing what they're doing, right?

“So I'm the type who, I mean, John, you know me, I don't really talk about I most of my friends are carnivores and that makes them happy. And I'm fine with it. And I don't really mention it.”

And because I don't care and they don't care. And we eat together and we eat together in peace. And one day of John is like, hey, I noticed you never eat meat. Tell me about that.

Then I'm happy to tell them about it. And I'm literally just sharing it from my perspective. So I'm on the other side of this. Tell me. In 2012, there was rumblings in the nerd community, right? About this, the effect of ketogenic diets. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. So this is before they became mainstream and everything was keto. Right. I went down rabbit holes. I met with everybody I could. I talked to folks over at the med school, but I became the most annoying human who's ever lived.

“Every. I mean, someone could ask me a question about higher ed finance. And I'd figure out a way to turn it back into. You need to be eating a ketogenic.”

I was the, I was unbearable. Were you? I mean, I was the worst. And I'm bad now. I was solid. And so, and a, I was wrong on a huge chunk of what I was preaching about.

Sure. And I was unbearable. So annoying to be around. And so I, from that in a couple other things, I just adopted a policy, which is, I try, I fail sometimes, but most of the time. I try to answer questions if you ask. Yeah. And so when it comes to people talking about how I do my money and look how much I make. I just smile. Right. And by the way, to everybody who thinks Dave is out lecturing his friends. Dave's friends, Leafs cars, Dave's friends have credit cards. You don't hear him preaching about it. They know what he thinks about it. And he's their friend and they're his friend. And so, and I joke about this. My oldest best friend on the planet is a banker.

Yes. And here's what that means. That means every day he goes to work, hoping I fail in my job on the Ramsey show.

And every day I go on the air, hoping to put him out of business. And he's my best friend on the planet. Yeah. And so we have, we disagree about this thing. And he loves my family and I love his family. And I love him. He loves me. And dude, I'll go to war for that guy and vice versa. Yes. We disagree about this. And we don't have to preach and fight and argue about it. Right. And all that. And I'll go out on an even further limb because in culture, and I know I'm open in the can of worms here, we can, we can tend to vilify the folks who aren't on our same.

And he's saddest for you. Like we don't have the same opinions. You don't like me. You don't get the shot and you didn't get the shot. Like yes. So madness. Sometimes we can think, oh, if they're not doing it our way, they're wrong. Or they're worse, they're, or they're bad. And the thing is here's thing. There's playing people out there, John, and they, I know a few, they have the credit card they paid off every month. Do I agree with that? No, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't teach it. I wouldn't write.

They do it and they're fine. They're not bad. They're not broke. They're not, they're, they're doing fine. Now plenty of them are broke. Yeah. Right. Like, let's do that, right? But you got to just let people live their life, they're grown. You don't have to insert yourself. You don't have to, there's a lot of ways to do life out there. And people are people are doing just fine. And if they're struggling, that's usually when they, you can sense that and, and the, you know, you can ask God to, or whatever you do to open up that opportunity to kind of share a little bit.

But other than that, and I'm not saying that Jared is doing that, I'm really going out on a limb here. But just don't go out looking for a fight. That's right. Yes. Like looking to defend yourself. Just, this is the toughest guys I know. The guys who fought professionally are the guys who will walk away.

“And grab their wife's hand and grab their kids hand and get in their car and go home, because they got nothing to prove, right?”

They don't have to throw a punch out. I don't have anything to prove to you. Right. And so I, so Jared, great, great question. And we've all dealt with this. Yeah. I would smile and let them just talk. And if they ask you what's your opinion, I don't play the credit cards. I don't play the credit cards. I don't want single moms who are struggling with overdraft bills to pay for my free flights. So, I don't deal with them. I already went deep really fast. I'll say it. And it usually shuts up a conversation.

But like, if you ask, I'll tell you, but I do, I want to stay with a good time tonight. So, you run your mouth and we can move all of their days. I agree. I love it. All right. Let's roll out to each tone and talk to Dean Dean, where I'm up against a clock. So get right to your question, brother.

I'm kind of a little nervous. I'm going through a lot. I have 144,000 dollars worth of debt just myself.

“Me and my wife recently got married a year ago.”

She has about $12,000 worth of debt and student loans and $1200 worth of debt in credit cards. I recently just wanted to start getting my life together. I recently, I recently got saved and I really felt a call until really get my finances in order. And so, we hadn't paid off my car and paid off of my credit card. And so, I still have $144,000 worth of debt.

I'm having trouble getting my wife on board with me with this living debt free. She's not on board with it. So, I'm kind of doing this all by myself. We agree to have a wedding and we recently last night just found out that she is pregnant. All right. And so, now we have about $13,000 worth saved towards the wedding that we have probably agreed that we're not going to do the wedding anymore at least right now. And so, my question is, would you like to do my finances like what position do you guys feel like that I am in my finances and also, how do I get across to her to be on board with this being debt free thing?

“So, let me be clear. So, if you guys don't do the party like you don't do the wedding party, I still think you should get married.”

Go ahead and make more housing get married. Yeah, I think that's just going to solidify. I'll be married in the courthouse. You are fabulous. Okay. Um, you know, I love that you are interested in getting yourself together. You've had, you had a transformative moment, right? You had a moment.

God shine down. You're like, I'm doing this thing and ready set go. Sometimes when you have a moment like that, that's just a catalyst and you're just ready to go.

You're assuming that the person next to you should just jump right into your level of excitement and it's not always like that.

“And sometimes it's multiple conversations of you sharing your heart and sharing your fears.”

For them to even be like, okay, I may not share your passion, but I'll go along with you on this ride until maybe one day I do. That's me and my wife Dean. As a Texas male, it's hard to sit down in front of your wife and say, hey, my past actions have led me to a point where I'm scared about our future. Yeah. Would you join me in this? And I'll tell you, like, if she's right or die, like a good spouse is, my wife is like, I don't have that same fear that you have, but I'm in. Well, you know what I'm saying?

Hey, hang on a line. You, you asked us a couple of big questions and I want to make sure we answer saying all the way. I'm going to hold you over the break. We use it don't do that, but I'm going to hold you over the break. So hang on the line and we will come back to you right after this commercial break. [Music] Alright, let's cut to the chase. It's easy to get discouraged about crazy house prices and interest rates.

But when you have the right real estate agent to help you buy and sell the right way, you'll have confidence to make smart decisions. Ramsey trusted agents aren't just experts who guide you through buying or selling.

They're people you can trust to have your back from the first call to closing day.

Find a Ramsey trusted agent near you at RamseySolutions.com/agent. That's RamseySolutions.com/agent. [Music] Are you sick and tired of working so hard but have nothing to show for it? That's normal and normal is a broke. You don't have to live that way. Our every dollar budget app helps you find extra money every month and build you a personalized plan to beat debt and build wealth.

In just 15 minutes, you'll find thousands in hidden margin. You'll feel like you got a raise. Don't live normal when you can live like no one else. Start every dollar for free in the App Store or Google Play. Alright, right before the last break, I took a call from Dean in H. Tone in Houston. And Dean is just realized he's got a ton of debt recently married, got a new baby.

He's just found out last night he's pregnant, him is wife for pregnant. And he is trying to get his wife on board. He wants to get his financial house in order. And so we held him over, we're going to walk him through how to clean this mess up and get his feet underneath him.

Yep. Alright man, thanks for hanging over the break with us. Alright, we're going to walk you through the plan here on out. One question I got for you, what's this 140K? You said you got rid of your credit cards, you paid them off, you paid off your car. What's this 140?

It's all suit and loan debt. All suit and loan debt is federal. I have 99 in states. Wow. Okay. What do you do for a living, brother? I do a real estate now.

I went to school for business, but I recently got a job. I'm going to say two years ago and yeah, so I do real estate now. What's your annual income? Last year, I made 65,000 this year. God has blessed me so much.

I've already made 40,000 in the last three months. And if I stay on this pace, I'll be at like 125 to 150. If I can just continue on how I'm doing now. Outstanding. Dude, that means you're getting your feet under to you.

And that in a wonky business man, congratulations, dude. Yeah.

“What about your wife? What she earned every month or a yearly?”

Us. Yes, she makes 40,000. Okay. So there's a couple things linked in here.

Let's talk about, let's first talk about debt aside and paying off debt aside.

How does she feel about combining your finances together? And just say, hey, we have one account. Both of our paychecks go into it. You know, we have transparency. We make financial decisions together like that whole bag.

How does she feel about that? She actually wants that. I've been the one that's hesitant to do that. Why? What's our marriage? Just because I just don't think about finances the same way.

You know, for instance, we recently had a conversation about the fact that she has a lease and with me. She's leasing a car. Right. You kind of finding more out about finances. And she was just like, I'm not giving up my lease.

Right. Have a new car every three years. But let's take that. Let's take financial philosophy off the table for just a second. And just the idea of combining.

To become one. And we're just going to do this thing together to have full transparency.

“With us aside from because it's going to take some time for you guys to have similar values.”

And you're never going to think the same.

You're just going to have similar values. So if you just say, hey, I married this woman. I'm in it now. Could you be on board with let's have transparency. Let's share.

Let's do this thing together. And we're not talking about debt and plans yet. We're just combining our money. Would you be okay with that? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Let me put it this way. You've already combined DNA to make a human. The least you can do is combine your check in account. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. You're already in it now. Yeah. We do have a joint account.

We do build. But we haven't done the whole thing. Yeah. I think that's your first step. Because we teach baby steps around here.

And we have seven financial baby steps.

“But there's just, I think for you, there's even some smaller layers that we can get to.”

That is just going to help you inch towards where you want to go. So I think tonight. That's the first conversation you have is it's not about paying off debt. It's not about accomplishing goals. It's just, hey, you know, we're married.

We're about to have a baby together. Let's do this money thing together. I want, I want us to jump in with both feet. I know we don't see eye to eye on certain things yet. That'll come later.

But I just want to know that you and I are together. We're one. Even if you got a budget for six months for the lease payment. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Right. It all goes on budget. You're all working together on the same team. Because that's the first thing.

You can't convince somebody to do what you want to do if you haven't fully committed. If you won't do it. Yeah. Yeah. So the first step is we're committing that we are sharing our money.

And let it marinate for a minute. Like let it breathe. You don't have to, you know, have this conversation tonight. And then by Sunday, you're already talking about paying off the debt. Get the money together.

Let it breathe for a moment. And then while you're, while you're continuing to learn. Because you're new to this too. Then we can start having conversations about, okay, now that we see what our budget looks like. Here's some of the things that I'm noticing with our budget.

I've got a lot of debt. And it is like eating up the majority of our margin. And you've got a lease. I've noticed that's, you know, that's something that I'm taking a note of. Right. And you can start to say things that you're just noticing.

And you can start to share things about how you're feeling. And again, let this unroll. It's okay that this takes a little bit of time. I don't think John, I've ever had a financial conversation with Sam where we have opposing views or differing views. That happens in one conversation.

Never. Yeah. Never. It doesn't happen. So take that out of your expectation.

Because not only is this is not only is this the delicate conversation. But you're newlyweds. Right. And you just both found out you're having a baby. Right.

All this, you're a new, you're a new person of faith. Like all this is new. Right. So you think of this word in your head. Practice.

You've never done any of this stuff before.

Just like if you've never shot a free throw before.

“You're going to get up there and look silly for the first few times.”

And you're going to keep shooting and shooting. And you're going to get better and better at it. That's what we're doing here. We're practicing. We're practicing this conversation.

We're practicing like combining our lives together. We're practicing combining our money together. We're practicing. Hey, how much do we need for groceries this month? We're practicing all these things.

And you have two in my, and John, you jump at any time. In my mind, you have two frameworks of conversation. Only. It's here's how I feel. And here's, I've just been thinking about the future.

Wouldn't it be cool if? And so you're just painting your painting cool visions of the future that you see. Man, I just, I can't keep thinking about like, wouldn't it, I just keep thinking about what it would feel if I didn't have debt. And if we didn't have debt.

And I was actually thinking about that. And that would feel amazing, right? So all you're sharing is your feelings in your vision. Nothing that she has to do, nothing that she has to change. It's just you talking about you.

Bring it back to your childhood.

I grew up in a house where we were all, my, my whole man was always stressed about money.

And I have a dream for our kid to never know that kind of stress. Yeah, if our kid makes the basketball team, I want to be able to get him the best shoes. And not even think about it. Yes. Right.

And so what you're doing is you're painting a picture. You're not lecturing with numbers. You get, you get what we're saying. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's very true for me to in my past. There, it was for most of us. And you, you, um, inviting her out for a half day dreaming retreat on. Hey, we're having a baby. Both of us come from this background.

And she comes from that background. What do, what do we envision us wanting our house to feel like when our daughter or our son comes home in their 12? What do we want the house to feel like? Right.

And we get to, we get to construct that. We get to build that up. Right.

And often, not always, but often, I'll do it.

I care less about my car. I want my house to feel like that one day. Yeah. Right. And so again, it sounds counterintuitive to put the money aside for a second.

But let's dream and get a crystal clear picture of what our vision for our live wants to look like and feel like. And then it's just a matter of reverse engineering. And let's just build a thing out. Yeah. And Dean, I'm going to send you a copy of my book.

No one tells you about money because it does a good job of, you know, when you're dealing with a framework like the baby steps. It shows how some people feel versus how other people feel.

“And I think it'll really help you get an insight as to the way she might be feeling.”

And it'll help you pinpoint how you might be feeling. And I think that's just really going to be good for you. Now obviously, when it comes to the debt, when the time comes, when she's ready, when you're ready. Yeah, I'm going to recommend the baby steps all the way. And we're going to make sure you're set up with every dollar.

That's our wedding gift to you. We'll make sure you have every dollar. We'll make sure you have my book. We'll also give you Dave's book, The Total Money Makeover. We're just going to load you up because I want you learning and learning and learning.

And I want, what I want is that every time she looks at you, you've got a piece of our material in your hand or in your face. And she's like, hey, this guy is like, every time I look at him, he's got his face planted and Ramsay. And you can look at her if she rolls her eyes at you, whatever it's say, honey, I'm in this with you for the long haul. And I'm going to change my family tree. I'm going to make sure that you guys are doing well.

I'm going to make sure we're successful. We got you, man. And hey, if it comes down to it, just tell her two goofballs on the radio. Give you a year of the best budgeting app on the planet every dollar and invite her to use it with you because it was free. Dave Ramsay here, most people stay stuck with her money because they're not paying attention to it.

Most people are living paycheck to paycheck. Stress out and broke. Don't be most people. You work way too hard to be broke and feel broke and you deserve to have something to show for it.

“That's why we built the every dollar budget app.”

It gives you a personalized plan for your money to show you how to free up extra money every month and use it to beat that and build lasting wealth. Plus you get real coaches guiding you through your plan step by step. Look, most people hearing this will just keep hoping something changes, but not you. You're ready to make change happen starting now. Go download every dollar in the app store or Google Play and start for free today.

[Music]

Gracious words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul in healing to the bones.

Elizabeth Elliott says, "Lord deliver me from the urge to open my mouth when I should shut it." I need to get that tattoo on my forearm. I know that's right. That's a good one right there. It's got to Grand Rapids Michigan and talk to Emma.

Hey Emma, what's going on? Hi, how are you? We're doing great. How are you? I'm pretty good.

I have a question. My husband and I are on our debt snowball. So we're on baby step two. And my husband has irregular work. So he is a flat rate motorcycle mechanic.

So most of his money is made March more like April through September. And then we take a big pay cut. So we looked at what the minimum is to live during the winter. And we kind of estimated that we need about $700 a month during the busy season to put into a sinking fund so that we would be good for the winter. But we were looking at the minimums if we pay off what we think we're going to pay off and debt by September,

then we wouldn't need any additional money because all of those minimums would be gone. That's great. So yeah, so we're wondering, do we just make the sinking fund and then if October comes and we don't need it,

“we just throw that to debt or do we hold it just in case through the winter since there's no way to like make really extra money for him?”

Why is there a no, I believe that there is a way that either of you can make $700 extra a month.

Yeah, it teaches me about flat rate, the motorcycle mechanic, what does that mean? I never heard that.

So it's a form of commission. And so essentially like if you are billing, you know, let's say it's the customer has built 10 hours for a job. If you can do the job in five hours, you still get paid 10 hours worth of work. So you can essentially do 90 hours of work in a 40 hour work week. Okay.

But there are no motorcycles being written really in Michigan. Okay, gotcha. So it's kind of the color form. Yeah, so it's not like you can just magically make extra motorcycles coming. But he could go.

So it has to be there. Could he go work at a mechanic shop working on cars? No, they're not the same and he has to be at the motorcycle shop. Right, but I'm thinking, okay, you're saying that $700 is the deficit monthly.

I just believe there in the winter.

Right. And I'm thinking of, I don't know, teachers or pastors or people who kind of, it's like, this is my main job, but I also need a side gig. $700 is not a scary number to go out and make for a month. And so I'm wondering, rather than you guys having to be like squirrels and it being at a detriment to your baby step two, I just feel like you've got time between now and September to say let's pinpoint work that we do in the winter months

on top of what's already there for us to pull in $700. And I just think that that's a great practice anyway. You talking to $2800, right?

“Is it four, I guess the Michigan winter is nine months long, right?”

How long are you talking? It's about six months. Okay, so you need $3600, right? Yep. Or $4200.

What do you do? Me? Yeah. Ministry work. Okay.

So I got a plan. I have two side hustles already. Okay. And that half doubt. And we have four kids.

Okay. So that's kind of what's making me think that there's more to this because side hustles are there for, like, sprints. I wouldn't want this to be something that's, um, I want you guys to be able to lock in and have this money without having to, does that make sense?

Yeah. I don't want to be a detriment to your baby step two. If you're a farmer, you work all year and you get paid and one or two big chunks, right?

“And so you have to budget those two big chunks as though inspired it out over the year.”

And so I'm with Jade, like, I would love to see, I'll be able to say, okay, we need $4200 over the course of a year. Yes. Can we scratch and call on figure that out? If you're telling us, no, there's zero percent chance.

We're, we're scratching and clawing to get to, we only need $4200 left. Then yeah. That's very tight. It's a matter of budgeting $700 in the good months and putting it into a sinking fund, $4200.

And we're going to withdraw from it for six months. But we wouldn't need that if we do pay off the stuff we were planning on paying off. We just wouldn't be putting anything toward the snowball in those months. That's kind of why I'm saying what I'm saying, which is why delay your snowball pay off.

So during that next sprint, we can come up with ways to make an extra step.

If we need it, does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Because I haven't thought about that. If you continue to aggressively do your snowball, you're not setting aside the $700.

By September, you're debt-free, right? No, we would just have us, we're looking at 24 months before. Okay.

“So then for two years, you have to fund the $700 gap.”

Right? Well, no, we would just, so if we were to take off, we have six things we're thinking we're going to have paid off by September. Those minimums would be gone in two of our car payments. So it's quite a lot of $900.

I think that's even more fuel in my mind.

Oh, it's definitely doing. To keep writing this out. Because again, if you pay off those few, then you get those minimums back great. But if you can keep your foot on the gas and you can say, hey, let's pick up whatever work we can until this, all of the debt is completely gone, that's a, I mean, I would tell anybody to do that.

Okay. And then once the two years is over, all the debt is gone, everything, then you can do what John said, which is yes. Now we take our lump sum of money and we spread it evenly over the 12 months and we're good to go. Are you worried that you're going to pay this debt off? And suddenly you're going to have needed that, some cash?

Yeah, because we're just still trying to figure out the budgeting. And so the concern is there's no way to, like, for him to, to build the extra money. So that's the concern is that it's kind of an unknown charter territory. Now I do feel like for a regular incomes. I'm thinking of people like realtors, where it's just like, yeah, I don't know month to month.

It's great to, it's always good to be to have a month's worth of expenses just sitting in your account.

So essentially you're always on month ahead. In your case, that might benefit you guys. You might feel a lot better to just always have that money there because if you don't know, necessarily what's coming in month to month, then that's a great practice to have, right? And I would certainly do that because in that case,

Yeah, you're just like any other volatile, you know, kind of irregular person. It's like, if I don't know that I'm going to make my whole month, I want to know that the month is there. And I would do that, but beyond that, I would make sure my goal would be to not have to touch that money if that were the case. Okay, yeah, we, we're lucky because we do know a minimum of what he's going to make. So we have that figured out, he makes a bare minimum just for being there.

And is that enough to cover?

“It's, it's not, it's that's why it's $700 short, but that's okay.”

Okay, have these payments, but if we pay the two cars off, that's $900 right there that's gone. Done. Okay, so tell me about a good month. What happens? You know, obviously there's, what's a good month look like?

How much more does he go? Yeah. Over what he regular, like what the winter months are? Um, sometimes about $8,000. Oh. So I feel like, I feel like there's way more money on the table here.

Yes. So you're telling me on the months where he goes like, crazily over, that doesn't give you the $3,600 that you need. It does get there for the debt right now, but I mean, and then some, and then some, yes. So we've been putting it toward debt, so that's why we, all of it's going toward debt minus that 700 right now. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, my advice doesn't change, but I think there's more money here than meets the eye. Yeah. How long, how long do you pay these cars off? Well, we just paid one off today. Congratulations.

Thank you. And then the next one will be paid off in two weeks. That's exciting. Oh, what? Emma, why are you calling us?

Because I'm not sure if, because it says the irregular income thing, so I got kind of hung up on that. Well, you don't have an irregular income. You have a regular income. Okay. It's just, it fluctuates significantly.

But the, the gross total is the same annually. Yeah. Like, you don't get paid every two weeks or every month, but you get paid a few times a year. It gets paid every other, every other week, but it can range by $30,000.

“But you, you know that range based on the time of month, right?”

Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, that's it for the Ramsey Show, Jade. Yes.

Thanks for letting us sit in your shadow today. Remember, there's only one way to financial peace. That's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Christ Jesus. [Music]