Wealth Is A Strategy, Not An Accident

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

so we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fair Wins Credit in the studio, this is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, Jade Washall, number one best-selling author, Ramsey Personality,

is my co-host today. >> Chris is in Phoenix. >> Hey Chris, how are you? >> I'm doing good in you. >> Better than not deserve, what's up?

>> Hey, so I'm in a good situation. So it's kind of a serious thing with me and my family right now. >> So I have a mother, single mother. I have three other siblings, we are from Wisconsin. And my mom, she does pretty good financially.

She's a doctor, but she won it all of us to go to college. What was going to college?

She took out multiple parent plus loans in order for us to go to school.

She moved us out to Arizona, so she kind of took care of us. Like paid for, you know, my rent for two years, while it was in school, graduated, not in a good financial position. My mom is in Arizona, and she won a purchase,

$800,000 home. They won't let her purchase the home because of her debt to income ratio from the parent plus loans that she took out for us, me, my siblings. I'm kind of the more financially responsible one.

So she asked me if I could, you know, be a co-finer on her $800,000 mortgage. Keep in mind, I'm only 22 years old. You know, I have my own place, I have my own car. I don't really have much debt outside of, you know,

the parent plus loans that I'm helping my mom with. But she kind of guilt tripping me and saying, hey, out of everything I did for you, this is the least that you can do for me. So it's kind of a fight with the family at $800,000 mortgage

that I'm scared to co-sign because one, I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to get off of it. And two, I don't. My mom is she's pretty smart,

“like she's not like, that's what she's not.”

Well, there's, there's something, there's something really important here that it can easily be missed, which is just because something turned out okay doesn't mean there wasn't a mistake attached to it, right?

Like, you guys ended up in college and you guys are okay, but there was still a mistake that she made in co-signing all those loans. Otherwise, she would be able to buy her house, no problem, and there would be no debt to income ratio issue.

So you've got to go to her and say, here's a thing, mom. I thank you for everything you've done for me, but there's still co-signing is not a good thing. And the same way that you're having problems

because you co-signed, if I co-signed for you, I'm signing up for the same set of problems. I'd rather do this, and I'd rather you find a way to do this

in a way that there's no mistake attached to it. That's great. She's not going to accept that, because she's already gone into throughout travel like your trip modes,

but how much parent plus loans does she take out in total do you have any idea? For me, all four of my siblings probably around $200,000. Okay, and you said she's a doctor. She's a doctor, yes.

What does she have made? She probably makes around that. I would say around 160. Okay. All right, so I'm going to gift her a total money make

overbook from me, and a year's subscription to the every dollar app and suggest that she decide starting today that she become financially responsible for the first time in her life,

because what she did was very irresponsible. It was stupid. Okay, what she did was stupid. It was a good heart, and she was intending good things, and she was putting herself on the line for her children,

which sounds like a good warrior princess single mom. I appreciate all of that, but then to turn around, and ask a 22 year old, to help you buy a million dollar house.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, lady. Right. That's ridiculous. Okay. And as a dad of children that are grown,

they're not children anymore adults, generation two, that are responsible.

I would never do that to people that I love.

And it's just wrong. Okay. So no, you don't get to buy a house, because instead, you chose Dr. Lady to go into debt to send your kids to school.

I don't agree with your decision. I agree with your motives. Your motive was sweet and kind and noble, but your decision was stupid,

“and now you have to work your way out of stupid,”

so you can buy a house. So for the next two years, you get to live on 60,000, and put 100,000 on 200,000 dollars worth of student loans for two years,

and they go away. Boom. And then you have a life. Instead of screwing up your own kids life that you set out to help,

originally. Now you want to screw it up. So that's my message to her.

Quick, guilt trip in your kids.

“Suck it up, buttercup, and clean up your mess.”

Instead of dumping it on your 22-year-old. Yeah, that's right. Now, I love your mom. I'm happy for what you did, but that's my message to you from an old grandpa

to a soon-to-be, hopefully, old grandma. And you clean up this mess, and then you don't saddle your own children with this.

And so, here's what's going to happen though, Chris.

Okay. She's not going to do any of that, probably. And she's probably not going to accept your no. She's probably going to feel blamed.

She's going to blame you. She's going to be mean. She's going to be nasty. And she's going to get her feelings hurt. Because boundaryless people,

when you put up a boundary, always resist the boundary. A hundred percent of the time. Well, and she's settling her responsibility in the deal on you.

Yeah, you didn't sign up for this. She did. You didn't ask her to. She did. So, you're set free, my brother.

Do not do this. Whatever you do. But also do not expect it to come without consequences of her whining and rolling around in the floor,

filming at the mouth or whatever she's going to do, okay? Right. And my siblings are also, it's like a whole family thing.

Well, I'll tell your siblings to bite.

“You know, they don't get a vote anymore.”

You're like a free 22-year-old man that gets to do what he wants to do with his life. You are not required to do this. And your siblings, by the way, are irresponsible too.

Hello? Mm-hmm. Which also nullifies their vote. But here's the other part of this. You're young.

And the more that you establish your boundaries in this way and the more that you draw and line in the sand and say, I'm not going to participate in behaviors that I know are stupid choices financially.

Over time, the less you'll be pulled into that orbit of stupidity. Yeah.

Here's what you're saying.

Here's what you're saying. Here's the message you're delivering while you're doing this. And you didn't even mean to them. And then the consequence is, "You're siblings, wife. Now know she can't call you for money."

Right. Because Chris has got one big answer. It's that magic ancient word. It's such a free. No.

No one says the word anymore. It's ancient.

“It's a sound that has disappeared from our culture.”

You're not allowed to say it anymore. But I've taught people all the time. Be defiant, not compliant. The answer is no. You press your tongue towards the roof of your mouth.

You release it, make a kissing motion. Yes? No. That's how it looks. It sounds.

It's an interesting word. We don't hear it much anymore. You're not allowed to say it to people. Because you get labeled at least things. No.

That's foolish. No. That's wrong. No. That violates my ethics and my values.

No. I'm not going to do that. No. That's not helpful. No.

At the end of this story, we'll all be pissed if we do this. So no. Because that's what's going to happen. You're going to get married and have a kid and you're not going to be able to buy a house because your co-sign to your mother who's still going to be chained to parent plus loans

in a $900,000 mortgage and can't get you off because she can't refinance it. And then probably the house is going to get run down and can't even get sold because she can't keep it up. Because this is a pattern, dude. This is what's, you know, there's nothing good going to come of this. Please endure the pain of everyone not liking your answer because ten years from now,

they'll be happy you answered this way. The kids call it standing on business. Oh, there you go. You're standing on business. All right. There we go.

What's the one that Deloni says he says except regret more than or. Ouch. Oh, boy. I'm not going to get it. I can't make it come to my head either, but it's perfect for this. Anyway, what will remember it like? Guilt over resentment guilt over resentment you'll be resentful later.

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It takes about two minutes. S-O-L-A-C-E SolaceHealth.com/Ramsy must be 18 or older. Advocates do not provide medical or legal advice. Lucy is in Charlotte. Hi, Lucy. How are you?

Hi, good. Thanks for taking my call. How can we help? Yeah, so I was hoping that you can help settle a debate between my husband and I, and by debate, I need more of me making fun of him for this, but let's, you know, you guys.

How could we get to make fun of him? Thank you so much. We got married in January. We've combined our finances, so we have a joint check-out. How old are you guys?

I'm 34 years, 35. Okay, all right. And we are very blessed to be financially stable. I pay my phone bill from our joint checking account. It's prepaid free.

He and his three siblings, they are still on his parents' phone bill that his parents pay. Oh, that's soy. He says if it's not broke, don't fix it. It's broke.

“You're a 35 year old man, you should have been off your cell phone.”

You're a parent cell phone plan 10 years ago. Yeah. Yeah, she should make fun of him at links. Okay, this is exactly what I thought. This is mommy-fold is underwear, too.

I mean. No, surprisingly not. This is the only thing that I just think it's crazy. And he thinks it's normal, so. No, it's not normal.

It's, it's, it's more normal than it should be, but normal kind of sucks in our culture. We've gotten people all confused about, you know, we got 35 year olds living in their mother's basement,

still playing, you know, call of duty because they've never actually

figured out what duty is. And so, um, yes, crazy. So he probably, he hasn't paid the bill in 15 or 20 years. He's never paid the bill. So he probably wasn't even thinking about it.

Let's be fair. He probably wasn't even thinking about it. Then you brought it up. That was his opportunity to go, you know what? I forgot about this.

You're right. I'm like a grown man and stuff now. I should pay my own bills and stuff now. Yes.

“Because that's what adults do and stuff now.”

Wow. You're fun. That's fun. Yes, we should all make fun of him. All my half of all the 35 year old mama's boys out there.

We should make fun of him. Murselessly. Murselessly. Murselessly. Yeah, you win, Lucy.

You win. Touchdown. That's funny. It is very funny and it's cute and, you know, I have fun with it. But it does bring up something that I mean, we did a show yesterday on Real Estate.

And the number of single ladies buying a home is now three times the percentage of single men buying a home for the first time in history. And it's interesting because women tend to earn less dollars in general.

Yes, not always, but they also tend to want to make a quote home, so to speak a nest.

But what we're seeing is that we've got the numbers very dependent on who you read and who you believe. But somewhere between 40 and almost 50% of the male single males under 30 are living at home still. Well, this goes back to a lot of the content that you were talking about earlier in the year.

“Because there's data that's attributed to that, right?”

Well, it's the, you know, there's a couple of things we're seeing that are causing that. Those guys are not, they don't feel like they are winning in the marketplace for various reasons. And so they are further trapping themselves by being the generation that assault their soul to draft kings. The sports betting is through the roof and that, and it's killing them. They're losing like hand over fast. They've made sport. They've made, you know, draft kings and whoever else just unbelievably billions of dollars in a very short period of time.

And that's where the crypto grows live. Because they're swinging for the fence. They don't think they could hit a single and get on base. So everything they do is a desperate move. It's a bad way to get on a football game or a bet on crypto. And that's the only thing you're going to get me out because I can't do slow and steady.

And I blame mom and dad.

“Because, you know, in my 20s, there were times, as a, I got married at 22, but in my 20s in college and as a young married person.”

There were times I was terrified, but it was really good for me.

A lot of wonderful things happen out of a healthy desperation. Uh-huh. Because I knew if I didn't do it, it wasn't going to get done. Well, that's what it's going to ask. Do you think it's a low expectation of, hey, you, it's not even, we don't even expect you to do this.

Or do you think the expectation is scaring them and it's like, hey, I don't think I can meet this. I'm not even going to try. Well, it goes all the way back to early childhood. Teach your children to do hard things. Yeah.

Teach your children to do hard things. Then, at some age, early 20s at the latest, like, when you come home from college, you can't come home. Be a man, my son. Oh, yeah. Get a place to live.

Mom's and dad, you're not doing a 28 year old favors.

When they're spending their evenings on binging Netflix.

They're betting on sports with draft kings. They're buying crypto and they're excellent at video games. You have done them no favors. You're a child abuser.

“Because you've said, well, who wants to date that guy?”

And that, that's the problem. Who's the problem? Who? What father wants his daughter dating that guy? What?

Daddy, he's a dreamer. Oh, God, they're going to live in the basement. I want to see that you can go out and make a life before you add me to your life. You know, I'm saying, like, I want to see that. I want to see it happen.

I want to see that you can get a place to have it.

It's the only place the success comes before work.

Everywhere else work comes before success. And so, you know, moms and dads in Eagle that is not kicked out of the nest pretty quickly becomes a turkey. And so, we need to kick the little eagle it's out and let them have some terror. Oh, it sits hard out there. It is not hard out there compared to when you did it moms and dads.

It's the easiest and best time in the history of the world right now. The stock market's freaking booming jobs are everywhere. Now, not $150,000 of your jobs. Who got a degree and left handed puppetry to follow their passion. Now, people who actually are working at things that the society needs.

It's out there. And if it's not, give them a lawnmower. Run down to Home Depot, buy a leaf blower. Rich people are afraid of leaves. You've got a job instantly.

Instantly. It's the sound of success. Shacks. You know, get it. Maybe get it.

So, the whosification of America is beyond belief. We have killed a generation of young men. By not teaching them how to throw their shoulders back. Lean into the harness and pull something. Now, does that sound like a bad joke?

I don't care. I'm observing the socio-economic data. I'm also talking to the young women who wish there were some more men out there that they could date. Instead of a mama's boy living in their mother's basement. And it's just ridiculous, you guys.

It's out of control. And I gotta tell you, I got a whole bunch of good ones. It's not the entire generation. We've got a 750 in their 20s working at Ramsey right now. And they're incredible.

Their eyes are shining. They're passionate. They're talented. And they can balance a checkbook. And they can pay their own light bill and buy their own milk.

And, you know, this is, I mean, Lucy's calls fun. And we couldn't have fun and joke around with her about winning our argument.

“And yes, you need to get off cell phone bill. But it kind of points to this whole other rant.”

Yeah, it does. It's a whole other issue that we're running into. It's affecting the housing market. Okay. So twice as many women single 30-year-olds are buying homes as men 30-year-olds.

First time in history. Why? I don't know. Other than they're maturing emotionally, relationally faster.

I don't know. And they don't want to wait on someone else to... If they're waiting, they're waiting on them. You know, what is the night? Yeah.

In shining armor. Thank you. Because his armor is pretty tarnished. Because he's been playing video games all day. He needs some WD-40.

He needs to get him a little stainless steel rub that armor. Oh, my God. Lee, you guys, come on. The great news is for you, young men, that will decide you want to shoulder up.

You're going to be so rare,

You got to go to work, some paces on bills,

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That's joinsali.me.com/ramcy. [MUSIC] How are you doing today?

Better than I deserve, what's up?

So as a travel tech, it's really hard to stay on a budget as far as food and fame with decent nutrition. What do you recommend? I'm sorry, the nutrition is the problem, or just the impulsiveness. Both, so it's really, I'm out of, I don't, I'm not at home,

except for two days out of a month, three days out of a month. Okay. So when it comes to homemade meals, stuff that has good inmates actually good for you and doesn't cause an arm in the leg,

“that's why I'm really struggling when it comes.”

I'm on baby stuff number two. I'm under 10 grand left and dead. I'm getting there last month. There's kind of two questions built in if I'm understanding. Number one is how do I not go over my allocated amount that I have

to spend and number two is how do I literally physically create food that's acceptable for a human being to eat while you're on the road. Which that's really hard, but Jake could help us with that. Yeah, what is your budget? How much do you, can you spend a week?

240, what am I per day in this? That's odd. That's wonderful. Yeah. Well, that's wonderful.

And you also because that's plenty, I think, for one human being. And then the other $1,000 a month. Yeah, if you can't do that, we got, we got another $200, 200, 240, sorry. For the month or the week.

For the week, for the week, for the week. 240 times, three times four is a thousand. Yeah, it's a lot of money. Okay. So tell me what are you having?

I didn't put it towards the debt, though. Okay, so you put it down. Okay. So how can we eat for $240 a week or less healthy on the road, Jake?

“Yeah, I think you need to find healthy meals that are already prepared.”

If your hotel room doesn't have a little kitchen at where you can do some things on your own, then you're going to the grocery store and you're going to the deli area and you're picking up salads and you're picking up grilled chicken and you're picking up grilled tofu and you're picking up things that were made fresh that day. They're not filled with all, you know, we're not picking up tofu on purpose.

I've done it before. Oh, that's pretty scary. But my point is you're not going to pick up. You're not going through McDonald's. You're not going to Sonic.

You're not going through the drive through. You can do something just as quickly. You're just popping in the grocery store, picking up something that's pre-made. What would keep you from doing that and what has kept you from doing that is a question. Because I think you know that, right, that what I said is not.

A minimum of, yeah, I work a minimum of 10 hours a day. Often goes to the 14 hour day.

Are you saying it's closed by the time you get there? Is that the problem?

Yeah, it's not always, but also it's like by the time I get down my last shot.

The closest grocery store is like a 30 minute album. Okay, so here's what I hear. There's what I hear is there's pre-planning that needs to happen. So what's happening is the time is happening to you. You haven't thought about it at all and it's time to leave working.

You're like, oh crap, it's eight o'clock, what's open. And now you're having to solve the problem on the fly. What I would suggest is solving the problem ahead of time and saying, Here's what my rhythm has to be. I have to go to the grocery store on x day and I grab five meals.

And I keep them in the refrigerator in the hotel or I keep them in my cooler. That's refrigerated in my car. And you just solve it ahead of time. This is just a pre-planning thing. I don't think it's a money thing.

I don't even think that it's a, you don't know what choices are available to you.

“I truly think it's just getting ahead of it and planning ahead.”

Because how long do you spend in each city or in each location? Uh, normally a week to two weeks and then they kind of give me different regions in that area. So, so you can take your flight in and you fly in on Sunday usually? Oh, I drive. I have a work truck because I have tools.

I'm the fiber technician. Oh, cool.

Like I do even better. Even better. Okay. So you schedule to get there two hours earlier than you used to. Correct. On the first day.

And you go the grocery store and you go the grocery store and you load your cooler for the week. With things you're going to make when you get back to the hotel room. Got it. That's the only thing you can do. That's what I can do.

Because otherwise, because you know, if you, and you could take your lunch with you during the day, get up in the morning, make you a lunch, take it with you. We've all done that just about. Um, and you know, how old are you? I'm 30, 30 this year.

I'm good for you. Good for you. Good for you. Well done. I'm proud of you. You're killing it, man.

It's a great question by the way. Yes, Scott, when my, when my husband and I, we used to do musical tours around the United States, and sometimes a tour could be fit 14 or 21 days. And so that's what you do. And you could be in a different city each day.

And so that's what we had to do. But our hotel was kind of in a central point. And so we would. We'd go to Whole Foods or we'd go to Publix. Load up on the things we want just like Dave said.

Some things would be quick and prepared that we can just pull out of the refrigerator and heat up and other things because we had a kitchenette. We could go and say, OK, well, I am going to go ahead and grill this piece of tofu. Or I am going to go ahead and, you know, slice up this salad myself. And that it truly is just getting ahead of it.

And that's all there is to it. Yeah. So pre planning in detail helps you do two things. One is it, um, it keeps the thing from happening to you. You're happening to it.

You're being proactive in terms of the nutrition and the food selection. And you don't ever see the inside of a restaurant with what we're laying out. And you're going to spend less money. You're going to spend a lot of money and you're going to get the stuff from a nutrition and health standpoint that you're actually looking for there.

And you'll learn about that. It may be that you like, um, you know, like I think probably one of the best things on the planet is ripe tomato personally because I'm from the south. Tomato salad. And I'm just saying.

So if it was me and if it was my wife too, that we would probably figure out where the closest farmers market was to where I'm getting ready to go to work for two weeks. And I'd probably hit that puppy on Sunday afternoon and load the veggies up. It's fresh veggies like that and my mouth is water.

I was going to say, what, what's I don't make any. No, what's your go to meal? If Sharon said Dave, it's on you tonight. What are you making? We would starve.

Reservations. Not even to make reservations. Not even to stake on the grill. Oh, okay. I can throw a filet on the grill.

Okay. I'll throw a hamburger on the grill. Uh, I'm really good at a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, yeah, that's it. I believe that's it.

I believe it. I'm lame. But I'm really good at washing dishes. That's good. You got to do one or the other.

- I'm not that helpful with that, but I'm not completely a couch log. I don't mean that, but yeah. - But you bring up a good point because there are a lot of jobs that

“over the road truckers, like you have to be careful.”

You can't sacrifice. - You end up very unhealthy. - Yeah. - If you live on fast food. I mean, what was the super size of me?

You remember the McDonald's? - Well, yes, I do remember that guy. - Got him in there. - Not a big Mac because of that guy. - That guy passed away.

- He knew what he did. - Yes he did, you're right. Oh, that's awful. I shouldn't laugh. I'm not the irony of it.

- Oh man. - I mean, we all saw it. - Yeah. - It's true. - That was about 25 years ago, or something.

- Yeah. - The poor McDonald's at the other sales. - Yeah. - Even, let me take it around this way. Even in Baby Step 2, when you are sacrificing everything,

“which you should, you should be sacrificing,”

cutting everything down as much as it can.

However, I'll be the first to tell you.

Number one, Beans and Rice Rice and Beans is not literal.

but Dave, people think it's literal. - I don't know, they send me cookbooks. - They think it's only Beans and Rice.

“- I get at least two Rice and Beans cookbooks.”

- I know. - But let me just say for the people. - Thank you, people. - Thank you. - But it just means guys, cut it back.

If you can, a grilled cheese sandwich is fine. You can have grilled cheese. You can have a peanut butter sandwich. You can have God forbid a tuna fish sandwich. But the point is, you're cutting back.

It's not an excuse to eat fast food. To eat the cheapest thing to eat. The crappiest thing your health matters to. And you can eat healthy food very inexpensive. - If you follow Jade's Instagram,

you put up a bunch of good stuff. - I do sometimes. I do it from time to time. - And you're quite the cook as an opposite of me. - I do.

- Yeah, you're very, and you like it. - I love joy. - I love joy. - I do. And for the people who don't enjoy it, it's a struggle.

Because they're the ones that want to, you know, it's stuff. - Well, what I want to do is do something efficient. And really good food is not efficient. - Right. - I mean, I'm not talking about nutritional food.

I'm talking about like gourmet. - For me. - It's ridiculous amount of time. - Oh, yeah. - To create that one bite.

- Uh-huh. - Yeah.

“- Yep, that's why they can charge for it.”

- I think so. - And they do. Yeah, it's my favorite sport. There you go. - Gotta find a spouse who's good at it.

(laughs) - Or could it make a money one or the two? - That's it, too. - Uh-huh. (upbeat music)

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Go to CHMministries.org/budget and use promo code Ramsey. That's CHMministries.org/budget and promo code Ramsey. Logan is in Denver. Hey, Logan, how are you? Better than I did with it, how are you guys?

Just the same, sir. How can we help? So my direct question is when it's kind for me to eventually make a cash purchase on my first pure rental property. If I should look at town homes and condos or single family homes, they would even matter.

I can give you more depth of my scenario if you need. Doesn't matter. I would do, if you're going to town home, I do a single family. I wouldn't do a duplex. And so I do a single family would be my first purchase,

whether it's a town home, a condo or a standalone. And if you're going to do something that involves an HOA fee or a condo fee, be careful around that. Because that's obviously going to affect your resale later. And it's also going to affect your cash flow.

Even though you paid cash if you've got a huge HOA fee, then it's going to eat your cash flow. So be looking at that. Because some of these condos, if they've not been managed well in the past, they had to catch up on their maintenance

and they're hammering the current occupants with high fees to catch up. And so deferred maintenance problems. And so you just look at the budget on the condo. You can get a copy of the budget.

You can find out about the HOAs and see if you get a sticker shock on that or the condo fee or whatever they're calling it in your area.

I would always stay in the bottom half of the market for sure.

Yeah, Logan, what do you plan to spend? What were you thinking of spending? So I'll try to give you a 30 second long story story. I just bought my first ever home and I'll have it paid off because I'm renting out both bedrooms and 24 years old.

One is a cash purchase on my town of Condo in the amount of about 230.

And then with my leftover money I'll buy my own primary resident house. Good for you. Well, that's fun. That's cool. That's a good plan.

And all with cash? Well, that's my goal. So I bought my place. I got quite lucky. I've been a long time listener.

So you guys have helped me out with it. And fortunately, I rent out both rooms and I don't have to have bump tenants because whether they're there or not, I have my mortgage under control. Well done. So I'm trying to plan in advance.

This question is an urgent one.

“Honestly, what I'm trying to do is just not have my first”

elemental property. Give me a bunch of headaches. I don't know if the type of property matters. It does. As long as it's a good quality neighborhood.

And the lower the price of the property, the more headaches you're going to have. Because that's the type of tenet you're going to have. Okay. And so before I went broke in real estate,

I owned a bunch of super low-end stuff, trashy stuff. Yeah. But the return on investment was ridiculously good. But the hassle factor was ridiculously high. Because we're constantly dealing with some kind of criminal element.

And so it was a real problem. And not 100% of them are obviously. There's some good people there. Don't misunderstand. But it's a lot different when you're running something

for the cheapest possible rent in the market or double that. Or triple that. So that's totally. In terms of who you're having to deal with. And even that goes even so far as to say,

if you left residential someday and own day, a piece of commercial property. Now you've a lot less hassle because you're dealing with a person with a business argument that you're tenant. It's not a residential situation.

The drama level goes way down. And so anyway, all of that's the same. Now that so Winston and Rachel, they bought their first property. Winston loves real estate.

He always has even before he knew me.

And he manages all of our real estate now. And his very first property he bought was a small. I think it was a two bedroom condo.

“And I think they held that about five years.”

And they made bank on that thing. I think it doubled in five years. It was a great purchase. So I don't mind condos at all. But you buy them like you're going to sell them.

And so if it's an ugly house. And you get a good deal on it. When you get ready to sell it, it's still going to be an ugly house. And you're going to give somebody a deal.

Because it's ugly. So you know, that kind of thing. So just keep that kind of thing in mind. Everything that's a deal is not a deal. But if you can buy a good property,

that you're going to be proud when you're selling it. You can throw your shoulders back and be confident. And kind and good on your price and all that kind of thing. Then there you go. That's the good thing.

Jake is with us. That's good question, by the way. Jake's in Atlanta. Hi, Jake, how are you? No, well, sir, how are you?

Better than I deserve, what's up? Good. So my wife and I will get married at 27. We made financial goals. We really got serious about age 30.

And we've been on babysat 7 for about four years now. Why to go? Yeah. Yeah. So my question is, and it's sort of a two-part question,

is how you stay motivated once you hit babysat 7, being that there's not necessarily goals you're working towards. Well, there's no desperation anymore. Correct. But you still need to have goals.

You still have a goal. It's just a different goal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I think our main goal now is, like, we're tiring at 55. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Have you got children?

Yes. We've got an eight-year-old. Okay. So the framework that is biblical that I've teaching, I'll send you a copy of the book, the legacy journey.

It's in there. It's what we call now, then us them.

The first stage of money is now.

I have to eat now. I have to pay the lights now. I have to deal with Friday now. Right. And when you get that under control,

you get to start getting your debts paid off. You start having some savings. You start living on a budget. Now you're not living what we call hand to mouth. And when you're in the now,

your head is down. Your eyes are on the ground. You're grinding. Now, then, then, is when you get everything kind under control, you notice this.

You start looking up and further into the future to then, where there is no vision the people perish.

“And that's what took you all the way to baby step seven.”

You start saying, I'm going to start putting money into my retirement, my kids' college. I'm going to get my house paid off. That's all into the future.

You're thinking into the future.

Your goal setting is into the future. Then, when you got to baby step seven, it moves from now then to us.

“And us is, I want to change my family tree.”

A godly man leaves it inheritance to his children's children. You want to change my family tree. And so, I want to make so much money, and I want to teach the children so well, and their character, and their emotional intelligence,

their spiritual walk, and their financial acumen, that they can't mess up what we're going to leave them. And it's not going to mess them up. Because they're solid. And that's the us step.

And then the last step. Once you know you've changed your family tree, which I knew I did 20 years ago. I'd already passed that one. The last one is them.

And godliness with contentment is great gain. And every time you read about someone who helps the poor, helps a widow or helps an orphan, and scripture, you're making God smile. And so them is the community.

“And whether it's the community right off your fingertips,”

or the community around the world, where there's a hunger kid, where there's a someone being abused in sex trafficking, and you start to go for that.

So I got a buddy of mine that the other day dropped 12 million

into a sex trafficking, introduction, ministry, and there's a certain number of people that are not going to be able to do that anymore, but it gets through with them. I mean, it's big deal.

And so he's not thinking about his family anymore, he's not thinking about his family tree anymore. He's now setting goals for girls that have been kidnapped, and are stored in a warehouse in ex-location, including your neighborhood.

And so whatever it is, whatever your thing is, and that's his. Yeah. Okay. And you know, he's got a lot of money.

His kids can't mess it up. He's done that to worry about eating friday, and, you know, and he's got his 401k. Yeah, he's fine, believe me.

And he just dropped 12 million, just like that.

And instantaneously, this thing is born, and you've dropped that kind of coin on it, it'll happen, you know?

“And so what's the thing you need to move a needle on?”

Well, what's the thing that's your heartbeat out there that when you see it, it makes you cry. A social thing. And that's a good reason to work. The reason I work now is just generosity.

I mean, I don't. Our investments would provide us with whatever lifestyle. We wanted this stage. But now I keep working because I love doing this, and because I get to hang out with guys that dropped 12 million

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Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. Abby is with us in Cedar Rapids. Hey, Abby, what's up in your world? Hi, I just wanted to call in today to get some advice. Okay.

What's going on? Like, so I'm married. I don't want my financial stress to hurt my marriage, and I want to become more financially stable again, until I have a future as well as my job about a year ago.

Okay. And how long have you been married? Since 2013. Okay.

Um, I am in my 40s. And he is? How old? Yes, yes. Yeah, and he's 40s.

Oh, okay. All right, cool. And what'd you make it your last job? I was only making around 50s six. Okay.

And what does your husband make? Um, like, I think it's like around 180. 180? Well, he won 60s a year, maybe potentially. Like, it's around that.

“So why do you have financial stress if he makes 180,000 dollars?”

Like, we kind of, um,

one of the first, uh, bar marriage, like we didn't.

That it up, like, or everything was, like, totally together. Well, I mean, just so for the last year, you haven't had a job. I assume out of 180,000. He's feeding everyone in the house and paying the bills. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, we've had a couple of changes. I can remember two different households. I helped a lot. Um, but there's a lot of things that I noticed that when I had a job.

We're easier. And then, like, now it's, it's a lot different. When you say that your money is not together, does that mean you're on the hook for a certain portion of the mortgage? And you're on the hook for a certain portion of, you know, the bills. How does it work and explain how it works in your house?

Like, right now, I can't pay anything because everything's gone from all of my money. Like, everything I had saved up is like it's gone.

You've got something left.

You've gone through all of it. Yeah.

“And so then, what happens when you don't have your share of the money?”

What happens? Okay. Um, like, I just don't buy stuff. I just choose not to, like, buy the things I used to. Got it.

And you have zero access to his money. Um, pretty much, yeah. I mean, I can talk more with him about having more access. But I don't, like, those, both conversations don't go well because, like, my power. I feel like it's less from not having an income right now.

But explain it clearly. Do you get an allowance? And it's just not enough. Tell us more detail. What does it look like?

Do you have a checking account card and you have access to the checking account?

Or you don't even have that. Tell us in detail. Yeah, I have a checking account. I mean, like, I guess I could say it has maybe five grand in there. And I'm just scared to use it because I don't know what's going to, like, happen.

If I do that up and then really, like, have absolutely. Well, I mean, you have used everything up except that five grand. And he's been paying the bills. That's what's going to happen. You make it sound like he's not paying the bills or he's threatening you or something.

What's going on for real? No, like, it's just that our, like, our income was not set up together. And so I understand that he make a, but your household still has $180,000 coming into it. And you're not hungry. So what is the stress?

Um, like buying things, what I use. So why, like, I guess it's like, I just want to feel like more secure in the future. Like, I really feel like I, I don't know what is there. But financial solution besides that. Have you gone to him and said, hey, here's a deal.

Uh, I feel like we're living two different financial lives. And because I no longer have a job. I, I feel like I don't even have a vote anymore. I feel like I don't have a life anymore. I would love for us to get to the point where our money is completely shared.

There is no more yours or mine. It's just hours. How would you feel about that? Have you said anything like that to him? And if so, what did he say in return?

Um, I don't think I've been maybe that specific. Those are words that we really, really useful. I think. Okay, good. Now, when I say that to you, do you have any concern over how he would

react to that? Or do you have a concern that he might? Um, that that might be volatile? Do you have a concern? Do you have any concerns?

I mean, we've talked about it a lot before. But those would be maybe better words to use to try to stick out for myself. Maybe a little bit more. Um, but I feel really, I just feel really. I guess maybe insecure because of no income and I just feel like.

“Okay, have you had, uh, while you've been ill, why you've been offered?”

Have you been ill? Um, a little bit. I have not felt it, but I, like, it's affected me. Like, yeah, with my house a little bit. Yeah.

In what way? Like my mental health for sure. Yeah. Seeing friends. And then seeing like feeling and feeling like kids.

I don't know anything about anything.

I'm just listening to your voice. And it sounds sad. Yeah. Because, like, I feel like without having, like, my jaw. I feel like I'll have a lot of, like, freedom and a lot of life.

I understand. But that's, that's because you haven't done anything about it because you're sad. So I think you need to do two things.

“One is I think you probably need to sit down with a good therapist.”

Uh-huh. And if there's a possibility you're dealing with something like depression or something like that. I don't know. Um, but you just sound very. It's dragging and sad and slow and low energy versus someone who's bright and sparkly and sits down with her husband and goes,

Hey, Bubba.

We are now sharing the money.

Remember that part for richer for poor? This is the poorer part. And we all know the same page starting now. Ready to say, go. Uh-huh.

And I don't hear that coming out of your voice right now. I don't. And I, I don't want to project onto this. But I have an inkling. Some of that is coming from a result of this marriage.

Yeah. Whatever this guy is to you doesn't sound like it's in a healthy place either. I agree. I agree.

“So I think you need to see a good therapist and possibly a good marriage counselor as well.”

And then that will solve all of this. This is not a math problem. It is not a finance problem. This is a relationship problem. You have a freaking hundred and eighty thousand dollars in your household.

The word panic should not even be in your vocabulary. It's ridiculous. Okay. So the way he treats you is ridiculous. The way you treat the situation is ridiculous.

The thing you've gone through and the way you all set this up is falling apart. And so yeah, you need to sit down with him and say, uh, this plan is not working. I can't exist this way. I'm going to go see a therapist.

I feel like crap. Yeah.

“And um, and we're going to start sharing our finances.”

And then I'm going to have, we're going to see a marriage counselor. If that doesn't work, we're going to have to see a divorce attorney. Because this is not working. Yeah. I'm not going to live where I feel like a worm crawling around in you with a whip in your hand

because you make the money and I don't. That's bull crap. So. And by the way, my wife Sharon Ramsey has not had an earned income for 42 years. And yet she has a lot of money.

We have shared everything. Passwords. Her name's on every account. As a matter of fact, her name's on more of the accounts of mine. Because I don't own anything anymore.

So it's, it's gone the other way. But you know, you don't have to earn an income to have an equal vote. Equal standing in the marriage. That's absurd.

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That's the letter Wi-Refi.com/Ramsy might not be in all states. Okay, today's question comes from Savannah in Colorado. She says, I'm having trouble getting my husband on board with buying our first home versus buying a rental property. We have 25% saved up for a down payment, but my husband wants to buy a rental first and

use the income to pay itself off while we're saving for a home of our own.

The problem is we have a 10-month-old and a three-year-old and we need more room now.

“Would it be smarter to buy for ourselves first and then buy a rental?”

I'm not opposed to buying rentals in the future, but I feel like the family should come first. Savannah, what you said there at the very end is exactly it. This is really a values conversation more so than a right or wrong thing. So for instance, we had the guy that called in earlier. He was a single guy. He said, I'm going to buy this house the proper way.

I'm going to rent out two bedrooms and I'm going to use that money to pay off the house quickly. And then I'm going to turn around and take that house and buy rental property. To him, I say great, great idea. He's in a different stage of life. And so he can value doing a rental first.

For you guys, you've got two little ones at home. And that's not on your set of values list right now. It's not a high priority to have a rental property. Number one is let's have a stable place for our own family since we have a family. And so in that case, I actually think that you're, I tend to agree with you.

“The hard part for you is going to be sitting down with your husband and saying,”

Here's what I value today.

Here's what my values are probably for the next five to six years. And it's not having a rental property. So one of the top real estate experts in the nation was with us yesterday. And he gave us statistic that a married couple that owns a home has 40 times the net worth of a renting couple. There it is.

There you go. That's simple. So your husband's what's known as wrong. That's what that's called. It's not a matter of choices.

It's not a matter of values. He's just wrong. So establishing your personal residence and getting it paid off as a part of building wealth is a primary tool. And it has unintended consequences, unforeseen things that when you're simply looking at the math, because your husband's spending way too much time on the internet.

Looking at stupid but stuff where they're telling him to buy real estate. And it's, you know, his tick tack hours are way up there. Okay. And so he's getting all the nothing down crap fed to him and all this stuff. And how you get rich in rental real estate and all this garbage. And, you know, real estate is a good investment.

I own several hundred million dollars of it.

I love real estate. That's not the point. The point is when you own a home that the landlord cannot call and say, I'm doubling your rent this month. When you own a home that the landlord cannot call and say,

We're going to put the home up for sale. You're going to have to move. When you own a home, the stability that is represented psychological and spiritually in the family, results in a calmer situation.

There are medical implications for the family that children aren't as ill, because there's a stable, calm, protected, safe environment. The anxiety level of the entire family is going down. And guess what? Dad and mom are better at their jobs.

Because they're not having to look over their shoulder for an incoming arrow or spear or bullet, that the landlord's getting ready to throw at them. And so these are unintended consequences that an unforeseen,

“that you don't realize. That's why that's some of the reasons.”

It's not to mention the home goes up in value and not to mention you stabilize the largest expense and locked it in in your budget, which is housing. It's not going to go up every year. And if it's a rent, it goes up every year. Meanwhile, he's trying to outpace that by raising the rent somewhere else on a rental he bought,

because he watched too much tick-tack. And get off the internet, dude. You're being fed trash. Your wife is wiser than anything you have read. Who can find a virtuous wife for her worth as far above rubies.

The heart of her husband safely trusts her, and he will have no lack of gain. Hmm.

He should listen to you.

That's where that's the end of that.

“Samantha's in Rochester, New York, hey Samantha, how are you?”

Better than I deserve. Hi, Jade. Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

How can we help? I just have a question. My husband hasn't a new lady. Ugh. And there is about $2,000 between the cash out value and the guaranteed value.

So how much is this thing? About 640,000. And it's paying what? It's guaranteed 6%. We haven't a new attempt yet.

Okay. But the cash out value is 620. And the a new attempt amount is 622. Hmm. Okay, I'm very care about the news.

So you can get, if you cash it out, your pastless surrender period. Obviously. Yep. Yes. So you could just cash it out and walk out with 620,000 dollars.

Yeah, but then we can have the pay tax on it. Correct. Yeah, you may have some gain on it. That's possible. Yeah.

However, you understand that the market, since January through today, when you call here in August, is up a 10%.

“Well, I mean, that's why it's only $2,000 difference because the market has done so well.”

I thought you said it was making 6%. No, it's guaranteed 6%. It makes what it makes. Oh, it's a variable annuity. Mm-hmm.

Okay. So what is it making? I asked you that. Oh, it's making a lot of money. I don't know exactly.

Okay. Well, maybe. All right. You need to find out what it's making.

Then the question is, can we invest it better and the answer is probably yes.

But how do we do that? Because if we take it out and invest it, then we're going to pay all that tax. It's going to be-- I'm not sure there is all that tax. I mean, you may-- how long have you had this?

Oh, he's had it for probably almost 20 years. Okay. Do we have any idea what the basis and the thing is? Um, I don't know what that means and so on.

“That's what-- that's how much he's put into it, in total.”

The initial amount, the monthly amount, whatever it is. How much of the 600 is money he put in, the difference is called the gain. And that's all that's taxable. So, I think I need to get you to do it with somebody that can help you unpack these numbers. I can almost promise you it's going to be worth taking the tax hit

and reinvesting it in a better thing. I can almost promise you. Um, because you're getting-- you're getting all kinds of fees on this that are ridiculous, that you don't need to be paying. And so, uh, net of fees, net of everything.

You know, what are you ending up with? And then compare that with what you could be putting it in and how long with the difference does it take to recoup my tax problem? Are there ever situations where you could do like a direct transfer roll over from an annuity to an IRA? Only if it was in an IRA.

Hmm, through there, okay, yeah. Which this one is probably not. I don't think.

She never mentioned that.

And I'll be shocked if it is actually. So, go to ramsysolutions.com and click on Smart Vester Pro. Find a Smart Vester Pro in your area. Sit down with them. So, I've got a $600,000 annuity.

Let's pull the numbers out. Let's un-twist this barrel of fish hooks and figure out what we should do with it. [Music] Hey, I want to talk to you for a second about love. And not love like in Titanic or something.

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Click the link in the show notes. If you're listening on podcast or YouTube, Gina is in San Diego. Hi, Gina, how are you? Hi, I'm doing well.

Good. What's up with my call? Sure.

And yet, so I hope that and I have almost a million dollars in total debt.

Two mortgages and about 75,000 in student loans. We do have a rental property in Baltimore. It has a great cash flow and we have a lot of equity in it. And that income helps offset our really high primary mortgage in California. But my worry is that it is 126 year old row home.

So one major repair could wipe out all of our profit and put it in the red. And what is that home worth? It's about 275,000. It's worth 275,000. And what do you owe on it?

About 130. Okay. Spoiler alert. It's not cash flow and that great. Okay.

Yeah.

It's cash flowing sum, but not enough to offset the other.

“So you have a 700,000-dollar mortgage in San Diego, is that right?”

That's right. Okay. So if you sold the house that you owe 130 in Baltimore, that you is worth 275, you'd make 145,000 minus the expenses. Does that sound right?

Yep. Okay. Let's call it for fun 120,000 bucks. Okay. Let's pretend you do not own a home in Baltimore.

And you have 120,000 dollars stacked on your kitchen table in cash. With the two of you go buy a house across the United States in Baltimore for as a rental property with that cash. No, thank you. No, it's ass-in-ine. Of course she would not.

The only reason you kept that is because you used to live in it and you moved to California. Yep. This was not a strategy. It was an accident. It was by default.

Yeah. Sell it. Okay. Thank you. For the same reasons you wouldn't buy it again.

Right. Is the same reasons we're going to sell it. Does that make you that logical? Yeah. And we do.

Yeah. I think I just needed some clarity because the pressure of the extra monthly income. Yeah, but if you take 120,000 dollars in invested, you'll have extra monthly income and the roof won't go out. Right. 4,000 miles away.

That's literally my fear. Your fears are accurate.

“They're accurate because that's what happens when you own rental property.”

And that's why I know you're not cash flowing a lot. Net. I mean, your monthly rent minus your monthly mortgage payment is a good cash flow. But then you have to deduct from that repairs, vacancies, tenants that don't pay and have to be evicted. Times that sits empty while you're waiting to re-rend it, redoing the carpet and the pain or the hardwoods and the paint when the rental moves out.

Traveling to come check on it.

All of those things come out. So net net net. You don't have a lot of real cash flow here. Sure. That's how real estate really works.

And so all of my real estate is paid for.

And yet I'm amazed at how much, how little of the actual rent still gets to the bottom line.

And I have no payment. You know, and so that when I look up and I see you got a payment that's half of your value. Then I, you know, I'm guessing, you know, you're probably running this thing for 3500 bucks. Give or take. And you probably got a $1500 payment.

So there's $2,000 spread. That's $24,000 a year. On a 300,000 amount of property, you can cough $24,000. It's just gone. Just like that, right?

I mean, yeah. It's just that way. So what we just did, Jade, we talk about here on the show a lot. Which is called a sunk cost analysis. Which is reverse engineer it.

Yes. And then you can look and see if you would do the decision again. Just from a, it's like a different view, a different point of view. You can do it with your boat. You can do it with a car.

“You know, I think you can't do it with your spouse.”

I mean, would I do this again? But whatever, and you can't give back a kid. So you can't do it with kids either, right?

And would I do this again?

Not with that one, maybe with that one. But the stuff you purchase, the stuff you own, the stock. I'm waiting on this stock. You know, the famous one is, you know, I paid $50 share for this stock. It's selling for $10 a share.

I'm waiting on it to come back up before I sell it. And then coming back up, buddy. Yeah. You got a long wait. And while you're sitting around waiting, you're going to turn your $10 in to $5.

That's true. And so, and then I just ask and say, okay, that stock is worth $400,000 right now. If you would you go buy this stock at $10. Because you think it's going to come up. No.

Then why are you holding on to it? Same exact thing. Same exact thing. So I do that for myself occasionally to a reverse engineer it. I didn't own this property knowing what I don't know now.

Would I buy this property? Would I buy this thing? Mm-hmm. Would I do this thing? You know?

And the answer is no. Would I go on that trip again? No. Yeah. That one worth the juice.

Wouldn't worth the squeeze. All that. So all those kinds of things. Matt is with us in Seattle. Hi, Matt.

How are you? And good. How are you? Better than we deserve. What's up?

Hi. I'm new to the grand view system here.

“And I'm just not sure kind of where to where I sit or what to go next.”

We don't have any debt. And we accept our mortgage excuse me. But we are currently putting the 15% in a retirement and have been for some time. Wow. That's awesome.

Thank you.

We've always been cash savers.

Just, you know, we're going to work into some of this. So you should have done a podcast. I could have made a lot of money. I don't think I got the heart for that. Thank you.

But we're not sure if it's just a couple things that you don't mind. Number one is we're putting the 15% away. But we still have some leftover cash each month. We've just been saving it in cash. I'm not sure if that's the smart thing to do.

Is your own pay? Not you know. It is not. Okay. How much cash?

How much cash savings do you have? That's like non-invest in money. Just cash. Well, not including the emergency fund. I have 100,000 and then we've got 30,000 in the emergency fund.

Okay. Very good. Matt, you have done it. You've done incredible. You've done incredible.

Well, thank you. Thank you.

“I'm not sure what to do with 100,000 or the extra cash each month.”

But my last part is we also got a baby on the way. I'm not sure what to do. When she gets here and if I should change what I'm doing with my extra cash, et cetera, I hope that makes sense. I mean, you're doing a lot, right?

You have no debt. We would definitely say pay off your debt. The next thing would be to stack up an emergency fund, which you've done. It sounds like that's probably somewhere between three to six months of your expenses, which is right on track.

You're investing the 15% beyond that. Yeah, you can do 15% along with that. You can start a college fund for these kids. A 529 would be great. And then you can start putting extra on the mortgage.

What do you owe on the mortgage? We owe about $430. And your household income's what? $220,000. Okay.

So what we teach to bring up, you ask what, you know, you're not familiar with it. So we teach to do exactly what you've done. And the methodology, we call it the baby steps. But baby step one, save $1,000 while you're getting started. Number two is pay off all your debt,

except your house. Work them small as to large as you've done that. Three is built in emergency fund. Those three things are done with intensity. Then you, baby steps 4, 5 and 6 simultaneously with intentionality.

And that's four is 15% of your income in the retirement. Five is kids college. Six is going to get the mortgage paid off. When the mortgage is paid off, then you are what we call baby step seven,

which is debt free completely. And now it's time to just invest. And give out without register generosity. You've done a really good job. I'll send you the total money makeover,

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without pressure or confusion. That's healthtrustfinancial.com. [ Music ] Bob is in Los Angeles. Hey Bob, how are you?

>> I'm doing very well. How about you all? >> Better than we deserve. What's up?

“>> I am over time in age collecting floor social security benefit”

of about three grand a month. I get a grand a month in a pension from a union and debt free, houses paid off, medical debt, no credit card debt, no car payments. >> Why to go?

>> Well, thank you.

>> I was doing the debt snowball

before I ever heard of Dave Ramsey. >> Hey, man. >> Good common sense before I go. >> Yeah, smallest to largest and then you get a win. You get a hit of dopamine and then you go for the next one,

taking what you paid on the last one and adding it to what you did on the next one. It works. >> Absolutely. >> Very cool.

“>> Anyway, only expenses are grocery utilities”

and property taxes. >> And how much is on your retirement accounts? >> That's for I'm getting two next. >> Okay. >> My 401k is sitting with a grand.

>> I put in a $1,000. >> No, she's been 100 grand. >> 100,000 dollars. >> Okay, I feel 100 times more. >> Okay, is it 100 grand?

>> All right. >> I've had coffee in the adrenaline kick game. >> It's okay. >> And it's nervous being on the show. I understand.

>> And then my salary, it split up into a podium because I'm an over the road trucker in the entertainment business. That is not taxed. That goes into my checking each week at 500. I have 50% of the remainder, which is considered taxable income,

going to my 401k at 500 a week and about 500 a week. That's for all the taxes and things goes into my checking account. So, at the moment, I'm currently putting 8k per month into interest checking and savings accounts. And I'm wondering, is this a good time since I'm at and beyond seven

to just put the maximum legal amount into my 401k? >> How old are you? >> You go 67. I hit Social Security at 66 and 10 months. >> Yeah.

>> And my wife was getting 18 a month. I didn't even add that in. And then I've got some other odd ball investments like 5k in a week called Arrive that was started by Bezos. >> How long do you intend to drive?

>> The goal is another year or two. So the house and do a direct swap and buy for cash on the Oregon coast and retire there and go salmon fishing and repair and restore musical instruments. >> Great plan. >> Just to get clear, right now you're investing 2,000 a month.

How much more of the 8,000 that you bring home? Do you want to invest? >> Essentially another 2,000. >> So bring it up to 4,000. >> If we work 24 more months, another 2k is another 50 grand

>> Yeah.

>> But I mean, the Nagron compound a ton in 24 months.

If you add an extra 2,000 to what you're doing now and you're deposits into your 401k, you're going to add over the next 2 years. You're going to add approximately an extra 50,000. Which is great. And you're putting in how much of the term today again one more time?

>> 500 a week. >> Okay, so we're doubling it. >> Yes. >> Okay, so instead of 50 in the next 24 months, we're going to put in approximately 100 in the next 24 months.

And you've got 100 right there and that'll have you 200 in there. And you're not going to touch it and it'll continue to grow. Yes, I would do that. Absolutely I would do that. And then add to this, I've got 25 grand at a high interest savings account.

Checking account, which I just need to be home to transfer some of that into other accounts.

I've got another 18 grand in what similar to your credit unions fund.

My credit union calls it common. Since started with five grand, automatically 500 a month comes out of my checking and goes into that fund. >> No, you need to stop. >> What's the purpose of that?

>> We need to be systematizing. You need your operating budget to operate your household.

“And then you need to be loading up your 401K.”

Above your emergency fund. >> And anything in that 401K that you can put into Roth, if they have a Roth option, I would put it all in Roth. That's simple. So yeah, that's what we're going to do.

>> Joe's an Albany New York. >> Hey Joe, what's up? >> Hey, it's an honor to speak with you both. >> You too, how can we help? >> I'm so, me and my wife just got married in May.

And we combined our finances. And we realized that we're kind of, we disagree about one part. Well, actually I disagree, I should say. She believes in tithing 10% of her income. Where I'm more of a person who likes to just give when I feel compelled to give.

>> What is the basis for your decision on this? >> A feeling, or are you trying to be following a faith? Are you Muslim, or are you Christian, or are you Jewish? >> So we're both Christian. >> Okay.

>> I believe you. >> I don't care what you believe. Evangelical Christian. So you go to an Evangelical Church. >> Am I believe it's an Evangelical Church?

>> All right, so are you Catholic? >> No, not Catholic. >> Okay, and you're Protestant, and so you're probably Evangelical in Albany, New York. Okay, that makes sense. >> Yeah.

>> And so then your guideline wouldn't be not what Dave Ramsey says or Jade says, but what the Bible says, or not what you're feeling is.

“>> You feel, that's what I was going to say.”

>> Not what my opinion is, your opinion doesn't matter at that point, because you said I have submitted myself to Christ. He is the Lord of my life and his instruction manual is the scriptures then. >> Okay. >> And so let's use that as the baseline.

Then if you want to, I mean, if you want to have the argument. But if you want to say the basis for us making the decision is, I don't, it's whatever I want to do. It's my feeling, then you can use that basis. That's okay.

But if you're going to say, I'm going to, the basis is my Christian faith, then you would use the handbook. Is that logical? >> Yeah, that's logical. I don't care.

>> I don't care. I don't really, I'm being smart, but I don't care what Dave Ramsey says, not care what your wife says, not care what you say. Or what you're feeling is. At that point, because at that point, I'm saying,

this is what God says to do. And then I get to decide, do I want to do it or not? It's not a sin, by the way. If you don't do it, it's just this is his guideline. And the scriptures are very clear in the old and the New Testament

that the word tied in the Hebrew literally means 10th. And evangelical tradition, for the last 1500 years, is that the local church represents the Old Testament's storehouse and the Old Testament's storehouse to care of the Levites, which were the priests and the pastors.

And it took care of the widows and orphans, the poor. And the struggling in your community. And your church should be doing both of those things, and you tie to your local church. That's evangelical tradition.

And that's the teaching that most evangelical churches would go off of. And that I adhere to and that I personally do. And Jaden Samdo, the church that they used to minister and Jaden, was part of the worship team. That's what they teach.

“That's what David teaches the pastor there.”

He's a friend of mine. And so, and it's what we've taught in financial teaching and verse two of these years.

Now again, we never tell people, Joe, that it's a sin.

Okay. Or that God hates you or something like that.

It's just an instruction manual.

And God teaches us that when we give a tenth of our income as a standard part of the rhythm of our life, we're resetting who's in charge of our life. Okay. It's a reminder.

It's a weekly or a bi-weekly. Whatever your paycheck is, reminder that God is in charge. And that this is his stuff that I'm taking care of. Now I'm looking, I'm talking up to a Christian through a Christian lens here. And if you're out there listening and you're not, that's okay.

Then you don't have to do that. That's not just completely different thing. And if you're Muslim, you would have a different guideline from the Quran. That's right.

“And you should go by that because that's what you believe.”

And so, but again, in the Christian world, sometimes the tie that's used as a whipping post or it's used as a guilt trip when it's in a toxic environment. And we don't want to do any of that. Well, yeah, and I like to think that it's not about the money at all.

It's about the posture of your heart. God really doesn't need anything that we have. Yeah, that's laughable. You know what I'm saying? It's about your heart, which is one of the reasons that I don't put Tithe on direct deposit.

It's something that you ritualize and do every month so that you're aware of the money that you're giving so that you're letting it do the work in your heart. It's one of the reasons I miss passing the plate. Most giving in Christianity is not done online. Yeah.

“And I miss passing the plate because there's a censure bowing when you're doing it.”

And your kids see you do it. Amen. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Hey, my friends at BetterHelp just released their annual state of stigma report. It's full of all sorts of data about why so many people avoid getting the help they need

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for no extra cost. Don't let's dig Mustang in the way of support. Visit BetterHelp.com/Ramsianget10% off. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Ramsi. Welcome back to the Ramsi Show and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio.

J-Washaw is my co-host today, Ramsi personality bestselling author. And is with us in Sacramento, hi-in, how are you? I'm doing well, thank you. Good, what's up? Yeah, so my husband and I were in our 40s.

We just got married last May. And we are having some challenges with deciding how we should handle our blended family estate planning. Essentially, he wants his seven children from his previous marriage plus my one child from my previous marriage to split everything that we have now and build together eight ways equally. And to me, it seems a little bit like that somewhat disinherence my one child because he has to share with the seven others.

And so we're just looking for some advice as to what your thoughts are blended family estate planning. Well, my first thought is that what you've discovered is what most often see it's hard. It's complicated. Because there's not a smooth one-size-fits-all answer.

It always helps me with these things and we're not a blended family but it helped me when I was explaining our estate to our children.

To first start off with, there's no ethical or moral rights that any of them have. It's your money and your husband's money that you both brought in and the money that you build from this point forward. And if you leave them zero, that's not traditional, but it's perfectly moral, perfectly ethical. And it helps me to just kind of take it all away from them to start within my mind. And then when I start giving it back, it feels different. I guess I got right.

It's my rights and, you know, I had a good inheritance and then my mother got married and it got split seven ways.

“And it's like, "No, it wasn't yours, you little twerp, it was mine."”

How old are the kids, yours and his? So, mine is the youngest, he's 10 and they go all the other seven, go up to 24 years in age.

Okay. In my mind, first and foremost, then I would establish what happens while they're minors.

Right. Okay. Because I want to make sure my minor children are cared for if we both die in a car wreck today. Okay. That's paramount.

And that could be a lump sum into a trust that's formed upon death of both of you. Okay. Statistically, you're not going to actually execute that. But one or both of you will live till those children are grown. Okay.

So, statistically, you're not going to have that, but probability. But anyway, so if I set that up, I set that up differently than I would set it up for adult, Gen 2. Okay. Generation 2 adults.

Now, when we get the generation to adults, it's when the question you ask and starts to come into play is what's fair. And you make a valid point that, you know, let's say, for instance, you brought in even more the other day when you all got married than he did. I don't know. I haven't asked that yet. I will in a minute. But then you're, so really your kids getting the short end of that stick.

You know, your, your, your point is valid then. I think it is, but there's here, here's where my mind is.

And I've never been in your situation.

So I, I cannot claim to know for certainty what the answer is. So let me say that. But what my, my mind goes to how old are the kids? Because if the kids are home aged, the age where they're in the house. And the understanding is, I want these children to look at me like, I'm, I'm their mom. Like mom and dad. And we want that family unit to feel like a family unit.

There's part of me where I go, okay, well, I no longer have one kid. Now I have eight. Yeah. And so that's where my husband's at with it. He feels like we're one family unit that we should treat all the children equally.

So mom, not in the picture in my existence on the picture. So we're the only parents to these children. Oh, yeah. Okay. Then you signed up for that. Yeah.

“That's what you signed up for when you got married then. That makes sense.”

Okay. So Jade makes a valid point then and your husband does too. So it's an interesting discussion though, because there's not a absolute slap your hand on the table. This is dumb or this is smart kind of thing. It's just a, it's just kind of feeling it through. To me, I'm going to draw a line between when they're minors and when they're not.

Okay. When they're minors, absolutely your husband wins. Okay. Because the babies at home need to be taken care of. And one of them doesn't need to get $300 sneakers in the other one has holes in their shoes. I mean, that this is not, this is not, this is not Cinderella.

Okay. Okay. With the, with the step sisters and all that, you know, we, it's not that thing. And so, but, but once they're out of the house, which is really what we're probably dealing with. They're all grown. Then let me ask this.

What, how much net worth did he bring to this equation? How much net worth did you bring to the equation? Great question. So he brought in about $400,000,

$300,000 of that is equity in his property, which we are living in and paying down half a million dollar note together on.

And then he had about a hundred thousand and it's 401k. And I have what's now rental property that I brought into the marriage that has about 200,000 in equity. It's worth about half a million, the tenets are covering 100% of my mortgage property tax, et cetera. And then I had about 200,000 in 401k in my HYSA. And then when my husband retired in ten years, he has a very juicy California pension for 30 years of service with one of our local.

So your networks were fairly similar. Uh-huh. Yeah, we were pretty equal. I mean, it wasn't like one of you had four million dollars in the other one had a hundred, you know. No, yeah, and he does make a hundred thousand dollars more than me.

Of course, you know, there's one, you know, we have six kids in the house right now. Yeah. Hello.

“I think those are a lot more than just me and the one.”

We try to hire hiring Mary Poppins for this. He won't be making anymore then. We all set that. But yeah. Wow.

And so neither one of your spouses are involved expels. No. Correct. Yeah. So it's just a two of us in the kids.

That's against the world. Okay, so fast forward. If our contributions given that you're income is being offset by your child care by you being the child primary care giver. Um, and his income is if your contributions are fairly equal coming in and your contributions are not that far apart.

So we got a fairly equal contribution.

“I think you guys got married with young enough children that I'm going to pop my part I'm just trying to think what I would do.”

I'm not again. I'm we started the conversation with it's an interesting conversation. I'm probably going to go a little bit more on his direction because the kids are young and the contributions are fairly equal. Sure. Um, as they become adults and really as their children too, that's just a just a I'm just feeling this out though.

I might wake up in the morning with a different answer, so I'm not going to hold you. You know, don't slap your hand on the table and say, Dave Ramsey said because they were if they were adult children, which two of them are, but if they were all adults, this would be a totally different conversation. I think. But there.

But there's not enough net worth that it's it's not that much money.

Even what it grows to it's going to grow equally. So, um, I mean, if it's 30 years from now, do I want the bait one child to get half and the other six get? No, I don't. Not 30 years from now. You spend hours researching before making a major purchase like a home or car, but it's also a good idea to put in the work searching.

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Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired, working so hard, run, run, run, having nothing to show for it? Well, that's normal. Normal's broke. Normal is 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. There's too much month left at the end of the money.

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No, you want to live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. Start every dollar for free in the app store or Google Play. Nicholas is in Columbus. High in Nicholas, how are you? I'm running so.

Better than I deserve, what's up? Hey, guys. So I kind of want to introduce sense in this. Facing a career change and I guess, but it usually. Is it worth moving from tax public accounting into industry financial accounting at the cost of. You know, no one go working from home, giving up a lot of PTO and giving up good parental benefits.

For the purpose of moving in the career direction I want to go in because. It's just kind of tough to make that transition from tax to financial and. I have that opportunity, but it just comes with all those downsides in it.

“It makes me feel some stuff away because all the things you said just simply mean that you have to work more.”

That's true. Everything, you, you put it in a whole bunch of different buckets, but all means you just work more. Basically, you want to work more to get ahead. Yeah, yeah, and doing the work that you say you want to do work you'd prefer to do. Yeah, definitely that is that's why I was trying to go here to begin.

I just been doing tax a while and I don't want to be doing it 10 years now. And so then you're going to have to work.

Yeah, there's always a trade off.

There's there's almost always a trade involved with making steps forward. Let me give you another, let me give you another equation, okay, and just for the fun of it. Let's say that you decided my dream is to open my own business. I'm not saying it should be, I'm not saying it is just giving you an example, okay. You're going to work more. You're going to work harder than you've ever worked in your life.

You know what I'm saying?

“Well, when I started this as 16 hours a day for two years, my wife was a single mother. We didn't talk about PTO.”

We talked about PTA that I missed, but we didn't talk about PTO. All right, we were getting crap done to get this thing off the ground. And so there's a price to be paid, just like Jade said, to go do whatever it is you want to do, and it's called work. And you're not a horrible person if you don't want to do that, but you're making a values-based decision. This says, "I'm going to be putting in more hours."

Because by the time you outline all those different buckets that you just put in front of me, you're not working 40 hours a week. Yeah. And so, you're about to start working 40 or 50 real work, not just at an office with other grown-ups and stuff. You know, that's going to change, and it's going to change your career, by the way. So, I would encourage you to go do it.

But most of the good things that have happened in my life came from hard work and doing hard things and pushing through to hit a goal. Yeah. And you level up. You may end up on the other side of this with more freedom than you had to start with. Because my guess is if you're doing the work, you really want to do.

Oh, you're potential for income probably goes through the roof. Because you're better at the work. There's tons of data out there that the work at home people are screwed on when it comes to promotions. Because nobody knows you're there. You're at home.

And so, the data's out. I mean, your chances of getting promoted are like 10% of those that are in the office. Just that one thing alone. Yeah.

And if you take a job based on, if I have someone come into Ramsey and they're interviewing with us and they're in the first thing out of their mouth.

Now they need the information. I'm not talking about that.

“But the first thing out of their mouth is how much time off do I get?”

But you're coming here for a long reason. You're looking for a J.O.B. And I'm looking for a crusader, baby. I'm going to give you a waterpist on your going to charge the gates of hell. That's what we're doing.

We're taking on freaking visa, mastercard, and Samuel L. Jackson. I mean, we are not screwing around here. So, you know, you better not come in here figuring out how little you can work in this place. Now, we don't work 80 hours a week. And we don't work you till your fingers are only fingers in all that crap.

We go home at five. You know, you walk through this place. Looks like a ghost town at 545 and it should. These people have little children. Go home.

I'm not saying that.

But while you're here, keep your butt off a Facebook and work.

You know, get your stuff done, man. And so, and that's who I am. If you don't want work here, that's okay. But that's how this plays operates. We work.

We go home tired. You know, so, but those are the people that excel. And so, what it costs you if you don't do this is you're not going to get to do the thing you think you love. You're going to continue to do something that you hate. And your prosperity factors probably going to be cut somewhere around 75% of what it should have been.

“You're going to be 25% of what you should have been.”

So, I want you to go be all you can be, man. Super, man. Okay. I mean, come on, Clark Kent. Let's go, baby.

Get the phone booth. Let's go. I agree. Everything we're going to tell you on this show is probably going to require you to make a trade off. Every little thing.

Well, because everything does. Yeah. We're just the people that admit it. Yeah. And you get rich quick doesn't tell you that there's a trade off.

Yeah. You don't be on beans and rice, man. And you'll cut your stupid credit cards. Your friends are going to think you joined a cult. I mean, because we're actually living on less than we make when nobody does an American.

Yes. And, you know, we're going to teach you stuff that's hard, but it gets you to a place that you want to go faster than anything else you'll get you. Well, and it's your perspective. You can either look at it and say, man, I'm trading. I'm trading the free time that I used to have for working more or you can look at it and say, man,

I'm trading a dead end job where I was really going nowhere. To doing the life and the career that I really want to have. There we go. That's up to you. Work like no one else.

So later you can work like no one else. That's right. You know, when I work there, when I want to. Why? Because it used to work all the time.

On the front end. Yes. That's it. I paid a price to get there. I mean, nobody wins the Super Bowl on accident.

It's an intentional act. A lot of detail, a lot of practice, a lot of work. So that's not preaching at you. It's inspiring. I mean, that isn't inspiring.

The question you ask is a great question, especially in today's world. And so, yeah. Yes, I would tell you to go do that for all of those reasons. But you are going to give up the things that you have a correctly identified price to be paid.

And I think the price is worth it.

And you're not a bad dad. And you're not a bad husband. I have eight grandkids.

“That means there's 73 sporting events this weekend.”

I will not attend all of them. I promise you. I have no desire to attend all of them. I'll pick out a couple of them. But I'm not a bad grandfather because I miss them.

I miss some of the kids stuff growing up. I didn't miss all of them. But I miss some of them growing up. And so, welcome to being grown-ups. I don't want to miss the children's sports.

I got I do.

I don't want to go to 83 games this weekend.

I promise you, I don't. I do want to miss some of them. So, I mean, this is the stuff we, you know, we don't say out loud in America anymore because it's uncool or whatever. But welcome to the Ramsey Show.

We do. And we think it's worth it. Because whether my grandchildren are loved by Papa Dave is not measured in whether I attend their games. They have a different way of measuring my love.

It's, I actually pay attention to them when they're in front of me instead of my stupid phone. You know, there's that. That kind of stuff. I mean, you know, this is the, there's ways to do this stuff.

That's the life. So, Nicholas, I'm proud of you. It's a good question.

“And I think you're going to go be somebody.”

I'm proud of you. (upbeat music) Listen up, if someone you love owns a business, you've seen how much work it can be. The late nights, the weekends that disappear,

you can't put in the hours for them. But you can point them to something that can actually move the needle. The free Entry Leadership Newsletter gives business owners practical strategies

to grow their business and their leadership in just six minutes a week. They'll get expert advice and real life tools they can put to work right away. Go to RamseySolutions.com/businessowner

or share the link in the show notes. (upbeat music) Hey Rod, what's up? Hey guys, thanks in advance for your advice. Here's my question.

I've got a 401k that's got about 700k. My wife, family, has a very strong history of Alzheimer's. Her brother got put into a care center for about 10 grand a month. When he was 68, she's 67. My question is, we're redoing our wheels.

And I'm wondering, like I've talked to two attorneys, they didn't come up with good advice. Can I set up a trust somehow in or outside of that wheel that if I die before her, my 401k goes in or is in that trust, pays out approximately two to three grand a month to her,

so she gets some from it. But it age, and there's three trustees, but it age, let's say 82, 85. If she doesn't show any signs of Alzheimer's, then every bit of the fun balance goes to her. And the reason I asked this, her brother two years before he went

into care center started giving away money. He thought he was a billionaire and gave away about $150,000. And so now he's somewhat strapped. So does this make sense? Hmm.

I was about to say, no, never do that until you give me that last thing.

And I don't know how to prevent the last thing. That's why I'm hesitating. So what's that? What's that? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you don't have to take away someone's,

“you have to point, I know how to stop someone that's lost their faculties”

from giving away all their own money. You have to take them to court and have them declared incompetent and a guardian that lied him is appointed. I know how to do that. Yeah.

And it's not that hard. You just have to have a doc going there and go, hey, this guy. You know, he's not thinking. He's, he's got a really onset and he's not, he's not capable.

It's very hard.

“Well, we had to pay, we had to pay two police to come and get him”

just to take you to a doctor.

He would never go to court.

And he also could talk his way out of it. What does she think about this? When he's, when he spoke to him about it. I think she's up for it. But then she said, we ought to do it for each other.

I said, yeah, sure. That's fine. Let me rattle this off. Her 401k is 900. We have a house paid for it's 15.

We have cash of 100k. We have assets that are sellable for 250k. Yeah. But you're in gratitude. You have plenty of money.

Great. I mean, you're multi, you're my team. Yeah. Way to go, by the way. Congratulations.

Thank you. Okay.

I did not know this and I just looked it up.

And I'm, so I've not had time to dig into it. But Harvard Health says that 75% of the people that get Alzheimer's have zero family history. Only 25% of the people that get Alzheimer's have family history. Which was interesting.

I thought it was a lot more than that to look it up. Yeah. They're wrong. Her dad died of it. It's twin brother died of it.

All in care centers. Uncle died of it. Grandma died of it. Well, I don't know that this one family offsets the body of evidence, though. On a big study.

Yeah, that's true. In this family, in this family, may have some kind of a gene issue or something. I don't know. So I'm not as worried about, I don't like your structure because it's too controlling. I don't want to leave that much control on my wife on the off chance she might lose her faculties.

So I don't like that part of it. But I don't know how to solve for if she does lose her faculties other than good family relationships with her children and so forth. Do you all have children? No.

Okay. In very 39 years. Okay. All right. So there's nobody to step in other than a brother or sister like with her brother.

And it was by then it was a pain in the butt because he had gone completely off his rocker and would have fought the police, she said. So yeah. Okay. Yeah, I don't know how to watch over her in the event.

She does get something. Yeah. Well, I don't because I don't like control. I'm fighting against somebody internal principles. One of my principles is I don't like controlling stuff from the grave.

I want to set the table and then the humans do the human thing. But this is a human that's out of control and I want to protect them from themselves. But we also don't know that that's going to happen. Right.

“And so, you know, do you do something like the president where you have to go in and be declared”

competent every year to get your money released from the trust for that year or something like that? Yeah. That's so gross. Yeah. That feels like no way to live for the whole.

And not having access to your money, but $2,000 a month or something till your age. Yeah, that's so easy. Either way. Either way.

You have four million dollars.

The two of you have built together. And because she might not be a, she might have this thing happen. You know, her life is severely limited if you die today. If, okay. I don't like that.

And not that I'm in the interest of wasting money. That's pretend what happened with her brother had the ability to happen with her. Where she's got access to, let's say $900,000. And she starts giving it away like she's a billionaire. Is there a way?

It's, you don't have airs. So nobody else is well-being specifically is on the line for the loss. If that makes sense. Is there a way that you can separate it, but do it in a much more generous portion to where it's like maybe half of the ass. Like half of what it is, not just a certain allowance.

“I think a different structure of the trust.”

I think you might have been on to your way of doing it. I don't, I don't have the answer. I'm going to wake up in the middle and I think it about this one. Because it's just a riddle. I like a good riddle.

I'm probably going to lean toward, if either one of you die, your stuff is left in trust to the other one. And now what are the terms of the trust? I didn't like your terms. Because they're two.

They're two controlled. Well, now I would rather, I would, I would, I would want the trust. I would leave the trustee with clear instructions about medical competency. That if the trustee suspects that there's medical incompetence of some kind, then they cease distributions until a medical report is brought in.

And so if she had to come to the trustee to send some catfish, a false lover that's actually a Russian bot that's got her on the hook, which happens all the time, right?

she'd have to go to the trustee to get that released.

“And that would raise her red flag, and he or she would say,”

not until we get a medical. So it's almost like she has access to the full amount, but if she goes beyond a certain amount that creates a suspicion. Well, the trustee needs to have some moral ties to this more than just the, yeah, if, you know, she's got full access to the trust and listen,

unless a weird pattern develops, which case the trustee has the ability to stop that until he gets a medical. Right, every month she's pulling out a hundred thousand dollars. What's that? Yeah, if I see a pattern or something weird, okay,

the woman's never bought a car over 50,000, and she wants to buy a 250 lamboe.

Okay, I want to see a medical. Okay. And if a medical school, she gets the lamboe. It's her freaking money. Okay.

But, you know, something like that, if something breaks pattern, and is an, is an, to keep them from going down the, the way of her brother, I would do that rather than saying, if you make it to 80, then you can get your money. No, I don't like that.

But I mean, I don't want to say this in a, the wrong way,

“but she, I don't, with family around her, is she just going to jump to that?”

She doesn't have a ton of family around her. That's the point, there's no kid. Like, my kids would completely interfere with the mother. Yeah, I want to get all up in her business. It wouldn't happen.

Okay.

They'd be going, mom, that is a focused crap.

Get off the internet. You're not doing that. You're seeing signs before it's gotten to it, right? Yeah. And they, and they would relationally interfere.

Right. But they don't, you don't have that family structure around you, and you guys in this situation. And neither did her brother for that matter. Y'all weren't close enough to him to catch it early in intervene, right?

That's correct. It's so interesting, Rod. It's a good question, I, I appreciate you wrestling with it. It's an act of love to wrestle with it. Um, yeah, if you both left it 100% into trust.

And um, you had full access to the money through the trust, unless a pattern evolved. That was an unhealthy pattern. In which case, the trustee has the ability to throw a flag on the field and say, "Time out, I need a medical."

Dave Ramsey here. For more than 30 years, I've been talking to folks on the air, and I can tell you that most people are broke. Not because they don't make enough money,

but because they don't have a plan.

“You need to give every dollar you earn a job,”

because when you do that, something changes. You stop guessing. You stop worrying. You stop stressing. Our every dollar budgeting app will show you

how to find extra cash, pay off debt,

and finally start winning with money.

But most people won't do it. They'll keep living paycheck to paycheck. Keep hoping things will change without making a change. It's time to say enough is enough. It's time to take control of your money.

It's time to start your every dollar budget for free today. Go download it in the App Store or Google Play. [Music] Our Scripture of the day is Proverbs 22-3. The Prudent Sea Danger.

All this is one of my favorite. The Prudent Sea Danger and Take Refuge. One version says The Wise. Sea Danger and Take Refuge. The Simple.

Keep going. And pay the penalty. Another version says Our Punished. When I see danger, don't you know when you know when you know when you're nowhere?

Yep. When your bail is ringing. It's like, I knew. I knew that girl wasn't right. I knew that girl wasn't right.

I knew there was something wrong with that mustache. And I just knew. You know, Mr. mustache. I just somehow, I knew that guy. You don't talk about it.

It's just like, and I went forward anyway. Come on. And I was simple. I was a fool. And I was punished for it.

Yep. The Wise Sea Danger and Take Refuge. The Simple. The Fool keeps going and pays the penalty. And we all been both.

I know that's right. But it just tells you to trust your instinct. Trust your gut. And when Pastor said, don't pass your fence. Don't call it your gut.

It's the Holy Spirit. Don't call it the Holy Spirit your gut. But trust your instinct. Trust your trust what God Spirit is inside of you. Just saying, don't do that. Don't walk over there.

That one's trouble. Stay away from that one. You know, you just know. And you go forward anyway in your punish for it. This is just one of my favorites.

Milton Barrel.

Said it's amazing how fast later comes when you buy now.

That's funny. That's a good one. Nina is in Tampa, Florida. Hi Nina, how are you? Hi, I'm doing well.

Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. I'm 65 years old. I have no debts. My house is paid off.

My car is paid off. I have $600 and $50,000 in the bank. Planning on buying like a rental property. One or two. I don't know if that's good planning.

And that's my whole retirement. Is this with planning? Only if you like landlord and you're doing this because it's something you want to do.

“Not because it's something someone told you you should do.”

Yeah, that was my question. I'm doing it for the income. I know. But do you know anything about real estate?

If you always wanted to own real estate?

I mean, the 650 can be invested in a mutual fund and make you about the same kind of money. That net net net. Not quite, but it won't have anywhere near the hassle. There, let me tell you something that comes with income producing real estate. Tenants.

Renters. Bye. That's the necessary evil to make this formula work. Now, all tenants or renters are evil. I don't mean that.

You people stay off the comments. But people don't look like they screw up. And then your little plan is screwed up when they screw up. So I'm not telling you not to do this. I'm telling you to go in.

Going eyes wide open and go, this is going to be a pain in the butt. But it's going to be worth it because I love real estate. Now, I've been a landlord for 40 years. So I'm unemotional about it. And I'll just toss your butt out when you don't pay.

I mean, I don't think anything about it. You know, and I don't have a bunch of qualms. I don't, I don't sit and bring my hands and worry about the ethics. No pay. No stay.

It's pretty simple. And so, but if you're, you're going to go through all of that. The drama and your mind and stuff. And you're going to have to be tough. Or all of these numbers don't work for you.

If you want to do that, I'm in for it. Go do it. But don't just go do it because it's a better investment in air quotes.

“What if you start it with just one instead of two because I think I'm going to say you're going to do yeah, that's what I'm going to do”

I'm thinking of getting like one for now and invest the rest of the money good and if I like it I'll get another I like this question also is what if the house is in a like nice giantable area And is in a one the Nice desirable area that helps because your tenants are going to be nicer and desirable It's going to be a different quality yes, yes, this and quality

I mean, not always but you have a higher probability of a higher

Quality interaction with someone that makes $200,000 a year than somebody that doesn't This not because money makes people's character don't misunderstand but just overall You know, it's a lot easier You know, if you bought if you bought slump property and you're dealing with criminals as your tenants That's the other in the spectrum, right?

I agree right yeah, and not all slump property or criminals as tenants you pay for good gun I'm just here you people are some of you, but anyway But yeah, I'm buying a good situation. I'm not in a good like I think you're okay But I really want you to talk to someone that owns rental property and let them tell you the underbelly of the business And she told you it's not all

Skittles and rainbows, right? Yeah, yeah, she said for your age you don't need the hassle Wow Okay, we'll ask her what happened so many other hand. My son on the other hand. He said I'll be there for you Anything no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no this is it'll rip your soul out if you don't go in with your with your body

Armour on okay So go hang out with your daughter and watch her deal with tenants a timer to Did you ever you talking about real estate on investing essentials? I am recovering it in detail You know a lot a lot of it is that right there. Yeah, we can get need to some tickets. Yeah, yeah, absolutely We're going to do them and thank you. You take care of it. Yeah, we're gonna hook you up

Dave and George are gonna be talking about

“Investing but real estate specifically and so I think that'd be good for you to log on”

Check it out and then by the end of it I think you'll have a clear picture on whether it's right for you if whether real estate's right for you or just gone ahead and investing all your money in the stock market Yeah, I'm a big fan of real estate

That's true. It makes it sound easy like they're making it sound easy. Yeah, you know Collecting the money on my mutual fund sounds like thing an email coming into my inbox. You've got me. That's easy. That's it

You know, yeah, never had a rent check do that

Okay Not yet That's not yet. There's no auto

“Plan in real estate. So it's you know, that's that's why I always get just I just get hysterical when they say oh real estate's passive investment”

It's nothing passive about it more on it's active as it can be it's the most active thing you could possibly do So it's hands on baby all hands on Gary's in Charleston, South Carolina. Hey Gary what's up? Hey dumbass around the machine. I'm a huge fan. Thank you. Take my call. I'm a little short on time go straight to your question

All right my wife and I just move for my first big boy job and our car started having problems again

a little bit of history on the car my wife person in 2020 for 11,000 now. It's probably worth around six or seven thousand I was quoted the other day for 35 hundred dollars by mechanic to fix your car or someone or if we should spend the money No fix the car or if we should look into selling the car if you sell the car or buy another one with that money Do you have any money to have debt I have $220 for the day and no money student debt and we have

71 thousand dollars seized okay well we're gonna work our plan So we're gonna buy her a five or six thousand dollar car after we sell this car for three or four thousand as it sits And we're gonna put a little bit of money where they can get her a little bit better hoopy That's gonna last a little bit longer and then you guys are gonna tear into your student loans and use the rest of the 70 to do that

“That's what I would do in your shoes. Yeah, absolutely if you've got that kind of cash sitting around that's money”

That could be used to pay off debt Sounds like they're just getting stolen So yeah, we teach people not to be sitting on 70,000 dollars while they got 200,000 owed to Sally May Yeah, I feel generous so let's give them the total money makeover and every dollar So they can understand what we teach they can understand the baby steps in that system and they can have a budget

Which is gonna be the foundation of them working the baby steps and paying off this debt ultimately

Y'all are gonna be waiting for Jade to be on the air because she gives everybody something and you get a car and you get a car and you get a book And you get a seminar ticket Thank you, Jade. You're welcome. It's easier to spend other people's money I've heard the rumor of her the rumor Hey, you're gonna make it out of this, but you're gonna be really focused and this is not an excuse to go buy her a 20,000 dollar car

You guys are broke if 200,000

“Freaking dollars in student loan debt. You need to be in a wild panic that puts this hour of the ramsy show in the books”

We'll be back with you before you know it in the meantime. Remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace price Jesus [BLANK_AUDIO]