Your Financial Stupidity Has To Stop Today!

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[MUSIC] 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 Union Studio. This is the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz Ramsey personality newborn bestselling author at Kovos to the smart money

ampio, my daughter, is my Kovos today. Open phones here at Triple A, 8255, 225. Shelby is in Springfield, Missouri. Hi Shelby, how are you? Hi, I'm good, how are you guys?

Better than we deserve, what's up? Well, thanks for taking my call. I'm calling today with a bit of a moral and financial question.

“And I'm calling to see, what is the best way for me to help my husband”

pay off his credit card debt that we have discovered recently? We have discovered, what does that mean? Well, you have discovered. Yeah, I found, unfortunately, I found some screenshots of sports betting. And he ended up having to come forward with three credit cards that added up to about $17,000.

And unfortunately, this isn't the first time that. I, the last time I didn't find it, he came to me and told me about it. But this isn't the first time we struggled with credit card debt. And at the other time, regarding sports betting? No, it was not.

The last time his company had used his credit card for on a trip, and they paid him back.

And he just never paid the card off.

He just spent the money and-- How old are you now? So, work 25. How long you been married? I've been going on four years.

“What's his reaction to having lost $17,000 of the family money sports betting?”

Well, he was hiding it for me for a really long time. And then when I found it, I grabbed our two babies. And I got in the car and I less than I told him to fix it. And we came back pretty quickly, but he's gotten-- he's doing great, honestly.

He's got two jobs. He's working a full time job during the day, and then a job in the evening. A part time job in the evenings. And he's been working as a butt-off. I found it about six months ago.

So he's been working as a butt-off for six months, and he's got three cards down to one, and there's still quite a bit left on it. But I thought it was originally 17,000 or now it's 17,000. It was originally 17. Now, we've got it down to under 15, just under 15.

But in six months, he's only paid $2,000 of it? Yeah, because of the issues that we were having, we were really behind on bills and payments. And so we spent a couple of months catching up. And then we had just a couple of things.

Our hot water heater went out. We got in a car accident. We had to go get a new car. There's just a few things.

These are those first couple months that took up the extra income that he was--

Did you bring in? Shelby, when you just mentioned that you guys were behind on bills, were you aware of that,

“or did that come out with this secret credit card in the gambling and everything?”

Yes, you did. I was aware of how short-- so he was actually unemployed at the time. I was the only one bringing in and kind of my work from home. And usually I work from home, and I keep our kiddos. But he was in between jobs, and so I knew we were short.

I just didn't know how short we were. And I didn't have access to the bank account. I used to, but I just had logged in and so long that-- What does he-- what does he do with my account? Well, right now, he worked throughout a school.

And then in the evenings, he worked to retell job. At a school? Yes. He's doing what? So he does-- he's a teacher's aide at a school.

OK, all right. So part of the reason I'm calling is because I was approached by my in-laws, and they were kind of telling me that it would be better for us all around if I just took out a loan, and we paid off the card because the interest on this card is over 30%. And they said, if I take out a loan and cover it, and then we just pay back the bank

with a lower interest rate. What do you mean? Around-- I make 50 a year. And what does he make?

Now, with in the last few months, he brings home what the two jobs combined

A month. OK, so you've got about $90,000 coming in. And you said you bought a car in the middle of this.

“Did you take out a car payment in the middle of this?”

I actually have just recently found you guys, and I've just realized how dumb that was. OK. But we-- No, you are already not dumb. It was.

You were behind, and you had a 30% credit card, and then you went and took out a car payment. You already knew that. Sure. How much do you owe on this stupid car? It's-- we've got 30,000.

OK. All right. OK, so there's a lot of things that need to happen here. Here for you guys to get healthy, financially, and relationally, and career-wise. There's a whole lot of negative things going on in this house.

And the 30% loan interest on the credit card is not your problem. It's the symptom of all these other problems. So what would I do if I woke up in your shoes? Well, I do a lot of different things. The first thing is, is the two of you are going to start an every dollar budget tonight

on our app, and we're going to give you a free trial on it. So you guys can put it all together, and you're going to lay out exactly where every dollar of your income is going to go this month. Before it comes to you, you're going to have a plan for every dollar. You're not going out to eat.

You're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there as an extra job. You're not going on vacation. You're not doing anything. You are broke and screwed with your money.

And you both have got to lean into this and clean it up as fast as possible. That's thing one.

“Thing two is, with your marriage counselor, you need to get commitments from him that he's”

never on thread of ending your marriage.

Going to do any bedding, sports bedding ever again. And he's never going to hide any debt from you ever again. And we're going to be working together. So it's going to be very difficult for him to hide anything because we both are going to see every single thing that's going on.

Yeah, and pulling credit reports every year, you know what I mean? And I would almost have him. I mean, I don't know how, how engaged this is because that, I mean, the sports bedding world, it can be such a downward slope so fast. But what I would be wondering shall be two, maybe you guys have talked with us.

I just want to make sure that he's healthy in that way, that there's not some level of addiction there, and that, and that it she was trying to scratch that excitement that he was doing sports bedding, like, what is that about, right? So like that doing that work in the marriage counseling office is. Could be that you're about on your bills and he was trying to make some money fast to get

the bills paid out. Oh, sure, too. He could have been desperate stupidity. Yeah. Yeah.

So I want a solid foundation laid the things he's never going to do again.

And the two of you see every single dollar every month for the rest of your lives. Either one of you are in control, both of you are in control. Okay.

“Lastly, you need to sell the car, that was suicide.”

You put a bullet in the gun and put it to your head. You need to sell this car immediately, stupid on steroids. You cannot afford a $30,000 car. You've gotta get rid of this now. Oh my gosh, girl.

That makes his sports bedding look smart when you put it up aside this car. Oh my gosh. Neither one of my marks. I hate sports bedding. They're how I hate them.

That's, I don't know. And who's the, who's the number one victim of sports bedding? 25 year old males. Yes. You got this.

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Christina is in Nashville, high Christina, how are you?

Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call today. Sure. How can we help? I'm going to do my best to get through this without kind.

I am 46 years old and my husband and I were married for 27 years and he passed away suddenly in a motor vehicle accident this past June. Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry. So we have been very brandy fans for a very long time.

I home school and we are actually graduating our last child this May. And they've all been through financial peace and diversity. So the question that I have is I'm looking to probably having to go to work this summer now with the law for his income and just I feel like with my age it's probably the most responsible thing to do.

But I do have some like insurance we received from his employer who was a, who is a Franklin firefighter and then we also had a personal life insurance policy and he was

never super trusting of investing.

And so I don't really have a lot of experience with it but I have a family friend who is a financial advisor and so he suggested that I invest like 100,000 back in October just to start kind of learning on, but you know, a lot of people say not to make any big decisions for that first year. So I'm coming up on that year mark and needing to start making some decisions about going

back to work and well, not really going back to work, it's really going to work full time for the first time. So I just need some reassurance that, you know, the markets right now are a little scary but. Markets are always a little scary.

“How much did it is the total life insurance project?”

The total was 500,000 and right now I have 100,000 invested in mutual funds and then I have the other 400,000 in a high interest account. Do you have any debt? That's gaining. We have no debt except for the car that he actually bought me just before he died.

I only got 20,000 and you don't know anything on your home? No, we actually paid our house off in 2015. He was in the army and we did a lot of house flipping when he was military and we're able to just keep, you know, getting more and more to equity of the work all ourselves.

Well, I mean, it takes a year to be even breathe well and you're, first of all, getting

where you can take a deep breath and so you've been very wise and very careful good for you and, you know, you've walked the last, last child through the graduation which is getting ready to come up here and a lot of milestones and a lot of tears. Yeah, I think your family friend gave you some good advice to dip your toe in the water and kind of get used to it a little bit with a hundred, that's not a bad idea and the second

thing is there's two things that come to mind immediately. One is pay off the car today. Okay. Okay. You don't need to be carrying a car payment.

“When you've got that money, so you should take a little bit of that money out of how”

you yield and pay the car off today. Okay. That's easy. Okay. You're not going to regret that and very few people would say that was dumb.

Okay. So. Yeah. That payment has been like choking me every month. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, it's insane."

Exactly. Now, when you start your career, what's your plan there? I'm hoping to get into some sort of a high school counselor for homeschoolers. Um, potentially, um, I do have some background with, um, working from home as in medical transcription, so I could possibly even do just the medical office.

Mm-hmm. Okay. With what you've investigated so far, do you think you can make enough to live on without touching this money? Um, I think so.

“I think, um, if I can get something that we're to pay about $20 an hour, I think, um,”

working full time. I could do that. Um, I do get a small pension, um, which is about $500.

Um, how have you been living on this year? Um, so we had some savings about 50,000, um, it's what I have in there right now. And so, um, I get Social Security survivors from my son, um, and that will end in May. And that's one of my biggest stressors is that 1800 is going to go away. And that's really been what's kind of, kind of, been carrying me so that I don't have

to really dip into not, you know, our savings or... Well, I would make plans to create an income large enough to at least live on as your first stage. And then your second stage, create a career for this next phase of your life. For you.

“Or so, you know, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

You know, I mean, this is, this is chapter two. Uh, it didn't a chapter, you wanted to write, but it is a chapter two. And so, um, you know, let's make, you know, not just survival, um, let's go flourish. And, uh, and, you know, uh, that'll be part of your healing and process and everything. Yeah, and the, and the wild thing Christina is just like high level math, kind of, it's

that, that what is it? The role of 72 that your money doubles every seven years.

And so, yeah, the 500,000 and seven years will be a million.

If you don't touch it, and then in 14 years, it'll be two million, right? So if you could find something that you really could put your heart in at your passion that you love, that you're good at, you have a good work environment, you're excited to go. Right.

And you do that for the next, you know, 10, 15 years, um, this money's going to serve you really well at that point, right? Yeah.

“You know, you're going to get into 65 and have two or three million dollars if you want”

what you're doing. Now, that assumes that the money is invested better than it is now. And that's what you're calling about. Okay. Let's go.

Let's go finally to that. Okay.

Now, when you're investing, um, it's, um, I always think about the very first time I got

behind the wheel of a car. And my dad told me to push down on that to go and push down on that to stop, you know, and I didn't know what I was doing, and I wasn't very good at it. And, um, I threw a gravel from the driveway up against the house and everything. It's been in the tires.

You know, everything. Okay, but, but that didn't last long. That was a five minutes of that level of inexperience. And then within 10 minutes, um, we're, you know, we're learning a little bit and then, you know, but obviously by the time you're 16, you're driving the car on the road and passing

a driver's test and, and, and, you know, now I'm 65 and I don't have Rex and so, you know, I mean, you know, so what was that mean is the first time you do something, it is natural and wise to be fearful. Mm-hmm. That's normal.

But it doesn't mean it's bad to learn how to do it. First time you wrote a bicycle. But then when you were teaching your children or out of bicycle, they were afraid, but you weren't because you could hold the seat for a minute, number one, and then number two, when you let them go, you knew they weren't, you know, you knew where their life was not going

to end. They were just going to fall over, maybe. Okay. I'd like with a drama, but, you know, but still, so that this is like that your financial advisors holding your seat for the first 100,000 here going and then, as you'd learn more

and personally emotionally experienced more of the markets going up and the markets going down, then you're going to get to use to riding a bicycle, you know, and so I would have you to learn as fast as you can learn and get comfortable by sitting with the financial advisor that you're using or getting a smart vester probe, the Ramsey Solutions.com because they're going to have the heart of a teacher, whoever's helping you with your money must teach

you. Okay.

“You must learn and it's not complicated, that's a good news.”

It's because in that knowledge is going to give you comfort. And high level that he just put 100 grand and mutual funds, that was like, was that your was that you Christina saying that or was that his advice? That was, yeah. And that's great.

And that's great. So it's those types of accounts of diversification that you want Christina.

You always want to stay away from anything single stocks or something new like crypto or something

like that. Like you want something that is very diverse. So index funds, you know, ETFs, good mutual funds, anything in that category is really going to be a safe bet overall. Yeah.

Just get you some good growth stock type mutual funds, but learn about the fund that you're putting the money in. Like has it been open since 1932 and in the last 27 years, had two down years and 25 up years, that gives me a lot of comfort. Oh, okay.

That's a track record I can relax with.

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Stephanie is in Olympia, Washington. Hi, Stephanie. How are you? Good. How about yourself?

Better than I deserve. What's up? I am going to ask your advice on if I should keep working my part-time job in order to pay off our debt faster or if I can stick to my plan of quitting my job, probably in the next month, so that I can focus on being a stay at home on and homeschooling our kids.

Was this the original plan? Is this what you are working? Are you already homeschooling? Yeah. I was homeschooling.

This year, we put our kids in because we moved at the end of August, so it was a bit chaotic, and we stopped homeschooling, put them in school, I work remote, so I'm at home.

Yeah, the original plan has always been that...

I'm sorry, if you work for a while and you're at home and it's part-time, how many hours do you work at home? Probably 12-ish a week. Why does that prevent you from homeschooling? It doesn't.

It doesn't. Well, I'm pregnant right now, I'm 17 weeks pregnant with our fourth child, so it's more managing the home, homeschooling, be able to focus on that, a kind of a point where I felt like I'm being pulled to many different directions, which is partly my own doing. I do a lot, but this is the first time my husband just got a new job, so this is the

first time that his income is like pretty subtle, like he's in his career, if it feels really good. Good. And what does it make? I'm working.

“Right now, he makes it about 47 hours, so I think our take home, we don't know, he”

just got the job. But I think our typical take home is going to be around, 80-3-85, so... Yeah, that sounds right. Okay. Good.

Yeah. How much debt? How much debt? How much debt? We have about 28,500, not including our homes.

And on what? We have a personal loan for 14,500 that we used to buy him a car, this was about a month ago, and to pay off a little bit of credit card debt, and then we have one credit card that has about 12,400 and the other one that has about $300 on it, and then we own a rental home as well, so we are about 257 on that.

Did you sold that? It's probably worth around $360, depending on what the market does over the summer. If I had three kids with one on the way, and I don't have time to work three hours a day,

I'm going to sell that property and use that money to clean up everything.

Yeah. And suddenly could you work through this? That's when I have been planned. Yeah. I'm on board with him.

I would do that. That I take stress off you guys, and then that gives you the ability to stay home with no bills. And here's the other thing. And I would work.

You also have to stop being inconsistent in your approach. Okay. Here's what I'm on. Dave, we've been working hard to get out of debt. Two weeks ago, my husband bought a car on a loan.

Yeah. And then he... Hello. That doesn't come out of the same mouth, does it? Yeah.

And then he also went and bought a mower this last weekend for like 1200, so I forgot that one. We also had that. Okay. This stupidity has to stop. Anyway, otherwise it's going to bleed out.

Yeah. That's, I think my struggle is that I feel like with our income, he thinks we'll just spell the rental and we'll get out of debt. But I've just watched this sort of...

And who I'm like with this first brief...

Selling the rental and getting out of debt is only smart. If you stop borrowing money and buying crap, you can't afford. Yeah. So it does not justify him buying a mower and a car. Yeah.

So you guys have other issues that aren't just debt issues here.

“But two of you need to get aligned on where we're going to spend our money and that we're”

not borrowing money anymore. Period. Yeah. And I think that I'm worn on that side. I know.

I can tell. I know. I can tell. We will get there. Oh, no, you're not either.

I'm a vendor too. You're not going to eventually get there. She's saying that's what her husband is saying. Yeah. So Stephanie, what I would do tonight is I would have you to sit down, put the kids down and

just say, hey, where do we want to be in two years? That's a perfect world for us in two years, okay? Perfect world is. Yeah. We have no debt.

We have very little stress financially because he's making a great income. We're budgeting it together. We have goals. Your home homes going your kids. You got a two year old at that point, run around like you guys need a pain, a picture of

where you guys want to go.

Because here's the thing.

“Here's what the red flag, honestly, that during this whole call that got me that”

I'm like, well, crap, it's the 20, the $1,200 mower. So to me, that's saying that this isn't a big expense like we need. It's not that a car loan is justified, but I can say I'd be like my car broke down. I panicked and it was in crisis and we needed a new car. That was a flippment $1,200 purchase.

That was just kind of made. That's the mindset that has to change between you guys. That we have to be so focused and so buckled down that we know exactly where every single dollar is going. And if we pay off this rental, we are agreeing for the rest of our lives, that we are

not going back in debt. Because you're exactly right, Stephanie, if your habits don't change and you guys just have a little fairy one that sweeps this debt off, which is the equity of the home of the rental. 100% and I don't want all that hard work to go backwards.

So there's a agreement, the agreement as we never borrow money again. And so when we sell this rental and we pay off this and yeah, that's the end of it. And then 70 if I were you, I would also I would do is, since you're only working 12 hours a week, I probably would work up until baby comes because you're not going to be homes going the kids in the summer, we're in April now.

And so you know, May's coming, kids will be out of school, like I just know it's hectic with kids in May. It's just not. So get down with the school year, continue to work, work through the summer a few hours a day.

And then when baby comes and starting an August, then say, I'm not going to be, you know, if you guys choose to not work in August, then do that. But I would keep your job personally through the summer. If I were you. Okay.

What did you want to say today? Okay. Well, another way of, another way of looking at this is the reason you're having to ask

“a question about whether or not you need to work while you're pregnant and your home”

schooling is not because of the income, it's because you continue to buy lawnmowers and cars you can't afford. Yeah. So you're actually working for those things. Yeah.

And I don't want to work for those things. Yeah. So if you don't want to work, those things have to stop permanently. And so that's the two of you saying, Sharon and I had this meeting. And, you know, as the executive used to say, that if you want a good marriage, you've got

to figure out that you're both on the same side. And so yeah, we're both on the same side. And the beside is we want to be where Rachel painted two years from now. And in order to get there, we have to be in agreement on what the path to get there looks like.

And it's no more borrowing. If we're going to sell this rental house and wave the ferry wand and clean this up, then there's no more borrowing. Because I'm not going to be sitting here thinking about, I need to work part time while homes schooling because we can't control our spending.

And that's exactly what's going on. And that's what has to stop. And you know, that is, that's the part of debt that is so frustrating when you talk to people is that they're working and they're working for crap. They're working for stuff, not for the value system at which they want to live.

home be with her kids. Yes.

“And I'm like, how much, you know, we work with the work to math all the way down.”

It's $400 is all it is and the van payments, $400.

Yeah. So the stupid van. Yeah, you're working. The van to pay the van. Right.

So you're doing. So stupid van and go home with your kids. Yes. So it's, well, I need the van, not you, but you, you know, you can't have it both. Okay.

You got to decide which one you want. You want the van or you want to work.

And work for your values, people, do that, let that be the driver and not stuff all

as crap. Set that desired future out there two years, like she was talking about, paint that in detail and then work to get there. Yes. At Ramsey, we don't partner with companies chasing trends or pushing games.

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Open your Fairwins Smart Bundle today at Fairwins.org/Ramsy and get the Ramsey B-Weird debit card that's Fairwins.org/Ramsy. Ensured by the NCUA. Lucy is with us and Detroit, high Lucy, how are you? Good.

How are you guys today? Better than we deserve, what's up?

“So I wanted to know what kind of student moms I should be pulling out for school and”

how should I be finding out for school? How old are you? Just turn 20. Are you in school? Yes, I'm in school currently, I've been teaching out my prerequisites for nursing.

You're finishing out your what? I pre-requisite for nursing school and then you've got four years left after that. How are you paying for it now, just the pre-rex? It's a lot of it. I'm going to community college money and almost all of it is covered by, like, past

school financial aid, so I was just got done talking to an advisor and she told me I could do, like, the bridge to the SN program at the local university and I'd only take, like, two years, you might be a SN and that might be a lot cheaper instead of just transferring, just transferring straight in to the university. How much was that on the room, B-Do you know?

For that program, it's around 8 to 15,000. A semester or year, or total for two years? For a person, a semester. And it's for some measures? Yes.

Okay. Are you working at all? Yes. I'm currently a pharmacy technician, I make about $22 an hour, right now I'm working 20 hours a week, also only because the classes are getting pretty hard, so I'm just kind of

trying to balancing out with the homework and stuff that I had. How are you able to live on 20 hours a week? Are you living at home? So I just actually moved back in with my dad, who was closer to school and we kind of came to an agreement that, like, you know, nothing is going to get in my way and like, you know,

he's going to be chilling everything so I can just finish school and then say about to move out. Okay, so you're going to be able to live there for free while you go to school. Yes. That's good.

And as I'm right now, but he has brought up a break, so that's been kind of an issue as well. Okay.

Well, I mean, that, you know, first thing we have to do is be able to eat and have a shelter.

Then the second thing we have to do is be able to pay for school.

“And so what I would do, I think your counselor is probably giving you pretty good advice.”

I'm going to look for a lot of different ways to get that degree and any possible grants. But we're not going to tell you here at Ramsey to get a student loan of any kind. We're going to tell you to avoid that at all costs, okay, because even if you don't graduate because something happens and you're not able to graduate, you still have the student loan.

Student loans are forever. You cannot get rid of them. They're a pain in the butt.

I will tell you that your career choice of nursing is incredible, as far as upside potential,

lots of flexibility. You're going to be able to do a lot of different things. You'll be able to take a 40 hour work week plus ER on the weekends and make 150,000 hours a year if you watch what you're doing as you grow this career over time. So you've got a great field that you've chosen for a lot of reasons.

So I want to encourage you to do that. The other thing is, if you can get any kind of nursing certification, the cheapest possible way and get employed at a hospital or a large medical and practice, they'll probably pay pay for your tuition to continue. Yes, yeah, absolutely.

I know some people that work in the local hospitals in the area have already been offered positions as a pharmacy check, only issues that they're not really flexible on scheduling. I don't care, if you're a pharmacy check at the hospital and they're paying your tuition, you make the schedule work, kiddo. You go do it.

That's a $15,000 raise per semester, right?

So you suck it up and make the schedule work. That's great money. Yeah, for two years, Lucy. You can do anything. You can be working nights and go, I mean, you can do anything for just two years.

You know what I mean? That's how I would look at it. I mean, how quickly two years goes, you think about we're in 20, 20, 20, 20, 24 was just like for just a snap. I mean, it was just so fast.

“So do that, but if you have to cash flow any level of it, I mean, on the low wind, I know”

eight grand is what you said per semester, but I'm like, gosh, if you could make, which I wouldn't want you to do this, but I'm saying you can make two grand door dashing. You didn't even mean like you could find the cash to be able to cash flow and just talk to the financial aid office and say, hey, can I pay per semester, right, and look at it.

And when you can get a job or you're saying in your field, working in any level of institution

that is in there, that's going to help pay for school, like that's a one for me. That's it. And then get that degree and then get the next degree, you know, go LP, go RN, go, you know, go all the way through the whole process and, you know, keep moving up and keep moving up, keep adding to your education as long as they're paying for it and you're just

work. And you're going to be able to do so well as you do this. So, my point is, you're making the least money you're ever going to make right now. If you'll stay on this track, but roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to get this for free.

Yes, take that pharmacy tech over there at the hospital and they pick up your tuition to be a nurse. Absolutely all day long and, oh, I can't go to happy hour.

“Well, you didn't be a happy hour anyway, you need to be doing this stuff.”

So, this is good. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, if your dad wants to charge too much rent, then go get you a roommate and move out.

But if he's given you something reasonable, it's 50 bucks or something, just to whatever. But if you're, if you're hustling like that and he's able to help you by just providing housing, that's a big help and you just take every one of these little tidbits and you put them all together and it keeps you from borrowing. But no student loans, no student loans.

You got to figure out a way to work around that. You have to slow down your process or you have to change your number of hours you're working or you have to do change where you're working or how you're working or something. But no student loans. You can do this.

You can figure it out. And when you do, you're going to look back and the 27-year-old version of you is going to really like this 20-year-old version of you. Because we talked to the 27-year-olds with $100,000 a student loan debt every single day and they don't like their old self.

They're pretty pissed at their 20-year-old self. And you don't want to do that. So good question. Really good. I'm excited for you Lucy.

Jane is in Phoenix. How are you? I'm doing well. David Rachel. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? All right. So we are on baby step two. We have about 36K less in consumer debt.

It has been about six K months and I'm a stay at home homeschool mom. We have had just kind of a crazy series of event happening and our emergency hunt is drained due to our fridge, range, dishwasher, both vehicles all breaking within the last two months. And that hasn't got a new job, which Prince God has brought in money to help with some of those

But just step dad passed away and the funeral is out of state and just for him to get there,

“it will take about $500, $600 due to flights and then a hotel.”

So I'm calling to Steve. I want to honor a parent. He was an extremely close with a step dad, but we want to honor a parent's. And I don't want to encourage him to go or not go if that is not wise financially. And then yeah, and he's also just kind of wrestling with it, too.

We're really trying to stay on track to get this paid off. I would go. I would go. You got the five hundred bucks, right? We can sell one of our beater cars is what we can do.

Yeah. Yeah. I would do that. Yeah. You guys made it so easy.

Alright. Yeah.

You never regret going to a funeral.

It's well, especially something like that. It's not $5,000 and we're not flying 16 people to Italy. I mean, it's $500 and you're sending just him to be really near his mom, near his mom because his step daddy wasn't that close to to start with. And he's not going to be there either.

Yeah.

“I hear, yeah, I think it's just, I wanted to make sure because we, as the emergency's gone”

and we have, like, my whole kitchen is torn apart still. So just, we wanted to be wise and not say, "Oh, emotionally." Yeah. But at four months, your kitchen will be fixed. You guys will be on the track.

You'll be on track, pan it off and you don't want to look back and think "Oh, right. Well, you can't.

You can't un-ring this bill."

Yeah. So, yeah. You got to do that one. Yeah. It's a good question though.

I appreciate the dedication. Yeah.

“I appreciate the way you're framed up the question and the amount and the situation”

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwins, Credit Union Studio. I'm Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality. My daughter is my co-host. Sadie is in Rochester, New York. Hey, Sadie, what's up?

Hi. Hi. So I am, excuse me, about three quarters of the way John is baby stuff number two. I've kind of worked my way out of a little over 150,000 dollars worth of debt. Wow.

I have a job in a half, I like to say I do have a full-time and a part-time job. I'm ready to move, I'm ready to get out of New York. I would like to move south with the sale of my home. I could finish off, baby stuff number two and number three. My question is though, after that, I mean, I do have a lump sum after both of those items

are completed, of about $75,000. I could either buy a house and have that comfort, but have it be gone really, the 20% or I could rent an invest in a rental property, the location that I would like to head is tourist information, so an Airbnb or rental or even an apartment home would not go on rented. My problem is, I feel like I'm a bit of a control for you, can I want that comfort of

is a remote job, so I'm able to do it.

Okay, so what do you make at your full-time job?

“So I'm at 67, ish, and what do you make at the bar-time job?”

Roughly 25,000, so I'm doing what? So I'm admin, admin for a church office, actually. Okay, and you're talking about moving to, where is your ideal place? If you bought a home and settled in, not Airbnb, but you just bought a home, what would be your ideal location in the south?

I really want to be with a beach somewhere in South Carolina. I mean, we have joked, mortal beach, just outside of mortal beach, so I mean, we're like Conway or somewhere like that would be my ideal living situation? Yeah, okay, I like that. You said, "Wait, who's we?"

I mean, we do have a little muddy situation, I have been married for a year and a half,

we never combined finances, not for lack of trying on my part, there just is that hindrance

and we have had the discussion of perhaps we just, you know, we continue on. I mean, the relationship is great, you know, we don't have any questions, I carry the financial, the household finances, he is on the road a lot, he's got his own business, he's got, you know, a lot of debt of his own that he handles, so when I say "we," I do mean my husband and I and his two girls, both will be college age, here fairly soon.

He does have college accounts set up for both of them already, so that is not something that's out of the proceeds of this host. Do you guys, I know, you're probably making a face at me, I'm no, no, no.

“If you have a generation combining, do you, say, do you guys both own that home?”

No, in your nine premier, it's yours, okay, so yeah, when you buy the home in South Carolina is the plan that you are just going to be buying it and he'll just be living in there under your name without any. I believe at that point, I have kind of given a smidge of an ultimatum to say there will be a combined account, there will be a combined, you know, home account, I mean, it can't

just be an especially because I am losing income with the move. I'm not saying I'm losing income to be able to adequately, he's not got any money to add to the down payment then. No, no, he does not. Okay, all right, yeah, I think I'm selling it and I'm buying a home in South Carolina and

“I think you already know that what's best for you is for the two of you to combine your”

finances and have full transparency and full weight together, you know, and, and whether his name is on the title or not in most states, Mary couple that buys a home, the spouse has marital interest in the house anyway and the event of it is worse and so, you know, you're probably putting that 75,000 at risk, so to speak, potentially, and then you could show a paper trail that you brought it from, that you brought that money to the table

from the thing in the event of it or it's in probably work it out, but I don't know, but anyway, I think the better answer is to combine and go buy your house, and I think you'll also pick up some sidewalk because I don't think you're going to, you know, it's not like there's no churches in the South Carolina that need a, some admin here, like there's a church on every corner in the South Carolina, so I'm open to gig work, you know, I did

a lot of Uber and, you know, Doradas and things when I was first starting out of baby stuff

and we actually have a Ramsay approved real turf that we're talking to in the South Carolina already, so I think we're taking right steps. Yeah, but I wouldn't let it go. Pay off all your debt, use whatever's left for your baby step two and three, and then use the balance for your down payment, and yeah, take all your proceeds and do that and combine your finances and I think you're setting up a good life. Yeah, and ideally with what he's

making a year, right, in a perfect world, as you combine, that's the power of working together financially, not only do you get the relational benefits of, we really do think your marriage gets better when you become one and every area of your life including your money, but also the financial, because yes, he does have debt, you said, but if you guys together combine both incomes, worked to pay off debt, your fund and retirement together, you're just

going to get ahead financially, so much faster when you're working together, even if he

both of those incomes working in one household and looking at it as a household income,

“um, it's going to be so helpful. Yeah, it's incredible. So guys, we keep telling you this”

over and over, and she's obviously heard us say this too, so we're not talking to her anymore at this point, but just to remind everybody out there that, um, that when we did the largest study of millionaires ever done in North America, airtight research, what we found over and over and over again is that 80 to percent of the millionaires say that one of the reasons they became millionaires is working together in tandem, full disclosure, full transparency,

pulling the wagon together with their spouse. That means that only a handful of millionaires

become millionaires in spite of their spouse. And so, as I said earlier, you know, it's

exactly how you used to say, marriage is best if you understand we're both on the same

“side. And so we're on the same side, the enemy's not in the house, the enemy's outside”

the house. If we're going to be fight with something, it's outside of here, and we together are going to go conquer that land, that territory, and we together are going to expand, and we together are going to grow, and we're again going to set a, a vision of what we want the next five years to look like, and then take the steps to get there, the desired future, and what must be true to get to that desired future together. That alignment is

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in MLSID-159-1 in the MLS Consumer Access.org Eagle Housing Lender. Buying or selling a home is a big deal with all the clickbait headlines and tick-talk discussions out there. You get a lot of bad info. It's hard to know what's really happening. Well, we're here to make the latest trends easy to understand. Media and house prices went up a little to 433,000 last month, which is typical as we head into the spring season. Mortgage

rates are down a little bit more, down to 5.43, down from 6.1 that we saw last February. To learn more about the housing market trends and to get free tools to help you buy yourself with confidence, go to RamseySolutions.com/market or click the link in the show notes. Sarah's in Seattle. Hi, Sarah. How are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me. Sure. I'm briefly in the divorce. I've been the worst for about a year now and have three kids all going to

college next year. I naturally have been pretty good. I am on my home outright. It's a $1 million

house. I have about $8,000 in the bank. I make $85,000 a year. And I'm kind of nervous about college. And to kid have a college account with about $60,000. But you know, even though they're all three are going to a state college, that's $120,000 for four years. And I'm responsible for half a half. So quarter that is $90,000 for all three. I just I really don't know how I'm going to do that. I'm sorry, the caught your responsible for half of half, not counting the college funds.

No, including, I mean, yes, yes, so. Because you're responsible for 90, but you have 60.

And they're going to get there for four years, right? So that's 128. And then we have 60 for each.

So that leads them 60 for their dad to pay half and need to pay half. That's 30. And so they're not, they're not, they're not, they're not, they're not planning on doing anything, the kids aren't. Well, I mean, like working. Oh, well, of course, they work. They all work. They pay for all of their activities. All of their we pay for their tuition and their food. And of course, the where they live and that is more

than tuition nowadays. So it's kind of putting me in a rough spot because I thought we did good planning financially for their college and come to find out it's not even really half. It's almost half. But, um, we'll Sarah, there's a little bit of me that's like, well, if we can't afford the college, then I don't know if that's where they can go. So maybe they go to a community college

“for two years and then transfer and that cuts it in half or more than half, you know?”

And academics, scholarships. I mean, I don't know what else to do. Well, I mean, they can work while they're in the school was my point. Yeah. They definitely can. And I will pay for part of it. It will. Yeah. You're right. It will. Um, my, my question is because I own my house and would you, would you ever think about, would should I refinance and just pull a little bit of money out and pay for it? No. Okay. No. We need to work us out. We need to buy a college that we can

afford between what you can put in your ex husband can put in the college funds can put in and the kids can put in while working while they're there. Those are your four numbers that you can enter into the equation. And then that will tell you where we can afford to go to school. Oh, and by the way, where they live, are you talking about the dorm or getting off the campus apartments or a dorm. We're going the cheapest routes of the dorms. I mean, that's, yeah, $15,000. It's a

“semester including food. Yeah. Um, yeah, that sounds right. It's or, or not, $7,500. It's a”

semester. Okay. So we're like, well, what's school we're talking about? Washington State, the Chief of School, one of the cheapest schools in the state. Yeah. It's in state tuition. No, I didn't think it, the numbers you were given me weren't some kind of crazy numbers. They're, they're very recent. But it's just, it adds, but cost us, as you said, the, the tuition, I mean, the dorm and the food is as much as the tuition. And that's normal. Yeah. Okay. And so, um, they're, they're not

within driving range of either one of you are. They were, they could live with y'all. No, unfortunately, no, it's like five hours away. Yeah. Okay. Um, but, um, would you, would you, would you ever, like, if, if, if I were to get married again, and, and, um, you know, move out of my home into another home, would, would renting out my house and using that be something, I mean, because I'm, I'm, I am beating somebody pretty seriously now, and I mean, that was another option. Well, I could do that.

I don't think a million dollar house is a rental house, usually.

Well, and Seattle it is. It's, it's a, it's a, it's a mall house. I mean, you'd be shocked out what annoying dollar house is. I can see that. No, I'm, I'm not shocked at all. I'm just saying, that's a, that's a fairly expensive rental property, even in Seattle. Um, okay. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not unaware of the Seattle prices are very expensive, but the, um, but, but, but, you know, you have a million dollars on the table there. If you had a million dollar sitting in the middle of

your table, kitchen table, and you were getting married, and you had kids going to college, and you were thinking about buying another home, you wouldn't say, oh, I'm going to use this money to buy a rental. You would say, I'm going to use this money for the next home, and the kids going to college. You rental wouldn't even be on the list of options. The only reason rentals on the option is by default, because you already own it. It makes you think about that.

Yeah. And Sarah, I would say to, you know, when you break it down, person, master what extra they're going to need, you know, they're, because they're going to be

able to get through this 60 for the first two years. So, so you're saving some money, and that,

you know, you don't have to have that money tomorrow, right? It's in two years. So, I understand, you know, you make 85 a year, but what can you set aside for two years, right, to contribute? And what can they set aside? And then what can they, yeah, and then your husband, right? So, your ex-husband, and so, as you guys all kind of form this together, the good news is, again,

“you have, you have some time on your side. This is not 60 grand that you have to have”

tomorrow. It's really in two years, is when, when it's all going to be due. Yeah. So, and all of that is reduced by the, the 60,000 being used up is reduced by they don't need as much because they are working. Right. That they don't even use it all. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Sarah, you got a four-year degree?

just about in my personal life that is successful, that has a four-year degree, worked while they were in school.

“Right. It's like a normal thing. And my kids, my kids do work all three of them,”

do they work, and they're not suggesting their lazy. I'm suggesting there's actual math math. Right. I'm not suggesting that they're able to help this solution, help help help you with this solution. And so, and it's really good for their character. And Rachel, we found when we were doing a bunch of the studies and some of the research where we're putting together the borrowed future the student loan debacle, which she's not talking about student loans, but the borrowed future

documentary that we got all the awards on. One of the things we found was the kids that work

actually end up with hard grades. Yeah, hired GPS. Yeah. And Sarah and I would be asking them at

Washington State, what, what can they be doing? Could they? Because by the time they're a junior, and again, this has been the money kind of starts still like, okay, by junior years when we're going to need some cash, can they, you know, be an RA in the dorm, right? And part of their housing is paid for because of that, like what, what creative things in the next two years while they're on campus, can they figure out that they can plug into the university to help pay for some of this for the last two

years of their school. So there's some ways around it to get creative, but I just ran into a family member of the other day that I hadn't talked to in years and reminded me that he went to college free because he was a janitor. They hired him as a janitor and employees got free tuition. Yep. It's like, there you go. I'm fully, I mean, that's so simple. I, the RA thing a lot of people did, right? Yeah. Yeah, the resident assistant. A lot of people did that. And, you know,

and even scholars, if I don't know, like just getting into the other way, it didn't a mattress store, selling mattresses. He's our, he's currently our family. Talk about a conspiracy. All these years later, all these years later, he's still our family adviser on mattress purchases. I know. And I need, I need a, I need a corner. I'm going to the conspiracy about about mattress stores. That's a mattress store. Yeah. Like, the whole thing is like, who, who literally goes to a

store to buy a mattress? Now, most people don't, but they're everywhere. So it's like, what's really happening? Oh, what's really happening? Oh, now it's a Rachel conspiracy theory. That's a good black hole to go to. There's another all-londering mothy amounting.

Oh, you never know. No, I don't, I don't, I don't think so. But they're everywhere. That's the

weird thing. How many people you seek going into a mattress store? I'm not alone. Come in there and

“purchase mattresses, my children. So that's what I'm saying. Your mother bought a day. No,”

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Go to yreFi.com/Ramsey. That's the letter Y. R-E-F-Y.com/Ramsey might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Dave and Massachusetts. My wife and I have two kids. Our oldest is currently in college at a state school so we are paying in state tuition. Our youngest is a senior in

its looking at colleges in a different state, which means higher tuition. We own a second home in

that state, but it's not our residence. Should my wife and I get a divorce? So we can change one of our permanent residences to that state and keep the other permanent residence in our state. Doing so would save us over $100,000 by paying in state tuition for both kids. My wife and I love each other very much. And the paperwork, white and change. Our relationship. Wow. I don't know if I've ever heard this. Question of war.

I've heard it for different reasons. It's a legal divorce to pay for the outside college tuition.

“Oh Lordy. No Dave. No Dave. I think if you can't afford the out-of-state tuition,”

you'll can't afford the college tuition like that. I'll tell your kid no.

Oh, there's a shocking concept. Before you divorce your wife, maybe you just tell your kid no. Oh my gosh. How about no? You can't go with your kid. You can't go with your kid. You can't go with school over there. No. That's a lot easier. No. Dude, you're weird. I mean, who talks about divorcing their wife to get in-state tuition? For a kid for four years, oh yeah. Because you can't tell your own spoiled kid no.

That's whacked. Oh, man. Yeah, Dave. I don't think that. Sorry, Dave and Massachusetts. It's not you, Dave. I can get confusing quick. No. Both of us are whacked, but for different reasons. Oh my gosh.

“Oh yeah, Dave and Massachusetts. Nope. Nope. Why would not go through a divorce?”

Uh, I wouldn't even tell your wife you had that thought. That would be dangerous. You could wake up Dad. Oh, my gosh. Oh, man. I wonder how many people do that though. I'm trying to scam the system and like, well, people do it. I've heard of people like they don't want to pay all them. They want to keep getting the all alone from the previous marriage. And if they get married, they literally get married. So they do that. They're married. Sure. Sure. Sure. I hear that.

Or if we get divorced, we get a, she, her disability insurance so double. So we're going to get divorced. So we can slice the money from disability. Whatever. I've heard the opposite. All these different things. Like we, we need to get married from military purposes. Like to have whatever

spousal. You know, I mean, like, I've heard that kind of stuff. Yeah, but never for a kids call.

It's wow, you know, Dave, you know, Dave, you know, Dave, you know, you know, Dave, you know, you have your priorities really screwed up. And so let's just start with telling your spoiled brat child. Okay. No. I don't think the spoiled brat 18 year olds asking his parents to divorce. This is this is the kingdom to pay a hundred thousand dollars to go across a state line. But this is the dad's idea. Dad wrote it in the divorce. I blame and dad. I blame and dad.

Yeah. Yeah. The whole thing. No. I want to say the whole thing. The child's behavior is the father's fault too. So let's just go with that. I have wanting to go to an out-of-state school for a hundred thousand dollars is not, probably over the course of probably over the course of four years. But I'm just saying this is the don't you blame this on that 18 year old. This is the dad's idea. So no. I'm going to blame it on the whole dysfunctional family. Yeah. All right.

“Wow. Hannah's in Rochester, New York, A&O. What's up?”

Hi. I'm just calling out to ask a question about my student loans and what I should do. Okay. So I'm currently a registered nurse and my work actually pays a hundred and fifty dollars a month towards my loans. What's the balance on your loans? $4,500. I just have to pay the minimum for them to keep paying it, which is only $6,62 a month. But it's no, if I should pay off, pay it off and not have this and keep doing it. And if you have the $4,000, right now, oh no, not right now.

You're an R&M. Why not? You make good money, don't you? Yeah. We have a, we bought a house and we are getting back to doing better budgeting. Okay. So your question really is when I get back to better budgeting, do I put more on the student loan than the minimum payment given that the

all list all of my debts. Do you have other debts other than your home and the student loan?

“We just have about a thousand dollars. No car payments? No car payments and our house.”

Okay. Okay. So I'm going to list the two debts, the thousand and the four thousand. First thing I'm going to do is pay minimum payments on the student loan and attack the one thousand dollars and get it gone in about a month. And then I'm going to attack the student loan aggressively. But during those several months that you're knocking the student loan out, you're still going to get some of the benefit. But no, I'm not going to keep the loan around like a pet for four years.

For for for an $1,800 or your benefit. Oh, that. Yeah. The biggest thing is you want to be clear of this thing and you know, you want to be have a complete fresh clean start. Okay. Hello. Good for you. Thanks for asking the question. Open phones at Triple 8-825-5225 Rogers in Branson, Missouri. Hey, Roger, what's up? Good afternoon. I've got a question for you, Dave. Okay. I've got $750,000 in cash. I've got a million dollars in an IRA and every year I

got to take money out of it. Anywhere from 43, 47,000 dollars. I required minimum distribution. So you're over 73. Yes. I'll be 76. Gotcha. I just paid $14,000 in

“contract, which is fine. I have no debt. I have two credit cards. The only thing I get on there”

is gasoline. I pay that off so those to bill comes. Gotcha. I never paid interest at a credit card.

I got a plus $500,000. That's paid for. I'm much of your may and you get so you got a couple million dollar net worth. Way to go, man. About $3 million total. Yeah, congratulations. How much of that did you inherit? $6,000. My mother passed the bag at $60,000. More years ago. What? I put that right to bank. So you're one of the great American millionaires that did it starting from nothing without inherited money. Congratulations, sir. Well, you're a fault for that.

Who is he? You. My question is, what do I do at $7,000 and $50,000? I have no children. My newest cars. A pickup truck at 10 years old. My wife's cars 23 years old. We live very well at 32 acres of beautiful land. And I just don't trust banks with your daily bailout stock market to me is like Vegas. Well, what's your 401k, you know? It's with an insurance company, a major insurance company.

And you trust insurance companies more than banks? No, the financial part of it. I put a million

dollars in their 20 years ago that began this money back and back and there's still over a million dollars in it. Yeah. So it's worked out pretty well. But I mean, insurance companies are less stable than banks. Well, according to the report I get from your church company, loaded with money, millions and millions and millions. Well, that would be true, but so are the banks. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, the answer to your question, sir, is I do not have any money at insurance

companies. All of my money is invested in mutual funds in the stock market and in banks in high yield savings accounts. And so if you're literally sitting with that money stacked in

“your bedroom, you need to do something with it.”

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“In Phoenix, I Ariah, how are you? How do you help me do that? Better than I deserve. Is an area is that correct?”

Yeah, I'm Ariah. Okay, cool. How can we help? I just kind of had a question. So a couple of years ago, I got into a car accident that wasn't my fault

and we should be settling here soon. I don't know the exact amount of money that I'll be getting,

but I know it'll be close if not over $100,000. Wow. I'm 22. Yeah, it was pretty bad accident. Are you recovered? Are you recovered? Are you okay? I didn't break anything but I do have long-term damage and I had a traumatic brain injury because of it. Okay. So is it affecting your income potential or anything like that? Not anymore, I was out of work for about four months, but since then I've been back at work.

So I'm physically capable to work and mentally capable to work, but I do have issues with my long-term and short-term memory and I have some issues with my spine and some nerve diameter around my back

“and my neck. Do you think you're going to need any of this money to take care of you?”

Yes. Okay. For in what regard would you use it for? Well, probably more like chiropractic care because I'm pretty okay for the most part,

but I do still have chronic pain basically for the last three years.

It's a bit bad, right? After my accident, yeah, it was. So I got too bold and I hit my driver's side. I was doing a lesson on a green light. If I was going about 40 miles an hour and he and I was his brick wall and he hit right now my driver's. What's the chiropractic costing you? Well, I'm not going there right now through my attorney. I was in care for about a year and a half. So this was back in 2023. I mean, if you're going for, if you're going forward, if you need some

chiropractic care, what's it going to cost you? I don't know because I can't afford it right now like coping and stuff through my work. I don't even know if my work covers chiropractic care. I know I can do it independently for like, probably 100 bucks a month. Okay. So, and you make what? I'm 21 dollars now. Okay. All right. So what I'm going to do is look at your budget if I'm you and find out about the chiropractic care, what it's going to cost at you, what's going to cost you

out of pocket because you're going to need some adjustments. Apparently as you go forward, right? Yeah. Okay. If you can cover that out of your income, then that frees up the 100,000 or whatever to invest. If you can't, then as you invest that, you're going to have to consider that you're going to need some off of it for your care. Right. Best case scenario is you don't need this money and you can invest it. Leave your hands off of it and let it grow. So my question with that is,

after my accident, I was out of work for about four months and I didn't qualify for any like disability or anything. And so I got into some debt. And then the car that I got after my accident, I had for about a year and the transmission went out on it and so we got rid of this because I couldn't afford the car payment and fixing it. So I have about like $18,000 from the car because I don't have it for very long. And then I'm also having to take that like personal loans and

credit cards just to survive. So I know that. How much is the car repo of the 18? I owe, I think, of just under 11,000 on it now. And they're probably settled that for around

“3,000 cash. But you need to get that in writing, call and say, I got, you know, I can make you a cash”

offer to settle this. I can't pay the whole thing. Would you take 3,000? And they're going to argue and you're going to argue back and you're going to come in, you know, back and forth and then give them a check and be done with it. But it'll be pennies on the dollar, okay? And then your other stuff, you can call you up for how much? I mean, that would be like there are meaning 1,000 and now some of it is in collections though. So I don't know how it is.

So somewhere around 12,000 of your 100,000 is going to go and you're going to be dead free.

Now, what are you driving now? I drove a 2006 Hyundai Tucson. Is it paid for? Yeah, I got it from a family friend. So it's in my name, it's paid for and then it has some fixes I do do on it. But I do want to get a new life. You may need, you may need to move up, you may need to move up a little in car, so you may want to take some of this money to move up in car. So if you sold that car in car, if you sold that car and put $10,000 with it,

then you'd have a pretty decent car, okay? And pay cash, no, no more debt, okay?

“But so now we've used now, we've used 22,000 of your 100, okay? And then you need to set”

an emergency fund aside, that you don't touch except for rainy days. So you need probably $10,000

to do that. So now we've used 32, all right? And so you're going to have somewhere around $70,000, or so, to invest long-term. But you have an emergency fund, an upgraded car, zero debt. And that, if you don't have anything hovering over you, then you probably can cash flow your tire practice. Okay? That makes sense. Yeah, one of my goals, like, if it's because of the money, I'll be able to, is I want to go back to school, and I want to get my decision my funds,

but I want to move back to my home state, where my family is, so good. I don't know if it's for me to use part of that money to move there, or... Well, a little bit, but keep it very,

very conservative. This money's going to go away quickly, because we've almost spent a lot of

it already, just you and me talking. Okay? She had to be very careful, because it'll, it'll $4,000, and $5,000, so far away. How much is the school, do you know? So I have a $12,000 school fund from my grandparents that I needed to use. Okay. When I was looking online to start current prices, it's probably in the cost, like, a little price because of the two-year program on about $13,000. For all two-year thing, for the two years. Yeah, two years. Okay, great. And then what does that,

what does that career pay when you get that completed? When I was looking at jobs in the areas, anywhere from $25 to $32 an hour. Not much return on that. You get $25 to $32 an hour, target without getting the degree. Not really, because I want to get, I have to get a certification license, and I have to, you can work at target without getting the certification license,

“and make as much as you will, after you pay $23,000 for this license. So maybe you need to”

tool up and school up in something else that pays better. Okay. Doesn't pay much. I mean, that was like starting though, because what I would like to get my, like, a license and laser hair removal, but once I get my advanced aesthetics license, I mean, there's other avenues I can go that's kind of just like my pinpoint. Yeah, so I think I have a $40 an hour goal here. If you're going to spend money for education, it needs to take you to $40 pretty quick.

And I don't know if that, I don't know that world, so I don't know if that's possible. But yeah, I'm not sure what I have to do. Yeah, I mean, you're going to have to really, because you can't just spend $25,000 on a certification and then make $25 an hour when you can make that without a certification at target. That's what I'm saying. So that's not a good investment. If it's $25 and you put you into a program that in a few years, you're making $40,

okay, I'm with that. Okay. But I don't, you don't have to make $40 out of the gate, but you got to be thinking this through long term as to where this is taking you. But yes, generally speaking, if you think through education, and it's going to cause your income to increase substantially

“due to the education, education would be a good use of this money. Yeah, and I think thinking long term”

to saying, okay, you know, a goal would be in five years, so you're making $60,000 or $70,000. You know, whatever, that is, and then you back out from there. So yes, to your point, all right, you may be starting at a position that's 28, but there's, you see a path forward that's very clear that after a year of this, I can step up to 32 an hour and then I step up to 35. And then I, you know, you, it may take you a year to, but don't let the end goal be making 35 a year for the

rest of your life. Yeah. So you want to be making, you want to be making more. And again, for that certification purpose is to make sure you get the ROI out of it. But yeah, my biggest word of caution is, plan all this out, because just like you said, Dave, I'm like, you can,

So stretch it as far as possible with a, with a really strict plan in place and put yourself on

“that strict plan. So if you're going to move, I'm only going to spend this much moving. So”

moving company, it's going to help me has to stay within this, this budget range. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwins credit union studio, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality. My daughter is my co-host today, Elizabeth's in which it talks Kansas. Hi, Elizabeth, how are you? Good, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, um, I'm thinking about

filling my house. Okay. Um, I have $150,000 in equity and I'm thinking about finding a house

to buy cash for $1450. Mm-hmm. What's that look like in which you talk Kansas? Well, around, you know, smaller towns around, it's not, it wouldn't be a shack. It would be, it would be nice enough.

“Like a step up from a shack? Good, you're like, is it like a shack that's nice enough? Is it good?”

Like a good, like a good house that you'd be happy in for the foreseeable future? Okay, good. Yeah, yeah, something that we would be happy in. We, or I would. Okay. Oh, I, or so I'm,

is there a we or an I? There's a we, um, my husband and my four children. Okay, four kids in 150.

Wow. And what's the motivation for this Elizabeth? What's cut? What's the, what's the home you're currently in that you're not satisfied with? Well, we are very satisfied with our home. Um, it's beautiful. Mm-hmm. It's, it's, it's big. Um, but I'm, I'm looking for ways to simplify. Okay, that's, yeah, that's good. How old are your kids? 14, 11, six and two. And how many square feet is in the home that you currently live in? Uh, we've added a couple of bedrooms. So,

as of right now, around like 3,200 square feet and the 150,000 dollar cash home will buy what kind of square footage. Um, I mean, I would say probably around 2,000 square foot. So, it would be a big downsides, but we can also, we're going to adding square footage. Her husband's in the construction business. He's not, but he is, he, he works well. I mean, he can do those things. Um, I grew up with parents who did rentals. So, they know everything. This house we added two bedrooms. We added

egress windows. And yeah, so we can do those things. So, I'm just curious, but why would you downgrade to add on if you're already? I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily, I mean, as long as we were comfortable as long as we had enough bedrooms. Okay. Um, I've got two girls in two points. So, you know, um, we can share bedrooms and whatnot. Yeah, what's your household income? My husband makes 130. Um, and that's gross. He, uh, he's a UPS driver. So, he won the balance on

your current mortgage is what? Uh, 205. And you guys are how old? He'll be 36 and I'll be 34 in jute. Okay. All right. Well, there's a lot of windows through which you can analyze this when someone

“says they want to simplify. Okay. If you want, if you want to be debt free and that they have no”

mortgage and you're willing to give up the extra comfort that the 3,200 versus the 2000 house has, it to get to that goal. That's one version of simplify. Another version of simplifies more of our friends, the minimalist. And you're just like, we want a simpler life in general and one of the benefits of that is we don't have any debt. Um, that's fine. Because what you're describing your current life as is not anywhere near out of control, it's definitely very conservative. There's nothing here,

you know, like, well, you say y'all could buckle down and pay this off in two and a half three years if you

Yeah. Yeah. And I think my motivation is that with with four kids and um, I have been working so

much, I really, I want to live more. I want to have more, I want to have more room to just spend time together and, you know, go to the lake, go fishing. And that means he doesn't have to work as much. Is that, is that what you mean? So he could pull back on work hours. Yes. And be home more if you did. Okay. That. Okay. That's starting to make sense. That's a piece of the, okay. I get that.

“Okay. Yeah. And I think home and I homeschool the four kids. So we're always together, but he's”

not there. And it, how many hours a week does he work? That's a good question. I mean, he doesn't get home before eight most nights. Most nights he's out, he's out driving till

till eight. Okay. Could he back off his hours a little bit? And you guys still

financially be okay? I'm sure that we could. It would just, you know, like for a season. It just sounds like it would probably, I would think from a logistical standpoint, it probably would be easier to cut back on some hours for a few years and be present at home while there's the kid's going and then maybe pick it back up. But he's working, he's working two jobs. I'm, he, he works, you. Yes. Oh, you said that. Really? Okay. Yeah. So he doesn't have the option.

He doesn't have the option of cutting back then. He's got to finish the truck run. He's, yes.

“He's working, what he has to work. So he's working 12 hours a day, five days a week?”

Approximately. Yeah. So you've got Saturday and Sunday to go to the lake.

Yeah. You know, the house, I will say the house is a lot of upkeep. That's another, that's another con for it. I think that it just takes a lot of our time. So will the other one. Right. The 2,000 square foot house is going to have as much upkeep as the 3,200 square foot house. I really thought I was going to call you guys and you were going to be on my side and like, I'm not, I'm not against you. I'm not against you. I'm just still haven't found the room.

I'm still looking for the route motivation for a minute there. I thought you were trading the 3,200 for the 2,000 to get your husband back. But he doesn't really have that option. He can't, unless he quits his job, he can't cut his hours. Yeah. I mean, you know, he kind of, he can take it there for a route. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. He could take, he covered, drives most of the time. So. Okay. So he can take it there for a route and back his hours

down. Why don't we just do that? Do it for six months Elizabeth and just see how it feels. And if it's off and you guys are like, no, then he can ramp back up and then put the house for sale.

“That's great. It just feels like a lot of work. If you want to do it, what you're proposing is not evil.”

I'm just trying to figure out if it's going to give you what you want. Or if you're, if you're out of the, you know, out of the frying pan into the fire here. And so, you know, like, yeah, I got my husband back. But now these kids are all crammed in the shoebox. And I can't breathe. Right. You know, and now I'm not. And I don't have a pantry. And I can't, you know, this, the stress level of the four large teenagers in this house that's approximately half the size

is different. I mean, I'm okay with it. But I'm not sure if the trade-off is what you think it is. That's what I was trying to dig around and find out. We were not against your idea. We're just trying to figure out why the debt free show. She's like, Dave Ramsey's going to love it. So we're going to be debt free. It's going to be an automatic. Yes. And we took the whole segment for you. Elizabeth, there you go. Either way, you're great.

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by clicking the link in the show notes. One of the best things you can do for your finances is to have a really good tax pro when you're

business. Especially if you've had some big life changes. Check it out. It's dot time of year, folks. Go to RamseySolutions.com/taxpro to find CPAs and enrolled agents who are Ramsey trusted. They've been vetted by us. You'll love it. RamseySolutions.com/taxpro. And you can find a pro in your area to help you if you've got a complicated return. Scott's with us in Casper, Wyoming. Hi, Scott. How are you? I'm well, Dave. Thank you. Listen, my life and I got married 45 years ago

with 200 bucks in the bank and we owed about 15 grand. I just, we're 69 now. I just retired. I've

got about a little over six million in a traditional IRA and I'm not clear and exactly what I should

do with it. I can defer it until in 1973 and take smaller or just take normal distributions at that

“point. I could just cash out, cash it out and pay the tax or I could cash it out. I believe and”

split into a Roth IRA and my question was very simple. Which one of those might be the best for my situation? Well, as you know, it's 73. You've got required minimum distributions. RMDs. Okay. That they're going to require you to begin to pull down a certain percentage every year on your 401(k)s and that's going to create a huge income for you because you've done so well. Congratulations. I mean, wow. Look at you, man. Well done. Very well done. Okay. So that we know

is coming. And unless we go some kind of scorched earth thing, which I'm not going to recommend. So I would just brace yourself and get ready for that. Do you need any of the money in the meantime?

“We don't have any debt. Okay. Do you have any other money other than this six million 401(k)?”

Yes sir. Probably around 14 million in U.S. equities in P.S. and roughly 20, 25 million in

real estate. All of that's on that. That's free. Good night. What did you do for a living? That would be a story. Many different. Okay. So why? Okay. Here's your offer. Congratulations. You have absolutely crazy dragon. I mean, this is amazing. Beautifully done. So starting with you know, $15,000 in debt, we got married 45 years ago and this is where we are. So you're a classic millionaire. You're a classic American millionaire. I'm just so proud of you. Well done.

Now, if you roll the six million all to a Roth IRA 100% of it, you'll pay taxes on that year. Ordinary income. And that's going to make you puke. All right. When you see that when you see that tax bill, because it's going to be a $2 million tax bill. Okay. Yeah. And so sit down with your tax professional. And I'm sure you have one and start unpacking how we can move some of the six million for a few years to some period of time to get it all to Roth. I don't care if it's 10 years, five years,

20 years, or you can stomach the tax bill. You can actually pay the tax bill and roll all of it.

“Pay the tax bill out of your other assets. Yeah. And that's what I would do. And so if you roll the”

six million, hmm, this is something to think about. Look at this with your tax guy. You might go scored stars on this one. If you roll the whole thing over and pay two million out of your equities in tax, pull it out and pay your taxes, you now have six million growing for the rest of your life tax free. And when you place a beneficiary on it and you and your wife die and you leave it to your kids, they don't pay taxes on it. And it's not an inherited IRA that has to be withdrawn

like if they get a traditional, if your kids get a traditional IRA handed to them, they have to withdraw it over the next 10 years. And under the Biden Secure Act. And so they're going to pay taxes on it within 10 years. I see. Okay. If you roll it all to Roth and you pay the taxes now, the growth on it tax free will cover the tax bill within just a little while. That's right. And so I have moved mine. I did it more gradually than that, but I've got

all of mine in Roth. And I did it so that it grows for me tax free, but I'll probably never use it.

And you'll probably never use this. And so it will go to Rachel and her siblings when I die completely tax free and they have no required distribution on it. So they can let it grow tax free.

Your only 69 will be 12 million. And in seven more years, 14 years from now, which is

statistically, you're likely to live that long, that six million will be 24 million. All tax free. So it might be worth having a little bit of throw up in the back of your mouth and write an attacks check out of your other assets right now and doing it all in one year. So visual. I just, it makes me puke to think about giving the government $2 million. Because they're so freaking stupid. But yeah, it's just, and it's my freaking money. It's not theirs.

And then that's you've already paid taxes on it. Hey, tax is like the rich. Kiss my butt. And so liberals. And so anyway, the, you know, you've got, it's just ridiculous. So anyway,

“we welcome everyone to this show. I don't too, because you need to be educated. But the,”

wow, the, so yeah, I want you to sit down with your tax guy and look at that idea. Because when I moved the stuff to Roth, I did it for the reason of it grows tax free for me. But the actual huge benefit is that it's a great estate planning tool then to have your stuff in Roth. Because your kids don't get hammered with a required description. Do you still want to pay?

What's the estate tax? So over 25 million would they start to have to pay? Yeah, he's got a state

tax problems that are different. Yeah, but, but if a Roth means over Roth is taxable on a state tax. Even a state tax. Both of them are. That doesn't, the state tax is different. This is income tax. They were talking about, yeah, but he's got a state tax problem. I'm sure you've got a state

“tax planner. And if you don't, you need to get one tomorrow. Because you're definitely over all your”

exemption levels. So, um, but yeah, why do you code? That's amazing. Man, you have absolutely, like how do you do it? I love the, like, settle to you. I've got 6 million here and I could

got anything else. It's like, yeah, 25 million. No, the 14 million. No, the 14 million.

The 14 million. Yeah. Cat's for Wyoming. There you go. Well done, Scott. But that's, that's, these are the millionaires. These are America's millionaires. And when you guys are watching political stuff and they say that the rich should be taxed, that's the guy you're talking about. And it's not your money. It's his money. He worked his whole life starting from nothing and invested wisely and built this.

And so, taxing him on his death and taxing him on his growth and taxing him and tax him and tax him and tax him and tax him and tax him. And, and he endo anything to you. You know? And, but this, this, this sky right here is my hero. I mean, this is amazing. This is what we teach

“all of you to go be, but then you need to be aware that there are forces in the marketplace that”

don't like that. Don't like you to be successful. So, you have to fight against the estate tax problem, you have to fight against the income tax problem and you have to fight against, you have to make all these decisions on your investments to keep the stinking governments hands off even hands off your money. And so, but, oh, Scott, I'm just mad for you right now because it's a $2 million bill you're getting ready to pay. I think you're going to want to do it all

it once though. And it would be ordinary income. So, what it'd be for 35? What is that? 35% yeah, it's going to be $2 million. I mean, it's going to be overbed of it. I bet you. It's a lot. But, the thing is, I mean, if that's if that's 6 million grows. 100% yeah, you know, 20% like last year, the market was up 24% right? So, if it's sitting in just S&P 500. Yeah. So, that'd be 1.2 million next year that he got back and it's all tax free.

And sooner you get tax free started the sooner it benefits you. So, I think I'm going to want to do it now. I got it. I got to crunch the numbers a little bit more but I think I'm going to want to do it now. . Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles

is here to help. It's fast, simple and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try

“Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com.”

Teresa is with us in Washington, DC. Hi Teresa. How are you? Hi Rachel. Hi Dave. So, my husband and I are in baby steps three and I want to spend $400 on a new kitchen appliance. And my husband and I talked about it. He was listening right now. Hi my love. Hi Teresa. How's it going? If it was a good idea or not. Okay, how much you guys have saved? We have 800 right now in our in our saving account and we have the cash

in our checking account to cover it just fine. Okay. And what's the full it? What's the goal for the three

months? Um, like 1800 to what? Saying that we needed to write down a number for that. We only just finished baby step two. Probably around 20,000. And what's your help for all? About 50,000. 50,000. Okay. Yes. Hopefully that will be increasing soon. But like why and how much? Changing jobs and changing career situations. Okay. Yeah. So, how much do you think it'll change? I don't know. We would have to start before we could predict

that. Okay. All right. What's the appliance? I'm just curious. It's a flower mill.

So like milled wheat into flower. Yeah. I got one I'll show you used. Um, oh. I got a five gallon bucket

of that stuff and the in the closet from two years ago when Sharon had this fad. I promise I'll use it.

“Yeah. That's what you said. Um, I believe you will. I will. I promise. It's all healthy too. It's all”

healthy. Oh, they don't let any of the little glutes in it. There's no little glutes and no little covids. So yeah, it's all it's all covered and gluten free. What? Oh my god. Teresa, you should have called Sharon. I know. I'm going to represent her. And I'm serious. I'm going to go home and get the thing for she can film and send it to you. Um, you should have that actually be a great. That would be so funny. And Sharon wouldn't miss it because she hasn't. She wouldn't even

shoot. She wouldn't know what's going on. Now it'd be funny. It'd be like eight months from now. She'll be going. Hey, Sharon, well, where's my little bread thing? Give your Jessica. David to a lady in Washington. I'm going to her house or dessert. I'll go. I'll sink it for you, Teresa.

“So here's the thing. Here's the thing. The thing that we always have to manage when we're”

managing these decisions is not the actual little issue of 400 bucks. But what it represents in our behavior and our standards and in who we are. Okay. And so, you know, what Sharon and I would have said when we were at your place is we would have said if this isn't an emergency, we can't do it because we don't yet have an emergency fund. And it is very odd that I actually own one of those things. How long did it take you to get out of debt, Teresa? How long were you

all doing baby step two? Four years. I now see so much sacrifice. I know, but it's just that the point is that you have to have your filter system that says, "Yes, you do." I'm going to make my decisions based on this set of on this framework and on this value system. And so, you know, you've been using the baby step says you're as your framework for making the decisions. And it would say that this is not an emergency. Don't do it. Although mathematically, it's not that big a deal.

Okay. You guys could and you're going to be fine. You could do a lot of stuff that people could do. Yeah, but you don't want it to derail you as a person. The thing is, I don't want to, I just don't you've reset the way your brain's work on money in a positive way. And this, this messes it up. I mean, this is falling off the wagon. So, you know, he's falling off the wagon? Yeah, for sure. They're not going into debt for it, though. No, but I mean, they're not going to make the decision through

that framework. I wouldn't do it. I would not buy it because, you know, it's not an emergency. It's not an emergency. But it's

earn an emergency. It's not $4,000. It's not $400,000. It's not $400,000. It's $400,000. It's $400,000. It's $400,000. It's $400,000. But I'm saying, for four

years of their lives, they've been sacrificing to get out of debt. Okay? And then we always say when you get out of debt,

we have a tie. Rachel says, why don't you get to do it? I don't. I've got one in the class. Oh, no, there's a hold on. We have some audience. Who's a yes? The audience is saying, don't buy it. Oh, no. Oh, I got one. Oh, I got one thumbs up. We got a bunch of thumbs down. We got a lot of thumbs up. I was participation. Rachel, you're losing. Shoot. You're losing. You're you're you're so kind and gentle. It's not that I'm kind and gentle. It's that I like the hard work and the exhaustion of what they've gone through.

“Which means I need to I need a homemade bread machine. Listen, I'm telling you. That's what all”

this hard work was for. Listen, I don't do it, but people that do it. They don't. They put it in their

closet. They love it. I know. I know someone personally. Shoot. I wish this was a great thing that

pancakes and muffins galore for about a 90 days hadn't seen them seen. We lost the enthusiasm on the latest health pad. Oh, yeah. I'm not sure. It's fine. That's fine. We're not making fun of you. We're making it on a match. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. You know, so if you're emergency fun was completed and you can put it in the budget, yes, emergency fun isn't completed. I wouldn't do it. I also wouldn't upgrade your couch for $400. I wouldn't upgrade your anything else for $400. It's

not an emergency until you get this done. We stay gazelle intense until we finish baby step three. And that's what'll get you to where you want to be. You've lived like no one else so that later

“you can live like no one else and by a bread maker by a meal. It's a meal. It's a meal. It's a meal.”

You're meal your own green. Yeah. I don't even want to ask questions. I don't want to add it. I'm so not in. You're going to have to get your mom to get it out and show you. I know. I will. I'll need

my give it to you. You never know. I give it to Teresa. You might need it. Well, you could get traces of

dress and just ship it on over there. Get it just in case. That's funny. The grain, it's like a five gallon bucket of paint. It's a five gallon bucket plastic bucket full of grain in the closet. And the grain, it's not like it's like grain. It's like grain. Like you went out in the field and picked the grain. Like the stem? No, it's the seed of the grain. It's green. It's real. I mean it's but it and it's apparently pretty dormant because it's been sitting there well. Oh man. It's so hard.

You can't make this up. It's hard when it's a first world problem. But it's your first. It's your thing when it is when people are very passionate about it. And it's like they're for a minute they are. They're there. And then they're not. This is what they do, you know. We definitely got the fee for four. Because I thought she does sourdough. I thought she makes sourdough with it. Right. Can you do that? Or is that not? No. No. That's a feeder. Our sourdough is a feeder. Yes,

shoot. Okay. I'm going to stop. I'm terrible at this stuff. No. It's a reset. It's fun. I'm not going to kill you if you do it. But if you're calling us to break the tie between you and your husband. Rachel's on your husband's side. And no one else is on your side. And everybody else is on your side. We do say sometimes to families that have kind of been done in a debt free screen. Like, what are you going to do now that you're debt free? You know what I mean? Like, we do

affect that. Like, buy a breadman. Well, I'm just saying the idea of getting past babies step two is an event. It is a thing. And so if there's something that is reasonable, you can be cash for. That you're like, okay. Yes, we're saving at the emergency home sign. But in the checking account, we have this. And I could do a little splurge to like celebrate that we're debt free. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. You got, you know, you have a tie on the air and off the air

you lose. The audience is not with you. I'm trying. Trying Teresa. Oh, Teresa, that's fun. I would have guessed wrong. I thought she was going to buy the the $400 expensive blender, the vitamin mix. Oh, the vitamin mix. I don't know if that's worth it. That's about $400. I will say we got an air fryer. Okay. That's pretty life-changing. It was a $400, but it was pretty great. Okay. Well, there you go. Wow. That's a kitchen. Yeah, the kitchen.

When we, I remember when I was a kid and we moved in, we had a box that set on the side of it,

“seldom used kitchen appliances. James, I bet you'll have a mill. It's just the sign you need to be a”

minimalist. James, do you have a mill? Not yet, but it's probably going to happen soon. Okay. I feel it. , you spend hours researching before making a major purchase like a home

To protect your biggest assets, I recommend using Ramsey Trusted Pros, whether you're looking for car home or any other type of insurance. Ramsey trusted providers have been coached and vetted to serve you like we would. Find what you need at RamseySolutions.com/insurance. Subscribe to the day Luke 119 through 10. So, I say to you, ask and it'll be given to you. You see, can you will find knock in the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives

the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks the door will be open. Tony Robbins says successful people ask better questions and as a result, they get better answers. So, question, it's April Fool's Day when we're recording this. I was about to do a thing. You are okay and I'm just wondering if the breadmaking thing was an April Fool's Day. No, I was going to be like, guys, you're in the break. Thank you so much. How do you love

taxes? He just wants to pay more in tax? Yeah, I'm a closet liberal. Or you show me your credit card

“or something. I mean, I think it would be a good April Fool's Day. I believe that.”

It's not a, it won't work. I should told you I, I don't know. I should have. I should have come up with something. There was no challenge, what you might have done. In opportunity today, America, that I missed out on. So, I apologize. Well, I think the breadmaker thing was a complete, I think the lady was to come up with. No, it wasn't. No, Theresa wanted a breadmaker. She really did. I believe it.

All right, a meal. She wanted to know. Okay. Lisa, let's see if Lisa's in. I may have got pumped there. No, but I may have thrown my wife under the bus, which is something I don't do on the air too. So, that's not good, but, you know, I apologize, later. Yeah, that's a problem. Please sign, Springfield. Hey, Lisa. What's up?

Hi. First, I want to say thank you because if it hadn't been for me listening to you for the last,

I don't know, decade or so, I would be in a much worse situation than I am now. Um, I am trying to figure out where to start a little overwhelmed with my finances. It's not bad. Um, so, um, my husband and I have listened to you for a long time.

“We had the under insurance. And, um, the only thing I regret is that I didn't”

up it when his pay was up because he probably doubled his pay by the time by when we first signed up for it. And then he died on our vacation in the next event. Wow. Um, next summer. Um, sorry. My. And so, we are baby set millionaires. We're in good shape. So, I had some life insurance. I have a business that started as a hobby. I homeschool my three kids and I started my business with homeschooling my kids. And I, and very good at what I

do, but not necessarily good at all the stuff that comes with business that you don't, you know, know about until you're looking in the middle of it. And then you're like, oh, you should

do this. Oh, you should do that. So, I've been untangling that, but it was never a priority between

homeschooling, running a farm. And my husband made a very good income. We have no debt or homes paid off. Um, it didn't matter. Mine was like a lucrative side hustle. But now I lost his income. The insurance, the health insurance. And all I have is my side hustle. And I don't want to just

“burn to our life insurance money. So, how much for life insurance money did you get?”

Um, 800,000. Okay. And everything's paid for where there are other investments. I paid off. I used some of that because I have an investment house that I owed 120 on. Um, which I totally regretted taking off that loan after I did it. We cash flowed it total remodel of it. Um, but I used some of that life insurance. So, I have like six or seven hundred thousand, I think, in cash. And then a million in 401k's, but I'm only 50. So, I can't touch any of that. Um, my business, like, I've been

overwhelmed. I've not been doing a great job. Taking care of my business locally. I have some great

employees. Um, and I've always needed to get it a little longer under control, but between homeschooling

and everything else, which is just a number of things. I felt too overwhelming. Um, well, one of them is engaged to the marriage. She's going to be 21 in a few weeks. And then, 17 and 14. They were yes, 17 and 14. And so, what happened to the, uh, 700,000, where is it?

he's got it in a mutual fund. There's like 600, I think, and I have like a hundred thousand dollars in my bank account, which I didn't realize how and I. And so, what does it take you a month to live? What's your? That's my problem. I don't even know. Like, at first, I was like, we're just going to breathe. We've got money. We're going to, and now I'm starting out eight months in and I'm like, okay, we've got to figure it out. And I don't hardly even know where to begin. I know it sounds

terrible, but I've never actually budgeted it. I only did it in my head and kept it running

total. And we've always was so far below our needs that we're going to let's start. What do you need in food? What do you need in food a month? I don't even know. Well, yeah, you do. Tell me what you need in food. I'm a virus maybe. You get two teenagers in you. No $400 is not enough. You probably spend two to three a week. Do you think on groceries? Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, so you need 800. All right, and you don't have a house payment

and how much does your look bill run? Well, when it's real high, it's about Fortune 100. Okay, and how much is your water bill? So I'm well, right? Yes, I'm all right. Yeah, okay. Do you have

gas bill? No, only on the rental house and the rental property. The rental house is separate issue.

I'm asking what it takes to operate your home. Okay, rental house is supported itself. It's got a renter in it, doesn't it? Yeah, it's a short term. Okay, okay. And so you just begin to ask questions like I was asking you and you fill out the form on every dollar and the budgeting app and you look up and see what much you've got. And so I think you're $600,000 can create $60,000 a year pretty easy. And I think you might be able to live on that. And then your business creates more.

“I can't go my business because some of it like my then though and my PayPal, that's how my client”

pay me. Sometimes they use it for personal. You need to completely separate your business from your

personal. To separate accounts. I have a personal account in a business account, personal Venmo,

business Venmo, personal debit card, business debit card. And don't do anything in business with the personal and don't do anything in the personal with the business. Keep them completely separate. And then you get less confused. It's like more confusing because the business is at my home. It's not confusing at all. When something happens in your home that's business, you know what it is and you know what's not. Put it in the business account.

If it's business, if it's not, do it other personal account. Where it's located doesn't matter. What kind of business is it Lisa? Rarely dogs. You went and raised dogs. You raised dogs? Yeah. I raised dog.

“I think I, yeah, I grossed about 500,000. Okay. What kind of dog?”

That's not what I next. Rotating, ridgebacks. I'm gonna try to stand y'all. Okay. Yeah, these are expensive pubs. Okay. Yeah, you all the health testing and all that. Yeah. And all of that is a business. And you have the cost of the breeding and the vet bills and the food and the cleanup and everything else and the cost of your staff. And you have the income, create by the sale of the dogs. None of that is at home. It happens to be on your location. They're

at the farm, but that's all. So you can separate this out and run it separately. And you need to just make sure you're making a profit. Make sure you don't have this $500,000 hobby. No, it does make a profit. How do you know? But you don't even have a set of books. Well, I do have quick books. Okay. But what's going into that? Are you putting personal stuff in quick books? Not my, I have somebody that does all that for me. We started doing that

about three years ago. She helped me untangle everything. Well, almost everything. I'm almost there.

“Yeah. I think you're close to the clinic. Yeah. Okay. So here's the thing. Your stress level is”

going to go way down when you get this cleaned up, when you get the tangles combed out of this hair. But there's still a few tangles left and they're, and they're tied into your grief story and into this tragedy and they're adding to your pain. And so the cleanliness of organization, extreme organization is going to lower your anxiety. Yeah. And stay on the line. Let's say Kelly will pick up and we'll get you every dollar for a year to start doing just on your personal side.

Of running your home. Yeah. To start putting in those numbers. I put this out of the

there's ultimately only one way to financial peace. And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Christ Jesus. [BLANK_AUDIO]