You’re Not Stuck—You Just Need a Better Plan

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

So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsay Network in the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio, this is the Ramsay Show. And I am a Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with my good friend and co-host this morning, half the hour, George Campbell.

So we take in your calls, so the number is triple 8255225,

give us a call, and first up, we have Dacia in Boston.

That's George's home town. Welcome to the show. >> Hi, thank you. >> Absolutely, how can we help today? >> I am about $140,000 in student loan debt.

And my boyfriend and I have been talking about getting engaged and the debt is overwhelming. And a wedding would be obviously a lot more on top of that. I'm wondering if I should refinance my student loans or if I should do a balance transfer on my credit card.

“And what your opinions are the best way to get out of this debt”

as soon as possible. >> Yeah, what you get your degree in? >> Criminology and sociology.

I was planning to go to law school, but now it's too expensive.

Yeah, so I'm going to make you now a year. >> So I was working in my field now I'm back waitressing. Right now I make between $1,000 to $1,500 a week. Wait, why are you-- why did you get out of the field? >> Because the job that I had gotten, I was making more money serving.

So I went back to serving because when I was working my regular job or working the job in my career, I only had like $300 at the end of the month to buy groceries and pay everything so I thought it would be better to make more serving. >> And what were you doing?

What was the job? >> I was a probation case specialist. >> So what does the sort of ladder look like in the field that you're wanting to go into?

>> So initially I was going in--

I wanted to go to law school and then when I graduated I realized how much debt I had. So probation was my next option. It kind of goes probation case specialist in case manager and then being a probation officer.

>> But that's not what you want to do. That's just sort of what you fell into. >> Yeah, I mean I would love to be a lawyer and go to law school, but I don't think that that's going to happen. I don't really see the point in getting $100,000 plus more debt

to go to law school. >> Yeah, we definitely don't want to make the problem worse. But right now we're trying to go serving probably has a ceiling and it's a great side hustle, but it's not a career. And so my fear is you stick to this in three years from now,

you're still serving, making the same amount and you haven't made much progress on the debt. Versus you got promoted, now you've been in this field for three or four years with more experience, now you're making 60, 70, 80. That's the goal.

>> And then what is your boyfriend do? >> He was in the Coast Guard, he got out about a year ago and now he's waiting to get on the fire department. >> Okay, and you guys think you'll get married soon, if you did get engaged?

>> Yes. >> Well, I don't, soon I would say we wouldn't get married at least for two years, maybe three.

“>> Okay, well the truth is it's going to be hard to do this”

on just your income if you stick to this salary. >> Yeah, the job that I have now, I work at a different restaurant in the summer and they're on season there. I make $10,000 a month, that's why I went back initially. It's just the off season, that's awful.

>> Yeah, well I think long term, maybe you get through the summer and make that, because you said $145,000 in student loans. >> Right, that was $144. >> So yeah, I mean, at this rate, I mean, it's going to be a really long time until you pay these off.

And so like what George was saying, finding a career at any level. Now I don't care if it's with your degree or not, but just anything that you want to do, you need to start pursuing because getting in is going to be really important and then you're going to start working your way up. And that's where you're going to start to see raises and actually

be making significantly more money to help pay off $140,000 in the student loan. And so before you get off the call, we saw a few minutes with you, but Christian will pick up and we'll get you Ken Coleman's book, find the work, find the work you're, you're, you're too, I don't know, sorry Ken. >> So my words can, but it has a, it has a, like an assessment in the back of

career wise.

So that's going to be really important in this because of the amount of student loan

debt. Is it, is it private, federal? >> Yeah. So three of them are through Sally May and my interest rate on one of them is 15% and the other two are, I think, 12 or 13, so I don't know if I should refinance.

>> Yeah. You can probably get a better deal, just, here's the parameters for one.

“You should and could refinance a student loan.”

It's got to be completely free to make the change. You've got to keep a fixed rate if you have one or change over from variable. I assume these are all fixed rate loans and then you either need to keep the same term for the refinance loan or possibly shorten it. So what we don't want to do is make the term longer and lastly, obviously, you've got

to lower the interest rate.

So if you can check all of those boxes, it's worth looking into it to see if that can help you. But it's not the solution. I don't want you to think that we've solved the problem and especially a balance transfer.

That's a terrible idea because all it does is move the debt around and make it harder to pay off because now they're not split up, they're just in one giant pile. So it's actually good that they're split up into multiple loans because that means you can knock it out faster using that our debt snowball method. Yeah.

“And I'll send you my book as well and it will walk you through the debt snowball method.”

It's called Breaking Free from Broke. There's a whole chapter on student loans that I hope gets you fired up. There's no way to reverse this. I can't return the degree. I wish there was refunds on your college degree, but, you know, this is the path.

This is the path. And, day sure, this is, you know, it's, you did sign the dotted line, but too many students are led down this path of saying, hey, education is worth it at all costs no matter how much it costs you in student loans. And then you are.

And regardless of school and degree, and you don't worry, it'll ROI, it's a good investment in your future. And then you're picking up the pieces, realizing how much, what are your total minimum payments on all these student loans? My Sally May is 1336, my other one is 133 and another one is 287.

Wow. So we're like edging towards two grand, just in minimum student loan payments. That's 1441, yeah.

“And is that hitting any of the actual principal or is the most of that the interest?”

At most of its interest, I think it's a little bit of a year since I've graduated, it's gone down, the total is gone down 2000. Yeah. So that's the, that's the hard cycle that has to break. So day shot honestly, I would be doing this, this job that you're talking about, I would

be waiting tables every weekend, every night, I would be working, oh my gosh, 80 hours a week. I mean, honestly, like there's going to have to be a sign, yes, like a significant significant bump. And what George was saying too, you know, not that you're, you know, fiances necessarily the answer, but if you guys ended up getting married and you combined finances and you

guys work at this together, the double income idea, you know, don't get married for that reason, obviously, but having that double income is helpful too. So I would not wait until this debt is paid off to get married.

We never say to wait on life events, you know, people are like, why don't want to have

a baby? You're, I don't want to get married because I've all this debt. Life has to go on. And so if anything, if he really is the one from a mathematical perspective, a dual income can help knock this out, you know, 150 to power 140 is a lot easier than making 50 on

your own. Yeah, hold on the line, Desha, Christian's going to pick up to get you those books. . Running a business is hard work, you're the CEO, the accountant, and the sales team. You don't have time to moonlight as your own benefits department.

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Up next in Springfield, Virginia, we have Sophie on the line. Hi, Sophie.

“Hi, it's Reefville, and George, thank you so much for taking my call.”

I appreciate it. Absolutely. How can we help today? I am a long time listener, and I just finished reading the total money makeover, which was really energizing to read, and I've been listening to the podcast just non-stop in recent

weeks because I just need to internalize everything. My husband and I are on the same page about what kind of position we are in, and so there's a teamwork element there, and we're very optimistic, because there are lots of people who are in any way. Sorry, I didn't really understand myself going to be here.

I'm fine. Let's go on. I am. I have. Sorry.

Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. No, it's okay. Thank you, time. Thank you, time. You're anything.

It's stressful.

“I have ten-month-old, ten-year-old, and two-year-old, and that's why you're emotional.”

Sophie, you haven't been sleeping. You've got babies. Babies. Babies. Oh.

This is right, and most time you've had to yourself at a long time, because you've calling in to the shelf. Oh my gosh. It's actually true. She's got three little ones, and what's happening?

So we, I have been at work since they were about three months old, between, and we've

had a mani, and she's amazing, but we are--

My husband's work is in sales. I now make salary. I thankfully received a promotion when I came back from maternity leave, so that was a blessing for sure, and it definitely has been helpful because now I'm on salary instead of hourly, so it's a little bit more predictable.

I make-- for context, I make 75. My husband is in sales, and so it really fluctuates. It's very seasonal, and this month in particular was the lowest he's ever earned, and so it's put us in a position where we are looking at rent, looking at paying the nanny, looking at car payments, looking at that kind of stuff, and it's all like, I don't see it coming together

“in time, and so I'm just wondering what kind of first steps would be advised?”

OK.

Well, we always talk about when there's an urgent situation like this, from a cash flow perspective,

there's a couple of things. Number one, before any debt is paid, rent is paid. So rent, food, and anything transportation, so gas, to get you to and from work. The car payment would be close in there to make sure that you're not getting behind on that, but rent is before the car payment.

So the order of priorities is very important, that what is taking care of is taking care of of things that are needed, OK. So the priority is importance, number one, and then number two, where you draw the line of where the money runs out, and then what's below that is going to have to be a conversation, either with a place, a creditor, a nanny, I don't know what that looks like, but where do

you think this month the money's going to run out? If you paid rent, if you paid utilities, and if you paid food, and make sure you had gas in the car, where would the line, where would the money run out, do you think? Well, once this payment I just put through, anyway, I'm going to have $200, probably in my checking account.

I've got a little bit of cash, a couple hundred bucks, and cash continues to come in. I manage a restaurant, so there are some little things that I do within the business, where I take a little cash, so that's small, but it's not nothing. I would take a couple hundred bucks a week, but we are going to have to pay the nanny about

a grant, and so I'll be paid a little after the first, whatever that Wednesday is around

the first, and my net is 2171, so that'll be mine. My husband gets paid on the first, he gets 970 warrants, and our rent is 2650, and I'm kind

diapers. So, we've been collecting some cost diapers, we've got some on our registry, originally I've got some from my local by nothing group, I'm all about that, by the way, that's such a great. Yeah, yes, totally, and those little things are very helpful for sure, but looking at

the big picture is there, is there extra hours that he can work, or you can work, or he can pick up a side hustle at night, just to be getting cash flow in, if you can make an extra, I don't know, full, $500 a week doing door dash or something at night, what does that look like? I did, I did sign up for, in the cart delivery, there's a spotty little place in where

I could do a couple hours here and there, I want to wait list, so that's hopefully going to come through, I mean, we have bartending experience, I could see if my husband has any interest in picking up like-- Yeah, I don't make a good money, nice and weakens for that. Yeah, so it's the thing about the night and weekends, that's when I work, so--

Because you're in the restaurant business. Right, so the nanny of part-time, she's there from 12 to 6 when they Thursday Friday because I go in and I, excuse me, and I'm going to close her on Wednesday Thursday Fridays, I open on Saturday Sundays, and my husband has the kid. Okay.

“So you're just using her when you really need her or Monday both, right?”

Right. So she's part-time, and if you're editing, we could really cut her hours, but then I don't know that she would stay with us, and-- Yeah, if anything, it would be the opposite, it would be finding a cheaper sitter, maybe for two or three nights throughout the week, so you're both earning more, even with what

you're paying a sitter. Like, it's going to be hot, you know, and I know you feel that. You feel-- Yeah, you feel-- And I are like, how much the card's hard.

So what kind of debt--what kind of debt is there? So the cards, one of them is, I think, about 14,000 on it, and the other thing--they're

about the same excuse me, one of them, the mini van, we had to--so we got the two sons first,

and that's when we were about to have our son because we were like, "Okay, we're about to have a baby." We had my 2008 launcher at the time, which had been paid off a long time ago, and she got to 200,000 out, so we had to-- Yeah, wait.

What--if you sold those private party, each of those vehicles, how much could you get for them? So, the mini van is a unique scenario sort of, so when we were having the twins, and we were about to have three rear facing car seats, they--the police station that helps put car seats into the--and was correct, I mean, that the car seats didn't fit side-by-side.

She was like, "If you had two rear facing and one forward, it would fit, but just the mechanics of it." So we had to get a different car. My aunt actually gifted us the money to buy a newer mini van. Okay.

I haven't read the total money makeover yet, so I hadn't internalized the value of going

“to the snowball method, and then--but if you sold it, who owns the van?”

Whose name is the van under? Yours? Mine. Okay. Do you know how much you would get for it if you guys sold it?

Oh, probably 30, but moreally I'm wondering if that's-- You would get 30,000 for this van. So you could net 16.

It's a--it's a 2022, and we--my aunt gifted us the--basically the cash for it, because

she wanted us to have--but why are you in debt with it then? If she--if she gave you that-- It's not like you bought a more expensive car. She gave you 14 and you couldn't 30. I paid off our credit card, because that was a higher interest.

Well, then let's go talk more, so if we use it for something else anyway. Sophie, this is a bright light, get rid of this van. Get rid of this van. You'll have $16,000 cash. That's how you pay rent.

You know what I mean? Yes. So I would get rid of this van tomorrow. And then get something in cash, and that frees up a payment. That frees up a payment, and then even the $14,000.

Go other car. If you're not under water on it, get rid of that. These frees up money. You guys have to make some extreme sacrifices, because you're in an extreme state. So remember, prioritize the budget.

“Food, shelter, utilities, transportation gets paid, okay?”

And then we're going to start working our way out of debt by working extra.

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Hi, Tyler. Welcome to the show. Thanks, guys. How are you guys doing? Yeah, we're doing great.

Thanks for calling. How can we help?

So my wife and I have been struggling with this question, never since we had our daughter

about eight months ago. So my wife has a stay at home, mom, is it morally right of me to ask her to work a shift or two a week when my income is more than enough money to pay for our bills, pay

“that payment to even pay a little bit extra on debt?”

Is it morally right? I probably wouldn't put that wording to it. I would say I would frame it more as is it okay for her to work outside the home. Is it okay for the value system of our family and how we want it to look and run? That we're doing a different plan, we're changing that plan from what we originally thought

in order to hit goals. Yeah, to me it's not a moral question, it would be more of a values question for you guys. Okay. So what's the motive in wanting her to pick up some shifts? I just want to be able, like obviously we have a plan to be able to pay off debt, but

her being able to work a little bit and pick up a couple shifts will be able to allow us to kind of make that plan go a lot faster and we're just kind of not on the same pace. I want to, I want to get out of the sea as quick as possible, but she's just not, she's not on the same page and I'm having a hard time getting through to her on that.

I'm just, I'm not sure how to move forward, we have. Yeah, so you're not on the same page with the timeline of her going back to work to make the timeline faster to get out of debt, or you're not on the same page to pay off debt at all.

“I think it's a lot of the latter trying to pay off debt at all.”

Okay. Okay. So then yes, it would be very difficult to tell your wife to go back to work for something that she doesn't really care. It's not moral issue, it's just strategically wrong to demand.

It's just not going to go well and saying like, hey, can you pick up some work to a person who's been working all day in the home? That's where I think it can get defensive. Yeah, well Anne, she's going to go to work for something that she's not interested in and that's to pay off debt.

So we need you guys to be united on the goal and then what levers can we pull in order to make this go faster? Yes. So that might be one lever to pull. So what is causing her not to care about the debt?

Is she just like, it's not a big deal or fine? I think the way she was brought up, I mean, my parents and her parents had very different views on money and some of my parents are very much, yeah, debt, like debt-free as soon

as possible, where her parents have kind of always, that's not, money has not always been

the most important thing in their life. And so coming from such different backgrounds, it's hard to find that common ground. How long have you guys been married? About two years. Okay, when did you decide that you want to get out of debt?

I, for the first six months of our marriage, I wasn't as, I wasn't going to go back if I should have been, but then about a year and a half, I really, I sat down and looked at all of our finances. And I said, like, we've got to mess your way, we've got to get ourselves out of debt. Have you shown her that?

So it's been a year and a half of this conversation. Yeah, it's unfortunately, it's just one of those sore subjects that every time it's brought up, it usually ends in a fight or it just, we, we drop in and then talk about something else

because we never get anywhere.

I mean, not, not about the debt necessarily, but bills and goals for saving or anything

along those lines. Yeah, that's the crazy thing. If it's used, she's completely on board, but the budget, like, we have a great budget going on. If you're completely on board with that and spending with intermezzles, it's just the aspect

of wanting to try and make extra sense that you didn't have, yes, correct. Okay.

“Well, at what rate will you pay off debt without her picking up more work?”

It would probably take us five to seven years, I would say. What kind of debt is it? It's 85,000 total. It's the combination of student loans or the car loan. We have a loan to my dad because they all, for what?

It's all in that. What's the debt to your dad? What's the debt to your dad? Well, loan to my father.

Yeah, if I compare it to where the ones I didn't like debt.

Yeah, correct. They, like, we had $1,000 in credit card debt and my dad came to us and said, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay this off when you guys, you're just gonna pay me back in a loan, no way you guys aren't getting killed with the interest involved in that. Oh, boy.

Okay. So you owe him 20 grand? Yeah. What's on the car loan? About $10,000.

Okay. What's that thing worth? A few sold up private payments. It's pretty much right. It's pretty much right.

$10,000. Okay. And then a majority student loans? Yeah, it's about $55,000 in student loans. Okay.

How much do you make a year? 105. Okay. Um, yeah, I mean, I think it is going to, it's going to come down to you guys sitting down and just saying, and you explaining to her not that, not saying you need to do this

“and you need to do that and you need to pick up work, but how you're feeling, right?”

This idea of stress, you're feeling the weight of all of this. And to be honest, you owe your dad 20 grand. That's not fun. That's not a fun place to be with your parents. For seven years, every holiday is going to be a little awkward. Yes.

So, yeah. So, all of that combined, she needs to understand and hear from you, her husband. What this, what kind of toll this is taking on you from a, from a, from a stress standpoint and emotional face. It's fair to say, I can't live with this stress for seven years.

Yes. And that's fair, Tyler, and I would hope that she could look over and say, yes, I, I see that my husband is majorly struggling. This may not feel important to me, but it's important to him. And so what does life look like for us to get, you know, past this and through this debt.

And then that would be the conversation of looking at, for me, it's always helpful to look

at numbers. Because just this like, never ending idea of like, okay, I'm just going to be going back to work for this thing. That can, that can feel like, you know, a ton of you're walking down and you can't see the end of it.

And so if you guys put in, you know, even like an Excel sheet or something and just say, okay, if we sacrifice and we lived on, you know, 70,000, $60,000 and put everything else towards the debt. And you guys got really aggressive, like, really aggressive and she did not go back to work.

“I think you guys could have this paid off faster than seven years Tyler, if you guys did”

nothing. I agree. Nothing. What's your rent or mortgage payment? Uh, $1,500.

Okay, that's reasonable because you're probably taking home what a little over six grand a month. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's about $60, yeah, something like that. So your total bills you're saying are about five grand and you can throw a grand towards the debt.

Correct. Okay. So the now the question is, well, we have five grand of bills. How can we get that down while you go make more? If she can't or is unwilling, then it's on you and that's a new conversation.

Hey, I'm going to be gone a little more because nights and weekends are now going to be me side hustling because we can't be in this mess for seven years. Yeah. If you guys could get to a point that you're throwing three grand at this debt a month. Right?

I'm like that. That significantly changes things and that could be from extra work. That could be from you guys taking your food budget to Ex amount down a couple hundred bucks. You know, to be like, it's it's moving the numbers around.

The conversation is if you can't pick up extra work, we're going to have to have a budget of about $3,000 to live on. And now you guys get to play that and see what you can cut and then if it gets uncomfortable, then we have to go, all right, we need to make more money. One or both of us is going to have to do that.

And then put in there and just say, hey, if you, yeah, as you nurse, when you said shifts, what does that mean? No, no, no, she didn't say home mom. No, I know, but you said she could pick up a few shifts earlier. Yeah, she, she used, before she had the baby she used to work in a fast food restaurant.

Okay.

Um, yeah, and you know, you got it.

You got it. And you may look at it. It's hard. They're good.

“Well, I was going to say, you may look at it too and say what she's bringing in versus child care”

may not even be worth it. You know what I mean? Like you guys may actually run the numbers and see, but it's hard for you. Why? Finish your sins?

It's hard. Because I know how much work a stay-a-home mom is on one her and I saw I don't want to feel like I'm asking too much of her by after even just to pick up a shaker too. Well, men change the sacrifice. The sacrifice becomes we need to cut a bunch of things out of the budget.

Our lifestyle is going to go down if we can't go make more. And so there's just, there has to be sacrifice on either side here and that might just mean right now you're working extra and cutting down in the budget in order to cut down this timeline. [ Music ]

Hey, what's up guys, it's Jade.

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Hi. Hi, how are you? Hi, we're doing great. How can we help? I was needing some help figuring out some guidance in the situation that has been ironed.

Recently, purchases home started out doing small renovations that led us to discover big massive problems, so much to the point where our contractor did some digging, realized

that the permits that were pulled for this house were never completed, nobody ever

inspected this house, nothing was signed off. There was never a certificate of occupancy in the initial home selling and we have found my nothing in the plumbing, the electrical, and at this point the building now is up to code nothing absolutely nothing, and so my husband, I have already invested close to $30,000 in renovations that we were already budgeting to do for this house, and that's not including

all of the plumbing and stuff that we recently found that are wrong with this, and so we're just kind of trying to get some guidance on what our next steps are with all the information that we've gathered and have seized work on our new house that we bought.

“How long have you owned the house when did you buy it?”

We closed January 29th of this year. Oh, so super recent. Yeah, we haven't even moved into this house like we were going to do all the small renovations, like new flooring, baseboards, some lighting, and then that was it.

We were going to move into our first ever home because we had been working so hard, paying

off all of our debt, like our college debt, and everything, so we were super excited for this big step, and then suddenly we run into this massive, massive problem. And there's a lot of people who are incompetent to get us here, and so we're not going to rehash all of that. Let's just talk about what you can do at this stage, because right now you are, you

could be legally liable to get this thing up to code. Exactly. And so number one, I would be contacting a real estate attorney. Correct. The process of trying to figure that out, I've collected all original tax documents.

You have a moment. My husband. I am in the middle of requesting it. They will be sending us those documents on Monday, and I even went to the title company,

house prior to us, because they were the first home buyers to the new home, and then

for us as well. Was there title insurance at closing? Or us? There was. I don't know if I can't speak for the people prior to us.

Well, I'm wondering if that title insurance could help you in this case. It could cover some of the stuff that was undisclosed, and then the other part is the listing agent. The person who sold you this home, you could file a complaint against them as well with you know, your state's real estate commission.

“Yeah, have you contacted your real estate agent Victoria?”

I have. She said that from the legal counsel, she thought out that since this wasn't a new home buy for us, that theoretically we were all in the clear not having to ask for a title of occupancy, and for any of proof that the permits were completed, or anything was up to code with this house.

A lot of assumptions made here. Okay. Oh, boy. And you guys didn't get an inspection. We did, so we got an inspection.

The inspector never flagged anything that we, there are a couple things that he flagged, but

those were like minor negligible things that my husband's like I can fix such as like the vent on the top of the house wasn't done correctly. The things my husband's like, it's not a big deal like there's nothing massive. All the problems that we found in this house are all things that were not visibly able to see obviously.

Okay. So it's not some of the inspector's shit of reasonably caught. That's what I'm wondering. Because so they have their own insurance that you can find. But they're loving and everything.

I'm shocked. I mean, from what you're making it sound like, I'm shocked at the, yeah, that there was no level of any problem from the inspector. Oh, yeah, for sure. We're, we're so in shock that somehow we got from there was someone had purchased property.

And then suddenly there's a house, but there were no signatures and no signature trail from A to B. And then somehow, though, we're all connected to all kinds of city resources, though. Even though the city's like, yeah, none of this was completed, nothing was ever to find off on. I mean, nothing is making sense and no doctor connecting.

Is it, I don't know, like, everything's good with the title. That's what I almost would be. I'm scared that someone else's name is, is in all of this too. You know what you mean? Like, I mean, the way that this is sounding is horrible.

“Yeah, I have no, I mean, honestly, at this point, I, I feel like the only thing that I”

felt was in the right direction was to try and go and collect all the original documents for this house and the property taxes and everything. Yeah. Someone tries to cover something up within what we're 90 days. I mean, of the, of well, I guess a little over 90.

I mean, close to 90 days. So that, I mean, the time for me, I would think, from a legal perspective, is on your side because of the window, right, you're not, you have owned it for two years and you're finding all this stuff and you're trying to backtrack everything, right, that this closing just happened.

So I would talk to a real estate attorney. It's probably get some good course of action, because from, especially from in Texas, like, specific state laws and different things, right, different states run things differently. And so they're going to know from a state specific side. How to move forward.

But yeah, I would make sure the, it sounds like you've got to live with it. Yeah, there's a lack of certificate of occupancy. I think your attorney's going to have a field day with this one. But it's going to cost you before we can get out of this mess or solve it. So that's the not fun part.

This is going to be a full time job for you guys, just to deal with them. So sorry. Yeah, it's horrible. Sorry, Victoria. All right, let's go to Brad and Huntsville.

Hi, Brad. Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for taking the call. Absolutely. How can we help?

So basically me and my wife for 26 years old, you don't have any debt apart from

a mortgage. But we have two homes. One is completely paid off. And the other one, we have about $270,000 in mortgage debt on. So our plan was to hopefully sell our house and then pay off the entire mortgage.

And now it's looking like there's going to be about a $30,000 difference. So we have close to like $350,000 in investments. And we're just deciding whether it would be wise to take that 30K difference and put it into the house to pay off the mortgage or if we should just try to pay off the mortgage as fast as possible, you know, over the course of like two years.

Yeah, how much do you guys make a year? 5,795 dollars a month, so that's like $69,000 a year. Okay. Taxes, like that's the break. Take home pay.

Yeah.

“When you say investments are these retirement accounts or non-retirement?”

Not retirement accounts. Oh, okay. Where did that money come from? What were you investing for? Yeah.

So some of it's, we, meanwhile, I've had some businesses, some franchises that we sold. So we got some that way. Some of, was like inheritance stuff, others than different real estate stuff.

So it's not really earmarked for anything.

It was just sort of a pile of money of profits that have just been sitting there in like a brokerage account. Yeah, it's a brokerage account. And like in my head, you know, we have other stuff going on to retirement too, but in my head, it's part of my retirement, even though it's not like an earmarked account.

You guys are 26, if you have no mortgage, no payments and you're investing from 26 for the rest of your career, you're going to be multi-multime multi-millionaires, I'm not really concerned. I would be taking that 30k out plus whatever you'll owe in capital gains taxes on the growth and knock out that mortgage.

Okay. And then with that freedom payment, let's do some smart with it. Yeah.

How much is the mortgage payment a month?

So again, so right now we're selling, we're closing on the sale of our house next week.

“So that's what we actually get to take that big chunk of money to pay down the house we”

currently have. But like I said, the current mortgage is 270k, so that's like a $1700 payment. And so, but if we were to just take it and not pay off the $30,000 difference, the principle, you know, just the mortgage side of it, not including the home insurance would be like 190 bucks a month.

Nice. Got that. Yeah, I would do that. And this is me clear for the listeners, it's because it's in a non-vertirement account. You're not going to be facing penalties, you're just going to have the capital gains

tax. And so I would definitely do that. You'll still have a giant pile of money and no payments for the rest of your life at 26. Do you guys want the lottery?

Well done, Brad. Yep. Pay it off tonight and enjoy.

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This is a paid advertisement. Home buyer-edge and seller guarantee are available for qualifying borrowers and select loan types only and not available in all state of locations. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwins Credit Union Studio. I am Richard Cruz hosting this hour with George Kamel, and we are answering your questions.

So it's open phones at triple eight, eight to five, five, two, two, five, so give us a call. All right.

First up, we have Nia Maya in Charleston.

Hi. Welcome to the show. How you guys doing today? We're doing great. How can we help?

Okay, so I'm 21 years old. When I graduated high school, I thought credit was the main thing that I had to focus on, and I ran it up pretty quickly, and I was handling it pretty decent, but I recently lost my job and now I'm back working, but I took up major pay cut, at least in my book. And I'm just trying to figure out how can I handle it better, the life whenever I get out

of this. I know the right stuff to do next time. Yeah, absolutely. So how much debt are you in? Around 25,000. 25,000.

Okay.

“And is that mostly credit cards or what kind of debt is it?”

I have 14,000 tours in my truck. My truck had a problem that needed to be fixed, and that was $5,000 towards three pairs. And then the job I was working at, I needed tools, and that was roughly around $3,000. Okay. And is that?

Was that on a credit card? Yes, ma'am. Okay.

Yes, sir. Okay.

What are you making right now?

Uh, 800, 40, that's 41,000, and 600 a year. Okay.

“And that comes out to what's your take home pay every month?”

All right. 800. Okay. So what is your amount a week? 800?

A week? A week. Okay. 800 a week. Gotcha.

Got it. And what is your rent right now? Uh, I'm currently staying with my mother. Okay. Good.

Well, yeah, we tried that game.

We played with the snakes. We got bit. So here's the good news. You don't need to worry about your credit score once you've paid off all of this debt.

Yeah, sir. Because the point of credit scores is to get you some more debt at better rates. That's the game. Yeah, sir.

“But if you want to live more freely, you just don't go into more debt.”

And you can still rent apartments, rent cars, even get a mortgage without playing the credit score game. And I'll walk you through that. I'll send you a copy of my book, Nehemi, and I have a whole chapter on credit score as I want you to read at some homework.

All right. So the goal now is how low can we get our expenses? How high can we get our income? To create this beautiful gap called margin to throw with this 25K. Is it?

So right now, how much do you think you'd have if you live pretty tight? How much could you throw at your debt? Uh, I'm throwing about 600 at it right now. I mean, I'm living off a chicken eggs and rice. So you're saying you're living at home, so your expenses should be pretty low.

Yes, sir. Well, my mother, she's actually out of work right now. She's been having some serious medical issues, though, I'm doing cover-up in her business. Not completely because she is on disability, but I am helping out. Okay.

What do your total bills add up to? Oh, because here's the math on this. I'll just show you what I'm doing in my head. Some napkin math. You have 25 granted debt.

So if you could put a thousand bucks toward the debt, you're done in about two years. All right.

“So the goal is how do we get out of debt in less than two years?”

Well, we need to put more than a thousand bucks a month toward the debt. So that becomes the goal, and now it's how do we get our expenses down income up in order to do that? I would say, I mean, I would go even bigger than you, and my two, if it's six hundred right now, could you make it a goal to earn an extra thousand dollars a month by working

nights and weekends, and just working like crazy? And if you earned an extra thousand dollars a month, then that's, yes, $1,600, go into that debt, and that, you know, that speeds it up. Yeah, I mean, it cuts it not quite in half, but close to it. That would get you out of debt about 15 months, set a 24, 20, five months.

Yeah. So it's just, it's the seasons of sacrifice, and you're doing, you're doing a lot to me, am I, I mean, helping your mom, do you know, do you see kind of an end to when she may be able to go back to work to, for her to support herself, do you see that happening anytime soon?

Uh, yes, ma'am, she's, she's making, she's making some improvement, but it is, like, with a physical labor, had, had her job as she would have to put it in. Because how much are you paying towards her stuff a month, a couple of hundred bucks? Uh, yes ma'am. Okay.

So yeah, so when that clears up, and if she's able to get back to work, you know, that's a couple of hundred bucks again, freed up, um, so I think there's, there's, um, yeah, some definitely some, a bright future in your 21, you said, yeah, well, I'm so thankful you called me and Maya, and so encouraged by you, honestly, like, if you can learn this stuff at 21, and you're learning to chase the right things, like having a plan, and you have

a budget, and you start saving for an emergency fund after you get out of this debt, and you start investing, like, all of that is in just the next four to five years for you.

I mean, you, you're going to be able to do some incredible things financially, like, completely

change your family tree. Like, you're going to be able to build wealth so quickly because you're getting this so young. And so I would have some big goals, you know, I mean, I would say, um, to get out of this debt, say you do that, and say, say you do that in a year and a half, okay, maybe you kind

of get a raise here there, you get some money flowing, and so that'll be, yeah, so that'll be what end of twenty twenty seven, pull up the investment calculator, George. Oh, that should be fun. Yes, so end of twenty twenty seven, and then your goal, and Maya, is to get a three month emergency fund, okay, so all of your expenses, and I would include rent in that,

because I think eventually you're going to move out, and you're going to rent an apartment or get a place, okay, so you're going to get about a three month emergency fund. And then from there, you can start investing after that emergency fund and or start saving

So, so those are some, those are some big goals, but when you start investing, and let's say you start investing near Maya at twenty five years old, um, and say, you know, you put, I don't know George way, a thousand bucks a month, right, so say all of this that you're doing, and at this point, you're, you may be down a career path, you know, who knows what's happening with your income, and say you put, you know, a thousand bucks a month,

aside, and you're investing from age twenty five to sixty five, what is that, George? That would be with a ten percent return, six point three million dollars, if you consistently put a thousand bucks a month away in retirement, you know, anybody that has six point

three million dollars in your circle, you might be the first, and Maya might be the

one. It's on the side.

“And look, here's the thing, there's people with 800 credit scores who have nothing”

in retirement, and they're real proud of it, aren't they? They go, man, I got a great interest rate of my truck, and you're going, dude, I've had a, I got a 2008 truck, I've been driving to the wheels fall off, and I'm putting every dime into investments, instead of a depreciating asset. That's the kind of mentality that will cause you to be wealthy, and so we are very, we have

a lot of confidence in you, because you're so young, and you've got a bright future ahead, and you can knock out this dead in 18 months. Yes, I mean, I would get, I would be so motivated, and to stay debt-free near my for the rest of your life.

You save up and pay for things, you learn to live alive, you're not sitting there trying

to impress everybody else, but you're diligent, you have a plan, you have goals, and Georgia's, Georgia's book, Breaking Free from Broke, is going to help walk through all of that for you. So, stay on the line, and Christians going to pick up, and we'll give you that as a gift,

“and, yeah, me and my, we're cheering you on, we're excited for you.”

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months on the BoostMobile Unlimited Plan, as of January 26, see website for full details. Next, we have Austin in Indianapolis. Hey, Austin. Hello, how are you? Hi, we're doing great.

How can we help today? Um, I, my name, like you said, is Austin, I'm 28, and I have about $375,000 in debt. Is that include a mortgage? Uh, yes, somebody just about $120. Yes.

Oh, okay. Dang, okay. So what's the rest of the debt? The rest of the $250,000. Like $192,000 is an SBA loan on my business, which is my full time.

Okay. Thank you. Is it profitable? That's why I'm calling you guys. Okay.

Um, let's not go.

“So, when I, if we're only going to make this business profitable, who, what's the business?”

Uh, it's, I'm a small distributor for a snack company, I deliver two big box grocery stores. Okay. What was the loan for? The loan was for the acquisition of the business that I bought from the last individual that owned it.

Oh, okay. Was it profitable when you bought it? Yes, sir. Okay. So, what's going on now with it?

So, basically, uh, how do I work this?

So, basically, the, the last owner of it, um, he was, he was doing about, it's a 100% commission. Um, he was doing about $15,000 a week in sales, so he was taking hold about $2,200. Um, and since then, all of the, all of the stores had, had resets done, so my product presents was kind of slowed down a lot in there, and I'm doing about $10,000 to $12,000 a week on a good week.

And what are you taking home from that? Um, uh, it's, it's, it's not a lot, so I'm, I'm making about $15, $1800 a week.

Where's the other $10,000 go?

“So, some months, I'll do like $5,000, $6,000, and some months, I'll do $10,000.”

So I have, I pay about $3,000 a month just on the SBA loan for the business, um, that's, so that's cutting into your profits. Correct. That's the bulk of it. And you're doing this full time?

40 hours a week? Yes. Yes, sir. More than that, but yes. Okay.

Making about $5, $6,000 a month? Yes. And you've got a sizable level of debt. What's the other $60 grand in consumer debt? About $30,000 is credit cards.

Um, 20 of that is just regular this and that on my wife's credit card, um, about $2,000 is my credit card just regular consumer and then $8,000 of the rest of it is on a new

HVAC system for our house that we got last year.

Okay. Does your wife work? Uh, no. We have three and a half children. Okay.

Okay. Congratulations. My oldest son is 19. He, okay. Oh, okay.

He just, he was with us. That's why I said that. Okay. Okay. So this is even riskier because you're a single income household on a 100% commission.

Correct. You guys have anything in savings? Uh, we have our thousand dollar emergency fund. And I have about $600 in my wallet of money that was given to me my, by various family members to keep gas in my trucks so I can keep working.

Wow. So are you that? Is it that tight every month to where you're barely scraping by because you got 3,000

“alone plus all the family expenses making five grand total?”

What's your rent or mortgage? Uh, about 1250? So just between the 1250 mortgage and the three grand to service the loan, you're already barely putting food in the table. Correct.

Do you see an upside do you have a hope that this business is going to be profitable soon like do you see an actual realistic future? So I have a couple more accounts, a couple more grocery stores that are opening up in my area. Um, one of them is going to, I'll probably do on the low end about $2,000 a week.

And sales in there. Um, so that'll be, you know, a chunk extra, I guess. When does that have it? Uh, in June is when they're opening. Okay.

How old are your kids? Um, the three. We have the night. Then, okay, uh, 12, it'll be 13 soon. Yeah.

Yeah. And my daughter just turned seven and then my youngest son just turned three. Okay. So the three year old son. I'm just was wondering if your wife could jump in and do something.

Yeah. Both of them are the kids are in school at least, um, about the three year old. We, we've been talking and trying to figure out like when my three year old goes to school that she could go find somewhere to go. Yeah.

But that's going to be in like two years unless you guys are going to do a preschool or something. You don't even mean like I do wonder, um, just just for a six, seven month period. It doesn't have to be long. But for you guys in extra 1,000 bucks a month is like, is life changing. So to supplement a little bit, um, my dad is also in the same business just for another

company. Um, I've kind of worked my route around to where I can spend Wednesdays with him and he's offered to to pay me some extra, totally about like, a thousand, $1,600 a month extra. Okay.

I don't have knock out these little debts.

“Why would you be working with him on a Wednesday versus just in the business?”

Because most most of my accounts are big contract accounts and a lot of his or small cash stops. Um, and the big contract accounts are there receiving are all closed on Wednesdays. Gotcha. I have I have a couple stores that will let me come into the series, but I just started

doing those. Well, that's great. I mean, an extra fit. Yeah. 1,200 bucks.

Do in that. That's going to be very helpful. Yeah, your best bet is just to get more of these big contracts and make this business more profitable in order to have some extra. Yeah.

I mean, this $200,000 small business loan is like, little, but you guys need to sit down and you both need to have a date on the calendar that we can't. We can't live like this for the rest of our lives. So what's the point? We're still here.

Yeah, we eject. Yeah, at some level, what's that date if we don't see progress by when we need to start having some really serious conversations about what it looks like to get out of this business. If you just go work full time making 7 year 80, it's a better bet. Yeah.

Still having this business loan, is there a way you could sell this business to someone else?

I could, um, the problem is I'm kind of upside down.

So I own like 190, 200 on the business and on paper it's probably worth about 140, 150.

Well, I mean, even if you came up with a difference, it'd still might be worth getting out of this eventually. Yeah. Or getting the business out of what I would do to get it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, if you, I mean, if you hit some big accounts and you get a back

go in and it's actually sustaining a blessing in your life, yeah, long terms, then obviously that's the win. But if, if it's, if you're running your wheels like this, you can't be doing this for another two, three, four years, Austin, right? Oh, yes.

I mean, that is correct. Yeah, so you guys, you and your wife, you just sit down and just have some, some level of a plan.

Yes, what kind of happen, if this happens, here's what we'll do, if this doesn't happen,

here's what we'll do.

“Yeah, we didn't hit this benchmark net at this point, we need to see this and this, right?”

Because if the, if the June accountstone ends up happening, you know, then, then you're still exactly where you are. You're right. So there needs, there needs to be some benchmarks that you guys need to be hitting. And if that's not the case, then, yeah, we got to figure out what to do, because like

Georgetown, even if you found something that paid 80 grand a year, you're still going to have this debt. Hopefully, with this, you know, even if even if you get it cut in half, selling it for not a lot, that's 100 grand, and people will got student loans for 100 grand, you know, you just look at it as another debt to get out.

And Austin, dear Lord, please cut up the credit cards. You guys can't keep doing this. Yeah, that's cut them out tonight. Do it now, do you have, do you have one, yeah, well, get it out. You guys got to figure out, go shop at all the beans and rice rice, so you don't get

fancy food, right? You can't, you got to cut it all the way down, and adding this guardrail is going to help you get out of this mess. Right. And it's going to be hard.

You're going to have to get creative.

But once you take debt off the table, we can finally get worse as you please.

We got to plug the leak first. Absolutely. Yeah, you're not going to get out of this mess as you continue to dig out the bottom, so cut them up tonight. You guys need some extreme changes, so I'd make a timeline, and I'd cut up credit cards

for the business.

“That's what I'm going to time on for the business to cut the credit cards tonight.”

Hey, guys, George here. Listen, 99 times out of 100, when people say, I don't know where my money goes. It's not a math problem. It's a behavior problem. They're not budgeting.

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So if you're ready for a bank that helps you be intentional, open your smart bundle today at fairwins.org/RAMSI and get the Ramsey B-Wear debit card to go along with it. That's fairwins.org/RAMSI, insured by the NCAA. Ramsey Show, a question of the day is brought to you by Y-Refi. Defaulted, private student loans don't fix themselves, but you can fix them.

Y-Refi helps you refinance into a low fixed rate payments that fits your budget so that you can get back to the baby steps and move forward. Go to Y-Refi.com/RAMSI, that's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y.com/RAMSI, may not be available in all states. Today's question comes from Diana in Minnesota.

She says, "My husband and I have just started looking at our every dollar budget together once a month." Sometimes it feels like we're just staring at our screen and have no idea how to talk about the budget.

“What are some strategies to use these monthly budget meetings to forward ourselves?”

This is a nice question. So Rachel, you talk a lot about the budget meeting. At least once a month, we're talking about this sitting down. It doesn't have to be an hour, doesn't have to be dramatic. Yeah, no, so it's, I mean, when I think about the monthly budget, honestly, I would say

for us, 80% of the expenses are the same, month to month. Like the category's really don't change. And then there's probably five to six categories that change month to month or that we

It might be like activity-based calendar-based for all these things happening that we need to have the month.

“So for us, honestly, our budget meeting looks like a calendar meeting when we look ahead”

because I'm like, "Okay, we got this thing coming, Winston has a trip coming up with some guys for his birthday." So it's like, "Hey, we have that. We got this." You end up talking about, I mean, for us, the calendar, kids' school stuff, camp signups for

the summer. We're like looking at all of these things that are going to be happening that month. And that's it. And for us, it takes five minutes. Like our budget meetings are not long.

Yeah, once you get in the habit of it, it's quick. It's so quick. Yes, but you do want to have a meeting, though, I say a meeting, but to have conversations, we do it once a year and you can do it more, to be dreaming and thinking through your long term plans.

What are the bigger goals? Yes. And this is probably once your in baby steps for and beyond, right? Because your big goals, if baby steps one through three, is to get out of debt, get that emergency fund.

And that's what you're working towards. But after that, you kind of say, "Okay, as we're investing in retirement, we're looking to pay off the house. What are some other goals that we have? Is there renovations around the house?

Do we want to do it? Do we need to replace a car? Do we want to go on a trip?

“What are these things in the next year, two years, three years, five years?”

And then we even look out as far as down the road and just say, "If money were no option, what will we do when the kids are in high school?" You know, would we want a second home one day? You know, we start to dream that way. We don't do anything with that, but we at least get those conversations going.

You don't want to fast forward 10 years and now you're on very different pages, because

you never talked about it.

Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah. I like that. This looks different because it's pretty simple. It's how little can we live on, how much can we throw at the debt?

All right, did we assign those dollars to the debts? Great. High five. We're doing this. It really starts with alignment on your money values and goals before you ever

look at the screen. Because if you don't have that, you are just staring at a screen going to what now we're supposed to be doing this. Totally. And they're not exciting.

So if you guys have been doing it for a while and you're in a routine, it may be that kind of quick boring, but like, okay, we did it, check. They're moving on. I usually more excited. The free spirit is like, oh my gosh, I ran into a couple of sitting next to them at a

coffee shop and they had their every dollar budget pulled up and they're doing their budget meeting. With you sitting next to them. Did they know? I felt like I was under a cover boss.

I was going to say. But I didn't say anything. How's it working? I didn't want to make it weird. Like, hey, I noticed you guys were doing your every dollar budget.

Can I help? Yeah, need a new help. How would it be? Larry is. This is me, George Campbell.

But I was like, we're good. It's a couple, actually budgeting. They're having a good time. Have their fancy coffees. And they're doing the talking about what's going on this month.

Yeah, what can I head? I love it. Yep, hope that helps Diana. All right, let's go to Jessica in Richmond. Hi, Jessica.

Hi, Rachel. Hi, George. Hi. Welcome to the show. How can we help?

“So my mom and I want to sell our homes and buy one together, but I think only to use”

at least some of her savings in order to achieve that. And I wonder if that's a bad idea. Where do we start with the bad ideas? You just listed it. Well, what's going on here with the code dependency of you and mom buying homes together?

Well, I'm going through my second divorce.

She is widow. She's 65 retiring this summer. She has limited mobility. And we had a really bad ice storm here this winter. And it was hard for her to take care of the house and the ice, but driveway, and still

try to get into work. I had to do the same to my house, all by myself. And so I figured that way we can take care of each other if we get a house together. God, so you are kind of partial caretaker and you're coming off of this divorce and you're kind of needing a safe place to land and have some emotional moral support.

I think you can do that. Okay. Are you an only child, Jessica? I am. Okay.

Well, that's helpful. I was going to say because you know, if you guys have this plan long term and the house is left to you, I don't know what's simply, I don't know how that was going to work with all the, the will in the estate and everything, but that kind of simplifies it. Do you see living with her for the foreseeable future, are you going to want to own a home

yourself?

Well, she was going to put everything in my name, so it would basically be like, she's

just living with me until she goes to the Lord. Okay. So why not just you buy a house on your own? I would like to do that. There are problems.

I don't think I have enough money. I currently have a home, it's a townhouse, and I think I can only get about 190,000 if I sell it and try to get a bigger home so that I can accommodate her, but with doing that, the mortgage is going to be too much for just my income. Okay.

And does she have income right now? She does, but with her retiring in the summer, that income is basically going to go away, and we don't know when Social Security and her 401K distributions will come in. What would she get if she sells her home? We're hoping she can get 200,000.

I just think this is going to be a lot cleaner and simpler and less dramatic if one person owns the home. That's what we were thinking today.

“So maybe she pays toward the mortgage while she lives there, almost like she's paying”

you some rent out of her profits. We were thinking that I was just thinking with paying off the house in case something happens like I lose my job, I didn't want us to have a mortgage payment over our heads. So that's where I was thinking if we could just pay off the house altogether, we have no debt.

Despite that. That is what you're saying. Okay. So she would use her profits and give them to you almost like a gift. Yeah, it's almost like that's part of your inheritance you're getting early while

she's alive. Correct.

The worry that we were having is selling my home first, putting the 190 down on a

house and maybe using some of her savings, she has 400,000 savings, maybe using about half of that to cut a lot down on the house for the mortgages and decent for me to use. Well, we wait for her house to sell because there is some work that needs to be done on it. And I'm afraid that if it takes longer to sell than we anticipate, then she's going

to have to pay this $2,000 mortgage with no income.

“How much does she have total and liquid assets right now?”

400,000. Okay. What's in her 401k? She has a 401k in the amount of 255,000 and then she has 164,000 in her government TST. She currently does a bit worker.

Okay. That's about 4,20 or so in retirement, another 400 in cash. Right. So she's in a pretty decent spot. What I don't want to do is to plead her money to pay off this mortgage and now she

has no retirement and now you're funding her life forever. I wouldn't mind that was one of the things I was thinking, it's like, "Well, come in. We'll get a house together. If you don't have income for a year while we're waiting on social security, that's all right.

If we have no mortgage, I'll have the money to be able to afford our food and utilities." Yeah, you're just signing up for this is it, you're signing up for to cover her bills for the rest of her life. And if you're okay with that, that's fine. But you also have to realize you have a life to live too and you could get remarried

one day. Right? Yeah. I don't think I'm doing this again.

I mean, never say never, just saying, third marriage is exist.

And so that's my fear as you marry this guy, he goes, "Hey, listen, you're moving into my house. Mom is living in your house, I guess, rent free, or she needs to be a care, you know, you need to be a caretaker. She moves in with you."

Yeah, it just seems like a big, I mean, a house is that, you know, it is probably the largest financial purchase, right, that you're going to make, and she won't have, because I would not put it in her name. But if she called us, I'm trying to think what I would be telling her, right? What's best, what's best for mom in this situation?

And so yeah, I mean, if you guys go through with a just guy, I would put, I would put the house

“in your name, and if you need to, you know, wait a little bit to make this all work and”

sell both houses first, just to make it clean.

You guys can do that, but don't deplete that $400,000 of hers, because she's going to need that to live on, as well as things in her 401(k) as well. Next up, we have Elizabeth in Seattle, Washington, High Elizabeth. Hi, Rachel, how you doing? Hi, we're doing great.

How can we help today? So, my question is, I've got family members that are moving across the United States. So, we were going to work in, it's pretty, it's pretty spending here. I got an uncle that's moving him and family members all to Tennessee. They're trying to convince us to go with them.

I was wondering, how the numbers pencil out when you decide to move like that? What do you mean, what do you mean by numbers? So, like, I mean, here my husband makes good money. I make pretty decent money, part-time, he's got really good insurance, he works for a union. So, right now he's making 45 an hour, we'll use that as the number, and if we move

to Tennessee, my uncle's like, oh, you can make 25 an hour, but the cost of living is different over there, and we don't have any job lined up, I guess. I'm kind of curious that we're going to miss the mark if that makes it.

Are you struggling right now?

Are you guys struggling financially? No. No, we're not a good spot.

“That's why it's hard, because it's more of an emotional attachment to go.”

Because the uncle that's moving is one of my like, closer relatives, that makes sense. Sure. Yeah. But there's no urgency here. You guys could find jobs.

No, I don't. And then move. Yeah, you can use, like, we have a cost of living calculator on our website, and you can start to go, okay, you could probably make 75 instead of 90, and it'd be about the same lifestyle, because we have no state income tax and Tennessee, and cost of living

is a little cheaper than Seattle. And so you can start to do the math on that and do some research ahead of time instead of just waiting it. Yeah. And like every state, depending on which part of the state you move to, is going to be

different, right? You go to Jackson, Tennessee, that's going to be cheaper than parts of Nashville, Tennessee. Yeah, the area that our studio here is, and it's one of the top 10 wealthiest counties in the nation. And so you would come here and go, oh my gosh, Seattle was cheaper.

I can't believe how expensive the homes are here.

And so it the grass always seems greener and that's why I would just do a lot of facts

finding. Yeah. And then make your decision. That may change, and that's kind of where I was at, because our mortgage right now up here is very low, we're sitting at 2,000 a month, and our income covers that.

It's not too hard to save around it. We've got a decent amount of retirement. My big king is going to work so our house just to move somewhere else. Because we're going to be in the same boat. Well, this was, it sounds like you don't want to move.

You don't have to. Really. It's definitely a plan. I think you're okay. Just plan a couple of trips a year to Tennessee to see Uncle.

Yeah. That's probably the simpler move right now. And if you fall in love with it, and you find a job here and get the job, well, now we can talk about moving. Yeah.

But that could happen in two to three years. You know what I mean? If you guys love it. I'd like a couple of people trying to convince me. My best friend moved to like rural New York.

She wants me to come over there. We've got some relatives in Pennsylvania. Just moved everywhere. My uncle. It sounds like you're a free spirit.

You did a lot of good friends, you know? I don't want to hang with you. I got a lot of people.

And I'm the second oldest 12 children.

Wow. Good night. Okay. What does your husband say? What do you want to do?

My husband is more of a go with the flow kind of a person. He has a said, let's move. He kind of goes down kind of like a good idea, but I don't know. So your friends are convincing you and then you're job to convince him. And then we'll just move around the country.

Yeah. I'm not feeling the main reason people call and it's usually a Washington, a California, like we'll get certain parts of the country and they're like, I can't afford to live here. We can't buy a home. We can't X Y and Z.

And so they move to further their income in order to do the things that they want to do. It sounds like you've done everything you want to do. You have the house that you want. You guys have great jobs, all of it. It's just going to look, you may just look up in a year or two and be like, man, I miss

our family.

“So we want to move closer to them in Tennessee and maybe that's what you decide to do.”

But you're not, that's not pulling you right now. I don't have any compelling reasons to say, yes, you should move. Yeah. So I would, I would just whole title is about calm down. Nothing is on fire and let the Tennessee people move and yeah, go visit them a couple

of times a year and see if you guys still have this itch, you know, a year from now. And if you do think you're both adults and you guys get to make a decision, then we want to look for jobs and move. But I would not do anything now because nothing is on fire. All right, let's go to Hannah in Dallas.

Hi, Hannah. Welcome to the show. Hi. How are you all? Hi.

We're doing great. How can we help? Okay. So we've been advised a couple different people in regards to selling our home that we should not put the 20% down on the next home because we'll have pretty good amount of equity selling

our house. To our church and our community and our kids schools. So we don't have a good amount of money to put toward our new house and they're saying not to put 20% down but to save it in like six to half separate nights and then in six nights.

Do you have like a reappraisal or a recap or something like that to make our value then go up? And so my husband and I was like, the kind of like again, we don't know if we should play it.

“When you say we're being told, who are these people?”

So we've gotten a couple different, well, for one, our realtor is told us this. He's like, this is what we do with our last house and it's got a food from like a thousand dollars extra every month and now we've taken that off of our mortgage every month or whatever and then when we talk to a couple of different banks and like credit unions, they're like, yeah, that's a good great idea.

So we're just like, I don't know if it's a great idea. Well, of course, a bank is going to want you to put less down to take out more on the loan. They make more money.

They don't think in terms of I'm going to put cash into a thing.

They go, how little can I put into a thing to squeeze the most out? And so I wouldn't be listening to either of these people. I would just go, can we actually afford this home based on the number we're putting down? And so have you done the numbers on that?

Is there a house that you've already been looking at? Yes. So there's a house like we are, our house is selling like this weekend or the next weekend in a house we're buying is the next weekend lower, so it needs like a data exploring and stuff. But we would make like a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars off the cell of our home

for the purchase of this next home. Okay. So we have a really good amount that we could put towards the house, but everyone's

“like you should hold on to that and fix the house up now, nice, now that you have a chance”

to.

Well, you always have the chance to do that.

The question is how urgent are the renovations and can you just cash flow them once you're in? Because here's the thing, if you put more down, your mortgage is lower, meaning you have more margin every month to then cash flow the renovations. But they're saying like if we did have that higher monthly payment for like six months, then

you have a higher value home and then your mortgage will go back low. So like I, I'm confused on that part. Just because your home value goes up doesn't mean your mortgage payment goes down. Because then it takes off the PMI as what they're saying, because if we don't put 20 down we get the PMI and then we can get like 200 off our monthly every month.

It's what they're got. Because you have, yes, because the debt income ratio, you'll have more than 20% equity at that point based on the value of the home. Okay. Well, you could just avoid the PMI entirely by putting the 20% down and cash flowing the renovations.

Yeah. That makes sense to know on the phone with y'all, but I don't understand that. Well, the other piece of this is they don't know your finances. They don't know what 80% on the mortgage is going to cost you every month and if that's fee will take on.

“Yeah, how much is the new home you guys are buying?”

It's 325, it's probably about what we would index. Okay. Well, we offer it in what they accept in all of that. Okay.

So yeah, so you guys are putting down almost a third, I almost 30%, right?

If you put the one 15, what's your take home pay every month? Mine has stay home, but mine has been green right at 7, 7, 11. Okay. Great. So based on that, if you look at the parameter of 4th of your take home pay, you're

looking at 1750 as the goal. Even putting 115,000 down on a 325 house with the current rates, you're probably looking at $2,22300 mortgage. So here's the other thing they're not thinking about. Not within the parameters, it's what you're saying.

It's tight. Now, we say the 25% of take home pay, that's after taxes but before any other deductions. So not don't include the health care premiums, the 401k contributions, which will help your numbers here. Okay.

“So I think you guys can do this, but I would be putting all of the proceeds down on”

the next house. Yeah, because the goal is just to get out of debt as fast as possible. And so when you sit there and kind of just play all these games and move the numbers around, praying that the interest rates are not everything are still going down, right? Like, you just don't know.

So if your husband income goes down, well, now you still have to stuck with this high payment. So I just put everything down, Hannah, and enjoy the home. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the FairWins Credit Union Studio. I'm Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with George Campbell.

And we are taking your calls at triple eight, eight to five, five to two, five. So next we have Lynn in Mobile, Alabama, high Lynn, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, I'm honored to talk with y'all today. Oh, well, thank you for calling. How can we help?

My husband and I, we are retired and we're doing fine. We have recently found out that one of our granddaughters and her husband, they're in their early 20s, are about $20,000 in debt. And that includes a car by $7,000 on and it needs about $2,000 worth of work in order to run.

My husband and I are at odds on what to do. One of us says we do nothing, we, we, that they need to learn how to handle money just like we did. That's your husband? Yeah.

He's old school.

My suggestion is we get to film on education of our city and once they complete that,

then we give them, I don't know, $45,000 to help start them to get out of debt. Are they both working? They, they make, my guess is between $50 and $60,000 together. Okay. And part of his concern is that they will spend the money on tattoos or more animals or more

animals. How many of they got? Yeah. They have a dog and a cat in an apartment. Oh, okay.

So they're renting right now. And yeah. It sounds like he sees a pattern of financial misbehavior. And he doesn't want to fund that misbehavior and enable it. That's correct.

So I see his point. And I also see your point in wanting to help your own granddaughter get a leg up in her adult life. Yes. And no more tattoos.

How many of they got? They tapped up. Just kidding. Several. I don't amongst my husband and I is weakening to spend the money or we can save it for them

to buy more tattoos. Okay, so Lynn, are they asking for help? No. No. So you're just seeing this play out.

Yeah. But she's told you because you know the numbers. Or did her mom tell you? Did your daughter or your daughter son? Is this the gossip myth?

Yeah. Yes. They're their granddaughters and mother told us. Okay. So what are they saying?

Like her parents? Your kids? What are they saying? Yep. They're not.

They just tell this is a course of conversation. Okay. Okay. So no one is panicked right now. There's not.

They're not looking to change. They're not. Yeah.

“I mean, I mean, honestly, when the the most I would do is gift them financial”

property and just say, I would, I would watch this if I were you guys. This would this helped us and you know, tell them a little bit about your story. But I mean, it's $100. Especially if they're not asking for anything. Right.

It'd be one thing if they called up grandma and they were like, hey, I need help. We have made mistakes and I don't know what to do. You know, if there was some level of that, then I could say, hey, you could get creative and say, hey, if you pay off $2,000 in debt, we'll pay off a thousand. You know, you can kind of like work with them to encourage them a little bit.

But they're not even wanting to change. I don't think Lynn. Yeah. I don't. I don't think that they see the benefit in changing and I don't think they have any idea.

How much we have. Are you guys pretty well off? I mean, we're comfortable.

Our, our net worth is probably between three and three and a half million.

Why did it go? Well done. Yeah, Lynn.

“I think as a grandparent, a gift, like a total money make over a financial piece of”

University, I think it's great. I think that's a great idea. Just to be like, hey, this is a, this is a program when it comes to money that really helps. And if you guys ever get stressed and you want to learn something, here's this.

But that's it. I wish I knew this stuff soon. Yeah. To you guys. Yeah.

And just say, you could, you guys could kill it financially. You're young. Your hard workers. And if you actually create some good habits, you guys could really do well financially. You don't have to be stuck in debt.

You know, you can give them a little pep talk. But I mean, if they're not looking to change, Lynn, I think that's probably one of the hardest parts of life that you, you know better than George and myself, because you have lived. You've lived longer lives than a longer life than us. But when you see someone in your life who's making decisions, it's not great for them.

That's not fun to sit there and watch. But also knowing that you're not able to change them at all. And they have not hit this point where life has been hard enough for them to say, well, what I'm doing isn't working. They don't have any pain right now. And say, you offering relief isn't going to do anything.

Okay. Other than enable it, like your husband has worried about that.

“I think there's a higher chance they blow the money that you give them.”

So if there's a tangible need that you want to cover, and you can give directly to that. You know, if they're not even asked, but they're not asking for it. They're not destitute. So giving them a grocery store gift card, it's not going to help that much.

So I think the truth is we're learning.

You're learning that you can't change people as much as you want them to have a better life. It's up to them to go get that life. But now my issue is I can't kill my husband he won. I would, in fact, then I would not tell you. Why, yeah, just you, you just say, you know, just don't even bring it up.

Do not tell him you called.

So he doesn't go and listen to this, you know. We're trying to, we're trying to say face for you, Lynn. How long have you guys been married? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Um, 30 something years.

Yeah, that'll do it. He probably needs a win. Just let him have this one. It's probably been a while. I love this.

You're so fun. You're great. And I love the heart behind. No, because it is hard, and you're like, "Lin, he's being stupid. Why are they being stupid?"

And I'm picturing this being like my granddaughter.

Yeah, and you're just like, "Come on, don't do this."

“Um, that's how, that's a hard, hard place.”

But you know, at Lynn, stay in good relationship with them. Love them. Be part of their lives, because when they do hit a wall, which I think eventually they will. They're going to go, gosh, I remember. We'll grab all in.

We'll grab all in. What would she say? And then you get to, da, da, da, da, da. Coming with all the wisdom that they're looking for. All right, let's go to Margaret and San Antonio.

Hi, Margaret. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Yes. How can we help?

I have a question.

We have one that, and it's a car.

It's right at 23,000 that we have left on it. I think that we have about 9,000 and a high yield savings account. And then we also have a 1,000 and another savings account. So we have 10,000 total right now. Okay.

We recently because we have like a custody thing that kind of just pops off. Whenever the X fell, feels like dragon is into court for fun. We have to drop between like $7,000 and $10,000 on the lawyer. And we recently had to do that back in November. Sure.

Why don't we, should I use this to pay down the car loan or we hang on to it? Yeah. If you know, this is a likely thing. I don't want you going to debt for lawyers when we saw this coming. So we hang on to it for now.

Yeah. And then when there's a while of a season that you guys know that, yeah, you're in the clear, then take that and pay it off. But if you have extra money coming in Margaret, be throwing that at the car.

“But if you want to keep this side for custody battle with lawyers, that probably would be smart until all that's cleared.”

When I talk to people on the Ramses show 90% of the problems I hear come down to one thing, not having a plan. They're not living on a budget. They have no idea where their money is going. Money is just happening to them instead of them happening to their money. And guys, that is so normal, but it doesn't have to be normal for you.

And that's why I want you to go download our every dollar budget app. Every dollar not only helps you tell your money where to go with a budget, it also builds a plan to free up extra money so you can pay debt off faster and start building wealth. And the best part, your plan is completely personalized to your life. It's the same advice that you would get if you call the show.

And it's right in your pocket, so don't keep living normal. Go download the every dollar app, answer a few questions and get your plan today. So Ask Ramsay is our new free AI tool that's been built. It's been trained on proven ramsy principles. And today we're going to break down one of the most frequently asked questions that we got last week, George.

All right. The question is, what are the key considerations and steps for managing Trump accounts for kids? Love it. Let's see what Ask Ramsay said about this because this is a question we do get a lot. The Trump savings account is a tax deferred account funded by a one time $1,000 government deposit

for eligible children born between 2025 and 2028. Follow the government's official process to set up the account in your child's name. You'll be the custodian until they reach the legal age. Like other custodial accounts, when your child reaches that age, they gain full access and control and they can use the money for anything not just education.

So it becomes like a traditional IRA of sorts at that point.

“There are no ongoing contribution requirements, but you should check if you're allowed to add more funds”

or invest the balance for growth. Consider the impact on future college financial aid as these accounts may be counted as the child's asset. There we go. So bottom line here. Trump account can be a great boost for I'll take the free thousand bucks, which I signed up for when I did my tax return.

Is it Henry? I guess that little Henry got it. Henry got it. There we go. Sorry, Mia.

Yeah, she didn't. Yeah, your three year old did not. Zero did not.

So don't think this is like your ticket. And the key is you got to invest for compound growth to take the lead. But starting at zero years old, I did the math. You leave a thousand bucks just sitting there for 65 years.

It could be half a million or more.

Yeah, that's crazy. At their retirement. So become the bonus retirement account, which is great. But I love a 529 plan for the tax advantages for education. And even a brokerage account in my name for the kids.

I don't necessarily want an 18 year old have access to $100,000. I wouldn't have made the best decisions at that age. So it's a piece of the puzzle. It's not a savior for anybody.

“So if you want to know the best way to invest space on your situation,”

check out Ask Ramsik and help you break down how much to contribute monthly. Go to RamseySolutions.com or just use the link in the description if you're listening on podcast or YouTube. Beautiful. All right.

Let's go to Salt Lake City. We have David on the line. Hi, David. Welcome to the show. Hey, you guys are a big fan.

And God bless. Thank you for taking my call. Yeah. Absolutely. How can we help?

Yeah. So my fiance and I are getting married in June. And we're looking at a honeymoon here. And there's an all-inclusive trip to Mexico. It's about $6,000.

I make between around $100K to $110K.

My fiance makes about 74. So altogether about 175 to 180. Thank you. I got about 40K in savings. I got about 30K in savings.

I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings.

I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings.

I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings.

I got about 30K in savings. I got about 30K in savings. That's great. Yes. You guys are on a great track.

Nothing feels out of balance. You're dead. You got emergency funds.

“You guys are making upwards of $200K as a newlywed couple.”

You're going to look back and say I'm so glad we took the trip. Yes. Absolutely. Just make sure you're paying cash and not putting it on the credit card. Yeah.

Yeah. That makes sense. All right. We'll do. We watched the show.

So we've learned a lot from you guys. Awesome. Well, congratulations. And yeah. Enjoy that.

All inclusive trip to Mexico. We got to be good cop. That felt really nice. Oh, I love when I tell people Skowspen that enjoy. Enjoy your trip.

Great trip. Rachel loves a trip. Love the trip to Mexico. And I love it. Love newlywed love.

A reason for a trip. You know, like a honeymoon or a birthday or an anniversary. Yeah. That's fine. It's great.

You'll look back fondly on that. You will. Yeah. Y'all enjoy David. All right.

George and I may show up and just be like. Pardon? All right. Let's go to Amanda in Des Moines. Hi.

Amanda. Welcome to the show. Hi. Hello. Hello.

How can we help today? Oh, my gosh. I'm so nervous. Okay. You are good.

You are good. Do not be nice. I am calling. We have been on baby step two. And we have so far paid off about 30,000 in debt in the last year.

Nice. So we have four left. And we have one that's been in consolidation or. Indaling grant. So it's incorrect.

And they called and gave me a settlement. They gave me a settlement. The loan itself right now is sitting at 10,500. And they gave me a settlement of 6,000. And they said I have to have that paid off in 30 days.

Yeah. I don't have it paid off.

They pack on 55 percent interest.

Yeah. No. Yeah. That's a bad deal.

“You should take another loan to pay that off with a smaller interest rate.”

No. So we have some time to take to make the payment. No. Because you can get this deal any time. Because it's in collections.

So they're going to end up. They're trying to put some pressure on. Yes. They'll end up selling the debt to another company. You'll be dealing with a different collections company.

So that that is the key that when you do settle a debt. For less. And usually you probably get a better deal. Honestly, Amanda. Did you even try to negotiate the 6,000?

Yeah. Well, that's what I negotiated because I was like. Okay. Because you can even go lower for some. Yeah.

For some of this. Yeah. You could have even possibly gone lower. But you do have to have it in full. You have to like.

It's a lump sum. Yes. So you can tell him. Hey. You and I both know.

$6,000 and 30 days lump sum is crazy. Yeah. I can't do that. I just can't do this deal right now. And then when you guys get to that part of your debt snowball.

Is that your next debt? Your next smallest debt. Yeah. Okay. So what I would do then is I would save as much as you can.

And say, I mean, pay the amount of payments. Don't get behind on it necessarily. But like I sure already kind of work. Because it's in collections. But I would have an amount.

And have 4,138 dollars and 24 cents. And you call him. And you say, this is the exact amount I have. I can write you a check today. And so when you have a decent amount in there.

I would call him up and start negotiating.

“But I would not take a deal until you have the amount.”

The total amount. And make sure you get it in writing. Yes. And that settled in full. Yes.

No interest, no games. And you know, it sounds like you've been putting away. 2500 toward the debt. So in two months, you'll have five grand, right? Right.

Yep. That's great. Two months from now, you call him. Say, hey, listen. Yep.

I got five grand. Take it or leave it. Yeah. So just don't do it. Don't do that deal today.

Okay. Okay. Yep. That's great. Amanda, well done.

Wait a clean up. Yes. Oh my gosh. All right. Let's go to Alex in Los Angeles.

Hi, Alex. Welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having me on the show. Yes.

Absolutely. How can we help?

“So earlier this month, I beat stage three record cancer.”

Oh my gosh. Oh. Oh. Wow. Feel like if you cheer up getting come back.

And it sounds like a high possibility. Okay.

And if it comes back, it's going to happen within the first five years.

More likely than later. Okay. Okay. Of course, we know this is going to take the future. Um.

So I've just won three and four down. And I'm stuck on speed going to long for step two or going to step five. So I have a baby to go to turn one. Mm. Um, and I want to put it into a five 29 for him.

But I also have a hundred grand and student loan desk. Um, I don't know if I should aggressively pay off the student loan debt. Or aggressively put into a five 29 for him. Thank you. If I pass, you or my husband can't inherit my student loan debt.

Um, yes, that would be correct. But as of today, the information that you have is that you are cancer free. Right. And I understand that it's a high probability that it's going to come back. Because that's what they told you.

Yes. Yeah, the kids, yeah, the rates are actually was just talked to my doctor about this history. It's crazy because it, yes, they said it's skyrocketed with young people. So, um, so if I were you Alex, I, I probably would start paying down this debt. And the five 29 because he's so young.

You're going to be able to catch him up, college wise. Um, over the over 18 years, right. You're going, when you guys are completely debt free. Um, I, so I, I probably would not worry about that.

“I think I would have the information that's in front of me and live off of that,”

which is right now that you are debt free. Or I'm sorry that you are cancer free. And I would start, yeah, working my way out of the-- Do you know what the problem in front of you? Which is a hundred grand and student loans.

You've still got to make those payments every month. We'll deal with the 18 year old, you know, problem way later on. And family can be gifting money over time at birthdays and Christmas into this 529 plan. So, it's not all on you, but let's take care of you and your household first. And then we'll focus on the kids once we're debt free.

Yeah, we're so happy for you though, Alex. We'll celebrate for now, for sure. Hey guys, I've got big news. The Ramsey Show is going on tour. And this is your chance to be more than just a listener.

You get to be part of the show. So here questions, ask live and experience the kind of momentum that only comes from being in the room. We'll be in Charlotte, Denver, Phoenix, and Anaheim with a limited number of seats in each city.

So last fall, we completely sold out in 72 hours. So do not wait. Get your tickets at RamseySolutions.com/events or by clicking the link in the show notes. The Ramsey Show is going on tour.

So this April, we are headed to Charlotte, Denver, Phoenix, and Anaheim, California, Southern California.

And you guys, you've never experienced the Ramsey Show like this.

It is the perfect date night. Because one of you's a Spender, probably one of you's a saver. So come and enjoy because we take your questions live. We do the show, basically live with a studio audience. And you guys are the callers.

You know, you get to come and ask your question. You don't have to be on camera on mic. You can just attend and be in the crowd. That's a great point. So you can so choose and it's more fun if you get up there.

We do involve the audience. Have a settle the debate. Do we have the audience in a round? Yeah, yeah. It's so fun.

Such a good time. It's me, George, of course.

There's a trio in each city.

Yeah. So there will be three of us.

“And I'm doing Charlotte, Phoenix, and Anaheim, which ones are you?”

I'm on Charlotte and Anaheim. Oh, yeah. We're together in two. That's fun, George. So don't wait.

Go to Ramsey Solutions.com/Events. Or click the link in the show notes if you're listening on podcast or YouTube. There's only a few seats remaining. And I think a couple of VIP tickets are still available in the city. They'll probably be sold out here in the next day.

You're a small, cool venue. A little theaters. Yeah. It's so fun. They'll sell out fast.

Yep. So go and get your tickets at Ramsey Solutions.com/Events. And we will see you in those cities. All right. Let's head to Amy in Fort Worth.

Hi, Amy. Welcome to the show. Hey. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.

Yes. Yes. Yes. So long story short. I feel like God brought me this amazing man.

I love my marriage. I want to stay married forever. Now, financially, we are very both immature. The fault lies on both of us.

So we've never had joint bank accounts.

I've asked previously about it. And he didn't want to do it. So I was just kind of like whatever I'll just deal with it. But we really come into some problems. When I came home and there's a vehicle, a new vehicle at our apartment.

I thought it was a joke, but it was not a joke. And then he's also like multiple vacations without discussing it with me. But on the flip side, I'm no better. So I was saying from my sister's car. So quite a long time probably year to help her out.

And so he never knew about it. And then also. So I signed up. Well, I volunteered to pay for my mother's life. You know, arrangements.

Like, she hasn't passed. No, she hasn't passed. So she's old though. She's she's in a 70's and she doesn't really have any money. So what had happened was my brother had passed away.

And she got like a settlement. And so she's paid for the funeral with part of it. And then just like, blue the rest of it. Okay. So what are you wanting Amy?

So whenever, so he's on vacation right now. Now my husband. But who? That's not a thing. Amy.

I think he's cheating on you. Guys don't do R&R on their own to get away on a trip.

“And I think that's part of why he's been so cagey about combining finances.”

And so against it. I think the parts you know are the tip of the iceberg. You think so. I think so. How many of these trips does he do a year?

Well, this was the first one.

But there's two more planned. By himself. Yeah. Where did he tell you's going? Um, their crisis.

It's a different place. Does he not invite you? Amy, does it want? Does that worry you at all? Is that weird to you?

It's a little weird to me. How long ago have you married? Um, so we've married for five years. This is both our second marriage. Okay.

Do you have kids? So we have four together. So I have two. He has two. Oh, from the previous marriages.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. So the one that's going to come out towards the end of this year. I was, he didn't want me to go. And then one day I was like, I'm going to go.

“And then the next day he was like, did you book it?”

And I said, well, no, I was just kind of messing with you. And he was like, well, I don't know how to tell you this. I don't want you to go. Amy. Amy.

This is not a marriage. This isn't good. You know that, right? I mean, I know it. I just don't know how to address it.

And like, regardless of whatever is going on. And I want to be married forever. I don't know if it's going to be to him. Because he doesn't want to be married to you. And he's made that clear by continually cheating on you behind your back.

And just not wanting a life with you, not wanting to share any level of information, making his own decisions, making purchases.

Yeah, I don't know.

“I think what I would probably do in the situation, Amy.”

I'm not sure you would do.

But if I woke up in your shoes, there would be an absolute cancel of all trips going forward. That is solo. Okay. As well as, I want to see every transaction that you have been making financially. Because when you have financially hide money, there's usually another person involved.

There's an addiction involved. Like, there are not good things. You don't hide money because you're really smart and kind person, right? Like, no, we're hiding money because it's deceitful. You're putting it in the dark.

It's not in the light. There's no freedom in that. And so, I would, yeah, I would, I would, I would demand such specific documentation on everything. I would get cell phone record.

I mean, I would be convinced that there's somebody else.

Do you have money of your own? Are you working full-time? Yeah, I won't. Full-time. Okay.

I mean, I would be at least hiring a private investigator just to get some info. If you can't get it yourself. Just to verify. Because we're making some assumptions. I think they're.

We're 100. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you just want some verification because it seems like you are going to be in denial. Or you both have screws and don't tell them and you show up with a camera.

And I think you could probably sell some content online.

But I can and good faith tell you to stay married to someone who's constantly committing in fidelity. Yeah.

“But that's why I'm saying is I don't know which you, you know, we'll get off this calling and you have to decide the life that you want for you.”

And I want you, Amy, to have self respect to be loved by somebody and taking care of by somebody who loves Amy. You are worth more than this. Should then to live your life looking over your shoulder all the time. And again, people do and people make decisions. And that is, that's not my free reign.

People get mad because I think that we keep telling people to get divorced. When they get cheated on. You know, when we say this stuff, we're like, I'd like the marriage. So you, you have to decide for Amy what you, what you want. But I don't think you have a marriage, Amy.

Okay. I don't think you have a god. But you do not have a godly husband who is loving and serving you well. Right. Like if you want to talk scripture, we can talk scripture.

But that's not what's happening. And so I want you to have the self dignity to be able to say that. Yeah, I'm worth more than that to be treated like this. And I would, yeah. I mean, I would, I would do what you could to find out what's going on.

The private investigator thing in about idea George. If you just want some answers, but you may not, you may not want it. I don't know. But I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry, Amy.

That is so hard. It breaks my heart for you. It breaks my heart for you. You're going through this. Yeah.

No. Thank you so much.

“The best thing you can do is just start to kind of protect yourself and create your own little.”

Islands so that you're okay financially. That's right. If you did leave this marriage, you will be able to not combine finances with this man though. Nope. He's not.

That's a time when you, yeah, we want couples to work together. Not that you would anyways. It's true. Yeah. He's not asking for it.

Oh. Gosh, I mean, I'm so sorry. Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money, money, money. And figure out what to do next.

Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today.

That's RamseySolutions.com. Our scripture is today. Comes from Psalms, Psalm 1, 1. Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take

Chuck Norris passed away for those of you that didn't know. 86. 86 years old. One of legends.

“We have a good quote for you here from Chuck Norris.”

A lot of people give up just before they're about to make it.

You know you never know when that next obstacle is going to be the last one.

That's apropos. And there's so many great memes too. Well, the Chuck Norris isms. Let me see if I can get one here from the same thing. When Chuck Norris got to heaven, he had to tell the angels that the gates to fear not.

Chuck Norris. That's good. That's strong. Does producer James have one for us? I know he was a big fan of the Norrisism.

My thing is it on. Yeah. Are you kidding? Okay, there we go. Your live on the other one that said that Chuck Norris has actually been dead for five years,

but death just mustered up the courage to tell him. Oh, now that's a perfect one for today. That's the Chuck Norris. Oh, Chuck. Well, it's a sad day.

Sad day. The kids know out there probably don't even know about Walker Texas Ranger. You know what? I bet they don't. I bet that ended when in the 90's.

Yeah. We were probably the last era. 90's? That was hip to it. Oh my gosh.

All right. Let's head to San Francisco and we have Ryan on the line. Hi, Ryan. Hey, thanks for having me guys. Yes, absolutely.

How can we help you? Hey, so my wife and I own five rental properties and they're doing great. We have absolutely no problems. They're all profitable. The original plan was that we keep buying.

And hopefully we have 10, 20, 30, and then live off of those and retire soon. Recently, I've been kind of looking into more investing and switching things up. And so when I was kind of crunched the number,

I figured out if I should sell two of those and put that money, which would be almost about a million

dollars into, like the S&P 500 and get that return of, you know, that 10% and it makes sense to do that or not. Or if we should just stick to our game plan of just done whole buying houses and keep going.

“Yeah, do you guys have any money invested in retirement or everything in rental properties?”

No, we do. I mean, we have our 401(k)s or probably about 120,000 combined so far. She's 30, I'm 34. Okay. I also have, you know, 30,000 in S&P 500 now and something crypto and stuff like that.

And I'm probably like 20 grand cash on hand and stuff like that. So we kind of have a couple different spaces. Uh-huh. Are the ones paid for Ryan? No.

Well, one of them is paid for. So we got very blessed, but last year we inherited a house. That one's worth about $700,000. Okay. And it's completely paid off.

And we make about, it's $29.50 a month that we make off of that house alone. Okay. How much do you owe on the other properties the other four? Yeah. Uh-huh.

Another one is paid off. Okay. One of them is 279, another is like 326. And the one that's a 279 is a duplex. So counted that one is two.

Okay. I was thinking about selling the one that's has the 279 because it's worth about 600. So duplex? Yeah.

So with those two would be close to a million.

That one we get about $1,600 profit. And so if you, what's your, your least favorite? Uh, the least favorite is actually the one I didn't mention. Um, that one we probably have about $100,000 in equity. Um, and that one only makes us about $5,600 a month.

Okay. I'm just thinking, can we sell one or two and pay off the others? Now we have a completely paid for a real estate portfolio with derisking any extra money. Now we can invest into the market. Because you guys have another 30 years to invest into the market and build wealth.

Some less concerned about that. I just think having less risk now and more cash flow and simplifying your life would feel real good. Yeah. I mean, my wife is her big thing is she loves having the extra cash flow.

“Um, so that's why she doesn't want me to invest.”

And then when I told her like, hey, you know, if we did get that 10%. It would actually be more than what we would get off of the cash flow yearly. Yeah. But then her caveat to that is, well, you're the cheapest person I know. And I'm not going to want to actually pull out any of that money.

What are you all using the money for? That's off these rentals. What are you all doing? What's the cash flow going to? So most of it.

We're saving to we have another like rental account that we're saving just to basically get ready for another property. Yeah. Um, Okay, that's good.

Year was like our break where because I've been so gone home for the last few years.

“This year was our break to kind of okay.”

I understand that you're upset that I'm doing so much. So let's slow down and let's live our life this year. So this year has been more about vacations and family time and doing stuff with our kids. How much do you guys make a year in your jobs? Uh, with my overtime, I make about 250.

100 and then plus what we make after rentals. That's good. We're doing very good. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I would be in Georgia's camp, which majority of investment real estate. Um, majority of people. Yeah.

They're leveraged. They take out loans. They put it some down. Yeah. That's the cycle they live in.

But at Ramsy, we always talk about two things with investment real estate number one is that it needs to be paid off.

So when you get to that point, so I would do a George set. I would find and kind of you guys can do the math and just say, hey, we can sell these to that could pay off everything else with some extra that we can invest in the market. You know, whatever that looks like. And then number two, just when it comes to investments, we do talk about diversification. And that can be within the stock market that you're diversifying within mutual funds and all that.

But even at a bigger scale. Yeah. The diversification of what types of investments and so real estate is one of those. So having some real estate and then having some in the stock market. Which I know you already do, but I do like the plan of you guys being stable with the real with the rentals.

And then putting anything extra and maybe take a season where you are investing in the market. Because I mean, depending on how quickly these houses, you know, appreciate and everything. I mean, the market itself did very well. The last couple of years and you actually probably make more off of being in the market than real estate. But with less headache.

That's, that's, yes, truly the only passive income is you just let your investments ride and it spits off money versus real estate. Which as you know, is not super passive. It's active. It's your living there to headache. Is yours primary home paid off, Ryan?

No, it's not. It's not okay. How much you guys have left on that? Uh, that one's our highest. That one's close to six, six, 20.

What's the payment every month? Uh, 4100. Man, it'd be nice to have that thing paid off.

Do you risk the place you sleep first?

Yeah. I mean, I would definitely love to. And it definitely would help especially because it's one of the highest payments. And that I do collect pretty much covers back. Uh, for now until you can see or someone doesn't pay or it will repair.

Yes. So with the payer steps, Ryan, I would go back and I would go. I would, I would walk the baby step side. I'd be funding 15% of you guys of your income into retirement. So back into the 401(k)s, they're off IRAs.

And then I was 45 grand. Yep. And then you guys have enough in the rentals. Again, that I really do think you could sell one or two and have everything paid off in that. And I would be okay with you guys keeping those.

And then start knocking off your primary home. And you guys may get so aggressive that you look up. We're like, hey, maybe we only have one rental. And we sell everything else and pay off the primary home. I mean, the $700,000 rental.

If you, you know, I know it's gifted to you all, but you know, depending on taxes and everything. But if it was sold and it paid off your primary home, I don't know. I don't know, just some things to think about. But I would have before I added on any more real estate for my investments, I would be paying off my primary home. Okay.

So that's the, to get it take the longest unfortunately. Yeah, well. So I want everything to be done as fast as possible. I know here is just to have no debt whatsoever.

“How much is sitting in the account that you're going to buy another rental with?”

How much is in there? Right now. It's like 20. Oh, okay. It's not enough.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm out in California. So realistically, we have to put about like 60 to 100 k down depending on the place that we're looking at. Yeah. So yeah, I would stop all of that.

I would not buy any more houses. I would work to pay off my primary home. Do you risk the portfolio and then as you buy more, do it in cash? Yeah. You can do that quickly when all these are cash flowing with no debt on them.

With your amazing income.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, George. Great show. You too.

Thanks to all the colors for calling in. Thanks for all the guys in the booth. And the great audience that we have today here in Franklin 10 to see outside our studio.

“And remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace.”

And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace Christ Jesus.