Transcript of Don’t Rob From Your Future Self!

Live from the headquarters of Ramsay solutions, it's the Ramsay show where we help people build wealth, help them do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. You can give us a call. The number is triple 8825-5225. My name is Jade Warshaw. I am joined by George Campbell. Good to have you in the house, George.

So fun.

It's great because, look, we both have books out.

That's an exciting time.

I love it. If you're not watching YouTube on podcasts, we have them both displayed. George's new book, breaking free from broke, pre order today. And then you've got this one. Well, George, you're supposed to announce mine.

I know.

And Jay Warshaw's new book, money's not a math problem. Can I say, my wife saw your cover yesterday and she was like, that's such a cute cover. My gosh. I was like, you didn't say that about my cover. So I just want you to know Whitney's a big fan of the COVID She loves the color. She loves your outfit.

I love that it's supposed to look like a magazine, and I feel like.

Do you feel like it does 100%?

Yes.

Mine looks like honey, I shrunk the kids. But I was going to go more.

For like, incredible hulk, like move these walls.

I get that a lot. If I had a nickel Jade, for every time I got compared to the Hulk, I'd be broke.

Real talk. I love it. But you can get your copy. I would say just go on and get both of them, read them both or take one for yourself and give one as a gift. That's a good strategy.

Love it. ramseysolutions.com slash store.

That's right. ramseysolutions.com slash store. To get it. Get involved, people. I'm going to get involved with these phone lines. We've got Chris from Minneapolis, Minnesota. What's going on, Chris?

Hey, how you doing?

Doing good.

Hi. Yeah, hi. I'm on here just to find out I have a makeup on location business for bridal parties. And I started a wholesale brand from this from my makeup on location.

Cool.

And I'm looking to scale and figure out how to do wholesale for boutique stores. I have eleven locations right now where I'm selling to boutique stores, my brand. But I'm just trying to figure out how to figure out wholesale from consignment, doing it consignment or selling it wholesale directly to the boutique stores and to see what's best.

So it's your line of makeup? It's your line of makeup that you're selling?

Yeah, well, it's private labeled. Currently, we're looking at different ways to do custom stuff because I know a lot of customers are asking for that with the movement in the industry of having things be homemade.

When you say custom, what does that mean for makeup? Because let me tell you what I have in my head, because I want to make sure the listeners understand I'm thinking the same way. I might go to the drugstore and buy, like, Revlon. Right. Brand. You've got your own brand of makeup that you're selling?

Yep. So when I say own brand, I work with the manufacturer here in the and so it's not my own recipe. So it would be something that I go there, find out what I want to sell through my online store and to the stores, and then I package it here.

You slap your own label on?

Yeah, I got it.

Exactly. Make our boxes here in Minneapolis.

Okay. What are you bringing in right now? What's your top line revenue?

My wedding business, where we do makeup on location, is actually the top revenue, two part business because it's a service industry. There's low overhead.

Right. And I love that, by the way.

Yeah. So where the whole brand came from is I had bridal. Clients were like, oh, how do I touch up? I need my own lipstick to carry in the day. And that's where the brand idea came from. My brand is gunpowder and gloss beauty.

So do you have some stores that want to carry this?

Yeah, they're actually already carrying it. I have eleven locations right now. I just got Delaware, which is pretty cool. I'm trying to basically small boutique stores that don't have necessarily a brand. Like, I want to be able to have the Powder Foundation, all the different things. Right now, our category mix is just Lipsticks Shadows. Bronzer.

Is the problem that you're selling it to these stores, people are buying it, and you're not making any money. Is that what the problem?

Yeah. Well, I feel like the wholesale piece. Like, for instance, I get a wholesale order, and it may be $300, but then I buy the goods, and it's costing me $300 to buy the product, the cost of the product and the box and all the things. So I'm just trying to figure out because I have one store right now, I'm testing this to do consignment with them. And it's in Tennessee, actually. It's over in Johnson City and Irwin over in that area, and it's actually been good. We have a 70 20 split. I take 70. She keeps 20. She has no investment into it.

Sure. It's just what you make is what you make.

Right.

Forgive my ignorance. Where's the other 10% going? I'm just curious.

Oh, sorry. 30.

I was like something.

Okay. I feel like in a lot of ways, it's kind of like a basic math problem. Right. You've got to start with some margin in mind, and if there's no margin, then there's a dollar amount that's got to shift either on the cost that you're selling it to them or on the cost that they're selling it to the consumer. So some of that ends up back in your pocket. Right, right.

So could you just increase what you charge for the wholesalers?

I could. I just feel like in the beauty industry, when they can go into walmart, per se, and buy a $5 lipstick mine. It's a good quality lipstick, the no pyramids, all the different things that we try to not have in there, but I sell it for 24. So I'm really trying to figure out.

How do I so probably what's happening is a lot of times what I see is it's like, okay, like, I'm wearing a hoodie sweatshirt, right, that I made. If I were to buy this in bulk and get tens of thousands printed, it's a lot cheaper than if I go and say, hey, I just need to run a ten. Right. I'm paying so much more per item. So it almost sounds like because you're trying to move small and you're trying to do this yeah. You are going to spend more per product early on because you don't have the proof of purchase to just go out here and say, you know what? I'm going to go to this manufacturer and I'm going to have them do 10,000 lipsticks and 10,000 foundations. You're not there yet. And I think the good thing is, right now, you're going to have to pass on some of that to the consumer, and you're going to have to pass on some of that to your distributor because everybody wants to make money, right. If you're not making money, you're not going to keep doing this. And if the manufacturer, if the store is not making money, they're not going to keep carrying your brand.

So what I would try to do is make sure the value proposition is there for the customer. Why am I going to spend $24 on Chris's brand of lipstick when, like you said, I can go over to Walgreens and get one for $5? Well, you just sold it to me because I'm like, yeah, I don't want any parabens. I don't want any animal products in there. I don't want this to make my lips crusty by the end of the day. So make sure you've just got to get creative with your branding and understand why this is better and make sure the places that you're reaching out to to carry this, they're known for carrying boutique products. There's definitely a market for people who want that. I'm in that market, and it's just this is not the thing to try to get into Walmart or someplace where they're carrying a lower price per item. Do you know what I'm saying?

Right.

But start small. Go grassroots. Try to incentivize the folks that are buying from you currently to share. Spread the word you can give them free new product. Work with influencers. There's a lot of things you can do. Wholesale may not be the ticket for you. There may not be enough profit margin right now, George, so there's a lot of options out there, but I'm proud of you. You're crushing it, chris, thanks for the call.

Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Thanks.

I love that social media angle, George. That's hey, that's what the money is right there.

Jade, you're an influencer. You understand?

Yeah. Look, I might influence it. Send me a couple. I want to see if it's any good. This is the Ramsey show.

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You're listening to the Ramsay show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw. I am joined by George Camel and we want to take your calls today. We want to hear about your life, your money. You can even call us. We'll talk about your career, your relationships, because here's the thing. It all filters together, right, George? One thing bleeds into the next, which bleeds into the next. So give us a call. The number is triple 8825-5225 and we would be happy to give you our take on that. The Question of the Day today is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. With 19 service brands nationwide, Neighborly's Provider Network has trusted local service professionals to handle multiple different services in and around your area. Visit Neighborly.com ramsay to find and schedule your service today.

Today's question comes from Jeremy in Kansas. I'm struggling to pay off debt, not because I can't afford to, but because it's hard for me to let go of the cash that's in the bank. I have approximately $80,000 in car loans and $450,000 on my mortgage. I have liquid cash of $400,000 and brokerage of $200,000. I know it makes no sense to keep the debt, but I have a hard time not seeing all of the cash available. How do I overcome this mentality? That's a real question, Jade. That's a real feeling.

It is.

A real lot of people, when they've got all this money in the bank, it hurts because they've worked so hard to save up this money and they feel like they're making a mistake by deploying it all to pay off debt.

That's right.

But they're forgetting what's on the other.

Side of that math.

Yeah. If you owe $400,000 and you have $400,000 in the bank, that $400,000 is spoken for.

That's right.

By that mortgage company. You're not actually free. You don't actually have this giant pile of money because they want their $400,000. You're not going to get away from it. That's part of it is realizing the reality of it's really not my money. It's got someone else's name on it. And until they're paid I'm not truly free.

Yeah. I think the hard part is so much of what we teach is not based on math, right. It's based on behavior. It's based on a feeling of freedom. This is one that is based on math. It's almost its own net worth equation there. Right. Because it's like, okay, you've got all this money. You don't really have $600,000 that you think you have. You've got 520 because of this debt. And wouldn't it be nice for the math to truly math, and you'd be like, you know what? Yes, this money is all mine. The money that I have is all mine. But as long as he's got that debt laying around, it's in his head, that, okay. Like, 80,000 goes to my car, and then if we pull the mortgage into it, then he's negative, actually.

Yeah.

If he were to take this money and pay off his mortgage, basic math.

Says he's got 400 liquid cash, 200 in the brokerage. That's 600,000 he could okay, so he's liquid. So he could still have 70,000 left over after paying off his home. After paying off all these car loans.

Yeah.

And by the way, if you want to do math, buddy, that car is a depreciating asset. That $80,000 loan, well, that's now going to be on a $50,000 car.

That's right.

You're underwater on. And I know that because we take these calls every day on the show. So if I'm you, I'm paying it all off, and still I'm going to have 70,000 leftover, and that's going to feel great. What are you doing with 400,000 in the bank, just sitting there doing nothing for you?

I think people just like to see it. Like, you log into your bank account and you just like to see that number go up.

But that could also be kind of a scarcity mentality where there's just kind of this hoarding of like, it'll never be enough.

Oh, 100%.

That may be a therapy situation more than a financial one.

That's also true.

If you never had money growing up, you all of a sudden see all these zeros in your bank account, and it gives you a sense of security. Yes, which is great, but you also got to live your life.

You got to live your life.

And part of that is not having no debt.

And in his case, this is great because it's a mortgage that he's paying off. This is a forced savings account. So he's not losing the money, he's just shifting it over to another place. If you really want to think about.

It, like that's true. Jade you know, people dog me for paying off a mortgage early because they went, that's so dumb that he paid off a low interest mortgage early. Haters you know what he could have done? He could have invested that money. I'm going, Y'all don't pay my bills, okay?

And they don't sleep in your bed at night.

That is for sure. Only my dogs get to do that. And my wife, of course, she's there, too.

Thank you.

She's there, too. But there's a piece of this equation where you don't know what that freedom is like to not have to pay a lender next month and the month after that, and the options we now have to invest way more. We're going to be okay. We'll be multimultimillionaires. But in the meantime, I want to have no mortgage payment between now and retirement.

What you're saying is, for them, it's a case of they don't know what they don't know. They've never owned a house free and clear, so they really can't speak to the feeling that it gives you when the mortgage well.

And like Dave always says, hey, go pay it all off. And if you miss the debt, you can always go get more of it.

There you go.

So try it out. Jeremy.

Love it.

I'm proud of you, man. You're crushing it. And you could clear all this debt today. Mean baby step seven, living and giving like no one else. Highly recommend it.

Good stuff. Let's see what Haley from Hartford, Connecticut's, talking about. What's going on in your world, Haley?

Hi, Jade. Hi, George. How's it going?

We're doing well. How are you doing?

Fine. So I'm asking on behalf of myself and my husband, we're wondering, should we sell our house if we think it was a mistake to buy it?

Well, what's making you think it could be a mistake?

Okay, so we bought our house six months ago, and we started listening to Ramsay four months ago. Funny how that works, right? Perfect timing. But basically, we didn't really think it through. We didn't have a budget. We didn't follow any of the baby steps yet. And our house is 34% of our monthly take home pay. And we did buy it under market price, so we could sell it for a little more than we bought it. I just met with our Realtor, and we actually could walk away with about nine to 18 grand based on what it sells for. So we're wondering, we haven't been in our house very long, but should we just kind of have no shame in saying, hey, this was a mistake, let's go back to renting and let's pay off the rest of our debt with the money that we make?

Well, let's see. How much debt do you have?

We're in baby step two. We have our emergency or $1,000 emergency fund, and then we are paying off. We had 10,000 in credit card debt and 18 on a car. So the 10,000 in credit card debt over the past month, we've brought it down to 2000.

Oh, great.

Or 8000. We brought it down 2000 to eight.

Okay, so 8000 in credit card debt.

Yes. And 18 on the car.

Okay. What else?

That's it.

Okay.

What's the household income?

Before taxes or after taxes?

Just gross annual income before taxes.

Okay. So I make 48,000, and my husband makes 62.

Okay. So we've got a little over 100,000 gross, and you're saying 34% is going to the mortgage. Then we've got all these debt payments. I don't think this is like, an on fire, sell the house tomorrow situation, but I would try to increase income for both of you. Even that's temporary for the side hustle, because I want you out of debt. You got 26 grand to pay off now.

Yeah.

Could you do that in, like, six months if you got real intense?

Yeah. So we're doing instacart and what's? The dog sitting rover, but we're talking.

Over four grand a month going toward the debt. That's aggressive. Right now you're doing about two, so we need to double that.

I agree.

And if you could pay this off fast, that'll free up some income. And if you can keep that income up, that will lower the amount of your take home pay going towards the house. Now all of a sudden, we can breathe, and this house becomes a blessing instead of a burden.

Because, I mean, a long term, we recommend that your home obviously is no more than 25%. You're at 34. You have to ask yourself, what do I need to do to get to find that 9% over the long haul? And what does that look like? And it's a lot, but it's not a lot. You know what I mean? Can you find another $10,000 a year? Can you find another $12,000 a year? What does that look like? You may not want to do instacart and rover forever, but how can you get your core income up 9%? And I think if you guys put your heads together and figure out what that looks like, that's really the ticket to solving this equation.

And I would sell that car before the house. If we're getting to some dire straits.

And you're feeling the pinch, I like that.

So there's an option.

Can I ask a follow up question?

Make it quick.

Okay. So what if we don't like the house very much?

Oh, my goodness.

That's a whole different question. That's a whole different question.

You may end up selling. I just don't want you to think this is a fire because of the finance side.

But that's right.

This is why we tell people, only buy when you're ready.

That's right.

Don't get pressured into it.

One thing at a time. Pay off that debt. Try to get your income up, and then we'll fry bigger fish when we get to it. This is the Ramsay show.

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You are listening to the Ramsay show. I am your host, the Jade Warshaw, joined by George Camel, your other host for this hour. Give us a call. The number is triple 8825-5225. We'll talk about the things that are on your mind concerning your money. Maybe it's the holidays coming up. I read a stat, George, that said the average family of four plans on spending about 16 $51. $1,651 on Christmas.

Just gifts or, like, food? Everything. Travel.

That's everything. Which, when you really think about it, especially if you think about travel in the mix, I'm like, that's not bad. But what I did draw from that is if you're not on a budget, that and more will go very quickly. Because I'm like if you're traveling to grandma's house and you're cooking Christmas dinner and you've got two kids that you're buying gifts for, and if you're traveling and there's cousins and like, that can get out of control very, very quickly.

And you start to shop for yourself, too.

I do.

That's a dangerous game. It is a dangerous while I'm here, it's on sale. Might as well.

Okay, James in the boothless. Here's a poll for you. When you go Christmas shopping, do you do one for them? One for me, one for them?

James is too selfish.

Do you do that or do you just like no, I'm sticking to at the very least, you at least buy one thing for you? Let's put it like that. I feel like I at least buy one thing for me.

Thank you for your honesty. Jade, you're looking for some justification here? What do you think, James? Are you asking me personally or to do a poll like we did the other day?

Both.

I mean, I try my best to stick to a budget, but it can be tough.

So you mean you don't buy another black hoodie? What?

I have black hoodies to spare?

Yeah.

James shopping list is real sad and dark. Literally.

Oh, boy. We got to take a call. Let's go to Jenny in St. Louis, Missouri. What's going on? Jenny.

Hi, guys. I'm getting married soon. I'm 55, he's 58. He wants to sell his home and take the 50,000 in gain from that sale and apply it to my home, which has a balance of 129. I think the money should be used differently because I am trying to get out of debt with some other debts and I don't know what to do because I understand why he wants to do that. I just want to do it the right way.

Well, it's kind of weird. I was expecting because I was kind of reading up on your call before we took it, and I was thinking, oh, probably he's trying to take the equity out of his home to pay off her home, but this doesn't even clear it.

No, it'll just be paying 50,000 down off the 129 that's currently owed to get closer to paying the house off.

There's a couple of problems with this. Number one, you're not married yet, so I would not think of doing anything like this or anything else with your money together until after you're married. Right?

Yes. It's all going to happen after the fact.

Okay. That gives us some peace.

So what's the idea? Because now you both have homes, you're married. What are you guys attempting? Are you trying to get in a situation where one of these houses is paid off and you can rent it?

No, he's going to sell his home and he'll move in with you in equity. He's going to apply it to my home balance.

I see.

And what is the total debt balance you have? Not with the mortgage.

I have 19,000 in a car and then I have a student loan, but I can't pay it off because it's part of a divorce agreement and we equally pay payments towards it. Strange.

And you can't pay your balance in full, like a lump sum to cover your section.

I can't, because the loan is in my name and it's kind of a weird scenario. How much is it? That one is $22,000.

Is that the total amount or is that just your half?

No, that's the total.

I'm not going to lie if it's in your name, and I might be like, try to get with the judge and be like, can I pay this off? And then he pay me back.

We can go there.

I might do that simply because it's in your name.

I just don't want this hanging around for ten more years, accruing interest while.

You'Re just chipping away at it only has four years left, so I think I'm not too worried about that one.

Well, if I were in your shoes, if and when you guys get married, I'd take the 50K from the sale of his house. I'd pay off this debt first, including the whole 22,000. And I would do a situation where it's like, hey, I don't like fooling with this guy. It's in my past. I'm going to get debt free. If you can make it to where he pays me off, great, but I'm moving on with my life. That's what I would do. That's what Jade would do, and I think that's what George would do, too.

Yeah. And I like, just when you get married, then you guys do the baby steps together, and that means how much money do we all have as couple? All right, we got the $1,000 starter emergency fund. We have this debt. Let's knock this out with whatever cash we have. Let's build the emergency fund. Three to six months, let's start investing, and then any money beyond that we can throw at the mortgage, which may end up being less.

I'm worried about our retirement position, like, where we are, and that was another kind of wrench in this whole picture.

Well, that's even more reason to walk it through this way, because the faster you clean up this debt is, the faster that you can get three to six months saved is the faster that you guys can really start. Focusing on the things that are going to build you wealth, which are setting aside some money for retirement and paying off your existing home. The one that you guys decide to live in, the one with the 129,000 on it.

Okay, so you would agree with me and getting rid of the smaller debt first before starting to suck away at the house, because with just the car being paid off is another $500 a month that would just go towards the house.

Well, what's going to be the household income once you guys get married?

Bring home will be about $6,200 a month.

Awesome.

That's great.

And so how quickly could you pay off the mortgage once you guys are married, you have no debt. We've knocked down the mortgage a little bit with whatever cash is left over. We're talking a few years. Right.

Our goal is five years or less.

Boom. And that would be my goal. We're going to retire when the house is paid off. And over those five years, you're also going to be investing 15% of your income as soon as this debt is paid off and you have that emergency fund.

Do you have anything in retirement right now between the two of you?

Between the two of us, it's maybe a little over 100,000, but I get a pension that covers about 75% of my income when I retire. Okay, but my next question, if I have time sure. Is I have what's called a backdrop coming when I retire to the tune of 60 to 70,000. It's a lump sum payment that's given by the state government for every year you work past your normal retirement, and then you get your pension. Okay. That money is taxed unless I roll it over. But I was actually, when I was single, thinking, oh, well, if I have anything left on the house at that time. I'll just pay my house off. But how would you utilize those funds?

When do you get it?

Well, I won't get it till retirement, which will be eight years.

Okay. We'll have a paid for house, so I'd rather roll it and save on the taxes and use that as part of your nest egg and just get.

It as a monthly amount kind of thing. Okay.

Yeah. Because by then, you're going to be debt free, including your house, so you wouldn't need to roll it to the house.

Yes. And I was able to work it out so I could live on my income when I retire. So his income will be just on top of that.

Gravy on top. I think this is a good plan, and most people find that when they have no payments, it's easier to retire, even if you don't have a huge income and a huge retirement account. And so that's why the focus on decreasing your expenses.

I think that's a good point, George, because we talked about this earlier. It's hard for most people to imagine a life, number one, where they have no consumer debt, but number two, where they don't have a mortgage. I mean, for most people, that's the biggest line item next to daycare, the biggest line item on their budget. So imagining a world where it's like, hey, when I get my paycheck, all the money goes to me. And when it's like that, when you then step into these retirement years, it's like, well, I suddenly need a lot less to live on, because really, it's just for those. What your cell phone bill? You're telling me your cell phone bill is what's going to drain your insurance.

Your cell phone bill, and your Paramount plus subscription, because you got to watch Icarly.

That's right. And maybe you get a country club membership so can play pickleball.

There we go. Some of the luxuries of I want to retire and have so many options. I don't want to retire and be like, oh, we got to now scrimp because we didn't save enough. And part of that's getting rid of the mortgage. And that's why we recommend the 15 year fixed rate mortgage. Yes, it's conservative and aggressive, but we found that people who follow the baby steps who do that end up paying off their mortgage in seven years.

Seven years.

So they're not going into retirement with a mortgage hanging over their head, and they're figuring out, when can I retire? Yeah, they got options.

That's the blink of an eye, George.

And our millionaire study found 10.2 years was the average amount of time for millionaires to pay off their home.

Wow, 10.2 years. And we also found that the average millionaire is not someone who's making over six figures. Right.

A third of them never made six figures.

Teachers. Right. These are accountants. What's the third one?

Engineers.

Engineers.

There you go.

I like when we debunk the myths right, we demystify it and realize, hey, it's actually not crazy at all. It's actually pretty simple. It's just this consistent pattern, paying off debt, investing 15%, almost too boring.

Jade. They want something more complex and crazy, but that's it. That's how it's done.

That's how it's done. This is the Ramsey show.

Yo, yo, Dr. John Deloney here. Hey, it's pumpkin spice, late season. Just joking. Those are gross. But it is fall. It's a little cooler. The sun's going down earlier, and God help us, daylight savings time is ending or starting or whatever. The time is changing again, and it can be exhausting to adjust. So make sure you're moving your body every day. Make sure you get some sunlight in the morning and hopefully in the evening. And make sure you get seven to 9 hours of sleep every night. And I can't stress enough how important this is. Sleep is the cornerstone to your physical and mental health. And for me, amazing sleep starts with an extraordinary mattress. And that's why I love DreamCloud. Right now, DreamCloud is running an incredible offer. 40% off all mattresses, plus an additional $50 in savings exclusively for our listeners. Go to Dreamcloudsleep.com and enter promo code John Deloney. That's Dreamcloudsleep.com with Code John Deloney for 40% off all mattresses, plus an extra $50 in savings.

You're listening to the Ramsay show. My name is Jade Warshaw. This is George Camel. Make some noise, George.

Woo.

All right, that's all you get.

I wanted them to know that you were there. I wasn't just talking. You know, the people on the podcast, they don't know we could tell them anything.

I'm rarely asked to make some noise, I will say that much. So I didn't know what to do there.

Well, we're taking your calls about your life and money. Give us a call. The number is triple 8825-5225 and we'll try to help you out. But I do want to tell you guys, number one, I'm so thankful for all of the listeners. I'm thankful for everybody who downloads the podcast, everybody who logs in and checks us out on YouTube. It's really just the reason that we're here is you guys, and we appreciate your support. And if you're looking for another way to support, something you can do is consider liking, subscribing and sharing the show with your friends, your family, your coworkers, anybody who you feel like is broke and needs some help, if you're like. Wait a minute. I noticed that Joe pulled up in a brand new Lexus. He's got the same paycheck that I have. Something's wrong. Share this.

Nice.

Way to do it. Hey, I love this show. You should check it out.

Yeah, thanksgiving is coming up. You're sitting down at the table. Uncle Boo Boo is talking about whole life insurance yet again. Share the show. Do you see what I'm saying? Do you see the train of thought that I'm on here? Like subscribe? Share when you do that. Not only does it help us, not only does it help you, it helps other people. Right. It boosts it up. In the algorithm, they discover this very, very important resource and they're able to change their life and money because of it. So consider doing that and we would say thank you. All right, let's go to the phone lines. We got Taylor in Kansas City, Mo. That's Missouri, not Kansas. All right, what's going on, Taylor?

Hey, guys, I appreciate the time.

No problem. How can we help?

Well, my mother in law has recently purchased a house here in Kansas City where my wife and I live. And she kind of was know, hey, in the future I might move back, be closer to family and whatnot. And she kind of came to us and said, or not kind of, but she did. And, you know, I think you guys should live there, and you can live there rent just if you guys want the house. I just don't want to deal with a renter. But you can live there rent free. And so we were like, wow, this gives us an opportunity to kind of take our current house that we live in. And then we were just wondering, should we do this and rent out our current house that we live in and pay that house off?

Interesting.

So your mother in law doesn't live there.

I know, it's a weird.

Is that right? Is it an empty house, the one that she has? Yes. She's not living there with you?

No, she lives a little over an hour away.

What was the purpose of her getting the house?

Just for hopes of possibly moving back closer to family in the future at some point.

What happens if a year and a half from now, she's like, I'm ready to move back? What happens then?

I think we would just move back into our current home that we're in because we don't plan to sell it.

Okay.

Interesting. This is a very interesting predicament. Does she have a mortgage on that house?

No.

Okay, so it's paid for. So she's still paying insurance and property taxes. Is that just her gift to you?

Yeah.

And who's responsible if the HVAC breaks?

So that's the kind of thing we don't really know. I'm guessing that you would advise us to get that in writing.

100%. Do you see where I'm going with this, though? Like, all these little nooks and crannies that we thought life was going to work out perfectly, and now the roof needs to be replaced. And she goes, well, you guys are renting for free. I feel like you should cover it.

I don't like the deal. Yeah, I don't like the deal because of what George just said. And here's another part of it. I feel like if you purchase a piece of property for the purpose of renting it, your heart goes in a different place. You're like, whatever. It's not my house. It's for renting. It's to make a profit. When you take what you know is supposed to eventually be your personal residence and you rent it out, I think that it's not the same house anymore, and you're going to be like, this dude's been in my bathtub. It just feels different. And so I think that taking your home, that's been your home for a while, then you go live in this other house. You let renters rent there for two, three years, and then you want to go back to it. I don't think it's going to be the same place anymore. So that's my second reason that I'm not going to say that it's wrong to do, because it's not wrong, but these are just the reasons that I wouldn't do it. What do you think?

George yeah, I mean, we've seen worse situations on this show. If mother in law was living there, this would be a different situation. If she had a mortgage, this would be a different situation. So there's just a few red flags that make me pause and go, is this the right move? Do you guys really need the money? Are you trying to pay off debt? Is the mortgage too much for you? What's your financial situation that's driving you to do this, other than, hey, free rent, we could make some money renting our place. Now, you also become landlords and have the hassle and risk of having tenants, and you're responsible for a lot of the things that happen in that house.

Right. And that's actually one of the reasons why. Because I think we would like to eventually become landlords. And so this is kind of a get your feet wet scenario where we don't have a whole bunch invested, and it's like something kind of goes wrong. We still have a place to live that we're doing.

Here's a wild scenario I just thought of. Taylor what if you got a tenant in your mother in law's house and you guys were kind of the property interesting. Oh, and maybe she gave you the majority of the proceeds. That way you're not having to make this. It's two birds, 1 st here. You get to taste the waters of the landlord life.

You get a little bit of money.

Back, you get a little bit of money back, and the risk is still on her. She needs to know that.

And you get to keep your house.

But either way, the risk was on her. If the roof needs to be replaced, it was either going to be on her or on her, not on you or the tenant. So I would offer that as another scenario versus uprooting your current life.

George that's the move. I vote that that is the move. Taylor okay.

That's what we do in the show.

There's no downside. And it takes the risk totally off of your plate, and it takes anything that could possibly happen with repairs and all this stuff that makes those awkward money conversations right. With family where it's, you know, grandma, we need some money for the pipes. Just it takes that away, because the more conversations that you have like that, it just eats into the relationship just a little bit every single I really George, I think that is a winning solution. That good.

Thanks, Jade. At least one time a day, I have a decent idea.

That was good. I'm going to tell Whitney about that. I'm going to be like, george came through with a great idea today.

She'll be shocked.

Mark it. Put the tally on next to his name. What do you think, George? Can we talk to Julian?

San Antonio.

Let's do it. What's going on? Julian from San Antonio, Texas.

Hi, guys.

Hi.

Good to be on. Well, I'm going to get straight to it. I'm a police officer for my county. I've been there for nine years, and I've built a retirement there. Now I have an opportunity to go work as a security guard, armed security guard at a school district at a higher pay rate than what I am getting paid right now as a police officer.

And safer, I got to assume.

Yes.

But I am not so sure if I should make the jump because my county has a great retirement system where for every dollar I put, they put two.

So you get a match.

Yes. Two for one.

What's your new retirement plan going to be?

It's the TRS, the teacher's retirement system.

And so they just pull a little of your check and throw it in there?

Yeah, I was explained that it was years of service times 2.3% times average salary.

How old are you and now?

35.

And how much have you put into retirement thus far?

So far?

You're breaking up on us, julian, speak right into the phone.

Oh, I'm sorry. I have 33,677.

Okay. And how much debt do you have? Do you have any debt?

No, no debt.

How much higher paying is this job?

Well, right now I get paid 2045 an hour, and the other one, I possibly be making $30 an hour.

Okay. I'm going to be honest with you. Working somewhere nine years and you're at $20. I'm taking this leap, man.

Me too. And it's safer.

It's a safer job, and you can make up for it through retirement. You're 35. You got another 25, 30 years to start investing, and you'll do that. Since you don't have any debt, I'm taking this higher pay. Your income is your greatest wealth building tool, and so that's going to supersede this retirement plan, my friend. Thank you for your service to your community. Yeah, appreciate that.

I love that. I love that he has the opportunity. Yeah, George, that does it for this.

50% raise right there. It's a good day.

It is a good day. I love it. That does it for this hour of the show. Be sure to hang with us for next hour. It'll be me and George here with you. We'll see you on the next hour of The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. It's The Ramsey Show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. I am your host, Jade Warshaw. I am joined by George Camel to my right. And we are taking there you go. We are taking calls all afternoon about your life, your money, your financial situation, your quandaries, if you will, so give us a call. The number is triple 8825-5225 and we will do our best to help you out. All right, let's go straight to the phone lines. We've got Judy May and I'm going to say it like this. Greenville, South Carolina. What's going on? Judy May?

Yes. Just to let you know, I have been listening since Ramsey started.

Wow.

It's been a long time. I have grandkids that are still using his principles. My situation is in June I was in Budgetel motel in Tallahassee, Florida. Couldn't stay the night because there was prostitution going on in the room next to me and there was all kinds of scary stuff going on in the parking lot packed with people. I left, did not spend the night. It wasn't even safe to go to the desk to cancel. Came back the next morning with family that had spent the night there and they got their money back, but they would not give me my money back because I had paid through budget booking.com and it would have to go through them. I have been fighting this since June. The motel has now changed hands and the new owners won't make good on it. The old owners wouldn't make good on it and they're hanging up on me when I call. How much was the team.com is not willing to do anything and the credit card company through Sam's, has been trying to do something and not getting anywhere. I don't know what to do at this point. It's $290 for one night whatsoever.

Wow.

Was this a one night stay or was this multiple nights?

It was a three night reservation. I didn't even spend the first night there. I got back to the motel with family that took me to my motel room at 10:00. Within a few minutes, I knew that it was only going to escalate and be worse in the middle of the night. So my son came and took me back to my car.

So basically they were at the other.

End of the motel and it wasn't quite as effective for them. But their motel room was very dirty. Mine was at least not dirty, but I couldn't stay there. It wasn't safe.

So you paid the 290. You want a refund? Because this place was terrible and it's frustrating you that book. That okay. What was the name of the hotel. You said budget.

Tell it was Budgetel. It has now been changed to O-Y-O Motel in Tallahassee.

So what you're saying to the public is don't stay at Oyo Motel in Tallahassee.

Thank you for the PSA.

If nothing else, let me tell you can I just set your mind at ease, Judy May? You coming on this radio show and telling these millions of folks not to stay at Oyo is worth more than the $290 I was hoping you just.

Got for that one person who is on booking.com right now going, O, yo.

Yeah. Just understand that number one, your best bet.

I mean, of course you can try booking.com and try to escalate it a thousand times up to supervisors and management. You can keep going back to the hotel and explaining. You can go to the credit card company and keep trying to get the charge back. Those are your three best bets.

Here.

You can report a claim on Better Business Bureau's website and the business has to respond.

I did that. They don't respond to me at all. And I've tried numerous times.

Here's the problem. At the end of the day, at some point, your time is worth something, isn't it?

Yes.

So at some point do we go, all right, listen. We've expended 18 hours worth of energy. Now, I get that based on principle, you're willing to fight this thing till your last breath. But there may not be a day where Judy May gets her full $292 back.

Unless someone who works@booking.com goes in the chats and says, judy May, contact me. I'll help you out. So if you work@booking.com and you can help her out, make this right, or you work at OIO and you can help her out, hit up the chats and say, judy May, come holler at me. I'll make this right for you. But I agree with George. At some point you've got to just.

Go, this is back in.

Chalk it up to a loss.

So the longer the time goes on, the harder it's going to be to get it back.

Yeah.

So. I'm sorry you're going through this. Judy may. That's a real bummer. Especially I get rowdy at bad customer service situations like that. And I'm the guy who fights for the refund. My wife is in the car going like, I can't even be in that situation.

I get it. But I get it. I agree. Like her, I hate when something I've forked over my money for does not turn out the way.

Also, cancel the Sam's Club credit card. Judy may. Come on. You've been listening to us for too long.

Good call.

Cut that and say, hey, I'm canceling because you all treated me like this. That's reason number one. Number two, Dave said no.

I love it. Wow. That's crazy. Sorry. I'm thinking about that $290. I mean, three nights you're ticked off because you're like, I planned on being somewhere for three nights. She had to stay somewhere else so that's other money forked away, plus the 290. And then everybody's pointing. It's like that spider man thing where they're all pointing at the other person.

No, it was him.

No, it was booking.com. No, it was oi.

And at some point, is this worth taking to small claims court and getting lawyers involved to try to get this money?

It's not.

Probably not.

It happens to the best of us. We all get in these situations, and at the end of the day, you.

Just have to be like, well, lesson learned.

Lesson learned.

Number one, book direct. That's an important note for a lot of people out there. Some of these websites you have trouble when it's through a third party, I.

Almost never use them, and if I do, none of this is plugs or ads for anything, by the way. I always go on TripAdvisor first, look up the reviews and look at the reviews, and for me, it's the photos. When it comes to a hotel, actual.

User photos, not the one uploaded user photos.

That's what I want to see, because they will show you the photos from the day the hotel was renovated on the actual hotel.

And it's not the actual room you're getting. It's like, here's our sample room at its peak.

And I want to see, I want to know, did anyone find a bug? I want to know, did anyone see a hair on their pillow? Because all it takes is one. That's all I need to know about, and I'm moving on.

That's true, but you can also when you find the best deal, then call the hotel directly and say, hey, I found this deal. They'll generally match it. They want your business. They don't want to have to give a cut to the third party website. There's a little pro tip for you guys out there. As you're booking, whatever it is, you can skip the third party sites and book direct and tell them, hey, match this price, and I'll give you my business.

I like that hack. Do you have any more of that, George?

Anymore so much travel hacks out there. I mean, we could be here all day talking travel hacks. There's a few good apps and things like that that can help you find the best deals. But I found one of the best ways to if you're booking flights, for example, there might be a time when that flight becomes cheaper. And so with Southwest, for example, I showed Ken Coleman this hack, and he instantly saved hundreds of dollars, and he was like, thank you so much. So if you book a southwest flight for $300 yes, next week it may be $200. So if you go in and you rebook on southwest for that same flight, don't cancel it, just change it. Rebook that same flight, you'll get the $100 back in credit or to your card.

So it's not you booking an additional flight and then going and canceling the other one. It's you taking that existing flight, rebooking it that's it. Is Southwest the only one that does that?

That's the one I've used. There may be others that do it, but it's an easy way.

I wish they would just tell you.

Hey, the flight is cheaper and we're going to refund you the difference. That would be really nice.

I mean, that would be really nice.

If I owned an airline, that's what.

I would be doing. Jade so we got to stay on top of it, is what you're saying. You got to stay on top of what you're spending.

The best hacks always have some effort involved, but they're always worth it.

Oh, I love it. I hate what happened to Judy Mae, but sad, it happens to the best of us. Thanks for the hacks, George. Thanks for the tips. To save money. This is the Ramsey show. Hi, everybody.

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You are listening to the Ramsay show. I am Jade warshot, your host. I'm joined by my co host today, George Camel. George, by the way, you have a new book out, am I correct?

That's true, yes. It's on pre sale right now. It's called breaking free from broke. Jade, you're like the Vanna White over here?

Here it is. I got it.

I'm excited about this. This is my experience following the baby steps for ten years, going from broke to millionaire and helping so many people avoid the traps. Some of them I fell for, and some of them I've helped other people avoid, including credit scores, credit cards, student loans, auto loans, mortgages, investing traps. I break it all down with research, humor, empathy, hopefully some wisdom. And then I show you how to break free from that toxic system. And it's a really fun I tried to make this like candy while putting some meat on the bones. At the same time put some meat on the bones. So I'm excited about it.

You really slid by the fact that you went from broke to millionaire. I mean, you just said that. How fast did you do that?

That took a decade. And so this wasn't overnight. There was no life hacks. This is so boring. Jade I just followed the baby steps. I got out of my consumer debt. It was $40,000 in debt.

Yes.

Started and got my emergency fund, started investing for the future, and my company, four hundred and one K. I met my lovely bride Whitney, who works here. We got married completely debt free. We had a big down payment. We paid off our house real early.

Yes.

And all of a sudden you just look up and you add the numbers and you go, we have a household net worth of over a million dollars.

In our early thirty s. I like it.

So I just want to show people I didn't come from money. My job here at Ramsay was not personality up until a year or two ago. So people go, he's making a million dollars, was not, and I am not. But Dave, if you're out there listening, make it happen. So I just want to show people that it's still possible in America today, even as difficult as it feels with today's economy and the housing market and all the reasons you could say, I'm not going to get ahead with money, it's possible the little man can get ahead. And this book proves it.

I love that. And you know what? Ten years, you can see that as, oh, my gosh, that's such a long time. But in my mind, when we're talking about net worth millionaire status, that is so short. The time that you accomplish that. George so very cool.

Part of it is having a spouse that's on board. So I know that's a big piece of it. And you and Sam, that was a big piece of your story, paying off over half a million. And I'm excited to tell people about your brand new quick read coming out December 5. Jade, you beat me to the punch.

Let me get it right.

Money is not a math problem.

Boom.

And you uncover all the lies we tend to believe when it comes to money and budgeting, and you help us get the right mindset around it, because we know personal finance, 20% knowledge, 80% behavior all day. So it's not really about the numbers at the end of the day, it's about your behavior and mindset. And you share your story in this book and you help others get on the plan. And what's cool is with both of these books, if you preorder, you get three months of the premium version of every dollar, totally free if you're a new user. So whether you get Jade's or mine, you get those free three months. And we got all kinds of. Presale assets to convince people to buy.

And I say it's the holidays. I say, go on ahead and pick them up. Pick up both of them.

Yeah. Mine's $20 to preorder. Yours is $10.

$10? Yeah.

So $30 all in. And you got some life change on your hands.

Life change on your hands. Yes. I love that.

And we're younger and more energetic than Dave. Well, maybe not more energetic. That guy can outrun me on a bad day. But I think we bring a youthful Dave. We bring a youthful energy we do to our books and to what we do. And I think if you got younger people in your life, millennials, Gen, Z, this is the book for them.

And we have hair, so there you go. All right, let's head it straight to the phone lines. We got JD. In Seattle, Washington. What's going on, JD.

Hi, thank you for taking my call.

Speak directly into your phone. I had a hard time hearing you there.

Can you hear me better?

I can. What's going on?

So recently, I lost my grandfather, and about a week later, my grandmother was in a really bad car accident. I've had to fly across the country to facilitate the funeral. And then I moved my grandmother into assisted living and also just finished selling their house. Actually closed this week. My mother is fully dependent on my grandparents financially, and with the profits from the sale of their house, my grandma wants to use the money to buy my mother a small condo. Now I'm her power, my grandmother's power of attorney for a lot of things. I'm worried about my mother's financial irresponsibility, and if we buy something for her and her name, or if we do probate, there may be some issue. If we put in my grandmother's name, we go through probate later on, that may lead to some issues. So my main concern is my sister and I cannot financially have the capabilities to support my mother down the line. So trying to get advice as to what you think would be the best route, especially with getting her a condo.

So when your grandmother sells her house and goes to assisted living, what's the take home off the sale of the house?

So they made around over 200,000 from it, and of which my grandmother, her assisted living is paid for.

Okay.

I was going to ask by pension. And my concern is my grandmother's pension covers just her assisted living and no additional expenses and won't increase over the rest of her life.

Okay, so the pension is just enough to cover her stay there. It doesn't account for anything else.

Correct.

And what are some other potential expenses that you see with her stay? At expense?

I could see in the future, her going into memory care, if that's necessary. I sadly live on the other side of the country. My sister does as well, and my mom is just not really capable of helping.

So what would it look like if we took this 200,000 and we parked it somewhere and we said, this is money to take care of Grandma, aside from the pension? Because if you foresee that you need that money, it feels like that's maybe the better use of this. And then when Grandma goes to heaven, whatever money is left, you guys can decide, is that used to help mom buy a condo now, or what do we do with that?

That was my first instinct, too. However, my mom would not have a place to live before my grandfather passed. They were paying for not only her rent, but her living expenses.

Why?

Many years ago, she never was able to fully, I guess, recover from her divorce from my father. And when her alimony finished, when I turned 21 and I'm now 24, she never got back on her feet fully.

When you say recover, is this just a financial thing, or is there anything else involved in that recovery?

Is she disabled physically?

She is not. She's had a very hard time finding a job to stick to, is one way of putting it.

How old is she?

She's in her early 60s.

What happens if she lives to be in her 90s? Who's going to cover the tab for the next 30 years?

Yeah, that's one of my big worries as well.

I think we need to help mom get on her feet, even if it's difficult, because that's the best long term plan for her. Aside from the situation with Grandma's money. And do we buy her a condo? This feels like just more enabling, and I want to give your mom some dignity of having a life and having some purpose to get up every day.

Yeah, we've tried to work on that, too, with her. So I guess it's just the reality I found myself in. Is accepting the States kind of, and not really knowing how to best well.

Is your mom going to be in that way? Is your mom going to live on the streets if you don't buy her a condo? Or do you have faith that she will figure out I have faith that she'll probably figure out a living situation, whether it's renting a place on her own or figuring out a roommate situation if she can't afford to live on her own. There's part of this where the cord kind of has to be cut, or she's got to get kicked out of that nest, so to speak. And it's like, hey, you've got to figure out how to land on your feet, because it's not just that we're trying to be rude or ugly or mean to you, but we've got to take care of Grandma, and we don't have that much. It's not like we're talking about a million bucks sitting here. It's $200,000, which can be gone lickety split and may not even be. You know what I'm saying there's bigger fish to fry in this situation. So when you go to your grandmother and you say to her, grandma, I know what you want to do and I know you're trying to be generous, but we don't even have enough money to fully take care of you.

We need to keep this money to take care of you during your final years. Does she have the wherewithal to understand that at this point?

She does, yeah. She knows how my mom is, how irresponsible she is. Right. And I do think that that's a concern of mine. Like you mentioned earlier, what does she do?

Yeah, buying this condo is just a band aid. It doesn't actually fix the problem. And there's going to be more expenses and there's no more money. Now grandma's out of money and can't support her.

That's right.

So we've got to figure out a different solution. I'm sorry, JDay. You had to grow up real fast, man, at 24 to be handling all this. I'm proud of you and I'm sorry all at the same time.

Yeah. Get with a SmartVestor pro and get that 200,000 invested so that you guys can use it for her care. This is the Ramsey show. You're listening to the Ramsey show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by your other host, George Campbell. And we have been given permission to get wild and crazy.

George, really?

Yes.

From who?

Will Rudder, who's over there in the production booth. I'm naming names. Will. This is the Ramsay show. Give us a call. The number is triple 8825-5225. We try to have a good time in between taking your calls about your life and money. So do give us a call, try to get in there, get in that queue, and we will hear from you and try to help you as best we can. But in the meantime, George, I find this to be very interesting. From time to time, they pull some articles and want us to kind of react to it and talk about it. And I love this one. It says, new American tipping culture is confusing, frustrating, a study finds. I thought there was going to be one more adjective.

It felt like it was going to be a trio. They really let me down.

Washington Post trying to do a Johnny Cochrane moment, and it failed. But the state of tipping in America is, in a word, a mess. Americans are divided and confused over when to leave gratuities and how much to tip for all kinds of services, according to a new study published Thursday by Pew Research Center. Many don't like recent trends such as these added service fees and suggested tipping amounts. Tipping is one of those things in American society where there just aren't clear rules. They said there's not a single generally accepted way of doing things, like with traffic lights, where we all know that red means stop. We call it tipflation.

George yeah. The consumers are just expected to pay gratuities. 72% say tipping is expected in more places today than it was five years ago. Part of that is due to technology, right? I mean, you see the iPad, they can just add this into the software. Bada bing, bada boom. They don't have to pay the workers as much because the consumer gets to take on the brunt of that wage increase.

Well, the worst part is, where I come from, I'm talking about food specifically and service. Where I come from, you need to get a chance to see if you need a tip, right? You need a chance to service first. Was it good? Of course. You go to a restaurant. Let's be clear. You go to a restaurant, you must tip. Like, the minimum is 15% at a restaurant. But if you did a great job I'm going above and beyond. I love tipping at restaurants, but if I go to a place like the coffee place I went to the other.

Day, which will remain you're standing in line. You get to the counter, I haven't even placed your order yet. And then they go, this is going to ask you a few questions.

I don't even know. Did you get the order right? Let me tell you what happened the other day, right quick. I go to a coffee store, which shall remain nameless, place my order, sit down, get the order. And I had ordered a smoothie, and I said, May I have a straw, please? She said, we don't have any straws. I said, well, how am I supposed to drink the smoothie? She goes, you could use a spoon. And I said, Well, I wish you had told me that before I ordered it, because I would have ordered something different. She rolled her eyes at me. I said, oh, no, she didn't.

How can you run a coffee shop and not offer straws?

How are you going to roll my eyes at you? My eyes how are you going to roll your eyes at me when I just gave you my hard earned money?

I don't want to be on that side of jade Warshow.

So you see what I'm saying? If I had tipped first, I would have been right back there and been like, let me have my give me my $5 back, because you eye rolled at me.

Yeah, that's a tough one, for sure. And there's a lot of confusion, too, I think we all want to be decent, good human beings. We're not trying to be jerks and stingy, but at some point we have to just go, I'm not going to tip. For when it didn't require a tipping.

Situation, I got my own frozen yogurt. I put it in the self checkout.

Somebody self checkout are asking for a tip. You order something online, a piece of furniture, and it's like, hey, you want to tip the crew?

Yeah.

No, you have to build in their own income into the product that you're selling me. But it feels so silly that it's gone way beyond just a service hospitality situation and more.

I think the I think the craziest part is it's before the fact. I think that more industries probably could ask for tips. Like, I'm not mad for saying, hey, did you like your service? Show us you appreciate us, but can you just please do it at the end? Can you do it after the fact? For me, that's really where the differential is.

It's now gone up. It starts at 20 and then it goes up 30, 50%. No. And some coffee shops have just started doing you want to tip $1, $3 or $5?

Yeah. And like, my order, they don't show you the percentage.

My order was $2.

Yeah, because they're playing with your psychology. You go, oh, one dollars. That's not a lot. Or $5. That's not bad. But when you look at the percentage on something that was it could have.

Been a 38% tip.

That's right.

Way. Yeah.

This is a tough one.

Do you tip on to go orders? What's your take on to go?

If it's a togo order that I still have to get out of my car and go in and pick it up, I probably won't tip much because I'm like, I did everything. You didn't do much different. Now if it's one of the car services where it's like I just pull up and you bring it out, I'll tip on that.

That's fair.

Like, I'll tip extra on that because I'm like, if I still have to get out of my car and go in, I'm still doing you're still doing the most there's a lot now, I will say somebody told me they were like, well, Jade, they have to put it in the boxes and they have to do that. I'm like, but they were going to put it on a plate. Are you telling me cardboard?

You can't win with these. Everyone's going to be upset at you. But we love generosity. What I hate is forced generosity, which is very different.

That's right. And at the end of the day, there's a lot going on because we've got inflation. Right. And then there's the fact that you're choosing to go off site, like, go out of your home and get food anyway, so you're paying more and then you add the tip on top of something that you were like, hey, I was trying to go the cheap route. Like, there's a reason that we didn't go to Chili's because I didn't want to do a tip. Right.

And now why I'm doing takeout is because I don't want to sit there and get service and then have to pay an extra 15%.

And that used to be a tip of saying, hey, I'm just going to do takeout instead of sitting into the restaurant. And now they're taking it away from us.

The latest one, I got a health fee added to my bill at a restaurant, nice restaurant. And it said health fee. And so I looked into it, and it said, hey, you're supporting the health care for the workers here. And I went, well, that's the employer's job, to cover health care, if that's what they want to do.

Interesting.

So they're subsidizing it through the consumers.

That's interesting.

No, what a time to be alive.

It doesn't make sense. I'll tell you right now, I will always tip when I get my nails done. Always.

There you go.

Because it's absolutely important to do that. I will always tip when I go to a restaurant, because it's absolutely important to do that. I will always tip the instagram or not instagram. Instacart, Uber, people who deliver your groceries.

Someone who went to Costco on a Saturday for me and went to my house and brought me my 32 pack of water. You know they're getting a tip.

Yeah, because I order you got boxes of pull ups, like, expensive, like, heavy things. And I kind of live out in the boondocks, so it's like you're driving on these crazy roads.

That's commitment. But to play devil's advocate, why are those things just default? You tip? Like, do you tip your guy that changes your oil change? He did a service. That's what mean? Like, it's so arbitrary. Where do you draw the line? Well, lucky for you, James, we have a fantastic article on our website called how to Tip in All Situations, and it's a very helpful guide. And right in there, stitched in, is a YouTube video I did on tipping. So we will link that in the show notes and description wherever you're watching so you can go check out that article. But it's a very in depth article, and it goes through situations where you may tip and maybe you don't need to tip.

Well, to James's point, I kind of think where it started is if you're on a wage, a small salary that they pay you, and it's just kind of known, hey, this salary is low. You really are working on, I think I think I've just kind of felt that, okay, let's say you're a hairdresser. You might be in one of those situations where you're paying rent to own that booth. Right? And so then the money that comes, like, if you do my hair, part of that fee goes to the owner.

Of salad or whatever.

And so, yeah, my thought is, like, okay, you're probably really not earning much off the $60 that you're costing for my hair. Let me tip just to make sure. Same thing with nails. It's like, I think there's just you kind of know, okay, they're probably not making I feel like I have to fill in the gap. Same thing with servers at a restaurant.

Interesting. But James has a good point. I mean, I just tipped my barber today. Jade, I don't know if you can tell.

Yeah, but I didn'tip.

The guy who did the oil change, why is that? It's a hands on job.

Look. They should have gotten in when the gitin was good back in the 80s.

That's true. Time to switch careers back in the.

70S when we set the rules they should have.

Well, at the end of the day, it's exhausting. And always tip when you can, but never feel like you're forced to do it at that point. You're not doing it for the right reasons anyways. When you're forced to tip on the screen, the 20% button.

Yeah.

So skip it with a smile and say, have a good day.

That's right. And there's no shame in that game.

No shame.

No shame whatsoever. And, you know, this is my favorite time of year. The holidays are my favorite time of year to do an extravagant tip. If you've never done it and you can afford to do it, go out to dinner, have a normal dinner, and then just leave $100 extra in that little envelope and try to get their reaction. This is the Ramsay show.

Hey, guys. Christmas is right around the corner, which means we're about to be bombarded with a million and one ways to spend money in the name of holiday spirit. And listen, I want you to enjoy the season, but unless you want to spend your entire life savings on candy canes, you need a budget. And EveryDollar will help you make a plan for all of your Christmas expenses. And right now, you can get an entire year of premium features for just 49 99. To get the deal, head over to everydollar.com black Friday. That's everydollar.com BLACKFRIDAY.

This is the Ramsay show. I am jade warshaw, joined by George Camel.

Please give us a call.

The numbers triple 8825-5225. Talk about what's concerning you by way of your money. What are you perplexed by? What is causing you to feel distraught? What is keeping you up at night? We want to talk about those things. Help you work through it, help you walk through it. Let's go straight to the phone lines. We have item. She is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. What's going on? Item.

Hi. Thank you for taking my call. So recently, me, my husband, and my animals, we moved from Florida to Louisiana, and we've been renting because we were not able to tour any. So we found a place that was really nice. The rent is really cheap, but for the past three weeks, we have this neighbor that smokes marijuana, which we have nothing against it, but it's just so strong that he gets in her clothes. Yes, get in the house. Is her baby. Like, he wakes us up in the middle of the night. So we're struggling between paying out this contract, which is around $1,200, and move to a different apartment or buy house.

It's legal there, right?

So it's for medicine purpose. It's legal. And we already talked to the lenders. They already had a meeting with the Narcotic police and there's nothing they can.

Do because shoot, they won't move you to a different unit?

Probably. No.

Why not?

We have to pay out the contract. Well, for what they're saying, there's just nothing they can do. We already had like three different calls.

With them and they're just it's really simple what they can do. They move you to a different unit at no charge. You're not breaking the lease. You're still a renter there. I would fight them and say, I got a baby here. This is a medical situation for my family now that puts us at risk and in danger. And so we don't want to make this any more difficult than it has to be. All we're asking is that you move us to a different unit. It's that simple.

And if they get funky fresh, I'd get funky fresh by starting to make threats about getting my lawyer involved.

Exactly. Because that was my next question. If they are like literally there's nothing else like moving us to a different apartment. I don't know if I will lose money if I hire an attorney.

Yeah, I don't want you to pay a dime right now, but I think we need to escalate this with the apartment and go. This is a bleaker situation than you guys realize.

Especially if there are other units. If it's one of two things, if they're like, hey, we're full, we don't have any other units, then I could see them trying to figure trying to hold that over you. Or if they're like, we don't have any comparable units to the one that you're in. You would have to upgrade or pay the difference or whatever that is. But if you know for a fact that there's open units, then you've got to push, push, push, push. Because the fact is you do have a baby and this is not good. No one's going to try to tell me that this is okay for your baby to inhale. Especially at the point where it's in the smell of your clothes. You guys have to show up for work. Yeah, this is a real thing. So I would keep pushing very hard. Don't stop paying rent. Because the moment you stop paying rent, then you're putting yourself in a bad legal footing. But I keep when is your lease up?

So we just moved in. We moved in three weeks ago.

Oh man.

So it's going to be twelve months.

That's not going to work. We need to find a different situation. Either they need to let you out of this lease for free, or they find you a different unit now, or else this is going to be escalated.

In the meantime, while you're pushing through this, is there something you can look at by way of like an air purifier that you can keep at least in the baby's room somewhere to work through the air. In your own apartment?

Yeah. So right now we're kind of basically just like sleeping in the living room because we cannot even get into our master room or nothing at all.

Oh, my God.

And they tell us we can put a blanket over no, somewhere in the back.

Have they walked into your apartment yet?

It's not going to work.

Has the staff walked in? You need to say, you're coming with me right now into this apartment?

Yeah. So they said that maintenance walk around the apartment, they smelled the weed, but they couldn't figure out who it was. So there's nothing like they couldn't figure out who it is.

I thought we just talked about they've had a meeting about it, and this person is not committing any crimes here and they can't do anything.

Yeah. This doesn't sound right.

You know exactly who it is.

Yeah.

Have you confronted the neighbor?

I was going to ask that.

So they told us not to because they said not to because they don't have any problems. They're trying to figure it out, who it is. They do smell it on the because there's like, only six people right now in this building.

Well, that narrows it down.

Exactly. So they say they send a letter to all six of us, but they still don't know who it is.

Only you can judge whether you would feel comfortable doing this. But if I had an idea of who it was, I'd probably approach them and I'd say, I have a young baby, and your habit is really making it difficult for us and the landlord. I'm working on it because you deserve to have your life and I deserve to have mine. But is there any way that you can work with me until I'm able to work with them to get moved? Is there any way that you can help me out with this? And look, they might decide to be like, who are you? I care less. But it can't hurt to ask if you feel comfortable even speaking with them. And if it were me, I mean, I'd ask nicely, I wouldn't get in.

Their face and be like, look, not a confrontational situation.

And I think there's something about being like, I've got a young how old's your baby?

Eight month old.

I have an eight month old, and my eight month old is waking up coughing to the smell of your marijuana. Can you please help me out?

I'd be reading that lease agreement. I'd be looking up the laws in your county, in your state, to go, what are the protections to provide a clean environment? If I'm a renter here, paying this bill, and if they're not making good on that, they're going to have problems. And so this is your time to start reading the fine print and potentially working with a lawyer to settle this thing. And I hope you can remedy it or at least get out of there and find a different apartment. I'm so sorry you're dealing with this item.

Honestly, I'd reach out item if I were you. I would start reaching out to my friends in my network. I'd be like, who in my friend group is a lawyer, whose brother in law is a lawyer, whose grandma is an attorney? And I'd be like, can you just what would they charge me just for them to write me this letter, this threat, basically to help me out and find out without really getting involved. Just something that's going to make them feel like, oh, we got to move and we got to do this quickly so that you can bluff, but not really bluff your way into getting this done faster. That's what I would do if I were you. I hate that that's happening, but thank you for the call.

That's crazy. And one last solution is if you ask the neighbor and say, listen, there's a shared wall here, the room you're smoking in, can you at least go smoke in a different room that doesn't have a shared wall and ventilation so that we can alleviate this problem? And if they're unwilling to do that, then we got to escalate this. That's just a terrible situation. What is wrong with people?

I don't know. What's wrong?

Common decency.

Common decency. The thing is, you don't know if it's medicinal. I don't want to say it's probably not, but it's probably there's a lot.

Of people skirting that law. I think we can all agree there.

Skirting that law, but I agree with you, George. I would try everything I could. If I thought it was them, I come over, I'd be like, I have this air purifier. If you can just smoke next to that, that would help me a lot. So my eight month old kid, I would be trying everything. I would go, like I said to my parents, to my friends, anybody? I'd be like, do you have a friend who's a lawyer that can just look at my situation right quick? Because I think we all know somebody that knows somebody, right? It's just like one or two degrees away that would be willing to help out in a situation like, oof, I'll.

Tell you this, Jade, I don't miss the days of renting apartments.

Me either.

It was for a season.

Me either. I hope that they can get that sorted out soon because that really stinks. But let's kind of try to shift.

The mood here, George, because we need that.

That was a downer. Let's go to an upper, if you will, because I want to talk to these people about the Ramsay Christmas Cash giveaway.

There we go.

All right, that's more like it. Ramsay Cash giveaway is here. I'm talking about Christmas cash, guys. We are giving away $5,000, which is a lot of money, especially when you're trying to get your Christmas shopping. Done. But the best part is you can enter to win every single week. And every week we're giving away $500. So it's like leading up to it, you get 500, 500, 500, and then if you win, you get the grand prize of 5000.

And real people win this stuff. JP. Yes, I see our team get to contact them and it's a lot of fun.

That's awesome. So all you have to do is go to Ramsaysolutions.com giveaway and that's where you can enter. Like I said, enter every week to win 500. And then at the end, you'll be put in the drawing to win the $5,000. I love that.

And we got the $12 sale going.

That's right.

While you're at there, check out the twelve Ramsaysolutions.com store. We've got some of our best selling books on there, including some new arrivals like Jade's new book, money's not a math problem. My new book, breaking free from broke Rachel's got a wallet in Navy. It's beautiful. The 2024 goal planner, all kinds of things. Ramsaysolutions.com store.

That's right. All right, thanks for hanging with us. That does it for this hour of the Ramsay show. Come back and join us for the next hour of the Ramsey show. We'll see you there. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey solutions. It's the Ramsey show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. I am Jade Warshaw. I am joined by George Campbell, and the two of us will be your hosts for today. Give us a call. The number is triple 8825-5225. Those phone lines are open. Christian will screen your call and we will talk to you about what's going on in your life. And just to be clear, this is a money show, but it intersects with so many things in your life. Your career, your marriage, your relationships. So many issues are affected with your money, and so we understand that. So give us a call. We'd be happy to talk with you about that. Let's go straight to the phone lines. Where we've got Joe in Jacksonville, Florida. What's going on, Joe?

Hey, I was calling in, I was wondering, how do I go about dating when I come from an affluent family, many girls parents will see me as a big dollar sign instead of seeing me for who I am. And I was wondering what your thoughts are because I face that problem with many families.

How do they know?

That's what I was going to say.

Usually when you meet a girl's parents, they ask you what your parents do for work, which is a very normal thing to ask somebody. And then when you tell them.

Can we ask you what do your parents do for work?

Well, it's more of my family. I have multiple cardiologists in my family between my cousins and everyone.

Okay.

And that's your leading talking point when you're on a date. I don't understand how your whole family comes up in this situation?

Well, not when you're on a date, but when the girl brings you around her parents.

Okay, so what's your family's net worth? Like, just your immediate family? What's the net worth of your parents?

It's substantial.

10 million. 20 million?

Yes.

Okay, so I would not have garnered that just from you talking to me. I would have thought, oh, they're doctors. That's great. If I said to you, Joe, what do your parents do? And you said, oh, they're in the medical field. And I said, really? Well, what do they do in the medical field? If you said, oh, my dad's a heart surgeon and my mom's an anesthesiologist. Real talk, I would be like, okay, they got some like I would just derive that. But I don't think that I would even think to ask further. I wouldn't go, really? So how has that calculated? So how are they getting to the point of knowing? Does your family have a name that people recognize in the community?

That's correct. Yes.

In Jacksonville, Florida. Okay, so is their name on a hospital or something like yes.

Yes, it is.

I see.

Okay, so it's much more obvious than you having to bring it up and talk about it.

Exactly.

What does the family have to do with it? What is your fear going into this? They see you as a dollar sign. What does that mean to you?

Well, it just really worries me because I have to wonder what the girl's parents are going to tell their daughter when I'm not around.

Like, don't let him go. Make sure you do.

Taking more interest in me than other people.

Yeah.

Well, I think you're going to need some discernment as you date to just go, is her heart in it? Would she have married me if my family was broke? Is that really a big factor? How are you finding these dates currently?

Well, just around town in church, things like that. I try to stay off the Internet, but that's kind of this day and age.

Yeah.

So the people in your church, they.

Must know your.

Part of this, that there's part of this that could be very real, and there's part of this that could be perceived. Right. Because if I go to my home church, people know, oh, Jade, she works for Ramsay. She's on the Ramsay show. Like, she has this cool job, but it doesn't really change. I could talk myself into thinking they're going to see me different and they're going to talk to me different, but it doesn't really change anything because they've been knowing me for ten years, however long I've been at the church. So is there a piece of this that you're just worried about it, or have you seen it play out and actually be a reality?

There was an instance where I was talking to a girl at a wedding that I had met, and the father wanted to get his daughter and leave the wedding. Everybody was leaving. And he asked the groom what my name was, and he told the father my name. And the father said, okay, well, we'll just wait around and give them a minute to talk to each other.

Weird.

I mean, that's weird, but that's also I feel like you should expect for there to be some jerk moves or dumb people are going to have dumb moments for sure. But I definitely don't want that to talk you out of dating a really nice girl because here's the thing, whether wealthy or not, you're going to go down the line with plenty of girls thinking, I liked her and then it's not going to work out. Regardless of having wealth, you might get to the point of thinking this is the one and then it doesn't work out. I think that's happened to everybody. Right. And so I think that you're going to know pretty early in whether someone has ulterior motives or not and maybe that's you developing kind of your own spidey sense. Spidey sense or a little sneaky screening test that you do when you're talking to people or there's a little checklist of red flags that you look for when they're talking to you. Are they talking about money in a way that you think is a red flag? Are they asking you more questions about your family than they're asking about you? Right.

I think it's you going, okay, what is it that I need to be looking for when I'm going on dates? Also, who is it like if somebody is setting me up, who do I trust to say, oh, I have a friend? Because I think that the circle of people that you get in is really important because people know each other, right. And it's like at my church, the folks that I roll with at my church, they know people and I know that the people they know are good people and then since those people are good people, it's almost like birds of a feather flocking together.

True.

And so I would probably just decide don't really there's certain people that if they say, hey, I have somebody I'm going to set you up on a date with, I'm like, okay, no thank know.

Yeah. I also wonder if he got out of his own circle, joe, would that help? Because they don't know you from Adam at that point. That's also know to where they're seeking you out for the right reasons. And my worry is that it's going to be more paranoia in your head of like, oh, gosh, they're trying to get up the family's money and they don't really care about me and that's what I don't want you to have. I would just walk into it and just be Joe and take things slow, ask the right questions, establish boundaries, be transparent. That's the best thing you can do in these situations and over time you'll vibe it out and you go, no, that's a good family. Those are good parents. They're not out my money. And that's always going to be a factor. Know Rachel Ramsey when she was in college and met Winston, winston was like, Dave, who's that guy?

Yeah.

And so that was a big factor. There was no weirdness.

I think, honestly, I think a lot of it could be in his head right now. He had that one moment that kind of freaked him out. And that can definitely make you gun shy, but my guess is most people are not looking at most people probably aren't making that connection. They're just like, oh, your last name is Jude, that's great. I'm not thinking St. Jude. It must be them. This is the Ramsey Show, folks.

Changing your family tree takes more than rice and beans and side hustles. It's also about transferring the big financial risks off your family by having the right kinds of coverage in place. That's why my team created the Coverage Checkup quiz. It only takes about five minutes to find out what types of insurance you need and don't need to protect your finances. Make this quiz one of your regular checkups, starting right now@ramsaysolutions.com. Slash checkup. That's Ramsaysolutions.com. Slash checkup.

You're listening to the Ramsey show. I am Jade Warshaw, joined by George Campbell. Breaking Free from Broke is the name of the book that George Campbell just came out with. It's very, very cool. And you're recording the audiobook as well, George? That's awesome.

Yeah, I just wrapped it. The team's editing it right now and we're doing an enhanced audiobook, so it's got some music transitions. We're weaving in some conversations and phone calls and things we've done to just spice it up for the listener.

I love that.

That's very, very I try to break the mold. Jade.

You know, I'm excited for that because I've heard your audio on a couple of different projects. Remember when you did the fine print? Oh, yeah, that was one of my favorites. That narrative.

Similar narrative. Thank you, I appreciate it.

You got a good voice for that.

And you have a new book, Money's Not a Math Problem, that just launched this week. I do on presale and it's coming out in December. So I'm very excited for you. You can check out all of those books@ramsaysolutions.com store and of course we bribe you with some goodies for buying it early, including with mine, the free audiobook and ebook.

Now that you told me it's going to be like judged up, I'm kind of you jealous.

There's still time to judge.

Maybe a little bit. I do my own sound effects.

That's pretty good.

Let's go to Elaine. Did I say that right? Elaine in Phoenix, Arizona. She spells it differently. What's going on, Elaine?

So I was planning on retiring next year at 45. I'm 44 now. Had a few financial setbacks over the last two years and just kind of wanted to double check my math that it still makes sense to leave my.

Nine to five, so wow. Okay, leaving the nine to five. Can I ask a question? Are we leaving the nine to five to do something else or you're just like, I am done using my energy to do any sort of work.

I'm the type of person, I'll always do something. Whether that is going to be something that's super monetarily rewarding is sort of to be determined.

Okay, so how much do you have on your nest egg?

So I have about 500,000 in various retirement accounts and then some investment accounts. I also have about 250,000 that's coming to me from the sale of an old primary residence that will be added to that. I own my home, so I don't have a mortgage. I own the car. I don't have a car payment. I don't have any significant sources of debt other than the fact that I have a child who is a huge money pit. Love him, but huge money pit.

What's your personal home worth?

640,000.

Okay. And you live in Arizona. Okay.

So what's your game plan? Let's say you retire next year. What is your game plan, and why do you feel like it's now set back?

So I went through a pretty nasty divorce last year. It cost about 180,000 over the two years that we were in court. And then I got laid off last year as well, so I had about six months of no income. So really I just want to spend some time and focus on my kid and watch him grow up. And I had some health complications as well. So just slow down so that I can be here long term for him.

Okay, and then what's your plan financially? Let's say you retire next year. What is the game plan as far as using these retirement accounts and the cash that you have to sustain yourself? Because let's say you live to 95. That's a 50 year retirement. What's our plan? To not run out of money.

So if I will not live to 95, our DNA is terrible, but.

Don'T.

Say that they're doing God will now spite you by making you live to 100.

Well, what percentage were you planning to pull off of this?

So I've been running various retirement calculators and basically drawing down 45,000 a year until I retire.

And you're working alone, or are you working with a professional?

I'm working alone.

I would strongly, strongly, strongly, strongly advise you to get with a professional. Matter of fact, I'd love if christian, can you set her up with one of our smartvester pros? Set her up with that information so you can find a pro in your area. Because I want you to sit down with somebody who's going to run these numbers with you every single possible way they can run them and actually be able to give you a number that has been tested to say, hey, here's realistically what you could do. And hopefully never touch the principle of this because I'm sure I think that a number does exist for that, but I just don't want it to be. You doing some quick calculations based on something you saw on the Internet. And I'm not trying to be ugly. I'm just saying I want to make sure that this is the right move. But bigger than that, I do think that before you pull the trigger on this, I think you need to know what's next on the corner for how you're using your time. And I know you have a kid and kids take up a lot of time, but as far as productivity and how you want to spend your days and what you do with your very useful to the world skills.

Okay. And I think my hope is that that will come once I'm able to sort of focus and rest a little bit, my purpose will become clear.

What if you called this, hey, I'm going to take a year, I'm going to take one year versus I'm going to retire early. That's a very different decision to make that I think would give me some peace if I'm in your shoes.

I got suckered back into going to work. I tried that. I was going to take a year off and I made it four months and somebody pulled me back in. What kind of work did you do? I'm in software, so I do software architecture.

Do you love that work?

I used to. I hate it now.

Okay. So much because you just did the most I've been doing this since I.

Was 20 years old. I've been doing this my whole professional life and it's the same problems every day and I just want to solve a different problem.

I guess we're just talking at this point. What would just a career shift look like for you to be like, you know what, I did that. I don't want to be in software anymore. I want to sew blankets. Like whatever it is that you've just decided this is what you know what I'm saying? Like taking the time to just spitball things. Matter of fact, Christian, make sure she gets ken's, get clear assessment and some of those goodies maybe even paycheck to purpose. Because here's my thing, Elaine, I really don't want you stepping out into this to nothing else. I want you to know, even if you called and said, hey, I'm going to retire early, my church really needs somebody to lead this initiative and it's going to give me the time. That's what I want to focus. I never heard something that you're stepping into and I'm not going to lie, that bothers me a little bit.

Okay. I guess I'm stepping into being present for my kid because I can't be right now. I work so many hours. Yeah, and I know that only lasts for another probably ten years until he hates me and lives in his room and never speaks to me again.

But how old are kid? How old?

He's only four.

Okay, look, I respect that. I'm not mad at that. Being a stay at home mom is full time job, so I'm not going to dispute that one bit. So, look, get with somebody, talk with them, make sure to run the numbers and see what it really will take. And look, I'm proud of you. I'm not mad at all. I'm super proud. It's not every day, George, that someone.

Calls and says, yeah, this is an impressive situation. 44 has $1.4 million net worth. That's just what the number she threw out. And realistically, she could make these numbers work for a long time. But I do want to make sure that it's invested the right way that will help this money sustain itself for a long period of time. Now, 50 years, I don't know. I think we may have to go back to work eventually. We've seen that from the this is Fire financial independence. Retire early. And we've seen some members of that community go, oh, gosh, I retired at 34 and we had $700,000 and now we're running out. And also I need to save for juniors college and I don't have an income. And so they're starting to get panicked and worried. Inflation, housing, everything's going up over time. So we have to be cognizant of what the next 10, 20, 30 years could look like.

I read an article recently, and don't quote me on this because I literally skimmed the article, but it was one of the founders of Fire, I think went back to work for those very reasons. It was like, hey, I got kids going in college and this is not necessarily what it was cracked up to be. Don't quote me on that, but go see if you can find that article because I do remember reading it thinking, wow, that's interesting. But for me, the bigger piece of it, George, is being productive. Now, don't get me wrong, this is not towards Elaine. If Elaine is like, I have a four year old now, I'm going to stay home with my four year old.

And she's like, you know what? Life is more important than just work. Watch my kid grow up. I think that's a very noble thing to do, especially after what she's been through now as a single mom going through a messy divorce, I think she does need some time to grieve. Yes, but do we need to call it quits and never work again? I don't know that that's the solution, right?

I mean, based on her job alone and based on the fact of how in demand she was for her job, she has a major contribution just with her mind. Doesn't have to be software, but she's got something that she can know once her kid goes to college. Like she said, when he's ready to lock himself in his room.

Done.

So I'm proud of you, Elaine. Hear us say, very, very good job. Impressive. This is the Ramsey show.

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You're listening to the Ramsey show. I am Jade Warshaw. George Camel is sitting to my right, and we are your hosts for the day. Give us a call. We'll talk about your life and your money or the things that are affecting you. Regarding your life and your money, the number is triple 8825-5225. Give us a call, and we will help you sort it out. Let's go straight to the phone lines where we have Stuart in Billings, Montana. What's going on, Stuart?

Hey there. Thanks for taking my call. I'm kind of at a crossroads right now in my life. I just had to put my two weeks in for my current job. Been kind of miserable there in insurance, and I've been looking into taking an online boot camp to start a new career in data science or data analytics. But part of the problem is that that obviously has a tuition cost incurred, and I have existing student loan debt for my undergraduate degree and some other miscellaneous credit card debt that I've been working on.

How much.

Grand total is just close? Just shy of 60,000. I've got 35 in student loans and the remaining in credit cards and other personal loan debt.

Okay, so what would it cost to do this data science degree or certification?

The boot camp, I think, roughly is 9700 if it's paid in full. There's several different programs out there that have a variety of costs. It ranges, I'd say, somewhere between eight and 15,000, depending on the program. But the one I'm looking at in particular, they claim to have a 90% job placement rate and 100% money back guarantee. If you don't find a job within the first six months after completion and.

You just pay the flat rate, it's not like, hey, this is over the course of three months, and you pay this at this month and this month it's just a flat.

The flat cost, if you pay in full, is 9700 for the one I'm interested in. Otherwise you can finance it or make it an installment.

No, we don't want to do that. How long is the boot camp?

It's 16 weeks.

16 week boot camp. And during the time of the 16 week boot camp. You're not able to work or do anything else. Are you going on location somewhere? Is it online? How does it work?

It's online. They say the average workload is 20 to 25 hours. It's self paced, so you can actually work full time. So I could theoretically go find any other job and work full time in the day and then do this at night.

Sounds like you would need to. How are you going to pay for the bills?

Yeah, that's a great question. I was thinking about trying to find a different full time job and also working part time on the side. But I'm also trying to figure out how I can make all that happen. But I think the bigger concern was that I just wasn't going very far in the current career I was in and needed to find something that I could actually enjoy going to work to do. And I think something in this data science field would be right up my alley. It's just a matter of how do I get there.

How old are you?

I'm 28.

I like how you're thinking in the way of you're like, I started this job and I'm not going anywhere. I don't enjoy it. I think I might enjoy this. I'd like for you to get a little bit more clarity on why you think you might enjoy it before you invest 9700 in 16 weeks. And maybe that looks like finding somebody who does it and interviewing them, just digging into it a little bit more like, can I shadow you for it? What does your job look like and really dig into it. We're going to give you Ken's get clear assessment because I really want to make sure that this really is the right field for you. But let's put that on pause for a quick moment because what I really think, no matter what you decide to do, if you're like no Jade. After further research, I know 100% I want to do this. I think that's great. But I do think that you'll feel better about it if we can start cleaning up this initial debt in the process or a first. So what would it look like for you to find a job that pays what you are making or more?

That's a great question. For context, I was netting 2700 a month after taxes and deductions and had full health care coverage and a matching 401. So it's hard to find something exactly like that right now, at least.

And right now you have no income?

No, I still have about two and a half weeks left of working there. I just put in my notice and.

That'S just because you could not work another day, you were like, I'm fed up with this.

That and some other circumstances that I can't really get into.

But it's just like ethical stuff.

It wasn't a great yeah, not from my own side of things. Just wasn't enjoying what I saw on the inside, and I just was having a hard time with my mental health getting through the days, and I just knew that this was the right choice to move on to something different.

What's your undergrad in political science? Political science, okay.

Yeah.

What I would do if I were you is I would be focused right now. I would be getting on glassdoor, I'd be getting on everything, and I'd be looking for a job that seems like something that you could stomach or enjoy for the next two years, year and a half.

Sure.

Where you're making? I want you to get to 40,000. Right?

Yeah.

Okay. As much as you can. But I want you to matching what you were making before, and I want you to get this debt cleaned up.

And in the meantime, if you can't land that full time job, we got to get enough side hustles to create $2,700 in take home pay. That might mean delivering people packages, food Instacart, Uber, Eats, DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, you name it, in order to bring in enough income to sustain your life right now until you land that next job. But I'm with Jade. I would pause on this. I love this dream of doing data science, but let's pause. Let's find something sustainable. Let's clean up some of this debt, and then we can cash flow this $10,000 program and hopefully increase our income and do something we love.

Very good. Thanks for the call, Stuart. That was not easy, but I think he needs to clean up his mess first. Let's go straight to Rob in Dallas, Texas. What's going on, Rob?

Hi.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call.

No problem.

I'll start by saying I'm on baby step four, five, and six. And I've been working through a question with my Smart Vestor pro, we have about $12,000 that I got as a bonus at work to invest towards potentially at 529, which I've already invested in. I'll start with my question based on Ramsay principles, why is the 529 a better idea than prepaid college? Well, and I have some specifics for kind of our scenario.

Well, for me, the reason I like a 529 is because there's no limit on how much you can contribute to it. So for me, that's great. And there's not an income limit of what you can or can't make in order to contribute to it. So I just think it's a little bit freer in that sense. And with the 529, you don't want the prepaid. You want something where you're able to choose the investments, and the investments are growing. And something I like about the 529 is they're state specific, but you don't have to choose the one that's in your state, so you can literally work with somebody to find one that has the perks that make the most sense for you. So I just feel, in general, there's a little bit more. Freedom in it. But that being said, there's not a right or wrong answer in your case. If you're wanting to contribute more than what contribute more, a 529 would be good for you.

More than what driving you to the prepaid option.

Well, thank you for asking. So I have two kids, and I have 70K saved for my oldest child and 34 in a 529 in good growth stock mutual funds. My SmartVestor pro estimates that at an in state public school in Texas, the younger one would cost 162k when they turn 18 and 144k when the older one turns 18. Right now, I can take sixty six K and hand that to the state of Texas and buy four years of prepaid tuition.

I wouldn't do the prepaid option. I would do something where you're able to choose the funds that are invested in and have little bit more control.

You're going to get more bang of return with that, for sure. And there's a lot of restrictions with these prepaid plans that make them not as great deals. You think you can't pay for books, housing is off the table. There's some restrictions on what schools you can go to.

I don't think you can transfer it in as many cases right.

As you would with the yeah, I would look into all the fine print on these, but we don't suggest a prepaid plan. I'd stick with the 529. And 162 is a lot. Let's try to get some scholarships, grants, and maybe choose a more affordable school.

I love that. This is the Ramsay show. This is the Ramsay show. Thank you for listening. I am Jade Warshaw, your host. This is George Campbell sitting right next to me, your other host. For the remainder of the show today. Give us a call. The phone lines are still open. The number is triple 8825-5225. Our scripture and quote of the day. Each one of you should test their own actions. They can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else. For each one should carry their own load. That's Galatians six, verse four through five. Freddie Mercury OOH, lead singer of one of the greatest bands, I must say Queen. And on my top list of best male vocalists, fight me if you Want to.

100%.

He said, someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Come on, somebody. That's what I'm talking about.

That's a word.

That's a word. That is OOH. Love that. I had to let that marinate for just a moment. That was good. All right, let's go to TJ. He's in Philadelphia, PA. What's going on, TJ?

Hi. I'm fine. Thank you for taking my call.

You're welcome. Thanks for calling. How can we help?

So we are just now starting baby step two. I've been learning about the Ramsey process, and we are in a bad place. From stupid mistakes. We're just now starting baby step two. Okay, I have all the numbers for you, but the question is, my husband is starting to work overtime and is also working a second job, and he's worried about missing basically the lives of our two little kids for working so much for the next three years.

Yeah, look, that's a real concern that people have, and it's one of those things where you've kind of got to weigh both sides of it and find the right balance in the middle. Because your family is extremely important. Having time with them is extremely important, and getting out of debt is important, and setting them up by way of setting yourself up for the future is extremely important. So let's lay out these numbers and then let's see if we can help you strike the right balance in getting this thing done. Fair enough?

Okay. Yeah.

So what are the numbers? What's the debt?

Okay, so like I said, we're trying to turn over a new leaf here. We have IRS debt. We have 2023 taxes that we procrastinated on that we need to save up for $5,000 of that. We have my student loans for $6,500, and then we have back IRS debt for $12,000.

And that's the back debt. Okay.

And then student loans for $24,000.

Okay. Student loans for 6500 and student loans for 24,000.

Yes.

Okay. Anything else? That's all.

No credit cards, no car loans?

No credit cards. We broke those up.

Okay. How many kids do you have? Two. Two. And what is your combined income with you and your husband?

It's 74,000.

And do both of you work?

No, I'm a stay at home mom with the children.

How old are the kids?

Ages?

Two.

And my daughter is three months old.

Okay. So this is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. When you first started talking, I was waiting for it to be different. So maybe that makes you feel a little bit better. I don't know, maybe it doesn't. But I'm looking at this and automatically I'm going to tell you to put the IRS debt, the back debt first. That 12,000. Even though we always say do your debts from smallest to largest, in this case, the IRS always comes first. So because you've got the back debt, let's do the twelve K first and then do the five K. So twelve K IRS debt. Five k IRS debt. Then we're going to tackle the 6500 student loan, then the $24,000 student loan. So that's the order of importance. Next things next. Let's talk about this budget. Are you on a budget?

Yeah, I mean, I like to just write down everything on paper.

We're going to change all that today. We are going to rock your world, TJ, because we're going to make sure you are set up with the best budgeting tool out there. It's called Every Dollar, and it is going to make your life you're going to walk away today and you're going to go, oh, thank God, because tonight you're going to log in and you are going to create your budget, and you're going to know by the time you go to sleep tonight. Okay. After all the bills are paid, after all the necessities are paid for, this is how much money that we should have left at the end of the month. And then I do have a number.

For you, if you'd like.

What is it? $1,400 is what's left.

And that's with overtime and the second job?

Yes. And with beans and rice type of stuff.

Okay. What's your grocery budget?

I combine gas and grocery at $500 for the month.

Oh, that's combined gas and groceries, girl, I'm hoping.

Are you guys investing at all right now? Does he have a retirement plan at all?

Well, he's just starting a new job, so he's planning on not investing right away.

We want to do that after we.

Got out of debt.

I'm just wondering where the 74,000 is going to figure out how we get more than 1400. Because $1,400 a month, that's less than 17 grand a year, and you're sitting there with 47 grand of debt, and that's too long to sacrifice for four, exactly five years. We need to speed this up.

What's your mortgage? What do you pay every month in your mortgage?

1090.

Okay, that feels reasonable.

Yeah. Well, I think and this is just me, I think that you will benefit from every dollar, and I think you might find areas where some money is slipping through the cracks where you can go, okay, maybe this is it, because here's the thing with pen and paper, you're not doing things in real time. You're always having to circle back and go, okay, what was that? Okay, what was that? Where with every dollar, every single day, you're getting that update of this is how much money I can spend. So that's still going to be a very big deal. But what I really want to get to is finding a way with Side Hustles. In order to bring this number up, I want you at least I mean, what would it look like for you to bring in $500 and your husband to bring in an extra $500 every month? What would that take?

Yeah, I thought about getting a job myself, but he said that he didn't really want me to work. He wanted me to be at home with the kids.

That might be true, but if you're not going to work, then he has to do double the work. So is he willing to do double the work? It sounds like he's concerned about that because the whole crux of this call was he doesn't want to miss out on the kids life. You're at home with them all day, so maybe there's a piece of that that you can take off his plate is what I'm saying. Okay. And I think it sounds like a lot, but George and I talk to people all the time who side hustle. They do instacart and they're bringing in four and five and six and $800 a month. I even know people. Now, let me go on record on saying I don't know if you're supposed to do this, but I know people who take their kids and do their you said you only have one car.

Yes.

Then maybe it's you drop your husband off at work, then you go do your instacart shift, you go back home, the kids take a nap, you do another instacart thing and then you go pick him up. I think there's a way that you guys can do this where it's not he hasn't seen the kids in three years. We don't want it to be like that. We want you to that was my Titanic voice.

That was pretty good.

There is a balance that you can strike here. And I do think that it's with you picking up some hours in the day, taking the kids with you because I don't want them to work 24 hours a day. I want them to be able to see these kids. I mean, you got two and three month olds.

The truth is a lot of people will spend the next 30 years with stress and anxiety and the kids watch their parents grow up fighting about money because they didn't want to sacrifice for those two or three years while they were young. And I don't remember anything. Third grade, I think is my first memory. Jade so truthfully, while he's going to have the guilt of I'm missing out on all this, the kids are not going to have trauma because dad worked overtime when they were two. And I want to set you guys up for a great financial future for the next 30 years, 40 years. And I'm okay with Sacrificing right now to get there. And I think Jade's right. There's a balance. I think you have some skin in the game. And truthfully, being a stay at home mom is a choice and that choice comes with consequences. And one of those is we don't have two incomes. We have to figure something out to clean this up and this isn't forever.

And the good news is here's what I want to leave you with. The good news is you are the average, like, you are the person. The average person is out of debt in two years or less, you're that person. You guys are going to get your income up. You're going to have $2,500 of disposable I'm throwing at debt money and you're going to make this gone. You're going to pay off $30,000 a year and this is going to be gone in two years.

An extra 500 or $1,000 changes this whole situation dramatically. So hang on the line. We will get you every dollar premium and also sign up for a webinar. Rachel's doing@everydollar.com budgeting. In just a few days, she's going to walk you through how to use this thing.

OOH. Love it. All right, guys, that does it for this hour of The Ramsay Show. Remember, you can tell me that you won't do it, but please don't try me by telling me that you can't. With Jesus Christ, all things are possible. This is the Ramsey show.

Dr. John Deloney here. Mental and emotional health challenges, broken relationships it's all just part of life. But they don't have to define you. The Dr. John Deloney Show is here to help. It's a caller driven podcast where you can get practical advice on dealing with anxiety, loneliness, depression, relationship challenges, your kids, and so much more. Listen to questions from our callers or if you're walking through a tough situation and need some help, give me a call. You were never meant to do life alone, and that's what this podcast is all about. Follow along on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or the Ramsey Network app. Remember, you're worth being well.