Transcript of You Can’t Heal Your Finances Without Changing Your Habits

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Normal is broken, common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life and your money from the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. And next to me for a change, Kenneth, That guy, Coleman.

It's all right. I'll be delivering UPS packages later today. I've got the full outfit on today. People are a little bit shocked by the monochromatic-Oh, I see what you got going.

That's the Doug Heffernan.

I see what you got. The audience can't see, but I have matching pants with the shirt, and it's throwing people off, Kelly. I don't know why, but it is. So I'm going to Moonlight tonight and drop some packages off.

I think we'll survive the change.

If you got any packages, let me know. I'll drive them out.

The white sneakers and everything. Okay. Full UPS.

We're excited. We're ready to go today.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's get into the phone lines. We've We got Whitney, who's in Nashville, Tennessee, right down the street. What's up, Whitney?

Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

Yeah, you bet. How can we help?

So I'm trying to figure out how to protect my finances. My husband and I have done Dave Ramsey on and off the program, and due to addiction, there has been just some changes. And so if separation is what is about to happen, I'm trying to figure out how to protect finances on my end.

Okay. So since we're separating them, I'm sorry that this is happening, let's look at it individually. Tell me about how much money you make. Tell me about that side. Because when you say you're separating finances, is he moving out as well?

We don't really know. I'm hoping a program to get help thing, but I don't know.

Okay. So then for now, what I want to ask is, you're separating the money, but is he going to give you portions of his paycheck to help pay the home bills?

So if this happened, we wouldn't be able to... I mean, I don't see keeping the home just because of the finances. I've been a stay-at-home mom, but I've recently started bringing in 2,000 a month, just to supplement. And then he makes 65 a year, which, depending on his search, circumstances, I don't know if that's going to change.

Okay. So let's talk about how the separation of money goes. So you're making 2,000 a month?

Yes.

Okay. And then tell me, list out what the monthly bills look like. What's your mortgage every month? Tell me some of the big ticket things. Do you have car payments?

No, we're really financially good. We were in the baby steps further on, but we have a mortgage that's it, and 959 a month, I believe.

Okay, that's really good, and that's the only debt to speak of? Yes. Okay. So tell me what you're... Tell me what you need from us today.

I guess before this has happened and we had debt due to just not know. He took out credit cards and a loan that I didn't know about due to fulfilling his addiction. So I'm just in a state of being worried that this is about to happen again. And so I don't know what to do because I don't make enough... I mean, just I've been a stay at home mom, and like, separating just feels almost impossible.

Okay, I see. So you're thinking- Let's go back a step because you seem uncertain.

I mean, is the separation going to happen or not? It feels like there's an asterisk, and I think we can walk through maybe what you should do. But But I don't know that you know that the separation is absolutely for certain. Am I hearing this right?

I mean, yeah, because I want to believe the best, and I'm hoping, but I've had many mentors and counselors, and I just feel like- What are they telling you? They're all telling me the same thing.

What are they telling you?

That the patterns are all coming back and they're there.

Okay. Are you certain that as of right now, there is no debt, that he's not accumulated some debt outside of what you As far as I know, I have the credit karma, and it hasn't dinged anything on there. Okay, so your name right now is clean, except for it is on the mortgage. The only thing your name is on that is debt-related is your mortgage. True or false?

Yes.

And have you frozen your Is that a credit?

No, I've heard about that.

You should. Step one. Yeah, you need to do that immediately to make sure that he can't pull out any debt and have you as a signer on it and forge that.

Do you have family, close friends that are near you that if you had to get out, and this is not so much a physical emergency, but if you had to, you could take the kids and you had a place to land for a bit. Do you have that?

Yes.

What are they? Family? Or are they just close friends? What are we talking about? Yes.

My family lives nearby. My mom and my dad both live nearby.

Okay. Are they aware of your situation?

Well, honestly, we separated for 10 months before due to this, and I guess I headed back in too soon. I thought I thought it was better.

No, but I'm just saying, are they aware of where you are today?

Not 100% because I hate this.

I hate- We get it. I understand, but you called- We get it. I'm not tackling the money yet. I'm coming at it really quick I say, What I would do if I were you, you called Nastas, I would call both your parents today and tell them that you're planning to separate and you need a place to land. Because you got to have some stability where the $2,000 a month is going to take care of some basics. That's right. You're not having to worry about utilities. You're not having to worry about a mortgage or rent if you're staying with mom or dad. So that's step one. That gives you some sense of relief because your head and heart are already on fire because you want this to still work, and I hear that in your voice. So I'm trying to get you to a place where we eliminate as much fire as we can. And by going to mom or dad and saying, I don't have a timeline, they're not going to be kicking you out. They understand where you're at, and you are moving forward as though husband is not going to fix his life.

You got to have that stability. Then the next step would be to go get some full-time employment. Because you have to act as though your husband's not going to get well. We want him to get well. We pray that he gets well. We hope he does counseling with you. But you have called, and it felt like when this call started that you were ready to cut bait. And So now we need to act as though that's the move, and we hope and pray that things get healed. But I think I'm trying to just get as super tactical as I can on what I think your next moves are. Jade called it out. First move is freeze credit, second move is call Mom and Dad and find the best place to stay. What are your thoughts?

I think that you're right on. I would agree with that. It sounded like the only reason that you haven't exited this circumstance is because you didn't feel the confidence to do that. It didn't seem like it was a question on whether it was the right move or not. It just felt like it was a question on whether you could sustain yourself or not. Is that true or false?

Morally is definitely a struggle. I'm a Christian. Divorce is not- Well, we're not talking about divorce.

We're not talking about divorce. We're just talking about getting to a safe place. And that's fair. You've got children, yes?

We do. We have two small children, and that's really my biggest hesitation over everything, uprooting them.

You can't look When you say it like that, you have to think of it as getting to a place of safety because you're in an unsafe environment right now. If you're worried about someone's being addiction to the extent that you possibly can't pay your bills. And honestly, that you're calling into a YouTube show or a radio show to get help, that lets me know that you're really in dire straits here. And so for that reason, I would do exactly what Ken said. I would talk with the family. I would freeze your credit today. And the best thing that you can do for yourself is to get in a place of where that's getting full-time job, full-time income coming in, and feeling really confident that if the time comes when you need to live on your own with these children, that you'll be able to do that. Call us back if you need more help.

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All right, back to the phone lines where we have Nicole, who's in Ohio. Nicole, how can we help today?

Hi. I'm super excited. I was calling because I think my husband should sell his Harley, and he does not want to. I just wanted I wanted to go over the numbers with you guys. I love it.

Is he, by the way, before you tell Jade and I the numbers, is he anywhere nearby?

He's not. But I asked him to call you guys yesterday after I showed him the numbers, and he said, I'm not doing that. But he listens to the show. That's a sign. So I hope he hears this. That's a sign, boy. I hope he hears the show and he's like, Okay. Okay. And that's why I'm calling. So he hears- Go for it. He hears from someone else. So Together, we have $39,000 in debt. We currently do everything separately. I've brought it to his attention since I started listening in February, that I want us to work to unify that. But we have some things to overcome. We started counseling. Good. That's awesome. But... Thank you. So his debt is $22,650. His One credit card is 1350, one is 2300, a personal loan of 6000, and then his bike is 13. He has told me that his bike is worth around 10, but he has an extra vehicle worth five. So he would have $2,000 left over that he could grow towards other debt and finish saving the $1,000 emergency fund.

Okay. Tell us about your situation Tell us about your side. So you laid out his $22,000 of debt and what he could do. Tell us a little bit more about your side.

So I started listening to you guys in February, and I'm like, I'm going to get to Bell Intent, and I have. And the timing, I've been super blessed. I've gotten my tax refund. So I paid off in the last two weeks, 5,133 dollars in debt.

And I am down How much of that was the refund?

90 %, and then I got a bonus that I threw towards my last credit card.

Okay, great. So what's your total debt left at this point? Just for you.

So my total is $16,698.

Okay, cool. And what's it broken down? What type of debt is it?

We had to get our house flab jack, so I have a loan for that that we did last year.

How much is that?

A personal loan, it is $7,762. Okay.

And then a personal loan, how much is that?

It is 6,400.

Okay. And then what else?

And then some medical debt. And I, honestly, I've gotten the bills, but I didn't have the money to pay them. So I don't know what the amount is, and I did a rough guess of what I looked at. A $3,000? And I'm thinking around $2,500.

Oh, Okay, where's the other 2,500? Or 2,000 or 3,000?

That's all I've got. I've got the 77 for the...

Okay, close enough. Okay, so you're thinking, Even though you guys are separate, even though your money right now is separate and you guys are working to get it together, you're still like, Let's act as though our money's together, and I still have opinions on what you can do. How does he feel about that? Because it could be a moot point. If you're saying, I want to combine the money, and he's saying, I'm not ready to combine the money, and then you're saying, And by the way, sell your motorcycle, it may not be the best way to get him over to your side, if that makes sense. I agree with you, by the way. Let that be known. I agree. Sell the motorcycle, do this thing together. All that's right. However, I don't want to attempt to level jump on where you guys are and your relationship, and I certainly wouldn't want you to make a very delicate situation even more fragile by going, saw your motorcycle.

So he has a side job, which he does landscaping on the side, so he's going to start that in the next couple of weeks. And so his thought is he's just going to take all this side money and throw it at that. And we calculated that, and that would leave him around 9,000 versus just 8,300 in one quick scoop.

Right. But the truth is, if you sell the motorcycle, that side hustle would go towards other debts faster. And you and I both know that.

Right. Okay. Yes.

It's not his primary car. It's not his primary- No. I'm sorry, I jumped in. No. Is that his primary mode of transportation, the Harley?

No. In fact, it's not even at our house for storage for the winter.

What's his name?

His name is Jonathan.

Jonathan? Jonathan? Yes. Your wife said you're going to watch the show, and I've been listening, and I only have one thing to say. You got to sell the hog.

Or at least explain to us why not. No. But I'm just saying if we can understand it.

No, he has to sell it. That's my position.

He doesn't want to have to save up to buy a new one because we're going into summer and he wants to be able to write it.

There's a lot of things that I want to do. There's a lot of things that I want to do that I still cannot afford to do. And that is life. I know.

I told him, It's one season. It's just one season.

I just don't think you guys are on the same page, and I don't even think you're close. I agree with that. And I think as long as that's the case, this is not really the issue. The bike is just not the issue. I mean, we can keep talking about it. Ken's right. He needs to sell it. You're right. He needs to sell it. I'm right. He needs to sell it. But he doesn't see it that way. We're chasing our tails on this until you guys get to the deeper reason, which is number one, how do we get on the same page on what our goals are? Because if we both have the same goals and we both know the reason why, then we can both attack that with the same intensity. There's something behind this that it's, at least in his mind, this is more your thing than it is his thing. And he's just going along with your thing. I think that as long as he views it that way, it's easy for him to go, Yeah, I'll do this, but I'm not going to do that. Right? Yeah. So there's more conversations that need to be had if you really want to solve this.

Sorry.

No, no, no. Go ahead.

We have a lot of other issues. When I started listening to the show, they He said something once, and I'm like, Now I can put my finger on it. We fundamentally just disagree on a lot of things. And I took the pin out of the grenade and tossed it in the living I'm like, We have to get on the same page, or I don't know what's going to happen, but I cannot live on different pages anymore. So we have to get on the same page. So he agreed to start counseling, which we've had one session. We have our next one scheduled. So we're making the right steps, I think. Yeah, good. But it's big question mark, are we going to get on the same page?

Yeah. I mean, for what it's worth, Jonathan, we think you need to sell the motorcycle. I mean, if he's listening, I definitely think that. But I don't see that happening right away is what I'm telling you, Nicole. I don't see that happening right away. And you can keep jumping on the mattress, but eventually the mattress is going to fall through the frame if you do it, is what I think.

Jonathan, if you are listening and watching and you really do want your marriage to work and you really are serious about what you're about to do in therapy, why don't you pay attention and bring it up yourself in the next session that your wife doesn't feel emotionally safe financially? Since you're watching, I'll tell you. I think you should sell the Harley because of what it represents.

Yeah, because he's essentially saying that his Harley Davidson is more important than his marriage and what his wife wants, which is a problem. I don't mind saying that because that's what I'd say to anybody.

I just think this is so important, and you nailed it. The counseling, by the way, Jonathan and Nicole, most important thing you guys can do. It's so amazing when you can sit down with somebody who's partial, excuse me, who's impartial. Well, thank you. We share our emotions about what we're feeling because this is a money issue, but you just laid out for us, Nicole, that you guys are not on the same page on a variety of issues. When our values aren't aligned, somebody's got to give. It's my experience that both of you are going to have to give at some point.

Yeah, I agree. I think that it's okay to do something out of goodwill towards your spouse. I Even if you don't want to. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, there's another Harley down the road. Yes. Probably nicer.

Yes. You do what we tell you to do. You know, scarcity mentality. He's like, I got to hold on to this one. No, you don't.

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Thanks for listening to The Ramsey Show.

We've got Esteban in Los Angeles, California. Esteban, how can we help today?

Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. I'm currently on long-term disability, and I'm going to lose it in June fourth, and it's about $6,000 of my income. And I just want to know what the best way to tackle my debt and adjust to the situation. Because I don't work, I'm on disability.

So you're losing the long-term disability money. Are you for sure you're unable to do any type of work going forward?

Yes. I've tried for several years. My condition is bipolar, schizophrenia, and any level of stress causes me to have episodes. And so it's in the opinion of my doctor that I remain not working. So currently, I have my VA disability at 4,300. I have my SS I have a VAI between my daughter and myself. I bring in 5,600.

Okay.

And then my wife gives me about 1,500 to $1,800 once a month.

Okay. How much is the VA one?

The VA is 4,300.

So why in the world do you need more money? That sounds like a nice monthly income. It's over 10- It is. Tell me more.

I have I have $44,000 in consolidation loan. Okay. And I have a 39,000 car loan that I just refinanced to lower the payment.

Okay. I was writing something when you said the debt consolidation. How much is the debt consolidation? 44. 44,000?

Mm-hmm. What's the car worth?

The car is worth anywhere from 31 to 33,000.

Okay.

I also have a It's a $15,000 tax bill that I got to pay, and I have $11,000 saved up in my checking account.

Okay, good to know.

What other debt do you have?

That's it.

Well, then, my friend, where's your money going?

That's what I need to know.

You have plenty of income. You have plenty of income to be paying these.

You have over $11,000 a month and $11,000 saved. I would not be trying to track down more disability checks I would be saying, okay, with what I have, how can I optimize that? Because it's a good amount of money a month. So tell us more about your living conditions and who's living with you.

What do you pay- It's my wife and my daughter.

She goes to daycare and we pay $1,600 a month for three days a week.

Okay. Before you keep doing that, I need to go back to something because you said, My wife gives me $1,500. What does that mean? Is there more money there that we need to know about? And why Isn't it all pulled together?

Well, she makes around 3,000 a month, but about 1,600 goes to daycare. And then the other check, she gets paid bi-weekly. She gives it to me to pay off my debt.

Understood. Okay, this is an interesting system. All right. So what I want you guys to do from now on is just pool all that money together. Just mentally, it's going to help you tackle this a little better. It's totally fine that $1,600 of that check goes towards daycare. I'm not saying any differently. But if you guys are thinking that we're doing this together. It's not her giving you money to pay off your debt, it's us working together to pay off our debt. I think that's going to just help you emotionally and help your marriage feel like it's on one accord. So that's one piece of That's one piece of advice here. But let's look at this by the numbers. If I look at the 11,000 you have saved, what I'd be doing this weekend is I'd be posting that car for sale, private value, and then Whatever you're able to sell it for, if you can sell it for 33 or 34, 35 even, then I'd put the other 5,000 with it out of your savings so that you get a clean title on that and actually offload that vehicle. Then I take the other 5,000 or 6,000 left and I'd buy yourself a cash car because you're not going to work.

So you definitely don't need a $39,000 vehicle sitting in the driveway. Is that even fair enough? Right. That's fair. So that would clear up almost half of your debt right away.

What's How much is that car payment a month?

6,67.

Oh, yeah. Dude, that's a lot. That's a huge raise. That's $7,200 plus a year back in your pocket.

That's going to make you feel a lot better.

Can we pause for a second Just I want to know, are you hearing what we're saying that we think you have more than enough money to pay this debt off? Do you agree with that, or are you still cloudy on that?

I'm just, honestly, just very used to when I was working, making very high income, and so earning less money makes me nervous.

Okay, but that's not what I asked you. Do you see what we see, that you have plenty of income to pay down this debt?

Yes. Okay.

This is a realization. I understand the fear, and I totally understand it. But that's why I want you getting out of the fear game and looking at the real numbers. Okay? And if you sell this car, that's why I asked you what the monthly payment was. I wanted you to register that all of a sudden, if we sell that car in the next week to 10 days, we don't have a 617 $17 car payment. That's even more margin. And are you spending a lot every month?

I just moved to a new apartment. My apartment cost 3800. I I used to spend a lot on DoorDash.

3800? Hold on, hold on, hold on. You have a 3800 a month rent? Yes. Where are you staying?

In an apartment complex in Monterey Park.

Okay. How could we beat that rental price? That feels pretty high to me. In other words, maybe not for that area, but you could rent somewhere for a lot cheaper. True or false?

True.

But you just signed a long-term lease, so now you're stuck.

Yes.

Okay. Here's what I'm pointing out. You're going to have to adjust your lifestyle, my friend, as you're getting healthy. You're dealing with something that is obviously very debilitating, and who knows what your prognosis is. I understand that. But so what we need to be doing is adjusting our lifestyle. The last thing I would have done, if I were you, is sign up for a place in the Marina Del Rey, one of the nicest areas in LA, and pay $3,800 for one person, especially when you're on a fixed income. Now, here's the good news for you, as Jade pointed out, you have plenty of income, even though it's fixed. So you can still get out of this, but you have to adjust your lifestyle in the form of a budget. But that's what's going to allow you to overcome this fear, are the facts of the numbers. We can sit here objectively and say, You got plenty of numbers to be able to solve this problem. Based on the calls we get, this amount of debt versus the income you have is very, very- Yeah. You can knock this out.

This is a classic two-year deal. If you can put... I don't know how much your wife was willing or not willing to help with this, but obviously, if she was willing to take on some extra hours and you guys did this thing together, and if you said to yourself, Okay, right now we're making $12,000 a month. Is there a world where we can put $5,000 a month on this thing? And what type of side hustle would it take to do that? Well, then now you're done in 12 months. You see? That's with you selling the car. And so That's the mindset it's going to take is, let's create a world where this happens in 12 to 18 months and work backwards from there. So that's you putting somewhere anywhere between 35 and 5,000 a month on this. And that's going to take you guys working on this together.

Okay.

Do you think there's a world where she says, Yeah, we're tackling this together. It's not just me giving you $1,500 out of my paycheck to, quote, pay your debt, but this is our life and something that we're all tackling going together?

Yes, I think she's on board.

Okay. So I think that's where you guys need to get, because freedom... I look at this, Esteban, I got to tell you. I look at this and I go, Oh, yeah, no problem. I'll be honest, there's some calls that come and I'm like, I don't know. This one's going to be tight. But I look at your situation, Esteban, I go, Oh, my gosh, this could be so much worse. Thank goodness they have all this money coming in. Thank goodness his wife is able to work. And thank goodness, because then my other thought is, I I don't know with the nature of your disability, but even the childcare thing, the fact that she's able to get out and have actual income coming in, and maybe there's times when you're with the kids, I don't know. But that really does open her up to be able to put in more hours. If you guys buckle down on this and get on a beans and rice, rice and beans budget, which, by the way, we'll send you every dollar in order to do just that, you guys are going to be free in the next twelve months. Five thousand bucks a month.

That is the goal, and you can do it.

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Hey, thanks so much for taking my call.

Yeah, you bet.

My brother and I, we have a pretty estranged relationship, and it's been going on for six years.

He has some explosive, outrageous text threads he'll just send. And recently, he did this before my birthday and then tried to send me a really nice, about $400 to $500 gift for my birthday. And the family is saying, this is him trying to make up for it and all this. And I don't know what to do with it.

Anytime he's given a gift in the past, It's always come back against me.

So I'd rather send it back, sell it. I don't want it.

Tell us about the other times where he's done that and what the repercussion was. What did it look like?

Yeah. So I've been in the ministry before. He supported our ministry before that's come back in ways of him through some really aggressive text or calls of just saying, remember when I did this for you, I've always supported you.

You're never there for me.

Or gifts to my kids for their birthdays. That's been used against us, and so this in no way does it feel like an apology.

Okay, but let me ask this, what does he want in return? Because of the first example, I get what he's doing, but what does he want and what has he asked for or implied that he wants as a result of supporting you or sending gifts? He will get mad.

He's quite a conspiracy theorist, so he will get mad when I don't agree with him on something.

These will be brought up along with anything else of areas where he supported me. My disagreement with him is that with him equals I don't support him in general.

On a conspiracy theory.

So he's not asking for anything. No. He's just aggrieved that you don't see eye to eye with him on something. So he guilt you into this. What he wants. Give me a little attitude here because I'm digging. He wants you to agree with him. That's what he wants? Yeah. He wants me to... Okay, here's the attitude. He wants me to say, You're right.

Look at what you've learned.

And because in turn, he said, I've supported your endeavors.

Please show me where I'm right.

And honestly- How old is he? He's 42.

Is he well mentally? I'm just saying, is there a diagnosis, or do you think there is a lack of diagnosis here?

So that's a great question. And my wife and I actually think he may be I was going to ask- If you bring it up to him, it would go bad.

All right, one more quick dig here. So on this last situation, where all you started off with you got this nasty text, and then the nice gift, what precipitated the nasty text?

Okay.

It was a series of when the Epstein files came out- Of course. Of him saying, Look at how right I was.

And then it was to me, and his wife was in the text there, she actually ended up calling and saying, I'm so sorry that he's doing this. It was F off, you don't know what you're...

I mean, it was so, when I say aggressive, it's so mean. Okay, all right. That's because you are playing this game with him, and you are playing a game you cannot win. Okay? And the game is, oh, we're brothers, and we're going to have real honest back and forth on any topic. Could be football, could be politics, could be religion, whatever. And here's my advice, because I have someone in my family that this could happen like this. Not quite as intense, but shades of it. I want to address this tactically, and then we can weigh in on the gift thing. What you're going to have to do is realize that you can't fix him, and there's no way you can win this crazy game he's created. So you know what you do? You don't play the game. When he fires off that text about the Epstein stuff and how right he was, instead of, you don't have to betray your integrity and what you think, instead of engaging with a, Well, I don't know, or whatever, just go, It's crazy, isn't it? Wow.

Fastinating. See, Ken, you're better than me because I would have just been like, I never saw the text. I never saw it.

Well, again, that's a tactic. But I do think he's unwell, and I think that all this guy cares about deep down is something of an approval from you, but you don't have to agree with what he says. But I do think if you want to save this relationship and actually try to detangle it, and this is an approach that may or may not work, but I really think it could work. And I just think what you do is you make him feel valued, but you don't have to agree with what he says. You see what I'm saying? Because you can't win. So just don't Don't disagree with him on anything. There's a way, by the way, to hear somebody and make them feel seen and heard without rubber-stamping what they say. I have a master's degree in this with someone in my family.

Is that what you've been doing with me all this time, Ken?

A hundred %. See what I just did there? So now on the gift thing, you know what, man? If you want to sell the gift or give it to somebody because it has such a stain to it, I want you to hear me say, I get that.

You won't win for losing with that, though.

But don't return it because that's going to create more of a hornet's nest. You're going to have to take the high road. I'm going to give you one other piece of advice that somebody gave me recently. It was about parenting. I think actually this is going to help you with your brother. And this is what my friend said. He said, You have to be the dock, not the boat. And your brother is going to be the boat. Whatever the waves are doing at the dock, he's just bouncing up and down with whatever's going on in the news. And somehow he secretly has got this weird, perverted sense of, I approval from my brother. And he tweaks and he tries to throw things at you that he knows you're not going to agree with because it's some type of weird game. And you got to be the dock. You are planted in the ground. And so you don't play the game. Don't take the bait. And is it okay, so on the gift, I'll just give it away to someone with a clear conscience. When it comes to engaging, I feel like I've I've tried Shade's approach of not responding.

I've tried arguing years ago. That doesn't go anywhere.

Definitely don't do that.

Did you try my approach? I have, and it comes off to him. The story he tells himself is that I'm being demeaning or sarcastic, and I'm truly not.

If I said, Oh, tell me more.

Man, thanks for reaching out, those things. I just feel like there might be mental illness. Well, then you got to cut him off.

Or just not engage. Not engage in those texts. When those texts come through that to Ken's point, you know it's debate, just don't engage. Just don't. And he probably will fire off more and more and more and more and more. And pretty soon, I think he'll learn to go, Oh, he doesn't respond to these texts, and it will become something that is a new learned behavior. If I text Cody, he doesn't write back, and he'll probably get mad and send a text cussing you out. How often do you see him in person?

We've actually canceled a trip because one of his outrageous text threads and stuff was that dangerous.

I see him maybe once or twice a year. And even then, there's a sense of You said it was dangerous. The relationship's fading, yeah.

Does he act this way in person, or is it just all this bravery via text? It's this bravery via text. That tells me a lot. That's very interesting. Because he doesn't even act that way to you in person. No.

No.

Huh?

Oh, then I'd call his bluff. That tells me a little bit. I'd put him in his place. Tell me more about that. How would you do that? Face to face. I'm not talking Don't confront. I'm not talking fist to cuffs. I'm saying, look him right in the eye and call his stuff out and go, You try to bully me and manipulate me via text? If you printed these off and had somebody objective read these, they'd tell you how nuts this is. This needs to stop, or let's hash it out right now. Let's get the whole family around in the living room and let's hash it out. Let's get it done today. Guarantee, he runs like a scalded dog.

I might. I'm going to say this and throw this in. I might actually talk to his wife and find out what he's like at home.

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Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fair One's Credit Union Studio. We are taking calls about your life and money, and we have Kendra from Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the line. Hey, Kendra, how can Ken and I help you today?

Hello. Thanks for taking the call. Absolutely. I have a quick question about debt collection. So I've never been in this situation before, but I just found out through my mortgage lender, actually, that I had something in debt collection. And I'm wondering what legal actions I could take or if I have to pay for it myself.

Are you contending that it's not your debt, or do you know that it's your debt?

I believe it's not mine. As far as I'm aware, it's from 2023. I'm in a apartment, I lived it back in 2017. I was two roommates, and I had signed everything over to them in the last of the situation a decade ago. I thought they were paying for it, and then I find out just last month that I owe $500. It's not too much, but.

Was your name somewhere on the lease that you just didn't know about it? I mean, you had to assign something, I'm guessing, if you were a roommate there.

Yeah, it was Internet, and it was my roommate's name. I would pay her by check every month, and she would pay for it.

Okay. Well, they're coming after you. Interesting. I mean, you can... How long ago was it, did you say?

So I lived there in 2016 to 2017.

And at no point were you ever... At no point was it ever under your name?

No, I haven't been contacted about it at all in the last decade.

I mean, you could dispute it. I I mean, yeah, you could dispute it with the credit bureaus and say, This account doesn't belong to me, or whatever the thing is, and file that dispute. You can do that online and see how it comes back. But honestly, it's $500 and you're getting ready to buy a house, I don't know that you want to fool with it. I mean, you get to decide what's easier for you. But can I hate burning the mental calories on stuff like that? I agree. It's $500. If you have the money and it's keeping you from getting your mortgage going through, I would just pay it and be done.

Okay. Currently, I'm paying for school out of pocket as well as I've had some medical issues, so I'm paying for that out of pocket, too. I have the money I could pay for it. I'm just tight right now.

Okay, let me ask you this. Let's get creative for a second. By the way, I agree with Jade. Get this out of your life, and even if it were to make life really tight for a bit, you're just going to feel better. However, I do think there's another tactic. Do you have stuff? How much stuff do you have? Have?

I haven't got free since 2018.

No, I'm asking how much stuff you could sell? I mean, you can sell stuff. My wife is the queen of selling our kids' older clothing, stuff we got around the house. I'm saying how much stuff, general word here, do you have that could equal to $500?

And honestly, not even $500. You could probably settle it for $250. Well, there you go.

Now it's even better. Now, do you have some stuff you could sell, Kendra?

I could. Yeah.

What? Give me two or three items. Let's walk through this real quick. Let's go. What do we got?

Well, I've got an extra TV. I could probably sell.

Bingo.

Okay, what else?

I got an extra I got a few game consoles. Love it.

Great. Let's go.

I got to be up there at 250, at least.

Come on. That's it. Now, how does that feel as opposed to where we just were 30 seconds ago?

Yeah, that feels a lot better just to get out of my life.

Then go Go sell something. Go sell a few somethings tonight and tomorrow and get $500 cash and be done with it.

That's what I'm doing. It's not worth it. You can track it down. You can file a claim. You can do all these things. But at the end of the day, depending on how much money it is and what piece of your world financially it truly is, many times I'm just like, settle it, pay it, get it out of your hair. You nailed it.

Mental calories. You said it so well. When I start thinking about that, that's my only goal in life right now is to burn mental calories.

I know that's right.

Actually, to not burn them. I don't want to go burn mental calories.

Yes. Make life simple. Give me an easy button all day.

Physical calories are tough enough.

What's the craziest thing you've sold to get money?

Wow. I wish Stacey were on the line right now because she's always been the lead dog on this. But I would say we sold... I wouldn't say it's crazy, but I remember when the kids got out of the Double Bob. We had a double bob because you know our kids, that we had three within three years.

A double bob?

What's that? Do you remember? So a huge stroller had the big wheels. You could climb a mountain with this stroller. It's the name of it. It was called a Bob. Got it. We had a Double because you know Chase and Josie are seven months apart.

Yeah.

Well, and then we had one exact same one, but a single for tie. All that said, one day we realized we don't need these anymore, and they were in high demand. Heck, yeah. Because we took care of them. We didn't have for very long. And we sold all three of those. And the reason I'm saying that is because we made a real nice It's a chunk of change. I bet that's- I don't remember what it was, but it was also very emotional. We didn't realize it.

Oh, you had to sell your strollers. That is big. I still have mine up in the attic.

I don't know if I have a crazy story, but we've sold just about everything. I sold used bath mats. Sure.

And someone bought them on Facebook marketplace?

For how much? Five dollars. But see, five dollars is five dollars.

But I'm just saying back then, I was selling anything. Right. Used bath mats, people. Everything is possible.

You know, people, you've heard Dave... If some of you have not heard Dave Ramsey say this. He's been saying it for decades. But he used to say something effective, and you'll help me out because you're better at this than I am. Sell so much stuff the kids think they're next. That's it. You nailed it. Is that the exact way he said it? Yeah, you nailed it. And by the way, he was on to something then, and that's all we're saying.

He was on to something then, he's on to something now. Sell so much stuff that kids think they're next, quote Dave Ramsey. All right, we got Kurt in Georgia. Kurt, we're right up against the clock, but we can help you out. How can we help today?

Yeah, thanks for having me on. Just Come on in. So many of my wife have been listening to the podcast, Dave Ramsey, and we got a car payment. We're not sure if we should keep or to do something with.

What do you owe on the car, and what's it worth?

It's a 2007, 17, Yukon Denali. We owe around 31,000. It looks like it's worth around 17,000 to 22,000.

Yikes. Okay. Is that private sale?

No, actually, we bought it from a dealer.

No, if you were to sell at private sale, is that the private sale value, or is that you trading it into a dealership?

Just on marketplace.

That's just what they're going for.

Okay. I would check that on Kelly Blue Book and just see what it would go for private sale. I also want to know, is this your only debt, or how much other debt do you have?

We also have a home and a land payment.

Oh, gosh. Okay. Well, home is off to the side, and land probably is going along with it. If this is your only debt, what do you guys make every year? What do you bring home every month?

Somewhere around 5,000 to 6,000 a month, probably.

I mean, what you could do, if you're really trying to offload this, you could say, Hey, we're just going to go down to the credit union and we're going to get a $10,000 loan for the difference, and we're going to pay that thing off aggressively. We'd rather pay off $10,000 than $32,000. And while you're at it, maybe you get the loan for $5,000 more so you can get a Beater cash car with the $5,000. And now you're paying off $15,000 from the bank instead of $32,000 from wherever you bought this 2007 vehicle from. Does that make sense?

Well, actually, it does.

But we've actually been in this for...

We bought it in 2022, and it's at 13.

75 %.

So we've already been in this for a few years now.

So we just did not know. We just didn't know if it was...

It's not something we can't pay for.

It's just something that we don't know if it's feasible or if it makes sense to pay for it.

Well, that's what I'm saying. You called in asking, should we sell it? And I'm saying, you can, and I'd rather pay off a $15,000 debt than a $32,000 debt. If you'd like to pay it and keep it and you can pay it off in the next year or so, sure, that's fine.

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Regina is in Michigan. Regina, you're on the line. How can we help?

Hi. How's everyone doing? Thanks for taking my call.

Sure.

I got myself in a bit of a conundrum, and I was hoping for some perspective. Just a little context. I'm 44, single and holding down three jobs, one of which I don't get paid for.

Whoa. Stop, stop, stop, Stop, stop, stop.

I'm confused.

By the way you started this call, I'm fairly certain you don't have time for a volunteer job, and that's what you just described. So what in the world are you doing with that one?

I've been a I'm a partaker for as long as I can remember, and I'm caring for my Auntie. Okay.

Okay, well, that's different. That's fair. Now I feel like a big jerk, but that's not the way you said. You said a third job where you're not getting paid. So now I got to backtrack everything. I'm sorry. No, it's okay. I'm trying to help America know that I'm not heartless about your aunt. That's all. Okay, so keep going.

Basically, I've been caring for her, and I was getting paid by the state, but I'm no longer getting paid by the state for caring for her. Me and my mother purchased a house in 2002, and we only have two and a half more years to pay on it. She pays the mortgage, I pay all the utilities. My issue that I'm struggling with right now is I am $30,000 in debt. Seven grand of that is a student loan that I'm not even touching. I haven't paid anything, and it's a cuing interest every single day. And we literally have no food budget. We haven't had a food budget since 2019.

So I know- So how are you eating? How are you eating?

Well, we have beans and rice, like Dave always says, and I've been getting some assistance from the state. However, that's going to stop when they find out. I I have this other job, so that's going to stop pretty soon because I have to report this new job that I got.

Right. And that's where I want to camp out because you're either below the poverty line to where you do need government assistance for things like food and what and what have you, or you're earning through that and you are no longer eligible, which means there should be money for things like food and whatnot and what have you. So help me understand how much you're earning from the two jobs that you're currently working.

I get about $1,050 a month.

What's the nature of these jobs, Regina?

I'm currently with a janitorial company. I clean for some attorneys.

How many hours a week?

Twenty-five hours a week.

Regina, it's not a full-time job. No. I want to make sure we understand. You're saying with both of these part-time jobs, you're making $1,000 a month?

Yes. Okay. I get $15 an hour at each job. Then the majority of the time, I'm running from appointment to appointment with my Auntie. Now, here's my question. Me being 30K in debt, I have contacted my creditors and I have gotten on some... What's it called? The Hardship Movement.

Here's what I want to stop. We got to stop and talk about it and what's going to actually help you move forward today. And it It has to all change today because at 44, if you keep going down this route, you're going to end up in a place, you're going to hit a point of no return, where it's going to be very, very hard. Do you see what I'm saying?

I'm good of that.

So here's what we need. Ken is going to help you with this, but we've got to find work today that's paying a little more than $15 an hour, and we've got to be able to dedicate full-time effort to it. You got to be able to work. It's not you being a bad person. It's not you being mean or anything like that. But you've got to be able to sustain yourself, and you simply cannot on $1,000 a month. Something that you have in your favor is you're living in a house where it sounds like you're not having to pay rent, you're simply having to pay utilities, which is helpful for you in this season. But we got to get you somewhere where you're making an income.

Okay, here's what I don't understand. You said you've got two jobs and you're making 15 an hour for both of them. Did I hear that correctly? That's correct. But you're not working 40 hours a week.

She's working 23, right?

Twenty-five at each job, 25 hours a week at each job. Okay, well, that's 50 hours. You should be bringing home way more than $1,000 a month. I have you- No. Okay. What are you paying in taxes?

Right now, I have to pay in on taxes. I've been paying in for the past five years.

How much?

$89 this year, and I get $82 back from Fed.

And then- Okay, something's not adding up.

You should be making at least 3,000 bucks a month if you're- Yeah, because if 50 hours a week times 15, okay?

I'm just doing simple math here, okay? That's 750 a week times 4 equals 3,000 gross. There's no way at that income level, you're getting $2,000 a month of taxes taken out.

That's impossible. Yeah, something's not right.

So something's not right. That's where I'm really struggling. Can you explain that?

Maybe my math as well. Hence me having these lower paid jobs. But I have did the every dollar app, and I've been trying to stay on top of it, but obviously, I always go negative. I do need some help.

You do. Here's the challenge. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to put you on hold, and Katie's going to get you connected at our gift to a financial coach. Because we, quite frankly, in the remaining three minutes we have or two minutes, we cannot help you. But high level, I will tell you that you don't have a grasp of your numbers. It's impossible to me. It's impossible for you to only be taking home a thousand bucks a month. Impossible if you're working 50 hours a week. I don't know how you're working 50 hours a week if you're running Auntie around a lot. So something is off. Here's the really sad part. It's actually coming full circle. Someone else is going to have to take care of your aunt. I'm trying to be as kind as I can, but I think your numbers are off on the hours you're working, too. I think so. Because I don't know how you're running in these appointments and working 50 hours a week. I just don't see it. So something's off and you need a coach, and we're going to give it to you as our gift, who's going to walk you through what your next steps are.

But you need urgency. I want to give it back to Jade because she was going down this lane here. Does this got to change today or else she's going to wake up and be 64 and homeless? Yeah.

It's that serious. It is that serious. And I'm not saying that to be hopeless. I'm doing it so that you can take advantage of the now, there is always a greater measure of peace that people can get from doing the baby steps. But the truth is, there are prime times to get started, and there are optimal times to start to where you can get the fullness of the value that the baby steps have to offer, which is what we teach here. In this situation, yes, the time to start is now for Regina or anybody who's listening out there, because compound interest is your friend, and wealth building is part of this, and having the time, time, Ken, to save money and pay off debt and make those differences, the less time you have, the tougher it can be. For Regina and anybody else listening who's in a similar situation, it's not too late, but you got to start today. Just to A reminder, when we're talking to folks, it's actually very simple, the equation that we're thinking about. If you want to affect your finances, there's really only two things that you can consider. You have to think about the money going out and the money going in.

That's it. So we're either looking at what we spend and saying, Hey, I got to pull back on what I spend. That's not her issue. Or we're looking at income. There is no magical solve for income other than you going out and getting a JOB and working hours that actually translate into real cash that is enough in your account to do the basic things of human life there.

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If you have a simple tax situation, like you haven't had any major life changes or big investments, then you need to be using Ramsey Smart Tax. Ramsey Smart Tax is affordable and it keeps filing simple. Plus, it has built-in support in case you need a little help. Filing early means getting the best deals and you get that tax stress off your shoulders. So as soon as you get all your tax documents, you need to go to ramsey solutions. Com/smarttax and start filing. Ken, I know you don't file your own taxes. No.

Are you kidding me? I'm a free man. I'd be in jail if I did, not out of dishonesty, but just incompetence.

Tax, same.

So I have a pro. Tax pro all the way. Love my guy.

Love it. Love it.

Love it. By the way, I got to give him a shout out. David, he knows who he is.

That's it? Where can he be found?

He listens to the show. Oh, okay.

So he's going to hear this. So you were just doing it for him not to help the people find someone they might like.

No, I wanted to get a tax pro, but I'm also very grateful for my guy, David, and he knows that. That's a shout out.

All right. I'm going to give a shout out to mine. Nina.

There it is.

I can't say more. All right. Kerry. Kerry is in Florida. What's up, Kerry? Save us from ourselves.

I cannot do That is a true statement. All right. I'm in top Florida. My name's Kari. I'm 30 years old. My partner is 39 years old. We have two children, six and 10. Our house is sitting at 1: 96 on a 2. 875 loan. I was in nursing school, graduated, and tried to pay for a lot of it out of pocket, so that drained my savings account. Ran out of money. I took out 2. 0% interest for the tuition. I paid those both off, but I had to take out student loans as well. Fafsa wasn't paying for it. So I have $35,000 approximately right now in student loan debt, but I have way, way more in credit card debt. 47, I want to say. Oh, gosh. 47 in credit card And it gets a little worse. We had a really bad hurricane in '22. A tree went through our roof. We had to get the roof replaced. We had to do... Yeah. A lot of new walls.

Was that like 60,000? Our things went down.

So we had to take out a heelock for '80 Because the insurance company didn't want to pay us.

Why didn't they pay for that?

A hurricane and roof damage? They ended up paying 23,000, I think. It was a really long process, and it involved a public adjuster, and they took their percentage of whatever we got. But it was really turmoil in Southwest Florida. Our Healock right now is sitting at 73,000, I think. The payments are roughly $800 a month. Our payments on minimums for the credit cards are just under 15. My mortgage comes out to about 14. Then I have a car payment. It's really crazy. I know we shouldn't do this. I owe 16. I'm paying 625 a month. I am a bartender. He is a mechanic. We make about 130 a year. Southwest Florida is very seasonal work, so summertime It gets thinner for us. Winter is more lucrative. Our monthly income does fluctuate anywhere from like $6,000 to $10,000 a month. I'm a money funneler. I am a save $100 bills in a box person because I don't want to not have cash on hand. There's always something happening.

How much cash do you have?

What do you have on hand?

Right now, I have $24,000 in cash, and then I have a separate savings account that's supposed to be dedicated to my kids, and there's 13 in there.

What do you mean? Yeah, go ahead, Jade. What do you mean when you say dedicated to your kids? Is that like college fund? What does that mean?

I put money in it every month. I am looking to invest it in something that will grow for them, but I'm not sure what to do, how to do that yet.

Okay. This is great news. I mean, it's great news. It's not great because I am very anxious. I want to ask about the kids money that you have saved real quickly. I just want to make sure this is money that you've put aside, not money that other people gave you for the kids.

Some of it is given. I have their- Or money they earn. I have their birthday gift money separate, so they each probably collectively have $2,000 separate that I just have for them. And then I have this other fund that we have put into So that's about 13.

Okay. So what I would do is- That's actually 15. What I would do is exactly what you said. Any money that was gifted to them or that they worked hard for or worked for, I would keep that money aside for them because it really is for them. For you, you're not at the phase where you can begin saving for things like kids, college, kids, cars, kids, things like that. So for all intents and purposes, that money is now pooled in with money that we can put towards paying off debt.

Fair enough? I have this other... Yes. Right now, we're putting out about $8,900 to $9,000 a month between living. Okay.

So we have our house here- Hold on, including these debt minimum payments?

Yes. All my student loans, credit cards, the Healock, the mortgage, car insurance, everything.

What's your take home pay off the $130?

It varies. It's going to be A little under one. No, maybe a little over one. After health insurance and everything gets taken out, we have really high health insurance rates here for some reason.

Okay, but tell me- Okay, but tell me- Go ahead, Ken.

Where were you going with telling us that? You were going somewhere. I'm not sure that's where we need to go, but I'm curious.

I have approximately, so what is that? About $40,000 a little more in savings. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I ideally would like to rent my house out. My My husband's mother has property and she has an RV hookup. I don't want to pay my mortgage anymore. I want my house to be rented out for the next two years so that we can just lock in and funnel money into all of our debt.

How much would you make on that?

On renting it out in my area? If The housing house is about 14 right now, we can probably go anywhere from 18 to 2100. It's a four bedroom house.

It's not that much money, though. Yeah.

What's your mortgage worth? What's it worth? You owe 1. 96. Did I hear that right?

I owe 1. 69 right now. The original mortgage was I bought it in '19. It was 2. It was 1. 98. What's it worth? I think it goes for right now between $3 and $3. 50. But the market, I don't know. I haven't looked into it much, the sell.

Tell me what you feel about the house, because I know you're tired of paying it. I know it's been a pain in the butt. It feels like it's been a drain. Do you like the house?

We like the house. We don't want to live here forever. Well, sure. Honestly, we want a pool. We want different space. It was really good when we had... My son was It was really good, really open concept.

We don't want to keep the house forever. But I'm talking about today. I'm talking about today. No one knows if they're going to stay in the house forever. I want you to answer this in a Ken Coleman fashion, which is quick and simple. What's the first thing that comes to mind? Do you like the house or not? I like the house. Okay. Do you want to stay in the house or not?

I don't need to.

Okay. Now we're getting somewhere. What about your husband? If you could answer for him, what would he say?

He is the most passive person in the entire world.

Okay. Here's That's what I don't want. I don't want you to make a simple thing complex. Making it complicated would be, We're going to live with mom and do a rent thing, and all these other things. I think that if we can go back to the basics here and go, Okay, how much cash do we have? You have $40,000 in cash. When we look at the 25 saved and the 15,000 of the, quote, kids money, that's now your money. I'm going back to, for now, the heat lock, because of the amount, that's really just going to roll into your mortgage and be part of that.

How many credit cards equal to 47,000 of credit card debt?

I have 11 overall, three are paid off.

Good heavens. Okay, so the 40,000 goes in the snowball. Are you familiar with our debt snowball? Yes. Okay, so you take all those credit cards and you go smallest to largest, and you start applying the 40,000 up the ladder, if you will, right?

If we got a two- I started with that method, and then I'm like, I could pay the car off because the minimums for the little ones don't equate to the same as the car. So the car, if I pay it's 16, maybe- You can do it your way, but that's not what we teach, and we're trying to help you with momentum.

Then you could potentially sell the car. It's like, Do you want to get out of this mess or not? But the way we teach it is very simple. You called us. You do whatever you want to. But what we would tell you to do is take the $40,000, and you get $1,000 out of that in an emergency fund. It's baby step one, baby step two. We now start taking that $39,000, if you and we start applying it all the way through. Then from there, and Jay didn't say this. I don't want to put words in her mouth. I would sell your house if I were you.

Okay.

Now, not as a get out of Dodge easy. You got to accept them mentality that you got yourself in this, but I would sell the house and I'd start fresh and start building a life that is debt-free.

It's definitely on the table to sell the house, but at the very least, first thing to go is this car. It's $16,000. Get that payment back in your pocket. Then you have the cash to buy something in cash, $5,000 or $6,000. Now you're 20 grand in. Throw the rest of that towards the next smallest debt, which looks to be student loans. Do them one by one. You're going to feel the momentum of doing because they're likely broken into little chunks. So do that. And before you know it, all that's going to be left is this $47,000 of credit card debt. If you don't know, Ask Ramsey is our free AI tool that's built and trained on Ramsey proven principles. And today we're going to break down the most asked questions of the week. So you can go in there and type in whatever and we look at it and say what seems to be a theme for the week, and that's what we're talking about. There are questions around retirement savings, obviously investing, but the most asked question this week was around the topic of emergency funds. The main question was this, what is the best option to manage and store my emergency fund?

Here's an example of the response. Your emergency fund should be liquid and easy to access in the event of a real emergency. You want to store in a place where value won't go down when you need it most. So putting it in the stock market is not really a good idea. Next, it tells you a high-yield savings account gives you better interest rates than a regular savings account, but still keeps your money safe and available. Then finally, make sure the account is FDIC-insured or NCUA if it's a credit union like Fairwinds. We always recommend 3-6 months of living expenses, but Ask Ramsey can help you figure out exactly how much you need in your emergency fund for your specific situation. You can go on there today to ask your question at ramsey solutions. Com, or just click the link in the description if you're listening on podcast or YouTube. All right, Jeanette is in Kansas. Janette, how can we help today?

Hi, thanks Thanks for taking my call. I'm 61 years old. My husband is 70. We are completely debt-free. We own our home, cars, student loans. We have absolutely no debt, no credit card debt. Awesome. Got out with Ramsey plan probably 10 years ago. We are looking to build a permanent home. I know he doesn't like the term forever home, but as we're getting older, realize we need everything on one level and just makes you a little bit nervous. It's like, is that a wise thing to do at our age?

I mean, are you paying cash for it?

It would primarily be cash. We could pay complete cash if we took money out of our retirement plans. We could go into it debt-free, but I don't know if that's wise either. We We'd have to pull out about 150 to 200.

Well, let's talk about it. So what would be the entire spend on the new house?

610.

610. Okay, and how much cash do you have to put towards that today?

Well, we would sell our current home. We would get about just under 400, between 350 and 400 for that. Okay. We have put about 100 already into the house, which would leave a little bit over 100 left on it.

Now I see how you got to the 110. So how much is your nest egg?

Close to 600.

Okay. So the idea is, will it mess us up if we pull out the 150 from the 600 nest egg?

Right.

I don't think so. What's the other option? I mean, are you both still working or are you fully out of the workforce?

My husband is retired Air Force after 20 years of active duty, and then he just recently retired as a nurse from the VA. I am still working. I'm a nurse practitioner with my own practice.

Nice. What are you guys taking home combined with those benefits plus your salary?

Well, the practice does over 200. I pull about 90 from it for a salary. Great. So together we probably are close to 200, about 180.

I love that. With no debt. I mean- With no debt.

We travel a lot, so we know that's going to really change. I love to travel.

I mean, if you wanted to cash flow this and you're both planning on still working for the next one to two years, I don't see why that wouldn't be really a priority. And then whatever's left, you could pull off the nest egg.

Well, you were just talking about compound interest. I would lose all that.

No, I'm saying- That's why Jade's saying, Don't touch it. I'm saying, Don't touch it. I'm saying for the next one to two years, go ahead and start with the 500 that you have, and then for the next one to two years, let it be your deep intention that we're going to throw anything in extra that we can find on this $110,000 mortgage. Then when you're ready to stop working, that nest egg will have continued to grow for the next one to two years. Then you can say, Okay, now we feel good about pulling out the 50 or whatever's left on the mortgage, and we can go into our non-working years with no mortgage.

Okay. It just seemed like, do you take out a mortgage at 60 years of age? Okay.

Well, it's not about the age.

That was what I was considering to do, but I was just thought, Is that why?

So I wanted confirmation. It's not about the age because truthfully, the money's there. But if you don't have to touch it today, why not? And you're both still working, and you're still both making a really good income. And I also have a feeling because of his military, how much is he going to… What's his retirement going to look like? Well, we don't know what his Social Security will be.

He just turned 70.

But he's already getting his two retirement checks from both of those other organizations.

Right. So my point is you're probably not- The VA retirement pension will start next month because he just turned 70 and retired from there.

Okay.

And how much will that be?

That one we don't know. We're estimating, according to the Social Security website, his Social Security will be about 3400, and then his current military retirement is about 2500.

Right. Not bad. So my point is, what you'll be pulling from your nest egg is not going to be a crazy sum of money just to keep your month to month going on, especially with such a low mortgage. And to my point, once you get to that point, you can just reach over into the nest egg and pull out the 50 or whatever it is and pay it off.

Okay. How does that feel? All right. Thank you. That feels better. It says that there's wisdom in the counsel of two or more, and I'm like, Okay, I'm not a financial planner. And I'm like, This is smart. But we wanted something all one-level living, and if we end up in wheelchairs or walkers, we can stay there.

Yeah, absolutely. And go and talk with your smart investor pro and ask him, Hey, here's what I was thinking. I called the Ramsey show. Here's what they said, and ask what he thinks, too. He might say that it feels good for you to pull all the money today. At the end of the day, though, it's got to be something that you feel good about, too. It felt like Ken, that hybrid was where it was at.

Yeah. If I was in their shoes, I just would not touch that $600,000 retirement because I know that Every seven years, based on history, that's going to double.

Yeah, if they're making a good rate of return.

And so I want to get all of that that I can. And with that income, they can be patient. And yeah, I wouldn't touch it at all if it were me.

They seem like they've got more working years in than what I said. I mean, he's 70, she's 61.

She's got a great practice. She could probably pay herself more for a year. You know what I mean? There's some things she can do. Do I grow the business, juice that a little bit? They just have other options to be able to pay for this house.

Well, they're in San Diego, but my guess is if they lived on 100 or 120, they'd be done. I see where you're going. They'd be done lickety splits.

Here's what else we know about both of them. They're going to be more than comfortable on just his benefits alone. You just know that.

Oh, yeah. Definitely. That's what I was saying. If you're not going to really have to touch it, then there you go. All right, we have some questions on the desk. I like these, Ken. These are from the social media's.

By the way, Ken- Are these the Krispy Kreme Hot Nail, like fresh off the press?

I hope so. If people interact with you on social media, what's the one that you're on and talking to folks on? If they want to know, I want to see Ken for real.

The only one that you're going to have a chance of getting a real response from me on is Instagram.

Me too. Yeah. Does that have to do with our age?

Because the kids are on TikTok. Since I'm older than you, I'm going to say yes, I guess. I don't know the answer.

Well, to I think it's the app.

I think I see the messages more than I do on other apps. The DMs? I feel like they're in my conscience.

I don't have the other ones on my phone. The only one I have is Instagram. So for that reason, let's take the Instagram questions. Okay. Oh, that was a set up. Yeah, it was a set up. Okay. Morgan from Instagram said, We just went to a restaurant that had a robot delivering our food. Oh, I love that. When the bill came, we didn't know if we should leave a tip. What are your thoughts on Tipping Culture, especially when you primarily interact with robots.

I have thoughts. I have thoughts. I went to a local place recently where there was a waitress and a robot. And so the waitress came and took our order I don't mind. I don't say the name of it, but it was a habachi where everybody sits around. Okay, yeah, habachi. You got a big group. The waitress comes up, lovely lady, and she's very kind, responsive, gets everybody's order, and she takes off. Five minutes later, here comes the robot with the food, and she followed up to make sure we had drinks the whole time, but the robot brought us the food. I still tipped her the normal amount because of her involvement. All the robot did was basically do what the 16-year-old kid does at the nice restaurant. Yeah, no, I go 20 to 22.

You did even in that scenario? Yeah. Good for you, Ken Coleman. I probably would have done the same thing. I love tipping, but I'm not tipping a robot.

I don't tip at coffee shops. Beware.

Well, What's the difference?

It's a coffee shop.

Well, welcome back to The Ramsey Show. We're here in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. Ken Coleman, are you ready to get to the phone lines yet I'm ready.

Who's up next?

Landon, Reno, Nevada. To this day, anytime I think of Reno, I think of the movie Sister Act.

Yeah, good call.

What's up, Landon?

You guys don't think of Reno 911? Lieutenant Dangle and all of them?

Not my genre of television.

I do have questions about Lieutenant Dangle.

I don't even know who that is. I'm not sure I want to.

It's a Comedy Central show, but I know the scene that you're thinking about, Jade, with Sister Act. You're down here by the Reno Arch and everything. I know what you're talking about.

All day. Man, oh, Landon, you're one of us. How can we help today?

Definitely. Hey, guys, I got a little predicament. I'm thankful for your call, Ken.

I think you're amazing, Jade. I think you're amazing, too. Here's my predicament. I'll keep it nice and short. Hoa fee went up to $1,08 per month from $450 per month.

I know, and I don't know what to do. Does that include a swim-up bar right to your front door? What in the world? It should. Yeah, for that a hike. What's the perks? I know.

So no perks. Basically, what's going on here, we have a special assessment for the time being to do the roads, the roofs, and all of this stuff, some capital maintenance with the entire complex.

So it's short term?

Yeah.

Well, so it's going to be at least a year.

And then from here on out, I mean, there's no way.

We're probably going to need to do this for, I don't know, three, four years, if not We're probably going to need to get up to two, three, four million bucks, and we're not there. So it's going to take some time.

Wow. I'm sorry. That's not cool.

So what's your question?

So here's my question. I am going to move out of my house. I'm going to rent for $1,500 a month, but now I have the home that I own. Basically, what I'm going back and forth with is, should I rent my house out or should I sell my home? If I rent my home out, I'll basically I'm not making anything, I'm not losing anything. But then if I were to sell it, I could probably make about $250 in equity.

I don't really know what to do here. Come on, that's a no-brainer. Is it a no-brainer? Yes. You don't want to live in this place. We can tell. Here's why. You could push back. Let me tell you what I hear. I hear a guy who's rightfully upset about a ridiculous upcharge in HOA, a thousand bucks a month. Are you kidding me? You're going, I don't love this house that much. I want to get out. You have no attachment to this house. You got $250,000 worth of equity in it, and you're going to get a reasonable rent to reset and figure out what the next step is, versus rent it out, and you're saying it's a net net. You're not going to make any money. Well, guess what? That means you're losing money because when something breaks on this house, and it will, guess who has to fix it? You. So now you're going in the hole. So for that reason, as George would say, I'm out.

I'm out. That's funny you say that. So I did the Ask Dave Ramsey thing on the AI chat on the website.

Oh, this could be embarrassing. What did that say? No, it said exactly what you guys said. I guess the quote that it said was like, it said, You're bleeding. You're bleeding every month.

And I was like, that's exactly something that the host would say.

So it's cool to see. By the way, I think the way I said it was far more entertaining than Ask Ramsey, but it's still a great resource. It's going to give you the nuts and bolts. We're going to give We're going to give you the style.

We're going to give you the style. And in this case, all khakey, apparently. Thank you very much. You're welcome. So, Landon, did we solve your problem for you?

No, it seems like it was a pretty easy thing. I mean, that's the way that I was leaning towards. But, yeah, It's my first home. It sucks to get rid of it, I guess. There's a little bit of sentimental there, but no, I think- It wasn't going to be forever anyway.

That's my thoughts. No.

This is a great reminder how fun Ask Ramsey is for people who can't get through on the show, don't have the time, maybe you're nervous to call us. This guy went to Ask Ramsey, the AI version of our show host, I guess, is what you can say, and he got the same answer. Just a fun little plug there because it is very helpful to those of you who can't get through.

Yes, indeed it is.

Fun stuff. There's no universe, Jade, where I'm going to ever deal with a house that I'm not making enormous money on when it comes to rent. In other words, if it's a cash house like all of Dave's houses, that's one thing. But where you're breaking even or barely making money, no.

Renting by default is never the move. If you're going to have a rental, it's I set out to have a rental and I chose a specific house for the purposes of rental, right? Let there be some intentionality behind it. All right, Maria is in San Diego, California. Maria, how can we help today? Maria.

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Yeah, you bet. What's up?

So I am in a bit of a predicament. I started my own business last year. Started getting paid in August, but it has been a little bit slower this last couple of months. And with the work that I've had, my projections for income for the next six months are really low. So right now, I'm in a position where I'm not sure if I'll be able to make my credit card payments, or it's going to be either that or my car.

So tell Tell us what that is in real numbers. What were you bringing in that felt like a good income to live on? And then what is it now?

Yeah. So before, when I was in corporate, I was making about 8,000 a month. When I first started my business, it went down to like 6,000, and now I'm looking at like three.

Okay, so in August, it was around 6,000. You felt good. Now you're at 3,000. How many months has it been at 3,000?

Since November.

Oh, boy. Okay, so there's a trend here. Have you identified what the issue is, why business is down?

Yes. So right now my most consistent source of income was a subcontract contractor job that I have, which is dependent on how much work the other company has. I just signed a contract with my actual business. We do property services, so we do turnover management. So that should be starting soon, but it is going to be less paper work because right now where I'm at right now, it is on the military base. So the pay per gig is a lot better here. Okay.

And it's just you, you're the sole employee.

It's myself It's on my boyfriend, but his debt is a lot lower.

So the good news is it's you and your boyfriend, and you're working as the work comes in since it's subcontracting. So the best thing that I could do if I were in your shoes, is while I'm working to get more business coming in the door, or while there's a downseason or whatever the nature of that is, I'm also going to have another job over here on the side that brings in the gap of what I need until you can figure out how to get this back up to making you 6,000 to 8,000 a month.

Yeah. My biggest dilemma right now is three of my credit cards already hit the 30 daily.

Right. Which means you need money.

Yeah.

That's all that is. That means, okay, yesterday I needed a job. So that means today your weekend is going to be spent pound and pavement and getting online and finding whatever you can to fill that gap. Because if you don't have dollars and they're calling you, all you can do is say, Hey, I don't have any money. Check me next month until this happens. So income is the name of the game. I mean, that's the only solution. Kim, what have you?

I mean, you did such a great job. You don't add much more to a really good song, except maybe repeat. So there you go. Refrain. Thank you. You helped me out. I shouldn't be talking music terms with you ever.

When people hear my story of paying off debt, they say things like, Dang, that must have been so hard. I could never do that. And I tell them, Sure you can. It's a short term sacrifice for a long term gain. But do you know what's really hard? Working your whole life and never having anything to show for it. Never having the long term gain. Just feeling broke and stressed and maxed all the time. And sadly, that's the hard that most people choose. Listen, you're capable of transforming your situation and living a life of freedom, but you need the right tools to do it, like our EveryDollar Budget app. In minutes, it'll build you a step-by-step plan that's tailored to your money situation. And every day, it finds ways you can free up extra money in your budget so you can get rid of your debt and actually build wealth. So make the choice today. Short-term sacrifice, long-term gain. Choose the tool to help you get it done fast. Download the EveryDollar app and start for free today. Buying or selling your home is a big deal. And with all the clickbait headlines and conflicting data that's out there, it's hard to know what's really happening in the housing market.

But we're here to help make the latest Just trends easy to understand. For instance, median home prices dipped a little below $400,000 last month, which is typical for this time of year. Mortgage rates also dipped to 5. 44 in January, down from 6. 27 last January, giving buy or some breathing room. But since rates are unpredictable, the best time to buy is when you're financially ready, not when home prices or rates drop. To learn more about the housing market trends and get free tools to help you buy or sell with confidence, go to ramsey solutions. Com/market, or click the link in the show notes if you're listening on podcast or YouTube. All righty then. Haley is in Texas. Haley, you're on the line. How can we help today?

Hi. You all are absolutely going to hate me whenever I tell you what I want to be doing.

No. Let's test it. No. That's a strong word. Hate is too strong.

I am a realtor investor here in Texas, and I have a long-term boyfriend, and I We were buying a house together, and I told him I didn't want to ring.

I wanted a house instead.

We've both been married previously, and we're coming in together, obviously. We're very Dave Ramsey friendly, and we know it, but he is carrying quite a little bit more debt than I am. I am credit card free. He is as well. However, I'm just trying to figure out how I want to tackle his debt when we buy the house, after we buy the house.

I don't even know. You know what? I'm going to sit back for a second.

I'm going to let you go first. I'm going to just say for the people who are listening for the first time, because you said that you were Ramsey friendly, and then you went off to say things of such nature. I know.

That it doesn't even apply to Ramsey at all. You know what's funny about it? You're laughing the whole time. You know what she's about to say, right? I know. Why are you laughing about it?

Because, honestly, because of the market that we in and the real estate, the way it's going, it would just be too good to pass up this property to where, obviously, we would want to live in it for a little bit.

Why don't you just buy it?

How about- Well, I do. I can I can buy it myself, but I really want him to be on board with me. It's not bad debt. He has a camper that he was living in and working out of, so doing insurance adjustment across the US. That's really the only one that's a major one. The other one is just a minor amount, maybe 10,000.

Here's the thing. It's not about the debt. For me, the debt is part of the home buying equation, don't get me wrong. But in the bigger picture of what you're talking about, if I'm going to address these things by thing that's most on fire to thing that's not as burning as quickly, I would say the first thing is the idea of buying a house with a boyfriend is a very, very risky business because you're doing something that should be very long term with someone that you really don't know if it's going to be long term. And if because of the nature of the mingling of money, it can get really messy. And if it doesn't have to be messy, the easier thing to do would just be like, Hey, I'm going to buy this house, or he's going to buy this house. And then if you so choose that you're going to live together in that way, that's your choice. But at least the monies are clear and free, and that is not adding Any insult to injury if this were to go south and not proceed into marriage.

Okay, Haley, that's about as good a word as you're going to get on that. What is your response to that? Because I can hear you saying yes to her, but you have a retort. So what is your retort?

Basically, with me being an investor, so I do actually show, which the banks don't love me, but my CPAs do. That always that joke. Really, with qualifying for this property, he shows way more of an income. I mean, it else doubles or triples what my income is.

What are you... Okay, pause. What investing do you have? You sound like you're over-leveraged.

No, I have 10 rentals. And so basically, I- How much do you owe on 10 rentals? I have three loans totaling about $225,000.

Okay, that's not as bad as I thought. I thought it was going to be worse. No. Okay, here's the thing. I want to give you props because even though you may not have done some of these things the Ramsey way, the fact that you have 10 rentals and you only owe $2. 25, unless these are just really crappy properties. There's something that you've done that you've not gone ridiculously. Do you see what I'm saying? For 10 rentals, Ken, I would think that... I thought for sure you were going to say a couple of million. Why wouldn't you buy it?

No, ma'am. So what does that really mean? Because Jade gave you great advice, you buy it yourself.

Why wouldn't you at this point?

Why wouldn't you?

You have 10 rentals.

Because I am an investor at heart, so my- No, stop.

That's such a crap answer. You said that three times, and it still didn't.

What's the real reason? And you said this. Let me tell you what you said. So you said, Well, yeah, Jade, you're right, but I want us to be on the same page. I want him to be in it with me. And I even think that's a cop-out.

Well, he shows more income. So with our lender, they basically could not verify that.

I know what the answer is, but you won't tell me. You're trying to play a game on interest rate because- It's not that. What is it?

No, my lender basically qualified, said that we would be qualified based on his income, based off my rent pool showing. But you're smart. Here's Haley, you're smart. You know today that it's not a thing of numbers or interest rates or anything like that. Because you know today, Hey, if I really wanted this property, I could just sell off one of the ones I have. I got buy it in cash. You know that. What is it? Are you trying to lock him in?

Yeah. I told him I turned down a ring for a mortgage.

Okay, do you know how crazy that sounds? Why don't you just go down to the courthouse? Just get married. Do you want this guy to be your Are you going to be your husband or not?

Yes.

Okay. Then why don't you let him give you the ring? Yeah.

That's true.

What's the problem? Tell us for real, for real. It's just us. I have been independent for so long.

And so with being divorced and Having my son, it's definitely scary.

Yeah, but you just told us you want this guy to be your husband.

And you were willing to do a more... Here's what I want to frame up for you. You said that you want to be independent, and maybe you've been burned before all of those things. Do you understand, and I'll validate for you, that that makes sense to me that you would have some trepidation getting into another relationship. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is how you are solving it, Because you're creating something that has the ability to be even more dramatic, even worse for everybody involved if it were to go south. So why not fuel what you're feeling into a better solve, which is I might not be ready to get married yet. Maybe I'm not.

Great point.

That's okay if you're not ready to be married.

Jade's making a great point. If it goes bad, then there's going to be a legal, very clear legal decision on what happens with the house as an asset. But if you guys go in together and there's no legal marriage, then it's a mess. You know this. Yeah, I do. I don't think we can sell you on our philosophy, but I think if we come to your page- No, I like it. No, I'm not trying to.

We're going to go on your philosophy, which is your independent, so be independent.

And so be independent or then get legally married. So this risk that you're afraid of goes away in the sense of it's going to be clean. If there is another divorce, then nobody wants to think about it, but that's your fear, so let's go there. So our position that you should be married and combine finances, while it's coming from a different vantage point than you have, it does meet you where your biggest fear is. So call this guy back. I wish we could get him on the phone because I would make you tell him that you were foolish and that you will take the ring. And with the ring comes an actual marriage, and we're going to do our money together, and we're going to dominate. We're going to heal from our past, and we're going to come together, and we're going to set out a vision for our life that we both are in lockstep on, and then we're just going to do this thing.

How long have you been together?

Over two years.

Oh, for heaven's sakes. Two years.

And where are you guys living now? Where are you living now?

So we do live part of the time. We're pretty respectful of our kids. So when he has his child and I have mine, we stay apart. But when we don't, we obviously are living with me, but with him traveling. So he's staying a lot more at my property, which is one of my investments that I'm doing.

I got to tell you, this is exhausting. And by the way, the whole respect for the kids thing, they know it's happening. Let's stop playing games. Let's get married.

All right, Ken, I'm with you. I'm with you. I don't think she's ready. That's my hot take of the day.

I think you're probably right.

I don't think she's ready.

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Today's question comes from Jessica in North Dakota. My husband and I are on Baby Step 2, and we'll be paying off our last 10,000 of debt this year. I have a 2014 SUV with three growing boys. We desperately need something bigger. My in-laws have said they would buy us a minivan and we could pay them back when we paid off our debt. The only problem with this offer is their stipulation that we have to purchase a new vehicle. I'm very grateful to have such a generous family, but I have heard you say never to buy a new vehicle. Should we take them up on this offer? No. I also don't buy that three growing boys don't fit in a 2014 SUV.

They have very long limbs.

Yeah. I mean, I don't care if they're all 6 feet, too. They can be uncomfortable for the amount of time you're getting them from point A to B. This is one of those things that is just an absolute... It sounds very reasonable in your head, Jessica, but to somebody like me who has no emotion attached, would I go, Well, what SUV were they making in 2014 that three boys can't sit in the back?

I don't know because I'm thinking about when my parents had a 1995 suburban and we fit in the back. What's the difference?

So that's the first issue. And a minivan, that's the answer to the three growing boys? What are they, part giant? They're going to fit in the SUV. So this just keeps falling apart. And And then it gets to, well, they're going to loan us money. That's family. We'd say, we don't want you to borrow money.

But it has to be brand new, apparently. It has to be brand new.

And now it's got to be brand new. So now they're fleecing you on their conditions. Everything about this is just so wacky. And we have created in our minds this need that is not a need. And we're wrapping a desire up in the clothing of a need. And there's nothing about this that is a need. And my gosh, you have 10,000 thousand to go. Come on. Just finish it and then walk forward to baby step three. While you're doing that, cash flow the car. Get creative. But in no way, shape, or form do I have any sympathy for your three growing boys.

And how old...

That could be anything. By the way, one of the great hardships of life that every young man needs to go through is to sit in the middle, and I don't think they have a hump anymore, do they?

With your knees all folded up in the center? Yeah.

Do they still have a hump in the middle of the back of these SUVs? That would be great, because I'm wondering if this SUV has a third row. Sounds like it does it. But if it's got a pump in the middle, one of those boys needs to have his knees touching his nose.

That's a rite of passage. Yeah. It's a rite of passage.

I mean, don't get me started. I remember there were times where if we had a friend come with us, one of us would get up in the back window because cars back then... You know what I'm saying, Kelly? Yes, I do. Cars back then had enough space that you could get a good size 10-year-old, 11-year-old.

Get them in there.

You would lay the full length. It was great. You could stare like a freak at the car behind you.

I was a part of this. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yes. Now, I will tell you, on a sunny day, it got warm.

Oh, you were sweating, getting car sick in that window.

And just staring at the poor drivers behind you like you're some psychopath. I digress.

You called a spade a spade on this. I agree with you. Wholeheartedly, Ken. Sounds like, what did you say? Desire wrapped up in- This is Desire wrapped up in the clothes of a need. Very profound. Katie.

I got to call my kids and tell them you said that.

I will. They won't care. They're going to be like, They don't care. All right. Katie's in Ohio. How can we help today, Katie?

Hi, guys. How are you?

Great. How can we help?

My question is, I'm on Baby Step 2 with a job that provides a company car, so I don't have a car payment or pay for gas or anything like right now. Nice. But I recently received a job offer, which it would be a pay increase, but instead of a company car, they would give a monthly allowance for car payments and gas separately. So my question is, if I take If I were to take this job, should I pause Baby Step 2 and try to save as much money as possible to put towards a car, or should I keep throwing money at my debt and then just use the car allowance when I potentially start?

That's a good question. You're going to need something to drive in right away. Do you have any money saved whatsoever?

No, I'm a Baby Step 2, so I have maybe 1,500 bucks.

Okay. How much is the car allowance once they give it to you?

It would be around 850 a month, not including gas. Gas would be an additional 2,000 to 300 a month.

Okay. Would you be close enough to the work that in the meantime, you could do something like take the bus or Uber or do something short term while you stacked up however much the car allowance is in order to just get yourself a quick beater to get started?

Well, the job includes... It's sales, so I would have to use the car to drive to different offices. But the other thing is it wouldn't start until June, maybe July even, so I would have a few months to save up. I'm thinking I could potentially save up 10,000 to 15,000.

It's great. You can I got a fine car for 10,000 to 15,000.

I think that's great.

I mean, this is a real opportunity. I love, by the way, your suggestion because you are demonstrating someone who has got some self-discipline. If you can do that, and use this car allowance effectively, that's a win for you. That's the play. You just answered your own question.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I've just been on such a motivated kick on paying off my debt. It's going to hurt deposit a a little bit, but I know in the long run, it will take off.

But you know what's great about this is, in the grand scheme of things, it's not really a pause. This isn't going to put you way behind. You're only talking about a few months.

You're not stopping progress.

That's what I meant to say. That's even better. You are pausing the act of paying it down, but you're doing it for a reason, and you're going to pick right back up where you left off and not be behind. Yeah.

Buying a car in cash is great progress in your shoes.

Yeah, good for you.

Yeah, very good, Katie. Thank you for the call. Next up, we have Gary in California. Gary, what's on your mind?

Hi, Gary. Hi, Ken. Hi. My basic question, I got to give you some details, but my basic question is, how can I enjoy monetary gifts I've received from my parents, given I've pised all my life but found it difficult to save. I'm very late in life, and I'm 66 years old. I just came to Ramsey a few years ago. I now have an emergency fund paid off my house, got a pension, but not much savings. And also, as I'm retired, I'm looking after my folks. So recently, my parents gave me and my brother, 38,000 dollars. And because my mom knows I want to go to Africa on safari, she said, This is for your Africa trip.

Great.

Of course, I'm thankful. What do you have in savings? Sorry? What do you have in savings right now?

Nothing on my own.

You have zero dollars in savings.

No, I mean, I've been I'm given some money, so I've got some money, but- How much? Over 100,000?

Okay, so let me just recap right quick. You're retired, you have no debt, you have 100,000 saved, and you got a 38,000 dollar gift to go on safari in Africa.

Yeah. But you told us that you've not been good at saving. So I'm so confused.

Okay. Here's the deal. I've had it very difficult throughout life to save. I always made that 10 % for God, but I hadn't learned the Ramsey principle, so I was going through life, and at the end of the month, I just didn't have enough left to save rather than putting savings number one.

Okay.

So what I've got is a situation where I have a bad taste in my mouth that's spoiling things because I feel ashamed for needing the money for a bucket list trip.

I have no sense of satisfaction.

Oh, well, let me fix that. Let me fix that. Let me fix it. First of all, this is a gift, and you need to receive it as a gift, or else it robs your parents of the blessing. And a safari trip is not going to cost you 38,000. It's not. Go do a great safari trip and then invest or save the rest of it and enjoy your life. You're 66. We're not promised tomorrow. Go take some pictures of some girafes, man.

Yeah, but you also need to save some retirement for yourself. Because you don't have it.

I told him that, but he needs to go do the safari, too. He's got 100 grand he could start investing.

Yeah, he needs to start that immediately.

Hey, guys. Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now, you can get that same help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to ramseysolutions. Com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's ramseysolutions. Com.

Our Ramsey show, Scripture and Quote of the Day, Philippians 4: 13. King Coleman, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Yes. Amen. I love it. Dolly Parton, If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are an excellent leader.

How about Dolly dropping some leadership gold? That's actually a really great quote.

It is. Inspiration.

She's a treasure, folks. She's a national treasure.

Love it. All right. Ellie is in Louisiana. Ellie, how can we help today?

Hi. So me and my new husband, we just got married. First marriage for both of us, hopefully The only marriage. We're a young Christian couple. We're looking at buying a place, but we're not sure, are we... This is going to sound so silly, are we too young to buy property? We neither of us We both have college degrees. We have together over 100,000 in savings. Would it be a good next step as a couple to buy a house together?

How long you been married?

We just got married in January, but we were together for five years prior.

Okay. How old are you guys?

We are 23 and 25.

Okay. Fantastic. What are your incomes?

I make about 60, and he makes over 100.

Fantastic. What do you do?

I am an engineer. I just graduated, but he is actually in the finance realm, but he's newer to it, and he's very good with money, obviously, or we wouldn't have that much in savings, but we're just scared almost to have a mortgage.

Sure. Well, let's walk through the emergency fund. You know your numbers, do you guys have a three-month or a six-month emergency fund? In that 100,000, I know that's more than you need, but what would be three months? What would be six months?

We're currently renting in $1,300 place right now. So that would be probably at least six months, plus any expenses we would have in that time, more than probably that.

Oh, 100,000 is more than six months of basic expenses for you guys. What a size house are we talking about? Not size, actually. What price point are you guys looking at? Because I assume you guys have driven around or you've been on websites looking at houses. What are you looking at?

Yeah, we're looking between 250 to $350. We're looking at getting a duplex and fixing it up and living in one side and renting out the other.

I don't like that. Jade, what do you think about that?

We've heard that. All I can tell you is when I was in high school, we moved into a duplex, and it started out fine. And then it went south very quickly. And what sucks is if the person on door number one doesn't get along with the person on door number two, you have to see them every day.

Those walls are thin, too. Yeah, they are. That's a horrible idea, Ellie. You're so sweet. Especially as a first. You're so sweet. I didn't want to say it that way at first, but now I just have to warn you, this is an awful idea. You guys are already thinking, You're thinking our first house, guess what? We'll live in it, but it's a real investment. I just think because it's a duplex and all the problems that come with it, we don't think that's a strong investment strategy. It sure as heck is not a great young marriage strategy. You guys need your own place without any headaches, literally next door. Yeah. Don't do that, please.

With our income, do you guys think that we could buy a house then?

Yeah, Jade, walk them through. I don't know.

I'm scared of abortions.

Okay. Jade's going to walk you through how you would do it with that really nice income.

And there's nothing to be scared of. Tell me what you guys are taking home every month.

Every month? So he gets commissioned, so It really depends. But we've had months where it's been like 10 grand, and then we've had months where it's been like the lowest has been like six.

Okay. So I would plan based off of the lowest month because that's going to give you a measure of peace. If six grand is the lowest month, I'd say, Okay, for us to really feel great, we don't want our mortgage to be any more than $1,500 a month. That's 25% of our take home pay. That's a parameter that we use here at Ramsey Solutions. Then what I would do, which is what I'm doing right now, I go over on ramsey solutions. Com and I pull up the mortgage calculator and I say, Okay, let's pretend we're looking for a house. You said between- 250 to 350, right? Mm-hmm. Okay, so let me just... I'll look at 325. How about That's somewhere in the middle.

That's plenty of house for a young couple.

If I say, Okay, what happens if we put our down payment? We need to get to $1,500 a month. I'm going to make this a pretty hefty down payment, and we're still not quite there yet. Let's see. But all I'm doing is plugging in the numbers to see. You're going to have to put down a lot to get there. I don't think you guys are quite there yet. You're going to be putting down upwards of 160,000 to get there at $325.

So sit on that number here for a second. We're not holding you to this. How long do you think? So this has got to be above and beyond your emergency fund. If you do three months emergency fund and you're going to calculate that, you know how to do that and go, Okay, these are our total expenses. To run everything. We're not crazy about this. What's that number? And so above and beyond that, how long do you think it would take you to save 160,000?

From where we are, probably only another year.

Our I know what was very low right now. Exactly.

So could you wait a year? You guys are just married. Could you wait a year and get a fat down payment?

And here's what else is going to happen in that year. Your husband, who works on commissions, is going to find his flow, and he's going to have way more months where he's sitting at $10,000 as opposed to $6,000. You see what I'm saying? So it gives you guys time. It gives you time to get in a flow, both income-wise and it gives you time to save up the down payment you really need to get in a house that's just yours. We don't want Billy Bob across the doorway.

I'm telling. By the way, yeah. By the way, I mean, yeah, the people that are living in duplexes, you got to do your homework on this. Go drive around, sit in the parking lot of some local duplexes and watch who's coming in and out of those places.

Cool out, Ken, because I lived in a duplex.

I'm just saying, and many of us have, but not long term. I'm calling balls and strikes right now. Go sit in the parking lot because your husband's not on this call. He may go, Well, Ken is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah What's your situation?

It's a two by one right now. It's a two bedroom, one bathroom, which is fine. We know we're going to need more space at a certain point.

I'll stop it. You'd been married two months. Is it a nice apartment complex?

It's fine.

Overall, yes, it's fine.

You got a nice pool?

Mm-mm.

All right.

Listen, they'll be okay. You guys have big homeownership goals. I know.

I was trying to get her trapped to go. Would you just enjoy being married and not having to worry about a roof? Here's the thing. Or the HVAC. I mean, this is the thing that young couples don't think about. Let me tell you something. Everybody wants a house. Nobody wants to deal with the problems of a house.

Truer words have not been stated.

Okay, that's what I want to say to young couples. Cool it. Because you have no stress right now living in an apartment. You just got none.

Yeah, because once you buy a home and I say the word water, the moment you experience water being in the wrong place, owning a home.

Let me tell you something right now, Jade. I'm going to be an old man right now. I'm griping about the fact that I just had to spend $2,500 to get my beautiful, gorgeous tree in my front yard cut down and get the stump taken out because of an ice storm. I just want to keep it real for all you young couples that are just dying to get a house. Well, guess what? I had to cut the tree down because it split into it, blew up because of the ice.

To pay an arborist is crazy money. 2,500 bucks. Yeah, man.

I know. By the way, I have it. But do you think I was happy about it?

It's never fun.

I'm still griping about it right now. All of America is having to deal with me griping. But guess what? That doesn't happen when you live in a nice little apartment complex and the ice storm comes through.

Well, yeah, because then you just call maintenance and you're like, Hey, I got a problem.

Something goes wrong, they send Roger up. Roger comes in and he fixes it, and then we go on date night.

Yeah, exactly. But in a house, it hits different.

I'm still griping about that tree. By the way, it's a gorgeous tree. Yeah.

Gone. Let me tell you, I'm still a little offended about what you said about us duplex dwellers.

Was I wrong?

I don't know, kid.

You all drive around this weekend. Spend 45 minutes in the duplex parking lot. Pay attention to who's coming in and out of those places. That's all I'm saying. I'm keeping it real.

Oh, boy. Remember, there's ultimately only one way to have financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.