Budgeting Leads You out of Debt & Into Wealth

Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Me and Dr.
John Deloney are coming to a city near you on the

Money and Relationships Tour. It's happening soon, so don't wait.
Get your tickets at

RamseySolutions.com slash tour.

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today.
Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, host of the Rachel Cruz Show, and co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour on the Ramsey Networks, and my daughter, she's my co-host today.
Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Before we dive into the callers, I've got to do a correction that I screwed up on.
I do this every so often. I've been doing talk radio 15 hours a week for, and podcast type stuff for 34 years now.
And so you can add up that number of hours. And in that number of hours, I have done some stupid butt stuff in my life, but it's, you can't take it back.
It goes over the airwaves. It's gone.
This was not on this show. My friend, Sean Ryan has one of the top podcasts in the world.
And I was here in our community and it was nice enough to have me as a guest on. And we did a long form interview there.
I think it's like three hours and 43 minutes, which is more Dave than anybody should get, but you can get it if you want to go listen to Sean Ryan. And it was very popular.
We've had, he's had, it's one of his top shows. I was talking to him last night about it, as a matter of fact, and it's one of the, it's the numbers on it are absolutely astronomical.
And then I get a letter that I had messed up something on the thing. Oh no.
And 99% of the time when I get a letter like that, I just look at it and I go, yeah, throw it away. But this one I screwed up.
Oh, I can't wait to hear. This is great.
Yeah, so I got fired when I was 22 years old. And I tell the story often, and I very seldom, if ever, tell the name of the company.
But I told the name of the company. Okay.
That I got fired from Mr. Transmission.
And I don't know why I got fired. The guy yelled at me.
I've heard that story. It threw me out of the company okay that i got fired from mr transmission and um the and i don't know why i got fired the guy yelled at me i've heard that threw me out of the building and all this stuff and so it's one of the ways that we decided at ramsey no one's ever surprised if you get fired here you will at least know why yes you know because i still don't know why and it was 40 years ago you know so i was 22 years i was 42 years ago i was 22 years old so um i probably deserved it i just don't know why and but the guy from the company i was telling the story about that and i said well i said it was a it was called mr transmission and they're out of business now and there's i think there's a couple of them left open but the franchise is all closed down well that was wrong they did go bankrupt in 1990 because i actually looked at buying it at one point and um they went bankrupt in 1990 and another company bought them out of bankruptcy okay and now they're a thriving franchise operation oh okay okay and so they are still alive and kicking and they're more than alive and kicking they're doing great but you said like i said i said they're out of business and and so uh the lady that uh barbara that is the president the company that owns it, sent me a letter.
Very nice, very nice. She quoted exactly what I said in there, and she said, just want to let you know we're alive and well, and we don't treat people like that now under our regime.
And I'm like, dude, it was 42 years ago. Of course you don't.
And so I called her and talked to her and told her I would come on the air and tell everybody that I was wrong. How great is that? But she's doing great.
They're doing great. That company's doing great.
Mr. Transmission's just doing great, and apparently they're great people.
She's a very nice lady. Very nice.
I appreciate that. So there it is.
I straightened up my mess that I made on Sean Ryan's show because I bankrupted a company that was still operating. Still don't know why you're fired from 40...
Oh, that doesn't matter. That's just just a funny story no i know i know but it's and if i'd have just been smart enough to not even mention the company name sure sure everybody everybody be okay but that's always a feeling but instead i um instead i bankrupted a company that's doing really well so you know they're doing great and they're good people I talked to her a long time.
We had a great conversation.

She's sweet as she could be.

And very kind considering I had stepped all over her stuff, you know.

Yeah.

Not everybody's kind when you do that.

So it's good stuff.

So open phones here, 888-825-5225.

And, man, that's something else.

All right.

So I'm going to do this.

The Money and Relationships Tour. Dr.
John Deloney and I have not gotten fired from that. It is going very well.
It might be bankrupt depending on what happens on stage. It's not bankrupt at all.
It's actually booming, and the Kansas City sold out for Friday, May the 9th. The week from this Friday will be in Kansas City.
A week from yesterday will yesterday will be in Phoenix on May the 5th Fort Worth on May the 7th few tickets left in Fort Worth, a handful in Phoenix, Kansas city gone. Okay.
Uh, so if you want tickets to come out next week, you bet one of those three cities, you need to get them because they're, these, these are all going to be packed. They're going to be packed out.
And Dr. John is on fire.
This is his, he, when he's can just free flow and not have to follow a script is his favorite thing in life. So, and he's really good at it.
And so it's fun and funny and we're having a good time on stage, being up there together at the same time. It's a weird way we're doing it.
It's not a normal talk. Yeah.
So the audience votes on the subjects. Now y'all done three cities already are the audience audience what they want similar city to city, or has it been very different? Remarkably similar.
Okay, what are they wanting? What do they want to hear? We're not going to tell because I don't want to skew the voting at the next city. Make sure you get your tickets.
The polls aren't closed. All right.
You can't tell who's winning yet. Okay, okay.
But it's, yeah, they're picking out. Similar topics.
Yeah, and they're to be, once you see them, you them you go oh i get that yeah i get why they're yeah okay and so yeah and they're but they're you vote before we start and while you're sitting in the audience with a qr code and then we're backstage scrambling around looking at the votes and then we make up the night or grayson actually helps the guy runs our content. He makes up the night and then brings us a sheet out,

and then we talk about those topics.

And so it's very off the cuff in that sense and a lot of fun.

So if you want tickets, RamseySolutions.com slash tour,

RamseySolutions.com slash tour.

And if you're tuning in on the YouTube or podcast,

you can click the link in the show notes. You don't have to be stuck, trapped in the same patterns of money or relationships.
I will guarantee you this. If your spouse is, um, or, or your best friend is, uh, it thinks that the stuff we teach is boring.
They can come out and they'll find out it's a lot of fun because we laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh. And, uh And you guys do the same thing when you and John are up there doing the marriage and money retreat, right? Yes.
Yeah. And a little different content, obviously, but you two on stage are a hoot.
You're both dadgum comedians. So a lot of fun.
Yeah. So you can get in and get that done.
So. All right.
What are we going to talk about for a minute? Love it. Well, love it well I was going to say because I think well I was talking to John about these events but he was talking about how thematically how similar things are and what the problems people have continue to be pretty consistent regardless of where you are in the country regardless of family of origin but these But these ideas that people, they want the ability to have great relationships.
They want the ability to take control of their money. They want to build wealth and they want to be able to, yeah, I mean, build a life that they love.
And so I think that's what's so great about all of this, though, is being able to hit the pain points that are really out there. And we see that theme on this show.
Like we'll get calls four in a row of people that their spouses can't, they can't work together with their spouse. Or we'll get four calls in a row where it's like crazy student loan debt, right? Like we see themes even on this show.
So I think it's just encouragement to people out there. Like whatever that pain point is, we see a consistency in it.
And that's why we do what we do, whether it's on this show, whether it's going out to cities and doing events like this Money in Relationship Tour or other shows we have on the Ramsey Network. But that pain point that you have...
The human condition is just the human condition. It is, yeah, and it doesn't make you...
It is the condition we're in. Yeah, you're not weird in that way.
There is something so normal, what we're all craving. And I think you guys are seeing that with the content on this

where you have an audience that votes,

which I think is awesome.

I think it's beautiful.

And that's why we're here.

This is why we do what we do.

It's a great way to build a set list for sure.

This is The by BetterHelp.

All right, you've heard me say it a thousand times

and I'm going to keep saying it.

You're worth being well.

And listen, therapy can help. I see a therapist and let's be honest, a lot of you should too.
But let's be real. Taking that first step to see a therapist can feel overwhelming.
Maybe it's the time. Maybe you have some preconceived notions about therapy.
Maybe it's the cost. But we spend money on gym memberships, organic groceries, essential oils, Little League practices, tracker watches.
But for some reason, when it comes to our mental and emotional well-being, we hesitate. Your mental and emotional health are just as important as your physical health.
And the good news? BetterHelp makes therapy more affordable and convenient than ever. It's online so you can talk with your therapist when it works for your schedule.
No more waiting rooms,

no long commutes, and no

six-month waiting list. You just get

online and fill out a short survey to get

matched with a licensed therapist. And if it's

not the right fit, you can switch at

any time for no extra cost.

Your well-being is worth it.

Visit BetterHelp.com

slash Deloney to get started. That's

BetterHelp. H-E-L-P dot com slash Deloney.

Jenny is in Atlanta. Hi, Jenny.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, thank you for having me. My question is, my boyfriend doesn't want to work, and is that a deal breaker? I'm a 40-year-old surgeon in my first job.
Last year, I made about

$280,000. This year, I'm expected to make close to $500,000 in the second year of my work.
My boyfriend of one year is an actor, and the entire time I've known him for about a year, he's had two days of work as an actor, and he made less than $23,000 last year, so he didn't qualify for the Actors Union Health Insurance. But we want to continue our relationship and keep moving forward and eventually get married and live together.
But he says that because the house will be under my name as the main wage earner, he doesn't feel like he should pay for any part of the mortgage.

He also can't.

And I'm wondering if that's a deal breaker or if I should just suck it up and pay for the expenses because I can.

Hmm.

What do you think, Jenny?

Is that attractive to you? Like, are you like what a winner um this is not how i had imagined um being in a relationship you're smart you're a surgeon jenny you're really smart you know so i'm just it's just a kind of it is interesting because usually, not always, but to a degree, people's intellect, you're attracted to other people's intellect and you're a hard worker. Obviously the schooling you had to go through was insane.
And the amount of hours you have to put in and work and to have somebody that doesn't give, and again, I'm not mad that he doesn't have a job as an actor every week, but at least he's like, hey, I'm still busting my butt and I'm part time here. I'm waiting tables here.
I'm trying to make this dream work. I'm not mad at the dream, but the fact that there's nothing in between that that's happening.
Right. Is like that's as a woman who works and all of it.
Like that's not attractive to me as a for a man, a guy that has a level of initiative. I find attractive.
So I'm just curious if, yeah, if that's how you feel or if you're great with it. And you might be great with it.
You're asking the question. She's not great with it.
She's asking the question. The reason you're asking the question is you're not great with it.
Again, this is not how I had imagined being in a relationship with a man. I feel like me being the provider, because even though I can provide for myself, I thought our relationship or partnership would be a partnership where, um, I don't care if he makes as much money.
I care that he doesn't work. Or that again, and we live, he wants to dig ditches.
I don't care as long as he's doing it all day, every day. I've asked him how he can get by without working and he says he has some residuals coming in from prior work that he's done as an actor, but clearly it's not enough because he didn't.
Clearly he sits on his butt regardless of why or how he clearly is an unmotivated slug.

Clearly.

He's 51.

He's 51, and I'm not sure how much things are going to change. Jenny, you don't have kids, do you?

No.

If you had a daughter that asked you this question,

what would you tell her?

I would probably say, can you find a better guy?

Yeah, that's exactly.

So here's what's happening. You already have made this decision.
You just wanted someone else to say it out loud. And I'll tell you, if you go forward with this guy, you're going to get increasingly resentful and increasingly bitter.
This is not going to get better. You're not suddenly going to have peace with this.
You don't have peace with it now. That's why you asked the question.
And as a reminder, it's not a value of what he's bringing monetarily necessarily it's the effort jenny so yeah so if you guys have kids yeah if you get married you guys have kids who he is with his work is the amount of energy he's going to put into that you know i mean your marriage if your marriage starts to be in a hard spot the amount of effort that he's putting into his life is what you're going to see there so it's just an indicator of his level of pursuit in life in general starts to kind of show um so yeah he's cute but the cute's already worn off so basically it doesn't matter how much money i make and whether we can support ourselves with my money it's a matter of his it's matter of he has no work ethic yeah is a character issue. And let's say this, it's 2025.
There's some stay at home dads, right? Sometimes the woman is the breadwinner and roles have reversed. So even if that was the case and he's like, hey, we're having to support kids and you have a demanding job, I'm able to do this and this and this and you know what I mean? But there's like effort involved.
It's, there's none of that. This is just, I'm going to sit on a log.
I know. And it's hard because you like him, right what I mean but there's like effort involved it's there's none of that this is just I'm gonna sit on a log I know and it's hard because you like him right I mean I'm sorry yes it's the answer your question is yes we think it's a deal breaker and so do you and you just wanted someone else to say it out loud did I miss that you're right thank you for being a mirror that I needed to see i'm sorry oh bless your heart that's hard it's hard but yeah it's because your your your uh emotions cloud when you're you know falling in love and so yeah you you tend to put blinders on but this this got pushed far enough one too too many times it came up.
Well, and the fact he wants to take no responsibility for anything. Did you hear that? Yeah.
Put the house in your name, and you pay the mortgage because you make the money. And I'm like, oh, golly, man.
You know? Like all of it. It's just, yeah.
Yeah, because I have residuals. I have a residual PTSD just from thinking about it.
All right. Tim is in Toronto.
Hi, Tim. What's up? Hi there.
I'm 21. I just finished college last week.
Congratulations. What's your degree in? Thank you.
I'm a social service community worker. Okay.
And I've been working while I was in school to try to put together kind of out of the box of this idea, but I'm kind of working on a time limit with a vision disability. So I'm kind of wondering if I should go through financing and pay it off as quick as I can within five years or if there's other avenues I can take to kind of fit a shorter timeline.
Tell me what your vision disability timeline issue is. So I have something called a retinal dystrophy, which continues to get worse over time.
I have about 60% of my vision currently, but I have about less than 10 years before it's to the point where I won't be able to work anymore. Well, you won't be able to work with sight.
Correct. Lots of people that don't have sight work.
Correct. I would just need more help with the local organizations, which I do have connections to.
Yeah, you'll have to build a life to prepare for that. The last thing you need is debt while you're on this journey.
So, no, we're not going to go that route. And we're not going to get desperate and get in such a hurry that you make the mistakes of desperation.
Anytime I get desperate, I get stupid right around the same time. And you can really, really step in a bear trap right now.
So, man, what a challenge that you're facing, but also the clear definition you have of it allows you to just really think about how you're going to strategize for this. So what is your business idea? So my local town doesn't have a youth drop-in center anymore, so youth don't have anywhere to get food if they don't have it.
So I'm kind of looking to build a drop-in center, but also incorporate animal-assisted therapy, because animals are my passion as well. So kind of combining the two for youth to be able to build enclosures and learn about those types of things.
And are you thinking of a non-profit situation or a for-profit business doing this? I was thinking non-profit. The only reason being is my local town has a big pot for bursaries and grants compared to other towns.
So I would be able to get monthly financing through them as well to help out with everything. What do you have to do to qualify for the grant? I just have to have a non number and have the actual building and everything set up, and that's kind of what I was going to take the financing for.
I currently have a building accessible to me. It just needs repairs and everything to get to the point where it could be usable for a business.
And what's it take to do the repairs? What's the cost? The cost for that will be for upgrades and renovations of $90,000. No, absolutely not.
I would not do that. The building itself is being sold to me for $40,000 when it was appraised for the same in 2014.
Yeah, no, I would not put $90,000 into a brand new business idea that's unproven when I'm 21 years old. Absolutely, I would not do that.

I would rent a building somewhere that suffices to operate.

Get your operation up and going.

Don't get in the real estate business, honey.

You need to get in the business.

And you need to decide which of these you want to do, dogs or kids.

Don't try to do both.

Let's focus.

Because you're not going to survive in business if you do the real estate business, dogs, and kids. Rachel, do you ever get these sketchy text messages that are like, hey, you need to update your address and verify so we can get you the package you didn't order? Yes, I have.
George, sketchy and never trust them. And that's why we recommend Delete Me.
They help with that. Yeah, they do.
Delete Me actually goes in and removes your information from data broker websites. And it is an incredible service that everyone needs.
And there's a lot of shady companies out there that solely exist to sell your personal data to bad guys. And that means your info, like your email address, your home address, your kids' names, your name, everything is just out there for scammers and spammers to find.
So much. But Delete Me will delete your data, hence the name.
It's gone. They'll wipe it out for you so you can sleep easy.
That's right. And then once they remove your information, then they're going to send you a detailed report telling you where they found your information, when they removed it, how many hours they've saved you.
I mean, it is incredible. So detailed and it and it's beautiful.
Get this, so far they've reviewed 27,000 listings on my behalf, removed me from 240 data broker sites and saved me 77 hours of time. It's incredible.
Absolutely amazing. And Winston and I now get fewer texts, weird emails, spam calls, all of it.
I love it. So you gotta be sure to check them out.
Ramsey fans get 20% off their annual plans.

Just go to joindeliteme.com slash Ramsey.

That comes out to less than nine bucks a month.

Super affordable.

Again, that's joindeliteme.com slash Ramsey.

Make sure to check it out, you guys. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host.
Our question of the day is brought to you by YReFi. YReFi refinances defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch and helps you get your life back.
So kick private student loan debt to the curb at YReFi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey might not be in all states.

Today's question comes from Vince in New Hampshire.

I have retired for three years with $1 million in an IRA.

My wife is planning to retire next year with $400,000 in her managed IRA and another $220,000 in a pension, which she plans to withdraw to add to her IRA.

Our only debt is $15,000 on our car and a $100,000 mortgage. I know you say buying an RV is like throwing your money away, but we want to purchase a used RV for around $20,000 and drive across the country for a couple of months to see sites that we missed when we were younger.
After being frugal for years to save, invest, and pay down debt, can we afford to splurge a little bit now? Absolutely. You ought to pay off your car and your mortgage too immediately.
If you're over 59 and a half and you can pull enough of this million six out to pay off $115,000. And I got a better idea, but you you can do this i wouldn't personally be a millionaire and be driving a 20 000 rv that sounds like hell to me um because it's going to break down so why don't you just go rent one for two months that's the best of the best and just get the like the bentley rv or whatever you call it i don't even know what it is get like I passed one the interstate the other night my wife says an airstream no it was it was my wife it was just a big old beautiful thing and my wife said uh 200 000 i said no 450 is it really are they really that expensive yeah the super dogs are and uh fact check you right now yeah you can you can fact check me if you want it's okay i can handle it they're really four they have 450 000 what you just said you can get the you can get that model i promise you and so um it's almost like anyway yeah so anyway i would rent one for two months rather than put 20k in something substandard and go to it's going to make your dream not so fun so you can do whatever you want to but you can buy the 20 but y'all pay off your house pay off your car while you're at it that's

simple all right fact checker any help well majority are going for 270 and then it says ai overview which i know you love ai so much it says typical is anywhere from 40 000 to a million dollars

what

done

I don't know

yeah

Matt is in

North thousand to a million dollars what done i don't know yeah matt is in uh north dakota hey matt what's up i can't drop the mic so i have to drop the paper okay fair enough long time listener and i appreciate you guys all of you uh my question in short is is my mom responsible for my dad's credit card debt? Here's what's happened. He's been moved to assisted living about nine months ago.
Before that, he'd racked up credit card debt of about $18,000. She's right now just paying off the interest on that monthly to get by.
He does have some VA assistance that helps with his assisted living, but she's 75. Um, she cannot afford to continue doing that.
So I'm wondering, it's an American express card. Yeah.
How aggressive are they? She let that go into default. She's not on, she's not on his, she didn't co-sign with him, but she did at one time.
Um, he got her a credit card, but she no longer has that as just kind of an accessory. Um, it's all in his name.
It's his debt. Does he have any assets? Do they own a home? Yes.
Um, they do. He's not living in it.
She is. It doesn't matter.
They could sue him and take a lien against his home, which happens to be where she lives.

Yes.

That's a problem.

They have no money?

No, no.

She works part-time jobs just three days a week to just bring in groceries and that sort of stuff.

But other than that, their home is paid off, yes.

But other than that, no. It just goes to insurance, property taxes, that sort of stuff.
But other than that, their home is paid off. Yes.
But other than that, no, it just goes to insurance, property taxes, that sort of stuff. Yeah.
Sorry. Do you have any money? Yeah, but not that kind of money.
Okay. Do you have other siblings, Matt? One sister, yes.
What's the house worth? worth their house oh they had just moved into it before he started his fall and it's worth probably 700 000 and it's paid for yes okay all right well in order to save the house we're going to have to deal with amexx. Okay.
So they're not going to sue. If they do sue, they're very aggressive in their collection tactics, but they're not real aggressive in actually forcing the sale of a house that they've taken a judgment lien against.
That would be like less than one quarter of 1% chance of that happening. Okay.
They technically could. Where's the house? What state? It's in Montana.
Okay. All right.
I don't know Montana law, but I suspect they could take a lien against the house and eventually execute on the lien and force the sale of the house in order to pay them.

And they're going to just drive her bananas in the six years it would take for them to get to that point.

Okay?

So I don't suggest doing that.

It's going to be a problem for you, for her.

And sweet lady is just going to get harassed. Now, was he of diminished capacity when he used the card? Uh, starting to get that way.
He, he racked up a lot of it on dental bills, um, here in the last year or so, just before he went to assisted living without her knowing. Yeah, I know that her knowing is not necessary, but if he wasn't, uh, if he was like an early onset or something and you can get a doctor's letter, that'll help you, uh, with the process here.
Okay. So anyway, what I would do is this, I'll just stop paying it, let it go bad.
Okay. And teach her to don't have conversations with them.
Don't even talk to them. If they call or they send something, just ignore it because they're going to drive there if she picks up the phone every time they call they're going to drive her nuts all right yeah and then uh after about six to nine months uh you and your sister scrape together five thousand dollars and settle this okay y'all settle it and get it out of there so your mama's house is not at risk while your dad's declining.
You feel like Amex would settle on that? They'll settle pennies on the dollar once it's nine months old. Once it's nine months old.
Because they don't think they're going to get their money then. Statistically, they're not going to get their money.
Right. Will they be the ones to call us? Will they turn it over to creditors? Usually

they'll keep it. They'll keep it at least a year usually.
Okay. And I will tell you that they are absolute buttholes.
They are horrible to deal with. If you work for Amex in the credit card collections department, you should be ashamed of yourself and go get a good job.
They're a horrible company. Okay? So just

get ready to deal with Satan.

Okay? I mean, seriously. should be ashamed of yourself and go get a good job they're a horrible company okay so just get ready to deal with satan okay i mean seriously this is what you're going in with it's it's horrible all right so i i you know i've dealt with them i don't know a 500 or a thousand times on behalf of clients and once on behalf of myself 35 years ago so no you do you do not want, but the trick is you just got to play hardball and go, look, you're not.
She doesn't have the money. That's the thing.
She doesn't have the money. You're not getting paid.
They don't have any assets. And we're offering you a settlement on a bad debt.
Hang up. We're offering you a settlement on a bad debt.
She doesn't have any money you want some money hang up you're gonna have to do that like 10 times before you find someone with two brain cells down there to rub together okay okay and when you do finally get somebody on there they're gonna go oh this guy's because they they record every train of one of the transactions on the file so they see every time we start yelling at them they hang up but yet then they'll know so the next time they pick up go look don't start or you're going to be another hang up and if you get it matt get it in writing have absolutely have them email you immediately a letter so you have actual evidence that they because they lie if they say they did something they didn't do it if in writing, it didn't happen, brother. Thank you so much for your advice.

I will start saving.

I appreciate you both.

Hey, be good, man.

Sorry you're facing that.

I know.

It's so sad for his mom.

This is why we tell you to save 15% of your household income at Baby Step 4 before you get to Baby Step 6 and pay off your house.

Because if you have a paid-for house and no money, you can get in a pinch. I have high standards.
I don't cut corners and I only recommend the best. That why i partnered with simply safe home security for over 10 years they're the industry leader simply safe has been named best home security system by u.s news and world report for five years straight they've also been ranked number one in customer service among home security providers by both newsweek and USA Today, and they're the innovators in the technology too.
Their ActiveGuard Outdoor Protection can help prevent break-ins before they happen, and SimpliSafe agents can see and speak to potential intruders to help stop trouble before it even makes it to your door. And the best part is protecting your loved ones with SimpliSafe won't break the bank.
Monitoring starts at around a dollar a day. Your first month is free, and they offer a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Plus, right now, you'll get 50% off a new SimpliSafe system with professional monitoring. So head to simplisafedirect.com to save 50%.
That's SimpliSafe system with professional monitoring. So head to SimpliSafeDirect.com to save 50%.

That's SimpliSafeDirect.com.

There's no safe like SimpliSafe.

Austin is in Detroit. Hi, Austin.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Ramsey.
Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate you both.
I have a quick question for you here. I have a 1977 Corvette that I just purchased a couple weeks ago and feeling a little buyer's remorse about it.
So my question is, based on my situation, if you think it would be best to sell the vehicle and put the money into my mortgage or to keep it and just enjoy the ride. What did you pay for it? $7,700.
Okay. All right.
Um, not exactly mint condition, huh? Uh, it, it is, um, it was actually from, uh, my grandpa's a friend. They put a lot of work into it and were, uh, it's worth about 13,000, but they sold it to me for that price.
They didn't want profit on it. And so I got it.
What do you make a year? I make about $150,000. Okay.
You got debt other than the house? No, sir. Just the house.
Okay. How much do you have left on the house? $67,000.
Well, the rule on toys that I use when Sharon and I are talking about it is if I take that much money and I burn it in the middle of the floor, $7,700 in this case, and I just set fire to it, does my life change?

If it changes my life, then I don't need to spend that on a toy.

Okay?

Yeah.

And so I think this one probably doesn't change your life if you lost $7, if you just uh if the car went in the

bottom of a lake with no insurance your life does not change other than you'd shed some tears but in terms of financially you'd be just fine uh i probably would not have bought it until the house was paid off matter of fact i know i would not have bought a toy until the house was paid off, but it's not an expensive toy.

You didn't spend $77,000 on it.

Mm-hmm. I would not have bought a toy until the house was paid off, but it's not an expensive toy.
You didn't spend $77,000 on it. Okay.
So you didn't, if you'd have done that, I would have said, yeah, you're out of bounds because that amount of money would change your life. Yeah.
It's like half, yeah. Almost the more, that's the mortgage that's left.
Yeah. And so, but you know, if you like the car, uh, and you can drive it with a freedom and enjoy it, and then you use the, a little bit of a ouchie that you're feeling and you use that discomfort to lean into the house that much harder, I'd probably keep it.
Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. That, that makes sense.
Your, uh, your voice has been in my head since I. I'm telling you I disrupted the seven baby steps.
You did disrupt the seven baby steps. You did do that.
Shame. But no, I mean, seriously, no, honestly, no, that's not true.
Because if you're all. I was like he was hearing you.
I know, but I know. But I was thinking he did disrupt them.
But if you're thinking about baby step four, five, six, which is where you are, you're living intentional.

And this is where you would upgrade a car or buy a boat or buy a couch.

And then he bought a $7,000 toy.

Yeah.

So, no, it's not really out of line.

It's not really out of line, but it is a luxury.

It was a pretty heavy luxury item, you know, so it's okay.

I think you're okay. I think it does fit.
Do you like the car austin like do you you enjoy it i i do it feels really good my wife likes it you know we went for a ride the other day and it yeah it's a step up from what we drive right now which is you know with our compact suv so it is freeing for us yeah i keep it keep it. You're good.
Yeah. But I think if it was a, if it was a larger number to where it would hurt you, then yeah, I'd probably sell it.
But the good news here is that when, when I saw classic car pop up here, I was not thinking $7,000. Yeah.
You were thinking more. Yeah.
I was thinking this call is going to be somebody They spent lot of money on something but it is relative that's the thing it's like i got a friend that bought a lamborghini i mean he bought a had gum was it 400 000 bucks or something and uh i'm like man but he made 15 million last year right so i mean it's he could burn that in the middle of the floor and it would make all of us cry but he his life wouldn't change it's like when you see those stats of like what bill gates makes while he's brushing his teeth like every two minutes you know what i mean it's like eighty thousand dollars every two minutes or something just insane yeah we're like oh my gosh it's a different it's a different ratio and that's the that's how you know you can actually afford something is the ratio. That's what you're looking for.
So I remember we did one the other night on something. Tiger Woods at his top of his game when he was making the most of the most, he bought a $70 million house.
And this was many years ago, obviously obviously he was back when he was really at the top of the top of the golf world and all these people are coming out like who needs a 70 million who's been and that year his income was 1.2 billion with endorsements and everything and so him buying a 70 000 house is like someone that makes $250,000 buying a $15,000 car. I mean, that's the ratio.
It's nothing. It's just nothing.
And so ratio-wise. And so, but it's just mind-blowing because most of us have never even seen a $70 million house, much less buy one.
But you've also never seen $1.2 billion in one year either. So it's a different way.
I mean, it's a different thing. So you're looking at the ratios there on things, and that's a good way.
Make sure you're always giving, you're always enjoying, and you're always investing your money. McKenzie is in Nashville.
Hey, McKenzie, how are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good.
How are you? Better than we deserve. What's up? I just had a quick question.
Well, maybe a quick question, but if we should sell our house, our in-laws have offered for us to move in with them, save some money, pay off our consumer debt, and then save some money to buy a new house closer to my husband's work. How far are you from your husband's work? They're he's, they're moving him to an hour away from our house.
Okay. Where, where? Um, Murfreesboro.
Okay. How much debt do you guys have? So we have about 60,000 in consumer debt.
So that's going to be three of those are our auto loans. Uh, one is 20,000 is $10,000, and then a motorcycle that's $16,000, and then we have $10,500 in credit card.
How much can you get for all the cars? Unfortunately, the Jeep is the $20,000 one. I think we could probably get a little bit less than what it's worth.
Okay.

Maybe come out even. So $17,000.

I think.

Even on the $10,000?

Yeah.

How about for the motorcycle?

Motorcycle, break even.

The motorcycle, potentially, I mean, it's a 12 Harley Davidson Road Glide, I think,

or something like that.

I think they're a little underwater on that.

The one that I know we could sell and break even for sure is my.

So, McKenzie, your in-laws live in Murfreesboro?

They live in Rockville, so pretty close. No.
I would sell your house and rent something near where your husband's working, and I would sell your motorcycle, and I would sell your car. Okay.
And I would get out of debt really, really fast. Okay.
How much can you get for the house? I think we could get potentially $300 out of it. In equity? No.
We owe $258,000. So I think we would come out, what we calculated with our realtors, maybe $23,000, $25,000 after closing costs.
So you would be debt-free in renting if you sold the motorcycle, sold the car, and got $20,000? Yeah. The question about the motorcycle is I think we're underwater on it.
Not much. Not much.
You can sell it. You just don't want to tell him he needs to sell his motorcycle but he does he's broke uh broke people don't buy 16 000 motorcycles right i don't care how sweet it is he's getting ready to move you in with his mother because he won't sell his motorcycle are you hearing this seriously buy motorcycle bye bye no we're not moving in with your mama nope nope nope nope y'all go y'all go get a life and you're gonna sell the house because you need to move closer to his work anyway yeah not for the debt that's we're not selling the house because of the debt we're selling the house because you're gonna need to move closer to work right right? Right.
It would be a plus to take care of it.

No, I would not move in with your in-laws. Yes, I would

sell the motorcycle, sell the car, and sell the house.

That's exactly what I'd do. You're not

going to do it, though. Oh, you can

do it, Mackenzie. I believe in you.

She would do it, but I don't think she's going to talk to him

about it. I don't think she wants to bring it up.
Oh, I bet she can. I believe in you,

Mackenzie. Go, girl.

Alright. This is the ramsey show statistics show that half of americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all i I don't understand this, John.
Why don't people want to take care of their family? They think they're going to die or something? Well, I used to be one of those guys. I didn't even think about it.
And one of my buddies said, Hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids. And I immediately went and got term life insurance.
That's a gut punch. And you're telling me for decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse.
They've lost somebody important to them. Me too.
And they don't know what to do next. Me too.
I mean, you're going to have a crisis here. And you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow.
She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up. Or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.
That's exactly right. These are the two options.

And take care of your dadgum family, man.

Term life insurance can replace income, pay off debts, cover funeral expenses, so your

family can actually have the opportunity to just be sad.

Yeah.

To just miss you.

That's exactly what it's supposed to be.

It's saying I love you to your family.

Term life insurance.

Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable.

I've used them personally for 25 years. They're the only people I trust.
Go to Zander.com or call

800-356-4282. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey solutions.
It's the Ramsey show where we help people build

wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz,

number one, bestselling author, Ramsey personality. My daughter is my co-host today.
Open phones at 888-825-5225. Angelica is with us in Mobile, Alabama.
Hi, Angelica. How are you? Hi.
Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure.
What's up?

So I have a question.

My husband and I have been living separately for almost a year now.

He is active duty.

He's what?

Because he's active duty.

Oh.

Yeah, he's in the Navy. Uh-huh.

So due to his orders, we decided to move me back home to be with my family. Well, he got injured shortly after moving us back here, and we'd been living separately, and he got, I guess, moved from those orders.
So what we've really been struggling with is how to manage our budget separately.

Even though our money is together. I'm sorry, he got injured.
Yes. So is he being discharged?

No, he's been on limited duty for a year. So he's been where he's at now, kind of basically waiting

to see if it will heal or to see if he is inevitably going to get medically separated or

I'm sorry. year.
So he's been where he's at now, kind of basically waiting to see if it will heal or to see if he is inevitably going to get medically separated or retired. And what's the timeline on that, do you think? We're waiting to hear something by the end of May.
And if they send him back out, then he'll be gone for another nine months. If he doesn't, then we will know in August.
Oh, if he's healed enough to go back out? Correct, yes. Okay.
And where is he right now? He's in Virginia. Okay.
Do you guys have kids? Yeah. We do.
We do. He is a little over a year old, a little over a year and a half.
So you move back to be close to family, right, with all the logistics with kids. But he was going to be gone all the time, and now he's not.
Now he's sitting there. Okay.
Correct. And we're also managing the travel to and from, and his leave is being depleted.
And, you know, he drives as much as he can, 15, 16 hours each way. Yeah, I think we're going to put you guys into the EveryDollar Premium budget app.
Okay. And both of you have access to it then.
And what I'll do is I'm going to give you two accounts, not just one. Okay.
I want you to have one account that is the master budget, that is everything you all are doing for the whole household, including, and you're the primary on that one. And then I want him to have a little miniature budget for his day-to-day existence.
Okay. And if you can do the miniature budget without using a separate budgeting app, I would prefer you make it a line item in your main budget.
That's what I was

thinking. Have one main budget and then he has a full other section within that budget.
That's

his expenses so that you both kind of see it. Yeah, a lot of military families use every dollar

for that reason on deployment because even if he's out of country, if he's got internet access, he can look and see exactly what you're doing with the money, and you guys can communicate what we're doing. You're managing your money together, even though you're not in the same country, and because the app allows you to do it seamlessly as one couple, even though you're much more than across the room you're across the world but it's still the same function you're both looking at it you're both seeing everything the other one's doing it both fits in we've agreed that you're spending money when you're on out of country is x and and that's a part of our overall budget and he can see that you paid the light bill and he can see that you kept the food on the table at home.
And, uh, and I'll tell you this, um, it sounds like that he's, um, maybe special ops, is he? Uh, he, no, he's more cyber security. Okay.
All right.

I just, I could tell something was going, but I couldn't tell what it was. Okay.
Um, the, uh, uh, so, um, what we've found is working with the military for 30 years now that mission readiness is increased. the guys and gals that are on the front lines and sometimes in danger are much more competent at their battle skills when they know everything at home is set at the table set at home.
And so him having access to you running the budget, watching over your shoulder with every dollar helps him when he steps out there in the edge of stuff to protect in this country. Okay? Right.
It helps his mind be clear, in other words, and to do the job he's being hired to do. And we appreciate his service, and we appreciate your sacrifice as well, honey.
So we'll give you two of them, but I'm going to suggest you use one. Okay.
And that you put his part as, you can have two or three line items. You can make up custom line items in it.
And even if there's something with his paycheck going into a different account, if there's something there, you can connect multiple accounts to it. So it's all going into one budget, which is nice.
Yeah, you can put it all in there. It all really should go into one budget and into one account.
Okay. Because because it's easier for y'all to manage, but once you're using this software, and if he's a tech guy, he's going to love this software because it's robust.
I mean, this app is incredible. It's the world's best budgeting app by far.
So you hang on, and I'll have Christian pick up, and we'll get you a couple of them, but I'm going to tell you probably you're going to give away one to a friend. One of his other buddies is deploying and got a wife back on.
The perfect situation is that you guys have one account, all the incomes go in there. You budget out of that account.
You're going to have different line items for his situation. But sometimes we do see with like, yeah, military stuff or other things like, yeah, there's two different accounts.
So if that's the case, you can hook both up. You can hook up multiple accounts to every dollar.
But I think functioning out of the same budget. Is the best thing.
Yes. That's going to give him more clarity.
And it's more, it's simple. It's going to give him more peace.
And it's going to give you less strain because you don't feel like you're carrying all the decisions by yourself. You're not got the whole thing on your shoulders.
He's looking over, he's watching it with you, even though he's not sitting beside you to do that. So again, thanks for this.
It's a pretty remarkable thing when we talk to active duty military families, how many of them still continue to get out of debt? They're still working a plan, but they're like, and it took completely different continents, some of them, for period of time so it is it's it's pretty remarkable they make really good headway in some cases if they're in a battle zone of course they're getting tax-free income so um that's a whole different thing too so uh that it's beautiful to be able to use all that and make progress you know that's the thing so it's good stuff all right that EveryDollar account, Christian. We'll give them two of them and give her two different sign-up sheets there, and we'll get them going on that.
That thing is, we've been iterating that and working on it for several years, guys, and if you have not looked at the EveryDollar account lately, it's going to tell you exactly what you need to do next to walk your way through the baby steps. And it's going to, based on what you enter into the budget, it's going to read your mail and tell you, it's a little spooky.
And the onboarding process too has gotten more robust. So knowing your information and where you're at, even in the baby steps, all of it, it starts to, it's building out more and more, which we love.
Yeah. It's going to show you exactly what to do next and exactly what to do next to walk you out of debt and into wealth.

It's a pretty cool deal, y'all.

You don't want to miss this.

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, when you're gazelle intense, you sell so much stuff the kids think they're next.
But when you've gotten rid of all you can, save money by switching your cell phone plan to Boost Mobile. It's just $25 a month for unlimited talk, text, and data forever.
Boost is a major nationwide network that offers reliable 5G service. And here's my favorite part, transparent pricing.
There's no hidden fees, no contracts, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee, which means no risk. Go to BoostMobile.com slash Ramsey to switch today.
That's BoostMobile.com slash Ramsey. All right.
I want to shout out our teachers for a minute. You guys give so much to our kids every day.
And often those days stretch into your nights and weekends. Seriously, you deserve a break.
And by that, I mean a dream vacation. All you have to do is enter the Ramsey Teacher Appreciation Giveaway sponsored by Ramsey Education.
There's no purchase needed to win. And you'll get bonus entries if you refer your teacher friends.
Just go to

ramsaysolutions.com slash teacher. That to the Ramsey Show.
Hi, Dave. Hey, Rachel.
I appreciate your time. I'm just looking for some advice on how to invest money that I'll be receiving.
Okay. What are you getting? So, right now we're looking at about $200,000 from an inherited IRA.
Unfortunately, I lost both my parents recently. Oh, my goodness.
What happened? Yeah, thank you. Well, my mom passed away from cancer and dad had a heart attack.
Oh, my God. That's true.
I It's like though. Um, so, uh, obviously they're hard work, you know, they, they left over this IRA and then the home that, you know, we grew up in and, you know, obviously we're having to sell that now.
So, um, it's about $200,000 and then the inherited IRA, um, and then splitting it with my sister, we're going to be about $200,000 each when we sell the house as well. So my big thing is obviously the inherited IRA is going to have to get pulled out over time.
So just my idea is, you know, pull it out and actually put all that money every year and just max out a Roth is my first idea. Is that like the best idea to pull that out pay taxes and put it straight into a Roth um no I I would put it on wherever you are in the baby steps okay so um we have no consumer debt um we have 26,000 on a vehicle um and we rent so you owe 26,000000 on a vehicle? Yes, and that will be the first thing.
That is consumer debt. Okay.
Okay. I have no credit cards, nothing like that.
So you owe $26,000 on a car. What do you owe on your home? We're renting.
Okay, and you're getting $400,000 total, right? Roughly. I think it will be a little north, but taxes, fees, funds.
And then taxes on $200, minus taxes on the $200 inherited IRA. Correct.
Okay. All right.
Well, you have any money saved? Yes, we have $15,000 set aside. That's like our three- to six-month kind of backup plan, our emergency fund.
Okay, all right. Well, our baby steps say baby step two is you pay off everything but the house.
Then you build an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. So what I'm going to do is just kind of freeze right now, and as soon as you get your hands on some money, first thing you do is pay off the car.
Second thing you do is you raise that $15,000 up to $25,000 because $15,000 is probably low. What's your household income? $80,000.
My wife says stay at home, mom, two. Yeah, you need $25,000 in there.
Okay, let's get it on up a little bit. It's three to six months.
You're down on the three side. And, um, then I'm going to liquidate everything and buy a house for cash.
Okay. You gotta be able to buy about a $300,000 house, right? Uh, in the area we're in, it's mostly, well, I mean, uh, um, that's definitely on the lower end of what's in the area, but yes, I mean, that's, that should be really, really close to it.
No, it's about the medium, about the middle of your area. Gotcha.
Yeah, just from what I've seen. But, I mean, it's also looking at the median household.
The median house price in America, including Los Angeles, including New York City, is $400,000 and 000 some change that's the median nationally in mobile alabama i promise you it's less than that so median is going to be around 300k in your area so you'll buy a house about the middle of the market so it take your time and shop there's no rush go slowly uh you probably got a little time left on your lease anyway. Um, but I'm going to say, I'm going to set that money in a high yield savings account and go shopping and, you know, time, time the purchase with the end of your lease and, um, get you a bargain and pay cash.
Now, if you're making $80,000 and you have zero debt house and anything, and you take your old house payment and you max out all of your retirement, you're going to be a millionaire in about 10 years. Actually, you're going to be a millionaire, not counting the house.
You have about another million dollars in about 10 years. How old are you guys, Trey? I'm 34.
Yeah. So by the time you're 40, you're going to be a millionaire plus because you have a $300,000 paid-for house.

It will go up to about $600,000 during that time,

and you will bank in your retirement accounts probably about another $600,000 or $700,000.

And so that's where you're going to end up.

You're going to be approaching $2 million in your 40s, okay, if you do all this.

And you stay out of debt, and you stay on a budget. Of budget of course okay and you don't mess this up absolutely yeah and if you just follow the baby steps that's where it'll take you plan yeah yeah they set us up i'm not gonna mess up yeah it's great trey well that's exciting uh i'm so sorry that it came from such a devastating situation but it's always when we talk we talk about inheritances, always living out that legacy of those that left that, and I think that's a great thing for you guys.

One of the things I think about when I'm telling someone what to do with money that mom and dad left is when you do this, these steps that I just outlined for you, is your mom and dad in heaven smiling?

Are they happy with this?

I think they are because the kind of people that built this kind of money is the kind of people that would be happy with you being smart. Absolutely.
Yeah. So you're on, you are honoring their legacy in a very real sense.
Hang on. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, the baby steps millionaire book, uh, because you're getting ready to be one.
Um, and, uh, you, you did get a boost from an inheritance, which statistically makes you unusual, but that's good. Still, there's no shame in that.
We're going to go there. We're going to go there as fast as we possibly can.
Nicole is in New York City. Hi, Nicole.
How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good.
How are you doing? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Good.
So actually, I'm proud of myself today. I paid off one of the cards, $8,000.
Yay! Nice. Thanks.
So I just wanted to know, what do I do? Do I call and cancel or just, you know, let it be? Yeah, call them up and cancel. And we always tell people when they're getting out of credit card debt, cut up the credit cards, pay it off.

And then once there's no balance and you can officially close the account. So go in and yep.

There's no accidental spending or fraud happens on a closed account.

Okay, perfect. That's great.

How much more debt do you have to pay off?

Um, about another consumer, maybe 20 with the car and everything. Okay I have the house so baby step one little by little you're on to baby step two good job Nicole congrats that feels good you kind of feel like you can do it now right Okay.
How long you've been working on this?

Well, actually I've been listening to you guys for years, but I just started, um, maybe about

three months ago. Good.
Okay. All right.
Hey, $8,000 paid off in three months. Pretty good.

That's pretty rowdy. Yeah.
Excellent job. That's how it works.
I love it. Yeah.
The return taxes,

you know, that helped. Oh yeah.
Yeah. Using your tax return for it.
It's great. Yes.
Yes, absolutely. And you've adjusted the W-2 now so that you don't get tax returns anymore because that just means you had too much withholding.
So good job. Well done.
Very well played. Very well played.
Sarah is in Atlanta. Hi, Sarah.
How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve.
What's up? Very good. I have a question.
I am 57 years old, and I've been divorced for 20 years and raised two kids. They're now adults.
And I am what you call an everyday millionaire and debt-free. Well, good for you.
Good job. Thank you.
In a couple years, I know I'm going to buy a new car. Okay.
A used car, but new. Okay.
And my goal is, I mean, I'm definitely going to pay cash. And my boyfriend keeps telling me that that's not a good financial decision.
Your boyfriend doesn't have as much money as you have. Right.
And the reason he says... Why would we take financial advice from a broke person when you're a millionaire? I know.
But, well, mathematically, he's saying if you take the money out of the mutual fund... Mathematically, he's stupid.
No. I can't wait to tell him.
Yeah, you can tell him I said that.

I can't wait to tell him.

Absolutely.

It's asinine.

There is no data on the planet that says people become millionaires by borrowing money on

their car and investing the difference.

None.

Zero millionaires on the planet did that to become millionaires.

So don't take financial advice from broke people.

You're smarter than he is. Listen to yourself.
Way smarter. There's a time in your life and at the baby steps for renting, but you don't want to do it forever because when you rent, you're still paying for a mortgage, just somebody else's.
Plus rent means instability in your budget because it always goes up, never down. So when you're ready to buy, make sure you work with a mortgage partner you can rely on.
Churchill Mortgage. Churchill is Ramsey trusted to help you make the move from renting to home ownership wisely.
Churchill understands that when you buy a home the Ramsey way,

your mortgage payment will be a consistent, manageable part of your monthly budget.

Plus, when your home is paid off, that was your largest expense.

Now it's extra money in your pocket

and an asset towards turning you into a Baby Steps millionaire.

Get started on the American dream of home ownership today at churchillmortgage.com. That's churchillmortgage.com.
Hey guys, Rachel Cruz here. All right, I'm about to say what everyone already knows, but budgeting is a good thing to do.
Now actually starting, well, that's where people freeze up. And you guys, it doesn't have to be that way.
With the EveryDollar budgeting app, getting started is super easy, and so is sticking to it. You can set up your first budget in less time than it takes to go through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru.
It's fast. And the best part, with unlimited budget categories, you can customize it to fit your life.
Grocery runs, coffee runs, or planning your next family trip. Whatever you have going on, EveryDollar helps you see exactly what's happening with your money.
You'll know what's coming in, what's going out, and what's left over for some fun. Because let's be real, you need some fun in your budget.
EveryDollar keeps budgeting simple and stress-free, just the way you want it. So go download the app for free and

get started today. Again, go download Every Dollar today.

it's financial literacy month if you didn't know, there's a huge movement in high schools, and there has been across America for many years. Several states have now passed laws mandating that you take a personal finance class in order to graduate.
And I think it's 30-something states now.

And the good news is that we have a high school curriculum called Foundations in Personal Finance that is taught,

and about 48% of the high schools, over 6 million students,

have been through it now.

And so we love celebrating Financial Literacy Month

and celebrating the idea that teens can learn this stuff

before they're 30 and

learn it the hard way by doing something stupid like I did.

Okay.

It's pretty cool.

So we want to honor the teachers this month of not only our curriculum, but honor all

teachers while we're celebrating Financial Literacy Month.

And I got one on the phone.

Patrick is in Jackson, Tennessee, and he teaches Foundations in Personal Finance in his high school. Thank you for doing that, Patrick.
How are you? You're welcome. I'm doing great, Dave.
How are you? Better than I deserve. Now, it's Trinity Christian Academy where you teach.
Is that right? Yes, sir. In Madison County, Jackson, Tennessee.
And how many students are enrolled there? From six weeks old to seniors from around 700. Oh, wow.
Graduating class 50 to 60 every year. Okay.
That's good size. That way they can, it's big enough that they've got a lot of stuff going on, but it's small enough they get a lot of attention, right? That's correct.
How long have you been teaching the curriculum, Patrick? This is my ninth year or 18th semester teaching the curriculum. I did the DVDs, and then we transferred over to the digital, which has been great.
You have a very unusual distinction, too, around here. We're all just jumping up and down and going, Patrick's a hero, because one of the high school students that graduated from your class many years ago is now an adult, came in here and did their debt-free scream the other day

on the air with George.

I'd say that's what we call paychecks as teachers.

You know, those stories you get from former students

and even coaches for players, but that was her true paycheck.

When she messaged me, she messaged me two years ago

letting me know that she was going to be on the Dave Ramsey journey,

and she couldn't wait to get on the show for her debt-free scream, and then she messaged me that day saying, hey, we made it. And then I got to listen.
It was incredible. That's fun.
Faith and Cameron from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, if you guys want to look it up and see the debt-free scream, it's pretty cool. Very cool.
And they paid off their house and everything, and their kids, their little ones. I mean.
And had a zero credit score mortgage. Oh, my gosh.
I love it. It's all your fault, Patrick.

It is.

Way to go, man.

These people are going to be millionaires because she had a high school teacher as a stud.

Man, you're amazing.

I'm so proud of you.

Have you had a lot of those?

Have you kept up with students?

I mean, after you've been teaching that long?

We do.

I do.

I text them from time to time.

We have, I would say, 20 to 25 students that started a gross stock mutual fund since I've been here. Instead of spending the money, they've just been an Arthur story and now the Jake, Blake and Blake.
I forget the other guys. I've been in Arthur for years.
Blake and Jack. They changed the name, Sonia.
Yeah, and I keep up with them. I get stories from all over, and it's been great.
I tell them I teach to an 18-year-old invisible kid every day and it sits at the front desk and that's me 24 years ago that either wasn't taught or didn't listen to what i'm about to teach you in this class and everybody everyone is subjected to it well i'm always thrilled that uh the kids love the class um and i should i don't i shouldn't act so surprised but because i was in high school all i could think of you know, when I'm learning something right now, how is this ever going to affect me as an adult?

Because I've never really used the Pythagorean theorem, but I have used this.

I've used this stuff for sure.

So how am I going to use this?

I think that one of the main things we hear back from the students, and I'm sure you do too, is just the fact that you're teaching them something they're going to actually use.

And they message you back a few years later and go, I got a zero credit score mortgage and i just paid off the house that's pretty cool so is that what they tell you that that they love doing learning something that they're actually going to use it's just all applicable day one of being a young adult and um you know taxes insurance budgets investing uh just stuff to do at 18 that's going going to save you your next 30 years. But it's all applicable to life ASAP.
Well, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. You're a hero, man.
I appreciate you doing this. And ever since I wrote the first little book, Financial Peace, and I was carrying it around the trunk of my car, people have been saying, why don't they teach this in high schools? And the good news is we do, and the way we do is because of men like you, Patrick, and women like you.
So thank you. The teachers out there in the marketplace are amazing and very, very cool.
Thanks for doing this, brother. Absolutely.
Thank you very much. Yeah, thanks, Patrick.
Very, very cool. Hey, for any of you that are teachers that are listening, or if you know a teacher, be sure and tell them, be sure to enter the Ramsey Teacher Appreciation Giveaway.

We're going to give one teacher a $5,000 vacation, and the two second-place teachers

are going to get two more, are going to get a $3,000 vacation.

No purchase necessary.

You don't have to be teaching our curriculum.

You just have to be a teacher in a school.

Now, I once taught my dog to sit, does not qualify you. You're not a teacher, okay? So if you're teaching in a school with students, you are a teacher, or if you know someone, no purchase necessary, no salesman will call.
Go to ramsaysolutions.com slash teacher to enter a $5,000 vacation, and two more teachers are going to win a $3,000 vacation if your name is drawn. Spencer's in Denver.
Hey, Spencer, what's up? Hey, Dave and Rachel. Thanks for taking my call.
Sure. I have just a real basic question for you that I need some help with.
I'm wanting to find out if I'm investing too much to enjoy being debt-free. My wife and I, we're completely debt-free.
We're maxing out both of our 401ks. We're both over 50, so we get the extra amount.
And we're also maxing out our IRAs. What's your household income? So I take home, well, our household income is about a hundred thousand each.
Um, and then after investments in taxes, mine's about, uh, take home about 1500 every two weeks. And my, my wife is, um, about, uh, about the same, about 1700.
What is it? What is it she's wanting to do that? She says you're too aggressive and you don't have the money to do cause you're putting all of it in savings. Well, it's not me.
It's not her. It's me.
Um, I'm wanting to, I'm wanting to eventually save up for a sports car and I'm having a hard time getting enough money to do that with all of our money going into investments. Yeah.
Well, it's just, you know, just having normal money just to do extra things without having to take it out of the money that we're getting from our Yeah. Well, you guys are almost, if my math's right, you're almost investing close to 30%.
Is that right? If you're maxing out Both 401ks. Oh, your house is paid off.
Yeah. Mine's probably mine's probably a little over 30%.
My wife's is about 40%. But the percentage of your household income is going to be in the 30% range of your total to total.
Right. So that's what she's saying.
And so, yeah. Yeah.
And how old are you guys? uh i'm 15 my wife's a few years older than me. How much are in the accounts right now? So my 401k, I've got 750.
My wife's 401k, she's got 400. Plus she'll get a teacher pension with, you know, the school district's taking out money out of her paycheck for that.
And then our combined IRAs is about $550, including about $80,000 for an emergency fund. Okay, you've got a $3 million net worth, and you can't save up the money to do it by a sports car.
Yeah, I'd crank it down a little. Okay, okay.
All right. Because our investments are, through our work,'re they're ross so i really enjoy oh i enjoy i love the numbers but you just you're telling me you pinched yourself to the point you can't enjoy the wealth you've built yeah which that's completely true and i don't if that that's what i heard you say now if you can if you can figure another way it, if the money's going somewhere else, that's fine.

But with that kind of net worth, you've done a great job.

Congratulations.

Amazing.

And if you want to crank the savings down and the lifestyle up a little, there's no sin in that.

Okay.

Okay.

And just one last question.

With Mother's Day coming up, she really wants me to get a pedicure with her.

Would you suggest that I do that?

Yes. Maybe that question's for you.
Yes. Hey, I think you would enjoy it.
It's actually very relaxing. Do that with her.
Dave wouldn't. You know what? 36 years or 33 years on the air, and I've never been asked that question.
I thought I'd been asked everything at least once that one's a new one this is the ramsey show Hey, George Camel here.

So you're thinking about buying or selling your home.

It's exciting, but there's a lot to think about,

and all those decisions can feel overwhelming.

Well, here's the good news.

You don't have to tackle the process alone.

Ramsey's Real Estate Homebase is the place

to find all of your free tools and resources

This is the good news. You don't have to tackle the process alone.

Ramsey's Real Estate Homebase is the place to find all of your free tools and resources for help to get prepared to buy or sell your home with confidence.

You'll find calculators, start to finish guides, a podcast, and even an in-depth video course

hosted by yours truly.

What's not to love?

So if you're ready to take the next steps toward your home goals,

go to RamseySolutions.com slash real estate. That's RamseySolutions.com slash real estate.
You can hear and watch the entire show on the Ramsey Network app for free. Parts of the show are not in the podcast every day and are not on YouTube every day.
You can pick them up only there or on talk radio if your local talk radio station carries the entire program. So be sure and check that out.
Today's Ramsey Network app question is from gary we buy one million dollars worth of supplies every year for our business we put it on a company credit card and pay it off immediately so we don't pay any interest what am i missing i understand if i don't pay the charges within the first 30 days then i have to pay interest but i'm paying it off immediately why is it wrong to take advantage of getting these points? Because, honey, you are chasing points instead of running your business. If you burn the calories running your business that you're doing trying to beat the credit card company at their game, I mean, you're just at Chuck E.
Cheese getting the tickets. That's all you're doing.
And, you know, you're spending a bazillion dollars to get tickets at chuck e cheese to buy nothing and you're burning up all of your creative energy that you should be using to run and grow your business screwing around with trying to beat city bank at a game that they designed to beat your butt you might actually be where it might be winning mathematically a little bit but you act like this is a zero-sum game, and it is not. It is not.
So no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I buy, I don't know, let me think, not a million dollars a year in supplies.
We buy probably $50 million a year in supplies at Ramsey, and we don't use a single credit card to do it we just freaking buy it we just pay pay the bill and we go run Ramsey instead of trying to run around chasing points Chuck E. Cheese tickets you're y'all man I go down there with the grandbabies I go down there with the grandbabies and they just wet and they work work work and then they put it on a card now right yeah it used to be they spit out the tickets all to get an item that is worth like a penny crap i mean it's really crappy little toys they're not even good toys well yeah and i think it's it's that point and it's always the risk like you put a million dollars on it and then what if one year, you know, a pandemic hits, and you can't pay it? Then you got to, you know what I mean? Like, there's just, it's just not worth the risk.
Like, there's just peace of mind knowing that you have autonomy over your life, your money, and your business. And it's just more peace that way, too.
Yeah, let's see. If you get 1% on a million dollars, that's $10,000, right? Yeah.
So you're working all that to make ten thousand dollars worth of points by the way 78 of the credit card miles are never redeemed consumer report says that so it's just it's a game that they designed it's like going to vegas house wins man house wins you don't come out of Vegas with your shirt. They didn't build those dadgum.
They didn't build those lobbies with world-class artwork and light fixtures, and they didn't build that with their money. They built it with your money.
People who lost money thought they could beat the game, and this is the exact same deal. It's the exact same deal.
Those towers in the skyline that Citibank builds, you paid for them, America.

They didn't pay for them.

You paid for them by doing crap like this right here and falling for it.

Yep.

They know what they're doing.

That's the deal.

That's the deal.

All right.

Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Nick is in Springfield.

Hi, Nick. how are you?

Hello, thank you for taking my call.

Sure, what's up?

My wife and I, we are in very good shape financially.

Less than a year ago, we inherited some money that tripled our net worth.

What is your net worth?

Total, right now, 2.5. Good, awesome awesome how much did you inherit 1.5 1.5 okay so you were already a millionaire good way to go man that's awesome how can we help today do we help our kids out now or do we just keep building wealth and then die in 20 years and give it to him.
It's a straight shooter. Nick? Either one

is fine. There's nothing immoral about either one.
If you're going to do stuff for the kids, it should be enhancing them being as smart as you are. If they're misbehaving and you give them money, you're not helping them.
You're enabling. I would agree.
Um, we committed to the boys, um, to be debt free from college. They are.
And upon graduation, we'd give them each car, which we did. Now, what I say about cars, I'm 60 and I've never bought a new car.
They've all been used and they've all been salvaged titles. So they're cheap.
So what are the they are the boys doing well with their money are they saving money living on a budget staying out of debt they are the oldest um i we haven't given them the oldest one money in four years now granted when he graduated college care of college he did move back home but um he he has a um a for a Roth IRA, and he's contributing to it every month. Is he married? No, neither of them are.
Okay. Are either one of them married? No.
Okay. The youngest one's just graduating from college, and we haven't given him any money in the last year either.
Well, what I want to do is I want to enhance positive behaviors with your gift. If your gift is not doing that, then I would hold the gift for a while.
Okay. But let me give you an example.
Let me give you an example. Let's say these two guys continue to be industrious.
They both go get good jobs. They live on lists.
They make, they pile up some money. They get married, start a little family, and they're 28 years old.
Maybe you buy them a house and pay cash for it. We've already talked about that.
And then they pay payments into a mutual fund instead of paying payments so that they're multimillionaires by the time they're 35. Yeah, Nick, there's an interesting book, Die With Zero.
It was a great book, and it applies kind of to your situation. Not everyone's able to do this, but his idea was, which research shows was, which, you know, research shows is what he was claiming in the book is that from, I think it's like ages.
I'm going to mess up the age range. It's like 24 to 35 is when kids need money the most, meaning like down payments on house, if they're paying off student loans, all of that.
Because to your point, Nick, you know, if you build up all this wealth and you die at 85 and your kids are 60, like they're already well established. They already may have grandkids of their own, right? So what can you do with money as a tool to help enhance the next generation if you have the ability to? And it's stuff like that.
I mean, you already did some good moves. You paid for the college, the road debt coming out, paid for the first car coming out.
Yep. And you got a good start that way.
And then if they buy, if they pay cash for the first home along, I would say, have them do a pledge. I promise never to borrow money.
And I promise take the blessing of this house and take the house payment and put it into mutual funds and build some wealth for the next generation. You can change your family tree with that.
But they have to also be in on the program. You can't give them enough money for them to be stupid it doesn't work i mean you know they're stupid will always outrun money would you rather at your age see your kids which is me so i'm crying yeah that's a conflict of interest in this question i know but i'm just saying like because I have little ones.
So now, I mean, we're teaching boundaries and know all the time with stuff. But, like, you know what I mean? Like, would you rather see people have their kids be part of their financial legacy while everyone's still alive? Yes.
Versus, like, having a bunch of money when you die? Because you're accelerating the net worth of the total family by doing that.

Yeah.

And you're in, but it only works if you're enhancing proper behaviors.

Right.

If they have the character to carry.

If you're enforcing proper behaviors.

Yeah.

But if they're like, oh, I think Dave Ramsey's an idiot.

And, you know, no, the idiot will just keep his money.

Yeah.

So, no, I can do that. Are you saying if we say that, Dave Ramsey's an idiot, then we're just kidding.
I'll just keep his money yeah no so no i can do that so you say if we say that that's abrams is an idiot i'll just keep my money yeah it's okay i'm kidding i'm kidding but not the no i mean the uh uh but and so sharon and i right now we do stuff like we'll buy a trip for the whole stinking bunch yeah we all go somewhere yeah you know so in a sense we're doing that enhancing experiences having experiences and lifestyle issues with cash while we're alive. I'd rather go on the trip with you and pay for it and all of us do something together than I would you do that and celebrate after my funeral.
Day's gone. We're going to the Caribbean.
Tahiti.

Yeah, but I think that's true.

I know not everyone realistically can have that conversation.

We've had people on the show today that they're in retirement and they don't have enough money for themselves, right?

Right.

No, that's first.

So, yes.

So, it's the idea of that legacy changing while you're alive.

I don't know.

I think it's cool.

It's great.

Cool question, Nick.

Appreciate you calling in with it.

Gives us a soapbox to work with.

I like it.

This is the Ramsey Network app, right? So you got to jump over there to continue watching. You can download it for free.
Just go to your app store, type in Ramsey Network. It's completely free.
And I'll drop a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. So if you're watching on the app, you're in luck.
But if you're watching anywhere else, this show is over for you. So jump onto the app and let the fun continue.
All right. Go on now.
Don't make it weird. Okay, I got nowhere to go, so you need to go.

Okay, bye-bye now.

All right, this is getting weird over there, guys.

What do we do?