You Can’t Borrow Your Way to Freedom

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Speaker 2 From the Ramsey Network, this is the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships.

Speaker 2 I'm George Campbell, joined by number one best-selling author Rachel Cruz, who's also my co-host on Smart Money Happy Hour, another show on Ramsey Network. And we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225.

Speaker 2 Amanda's going to kick us off in Tampa, Florida. Amanda, welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 Hey, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 Good afternoon to you. How can we help today?

Speaker 4 Okay, so I have one of them huge car payments. It's about $900 a month.
I owe $34,000 on it. It is a 2022 BMW.

Speaker 4 So my question is:

Speaker 4 it's only valued at $34,000. The auto trader value is $25,000.

Speaker 4 I would get about $2,000 back in

Speaker 4 warranties if I sold it back to the BMW dealer.

Speaker 4 I have $10,000 in my savings account. So my question is, should I get rid of the car?

Speaker 4 Because it's kind of hurting us financially paying a car payment that high.

Speaker 5 Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 6 I mean, $900, that'd be nice to have, right? Versus it going to a car payment. Yeah.

Speaker 6 Okay, so you said it's valued at, I think you said it's valued at 34,000, but then you looked on Auto Trader and it's at 25,000.

Speaker 4 Yes. So I owe 34,000.

Speaker 5 You owe.

Speaker 6 Okay, I'm sorry. I got you.

Speaker 5 Oh, sorry.

Speaker 4 I owe 34.

Speaker 4 It's valued at 25.

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 5 Okay, you don't want trade in there.

Speaker 2 You want like a private party value. You can check on Kelly Blue Book for that.
That's going to be much higher. And that might get you closer to where you're not underwater on this thing.

Speaker 6 Yeah. so let's say it gives you like 5,000 more just for the fun of it.
Okay, so that means we'll just say 30,000.

Speaker 6 You owe 34, so yeah, I would take 4,000 out of your savings so that it's, you know, you can like after you sell it, right, that you can pay off the remaining of the debt, get the title to the new people, and you're done free and clear.

Speaker 6 And then, just, I mean, I would just go buy like a um $5,000 car, the rest of your savings,

Speaker 2 leave a thousand bucks in there.

Speaker 4 Okay, um, I actually have an extra car,

Speaker 4 like my luxury car.

Speaker 4 So I do have a beater. Well, there you go.

Speaker 5 God bless you. Amanda, God bless you.

Speaker 2 Our cars have cars in America.

Speaker 6 Well, then there you go. Well, so now you don't have to, yeah, so you don't have to, you don't have to spend it.
And you guys have 10 grand. What other debt do you have?

Speaker 4 Okay, so I'm pretty,

Speaker 4 the past month, like I've canceled, like I've changed phone services. I got rid of the internet.
I got rid of streaming.

Speaker 5 Wow, I changed my homeowner's insurance.

Speaker 4 I paid my car insurance for six months.

Speaker 4 So I have $190,000 in a home, and my home is worth about $650,000.

Speaker 5 Nice.

Speaker 4 And then I do have what I'm trying to work on is my $14,000 in credit card debt.

Speaker 5 Okay, perfect.

Speaker 6 Well, what's crazy about this, you know, all of this math that you have. Yeah, you'll only have $5,000 of credit card debt left because you'll put nine of your savings towards it.
Okay.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 5 yeah,

Speaker 5 you'll be doing great.

Speaker 6 Oh, that's good.

Speaker 5 That's right.

Speaker 6 You will have to put, yeah, yeah, yeah, you may have to put 4,000.

Speaker 2 But if you could sell exactly what you owe, if you check Kelly Blue Book and you can get private party value, 34 grand, I would do that.

Speaker 2 Get as much as you can, get top dollar for it so that you're not having to dip into savings.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 2 And then use nine of the ten to knock down your credit card debt, and then you're going to be debt-free in a few months. What's your household income?

Speaker 4 So I just took a lower paying job as a school teacher.

Speaker 4 So our household income now is $5,000.

Speaker 4 That's not a month. It used to be about, yes, it used to be eight, and now it's five.

Speaker 6 And is that after taxes and everything?

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 5 Okay, that's what you're bringing up.

Speaker 2 And is this two of you? Is there another person involved here?

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 2 And what are they doing for work?

Speaker 4 My husband's a contractor, but as of right now, with the changing,

Speaker 4 the changing market, he may have to actually look for

Speaker 4 more work.

Speaker 2 There's not enough contractor work for him?

Speaker 4 No, due to

Speaker 4 interest rates, he builds homes for a living. So people aren't building homes right now with the interest rates being so high in our area.

Speaker 2 Are there other contracting gigs he could do? Does he work for a builder?

Speaker 4 Actually, right now he's working for a small mom-and-pop builder

Speaker 4 in his trailer park this afternoon doing like carpentry work. So he has been trying to find other little side hustles.

Speaker 2 I just feel like contractors are in high demand. You can't find enough of them that do quality work and show up on time and charge a reasonable rate.

Speaker 2 And so he should be able to find stuff outside of the new build world to keep him plenty busy to get this income up because he should be making 5K a month on his own.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Without your salary.

Speaker 6 Are you guys able to live on the 5K, Amanda?

Speaker 4 Yes, because I've cut, like I said, I've cut so much like the car wash.

Speaker 6 Well, for him, I mean, he needs to be working 40 hours somewhere to be bringing him money for you guys to pay off this debt and get a good emergency fund in place.

Speaker 6 So even if it's not contracting, he doesn't need to be just sitting and waiting on jobs. I mean,

Speaker 6 go do something. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 Well, he's listening, so you tell him.

Speaker 5 Oh, good.

Speaker 2 Okay. He's pretty handy, right?

Speaker 5 What's his name?

Speaker 4 Ray.

Speaker 5 Hey, Ray.

Speaker 2 Ray, listen. I pay handy men really good money.
I'm talking they can charge now anywhere from 50 to 100 bucks an hour.

Speaker 6 And George doesn't know how to do anything.

Speaker 5 There's lots of Georges in America.

Speaker 6 They don't know how to fix anything.

Speaker 2 The only swats I'm doing are diddly. And so he can get out there in your neighborhood, get in the Facebook page and just say, hey, I'm doing handyman work.
My rate is 75 an hour.

Speaker 2 And that's equivalent to 150 grand a year if he's doing that full time.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And so I believe in Ray. I think he needs a little pep in his step.
And now's the time to really put your foot on the gas, clean up the debt, get a fully funded emergency fund.

Speaker 2 Then we have the luxury to choose what kind of jobs we take. But right now, we need money coming in.

Speaker 6 Yeah. And getting rid of this car, Amanda, is going to free you guys up a lot.
I mean, $900, that's a fourth of your take-home pay is going out in a car payment.

Speaker 4 No, it's the same as my home, home mortgage.

Speaker 6 Wow, what a, what an American story, George.

Speaker 5 We pay as much for our car payments as we do our mortgage payment.

Speaker 6 Well, Amanda, well, I'm glad you called. I hope that helps just to kind of get this ball moving for you guys.
And again, any extra income is going to help, but you guys are doing well.

Speaker 6 I mean, the car has got to get out of here. And then $900 is freed up to put on the debt.
And then if Ray is the best handyman in town, he's going to be making good money.

Speaker 2 I just feel like it's an untapped market.

Speaker 6 No, it is. You know what's wild, though, Amanda and Ray, if you're listening.
So even in our neighborhood,

Speaker 6 there is a recommendations group me, like a specific group just for recommendations just within our neighborhood. And the amount of recommendations we get for plumbers, electric.

Speaker 6 I mean, you go through the list of things

Speaker 6 that people are asking. Hey, do you know someone that does this? Like, it's out there.
People are willing to pay for it.

Speaker 2 So, I have a really embarrassing story I'll share, Rachel. This happened this week.
Yes. That my, the lights and plugs in our master bedroom just would not work anymore.

Speaker 5 And I tried everything. I flipped the breaker.

Speaker 2 You flipped the breaker. I flipped the breaker.

Speaker 5 But for you, George.

Speaker 2 I was Googling things. I was texting like, so finally I had an electrician come out and I said, what's your rate? I always ask them the rate ahead of time.
Okay. They said $125 an hour.

Speaker 2 They show up to the house, these two guys.

Speaker 5 Hold on, I got to swallow my team to make sure I'm going to spit it out.

Speaker 2 Is it the five minutes later? They go, all right, we fixed it.

Speaker 2 I said, what'd you do? They said, we just flipped the breaker. I said, I flipped the breaker.
They said, yeah, you got to do it harder.

Speaker 5 I was like, how hard can you flip a breaker switch?

Speaker 2 This is insane.

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 6 So you didn't turn it off all the ways, basically, with them.

Speaker 2 I flipped that thing dad gum 17 times back and forth. Like, I was angry with it.

Speaker 6 Did they have to, do you sometimes have to let it pause? And like, let it sit there for a little bit?

Speaker 2 They had, I don't know, Excalibur's magic sword. I don't know what happened, Rachel.
But anyways.

Speaker 6 Ray, are you listening? I got the invoice. George is out there.

Speaker 5 $125.

Speaker 2 Don't want to flip the breakers. These guys are making a thousand bucks an hour at this rate.
They spent five minutes at my house.

Speaker 6 Yeah, then they're going to go to the next George Camel Court.

Speaker 5 So flip some more breakers.

Speaker 2 Gonna become baby steps millionaires off of idiots like this. Oh, this is the Ramsey show.

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Speaker 2 Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Tonight, this is April the 21st.

Speaker 2 John Deloney and Dave Ramsey are kicking off the Money and Relationships Tour. They're the first night

Speaker 5 for the tour.

Speaker 2 We've been talking about this forever, and it's finally happening. So if you're in Louisville, they're happening tonight, April 21st.
Go check it out. Durham is happening this Wednesday, April 23rd.

Speaker 2 Atlanta this Friday, April 25th. And here's what they're doing.

Speaker 2 They're going to be doing some improv, talking about money and relationships, helping you break patterns that have left you stuck, breaking the cycle.

Speaker 2 And you get to choose the content before the event begins, and then they'll be riffing on it all night long, unfiltered, and it's going to be a great time.

Speaker 2 So check it out: Louisville, Durham, Atlanta. That's this week.
And then they'll be coming to Phoenix, Fort Worth, and Kansas City the first and second week of May. Kansas City sold out.

Speaker 2 Fort Worth is not far behind. So get your tickets today to see Dave and John live, ramseysolutions.com/slash tour or click the link in the show notes and description.
Jessica is up next in Milwaukee.

Speaker 2 What's going on, Jessica?

Speaker 5 Hey, how are you both doing? Doing great.

Speaker 2 How can we help?

Speaker 4 So, my husband and I just started Financial Peace University a couple weeks ago.

Speaker 5 Awesome. How's it going? I picked it.

Speaker 4 It's going really well.

Speaker 4 We are a one-income family, so realized our income wasn't quite where I needed it.

Speaker 4 So I did pick up a side gig as well.

Speaker 5 Good.

Speaker 4 What is it? So, my question: I am driving food delivery.

Speaker 5 Oh, good. That's great.

Speaker 2 Through one of the apps, like an Uber Eats or DoorDash, one of those?

Speaker 4 Through DoorDash. Okay.

Speaker 4 So it's my first time being a 1099 employee. So my question is, how do I budget so that I'm not setting myself up for failure come next tax season?

Speaker 2 Great question.

Speaker 2 The easiest way to do this, to just kind of

Speaker 2 muscle memory, is just force yourself to put a third of whatever you make into a savings account and that way you'll have the money set aside for taxes

Speaker 2 okay so if you made let's say a hundred dollars you're gonna take 33 bucks and just transfer it to savings

Speaker 2 okay and then what you'll do on top of that to make it even easier and avoid stress and avoid a big tax bill is make quarterly estimated payments on the irs website that's what i used to do when i would do side hustles and basically you're just estimating what you're going to owe in taxes and paying the irs ahead of time so that when the end of the year comes you've already paid most of your taxes, if not all.

Speaker 4 Does that affect, so like my full-time employment,

Speaker 4 would that make, would that change that at all? Or would you still do the quarterly payment?

Speaker 2 You'd still do quarterly payments because you're not being taxed on that 1099 income versus your full-time employment.

Speaker 5 They're taking taxes out already. They're withholding.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 2 So that's the big difference with 1099 folks is no one's paying the taxes for you. No one's withholding for you.
You've got to do it all yourself.

Speaker 2 And that's where this kind of savings account, quarterly estimated payments plan comes into place.

Speaker 4 Sounds good. That's what I needed to know.

Speaker 5 Awesome. So great.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much for the call. Way to go.
Doing whatever it takes. I know.
I shared on Smart Money Happy Hour, my Instacart side hustle.

Speaker 6 Yes, you did for a weekend.

Speaker 5 What a struggle that was.

Speaker 5 They're hard workers.

Speaker 2 I think I did seven trips and it felt like a thousand. Just so much.
Will this ever end? So God bless all of you out there side hustling. Tip your people well.
If you're out there using these apps.

Speaker 6 That's why I was shocked. You're coming back and saying people didn't tip.

Speaker 2 I went to some real wealthy neighborhoods

Speaker 2 around this part of town, Rachel. $3 tip.

Speaker 5 I mean, that's pretty unbelievable.

Speaker 2 I had gallons of waters and delivering to the door. Three trips back and forth from the trunk.

Speaker 5 What a physical $3 tip.

Speaker 5 I don't think that's worth it.

Speaker 2 In the trips, they don't pay you much in these apps. They'll tell you ahead of time, hey, you're going to get $6 for this trip plus tips.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 So make it worth it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, an hour of my time for $9.

Speaker 2 yeah get out of here get out of here all right next up we've got rachel in milwaukee rachel meet rachel hello hi

Speaker 4 hey you're breaking up on us can we hear you can you hear me there we go there you are what's going on

Speaker 4 um i have uh just over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in debt and um i recently received a summons for medical debt so i did speak to a few attorneys and they're all suggesting bankruptcy I've listened to you guys long enough to know that that's usually not a suggestion.

Speaker 4 I'm just kind of curious as to where I go from here.

Speaker 6 Is all 250 in medical debt?

Speaker 4 No,

Speaker 4 about 61,000 is medical debt.

Speaker 5 What's the rest of it?

Speaker 4 I have about 27,000 in credit cards. I have $6,500 in a car loan, $13,000 in a personal loan.
I got

Speaker 4 $78,000 in private student loans and $65,000 in federal loans.

Speaker 5 And federal loans, okay. Yep.

Speaker 5 So over what?

Speaker 6 So 140 of it's student loans?

Speaker 6 Correct. Pretty much.

Speaker 5 Oh, man, Rachel. Okay.

Speaker 6 How much are you making a year?

Speaker 4 I would say I make around 78, so I have to check probably like 60, maybe 59.

Speaker 6 Okay, you're kind of breaking up, Rachel.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I want to make sure we get these numbers right. Okay, so after that.

Speaker 2 You're bringing home about five grand a month.

Speaker 5 I'm so sorry. We're having a hard time hearing you.

Speaker 2 We'll see if we can clean up your line and get you back on, Rachel.

Speaker 2 But looking at these numbers, bringing home $5,000 a month, I don't know that you'll even be able to make your payments on these debts.

Speaker 2 And the only one that you could really clean up fast is getting rid of the car loan if you're not underwater on it and you can use the proceeds to get something else.

Speaker 2 But that only cleans up six grand out of 250 out of the whole thing. So it may not even be worth it.
The medical debt, I'm wondering if

Speaker 2 they'd be willing to settle. You'd probably need to get on some sort of payment plan.

Speaker 6 And same with the credit cards. I mean, the $27,000 in credit cards, I would, if you are defaulted on any, Rachel or behind, call those first

Speaker 6 and ask them for a settlement. Or if you have any extra, like if you had a bill, you know, a $6,000 credit card, just pretend that you were behind on.

Speaker 6 And I don't know what your savings situation is, but even if you had three grand, half of it, call them and say, hey, I can settle today.

Speaker 6 And as you do that and save up a little bit, most of these credit card companies, especially if it's in default, they actually would settle sometimes pennies on the dollar, depending on how long it's been not paid.

Speaker 6 But so the, yeah, the medical and the credit card is probably where you can do the most negotiating.

Speaker 5 Gosh,

Speaker 6 the student loan, $140,000, I almost would put that on hardship deferred, I wonder, with the medical stuff, if you're able to do anything there, just, I'm just trying to get you to a place where you can get at least stability yeah of just the payments before even looking to attack it because to your point with all of this i don't even know if she's making enough for that let's see if your line's cleaned up rachel are you still with us i am okay do you have anything in savings

Speaker 2 um i have about 1200 in savings okay so that's your baby step one you've got that covered and you're just solo right you're not married correct okay and what are you what are you doing for a job like what was your degree in i'm a nurse you're a nurse okay

Speaker 4 um what what type of nurse are you i'm an lpn okay could you do like travel travel nursing

Speaker 6 um i could but i um according to like their ads in terms of pay it's not much different oh no every travel nurse that calls the show is making like 250 000 i mean they're making insane money insane money so rachel i would be doing your research hardcore into that because in the meantime take as many shifts as you can yes because so I'm so glad you're a nurse because that gives such a range of possibilities of what you can be making

Speaker 6 and and and I'm thankful that that's the case because yeah some of these these travel nurses man they they do it for yeah two to three years and they make so much money it's wild so no I would be researching into that heavily because that's that's gonna be the biggest thing Rachel to get you out of this is the income side.

Speaker 6 And again, that's the positive of your situation is I think that it is out there, whether it's working overtime, like you're saying, George, or just finding a new line of work within nursing that pays more.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 6 But that's going to be your, yeah, I mean, that you're going to find more money doing that, Rachel, figuring out how to work overtime than doing like Instacart shopping, like what we were just saying.

Speaker 6 So you are qualified to make a lot of money

Speaker 6 in extra, in extra time. So if you're working an extra few shifts, yeah, that's going to bring it up.
And so that's going to be it, Rachel.

Speaker 6 And so, and it's, it's going to be knocking out this debt, smallest to largest. And again, seeing where you can settle.

Speaker 6 And you'll probably be able to settle the most with the medical and the credit cards.

Speaker 2 And the longer they've been in collections, the more willing they will be to negotiate and settle. But first, cover your four walls, food, utilities, your housing, your transportation.

Speaker 2 You pay those before you pay anybody else. If there's money left over, we can throw some payments their way.

Speaker 2 I'm going to set you up with a financial coach on us, Rachel, to walk you through all of this. So hang on the line.

Speaker 2 We're going to get you connected to a Ramsey-preferred financial coach who can walk with you. So sorry you're going through this.
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Ben is up next in Cleveland, Ohio. Ben, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 4 Hi, guys. How are you guys doing?

Speaker 2 Doing well. What's going on with you?

Speaker 4 So my wife and I just purchased our second home

Speaker 4 and we have closing in about 30 days and we have the means to pay cash for it, but our financial advisor is telling us not to.

Speaker 4 And I've been listening to you guys for a while and I'm leaning towards the side of paying cash for it, but my wife isn't there yet.

Speaker 4 So I was wondering if you guys have any advice for us on that.

Speaker 6 What's the financial?

Speaker 6 I think I know the answer. I just want to hear it from you.
What is the financial advisor saying why you shouldn't be paying cash?

Speaker 4 So his main reason he says is taxes and

Speaker 4 the interest that we're earning on

Speaker 4 the money is more than the interest rate that we'd be paying on

Speaker 5 the loan.

Speaker 6 Yeah, what's the taxes? What was he saying? Taking money out, you'll have to pay taxes on the money you have invested.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 But you're going to have to do that at some point.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And I realize that.
I think the problem that I'm struggling with is the disconnect between my wife and I.

Speaker 4 How, how do I help her

Speaker 4 understand?

Speaker 4 I like I like I realize and like we've done the math and I've showed her the numbers of like, you know, what we'd be paying for the mortgage.

Speaker 4 Like, so so the house is 575,000.

Speaker 4 We're selling the the one that we have now. We have that.
We did a loan on that because that's kind of what she wanted to do. And I was okay with that at that point.

Speaker 4 And this one,

Speaker 4 I think there's a disconnect between her and I, and I'm not sure how to get over that.

Speaker 6 Yeah, from a relational standpoint is what that ends up being.

Speaker 6 So I think one of the things that's hard, that's not so black and white when it comes to this argument of the investment and the interest rate and all of it is what you can't put into an Excel file and a formula is peace of mind and autonomy of just having the ability, right, to own everything you have, including your largest asset, probably the one nearest to a family's heart of safety and security is your home, right?

Speaker 6 Like it's literally the roof that you go under to live and raise your family. Like it is such a personal part of your life.

Speaker 6 And to have that that and have such peace with knowing that there is no money owed on it, that you have the ability to, you just can't put that into a financial formula.

Speaker 6 And then the other thing I would say, Ben, is, you know, we've done the largest study of millionaires ever done.

Speaker 6 And one of the number one things that people say in order to get them to a place of millionaire status and to continue to build wealth to change their family tree is to pay off their home.

Speaker 6 So people are looking to do this. This is a goal people have.

Speaker 6 And it's such a outlandish goal because so many people don't have the ability to do it right now. So it's a seven-year goal, right? So the fact that you all can do that today,

Speaker 6 it just puts you so ahead, so ahead of where you are. And what's wild too is just running the formula of, okay, let's just say you,

Speaker 6 let's pretend that, yeah, you invested the mortgage payment every year or every month, right? And how quickly you could build back up your savings even by just doing that.

Speaker 6 And so, yeah, I think it is scary because it is a lot of money that you're just putting out there, but you're putting it into an asset that continues to go up in value.

Speaker 6 And the market right now, I mean, if you have the money, it's a great time to buy because it's so volatile, right?

Speaker 6 Even in the last, with all the tariff stuff, even in the last like two weeks, it's just up and down. It's just crazy.

Speaker 6 And so, if anything, I would want more stability in my life and having a paid off home gives you a huge level of that.

Speaker 6 And so, but that's the hard thing is you can't, where a financial advisor usually is looking at the math and the numbers and the percentages, you, you can't put the emotional part of money into that.

Speaker 6 And so that, that's, that's the point that I feel like is always a hard turn for people to understand.

Speaker 6 But you know what I would tell her too, Ben, if she would, which I know this is a big deal, but I would ask her, like, hey, since we did the mortgage on the last house, can we do the paid off home, pay for cash this, and let's give it nine to 12 months.

Speaker 6 And if we hate it, if we hate having a paid for house, like it's just the worst thing in the whole world, go take a mortgage out on it.

Speaker 5 Like you can do that.

Speaker 6 Yeah. You can always go backwards and do that.

Speaker 5 And I'm telling you, she's going to be like, no, this is great.

Speaker 2 I'm with Rachel on this. And Ben, I'm curious, do you have all this money invested with your financial advisor?

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 5 Okay. So let's answer another question.
There we go.

Speaker 2 Is the financial advisor incentivized to keep your money with him instead of having it in the equity of your home?

Speaker 4 Yeah. So can I give you guys a little bit of a backstory here?

Speaker 5 Sure.

Speaker 4 So um

Speaker 4 and I think it has somewhat to do with why my wife is feeling the way that she is. So this money,

Speaker 4 we're we're 25 and 27, and this money came from her parents being killed when she was a

Speaker 5 when she was a baby. Oh.

Speaker 1 And there's a lawsuit.

Speaker 5 Oh. I'm so sorry.
So

Speaker 4 yeah.

Speaker 4 So so and then it's been invested for 20 years. So so there's a a larger sum of money than that.
But for her, it's like this

Speaker 6 emotional tie still.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's a, and like an emotional tie to that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, totally.

Speaker 4 And, and she, like, she wants, like, she wanted the house. So, like, we're purchasing it.
Um,

Speaker 4 but, like, seeing that money leave the account is,

Speaker 4 is what's, I think, hard on her. Yeah.
Um,

Speaker 4 and, and, yeah, like, uh, George, what you were saying about is this investor incentivized to keep the money in his account? Like,

Speaker 4 I understand that, but like, I don't, how do I tell my wife that in a way that she understands? Like, I don't want to, that almost sounds

Speaker 4 like because of B,

Speaker 4 the attachment to the money that

Speaker 4 she has, I don't know if that makes any sense.

Speaker 6 No, it does. So I think to George's point, I think your wife can understand that regardless of how the money was came to be.

Speaker 6 And we, and we don't know the heart of this financial advisor either, right?

Speaker 2 I don't think they're a bad person, I don't think they're malicious, it's just the nature of their job, yeah.

Speaker 6 There's a nature of the job that that is very understandable that I think anyone can kind of grasp and understand, right?

Speaker 6 So, there's, there's that piece, and then for her, I mean, I, you know, I would say that the legacy of what her of continuing her parents' legacy, this is a beautiful way to do it.

Speaker 6 I mean, it's really redeeming a terrible situation. It's almost like they purchased this home for you all, right? In a sense, that you get to raise your family in.

Speaker 6 Like there's something, there's something beautiful in that.

Speaker 6 And the fact that if you guys continue down this road and continue to invest and be smart about it, like maybe you all can pass that legacy on to your kids, right?

Speaker 6 Like you can continue this snowball effect of something that was so horrific and so terrible to be able then to do something beautiful and redemptive about it. And in my head, I'm like,

Speaker 6 as a parent, I would want my kids to have the least stressful, right, life financially if they can.

Speaker 6 And that's partly making smart decisions with money on your day-to-day basis, but it's also when you go and purchase really large items, cars, houses, to do it in the wisest way that becomes a blessing and not a curse.

Speaker 6 And this is doing that for you all. Do you know what he means? Like, so I see it as a, as a beautiful tool.
And for her, I, I can't, I can't imagine her

Speaker 6 story and the fact that it was, you know, as a child and growing up

Speaker 6 without your biological parents and it ending in such a tragic way.

Speaker 5 I mean, all of that.

Speaker 6 There is so much there.

Speaker 6 And so the grief and the attachment is totally understandable emotionally. And this is going to sound harsh, Ben, but I am going to just say it.

Speaker 6 Sometimes our emotions are the worst drivers when it comes to financial decisions too.

Speaker 6 And so we don't want our emotions driving things. Sometimes it is leaning back on looking, okay, what's better overall for our entire financial picture?

Speaker 6 Because people do a lot of things out of fear, grief, stress, right?

Speaker 6 We look at these emotions and they don't always, they're indicators and, you know, they're the lights on our dashboard of saying, hey, this thing is lighting up and that's something to be curious about and dig into on your own personal story and what's going on with you.

Speaker 6 I think that's important, but we don't want it to be the only thing driving our financial decisions because usually it's not.

Speaker 2 We've said fear is a terrible financial advisor. Yep.
So, Ben, what would the mortgage payment be? Give me just a ballpark.

Speaker 4 I believe it'd be $3,500 a month.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 2 Here's the good news. I just popped it in this investment calculator.
$3,500 a month from $25 to $65. You'd have $22 million in there.

Speaker 5 So if the fear is secure

Speaker 5 by $65.

Speaker 2 Okay, $22 million. $22 million, which is more than you get.

Speaker 5 She just invested the mortgage payment bill.

Speaker 2 Exactly. So there's a piece of this where you have to tackle it with the emotion, the pain point she's experiencing.
Then you can use the logic and math to go, it's going to be okay.

Speaker 2 Here's the real facts. We're rooting for you guys.
This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 6 All right, Dave, you have some strong opinions.

Speaker 5 Possibly, yeah.

Speaker 6 I think so. Okay, because you really prefer credit unions over big banks.

Speaker 1 Well, credit unions, for one thing, are

Speaker 1 non-profit, which means that the members, the customers, own the credit union. So any profits that the credit union makes goes back into customer pricing.

Speaker 1 So you get better interest rate on savings, cheaper checking, and so on, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 And but that's what's more important than that, though, is the fact that the customer is the owner changes the spirit on the credit union.

Speaker 1 So I find very few credit unions that aren't very customer-centric.

Speaker 6 Well, and I think we have found one that is incredible, and that's Fairwinds. They are an incredible credit union that is really out with the heart to help the customer.

Speaker 1 They're the right kind of people with the right kind of values. And they've done a really, really good job with customer service.
And the deals that they're offering, the Ramsey tribe is incredible.

Speaker 5 Yeah, absolutely. And I love it.

Speaker 6 The things that we teach, they so line up with. And you're right, their customer service is unbelievable.
Winston and I just signed up and we got an account. And I'm not kidding.

Speaker 5 It took less than five minutes.

Speaker 6 It was so user-friendly. Like the step-by-step approach was unbelievable.
And then the next day, my phone rings and it says fair wins on my phone. So I answered it and talked to someone there.

Speaker 6 And they said, yeah, they give. calls to every new customer.
And so again, they just really care about your experience. And I, I, I so, so appreciate that.

Speaker 6 Plus, anything that you can do at a traditional branch, you can do with them at fairwinds.org or on their app. And you'll have free access to over 33,000 ATMs.

Speaker 1 Hey, you guys know how much I hate banks in general. And so for me to do this is a big deal.
Talk to our friends at Fairwinds.

Speaker 1 and check out the combined checking and savings bundle that they created just for the Ramsey tribe. You guys, it's incredible.

Speaker 6 Yeah, you guys, it's so easy to join Fairwinds no matter where you live. So go to fairwinds.org/slash Ramsey.

Speaker 2 Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Triple 8-825-5225 is the number to call if you want to join the conversation.
And let's see, Rachel, I think we have a question of the day here from WhyReFi.

Speaker 2 If you've got defaulted student loans that don't let you gain any momentum, we get it. No judgment here, but also nobody's coming to bail you out.
So take charge today, yrefi.com/slash Ramsey.

Speaker 2 They offer refinancing to a low-fixed rate loan built just for you. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y.com/slash Ramsey.
May not be available in all states.

Speaker 6 And today's question comes from Michael in North Carolina. Is it wise to open up a 0%

Speaker 6 interest credit card to handle a big expense with the intention of paying it down before the interest kicks in? My partner can't understand why this is a a horrible decision.

Speaker 6 We need chimney repairs and it's going to cost about $4,500. We have enough saved to pay with cash.
She doesn't want to use that money because she thinks it's the emergency fund should be able to be

Speaker 6 only can be used in case of a job loss. How can I convince her that it can also be used for repairs like our leaking chimney?

Speaker 5 Oh, boy.

Speaker 2 There we go. We're using the wrong tool for the job.

Speaker 2 I think that's this is one of those where where it feels like a smart idea and then it becomes the slippery slope where you just stay in debt your whole life thinking that you're winning the game.

Speaker 2 So the 0% interest credit card, you have a big expense. Here's what happens.
You end up going into debt to cover this big expense that you couldn't save up for. You stay in debt.

Speaker 2 You can't pay it off in the terms that were laid out of you need to pay this off within six months before interest kicks in.

Speaker 2 And then you call the Ramsey show and you've got payments all over your life going, well, we got the 0% card and it all started there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So the solution here is an emergency fund, not another credit card.

Speaker 6 Yeah, which you guys have.

Speaker 2 So we have enough saved to pay with cash. She doesn't want to use it.
She thinks the emergency fund should only be used in case of a job loss. That's not the case.

Speaker 6 Yeah. Emergency fund is for things that are, what's our four things? Origent.

Speaker 5 Unexpected.

Speaker 6 Unexpected, urgent.

Speaker 5 Necessary.

Speaker 6 And necessary. And I would say a chimney.
I'm going to say is necessary.

Speaker 5 I feel like there could be a lot of house fires if this thing goes wrong.

Speaker 2 And then for the future, set up a sinking fund for maintenance and repairs, knowing, hey, you know what, the chimney is pretty old, probably going to need some repairs in the next few years.

Speaker 2 Let's go ahead and put a few hundred bucks away in a savings account just because we know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 But for now, use the cash. Don't open a 0% card.
You're not doing yourself any favors. You're just playing games with snakes.
You're going to get bid eventually.

Speaker 2 So I don't know how you can convince her. That's up to you.
You decided to marry her. You figure it out.
But it's going to take a little bit of persuasion.

Speaker 2 Because right now, she's thinking, thinking, this is my security blanket. I don't want to touch the emergency fund.
It's there to protect us while putting yourself at risk with this.

Speaker 5 With the other thing.

Speaker 6 That's it.

Speaker 6 That's the illusion that debt can cause is that we are okay because we may have some money, cash in the bank, but you're at risk when you owe people money.

Speaker 6 Like there is still a level of risk involved.

Speaker 6 That if something were to happen, and let's say you had to use your emergency fund because there actually was a job loss and you hadn't paid off the credit card, now there's a job loss with no emergency fund and a credit.

Speaker 6 You know what I mean? So just like, just start it. Start it close.

Speaker 5 Just do it.

Speaker 2 Just stay away. Your life's going to be better.
You just pay for your life with cash. Only have a debit card.
Don't even have the credit card open just in case. Just close it.
Shut the door.

Speaker 2 Keep out the devil. That's what you remember that song back in the day?

Speaker 5 No. Oh,

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 2 I grew up Arabic Baptist. We sang that song a lot.
I got you.

Speaker 2 I know what it is.

Speaker 6 Keep the devil out. Is it a hymn?

Speaker 2 I wouldn't call it a hymn.

Speaker 2 It's like a Sunday school song. Yeah, a Sunday school song, Rachel.

Speaker 5 Wow.

Speaker 1 Fine.

Speaker 5 It's leaving me in the dust. And I grew up charismatic the comment section will back me up on this

Speaker 5 fair

Speaker 2 oh my gosh all right all right go to julie let's go to julia in sacramento how can we help julia

Speaker 4 hi guys thank you for taking the call um i'm calling because and i had spoken i think it was with jonathan i didn't and they wanted me to call back but i never got through that's all right you're here too

Speaker 4 i'm i'm struggling with my husband okay i'm ready to

Speaker 4 divorce again oh gosh refuses to think about retirement i don't know what to do we're 66 67 i have a teaching credential in michigan um also in texas i'm applying even to tennessee but the thing is he says that we're stuck in this house that if we move it this costs money this we're in california so the house is worth

Speaker 4 a little bit of money because it's California. But we still owe,

Speaker 4 it was,

Speaker 4 it's five something but we still owe 325 or more on it and I don't know what

Speaker 5 is his plan

Speaker 6 well you're in retirement age so the idea of refusing to plan you're here you're in it so yeah what's he gonna do what's he thinking do y'all have do you have a big nest egg do you have a pension from teaching do you guys have 401 no so how are you guys paying bills right now and he has a rough

Speaker 6 okay How much is in that?

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 4 He said zero.

Speaker 6 He said zero.

Speaker 5 Zero. Don't worry.
Is he with you right now?

Speaker 4 He doesn't want to speak.

Speaker 2 Okay. He does.
That's fine. I'm not trying to get him on the phone.
I just, you were saying he said he has zero. That was a current.

Speaker 5 Right.

Speaker 6 How are you guys paying for food right now in the mortgage?

Speaker 4 Well, he's working.

Speaker 4 He's a service director at a dealership, so he has a good job.

Speaker 5 Okay, how much is he making a year?

Speaker 4 I don't know, maybe 130, 135.

Speaker 6 Okay, and are you working, Julia?

Speaker 4 Right now, no. Okay.
I'd like to get it teaching again, but I'm not certified in California. We have two girls we adopted out of foster care.
So I get a little over $1,000, you know, for them.

Speaker 4 Sure, sure. Almost 2,000.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 How old are they?

Speaker 4 One is 10, one is 12.

Speaker 5 Going on 20. Y'all are amazing.

Speaker 2 That would give me one reason to plan for retirement.

Speaker 4 That's right.

Speaker 5 Maybe two great reasons.

Speaker 5 How long is he wanting to work for?

Speaker 4 He's just,

Speaker 4 I don't know. He just thinks he's going to keep working and working.

Speaker 5 Here's the thing.

Speaker 2 Even if you love your job, at some point, your body's going to say, I can't do this anymore.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 2 That's how we're built as humans. We're not meant to last forever.
So as much as he wants to work forever, what happens if there's a health issue at 70?

Speaker 2 And now this 130,000 income is gone and there's nothing to live off of

Speaker 2 and we got to take care of these girls.

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 4 That's why I'm calling you.

Speaker 5 Okay, so Julia, what I was saying.

Speaker 4 I'm not sure if we should move out of state to somewhere cheaper than California. I don't know.

Speaker 4 And then he's afraid that he won't get a job if we move.

Speaker 6 Yeah, which is a, I don't know. I mean, he's a service tech.
Is that what you said?

Speaker 4 No, he's a service manager.

Speaker 6 Service manager.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 6 Well, number one problem, Julia, is you guys,

Speaker 6 some of the questions I was asking of how much is in the Roth, how much does he make a year? You said, I don't know, and you would just guess. I don't know, 130.
I don't know.

Speaker 6 I think he's saying zero. Like, you guys haven't really talked about specifics of money, have you?

Speaker 4 A little bit. I mean, I know he makes about 135, 130.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 4 So he, like I said, he's just.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 6 Well, we're to the point that

Speaker 4 I think if he doesn't know what to do, you know, sure.

Speaker 6 yeah totally okay so number one we have to get on the same page of just saying julia is

Speaker 6 in a place where she's scared she didn't she doesn't know what's going to happen you guys still owe a 325 000 on your house you have nothing safe for retirement you're in your late 60s like lots of red flags you know risk risk risk scared scared scared yeah lots of red flags is right yeah so there has to be okay so that's where you're at we need to figure out and you need to figure out as his wife where is he at?

Speaker 6 Is it that there's a level of not knowing and that's very intimidating of what to do at retirement, you know, whatever that is.

Speaker 6 But he needs to be honest with himself on what is causing him not to think about it because there's a reason why. Some people don't want to think about it because they don't want to think about death.

Speaker 6 So they don't want to do wills and they don't want to do a state plan. You know, like, I mean, there's a reason why people don't do things.
So understanding that.

Speaker 6 And then you guys have to come together to say, We are both adults and we have to plan. It is part of, it's, it's part of society.

Speaker 6 We want to be be able to eat when we're 80 years old and not have to work our whole lives. So what do we need to do to get into place? Yeah.

Speaker 6 So we need to probably get with a financial advisor and get with someone who knows what they're doing.

Speaker 6 They live and breathe this stuff to be able to say, hey, let's map out how much you guys need to be putting away per month to get you to a place that is comfortable with retirement.

Speaker 6 But the truth is you guys are going to have to work another 10 years to even probably get that. So I would be doing that, Julia.
And you can't change him. Okay.

Speaker 6 So if he won't not get on board on any of this, Julia, that's when we always say separate the finances at that point.

Speaker 6 And then there's a point that you have to get a job and you have to retire yourself, Julia. I mean,

Speaker 5 it's hard. That's what I'm trying to do, which we don't want.
I'm working out of state because I'm not certified in California.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you might need to lower your lifestyle, move to a lower-cost living area, and get the income up. It might be all of the above, but I want him working because he wants to, not because he has to.

Speaker 2 And right now, he has to. This is the Ramsey Show.

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Speaker 2 Live from the Ramsey Network, this is the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships.

Speaker 2 I'm George Camill, joined by Rachel Cruz this hour, and we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Jamie is going to kick us off in Louisville, Kentucky.
What's going on, Jamie?

Speaker 6 Hi, I'm just wondering, at what point do you start adding fun money into your budget?

Speaker 2 What a great question for Rachel Cruz.

Speaker 2 Nobody loves fun money more than Rachel.

Speaker 6 Nobody loves to spin more like Rachel.

Speaker 6 At what point do you put it into the budget? I mean, I would be okay having a little bit,

Speaker 5 um,

Speaker 6 a little bit of breathing room of, I don't know.

Speaker 2 I feel like here's my take.

Speaker 5 And you're in baby step two. How about that?

Speaker 2 My take is if you're in baby steps one, two, or three, as little as possible to survive. Yes.
What's just going to keep you just like, okay, I'm going to make it another day to fight.

Speaker 2 And then once you're in baby step four, then I can ratchet that up to a reasonable amount and make sure I'm on track for other financial goals.

Speaker 6 Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
I mean, I would say with baby step two, there's a little bit of that. Like, I think the longer you're in debt, probably the more lenient I am of having some fun money.

Speaker 6 Because if you're, if you're doing this for eight years, seven years, like Jade, right? Jade and Samuel, seven, um, you know, people that are five years, you like, there's a reality.

Speaker 6 This is six months.

Speaker 5 Yes, exactly.

Speaker 6 Like, there's a reality of life. Like, if this is going to be a long thing, like,

Speaker 6 when are the times we just need to come up for air in order to go back down to stay longer down, you know, in the, in the grind?

Speaker 6 But yeah, if you're able to get out of debt in like six months, I'd say nothing for six months.

Speaker 5 So you can do anything. we've been in and out of debt well there's a problem jamie why yeah

Speaker 4 um i have a mental health disorder that causes impulse control okay and so that's a me thing okay um we've gotten it under control this time we learned what actually was the issue when i had my first daughter we learned it about halfway between the first and second And now we've gotten on medication.

Speaker 4 I've been able to round down my spending and keep everything within.

Speaker 4 And I've been, my husband's great. I've been watching the Dave Ramsey stuff and in the background he's just saying validation

Speaker 5 because those are principles he's lived his entire life that's it's anything new to him so where are you guys at right now

Speaker 4 so we have paid off all the debt good we only have our mortgage left which I think we have about 70,000 left on great

Speaker 5 do you have an emergency fund

Speaker 4 So we have the thousand, about 1,500 almost. We're trying to figure out when to start adding in and he's down to start we make

Speaker 4 where we have about three to four hundred quote-unquote extras to go into savings

Speaker 4 every month as long as nothing happens

Speaker 2 what's your household income

Speaker 4 um i know after taxes on both of his jobs since i'm a stay-at-home mom right now

Speaker 4 after taxes and healthcare and everything we have about fifty one

Speaker 4 thousand each year

Speaker 2 Okay. So a little over four grand coming in.
Is he doing any investing right now?

Speaker 4 No, we don't know much about that. So we're not investing until we know.

Speaker 5 Okay. That's a good principle.
Yeah.

Speaker 6 So for now, Jamie, your next big financial goal is to get that $1,500

Speaker 6 up to three.

Speaker 6 I would probably lean more that five to six months which will take you guys longer of an emergency fund versus the three just because of the kids. There's

Speaker 6 one person is the one making the income. And I don't know.
There's just a little bit of that kind of anything that's a volatility or a level of risk. Not that we say our children are risk, George.

Speaker 6 We would never say that, but you know what I mean. There's a level of, yes, if something were to happen, we have other people that we need to take care of, not just ourselves.

Speaker 6 So I would go up more to that five to six month. And then from there,

Speaker 6 yes, start thinking about investing and to say, okay, where

Speaker 6 can we put some of this money, 15% of our income?

Speaker 6 And that will be probably sitting down with the Smart Vestor Pro and just looking at Roth IRAs, 401ks, like kind of just, I mean, I would just start at the basics and you guys can understand that pretty quickly.

Speaker 6 It's not too confusing, but having someone help you in that arena, I think is really smart. But for now, for you guys, I mean, you're still on baby step three is what we would say from the baby step.

Speaker 6 So I probably wouldn't have a ton of fun money. I mean, I would have some just to be able to.

Speaker 2 Well, the fact there's only 300 bucks of margin tells me you guys are running real tight. Cause at this point, it's going to take you years to get this emergency fund in place.

Speaker 2 That's not okay with me. If I was your coach, I'd say

Speaker 2 we need to do some things with our income and expenses. So are your expenses $3,600 a month? $3,900 a month? What are they?

Speaker 4 Our expenses, I think, added up after everything

Speaker 4 to

Speaker 4 about $2,600 to $28,000.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 2 But you're saying he's bringing in over $4,000 a month, so there should be $1,200 laying around.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's the, I got to remember where we've had a lot of emergencies recently, and that's gone into the budget of like a car breaking down and things.

Speaker 4 And I believe that's where the rest has gone the past couple of months.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 2 I would be aiming to try to save at least $1,000 a month through this emergency fund so that you guys can be done before the year's over.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 2 Or maybe by early 2026, because beyond that, it's just too long. Baby Step Three is already a slog.
It's not fun like paying off debt where you see momentum and progress.

Speaker 2 You're just stacking up, trying to build some foundation before you can start building for the future.

Speaker 6 So, I would work what is he doing for job, for a job, James? You said he's working two different jobs,

Speaker 4 yeah. So, he works at a retail mattress store in one of the malls as his second job.
Okay, and then he works for UPS in a paper desk job now

Speaker 4 as something or another.

Speaker 5 That's full-time

Speaker 4 full-time.

Speaker 6 Okay, is that for is UPS 40 hours and the mattress store is on top of that? So is he working like how many hours a week? Would you say 50, 60?

Speaker 4 It really just kind of depends.

Speaker 4 Because

Speaker 4 the mattress one is not going to be forever. Yeah.
They've already showed that they are not trustworthy to keep us around.

Speaker 4 There's been maybe some layoffs here and there. Oh, wait, we need you back.
So we're not going to.

Speaker 2 I'm shocked there's any mattress retailer still around. So I think he can, if he has skills skills in sales and people, he can probably find a better side job.

Speaker 4 Yeah, no, we're working on it and he's up for a raise soon, hopefully. But if not, we're going to be looking at completely switching careers soon.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

Speaker 6 Because ideally, you know, especially when you're, you know, past babysip three, a sustainable 40-hour a week to support your life is that's going to be, you know, for a long-term perspective, what you're shooting for, not working 60 hours a week just to make ends meet.

Speaker 6 Yeah, we don't want that. And so we're in that in-between.

Speaker 4 And he's talked about letting me have some fun money. I'm scared to death of, I don't want to cause any more issues.
I want to get us through this. And if I have fun money.

Speaker 6 Yes. Are you

Speaker 6 are you seeing like a counselor or therapist for everything?

Speaker 5 Yes. It's okay.

Speaker 5 I would ask them about it because you're right.

Speaker 6 You're like, I don't want to open up.

Speaker 6 something psychological that makes me go off the rails, right? You know, you don't want that, but to have the safety of a licensed therapist or counselor to kind of be the one to help

Speaker 2 about your story and what would be a trigger point for you to suspend it.

Speaker 6 That's what they would say about it.

Speaker 2 Okay. But one thing I would do is freeze your credits.
You have no option to go into debt, even if you wanted to. And you can do that for free.

Speaker 2 You can unplug your, all the card information from every site that you use.

Speaker 2 All of that stuff, adding more friction in is going to help you to just create more guardrails, more boundaries so that you don't slip back into debt.

Speaker 6 Yeah, and Jamie, hold on the line and we'll get your husband King Coleman's book, Find the Work You're Wired Wired to Do, because in the back, there's a great assessment that's fantastic about where your skills and your passions, everything that kind of lines up.

Speaker 6 So, if you stay on the call, Christian will pick up and we guys will give you guys a copy of that as he kind of starts looking at a holistic picture of his career.

Speaker 2 And you know what? I'm going to send you Breaking Free from Broke. Read the Spending a Self-Control chapter.
I hope it just helps you heal from this and create some good habits moving forward.

Speaker 2 Thanks for the call. This is The Ramsey Show.

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Robin is up next in Orlando, Florida. How can we help, Robin?

Speaker 4 Hi, yes.

Speaker 4 How are you guys?

Speaker 5 Doing well.

Speaker 4 Okay, great. So my question is, I am $230,000 in debt with Nima Hussenar.

Speaker 4 Say it again.

Speaker 5 Sorry, what was the number? $234?

Speaker 4 $234,368.58.

Speaker 2 There you go. You know your numbers.
That's a start.

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 4 I follow the Every Dollar app, and I go see my family twice a year in Texas.

Speaker 4 And I feel guilty if I do because I'm trying to pay off my debt, but I feel guilty if I don't because my kids want to see my family. So I'm trying to figure out how to get out of that guilt thing.

Speaker 4 We put a lot towards our debt every month. We put between $2,000 to $5,000 towards it every month.
That's great. My husband makes a decent amount.

Speaker 4 So, is it okay that I go see them,

Speaker 4 or like,

Speaker 6 yeah, I mean, I don't, yeah, the thing with um these kind of scenarios, I never say, like, is it okay, yes or no, to go see family? I think it's just not a moral issue.

Speaker 6 No, it's just how fast do we want to get out of debt? I mean, how much money are you guys spending on these trips?

Speaker 6 Like, one trip to see your family, how much would that be?

Speaker 5 Five grand, two grand, one grand,

Speaker 4 like a grand, a thousand dollars.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 6 And you're doing that twice a year. So we're talking two to three thousand dollars a year.

Speaker 2 And you're not going into debt for these trips.

Speaker 4 No, I put it in my budget. I do the every dollar app.
I put it in my budget to plan it out for that trip. Yeah.
And I just pay a little less on my debt that month.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I mean, again, I think it's one of these things with any level of,

Speaker 6 and I would probably put this in the category of like a luxury because is there anyone sick like is there like a oh my gosh like you know we we're gonna go visit like we only don't know how many more years we have with grandma or is it just a this is a tradition we always go see them for these holidays

Speaker 6 uh it's more of a i miss my family i get homesick and i like to go see them yeah yeah yeah which is totally fine um so yes i think it's one of these things if you and your husband agree that two grand a year um is gonna put us back you know what two months probably in a debt payoff in general.

Speaker 6 Like, is that, is that trade-off worth it?

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I mean, I would probably say, yeah. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know.

Speaker 6 Like, we, we've said, like, if people are getting married out of state or like there's a destination wedding or there's a funeral, right? There's reasons to travel. And it's usually for more of a

Speaker 6 celebration or a event that is once in a, you know, something is happening.

Speaker 2 Can they come to you? Are they too old?

Speaker 4 They come to us twice a year as well. So we see each other four times a year, but they come to us and then we come to them.
Last year we didn't go see them at all.

Speaker 5 Because

Speaker 5 last year, but this year. Why didn't you go last year?

Speaker 4 We were opening a business and I had to

Speaker 4 really focus on that last year. And so it was very hard on our mental capacity.
And I just had a newborn son.

Speaker 5 Okay. Yeah.
So

Speaker 6 Robin, I feel like you guys are very detail-oriented. You know your numbers really well.

Speaker 6 When do you think you guys are going to be completely debt-free? And does the 234 include your mortgage, or is that all consumer?

Speaker 4 That is all consumer. I also have a mortgage of $430,000.
Okay.

Speaker 6 And how much are you guys making a year?

Speaker 4 So, my husband makes between $15,000 and $20,000 a month.

Speaker 5 Okay. About two thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 Why can you only put two grand a month towards your debt? Now I'm mad.

Speaker 6 No, she said two to five thousand. She said five thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but you're making, he's making $20,000. Why do you guys have $15,000 of expenses every month?

Speaker 4 Well, we have a free high mortgage, and then my son is in school, which that is about to change. So that number will go up.
That number is going to go down because he's about to be in pre-K.

Speaker 6 How much is the mortgage a month?

Speaker 4 $3,500 a month.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 6 And how much is the school a month?

Speaker 4 $1,500 a month.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 6 So that, so there's $10,000 left

Speaker 5 at least.

Speaker 6 Where is that? And $5,000 we'll say is going to the debt. So they're living on five.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 5 George isn't happy.

Speaker 5 George is not happy.

Speaker 5 It's going to take you guys six years to get out of debt.

Speaker 2 Do you hear that?

Speaker 2 It's going to take you five or six years at this rate.

Speaker 4 That's at the minimum. So I calculated everything to the minimum, and then anything extra goes straight towards the debt.
Like this month, we put 7K towards our debt.

Speaker 5 Okay. Okay, that's good.
Okay, so then they're living on three.

Speaker 5 But can I do the math for you? I try to.

Speaker 2 Average debt payoff for someone following the steps with gazelle intensity is 18 to 24 months. Now, you guys have a lot of consumer debt, so that's just the average.

Speaker 2 So you guys might lean to two, two and a half years, three years, but that still means you need to be putting 7 to 10 grand per month consistently towards this debt to knock it out in two to three years.

Speaker 2 And I want that to be like, come hell or high water, we are putting seven to 10 grand a month. You understand?

Speaker 4 That is our plan, yes. But during the summer months, my husband doesn't get as much extra work.
So he works two full-time jobs, and then he's a wedding photographer.

Speaker 4 And he does a bunch of side gigs and makes him a lot of money. But during the summer, that slows down.

Speaker 4 So I lowered the number, the amount that we put towards the debt because we are making the minimum of $15,000 at that point.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 2 But do you see what I'm saying? I want you to have a fire. And right now, I feel like you guys are fairly comfortable.
The way you're talking and the lifestyle. I want you to cut this down to nothing.

Speaker 2 You can still do the trip, the trip is not what's causing this. I think there's a lot of other leaks happening as well, and that's where this budget will reveal it to you very quickly.

Speaker 2 Hey, we've made 20 grand this month, where did it all go?

Speaker 6 But you're doing the every dollar budget, right?

Speaker 4 Yes, so you're seeing a lot of it recently has been going to the business,

Speaker 5 okay? Was the business

Speaker 4 now starting to make uh break even?

Speaker 2 Okay, what's the trajectory? Is this thing going to be making money in the next two months

Speaker 4 uh it's a franchise and i'm hoping it will um but we are currently breaking even how much of this debt is tied to the business

Speaker 4 none of that none of it uh we have how much of it is cars uh this is

Speaker 4 only 40 000.

Speaker 5 only

Speaker 5 i don't know what part of town you grew up in but that's a lot of debt

Speaker 4 It's a it's a it's a lot, but we have really good interest rates. We pay 500 per car.

Speaker 2 Um, and you're so lucky rachel cruise is here to be good call robin you're robin i'm i'm just telling you right now call me back when you're serious and you actually want to get out of this mess not when you want to tell me you have a great interest rate on your debt

Speaker 5 i mean you guys make a quarter million dollars a year

Speaker 2 do you understand how insane this is

Speaker 4 Yes, yes, I do. That is why I am.

Speaker 5 How much is that?

Speaker 6 Hey, hey, Robin, how much could you get for the car right now? If you Kelly blue booked it, what do you think?

Speaker 5 Have you Kelly blue-booked it? Probably not.

Speaker 4 I have actually. For my car, I would get about 10, and I owe 20 on it for my husband's car.
I would get about 20, and he owes 21 on it.

Speaker 5 Wait, wait, hold on.

Speaker 6 The $40,000 car. Say that again.
You would only get $20 for it.

Speaker 4 For my car, I would get about $10 on my car.

Speaker 6 And you owe $40,000 on it.

Speaker 5 $20,000. Okay,

Speaker 5 I hear you. I hear you.
I hear you. Okay.

Speaker 4 Two cars. Here you go.

Speaker 5 $20 each. Here you go.

Speaker 6 So $10 for yours. And then what would he?

Speaker 4 And $20 for his.

Speaker 5 And 20 for his.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 6 So the way, you know, you could look at this is the 40,000, which you'd have to put 10 because you're, you know, underwater 10.

Speaker 6 But that's $30,000, which, George, to your math of what you're saying would be, you know, the way she's going at five grand a month, you would save six months by just selling the cars.

Speaker 6 You could save six months of being in debt. So let's do that, Robin.
And that would show George that you are serious.

Speaker 5 I mean, if you skin in the game.

Speaker 6 Robin, if y'all sold these cars

Speaker 5 in the next 10 days, then you're serious. Okay.

Speaker 6 That would be like, yes, we are, we are scorched earth. We are doing anything and everything to get out of debt.
And that would be the move to make.

Speaker 6 That's six, that's saving six months of your time of being in debt. It's just from cars.
So that has to be your mindset. That's what, George, how you feeling? You okay over there? I'm doing better.

Speaker 6 Just breathe, George. Breathe.
Just breathe. Take some deep breaths, George.
So that's, Robin, That's the kind of stuff we're talking about.

Speaker 6 And then from there, and if you can get out of this franchise, it's feeling like it's sucking up money. And

Speaker 6 your husband's already working like four jobs, what you're saying. So you guys have a lot of busyness and clutter in your life.
So I would simplify everything and live a peaceful life.

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Speaker 2 In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, we have Jacques and Jennifer here to do a debt-free scream. Welcome, guys.

Speaker 5 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 2 Where are you guys from?

Speaker 5 Cincinnati, Ohio. Love it.

Speaker 2 Thanks for coming by to do your debt-free scream. How much did you guys pay off?

Speaker 5 $203,000. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 5 How long?

Speaker 5 52 months. Yep.

Speaker 6 And making what kind of money during that time?

Speaker 5 Not enough.

Speaker 5 We started out about $160

Speaker 5 and ended

Speaker 5 $230.

Speaker 6 Wow. What was the jump?

Speaker 5 Just some job changes. Okay.
Promotion. She got a new job.

Speaker 6 Yeah, great. What do you guys do?

Speaker 5 I'm in, I'm a marketing director, property management. I'm a state trooper in Ohio.
Okay, wonderful, you guys.

Speaker 2 I'll remember you if I'm ever driving through Ohio and I get pulled over.

Speaker 6 You need someone.

Speaker 5 Well, we work on commissions.

Speaker 5 Oh, no.

Speaker 5 I love it, George.

Speaker 6 I love it. And what did the $23,000 consist of of debt?

Speaker 5 It was our house.

Speaker 5 Oh, my gosh. Completely

Speaker 5 debt

Speaker 5 weirdos.

Speaker 6 Oh, how does it feel?

Speaker 5 Unbelievable. Yep, it was great.
I can finally buy the things I want.

Speaker 6 There you go. There you go.
You know, it's funny you say that because I talk about in my book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, about why we want to win with money.

Speaker 6 And for some people, it's pure safety. It's like, like, I just want to feel safe.
And then for some people, it is more of this.

Speaker 6 I say status, it's not a bad thing, but it's like, I want to win so that I can enjoy my life and do things with that money. So I feel you.
I feel you, Jacques, on that. That's great.
I love it.

Speaker 5 Well, she's making fun of me because I call it the summer of Jacques. I'm doing all the things I've wanted to do.
Maddie got that. Wearing a mascara races.

Speaker 2 Yeah, was there like a big carrot you were dangling of like, this is the big thing I want to do?

Speaker 5 Or was it like a habits?

Speaker 2 What are your hobbies? What are the things that you were looking forward to doing once the house was paid off?

Speaker 5 I mean, just to finally buy stuff that we want, upgrade the house.

Speaker 5 More experienced more. I'm just going to go and see and do things.

Speaker 2 I love it.

Speaker 6 That's amazing, you guys. Okay, so what happened 52 months ago that caused this whole journey of being weird people?

Speaker 5 I drank the juice or the lemonade or whatever it was called.

Speaker 5 I just started just. And I followed.
Yeah. Yeah.
I just started watching.

Speaker 2 Was it watching clips? So, how'd you guys get connected to us?

Speaker 2 She started.

Speaker 2 That was accusatory.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that was an aggressive point. I'm good at that.

Speaker 5 She started on listening to the podcasts on

Speaker 5 the Ramsey Network. And then when we were exercising, we would listen to stuff.

Speaker 5 Okay. And she got hooked.
Yeah. Quick.
And then you looked at your own number.

Speaker 5 So then you looked at her. Okay, hold on, Shock.

Speaker 6 He's like, I'm hooked to her, so I got to do it. No, there was a level that you were probably like, this sounds great.

Speaker 5 Well, I do like having the security. I'm a security person.
So, you know, now that you don't, it's not fun to owing people money.

Speaker 6 Yes, yeah. So the autonomy feels great of just like you're on your own.
There's no banks attached that you're like.

Speaker 5 And I think it was COVID. Yeah.
COVID hit. At the time we had a mortgage.
We were able to refi it like super low. We took it down to 15 years because Dave said so.
Yes.

Speaker 5 And then she just was like, let's hammer it out. Yeah.
And y'all did it together.

Speaker 2 Dale Jacques says so. Yeah.
He's his own man.

Speaker 5 Well, I've been saying so for a long time, but, you know, with an asterisk. Yeah.
I love that. Yes, yes.
Oh, that's great, you guys.

Speaker 2 So you just looked down and you went, all right, 200, 3,000, we could knock. How quickly could we knock this out? Did you guys set a goal?

Speaker 5 We didn't.

Speaker 6 I mean, we cashflowed quite a few things.

Speaker 5 You did the ring thing. Yeah, and then that stopped.
Then you rip off a ring. Yeah, $5,000 or something.
You're $20,000 or something. Yeah, but then that fell off the wall.
And so then we had a

Speaker 5 lot of terrorists. We didn't have tape and we didn't have the money for it.

Speaker 5 Whatever.

Speaker 2 But did you guys decide, hey, we can knock this out in five five years or less? Like, was there a sort of a, all right, this is doable in the foreseeable future?

Speaker 5 We just knew last year we wanted to pay it off by the end of the year. So 2024 was the year we were paying off.
It was the big year. Yes.
Okay. Oh, no.
And you did it. And we did it.

Speaker 6 And in that 52 months, was there consumer debt that you guys paid off first? We actually just, we, no, before we started, we paid off.

Speaker 5 I wrote a check for my car in 2019 and then we cash flowed a newer car, a bike for you,

Speaker 5 and then finished our basement. So we did other things.

Speaker 5 Totally. Great vacations and incredible.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 5 We didn't do rice and beans. We did ramen and popcorn.

Speaker 6 Actually, I like that diet better.

Speaker 5 That sounds great. I think that sounds better.
Ramen's pretty cheap.

Speaker 2 Maybe not. Maybe not an upgrade health-wise, but at least excitement-wise.

Speaker 6 Okay, did you guys tell people what you were doing during this time? Are there people on the journey that were kind of cheering you on? Did you kind of keep it to yourself?

Speaker 6 I mean, you know, family members were cheering us on.

Speaker 5 I really just think that it was attributed to just listening to this pod, you know, the show and just listening to everyone, their debt-free screams.

Speaker 5 Because honestly, everyone thought we were weird and we knew we were weird and we wanted to be weird. So

Speaker 2 confidently weird.

Speaker 5 No insecurities.

Speaker 5 Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 2 And now they're going to be going, can you guys tell me how you did that exactly?

Speaker 5 Absolutely. You know, along the way, I told a lot of people how to do it or not what I thought, what we thought, you know, and told them what we were doing and all that.
And they would listen.

Speaker 5 And I think now that you've done it and they see what the results are, maybe now they tune in a little bit more and they go, maybe it does work. Well, they want to do it.
They want a magic trick.

Speaker 2 When you're telling them they're wanting some complicated, cool strategy, instead you're just like, yeah, just pay extra on the principal.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And they go, wait, no, no, tell me something.

Speaker 5 Or stick with it. I think

Speaker 5 we didn't miss a month. You know, if we wanted something, we stuck with that.
We didn't miss a month on extra payments. Wow.
So that's a lot of it. And we also became millionaires in the process, too.

Speaker 5 So we are. Baby such millionaire.
So what's the the house worth?

Speaker 6 So, about $5.50-ish per take.

Speaker 5 And then, just with other things, investments, everything, retirement, cars. Yeah, about $1.5 almost.
Yeah, $1.5 million. So,

Speaker 5 we are on a roll to retire with some money, maybe.

Speaker 2 So proud of you, guys.

Speaker 6 So many races, right? NASCAR races.

Speaker 5 He can't enjoy. And I only have to work a couple more years.

Speaker 6 That's incredible, you guys. Absolutely amazing.

Speaker 5 We are excited.

Speaker 2 What do you tell people the key is if there was one thing that you need to become debt-free?

Speaker 5 Go ahead, huh? I know. You're eager.
There was a SNL skit, and it was don't spend the money unless you have it. Yes, Whitstein Martin and Amy Poehler.
Yes, that's exactly what we're talking about.

Speaker 5 So, I mean, really. If I don't have it, can I know?

Speaker 2 So just live on less than you make.

Speaker 5 Absolutely.

Speaker 2 Don't go into debt to buy stuff. That's right.
And you're going to be okay. You'll be okay.

Speaker 5 I love it.

Speaker 6 Isn't that funny? It's the satire of America, though, right? That skit of like, if I have the money, can I buy it? Like, yes, if I don't have the money, can I buy it?

Speaker 5 Can I know? You can't. Yeah, it's only one page.

Speaker 6 Only one page. If you don't have the money, don't buy it.
And so, living that mantra.

Speaker 5 I would read that book. There you go.
Yeah, that mantra. Sign me up for that one.

Speaker 6 Oh, my gosh. And you guys, I mean,

Speaker 6 this is really, when we talk about changing your family tree,

Speaker 6 this is the big one. I mean, baby step seven is where you really see it without a house payment, starting to set you guys up well for the future and your kids.
You guys have two.

Speaker 6 We met them earlier in another break. Two beautiful girls.

Speaker 5 So bring them up.

Speaker 5 Come on, girls. All right.
What's the names and ages? Come on up. Stand on either side we have izzy who is how old you're 11.
all right and then we have avery who is eight

Speaker 5 yeah i'm sure they were very helpful along the way keeping you guys motivated accountable where they were like hey mom sometimes for them because we're not going through the drive-through mom we got to pay this house off i know i know i was like sorry sorry no chick-fil-a today a lot of they know day rams are probably just as good as most people oh i love it that builds well for their financial this was a good thing for them too you guys have beautiful beautiful family.

Speaker 6 Well done, you guys. Well done.

Speaker 2 Have they been practicing the debt-free screen?

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, of course. We're about to find out.

Speaker 5 My ears told me they were.

Speaker 2 We've got a parting gift for you guys. We have two one-year subscriptions to Every Dollar Premium, so you can use those or pass them along to someone else who you want to encourage on the journey.

Speaker 2 And let's get to it. It's Jock and Jennifer from Cincinnati, Ohio with Izzy and Avery.

Speaker 2 $203,000 paid off, mortgage and everything, complete weirdos in 52 months, making $160 all the way up to $250,000. Count Count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Speaker 5 Okay. Three, three, two, one.

Speaker 5 We're debt-free!

Speaker 2 Oh, we got a dance. We got a celebratory debt-free dance.

Speaker 5 As she should.

Speaker 2 That was special.

Speaker 5 Oh,

Speaker 6 incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Speaker 2 I don't know. There's something about the kids that gets me every time, Rachel, when they join in.
I know.

Speaker 6 I mean, it's just wild. You know, we had a call that we're like, oh, should we pay cash for our house? We have the money.
We kind of just want to take it out because of the interest rates.

Speaker 6 People just talk around this stuff. And when you do it, I bet you anything, they don't want to go back into debt, right? I mean, it's like once you do it and you taste that freedom and autonomy.

Speaker 6 You just get the weight off you.

Speaker 2 No one's going, hey, I'd love to get that backpack full of bricks and bring that back over.

Speaker 6 They're free. Absolutely free.
I love it. And baby steps millionaires in the process.

Speaker 5 Look at that.

Speaker 6 Incredible.

Speaker 2 Intentionality. Focus.
It's what it takes. Discipline.
Live on less than you make. You heard it here.
It's so simple. And yet, very few people actually do it.
But they did it.

Speaker 2 We're so proud of you guys. This is the Ramsey Show.

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Speaker 2 Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. You know, a lot of what we teach, Rachel, is about getting your income up.
We say your greatest wealth-building tool is your income.

Speaker 2 And a lot of people go, okay, well, that's nice, but how do I just go make more without asking my boss for a raise and making it awkward?

Speaker 2 Well, there's this thing called side hustles, and there's a gig economy out there now where you can just download an app and get out there and start making money tonight.

Speaker 2 And so what I did was create a side hustle quiz with our team that can help people figure out based on your time and your target of what you're trying to do, how much money you're trying to make and your talent, we can actually serve up some side hustle options for you to make it easier.

Speaker 6 Yeah, which you're actually going to be great at and enjoy, right? Yes. Because sometimes you do a side hustle and it's kind of miserable.

Speaker 6 You're doing it just to make some extra money to pay off the debt. And there's a reason for it.
But if you can enjoy it in the process, how much better is that?

Speaker 2 Exactly. And so

Speaker 6 so i took it george you took the quiz i heard george had a quiz and i said i'm gonna be a good friend and i am a friend i'm gonna go through this quiz it gave me like um when i was a teen we'd have like 17 magazine and they'd always have quizzes

Speaker 6 in the back you know what i mean it's like tiger beat yeah it was just like you know what kind of dream man

Speaker 6 you know do you like or whatever right or like what's your uh i don't know it would be all these like teen type quizzes so it gave that that that energy george a little bit more professional Thank you.

Speaker 5 Yeah, tiger beats, but with a master's degree. That's what the side hustle quiz is.

Speaker 2 All right, let's, I have your results on the screen. So walk us through this, Rachel.

Speaker 6 Okay, so my best side hustles.

Speaker 5 Are you ready for this?

Speaker 2 Well, what is your, we have like personality archetypes. So what is yours called?

Speaker 6 In-person side hustles.

Speaker 5 Nope, further up.

Speaker 6 Oh, oh, ooh, professional.

Speaker 2 Nope. Is that you?

Speaker 5 You're the

Speaker 5 old.

Speaker 6 Did we switch it? Limited edition?

Speaker 2 Maybe. Now I don't know, James.
I guess they're accurate, right?

Speaker 5 Yeah. Okay, I guess Rachel's the professional.
No, this is my question. I was shocked as well.

Speaker 5 Your question.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 2 So I have it up on the screen.

Speaker 5 This is mine.

Speaker 2 Follow along if you're watching on YouTube or the Ranging Network app or Spotify. You can see this.
So you got some options. What are your in-person side hustle options as the professional?

Speaker 6 Okay. Is consulting.

Speaker 2 So this is using your skills. That's why we call it the professional.
Yes.

Speaker 5 You're refining skills.

Speaker 6 So business consulting, career coaching, financial coaching, investment, counseling.

Speaker 5 That sounds right, huh?

Speaker 5 Nanny. And I'm a mom of three.

Speaker 6 Sounds right. I'd be a great nanny.

Speaker 6 Event planning.

Speaker 2 You would do great with that.

Speaker 6 Y'all, this is literally my, this is my world.

Speaker 2 Bar menzos, cuts and yarrows, you would crush. Yes.

Speaker 6 Working part-time, exploring a new career path.

Speaker 5 So just in general. Okay.

Speaker 6 And then my at-home side hustles would be teaching English. Okay.

Speaker 5 I know English well.

Speaker 6 And then freelancing. So just finding something that

Speaker 6 I can do. But this was great.
And I am a professional, George. What are you? Are you a professional?

Speaker 5 No, you're not.

Speaker 2 No, I didn't. What I got was the limited edition.

Speaker 5 Which means what?

Speaker 2 Well, it's because I'm busy, Rachel. I don't have a lot of time throughout the life.

Speaker 5 Oh, I thought I had more time to do my side hustles.

Speaker 2 As the dad of a toddler and one on the way, it's just a lot, you know?

Speaker 5 Wow.

Speaker 2 So I said, I don't have a lot of time. What can I do based on my skills? And here's what it spit out.
In-person side hustles, indoor and outdoor home maintenance and repair. Stop it.
You know me.

Speaker 2 Stop it. That's what I do best.

Speaker 5 This is a good quiz, George. Why are you feeling this quizzer?

Speaker 2 Honestly, if it was home organizing, I could crush with my OCD.

Speaker 6 But repairs, why do they give you repairs?

Speaker 2 I think it's just something you can look into.

Speaker 2 These are just options. It's not saying that.

Speaker 6 No, it's just flipping a breaker.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 6 George isn't even great at that.

Speaker 2 But you know what a great one that showed up was photography. That was my past life.
Media World, film, photo I used to do.

Speaker 2 You know, do wedding videography. And so that's a good one.

Speaker 5 And skateboard videos.

Speaker 2 That's right. And then at-home side hustles, freelancing, which is something I actually did as a side hustle for a long time.

Speaker 2 You know, building websites, taking the skills I have, branding, whatever it may be, tutoring, and then transcribing, which I'm a great typist, as you know.

Speaker 5 Oh, a transcriber.

Speaker 2 So I could sign up for a website where I can transcribe videos and just type out what they're saying. Love it.
So there you go. Just some options.

Speaker 2 And if you guys want to take this at home, it's completely free. Jump onto ramseysolutions.com slash side hustle.
Take the quiz.

Speaker 2 We'll also link it in the description and show notes wherever you're listening. But here's the goal.

Speaker 2 Find out the things that you can do to make extra money and then add up what you could make per week, what that does per month, what that does per year.

Speaker 2 And this might be for a season while you get out of debt or get the emergency fund in place. I'm not advocating for you to have a side hustle for your whole life.

Speaker 2 But for a season, do what it takes to get to a place financially where you're stable, you have some foundation so that you can build wealth for the future.

Speaker 6 It's good. I'm so distracted because Transcriber,

Speaker 6 are you a Friends fan? Your sign failed.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I know of Friends. I haven't seen any of you.

Speaker 6 When they played the game, Boys Against Girls, and one of the questions was, what does Chandler Being do for a living?

Speaker 5 And they couldn't remember. And Rachel was like,

Speaker 6 he's a trans.

Speaker 6 And I think, I thought she said he's a transcriber, but it wasn't because they're like, that's not even a word.

Speaker 2 Transcriptionist, maybe?

Speaker 6 No. Okay.
I'll find it. But anyway.

Speaker 2 Someone will let us know.

Speaker 6 When you said transcriber, I just went and played that entire friend's episode through my head as you were talking.

Speaker 2 I could tell you were in another world. I did.

Speaker 6 I was like,

Speaker 6 what was that answer that Rachel gave?

Speaker 3 Transponster. Transponster.

Speaker 5 Transponster. Transponster.

Speaker 6 A transponster. And then Monica's like, that's not even a word.

Speaker 2 If you guys ever wanted to know what it's like being inside the mind of Rachel Cruz, that summed it up right there.

Speaker 2 Me saying one word and her completely going somewhere else in her mind for the next three minutes.

Speaker 6 You're doing great, though.

Speaker 5 Send people to your quiz. So that would be much to the quiz.
Go check it out.

Speaker 6 No, but it is great. It is awesome, George.
Well done.

Speaker 6 And I'm a professional.

Speaker 5 So professional.

Speaker 2 All right. Brian is up next in Annapolis, Maryland.
What's going on, Brian? How can we help today?

Speaker 4 Hello. How are you guys doing today?

Speaker 5 Doing well.

Speaker 4 Is that Rachel Cruz on there as well?

Speaker 5 Yes, it is Brian. Hello.

Speaker 3 In living color.

Speaker 4 Me, Rachel Cruz. Get out.

Speaker 6 The professional, Rachel Cruz.

Speaker 5 Possibly the event planner, Rachel Cruz, but that is me.

Speaker 6 Yes, Brian, how can we help today?

Speaker 4 I got a little

Speaker 4 sidetracked with the side hustle.

Speaker 4 I had my question prepared, but

Speaker 4 the side hustle Ramsey quiz.

Speaker 4 Is that a thing? Like, is that somewhere I can go?

Speaker 2 Yep, go to ramseysolutions.com slash side hustle, and it'll take you right there.

Speaker 4 Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 People are going to think that this was a planned call for you to talk about this. I promise it wasn't.

Speaker 5 Do you have a real financial question for us?

Speaker 4 Yes, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 5 No, you're great. I just want to make sure we're running out of time.
So,

Speaker 4 my mom, at age 80, has no retirement. I am her

Speaker 4 dedicated financial person. Dementia comes and goes.

Speaker 4 Luckily, yeah, thank you. Luckily, she came into a small windfall of money.

Speaker 4 It was 20 grand. It's now down to 12,

Speaker 4 and that's why I'm helping. So

Speaker 4 the question is, what investment vehicles are left at her age? What does an 80-year-old person do?

Speaker 4 I've heard CDs, I've heard money markets, and I'm like, okay, well.

Speaker 5 Does she have an income right now?

Speaker 4 Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 How much does she bring in every month?

Speaker 4 $3,144.

Speaker 2 And what are her bills every month?

Speaker 4 Okay, so her bills, she has a single...

Speaker 2 Just total. What is the total for a month? Is it less than $3,100?

Speaker 4 Yes, it is.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 2 How much is left over?

Speaker 4 $700.

Speaker 2 So essentially, she has $700 a month to invest.

Speaker 4 From her income. Yeah.
She has $12,000 sitting there.

Speaker 2 I would just park all of that in a high-yield account.

Speaker 4 High-yield savings account.

Speaker 2 Yep. She doesn't need to be investing with that money.
She needs that money to protect her in case of emergencies.

Speaker 6 Yeah. What's her housing situation, Brian? Is she renting? Does she own?

Speaker 4 She just got out of a bad situation with my brother. He's in jail.

Speaker 5 We'll leave it there.

Speaker 4 I'm sorry. My sister and I got her in a 55 and over retirement community.
She has a single-bedroom apartment. Okay.

Speaker 5 She's renting.

Speaker 4 Life is good. Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 Okay. What's her rent every month?

Speaker 4 14.

Speaker 5 Okay. So half a marine

Speaker 5 change.

Speaker 6 Yeah, and what is she doing for a job? What is she with the dementia kind of going in and out? What's her, what's her job?

Speaker 4 There is no job.

Speaker 6 Oh, it's Social Security?

Speaker 5 All of it? Yes, ma'am. Okay, I gotcha.

Speaker 4 Yes, ma'am. So it's half social and half VA benefits.
My dad was a Marine.

Speaker 5 Oh, wow. Okay.
Okay.

Speaker 6 And what's her health, brian i mean i know with dementia it can um it can vary but do you guys do you think she she has another 10 years or do you think she's not doing well

Speaker 4 my sister and i are it's um so i heard dave ramsey say if you make it to 64 you have a good chance of making it to 90.

Speaker 6 that's something close yeah there about yep exactly we're just like okay she's gonna make it to 90 95 and are you and your are you and your sister in a good place financially to help in the meantime if she needs it

Speaker 4 I'm on baby step two. Okay.
She is sort of on baby steps one.

Speaker 2 Okay, we're going to say no on that one. But I would just stack that cash in the high yield savings and even that $700 a month, just keep adding it to the high yield savings.

Speaker 2 I don't think I'd worry about investing for the next 30 years right now. Let's just try to survive and get a nice cushion.
This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 5 No matter what you want to do with your money,

Speaker 5 you have to send for a ramp.

Speaker 2 Hey, what are you still doing here? You know, the rest of the show is happening on the Ramsey Network app, right? So you got to jump over there to continue watching. You can download it for free.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 But if you're watching anywhere else, this show is over for you. So jump onto the app and let the fun continue.

Speaker 5 All right. By the way,

Speaker 2 go on now.

Speaker 2 Don't make it weird.

Speaker 2 Okay, I got nowhere to go, so you need to go.

Speaker 5 Okay.

Speaker 5 But bye now.

Speaker 5 Alright, this is getting weird over there, guys. What do we do?