How The Baby Steps Protect You From Financial Uncertainty

Speaker 1 guys, it's James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show.

Speaker 1 Hey, this week, Dave and the personalities are living it up on the Ramsey Cruise, so we've put together a compilation of some of our favorite calls and segments from the last year.

Speaker 3 Regular shows are back next week.

Speaker 2 Hope you enjoy.

Speaker 2 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual, amazing relationships.

Speaker 2 Ken Coleman, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, host of the Ken Coleman Show, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today thank you for joining us america the phone number is triple eight eight two five two two five clayton is in little rock arkansas hey clayton welcome to the ramsey show

Speaker 2 hey sir how are you guys better than we deserve brother what's up

Speaker 4 awesome man well you know first of all i just want to say it really is an honor to speak to you guys i'm a huge fan of the show i've watched Countless YouTube clips, etc.

Speaker 4 And I think you guys are out there changing lives. So I want to start off with that.

Speaker 2 Well, thank you, sir. How can we help you today?

Speaker 4 Absolutely. Well, you know,

Speaker 4 I'll kind of start from a broad overview, and I'll kind of break it down if that's okay with you.

Speaker 4 Just, you know, my broad overview question, Dave,

Speaker 4 is really just how not to get discouraged in the wealth building process.

Speaker 4 I'll give you some background information. I'm 27 years old.
My wife is 30. We have a combined net worth of around probably 200,000 or so.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 4 It's right there in my number. Thank you.
And I make about $58,000, $60,000 on my primary job, and I do a side hustle.

Speaker 4 But total, I make around $80,000 to $90,000, kind of depending on the year. And my wife makes around $72,000.

Speaker 4 The only thing that we owe on is our home. We both have MBA degrees.
We have no consumer debt, no car loans, anything like that.

Speaker 4 My home is currently worth probably around $300,000 and I owe about $195,000.

Speaker 4 We have two kids

Speaker 4 and overall life is good.

Speaker 4 We're still in the process of trying to button everything up. We're investing 10% right now.
I know I need to get that number to 15. My home's on a 15-year note.

Speaker 4 We're trying to get our kids college, all that situated. So there's nothing really on fire per se.

Speaker 4 But in general,

Speaker 4 I really do believe what you guys teach, and I believe you know, we give 10% of our income to the church.

Speaker 4 I mean, I'm a really big believer in living within your means, not saying we're perfect by any means.

Speaker 2 You've done a great job, Clayton. I mean, your numbers are amazing for your age.
Way to go, you make $160,000 a year, you have no debt except your house, everything's on track, you're killing it,

Speaker 4 right? Right. Well, man, you know, I

Speaker 4 really do believe it, and I appreciate it. But at the same time,

Speaker 4 like, I think long-term, right? Like, I'm

Speaker 2 not like that. Huh? Have you done the math?

Speaker 2 Right, right, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you save 15% of $160,000, that's going to be a million dollars in 10 years, dude.

Speaker 4 Right, right.

Speaker 2 And that's with no match. Have you got a match?

Speaker 4 Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 Do the math.

Speaker 4 Right, right. Well, you know, man, it just.

Speaker 2 Did you do the math? No.

Speaker 4 Yes, sir, I did, yes.

Speaker 2 Okay, then did you see 10 years you're going to be a millionaire

Speaker 2 at 37 years old?

Speaker 4 Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 So how is that discouraging?

Speaker 4 You know,

Speaker 4 I don't know, man. I just, like, I look at life, right, and I know comparison is the piece of joy, and I don't, you know, I try not to go there in my head.

Speaker 2 Comparison to what?

Speaker 2 If anything you compare to, you should be ahead of.

Speaker 4 Right, right, right. Well, you know,

Speaker 4 it's okay if I give you some background, some more background information. Is that okay?

Speaker 2 Okay, I'm trying to to understand. It's okay.
I'm trying to understand why you're discouraged. There's no reason to be.

Speaker 2 I'm really confused with that. Because, dude, you're in the top 2% of America.
You're killing it.

Speaker 4 I just think like long term, Dave, I think when

Speaker 4 I just see how everything is so expensive. And even when I pay off my home and I have all my retirement accounts, et cetera,

Speaker 4 I just...

Speaker 4 you know, I'm trying to really set my family up. So like in 10 years, my daughter will be 13, right?

Speaker 4 And I'm trying to almost get ahead of the game where I can make sure we can go on big vacations, you know, take care of her college.

Speaker 4 And I realize, okay, I'll be a millionaire, but I just, it feels like everything's so expensive, and it's such a long process. And I realize that, you know, wealth isn't obtained easy.

Speaker 4 I'm not trying to say that.

Speaker 2 It is a long process. 10 years is a lot longer than 10 minutes.
And most people have the attention span of a gnat.

Speaker 2 That's why they're not able to build wealth.

Speaker 5 I've been listening, Clayton, and

Speaker 5 I've been where you are. I actually, I hear me 10 years ago on this phone call.
So I just want to say this.

Speaker 5 Your issue is not comparison.

Speaker 2 Your issue is fear.

Speaker 5 And you're afraid you're not going to be able to do the things that you would like to do because you're too stuck in the headlines.

Speaker 5 And what you're not focusing on is, as Dave has pointed out, you're crushing at number one. You're really ahead of the game.
This is all going to compound for you, and you're going to be fine.

Speaker 5 You're going to take some great vacations. But what you're not focused on is what you can actually do.

Speaker 5 You're focused on all these outside circumstances, the economy, inflation, whatever else is going on in your head.

Speaker 2 You do need to quit witching the news.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you need to start focusing on your income and what you're going to make next year and the year after that, and how you're going to be able to make more money and that you can go out and determine your financial future.

Speaker 5 You're already great, but you're forgetting in all this headline stuff and all this fear and comparison.

Speaker 2 Here's what you're forgetting.

Speaker 5 Your ability, your wife's ability to put a financial plan that includes increasing income.

Speaker 2 And you're going to be able to pay for all those things. Yeah, your income's not going to be stagnant for the next 10 years.

Speaker 4 Absolutely.

Speaker 5 I don't know if that helps you, Clayton, but you got to shake all that stuff off. You're inside your head so deep.

Speaker 2 And or here, the thing, the secret to happiness is low expectations. And I'm a little bit afraid you thought when you you made $160,000, you were going to be rich.

Speaker 5 That's a very good point.

Speaker 2 And you're not rich at $160,000 with two kids.

Speaker 2 It's no cake. You thought it was going to be on Easy Street.
Like everything's going to, like you're going to be flying in a private jet or something. And, you know, it's $160,000.
You're not.

Speaker 2 So you got a lot more. You've got double the household income of the average American.

Speaker 2 You're in the top 1% or 2% of the average Americans, your age, with where you are with no debt and already having a positive net worth of a couple of hundred thousand dollars. you are killing it.

Speaker 2 And you actually are paying attention, which puts you way above almost everyone who walk around with their heads stuck in the fog.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 that was kind. I thought that was very kind.
I did that. I thought you were good.
I did that for radio. Did you hear that? Yeah.

Speaker 2 And yeah, I mean, that's, you're incredible. You're doing great.
You're doing great. Calm down.
Enjoy the ride, buddy. You really, I can't tell you enough to do this over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 Enjoy the ride.

Speaker 5 I want to say one other quick encouragement because, Dave, I think you're absolutely right. I just want to echo what Dave said.

Speaker 5 We have, with all young generations throughout history, but even more so now because we're in the social media era.

Speaker 2 God help us.

Speaker 5 I know. Unrealistic expectations lead to unmet expectations.

Speaker 5 I can't say that enough. I wish I could preach that message to every young person in the world because here's the deal.
You nailed it. They think when they get to six figures.

Speaker 2 I thought you were talking about my golf game and your golf game. Oh, yeah.
Unrealistic expectations. Mine are unrealistic.
Unmet expectations. That's it.

Speaker 5 No, I just, my golf game is in the last category, just unmet, period.

Speaker 2 It doesn't matter how much. That's what it is.
Because here's the thing: when you make $100,000 a year, you thought it was going to be easy.

Speaker 2 And when you make a million dollars a year, you thought it was going to be easy. It don't get easy.

Speaker 2 It just gets better than if you don't pay attention. That's all it does.
This is the Ramsey show.

Speaker 2 Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance, or they don't have any at all. I don't understand this, John.
Why don't people want to take care of their family?

Speaker 2 They think they're not going to die or something.

Speaker 7 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.

Speaker 7 And I immediately went and got term life insurance.

Speaker 2 That's a gut punch.

Speaker 7 For decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse. They've lost somebody important to them.
Me too. They don't know what to do next.

Speaker 2 Terrorists. You're going to have a crisis here.
You know, you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow.

Speaker 2 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.
These are the two options.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 They're the only people I trust. Go to Xander.com or call 800-356-4282.

Speaker 2 Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you for being with us, America.
Tanner's with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Tanner.

Speaker 2 How are you?

Speaker 4 I'm good. How are you?

Speaker 2 Better than I deserve. What's up?

Speaker 4 So, my question is: I'm curious about the flexibility of spending more than 30% of your take-home pay on rent. I found that pretty difficult to do, especially in like an urban area like DC.

Speaker 4 I live in downtown.

Speaker 4 I make around $90,000 a year post-grad 23-year-old.

Speaker 4 I've got about $20,000 in cash and $7,000 in an investment account. And

Speaker 4 my only debt is around

Speaker 4 $7,500 in student loans. And I spend about $2,000 a month in rent, which is my biggest expense by far.
But I still find myself able to save and spend less on other things.

Speaker 4 I'm just curious your take on that approach.

Speaker 2 Okay. Well, we tell folks to put 25% of their take-home pay aside for housing.
And no, math works in every city and in every state.

Speaker 2 You don't get a pass on math because you're in Washington, D.C., even though Congress thinks you do. Yeah, I was going to say, a lot of people think they do.
Yeah, a lot of people in D.C.

Speaker 2 think you do, but you don't. And the purpose behind it is not that 25% is magic, Tanner.

Speaker 2 The purpose behind it is don't be house poor. If you find yourself able to save and able to invest because you keep all other parts of your lifestyle so low, then you're okay.

Speaker 2 But what happens to most people is when they've got a high cost of housing in their budget, it squeezes their budget and there's not room to save up to buy the next car.

Speaker 2 So the next car becomes debt and there's not room to save up for Christmas and Christmas becomes debt and there's not room to save up for a couch and the couch becomes debt because it's all going out in house payment.

Speaker 2 And so in effect, what you did is you

Speaker 2 didn't, you know,

Speaker 2 by squeezing yourself, you did that. Now, you're telling me you've made room in your budget and you're doing okay.
Then, you know, whatever you want to do, brother. But here's the thing.

Speaker 2 Whatever you spend on rent is gone.

Speaker 2 I mean, you're just setting fire to $100 bills in the middle of the floor. And so the more $100 bills you you burn in the middle of the floor, the fewer less money you got, man.

Speaker 2 I mean, it's a pretty simple equation.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah,

Speaker 4 it definitely reduces the

Speaker 4 ability to buy down the road for sure.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, because you're giving it to them in rent. And so I don't know how you fix that exactly necessarily in your situation.
Maybe your commute is longer. Maybe there's a roommate involved.

Speaker 2 Or maybe you just say, it's going to cost me this and it's my choice and I'm an adult. Well, yeah, you're allowed to do all that.

Speaker 2 But our reason to give you giving you the 25% guideline, it's not a rule, it's a guideline, is so that you don't become house poor.

Speaker 2 Because if you're, for instance, going to get a mortgage, folks, in America,

Speaker 2 the stupid mortgage company will approve you for almost double that.

Speaker 2 I mean, they'll approve you close to 50% of your take-home pay, 36% of your ratio.

Speaker 2 And that's not based on take-home pay, the 36%.

Speaker 2 You can get a house payment up close to half of your dadgum take-home pay. And there's just no way that budget works, people.
And well, I'm in California.

Speaker 2 Well, California, they got to do math too, even though your governor doesn't think so. You've got to do math.
You know, it's not an option. Math is math, and it's not a moral construct.

Speaker 2 It's a math thing.

Speaker 5 Well, to win, Tanner, in professional world, financial world, you've got to sacrifice. Everybody who wins has to sacrifice something.
And what we've done here with this 25%,

Speaker 5 you are now now having to choose, do you want to sacrifice money, as Dave said, by burning those extra $100 between the 5% that we're talking about?

Speaker 5 Or do you want to sacrifice a little bit of your time? Now, you're living downtown DC. That's premium.
And I get it. You may work on the hill, who knows what you do, but you're there for a reason.

Speaker 5 But if you move out into the suburbs of Northern Virginia, I know it well. Yes, it's a headache.
But we'd rather you sacrifice the right thing. And that's why we put this.

Speaker 5 I want people to understand what we're teaching here. It's not to be hard and fast on a rule.
It's to help you learn what you need to sacrifice.

Speaker 5 And in my situation, if I were in your situation, Tanner, I would be sacrificing my time, not my money.

Speaker 2 Yeah. 23 years old? Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, I will tell you this, Ken. I did it worse than he's doing it.
Sure. Worse.
Yeah, he's in good shape. My wife and I get out of college, and here's how stupid we were.

Speaker 2 We go and rent a, we have two dogs.

Speaker 2 We're just out of college. We've got two little jobs.

Speaker 2 We go and rent a three-bedroom townhouse. Sure.
Luxury. Right.
Thing. Sure.
That's like five times what we needed

Speaker 2 because we thought it was cool.

Speaker 5 Do you remember what were in the extra rooms?

Speaker 2 Nothing.

Speaker 2 Sure. Because by the time we finished paying the freaking rent, we had no money.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so what we ended up doing was moving into a little one-bedroom apartment in a questionable,

Speaker 2 I don't know what those ladies down the hall were doing, in a questionable situation and um you were hoping you weren't on a vice episode

Speaker 2 man i'm telling you and uh we lived there for a year but it was one-third the rent that we were paying before one-third and so that'd be like you you had an eighteen hundred dollar rent and we moved down to a six hundred dollar rent right you know kind of thing today in today's dollars it was a lot less than that in the back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth but yeah but oh my gosh wow well see i hear i did the exact same crap No, I get it.

Speaker 2 But I wanted something nice and I had a job. Yeah.
And I'd gotten out of college and I deserved it.

Speaker 5 We have a lot of 23-year-olds that are in a very similar situation to Tanner. Now, just think about this.

Speaker 5 If he gets a roommate and now he's saving, let's just call it $1,000 a month, okay, splitting the rent. He's paying off that student loan debt of $7,000 really, really fast.

Speaker 5 And now he's just stacking money.

Speaker 2 So that's what we're talking about. Stacking cash.
Stacking cash, man. So much smarter than renting.

Speaker 2 Paying all that money in rent. Tyler's in Louisville.
Hi, Tyler. What's up?

Speaker 4 Yes, I had a quick question. First of all, you guys are awesome.

Speaker 2 Thank you.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 4 I'm on Baby Step 2 and

Speaker 4 been doing ish for a while.

Speaker 4 At the beginning of the year, I got smart and said, you're stupid. Get out of debt.

Speaker 4 With the student loans coming back up because I've been basically taking that payment button towards everything else. Mine is consolidated, or I believe it is at least.

Speaker 4 Do I look at the individual loan amounts or do I just look at the consolidated amount where i put it at if it's consolidated it's now one amount

Speaker 2 okay it used to be little loans if it is one loan

Speaker 2 i mean if it's if it's a bunch of little are you paying will you be paying a bunch of little payments or one payment no i pay one payment and when i look at it i see all the individual ones i took out yeah but you that doesn't matter but it's the purpose of the debt snowball is you want to what you want to have happen in the debt snowball is you want to um

Speaker 2 clear a debt and that payment on that debt to go away. When you clear one of these little debts, it doesn't change your payment.

Speaker 4 All right. That's what I was thinking.
I wasn't sure.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I would just put the total in your debt snowball.

Speaker 4 Awesome. That works.

Speaker 2 Hey, man.

Speaker 2 Thank you, sir. Get after it.

Speaker 2 That's really smart because the data is now coming out now that we're actually finding that you're going to have to pay your student loans, which we kind of been telling you for three freaking years.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 now that we found out that we were right again,

Speaker 2 yes, I just said I told you so. Live with it.

Speaker 2 But now that we found out you have to pay your student loans, there's going to be a lot of questions about student loans.

Speaker 2 And one of the things we're finding, Jade and I were talking about this earlier, is that

Speaker 2 people

Speaker 2 basically took the money that they would have been paying on student loans and spent it

Speaker 2 on

Speaker 2 vacations,

Speaker 2 alcohol, drugs.

Speaker 2 This is the actual surveys are coming back. I went on a party

Speaker 2 with the money that the taxpayers told me I didn't have to pay right now because you were in a COVID crisis. Anybody remember what COVID was?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it was just a minute ago, but it was a crisis, if y'all didn't remember. And it was such a crisis that nobody could pay their student loans.

Speaker 2 But they were able to use the money that they would have been paying on their student loans and go buy drugs and alcohol and vacations. So apparently it wasn't too big a freaking crisis.

Speaker 2 What do I know?

Speaker 2 Just going with the data here.

Speaker 5 Yes, what happens when you trust a politician with an empty promise that's not constitutional?

Speaker 2 Someone from the medical community that's trying to do math.

Speaker 5 Well, there's that.

Speaker 2 Which is proof that we've proven that, you know, once America got Fauci'd, we figured out what happened. This

Speaker 2 is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 8 Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade Warshaw. And look, if there's anybody who knows student loan debt is a problem, it's me.

Speaker 8 My husband and I had $280,000 of it, but we were able to dig ourselves out and you can too.

Speaker 8 If your student loan payment and interest rate are burying you refinancing could be the solution now I recommend contacting my friends at Laurel Road today through their online application you can get an initial rate quote in less than five minutes and if you have a more complex situation you can schedule 30 minutes to talk to an actual human being thank goodness laurel road makes it simple there are no fees involved and you could save thousands over the life of your loan remember you should only refinance if it makes sense in your situation.

Speaker 8 So if you're looking for a low rate or a shorter term so that you can pay off these student loans fast, talk to my friends at Laurel Road about their competitive interest rates and how you could actually get a lower rate by signing up for autopay.

Speaker 8 Listen, nobody's coming to save you from student loan debt. If you want them gone, you can't mess around.
Go to laurelroad.com slash Ramsey to find out more about student loan refinancing.

Speaker 8 Again, that's laurelroad.com/slash Ramsey. Laurel Road is a brand of Key Bank National Association.
All credit products are subject to credit approval.

Speaker 2 Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author of the book From Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Speaker 2 Thank you for joining us, America, in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Jared and Christina are with us.
Hey, guys, how are you? Good. How are you? Welcome.
Where do you guys live?

Speaker 2 Woodstock, Georgia, about 40 miles north of Atlanta. Yeah, know it well.
Well, welcome to Nashville. Not a bad drive up here.
Not bad. Good to have you.
So how much debt have you two paid off?

Speaker 2 $136,000. All right.
And how long did this take you? Seven years to the day that we bought the house. Ah, okay.
And what was your range of income during that seven years?

Speaker 2 We started about 60 and ended about 145,000. Cool.
What do y'all do for a living? I'm a mechanic for the post office.

Speaker 9 And I'm a constable manager at Kennesaw State University.

Speaker 2 Awesome. Yeah.
All right. So you got a little bit of a commute down there.

Speaker 9 Actually, it's only nine miles from E.

Speaker 2 Oh, okay. All right.
Not bad. All right.
I missed up. All right.
So 136, seven years. Sounds like you paid off your house.
Yes. All right.
Look at it. Weird people.

Speaker 2 Way to go, you guys. What's this house worth?

Speaker 9 $345,000 now.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry? $345,000. $345.
Awesome. Very cool.
So how much do you guys have in your retirement savings already?

Speaker 9 I think we're at about $100,000.

Speaker 9 Last year was a little bit of a hit in everybody's.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Okay.
So you're going to be about a half million dollar net worth already. So you're on your way to being millionaires in no time.
Way to go. That's fun.
I just said that out loud.

Speaker 2 Do you hear that?

Speaker 2 Wow. That's pretty stinking cool, guys.
So what starts you on this journey seven years ago?

Speaker 9 So it actually started when we first got married 15 years ago. We just celebrated our 15th year anniversary.

Speaker 2 Congratulations.

Speaker 9 And so our first year, you know, I'm actually not originally from here, so we knew each other in person from before. And then when I moved here it was really the first time we did anything together

Speaker 9 and we got married in July of 2008 and it was you know the year a great year to get married so we pretty quickly figured out that you know our finances are will need some

Speaker 9 improvement pretty quickly. We had a little bit of debt.
I grew up living pretty frugally.

Speaker 9 And so we had some arguments and by the end of that year we knew we we sold the car that he had some debt on and then when I got a job we actually paid all of our debt our biggest issue was

Speaker 9 the underwater mortgage for the town home that was purchased in 2007

Speaker 9 so you know we were kind of bopping along for a couple years we then we had kids and I ended up staying at home it was pretty tight

Speaker 9 and we were still kind of trying to figure out where we what are we going to do about the house eventually It has still not come up to the value that it was.

Speaker 9 And at some point, we got an email from our church. We go to Woodstock City Church introducing Financial PC University.

Speaker 9 And in there, I was like, ah, you know, I'm pretty frugal. I keep my budget.

Speaker 9 You know, after the fact, I got a track of what we spent.

Speaker 9 But it said it will show you how you can buy and sell a house. So I'm like, you know, why don't we take this class?

Speaker 9 So

Speaker 9 when we went and took the class, I was like, you know, where have y'all been before?

Speaker 9 So we did quite a few things, followed quite a few things. One of them was we immediately refied that house to a 15

Speaker 9 so that we could start paying down

Speaker 9 what we owed on it.

Speaker 9 And

Speaker 2 from the 7% interest rate that I had been paying on,

Speaker 9 essentially our payment stayed the same, but more was going to be a lot more.

Speaker 2 You went down to what, a three?

Speaker 9 It was up for

Speaker 9 at the time.

Speaker 9 It was 2013.

Speaker 9 And so,

Speaker 9 yes, 2013, I contacted one of the LPs. We loved her, Lindsay Haas.

Speaker 9 A shout out to her. She came out because we knew we couldn't sell the house right away.
So she showed us what to do.

Speaker 9 She didn't charge anything for that. So we started over the next couple of years, we started doing some upgrades to the house.
Like we painted, we redid the...

Speaker 9 not redid the deck, but we cleaned up the deck and all of them, some other stuff.

Speaker 9 And so when the time came in 2016, we were still kind of figuring out whether we're staying in the area or whatnot, and then our HOA was kind of going down the hill.

Speaker 9 We decided it was time to put it up for sale.

Speaker 9 Again, Lindsay helped us through that process. She was a great selling and buying agent.
There were several

Speaker 9 offers on the house that we were looking at to buy.

Speaker 9 And

Speaker 9 we had had enough equity, gotten enough equity out of the house. And we had had some savings, or rather,

Speaker 9 from a sale of an apartment apartment that I had back home. I'm not originally from the U.S.
And it was about 20K. So we were able to put 20% down like you

Speaker 2 teach. Yes.
So you not only got out of the bad townhome, bad HOA that had been upside down, but you were able to put 20% down on the new deal. On the New Deal? Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 And then seven years later, you paid it off. And now it's worth $345.
Yes. You got to feel like a genius.

Speaker 2 We bought two cars, cash, during this time while we were paying this house off. Yeah.

Speaker 9 Wow. Another shout-out I wanted to do to Rachel.
I remember her her talking about how, you know, if you want to, because I wanted to get a change in the career.

Speaker 9 And so I went and took classes at a smaller college, you know, not a four-year college, because that we could cash flow at the time.

Speaker 9 And then now that I work at KSU, I went ahead and finished my bachelor degree.

Speaker 2 They pay for it. They pay for it, right?

Speaker 9 And I'm working on my master's. So quite a few accomplishments along the way.

Speaker 5 So how does it feel? I want people who are maybe new to this program going, they paid their house off.

Speaker 5 That was the debt what does it feel like to not have a house payment now and then as you look toward the future it's sinking in it's still not really hit us um but

Speaker 2 there were several people i worked with that were like oh you need to not worry about that you need to buy this and buy this and go have fun and you can worry about that later you've got time before retirement and now I've had several guys come up to me, shake my hand, like, we're proud of you.

Speaker 2 Good job. That's cool.

Speaker 2 They kind of see it can be done now. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And Christina, you really, I mean, you upped your game on your whole career.
That's a nice move.

Speaker 5 It's a very nice move. So what was the increase in your pay? Because we looked at the total.
You guys went from 60 to 145. How much did you increase?

Speaker 9 So that was incremental.

Speaker 9 I started this full-time job in 2018. I was looking at, you know, numbers, and we actually averaged about 108.
My latest promotion was in January to the manager position.

Speaker 5 That was senior accountant. So how big of a bump was that for you?

Speaker 9 14. Yeah.

Speaker 9 But, you know, the previous year I went to senior accountant, which that was about 15.

Speaker 2 She

Speaker 2 goes and gets the education that

Speaker 2 she can afford in her budget and then goes to work for a college, and they give her free to finish her bachelor's. So there's a path here called common freaking sense.
Way to go.

Speaker 2 I'm so proud of you, heroes. Thank you.
Excellent job. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

Speaker 2 Stick together, talk it through, be in agreement.

Speaker 2 You won't always see eye to eye on everything, but work through it.

Speaker 2 Make sure to get to that point.

Speaker 9 Every morning, you know, I am the nerd. He's the free spirit in the sense that

Speaker 9 I

Speaker 9 worry about my spreadsheets. But every Sunday we get together, we sit, and we just talk, you know, we dream.
And so, you know, his one of his hugest contributions is he's actually worked

Speaker 9 overtime for the last 10 years.

Speaker 9 Six days a week, pretty much every week. So there was a lot of, of, you know, it wasn't easy.

Speaker 2 No. How old are you two?

Speaker 2 41 today. Yeah.
And you got happy birthday. Thank you.
And you got a paid-for $350,000 house.

Speaker 9 And I'm 44.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And, you know, you're on your way to being millionaires in no time.
Congratulations. We're so proud of you, heroes.
Well done, heroes. All right, bring the kiddos up.

Speaker 2 Give us their names and ages.

Speaker 2 And while they're coming up, we've got a Baby Steps Millionaires book for you, a Total Money Makeover book for you, and a Financial Peace University membership for you.

Speaker 2 You can use them or give them away. That's the live and give box.
We'll have that for you. Thanks for coming up to do your debt-free scream.
So, what are their names and ages? This is Greg, he's 11.

Speaker 9 This is Kira, and she's 10 and a half.

Speaker 2 All right, they have no idea yet what their parents have done to change their family tree. Pretty incredible, guys.
You guys are awesome.

Speaker 2 All right, Jared and Christina, Greg and Kira from Woodstock, Georgia, $136,000 paid off in seven years. House and everything

Speaker 2 making $60,000 to 145 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream one two three we are dead free yeah

Speaker 2 this is how it's done I love it she goes back to school at community college yep ups her game goes and finishes her master goes and finishes her bachelor's ups her game well done guys and he works overtime like crazy that's right this is the Ramsey show

Speaker 2 Hey, technology has changed a lot in the last 30 years. Now the hot topic is AI, and I understand that it might seem intimidating.

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Speaker 2 Ken Tolman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America.
Open phones at 888-825-5225. Shiloh is with us in Billings, Montana.
Hi, Shiloh. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 2 Thank you for having me. Sure.
What's up?

Speaker 4 Okay, so my question is, my husband husband works for a company that is unionized, and they are potentially going to be striking fairly soon. And

Speaker 4 my question is, do we hunker down and wait and ride it out, or do we work on paying off our debt still?

Speaker 4 What's the best solution to do?

Speaker 2 It depends on the probability of the strike. And let's talk that through for a second.
Okay. Sure.

Speaker 2 How long has he worked worked for that company?

Speaker 4 Seven years.

Speaker 2 Have they ever been on strike while he worked there? No, sir. When was the last time they were on strike?

Speaker 4 1997, I think.

Speaker 2 No, you do not hunker down.

Speaker 4 Okay. Okay.

Speaker 2 Now,

Speaker 2 if it gets up closer and it heats up and it heats up and it heats up, and you feel like the probability, the actual facts, not the emotions, the facts of what's going on indicate that you've got a 70 or an 80% chance they are going to go out, then stop everything and pile up cash.

Speaker 2 But right now, what you've got is a bunch of saber rattling. You know what I mean by that?

Speaker 4 Yes, sir, I do.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the sounds of war, but there's not going to be war.

Speaker 4 Okay. Yeah,

Speaker 4 he is more confident that there won't be a strike than I am.

Speaker 2 And what I'm trying to help you do, and I have to do this myself, and Ken works with people on careers and do the same thing, is we have to separate

Speaker 2 Deloney,

Speaker 2 Dr. John Deloney talks about this anytime we're facing

Speaker 2 an anxiety situation, a trauma situation. We have to separate facts from fears.
Facts are our friends. What you are doing is worrying.
That's what you just told me. And I do that too.

Speaker 2 I do that too. But when the facts are that there's been two meetings and there was a meltdown and the guy stormed out, and the last time that happened, there was a strike.
Well, that's a fact.

Speaker 2 We're probably going into a strike. But in the meantime, what it is, it's like, I don't like this.
They could just put us out and we got no idea. I don't know what's going on.
I feel out of control.

Speaker 2 Well, that's just worrying.

Speaker 2 Okay. Both are normal, but we just have to make good decisions based on all of that.

Speaker 5 Yeah. And one of the things you want to work with.

Speaker 2 Okay, go ahead. Sorry.
Go ahead.

Speaker 4 Well, we have enough in our savings account to pay off all of our consumer debt.

Speaker 2 Do it.

Speaker 4 So just go ahead and do it, and then

Speaker 4 we'll be okay.

Speaker 2 Okay, that makes sense. You won't have any of those payments if you go on strike.
That'd be great. That's right.

Speaker 5 And then, Shiloh, you and your husband need to be aware, because every union is different, but one of the major potential strikes that's coming down the pike is UPS right now.

Speaker 5 And in that particular, this is one of the largest union, the largest union in the country. You need to find out.

Speaker 4 I don't know if he works for his UPS.

Speaker 5 Okay, so I actually have report. Okay, I actually know a little bit about this story.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute. I may change my answer.
So tell me what's going on.

Speaker 5 Well, no, no, actually, Dave is still right.

Speaker 5 What we want to do is that has been reported that the union is saying, and this is posturing as well, but your husband's got to know how much am I going to get paid during this strike and for how long?

Speaker 5 Because these unions have money set aside for strikes, Dave. But

Speaker 5 it's not forever and ever and ever. And so what you have to look at is.
You have to get the numbers. We could survive.
I'll continue to get paid for three months if the strike goes beyond.

Speaker 5 So these are the kind of facts that Dave is talking about. And he's right.
We pay attention to this and we go, okay, I know that for

Speaker 2 a share that UPS would lose to FedEx in three months, it'll never happen. It wouldn't recover from.
That's right.

Speaker 5 And it'll never happen. But the point is, is the unions have enough money in a pool.
Your husband needs to find out

Speaker 5 how long would I get paid for. And see, this is the point that Dave is making.
So we could survive. We pay off the debt and we replenish that emergency fund even in a one-month strike.

Speaker 5 Because I don't think it goes longer than 30 days.

Speaker 2 I don't think it goes longer. I don't think it ever happens.

Speaker 5 These are the facts that you're talking about, Dave.

Speaker 2 So you got to know.

Speaker 2 Okay,

Speaker 2 I didn't have this other information.

Speaker 2 That's all right. That's very good.

Speaker 2 Now

Speaker 2 I'm even more sure. That's right.
Pay off your debt, work your system. I'm not saying there's never going to be a strike.
I would just say there's a very long time.

Speaker 5 It's not going to last a long time. I'm just telling you.

Speaker 2 UPS cannot afford it. No.
Can't afford it. FedEx will eat their lunch.
Yeah, they'll be gone. Yes.

Speaker 2 They would lose.

Speaker 2 The business aspect of that is just mind-boggling. So, yeah, no, no, you're good.

Speaker 5 You're good. Very good.
And one other point to point out,

Speaker 5 this is like Dems and Republicans posturing over the debt ceiling. Let me just tell you, it don't matter who they are.

Speaker 2 I've been old enough.

Speaker 5 I've been around long enough to know they're going to keep extending the debt. So I don't hear that headline.
Oh, it's going to shut the world out. No, the Republicans are going to shut the world out.

Speaker 5 They're going to keep extending the debt. This is posturing and negotiation.
You know this well. So in this case, nothing to worry about here at all.
You're going to be paid at least a month as well.

Speaker 5 Even the union folks are saying we have about three months' worth of dues set aside that would pay our members while we're striking.

Speaker 5 So, those are the nuances, but actual facts that help you make this decision.

Speaker 2 Massive deal. Wow.
It is. I'm going to read on this.
I'm really ignorant. Okay.
Fun. Hey, that's why you pay me to do that.
I truly don't like being ignorant. So

Speaker 2 I don't mind you being smarter than me. Oh, no, I'm not.

Speaker 5 I just have to pay attention to work-related issues like this, you know.

Speaker 2 morgan's with us morgan's in louisiana hi morgan how are you

Speaker 4 i'm great hi dave thank you for taking my call sure how come we help um so yes sir so i am kind of in this situation my husband and i um we have been married almost three years in february and um

Speaker 4 we have our finances uh separate um I have three children and he has one daughter who's in college.

Speaker 4 And so we're just trying to figure out how to go about combining the finances with the salary I make and his salary and what we owe and expenses in that nature.

Speaker 4 What steps do you advise us when we begin in so many?

Speaker 2 How long ago were you divorced?

Speaker 4 Oh, gosh, mine was in 15.

Speaker 2 Okay. And

Speaker 2 was

Speaker 2 money problems a contributing factor?

Speaker 4 No, sir.

Speaker 2 Well, how long ago was he divorced?

Speaker 4 He was, I believe,

Speaker 4 18, 2018.

Speaker 2 Were money problems a contributing factor?

Speaker 2 Yes, sir. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 So at some point in your new marriages, you have to be married to the person you are married to now, not the one you used to be married to.

Speaker 2 Meaning

Speaker 2 he can't hold

Speaker 2 her misbehavior with money against you and use that as a reason to not combine finances. That's why I ask those questions.

Speaker 2 This is typically what causes people to not not combine their finances who have been married once. They got trashed the last time.

Speaker 2 And it's hard not, it's hard, it's hard to go back.

Speaker 2 You know, it's hard to go, oh, yes, I'm going to treat, you know, but he really has, as a part of his healing from that other divorce, is his commitment to you and the two of you combining your finances.

Speaker 2 So tactically, what you do is

Speaker 2 we change our proverbs and proverbs. We change our pronouns.

Speaker 2 Okay. It's our money, not your money, my money.
It's our income. It's our debt.
It's our house. It's our grocery bill.
There's not a yours and mine.

Speaker 2 If you don't do this, you lower your probability of building wealth tremendously.

Speaker 2 All of the data that we have says that people that work together have a much higher probability of becoming wealthy than those who run two separate households like a couple of freaking roommates.

Speaker 4 Absolutely, Dave. and and that's how we both feel that we're we're just like you know roommates so you just put it in one pile

Speaker 2 you have one pile of income at the top of the page yours plus his equals our and then we have our expenses down the page our food our lights our water our house our our our our vacation uh we're visiting your mother and we are paying for that and whatever it is right that kind of you got it it's all the way down the page and if you guys are paying for his daughter's college, that's our expense because you married her when you married him.

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 2 Right?

Speaker 2 Am I off track here?

Speaker 4 You are on track. And I'm going to say I, too, am at fault in struggling with the finance from the first marriage.

Speaker 4 So we both have been.

Speaker 2 You got to forgive the person you're married to now because they didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker 2 It's hard, though, because it's human nature to not put your hand out once a dog bits you, you know? Ouch.

Speaker 2 This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 5 Hey, it's Ken. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way.

Speaker 5 Go to ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Speaker 3 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?

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Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Thank you for joining us, America.

Speaker 2 I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, host of the Ken Coleman Show, and author of the number one selling book, From Paycheck to Purpose, where he helps people with their careers, their jobs, and their work.

Speaker 2 And he's going to be doing that today right here on the Ramsey Show. Phone number here is 888-825-5225.
Louisa is with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Louisa.
How are you?

Speaker 4 Good afternoon. So great to be speaking with you today.
Thank you so much for taking my call. Thank you.

Speaker 2 What's up?

Speaker 4 All right. I've got a what would Dave do scenario and I'm pretty sure I know what you're going to say but I'll kind of just want to walk through some options I have and it's concerning my mortgage.

Speaker 4 So a little bit of background. I have an arm that resets every November and it hasn't really been much of an issue until recently, obviously because the rates have gone up.

Speaker 4 So it is resetting from 4.5% to 6.5%.

Speaker 2 Joyful.

Speaker 4 Yep, the balance on the loan is $99,000. I've actually paid off $52,000 in the last year

Speaker 4 and I am on track to pay this off. My goal is December of 2025.
Okay.

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 4 Here are the scenarios. I just want to walk through, want to get your thought.

Speaker 4 Option one is just to

Speaker 4 stick with the new payment coming up in November. My payment is actually going down $180, even with the rate going up because I've paid off so much.
So it's actually going down $180.

Speaker 4 So that's option one is just proceeding with 6.5%.

Speaker 4 And then

Speaker 4 the rate would reset

Speaker 4 next year.

Speaker 4 Option two is a recast. And I've kind of read where you're not a big fan of a mortgage recast and want to get your thoughts on this.
So, obviously, the rate would stay the same, 6.5%.

Speaker 4 This would require a $20,000 payment

Speaker 4 by the end of October, and that would lower the payment $140 a month. Okay.

Speaker 4 So, that's option two.

Speaker 2 And then, why would you want to lower it if you're paying it off in two years? What's the benefit?

Speaker 4 Well,

Speaker 4 I guess that's where I

Speaker 4 think

Speaker 2 I don't understand. It's like we're trying to pay it off in two years or two and a half years, right?

Speaker 4 Right. Right.

Speaker 2 So how does lowering the payment accomplish that?

Speaker 4 I mean, it's lowering the interest that I'm paying.

Speaker 2 No, it's not. I mean, that would be.
No, it's not.

Speaker 2 Are you going to recast at a lower interest rate?

Speaker 4 No, I'm recasting. I'm taking it from a balance of $99,000 to $60,000.

Speaker 2 Oh, it would lower the balance. Yes.
But you could do that anyway. You don't have to recast to do that.

Speaker 4 Yes, I could.

Speaker 2 And that's what I've been doing is just recast. All recasting does is reset the payment based on a longer term.
It doesn't change the interest charged.

Speaker 4 Right, right.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 2 So there's no benefit to you mathematically to recast.

Speaker 2 Okay. Given that you're planning to pay it off in two years.

Speaker 2 Yes, correct.

Speaker 4 And here's the other thing is that I don't have $20,000 just sitting around.

Speaker 2 Well, then there's that.

Speaker 4 Right, exactly. So that kind of brings me to option three.

Speaker 4 And let me just preface this by saying, I heard you about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, before the rates were creeping up, because I was going to refinance.

Speaker 4 And I remember you telling a caller, don't refinance if you can pay it off in three years. So I kind of went with that model.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I'm on target. I'm on track to pay this off.
And that is really why I did not refinance. But option three

Speaker 4 would be digging into my brokerage account and paying it off entirely.

Speaker 4 I have about $200,000. I'd have to cash, you know, not in a retirement.

Speaker 2 You have a brokerage account sitting there with enough to pay it off?

Speaker 4 Yes, I do.

Speaker 2 Pay it off today.

Speaker 2 You knew I was going to do that.

Speaker 4 I did. I did.
I still... Wanted to walk through the options.

Speaker 2 Okay. So if you had a paid-for home with a brokerage account account with $100,000 less in it, would you go borrow $99,000 on your paid-for home to put more money in your brokerage account?

Speaker 2 No. It's the same thing.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 I think I'm just having some.

Speaker 2 Let me tell you what's going to happen, all right, that you don't anticipate. Because I've been the other side of it myself and with a whole bunch of other people.

Speaker 2 You do not understand when you pay this off and you walk out in the backyard with no shoes on, that the grass is going to feel so much different.

Speaker 2 There's going to be a level of peace blow through your home like a nice cool wind that you don't even know is coming.

Speaker 2 When you owe no man nothing,

Speaker 2 all this hand-wringing you've been doing for the last few minutes trying to figure out what to do, all that's gone.

Speaker 2 Just clean and simple. You just own your house.
You're weird. I love it.

Speaker 2 I love it.

Speaker 2 And listen, if you really hate it, then go get you a new mortgage.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 But I don't think you're going to hate it. I think you're going to feel freedom that you have not felt in your adult life.

Speaker 4 Yep.

Speaker 2 And I know that from having experienced it myself because I don't have any debt and haven't had for 30 years.

Speaker 2 And I walk around without all of these weights on my shoulders

Speaker 2 that a lot of people have. And I get to make different decisions and have a different level of calm in the middle of a storm and all of that.
Pay off your house, Louisa. Please.

Speaker 2 I promise you you won't regret it. But if I'm completely bonkers and you do regret it, you can always go get you another mortgage.

Speaker 5 And theoretically put it back in the brokers.

Speaker 6 There's a fear there.

Speaker 2 You could hear it. Yeah, no, it's just this angst of

Speaker 2 the devil I know. Yeah, that's right.
The devil I know versus the peace I've never known.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 it's, I don't know if I'm doing something wrong. I don't know if the, which is the correct thing.
And let me just tell you, man, when you get

Speaker 2 no

Speaker 2 payments in the whole freaking world,

Speaker 2 financial peace,

Speaker 2 two words that don't go together, like airline service.

Speaker 2 Man.

Speaker 2 Wow. Like postal service.
Sorry to you, postal people. Oh, my gosh.
Sorry to you, airline people. I mean, really, I mean, it's financial peace.
Two words that don't go together.

Speaker 2 I mean, I've got money in a brokerage. I've got my emergency fund.
I've got retirement going. And I own

Speaker 2 my

Speaker 2 whole

Speaker 2 freaking house.

Speaker 2 Some of you need to breathe breathe that in and make that a goal.

Speaker 2 Some of you spend a lot of calories flipping stuff over in your head, wringing your hands, trying to figure out something

Speaker 2 when the answers are usually pretty simple. Clean it up, people.

Speaker 2 Simplify, simplify.

Speaker 2 That's it. Simplify.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's hard to beat, guys. Hard to beat.
This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 5 Let me tell you the guy, it's gonna cut you down.

Speaker 6 It's Holy Week in Jerusalem, and the city is restless.

Speaker 11 The people of Israel welcome Jesus as king, his followers ready for revolution.

Speaker 6 But instead of taking the throne, Jesus turns the tables.

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Speaker 2 Well, about eight years ago, I looked up on Twitter, back when I looked at Twitter, and

Speaker 2 there were some guys on there poking fun at all kinds of people. And then the next thing I knew, they were making fun of me.
And they're funny as crud. And some of my favorite follows on social media.

Speaker 2 The bee, the Babylon B.

Speaker 2 Kyle Mann, one of the founders of the Babylon Bee, along with his friend Adam, who's gone on to do other things now, but they started this thing over in California and a satirical look at church for one thing, and church making fun of us church people by church people because you're a pastor's kid.

Speaker 2 Or no, you are a pastor. You were a pastor, yeah.
Yeah, you were a pastor at one point. My dad's a rocket scientist.
Oh, well, there's that. Wow.
For real? Yeah.

Speaker 2 No, it's not that joke. You know, not everything I say is Right, right.
Well, I'm just checking. I didn't know if you're pointing.

Speaker 2 Kyle Mann is the editor-in-chief of The Bee, the Babylon Bee.

Speaker 2 Around here, all the Ramsey folk are big fans of the Bee, and we recommend you guys check it out if you want to have a good snicker, a good laugh

Speaker 2 a couple times a day. And you ought to get something positive out of social media, so there's a way you can do it.
So welcome, Kyle. Good to have you.
We're big fans, man. Good to be here.

Speaker 2 Thanks for having me. So fake news you can trust.
All right, did Trump steal that from you or did you steal it from Trump?

Speaker 2 It's ours, man. It's copyrighted.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 We made the t-shirt, so we own the phrase. But fake news he stole from you?

Speaker 2 Well, no, we stole fake news from you. Okay, that's what I thought.
Yeah. But you're fake news.
We owe him no royalties on it. But fake news you can trust is your trust.
That's us. That's all us.

Speaker 2 Because you can't trust all the fake news, but you can trust this one. That's about 1b.
Great, great play. Great satire.
I mean, you've got a sense of humor.

Speaker 2 Sarcasm is my love language, so I love the whole thing. And you guys have come at me a bunch of times, and I've loved every bit of it.
We always get good response

Speaker 2 because you're not too hard on me,

Speaker 2 but you get a good use of it.

Speaker 2 You want us to be able to get him out of here. No, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 I'm trying not to make you mad. Yeah,

Speaker 2 I don't need anybody else picking on me out there.

Speaker 2 But satire is tough. I mean,

Speaker 2 is it harder to create satire

Speaker 2 when real life things are so over the top? I mean, it's so weird out there that it's like reality is satire. Yeah.

Speaker 2 G.K. Chesterton wrote 100 years ago that he thought satire would be impossible because the real news was so absurd.
He wrote that in like 1911.

Speaker 2 And you picture how crazy the news has gotten from 1911 until 2023. You know, you just, you open up the news and you can't tell if it's a real news headline or the Babylon be headlines.

Speaker 2 Sometimes I can't tell, and I'm writing the headlines. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, that's how difficult it is. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, when I was a kid, the local newspaper, you might not agree with their politics, but it was at least objective. The CBS nightly news with Walter Cronkite was at least objective.

Speaker 2 But if I look at CNN's website, Fox's website, look at the local newspaper here in Nashville, it more resembles the National Enquirer when I was a kid than it did, than it does. I mean, even their

Speaker 2 look-tone feel, their fonts and everything,

Speaker 2 it's just so salacious, so bizarre. It's aliens.
You know,

Speaker 2 that was reserved for the National Enquirer and the line when you're buying groceries, you know?

Speaker 2 But it has all shifted that way to where, you know,

Speaker 2 you guys probably get confused for real stuff sometimes don't you? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we've been fact-checked dozens of times our jokes get fact-checked by Snopes USA Today.

Speaker 2 Of course all different kinds of outlets fact-check our jokes because people think they're real.

Speaker 5 What's the most famous case of a story being taken very seriously?

Speaker 2 Well Snopes fact-checked one of our articles that was CNN purchases industrial washing machine to spin the news.

Speaker 5 Somebody actually checked on that.

Speaker 2 And that got fact-checked. And our Facebook page got demonetized, deplatformed, deplatformed, you know, all of that stuff because of that article, because it was fact-checked.

Speaker 2 And they said, oh, you guys are sharing fake news.

Speaker 2 Yes!

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's a shit.
Oh, no. Because CNN, yeah.
The children watching. CNN really didn't do that.
Who knew? Yeah, as far as we know. Yeah, as far as we know.

Speaker 5 Is there anything off-limits for you guys? Or what's that editorial process like?

Speaker 5 I even hate to say editorial, but there is a version of that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, well, we won't be too mean to Dave Ramsey. That's our number one rule.
We like that. We like that.
That's our number one rule.

Speaker 2 Use him for clicks and laughs.

Speaker 2 Just clicks and laughs, all friendly stuff. But no, I mean, I don't think there's any topic that's off limits for the satirist.

Speaker 2 And honestly, that's why a lot of left-leaning comedy these days isn't funny anymore because they have so many no-fly zones, things that they won't make fun of, that it doesn't surprise you anymore.

Speaker 2 Imagine if they were to make fun of their own worldview, things in their own worldview. It would be shocking because they don't do that.

Speaker 2 So I think you do need to be able to make fun of yourself. You do need to be able to make fun of things in the culture.

Speaker 2 I mean, I just think the main guideline that we use is that if we're making fun of a serious topic, like we're trying to call attention to a really heavy topic like abortion or something along those lines, then our jokes are going to be that much more serious.

Speaker 2 We don't want to make people think that we're making light of those things. Sure.
So that's kind of one of the guidelines that we use.

Speaker 2 But you are an equal opportunity offender. I mean, you go after just about everybody one way or another.
You make fun of Fox or CNN, right or left issues, or

Speaker 2 conservatives do do this or

Speaker 2 lefties do this or whatever. I mean, you you get on everything.
It's fun. Yeah.
Well, and you have to like, I think to be a good satirist, you have to first be able to laugh at yourself.

Speaker 2 You have to be able to make fun of your own. And that's what, you know, that's what made the Babylon B get so popular so fast.

Speaker 2 Because we were writing the jokes about the worship leaders who wear the V-necks and all that. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 Absolutely. And our friend Dave Ramsey here.
You know, those kind of jokes showed people like, hey, they're not afraid to make fun of themselves.

Speaker 2 And that kind of gives you the right to then go after the other side a little bit, too. All right.

Speaker 5 So So I got to know this.

Speaker 5 If you look to the recent past or maybe a hundred years ago as a satirist, who would you have loved to have been in the public scene now where you could have taken a crack out of?

Speaker 5 Whether that be in the faith-based world, politics, sports, what comes to mind when I ask you that?

Speaker 2 Yeah, so

Speaker 2 we launched like right at the end of the Obama. administration, you know, and so we were kind of like during the Trump-Clinton year.

Speaker 2 So we did kind of launch it in the perfect time when it was like you could make a lot of good fun of Trump if you had a good sense of humor about him.

Speaker 2 And and you can make a lot of fun of Hillary obviously too.

Speaker 2 So we launched it kind of that perfect time but yeah the last the last hundred years I mean it would have been great to be around in the 80s with Reagan and I mean the Clinton years you got people had so much fun with on SNL but that's back when SNL used to make fun of both sides and you know they would back when SNL was funny.

Speaker 2 Right. Back when the late night people would make fun of both sides.
You know, George W. Bush obviously was great for humor just with his mannerisms.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 So we kind of missed out on a lot of that. But at the time there were comedians covering it.
You know, there was was the SNL and the late nights that were actually doing that stuff.

Speaker 2 You know, I remember him telling a story when I was interviewing him about strategy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 He thought, he actually thought he, he said, I thought I did say that. And he was talking to the writer at Saturday Night Live, Lauren, whatever, or the preacher.

Speaker 2 And Lauren said, no, George, I said that. I said you said that, but you never really said that.
And he owned it.

Speaker 2 He said, I thought I said it. It was the funniest thing ever.
And so, yeah, but you got to be able to laugh at yourself in the process. You got to be able to enjoy that ride.
No question about it. So

Speaker 2 how do you determine

Speaker 2 you guys put content on almost all the major platforms

Speaker 2 from podcasts to posts on Facebook? Posts. I guess

Speaker 2 are you banned from Facebook? No? Okay. Not banned from Facebook.
Okay. All right.
But are you banned from anything right now?

Speaker 2 We got banned from TikTok, which is a good thing in some ways. Yeah.
Because then you don't have to be on TikTok. But I think we got let back on.

Speaker 2 So I don't know if we're actually banned from anything right now.

Speaker 5 What got you banned from TikTok?

Speaker 2 You can't joke about anything on TikTok. You know, we'll do jokes about the tamest joke you can imagine, and they'll say, you know,

Speaker 2 community standards. Politically sensitive.
Politically sensitive.

Speaker 5 You know what's crazy about that? Is they won't let you make fun of anything, but they'll let kids go on and say stupid crap about time blindness and how she's mad at her boss.

Speaker 5 This is the latest rage.

Speaker 2 Time.

Speaker 5 Oh, this will make Dave's head explode. I'll have to tell him during the commercial break.

Speaker 2 You'll have to go deflate him after that.

Speaker 5 He can't handle it on the air. It's too much.
But they'll let kids rage. Yeah.
But you can't make a joke. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, that's part of the danger of social media and algorithms. Who's controlling the algorithm and controlling what we see?

Speaker 2 We already know that with TikTok, you know, they change the algorithm based on who you are.

Speaker 2 If you're in America, if you're in China, the algorithm is different based on what we're used in the culture.

Speaker 2 So, how do you guys, with all those different platforms, determine which piece of content worked?

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 there are some social media platforms where

Speaker 2 a certain joke will hit a little bit better. Like for a long time, Twitter was kind of the political space space where politics jokes did well.
You're a big hit on Facebook and Instagram for us.

Speaker 2 I love it. That's good.
Okay. Good.
So yeah, it just depends on the audience and where they are. Well, we're just here to serve.
I'm saying.

Speaker 5 Dave, you're huge on the Graham.

Speaker 2 You're huge on the Gram, as the kids say. That's it.

Speaker 2 Huge on the B, baby. That's it.
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 Babylon B, Kyle Mann, thanks for stopping by, brother. We love your work.
It's a lot of fun. You guys, if you haven't followed it, jump in and follow.
You'll get a laugh.

Speaker 2 And you might get offended, and and that'll be good for you too just laugh your way through it you gotta love it the babylon bee check it out this is the ramsey show

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Speaker 2 Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Today's Ramsey Show, Question of the Day, is sponsored by YReFi.

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Speaker 5 Today's question comes from Nikki in Kansas. My husband has been at his current job for over five years.
He has received yearly inflationary raises.

Speaker 5 A new manager position was recently created, and my husband considered applying for it. But before he could, it was given to another employee that has no previous experience experience in the role.

Speaker 5 This new manager now repeatedly asked my husband for advice and wants him to work extra hours and to cover his lack of competence.

Speaker 5 I think it's time for him to find a new job, but he wants to make it work here. His annual review is coming up.

Speaker 5 Should he mention the situation and bring up needing increased compensation or a path to growth? Well, Nikki,

Speaker 5 when somebody has done me wrong, I found, Dave, that my wife Stacey has always taken it worse.

Speaker 5 I don't know if Sharon's that way or not, but it feels like this situation where your husband's griped a little bit about this,

Speaker 5 Nikki, and you've gotten really upset about it. And I would listen to your husband here.
He wants to make it work. And based on the facts you've given us, he never raised his hand for the job.

Speaker 5 And because he didn't raise his hand,

Speaker 5 whoever hired this other employee is not on the line for that because they can't read mine. So in this situation, I always tell people to never ask directly for a raise.
I teach to

Speaker 5 talk about a growth plan after you talk about a desire to grow. In other words, I think in his annual review, he needs to sit down and say, hey, listen,

Speaker 5 you know, I was thinking about raising my hand for this other position. I didn't.
And that's on me. But what it did show me is that I want more.
I want to lead. I want to step up.

Speaker 5 I want to climb here at company XYZ. So to that end, in my review, whether you got it for me today, but in the future, in the near future, I'd like to meet with you and discuss a growth plan.

Speaker 5 What tools can I add to my tool belt? In other words, skills and experience? And then what are some shortcomings?

Speaker 5 What are some areas that may be blind spots for me that I need to be aware of so that I do better and make myself a better employee? And then can we lay that plan out and how do we measure it?

Speaker 5 So that you and I are operating off the same sheet of paper, same sheet of music.

Speaker 5 And if we measure that, will that lead to opportunity for more responsibility, which should come with more compensation?

Speaker 5 That's the spirit, the posture that you should have, so that you do not put your leader on the defensive because many times they are not the sole decision maker in you getting a promotion in a raise.

Speaker 5 And so, the reason I prescribe it that way, Dave, is it allows them to have some ownership in it.

Speaker 5 They don't feel put on the spot, they don't feel backed into a corner, and then we have an adult, mature, professional conversation about a path forward.

Speaker 2 The other thing I want you to ask yourself

Speaker 2 is

Speaker 2 who is ambitious here, you or your husband?

Speaker 2 Because A, he didn't raise his hand for this position. B, his wife wrote us an email,

Speaker 2 not him.

Speaker 2 Two indicators he ain't real fired up

Speaker 2 and so are not as fired up as you are that's correct that's very obvious so

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 2 i i don't want you to want something for him more than he wants it for himself because that's going to come through when he sits down in his review he needs to be confident competent how can i add value to this organization what do i need to do to make myself more valuable so that i can grow here

Speaker 2 grow meaning grow in responsibility and in value that i'm adding and hopefully in compensation someday and that requires a body language,

Speaker 2 a little swagger.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you got to show some hunger. I think what they want to see here is, I want to get better.
I want to do more, be more, and that's attractive.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I think that's a discussion. Maybe your husband doesn't want any of that.
Maybe you want it.

Speaker 5 I think it's very possible.

Speaker 2 So you need to talk that through before you send him into the lion's cage.

Speaker 2 Open phones at 888-825-5225. Matthew is in Houston, Texas.
Hi, Matthew. How are you?

Speaker 4 Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 2 Sure. What's up?

Speaker 4 Hey, so I have a budgeting question. I'm trying to figure out what I should do for an extra $20,000

Speaker 4 in income I'm going to receive three to four times this year from overtime work.

Speaker 2 Send it to Dave's Bahama Fund.

Speaker 2 P.O. Box.
No, I'm kidding. Okay.

Speaker 2 All right. So

Speaker 2 you're going to make an extra 80 grand

Speaker 2 uh yeah sweet

Speaker 2 very nice

Speaker 2 pretty nice

Speaker 2 where are you on the baby steps bro

Speaker 4 uh i'm not sure what baby step exactly

Speaker 2 okay so this whole this whole thing's new to you okay that's cool that's fine okay we teach a process to use all extra money to achieve wealth as fast as possible,

Speaker 2 and we apply it in an order, a forced ranking of importance. Okay.

Speaker 2 And that system is called the baby steps. One baby step at a time, and you'll become wealthy.
So I'll walk you through them right quick. You ready?

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 First thing you need to do is save $1,000. I bet you've already done that.

Speaker 2 Yes. How much money do you have in savings?

Speaker 4 Just savings. I have about 50K.

Speaker 2 Okay. Good for you.
And how much debt do you have not counting your home?

Speaker 2 None. Good.
Okay. Baby step one one is save $1,000.
Baby step two is to become debt-free, everything but the house. Ding, ding.
Check those two boxes.

Speaker 2 Three is to have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. If we call that $50,000, that emergency fund, you're there.
Three. Baby step four is start putting 15%

Speaker 2 of your income towards retirement, not more, not less, in 401ks and Roth IRAs. Are you doing that?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm maxing them out. It's more like 25% at the moment.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Baby step five is kids college. Do you have kids?

Speaker 4 No, I'm single.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's easy. We skip that one.
Baby step six is pay off your house early. How much do you owe on your home?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I owe $200 on my home, and right now I'm putting an extra $400 a month towards the principal.

Speaker 2 Okay. And what do you make? What's your total income, sir?

Speaker 4 Well, depending what this OT

Speaker 4 be close to about 200 this year.

Speaker 2 Okay. And you're single and you have no debt payments.
If I woke up in your shoes, what would I do following those steps I just gave you that I've taught 10 million people?

Speaker 2 I would tell you to reduce your 401k to 15%, not maxed out.

Speaker 2 And I want you to take everything you can squeeze out of your monthly budget, including this bonuses that are coming in, and throw it at the mortgage. Let's pay this house off in two years.

Speaker 4 Okay. Yeah, that's kind of what I've been leaning towards too.
I don't like having it hang over my head, but I was also wondering if I should consider a side brokerage account or a.

Speaker 2 After the house is paid off.

Speaker 4 Okay, so after the house.

Speaker 2 Yeah, here's the

Speaker 2 not I don't want it hanging over my head. There's actual data.
Okay. We did the largest study of millionaires in North America ever done, 10,167 of them.

Speaker 2 Two primary things caused them to have the first $1 to $10 million of net worth. Investing steadily into their 401k and paying their home off.

Speaker 2 And paying the home off is a big part of it, by the way. So a paid-for house.
How old are you?

Speaker 2 I'm 26. And the house is worth what?

Speaker 4 Probably about 260.

Speaker 2 Okay. So when the house gets paid off, by the time it's paid off,

Speaker 2 somewhere around 34 years old, 33 years old, you're going to have a net worth of over a million dollars at the track you're on right now.

Speaker 2 So way to go, dude. You're killing it.
Proud of you. Hang on.
I'm going to send you a copy of the book, Baby Steps Millionaires. It's my latest number one bestseller.

Speaker 2 And it'll show you exactly the stuff I'm talking about, why, when, and where, and it'll help you dial this in. You are a stud.
Keep it up, man. This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 2 Let's play a game.

Speaker 3 Raise your hand if you've already filed your tax return. Ready? Go.

Speaker 3 Okay, I can't actually see any of you, but I can feel it in my bones that not enough of you are raising your hands. Y'all need to get on over to Ramsey Smart Tax and file your dang taxes.

Speaker 3 Ramsey Smart Tax is a 100% accurate tax software that won't pilfer your wallet or surprise you with garbage hidden fees.

Speaker 3 Plus, it's powered by Taxlayer who's been trusted in this industry for more than 50 years. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash Smart Tax and file with tax software you can trust.

Speaker 3 That's ramseysolutions.com slash Smart Tax.

Speaker 2 Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America.
We're so glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Janet is in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Janet.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 4 Hey, Ken and Dave, it's a pleasure.

Speaker 2 Ours, too. How can we help?

Speaker 4 Yeah, so I'm calling today just to see how we, as we, me and my husband, can get ahead of our bills.

Speaker 4 It seems like every single month we pay our bills three weeks after the due date, and then a week later they're due again.

Speaker 4 So we've tried

Speaker 4 you know, budgeting and just trying to get ahead, and we just can't seem to get that curve.

Speaker 4 So we're just calling to see what tips and tricks you could provide for us.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 What's your household income?

Speaker 4 It's about $75,000 gross.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 And how much debt do you have not counting your house?

Speaker 4 $39,000.

Speaker 2 On what?

Speaker 4 On student loans is $24,000, $5,000 in credit cards, and a $9,000 or $10,000 on the RV, a travel trailer.

Speaker 2 On a trailer. Okay.
And you make $75,000 a year.

Speaker 4 That's right, in between the both of us. Okay.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 So where do you think your money is going?

Speaker 4 Well, I know that it was going into a lot of eating out. I actually just got my husband on board about two months ago to do like the baby steps.

Speaker 4 I've been doing it probably by myself for like a whole year ever since. And it seems like actually we've been on this momentum of just being behind for like the last year.
And we're just sick of it.

Speaker 4 I'm tired of handling it. So I have him stepping in on the finances as well as just really,

Speaker 4 you know, being careful where our money is going. And so,

Speaker 4 you know, I've tried for the last two months, we've just been, you know, paying every single week because we get paid every week.

Speaker 2 So this kind of thing. So if I sat down with you and your husband

Speaker 2 with a yellow pad at the kitchen table and I said, okay, this is what you have coming in this week.

Speaker 2 Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going. This is what you you have coming in the next week.
Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going. Let's map out.

Speaker 2 You should have enough with the numbers you gave me.

Speaker 4 We should.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we should.

Speaker 2 But you're not doing that.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 2 There it is. Okay.

Speaker 2 So you need to sit down and you can jump on every dollar, but

Speaker 2 the first thing is the two of you have to do this together, not turn it over to him because

Speaker 2 he can do it and you can't do it. That's not true.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Both of you together need to do this because what's going to have to happen is you're going to have to decide not to do a bunch of stuff you're doing now that

Speaker 2 doesn't matter as much as getting in control matters.

Speaker 4 Right.

Speaker 2 I want to get in control more than I want to go out to eat.

Speaker 2 I want to get out of debt and have a life more than I want to go on vacation.

Speaker 2 I want to get in control more than I like this travel trailer.

Speaker 2 I want to get in control more than, and I'm sick and tired of living stress to stress to stress to stress to stress with no hope, feeling like a rat in a freaking wheel and when the both of you when both of you are saying that and then you put numbers to that and you say okay this week on friday we get a check for x the following thursday we get a check for y the following saturday we get a check for z and you write that down and you plan out every one of those dollars and where every one of them are going because the water bill is due on the second week the house payments due on the first week the uh student loan payments due in the third week and we're going to figure out what's coming out.

Speaker 2 We're going to take this much for food, this much for food, this much for food in the four different weeks.

Speaker 2 And we're going to allocate every one of those bills to a certain week and some of them across weeks so that we have enough money to take care of them.

Speaker 2 And every dollar has an assignment on paper, on purpose, before the month begins. We agree on it and spit shake and pinky swear.

Speaker 2 And then we don't do anything else with money except what we freaking wrote down.

Speaker 4 Right. And it seems like we've been doing that for the last two months, but we can't catch that curve.

Speaker 2 We can't get out of it.

Speaker 2 So you write it all down and you don't have enough?

Speaker 4 No, we do have enough, but it seems like it's gone every single week.

Speaker 2 Now, if you wrote it down to have enough, and then you did something else other than what you wrote down.

Speaker 4 Well, I guess where we're struggling is just like every time we do try to,

Speaker 4 we get our bill every single, you know, whatever whatever a month we pay it once a week and but we have so many little ones it seems like we just don't know where they're not all written down

Speaker 4 yeah we need to prioritize them better

Speaker 2 every one of them on paper on purpose in a certain week this is a week one bill this is a week four bill this is a week two bill Different bills have different weeks, and they all go within the income of that week.

Speaker 2 And then when the check comes in, the check is already spent. So you can't do anything except what you wrote down.

Speaker 2 You are not managing to the budget. You're writing it out as a hypothetical and then going doing what you used to do.

Speaker 5 Right. And you're not focusing on it.
You'll notice that you'll get ahead. But listen, Jen.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you how. You've got to do ahead.
That'll get you ahead. Just what I told you.

Speaker 2 You won't write down not getting ahead.

Speaker 2 You'll get ahead as soon as you do that. You've got room in this budget.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You do, yeah. You're disorganized and chaotic.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And when you give every single, if I paid you $100,000 a year to pay these bills exactly on time and you had no emotional tie to them whatsoever, and you would look at this family, this distant family over in Boise, Idaho, and tell them to quit going to freaking restaurants.

Speaker 2 I don't care how tired you are, no whining aloud. You're going to pay the freaking bill on time.
If I told you to do that, you could do it for someone else.

Speaker 4 Right.

Speaker 2 It's because it's not right. It's sixth-grade math.
math. You can do this.
So

Speaker 2 you have got to get very detailed, very intentional, and then live the detail.

Speaker 2 Don't write it all down and then go do what you used to do. And so, well, I just, I didn't feel like cooking tonight.
I don't give a crap.

Speaker 2 Go home and get some leftovers out of the dad gum refrigerator. That's how you do it.
You can, I mean, we all have that. You just got to talk to your whiny self and say, no, whiny self.

Speaker 2 I've done that myself. I mean, Sharon and I have done it to each other.
We know what it feels like. But you have to go, I want control more than I feel tired tonight.

Speaker 2 You know, and that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 2 That's the phrase that comes out of everybody's mouth, by the way, before they go out to eat or before they hit the fast food and get dog food at Taco Bell, you know, or whatever.

Speaker 2 And so it's just, it's horrible. It's horrible value.
It's horrible nutrition. And it's out of control spending.
And so it's just, yeah, so you've got to write it down.

Speaker 2 Get on every dollar, download the app, and I'll tell you what, I'll give you the upgrade. I'll give you the premium every dollar where it ties to your bank.

Speaker 2 And we'll get you started on that, Janet, because what y'all desperately need is a detailed budget. And here's how you do a budget, folks.
You give every single penny a name.

Speaker 2 Every bill has a week allocated. In every dollar, it's called paycheck planning.
And you plan out each paycheck for the month. And you and your spouse both look at it.

Speaker 2 Every dollar is assigned to saving, to giving, or to a bill.

Speaker 2 Period.

Speaker 2 Every single dollar, there is no missile. There is no, well, 50% of my budget is non-allocated.
Bull crap. Allocate every...

Speaker 2 dime

Speaker 2 in every dollar on the paycheck planning. Every dollar has a name before the month begins.
August is coming. Where's your August money going to be?

Speaker 2 It's going to freaking disappear if you don't tell it what to do. It will leave and go to people's houses who tell it what to do.

Speaker 2 And then you'll say stuff like the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Yes, they do, because the rich tell their money what to do.

Speaker 2 That's how this works. And so you got to get on top of this stuff and lean into it.
Every dollar has an assignment. You stick to it.
You agree on it with your spouse.

Speaker 2 And you do not spend a dime unless it's on that page on that every dollar app if it's not on there and it comes up and it's a surprise and you forgot it you got to take something else off because if you put something on there and you already spent it all now you're an overdraft and now it doesn't work and i can't seem to get caught up well you're not getting caught up because you're not living your plan

Speaker 2 Do the plan, live the plan. Write the plan, live the plan.
Do the plan, live the plan. Live the plan.
And it's your plan, by the way. You decide where it's going to go.

Speaker 2 But I'm telling you what I'm doing. I'm not going out to eat.
I'm not going on vacation. I'm selling a stupid travel trailer.
Everything else is for sale so much the kids think they're next.

Speaker 2 We're going to take extra jobs and we're getting control because I'm tired of being stressed out. That's what I'm doing if I'm in your shoes.
And I did it, by the way. This is the Ramsey Show.

Speaker 5 Hey, it's Ken. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to Ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button.

Speaker 5 We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com and click get started.