How The Baby Steps Protect You From Financial Uncertainty

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

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.

Regular shows are back next week.

Hope you enjoy. 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. 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 888-825-5225.
Clayton is in Little Rock, Arkansas. Hey, Clayton, welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hey, sir. How are you guys? Better than we deserve, brother.
What's up? 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,

et cetera, and I think you guys are out there changing lives. So I want to start off with that.
Well, thank you, sir. How can we help you today? Absolutely.
Well, you know, I'll kind of start from a broad overview, and I'll kind of break it down if that's okay with you. Just, you know, my broad overview question, Dave, is really just how not to get discouraged in the wealth building process.

Um, just, you know, my, my broad overview question, Dave, um, is really just how not to get discouraged in the wealth building process. Um, I'll give you some background information.
I'm 27 years old. My wife is 30.
Um, we have a combined net worth of around probably 200,000 or so. Wow.
Yeah. It's right there.
My number. Thank you.
And, um, I make about,000, $60,000 on my primary job, and I do a side hustle. But total, I make around $80,000 to $90,000, kind of depending on the year.
And my wife makes around $72,000. 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.
My home is currently worth probably around $300,000, and I owe about $195,000. We have two kids, and overall life is good.
You know, we're still in the process of trying to button everything up. We're investing 10% right I know I need to get that number to 15 My home's on a 15-year note We're trying to get our kids college, you know, all that situated So there's nothing really on fire, per se But in general, I really do believe what you guys teach And I believe, you know, we give 10% of our income to the church I mean, I'm a really big believer in living within your means.
I'm not saying we're perfect by any means. 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 for your house.
Everything's on track. You're killing it.
Right, right. Well, man, I really do believe it, and I appreciate it.
But at the same time, I think long-term, right? Yeah, but have you done the math? Huh? Have you done the math? Right, right, yeah. I mean, if you save 15% of $160,000, that's going to be a million dollars in 10 years, dude.
Right, right. And match have you got a match yes sir yes sir do the math right right well you know man it just did you do the math no yes sir i did yes okay then did you see 10 years you're going to be a millionaire at 20 at 37 years old yes sir yes sir so why is that discouraging you know i don't know man i just like i look at life right and i know comparisons to the feet of joy and i don't you know i try not to go there in my head but comparison to what if anything you compare to you should be ahead of right right right well you know it just i Is it okay if i give you some background some more background information is that okay i'm trying to understand it's okay i'm trying to understand why you're discouraged there's no reason to be i'm i'm really confused with that because dude you're in the top two percent of america you're killing it just i i just think like long term dave i think when i just how everything is so expensive.
And even when I pay off my home and I have all my retirement accounts, et cetera, I just, you know, I'm trying to really set my family up. So like in 10 years, my daughter will be 13, right? 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, 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.
I'm not trying to say that, but it is. It is a long process.
Ten years is a lot longer 10 minutes and most people most people have the attention span of a gnat that's why they're not able to build wealth i i've been i've been listening clayton and i i've been where you are i i actually i i hear me 10 years ago on this phone call so i just want to say say this. Your issue is not comparison.
Your issue is fear. 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.
And what you're not focusing on is, as Dave has pointed out, you're crushing it, number one. You're really ahead of the game.
This is all going to compound for you, and you're going to be fine. You're going to take some great vacations.
But what you're not focused on is what you can actually do. You're focused on all these outside circumstances, the economy, inflation, whatever else is going on in your head.
You do need to quit watching the news. 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. You're already great, but you're forgetting all this headline stuff and all this fear and comparison.
Here's what you're forgetting. Your ability, your wife's ability to put a financial plan that includes increasing income.
You're going to be able to pay for all those things. Yeah, your income is not going to be stagnant for the next 10 years.
Absolutely. I don't know if that helps you, Clayton.
You've got to shake all that stuff off. You're inside your head so deep.
And or here's the thing. The secret to happiness is low expectations, and I'm a little bit afraid you thought when you made $160,000 you were going to be rich.
That's a very good point. And you're not rich at $160,000 with two kids.

There's no, 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 grand.

You're not.

So you got a lot more, you got double the household income of the average American.

You're in the top one 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 hundred thousand dollars.

I'm that. I did that for radio.
Did you hear that? um yeah i mean that that's you're incredible you're doing great you're doing great calm down enjoy the ride buddy you really i can't i can't tell you enough to do this over and over and over again enjoy the ride i want to say one other quick encouraging because dave i think you're absolutely right i just want to echo what dave. We have, with all young generations throughout history, but even more so now because we're in the social media era.
God help us. I know.
Unrealistic expectations lead to unmet expectations. 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, that life's going to be an easy streak. I thought you were talking about my golf game

and your golf game. Unrealistic

expectations equal unmet

expectations.

My golf game is in the last category.

Just unmet, period.

It doesn't matter how much.

That's what it is. Here's the thing.

When you make $100,000 a year, you thought it was going to be

easy. When you make $1 million a year, you thought it was going to be easy.
It don't matter. That's what it is.
Isn't that true? Because here's the thing. When you make $100,000 a year, you thought it was going to be easy.

And when you make a million dollars a year, you thought it was going to be easy.

It don't get easy.

It just gets better than if you don't pay attention.

That's all it does. This is The Ramsey Show.
statistics show that half of americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all i don't understand this john why don't people want to take care of their family they think they're not going going to die or something? Well, I used to be one of those guys. I didn't even think about it.
And one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids. And I immediately went and got term life insurance.
That's a gut punch. 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. You're going to have a crisis here.
You know, you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow. She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up, or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.
That's exactly right. These are the two options.
It's saying I love you to your family. Term Life Insurance.
Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years.

They're the only people I trust.

Go to Zander.com or call 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show.
Thank you for being with us, America. Tanner is with us in Washington, D.C.
Hi, Tanner. How are you? I'm good.
How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my question is 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 an urban area like D.C. I live in downtown.
I make around $90,000 a year post-grad, 23-year-old. I got $20,000 in cash and $7,000 in an investment account.
And my only debt is around $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. I'm just curious your take on that approach.
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. You don't get a pass on math because you're in Washington, D.C., even though

Congress thinks you do. Yeah, I was getting ready to say, a lot of people think they do.
Yeah, a lot of people in D.C. think you do, but you don't.

And the purpose behind it is not that 25% is magic, Tanner. 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. 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.
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 to buy the next car 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 and because it's all going out in house payment and so in effect what you did is you uh you you didn't you know by 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.

Whatever you spend on rent is gone.

I mean, you're setting fire to $100 bills in the middle of the floor.

And so the more $100 bills you burn in the middle of the floor,

the fewer less money you got, man.

I mean, it's a pretty simple equation.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely uh definitely reduces the about ability to buy down the road for sure yeah 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 or uh or maybe you just say i'm gonna it's gonna cost me this and it's my choice and i'm an adult well yeah you're allowed to do all that but our reason is 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 because if you're for instance going to get a mortgage folks in america um the stupid mortgage company will approve you for almost double that.
And they'll approve you close to 50% of your take-home pay, 36% of your ratio. And that's not based on take-home pay, the 36%.
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.
Well, California, they've 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.
It's a math thing. 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%, you are 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? 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 there for a reason but if you move out into the suburbs of northern virginia i know it well yes it's a it's a headache uh but we rather you sacrifice the right thing and that's why we

put this 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 and in my situation if i were in your

situation tanner i would be sacrificing my time not my money yeah 23 years old yeah yeah you know i will tell you this ken i did it worse than he's doing it sure worse yeah he's in good my wife and i get out of college and here's how stupid we were we go and rent a we have two dogs we're just out of college we got two little jobs we go and rent a three-bedroom townhouse sure luxury right thing sure that's like five times what we needed because we thought it was cool do you remember what were in the extra rooms? Uh, because by the time we finished paying the freaking rent we had no money yeah so what we ended up doing was moving into a little one bedroom uh apartment in a questionable uh 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 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 had an 1800 rent and we moved down to a 600 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 i did the exact same crap no i get it but i wanted something nice and i had a job yeah and i'd gotten out of college and i'm i deserved it but a lot of 23 year olds that are in a very similar situation to tanner now just think about this if he gets a roommate and now he's saving let's just call it a thousand dollars okay, splitting the rent, he's paying off that student loan debt of $7,000 really, really fast, and now he's just stacking money. Yeah, he's stacking cash.
Stacking cash, man. It's so much smarter than renting.
Paying all that money in rent. Tyler's in Louisville.
Hi, Tyler. What's up? Yes, I had a quick question.
First of all, you guys are awesome. Thank you.
Um, awesome thank you um uh so i have a i'm on baby step two and um been doing ish for a while at the beginning of the year i got smart and said you're stupid get out of debt um but the student loans coming back up because i've been basically taking that payment setting it towards everything else mine is consolidated or i believe it is at least. Do I look at the individual loan amounts, or do I just look at the consolidated amount? If it's consolidated, it's now one amount.
Okay. It used to be little loans.
If it is one loan, I mean, if it's a bunch of little, 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 that doesn't matter. The purpose of the debt snowball is you want to – what you want to have happen in the debt snowball is you want to 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. All right.
That's what I was thinking. I wasn't sure.
Yeah. So I would just put the total in your debt snowball.
Awesome. That works.
Amen. That's really easy.
Thank you, sir. Get after it.
That's really smart because, you know, 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've kind of been telling you for three freaking years. But now that we found out that we were right again, yes, I just said I told you so, live with it.
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. And one of the things we're finding, Jade and I were talking about this earlier, is that people basically took the money that they would have been paying on student loans and spent it yes they did on vac vacations alcohol drugs this is this is the actual surveys are coming back i went on a party nice yeah 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 yeah it was there 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 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 So apparently it wasn't too big a freaking crisis.

What do I know?

Just going with the data here.

Yeah, that's what happens when you trust a politician with an empty promise that's not constitutional.

Or someone from the medical community that's trying to do math.

Well, there's that too.

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

This is The Ramsey Show. 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. My husband and I had $280,000 of it, but we were able to dig ourselves out and you can too.
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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author of the book From Paycheck to Purpose is my co-host today. open phones at 888-825-5225 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 doing well thank you welcome where do you guys live woodstock georgia about 40 miles north of atlanta yeah i 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? $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? We started about 60 and ended about 145.
Cool. y'all do for a living i'm a mechanic for the post office and i'm a consumable manager at kennesaw state university awesome yeah all right so you got a little bit of a commute down there actually it's only nine nine miles for me oh okay all right not bad all right i missed i missed up all right so uh 136 seven years sound like you paid off your house yes all right look at it weird people way to go you guys what's this house worth 345 now i'm sorry 345 345 awesome very cool so how much do you guys have in your retirement savings already i think we're at about 100 000 you know last year was year was a little bit of a hit from everybody's.
Yeah okay so you're going to be about a half million dollar net worth already so you're on your way to be a millionaire in no time. Way to go that's fun.
I just said that out loud you hear that? Wow that's pretty stinking cool guys. So what starts you on this journey seven years ago? So I actually started when we first got married 15 years ago.
We just celebrated our 15th year anniversary. Congratulations.
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. And we got married in July of 2008.
And it was, you know, a great year to get married. So we pretty quickly figured out that, you know, our finances will need some improvement pretty quickly.
We had a little bit of debt. I grew up living pretty frugally.
And so we had some arguments. And by the end of that year, we knew 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 the underwater mortgage for the townhome that was purchased in 2007.
So, you know, we were kind of bopping along for a couple of years. Then we had kids and I ended up staying at home.
It was pretty tight. And we were still kind of trying to figure out what are we going to do about the house eventually.
This has still not come up to the value that it was. And at some point we got an email from our church we go to Woodstock City Church um introducing uh Financial Peace University and um in there I was like ah you know I'm pretty for a goal I keep my budget um you know after the fact I kind of tracked what was spent uh but it said it will show you how you can buy and sell a house so I'm like you why don't we take this class? So when we went and took the So I'm like, you know, why don't we take this class?

So when we went and took the class, I was like, you know,

where have y'all been before?

So we did quite a few things, followed quite a few things.

One of them was we immediately refied that house to a 15 so that we could start paying down what the the what we owed on it and um from the seven percent interest rate yes i had been paying on yes so i bought it essentially our payment stayed the same but you know more was going yeah she went down to what a three uh it was a four at the time in um 20 it was 2013 um and so yes 2013 i contacted one of the one of the LPs. We loved her, Lindsay Haas.
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. You know, it's just, you know, 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, not redid the deck, cleaned up the deck and all of them some other stuff and so when the time came in 2016 we were still kind of figure out where whether we're staying in the area or whatnot and then our HOA was kind of going down the hill we decided it was time to put it up for sale again Lindsay helped us through that process she was a great selling and buying agent there was several offers

on the house that we were looking at to buy and we had had enough equity out of gotten out enough equity out of the house and we had had some savings or rather from a sale of an 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% out like you teach.

She 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 yes so seven years later you paid it off and now it's worth 345 yes you got to feel like a genius we bought two cars cash during this time while we were paying this house off yeah wow another shout out i wanted to do to rachel i remember her talking about how you know if you want to because i wanted to get um a change in the career and so i went and took um classes at a smaller college you know not a four-year college because that we could cash flow at the time and then now that i work at ksu i went ahead and finished my bachelor my bachelor's degree debt. They pay for it.
They pay for it, right? And I'm working on my master's. So quite a few accomplishments along the way.
So how does it feel? I want people who are maybe new to this program going, they paid their house off. 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.
But 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. Good job.
That's cool. They kind of see it can be done now.
Yeah. Yeah.
And Christina, you really, I mean, you upped your game on your whole career. That's a nice move.
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? So that was incremental. 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 that was senior account how big of a bump was that um 14 yeah but you know the previous year i went to senior accountant which that was about don't miss it she about the 15th.
She goes and gets the education that 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 free consents.
Way to go. I'm so proud of you heroes.
Thank you. Excellent job.
What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Stick together. Talk it through.
Be in agreement. You won't always see eye to eye on everything, but work through it.
Yeah. Make sure to get to that point.
Every morning, you know, I am the nerd. He's the free spirit in the sense that, you know, I worry about my spreadsheets.
But every Sunday we get together, we sit, and we just talk. You know, we dream.
And so, you know i worry about my spreadsheets but every sunday we get together we sit and we just talk you know we dream and so um you know his one of his hugest contributions is he's actually worked um over time for the last 10 years oh wow six days a week pretty much every week so it's there was a lot of you know it wasn't easy no how old are you two um Yeah. And you got a happy birthday.
Thank you. And you got a paid-for $350,000 house.
And I'm 44. Yeah.
And, you know, you're on your way to being millionaires in no time. Congratulations.
We're so proud of you, heroes. Thank you.
Well done, heroes. All right, bring the kiddos up.
Give us their names and ages. And while they're coming up, we've got a Baby Steps Millionairesaires book for you a total money makeover book for you and a financial peace university membership for you 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 this is kira and she's 10 and a half all right They have no idea yet what their parents have done to change their family tree.

Pretty incredible, guys.

You guys are awesome.

All right.

Jared and Christina, Greg and Kira from Woodstock, Georgia.

$136,000 paid off in seven years.

House and everything!

Making 60 to 145.

Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream.

One, two, three.

We are debt-free.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is how it's done.

I love it.

She goes back to school at the community college.

Yep.

Ups her game.

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.
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Shiloh's with us in Billings, Montana. Hi, Shiloh.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you for having me.
Sure. What's up? Okay, so my question is, my husband works for a company that is unionized, and they are potentially going to be striking fairly soon.

And my question is, do we hunker down and wait and ride it out,

or do we work on paying off our debt still?

What's the best solution to do?

It depends on the probability of the strike,

and let's talk that through for a second.

Okay? Sure. How long has he worked for that company seven years have they ever been on strike while he worked there no sir when was the last time they were on strike uh 1997 i think no you do not hunker down okay okay now if gets up, 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.
But right now what you've got is a bunch of saber rattling. You know what I mean by that? Yes, sir, I do.
Now the sounds of war, but there's not going to be war. Okay.
Yeah, he is more confident that there won't be a strike than I am. 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 Deloney.
Dr. John Deloney talks about this.
Anytime we're facing 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. 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.
We're probably going into a strike. But in the meantime, what it is, 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 well that's just worrying okay both are normal but we just have to make good decisions based on all of that yeah and one of the things you want to look at okay go ahead go ahead, we have enough in our savings account to pay off all of our consumer debt.
Do it. So just go ahead and do it, and then we'll be okay.
Okay, that makes sense. You won't have any of those payments if you go on strike.
That would be great. That's right.
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. And in that particular, this is one of the largest unions, the largest union in the country.
You need to find out. That's where he works for his UPS.
Okay, so I actually know a little bit about this story. Okay, then wait a minute.
I may change my answer. So tell me what's going on.
Well, no, no. Actually, Dave is still right.
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? Because these unions have money set aside for strikes, Dave. But 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. So these are the kind of facts that Dave is talking about.
He's right. We pay attention to this and we go, okay, I know that market share that UPS would lose to FedEx in three months.
It'll never recover from. That's right.
And it'll never happen. But the point is, is the unions have enough money in a pool.
Your husband needs to find out 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.
Because I don't think it goes longer than 30 days. I don't think it goes.
I don't think it ever happens. These are the facts that you're talking about, Dave.
So you've got to know. Okay.
I didn't have this other information. That's all right.
That's very good. Now 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 little problem. It's not going to last a long time to your point.
Let me just tell you, UPS cannot afford it. No.
Can't afford it. FedEx will eat their lunch.
Yeah, they'll be gone. This is posturing.
They would lose. The business aspect of that is just mind-boggling.
So, yeah. No, you're good.
You're good. Very good.
And one other point to point out, this is like Dems and Republicans posturing over the debt ceiling. Let me just tell you, it don't matter who they are.
I've been old enough. I've been around long enough to know they're going to keep extending the debt.
So when I hear that headline, oh, it's going to shut the world out. No, it's not.
The Republicans are going to shut the world out. 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.
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. So those are the nuances, but actual facts that help you make this decision.
Massive deal. Wow.
I'm going to read on this. I'm really ignorant.
Okay, fine. Hey, that's why you pay me to do it.
And I truly don't like being ignorant. So I don't mind you being smarter than me.
Oh, no, I'm not. I just have to pay attention to work-related issues like this, you know.

Morgan's with us.

Morgan's in Louisiana.

Hi, Morgan.

How are you?

I'm great.

Hi, Dave.

Thank you for taking my call.

Sure.

How can we help?

Yes, sir.

So I'm kind of in this situation, my husband and I.

We have been married almost three years in February, and we have our finances separate. I have three children, and he has one daughter who's in college.
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, what steps do you advise us? Where do we begin? It's so many. How long ago were you divorced? Oh, gosh.
Mine was in 15. Okay.
And was money problems a contributing factor? No, sir. How long ago was he divorced? He was, I believe, 18, 2018.
More money problems, a contributing factor? Yes, sir. Yeah, okay.
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 to be married to meaning he can't hold her misbehavior with money against you and use that as a reason to not combine finances that's why i ask those questions this is typically what causes people to not combine their finances who have been married once they got trashed the last time and it's hard not It's hard to go back. You know, it's hard to go, oh, yes, I'm going to treat you.
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. So tactically what you do is we change our proverbs.
Proverbs. We change our pronouns.

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.
If you don't do this, you lower your probability of building wealth tremendously. 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.
Absolutely, Dave. And that's how we both feel that we're just like roommates.
So you just put it in one pile. 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. We're visiting your mother, and we are paying for that.
And whatever it is, right? 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.
Yes. Right? Am I off track here? You are on track.
And I'm going to say I, too, am at fault in struggling with the finance from the first marriage.

Yeah.

So we both have been... You've got to forgive the person you're married to now because they didn't do anything wrong.

It's hard, though, because it's human nature to not put your hand out once a dog bit you, you know?

Ouch.

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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. Thank you for joining us, America.
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. 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? Good afternoon.

So great to be speaking with you today. Thank you so much for taking my call.
Thank you. What's up? 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 kind of just want to walk through some options I have, and it's concerning my mortgage. 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. So it is resetting from four and a half to six and a half percent.
Joyful. Yep.
The balance on the loan is $99,000. I've actually paid off $52,000 in the last year.
And I am on track to pay this off. My goal is December of 2025.
Okay. So here are the scenarios.
I just want to walk through, want to get your thought. Option one is just to stick with the new payment coming up in November.
My my payment is actually going down 100 180 even with the rate going up because i've paid off so much so it's actually going down um 180 so that's option one is just proceeding with you know six and a half percent um and then you know the rate would reset you know next year 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, six and a half percent.
This would require a $20,000 payment by the end of October, and that would lower the payment $140 a month. Okay? So that's option two.
Why would you want to lower it if you're paying it off in two years? What's the benefit? Well, I guess that's where I think. I don't understand.
It's like we're trying to pay it off in two years or two and a half years, right? Right. And so how does lowering the payment accomplish that?

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

No, it's not.

I mean, that would be.

No, it's not.

If you're going to recast a lower interest rate?

No, I'm recasting.

I'm taking it from a balance of $99,000 to.

Oh, it would lower the balance.

Yeah. But you could do that anyway.
You don't have to recast to do that. Yes, I could.
And that's what I've been doing is just pass. All recasting does is reset the payment based on a longer term.
It doesn't change the interest charged. Right, right.
Okay. So there's no benefit to you mathematically to recast.

Okay.

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

Yes, correct.

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

Well, then there's that.

Right, exactly.

So that kind of brings me to option three.

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. 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. And I'm on target.
I'm on track to pay this off. and that is really why I did not refinance.

But option three would be digging into my brokerage account and paying it off entirely. I have about $200,000.
I'd have to cash, you know. Not in a retirement? You have a brokerage account sitting there with enough to pay it off? Yes, I do.
Pay it off today. Yeah, I knew I was going to do that.

I did. I did.
I still wanted to walk through the options. Okay.
So if you had a paid for home with a brokerage 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 no it's the same thing yeah yeah i think i think i'm just having some let me tell you what's gonna 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. 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.
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.

When you owe no man nothing, all this hand wringing you've been doing for the last few

minutes trying to figure out what to do, all that's gone.

Just clean and simple.

You just own your house. You weird i love it i love it and listen if you really hate it then go get your new mortgage yeah 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.

Yep.

And I know that from having experienced it myself, because I don't have any dad and haven't had for 30 years,

and I walk around without all of these weights on my shoulders

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.
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.
And theoretically put it back in the brokerage. There's a fear there.
You could hear it. Yeah.
No, it's just this angst of the devil I know.

Yeah, that's right.

The devil I know versus the peace I've never known.

And it's, I don't know if I'm doing something wrong.

I don't know which is the correct thing.

And let me just tell you, man, when you get no payments in the whole freaking world, financial peace, two words that don't go together, like airline service. Man.
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.
I mean, I've got money in a brokerage. I've got my emergency fund.
I've got retirement going. And I own my whole freaking house.
Some of you need to breathe that in and make that a goal. Some of you spend a lot of calories flipping stuff over in your head,

wringing your hands,

trying to figure out something when the answers are usually pretty simple.

Clean it up.

People simplify,

simplify.

That's it.

Simplify.

Yeah.

It's hard to beat, guys.

Hard to beat.

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Well, about eight years ago i looked up on twitter back when i looked at twitter and uh there were some guys on there poking fun at all kinds of people and then the next thing i knew they're making fun of me and they're funny as as crud. And some of my favorite follows on social media, the bee, the Babylon Bee.
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 making fun of us church people by church people because you're a pastor's kid.
Or no, you were a pastor, actually. I 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. No, it's not a joke, you know.
Not everything I say is a joke. Right, right.
Well, I'm just checking. I didn't know if you were pulling.
All right. All right.
Kyle Mann is the editor-in-chief of The Bee, the Babylon Bee. 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 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.

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? That's ours, man. It's copyrighted.
We made the t-shirt, so we own the phrase. But fake news he stole from you? Fake.
Well, no, we stole fake news. Okay.
That's what I thought. Yeah.
But we owe him no royalties on it. But fake news you can trust is yours.
That's us. Yeah, that's all us.
Because you can't trust all the fake news, but you can trust this one. That's the bad one can trust the Babylon Bee.
Great, great play. Great satire.
I mean, you've got a sense of humor. 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 because you're not too hard on me, but you get a good use of it.
Do you want us to be? No, no, I appreciate it. No, he doesn't.
I'm trying not to make you mad. Yeah, I don't need anybody else picking on me out there.
But satire is tough. I mean, is it harder to create satire 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. 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 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 v headlines sometimes i can't tell and i'm writing the the headlines, that's how difficult it is. Yeah.
I mean, when I was a kid, the local newspaper, you might not agree with their politics, but it was least objective. The CBS Nightly News with Walter Cronkite was at least objective.
But if I look at CNN's website, Fox's website, look at the local newspaper here in Nashville, it more resembles the National inquirer when i was a kid than it did then it does i mean they're even their their their uh look tone feel their fonts and everything it's it's just so salacious so bizarre it's aliens you know that was reserved for that was reserved for the national inquirer in the line when you're buying groceries you know yeah but it has shifted that way to where, you know, 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. Of course.
All different kinds of outlets fact-check our jokes because people think they're real. What's the most famous case of a story being taken very seriously? Well, Snopes fact-checked one of our articles that was CNN purchases industrial washing machine to spin the news.
Somebody actually checked all that. And that got fact-checked.
And our Facebook page got demonetized, deplatformed, all of that stuff because of that article, because it was fact-checked. And they said, oh, you guys are sharing fake news.
Yeah. It's a joke.
CNN really didn't do that. Who knew? As far as we know.
As far as we know. Is there anything off-limits for you guys? What's that editorial process like? I even hate to say editorial, but there is a version of that.
Yeah. Well, we won't be too mean to Dave Ramsey.
That's our number one we like that we like that's our number one rule uh-huh no use him for clicks and laughs but that's just clicks and laughs all friendly stuff but uh no i mean i don't think there's any topic that's off limits for the satirist and honestly that's why you know 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 make fun of, that it doesn't surprise you anymore. You know, imagine if they were to make fun of their own worldview, you know, things in their own worldview, it would be shocking because they don't do that.
You know, 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.
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, you know, heavy topic like abortion or something along those lines, then our jokes are going to be that much more serious. You know, we don't want to make people think that we're making light of those things.
Sure. Right.
So that's kind of one of the, one of the guidelines that we use. Yeah.
So, but you are an equal opportunity offender. I mean, you go after just about everybody in one way or another.
I mean, you make fun of Fox or CNN, you right or left issues, or conservatives do this, or lefties do this, or whatever. I mean, you get on there.
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. You have to be able to make fun of your own.
And that's what made the Babylon Bee get so popular so fast, because we were writing the jokes about the worship leaders who wear the V-necks and all that. Oh, yeah.
Absolutely. And our friend Dave Ramsey here.
Those kind of jokes showed people like, hey, they're not afraid to make fun of themselves. And that kind of gives you the right to then go after the other side a little bit too.
All right. So I got to know this.
If you look to the recent past or maybe a hundred years ago, as a satirist, who would you have loved loved to been in the public scene now where you could have taken a crack at them whether that be in the faith-based world politics sports what comes to mind when i ask you that yeah so we launched 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 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. And you can make a lot of fun of Hillary, obviously, too.
Right. So we launched it kind of that perfect time.
But, yeah, the last hundred years, I mean, it would have been great to be around in the 80s with Reagan. Yeah.
I mean, the Clinton years, 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 was 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 so we kind of missed out on a lot of that but at the time there were comedians covering it you know there was the SNL and the late nights that were actually doing that stuff you know I remember him telling a story when I was interviewing him about strategery yeah yeah 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 and lauren said no george i said that i said you said that but you never really said that and he he owned it he thought he said i thought i said it it was the funniest thing ever and so yeah but that 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 um how do you determine uh you guys put content on almost all the major platforms uh from podcasts to posts on facebook posts i guess you're are you banned from facebook no okay not banned from facebook.
All right. But are you banned from anything right now? We got banned from TikTok, which is, you know, a good thing in some ways.
Yeah. Because then you don't have to be on TikTok.
Yeah. But I think we got let back on.
So I don't know if we're actually banned from anything right now. What got you banned from TikTok? You can't joke about anything on TikTok.
You know, we'll do jokes about the the tamest joke you can

imagine and they'll say you know community standards politically sensitive politically sensitive 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 this is the latest rage time oh this will make dave's head explode i'll have to tell him during the commercial break. He'll deflate him.
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.
Well, that's part of the danger of social media and algorithms. Who's controlling the algorithm and controlling what we see? We already know that with TikTok, you know, they change the algorithm based on who you are.
If you're in America, if you're in China, the algorithm is different based on what we use in the culture. So how do you guys with all those different platforms determine which piece of content worked? I mean, there are some social media platforms where a certain joke will hit a little bit better.
Like for a long time, Twitter was kind of the political space where politics jokes did well. You're a big hit on Facebook and Instagram for us.
I love it. That's good.
Okay, good. So so yeah it just depends on the audience and where they are Dave you're huge on the gram you're huge on the gram as the kids say huge on the B baby that's it that's what I'm saying Babylon B Kyle Mann thanks for stopping by brother we love your work a lot of fun.
You guys, if you haven't followed it, jump in and follow.

You'll get a laugh, and you might get offended, and that'll be good for you, too.

Just laugh your way through it.

You've got to love it.

The Babylon Bee, check it out.

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Might not be in all states. 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.
A new manager position was recently created and my husband considered applying for it, but before he he could it was given to another employee that has no previous experience in the role this new manager now repeatedly asked my husband for advice and wants him to work extra hours and to cover his lack of competence 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 should he mention the situation and bring up needing increased compensation or a path to growth. Well, Nikki, when somebody has done me wrong, I found, Dave, that my wife, Stacey, has always taken it worse.
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, 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.
And because he didn't raise his hand, 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 talk about a growth plan. After you talk about a desire to grow, in other words, I think in his interview, he needs to sit down and say, hey, listen, 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.

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 near future, I'd like to meet with you and discuss a growth plan.

What tools can I add to my tool belt?

In other words, skills and experience.

And then what are some shortcomings? 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 so that you and I are operating off the same sheet of paper, same sheet of music, and if we measure that, will that lead to opportunity for more responsibility, which should come with more compensation? 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 and a raise. And so the reason I prescribe it that way, Dave, is it allows them to have some ownership in it.
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.

The other thing I want you to ask yourself is who is ambitious here, you or your husband? Because A, he didn't raise his hand for this position. B, his wife wrote us an email, not him.
Two indicators he ain't real fired up. And so are not as fired up as you are.
That's correct. That's very obvious.
So 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? Grow, meaning grow in responsibility and in value that I'm adding and hopefully in compensation someday. And that requires a body language, a little swagger.
Yeah, you got to share some hunger i think what what they want to see here is i want to get better i want to do more be more and that's attractive yeah and and you know i think that's a discussion maybe your husband doesn't want any of that maybe you want it it's very possible so um you need to talk that through before you send him into the lion's cage. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Matthew is in Houston, Texas. Hi, Matthew.
How are you? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call.
Sure. What's up? Hey, so I have a budgeting question.
I'm trying to figure out what I should do for an extra $20,000 in income I'm going to receive three to four times this year from overtime work.

Send it to Dave's Bahama Fund.

P.O. Box.

No, I'm kidding.

Okay.

All right.

So you're going to make an extra $80,000?

Yeah.

Sweet!

Very nice. Pretty nice.
Where are you on the baby steps, bro? I'm not sure what baby step exactly. Okay.
So this whole thing is 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, and we apply in an order a forced ranking of importance okay and that that 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 okay first thing you need to do save a thousand dollars i bet already done that.
Yes. How much money do you have in savings? Just savings.
I have about $50,000. Okay, good for you.
And how much debt do you have not counting your home? None. Good.
Okay, baby step one is save $1,000. Baby step two is to become debt-free, everything but the house.
Ding, ding, check those two boxes. 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.

Maybe step four is start putting 15% of your income towards retirement,

not more, not less, in 401ks and Roth IRAs.

Are you doing that?

Yeah, I'm maxing them out. It's more like 25% at the moment.
Okay. Baby step five is kids college.
Do you have kids? No, I'm single. Well, that's easy.
We skipped that one. Baby step six is pay off your house early.
How much do you owe on your home? Yeah, I owe $200 on my home, and right now I'm putting an extra $400 a month towards the principal. Okay, and what do you make? What's your total income, sir? Well, depending with this OT, it should be close to about $200 this year.
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? I would tell you to reduce your 401k to 15%, not maxed out.
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.
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. After the house is paid off.
Okay, So after the house, here's, here's why, here's why. Okay.
This is, I did 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.
Two primary things caused them to have the first one to $10 million of net worth,

investing steadily into their 401k and paying their home off.

And paying the home off is a big part of it, by the way.

So a paid-for house.

How old are you?

I'm 26.

And the house is worth what?

Probably about 260. Okay.
So when the house gets paid off, by the time it's paid off, 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. 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.

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.

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That's RamseySolutions.com slash SmartTax. 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. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hey, Ken and Dave. It's a pleasure.
Ours, too. How can we help? Yeah, so I'm calling today just to see how we, as we, me and my husband, can get ahead of our bills.
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. So we've tried, you know, budgeting and just trying to get ahead and we just can't

seem to get that curve. So we're just calling to see what tips and tricks you could provide for us.
What's your household income? It's about $75,000 gross. Okay.
And how much debt do you have, not counting your house?

$39,000.

On what?

On student loans of $24, house? $39,000.

On what? On student loans is $24,000, $5,000 in credit cards, and $9,000 or $10,000 on an RV travel trailer. On a trailer.
Okay. And you make $75,000 a year.
That's right, between the both. Okay.
All right. Um, all right.
So where do you think your money is going? Well, I know that it was going to a lot of eating out. Um, I actually just got my husband on board about two months ago to do like the baby steps.
Um, I've been doing it probably by myself for like a whole year 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.
I'm tired of handling it. So I have him stepping in on the finances as well as just really, you know, being careful where our money is going.
And so, 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.

So that's kind of helpful.

Okay, so if I sat down with you and your husband

with a yellow pad at the kitchen table and I said,

okay, this is what you have coming in this week.

Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going.

This is what you have coming in the next week.

Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going. Let's you have coming in the next week let's map out where every one of those dollars is going let's map out you you should have enough with the numbers you gave me we should yeah we should but you're not doing that right there it is okay so you need you need to sit down and you can jump on every dollar but the number one the first thing is the two of you have to do, not turn it over to him because he, because he can do it and you can't do it.
That's not true. Okay.
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 does, that doesn't matter as much as getting in control matters. Right.
I want to get in control more than I want to go out to eat. I want to get in.
I want to get out of debt and have a life more than I want to go on vacation. I want to get in control more than I like this travel trailer.
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, the water bill is due on the second week. The house payment's due on the first week.
The student loan payment's due in the third week, and we're going to figure out what's coming out. We're going to take this much for food, this much for food, this much for food in the four different weeks, 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 and every dollar has an assignment on paper on purpose before the month begins we agree on it and spit shake and pinky swear and then we don't do anything else with money except what we freaking wrote down right and it seems like we've been doing that

for the last two months but we can't catch that curve we can't get out so so you write it all down and you don't have enough no we do have enough but it seems like it's gone every single week no if you wrote it down to have enough and then you did something else other than what you wrote down.

Well, I guess where we're struggling is just like every time we do try to we pay we get our bill every single you know 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 yeah we need to prioritize them better every 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. And then when the check comes in, the check is already spent, so you can't do anything except what you wrote down.

You are not managing to the budget.

You're writing it out as a hypothetical and then going and doing what you used to do.

Right.

And you're not focusing on it.

But I don't get ahead.

But listen, Jen, I'll tell you how.

You've got to actually.

That'll get you ahead, just what I told you.

Yeah.

You won't write down not getting ahead.

You'll get ahead as soon as you do that. You've got room in this budget.
Yeah, we do. You're disorganized and chaotic.
Yeah. 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 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 right it's because it's not right it's sixth grade math can do this.
So you have got to get very detailed, very intentional, and then live the detail. 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.
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. I've done that myself.
I mean, Sharon, I've 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. You know, and that's the biggest thing.
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. And so it's just horrible.
It's horrible value. It's horrible nutrition, and it's out-of-control spending.
And so it's just, you know, so you've got to so you gotta write it down and 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 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 folks you give. You give every single penny a name.
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.
Every dollar is assigned to saving, to giving, or to a bill. Period.
Every single dollar. There is no, well, 50% of my budget is non-allocated.
Bull crap! Allocate every dime 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 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 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 yeah 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. And you do not spend a dime unless it's on that page, on that EveryDollar 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, you're in 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.
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.
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.
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. Hey, it's Kent.
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 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. You heard me right, for free.
Then right there on the home screen, you can watch the rest of today's show.

Bada bing, bada boom.

All right, I'm getting out of here.

Enjoy.