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888-825-5225 is the phone number. Alongside the incomparable, the fabulous Jade Warshaw, I am Ken Coleman, and we're here to coach you up today.
So we got those money questions. We got some work-related questions.
Hey, I need some more income. I like helping people make Mo Money.
Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money. And by the way, if you're at the Ramsey Show and we help you make Mo Money, it doesn't come with Mo Problems.
It better not. Not here.
Yeah, we have the good kind of Mo Money. That's right.
So let's get right to it. Josh is going to start us off in Augusta, Maine.
Josh, how can we help today?

So I've got a bit of a strange problem here. Perfect.
Jade loves strange problems. I love weird problems.
Perfect. It might not sound so strange once I explain it.
I'm 25 years old.

I own my own home.

I built a construction company.

I make, uh, about 130,000 a year. Um, and I've got a real proclivity for building my income, building my business, building my personal wealth over time.
Great. And one of the things I'm really struggling with, and I'm looking for a non-biased opinion because you know how friends are.
They're great, but you know, you can only get so much. I'm looking for any sort of advice on how to select a partner who's not remotely interested in my position in life.
Are you talking about business partner or romantic partner? Romantic partner. Got you.
Your position in life. I mean...
At 25, I'm doing fairly well. Tell us what that means.

What's your net worth?

Net worth.

Like, are you saying if I, my business net worth or if I were to liquidate all that?

You don't have that much, my friend.

You just can't answer that question.

Listen, I appreciate where you're at, young man.

You said you're 25 and you have a proclivity.

Great word, by the way. Yeah, wonderful vocabulary.
I'm a big fan of proclivity. Just used it twice there because I like the way it sounds.
To make a lot of money and all this kind of stuff. No, we don't know that.
You're 25. I appreciate your confidence, but if the question is, how do I make sure I find a girlfriend who's not into me for my position in life? I go, well, I don't know that I want to find a woman who's not interested in my position.
Because that position in life, the way I'm hearing that is, you've got to provide. Position leads to provision, Jay.
Come on. Okay, Ken, you're right.
So, I mean, you're not in a place, my friend, where you're worried about gold diggers, unless you're hanging out in the trailer park. Are you dating women that are in poverty situations i try not to but they uh they pop up well okay so listen this is good listen don't listen if a if you are dating i gotta be very careful how i say this but i'm gonna answer the question i got you here to correct me but maybe i had to say it no let me say it okay if i'm trying to i gotta i'm i'm channeling stacy right now make sure my wife is right beside me and i'm thinking what would stacy want me to say okay because she's a good woman if a woman who is in poverty pops up into your dating life i don't have a problem with that People deserve dignity and there's lots of great women and lovely women and lovely men who come from poverty.
So I'm not saying cancel it out. However, if a person from poverty pops up in your dating life, as you begin to date them, you should have some discernment there to go, am I a ticket out? And so you just have to have some extra judgment and discernment there.
I wouldn't cancel them out. But at the same time, I wouldn't necessarily be hanging out in those areas either.
So I'm trying to walk the fence there. I just think this is a problem he doesn't need to be worried about.
I don't think it is a problem. I think it goes both ways.
The same way you are, all that stuff matters to your point. Your station in life, your work ethic, what you're accomplishing, that's part of the resume.
Yeah. You know, the personal resume.
And so the same way that you have built a personal resume that people will learn about as they get to meet you, you will learn about their personal resume as you meet them and learn about them. And you get to decide who gets the position based off of their personal resume.
And so there's nothing wrong with that. You opened up the call talking about this was a strange or weird problem.
And I don't think it's strange at all. I think it's just part of everyday life when you meet somebody and you get to decide, okay, is this person going to be somebody that I'm going to be friends with? Or is this person going to be somebody that I date long-term? Have you had a lady, you said that this has popped up a few times.
So have you had someone that has come from extreme poverty that has dated you and you felt like they were only dating you because you were a meal ticket out? Yes, it's happened to me more than wants. How do you, how'd you know? Tell us, be very specific.
How'd you know? When did you know that she was only after you for your money? It happened a couple of months in, about three months in. I noticed at first she was very big on balance as far as our personal time and psychological investments.
You know, we're able to talk and work things and figure stuff out between us as people. Okay.
But as time goes on, it turns more into what kind of life you can provide for me and my future children. and there's no reciprocation besides physical which to me is you know it's got a value but i'm not sure i'm not gonna lie i'm not sure i understand i and i want to understand i agree you're not being specific enough there's part of it that i think it is part of the conversation maybe maybe and i don't know you were there I was not there maybe she's saying hey here's what I'm looking for in life um I these are these are what I consider consider gender roles I would love to be in a relationship where maybe the guy works maybe I stay at home with the kids she could just be sharing that that's something that she's looking for am I did I miss it or I right.
Josh, did she say, I want you to buy me this and buy me that? I mean, was it very obvious, or is this just a young lady talking about what life might look like? In separate instances, it's been both. Well, you're worried about stuff you shouldn't be worried about.
Let me put it this way, Jade, when you and Sam got serious. You don't want to ask me this question.
Yes, I do. What were you thinking? Like, what were you wondering about Sam? My exact words were, you got to come correct.
Those were my exact words, meaning I have a high standard of work ethic and what we both do. Did you ask him about his professional future and what he thought he was going to do with his life? I didn't have to ask.
I could see it. Okay, but my point is you were interested in it.
I was interested. I'm like, listen, I'm a go-getter.
You're a go-getter. Everything we do, we do 100%.
That was the standard. It's like, if you're going to be around me, you got to come correct because I'm an intense person.
And so that was that on that all right so so all right i'm putting josh on hold here i i said what i said what are your what's your dating i think he needs to be in better pools he probably needs to be in better pools i also think that i and i don't say this to be there's no salt or shade on this i do think that he's viewing himself in a light that's a little bit puffy. Oh, 100%.
And so I think that if he just kind of chills a little bit, everybody's not after him. You're doing well, but you've not like.
You don't have a proclivity to build wealth yet. You're 25.
Can I just say that? Yes. I mean, come on, man.
You're doing well, but chill out. Yeah, relax.
Use your discernment and get a good group of friends who can discern on the ladies for you. That always helps.
This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back.
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Welcome back to the Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225 is the phone number. I'm Ken Coleman.
Jade Warshaw is alongside. The early Black Friday sale is here.
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If you're listening on YouTube or a podcast, you can click the link in the show notes for those deals. All right, Sarah's up in Phoenix, Arizona.
Sarah, how can we help today? Thank you so much for taking my call. You bet.
What's going on? So I am curious on your thoughts on once you've paid off your consumer debt. My husband and I are 40.
We've been married 15 years, paid off about $150,000 in student loans when we first got married. Now we've got three kids and I'm just sort of looking at how our expenses keep growing every year.
A combination of kids and inflation and lifestyle creep. And just sort of curious on that balance of, you know, the intensity from where we started our marriage to the intentionality and how you balance that in a way that's honoring the hard work and being mindful of the future.
Yeah, I think that's a great question. So would you consider yourself

on baby step five, baby step six? What's the plan? Where are you? Four, five and six. We still have a balance on our mortgage.
Okay. And you're still putting aside for kids college? Yes.
And we're putting aside for kids college. Yeah.
I think there's, you said all the right buzzwords, which is at this point, you're moving from intensity to intentionality, which you're right. And the way that intentionality balances with the idea of I still want to enjoy my life.
At what point does it become, quote unquote, lifestyle creep? because lifestyle creep kind of has this negative connotation that if I'm increasing my lifestyle too much,

I'm putting myself kind of in a in a in a red zone or in a place where I'm not being financially smart. Right.
And so the way I like to think of it is, first off, the reason that we do the baby steps is so that and you get to fill in the blank on what the so that is so that I can live in a nicer house, so that I can travel more, so that I can go to more of my kids' sports games, whatever the so that is, chances are it does cost more because this is a whole money thing, right? And so for me, where the barrier lies is as long as I'm doing all of the things that would cause me to be a financially responsible adult, it's okay for me to increase my income and therefore increase my lifestyle, right? So for you, you're a baby steps walker. I kind of like to filter this through just a general kind of five pillars of personal finance.
Am I a person who keeps and sticks to a budget monthly? Yes. Okay, great.
Check that box. Am I a person who is out of debt and values never going into debt again? And I'm putting that and have put that into practice.
Yes. Am I a person who carries the proper insurances? I've checked all the boxes.
I've done all the stuff. I check my coverage yearly.
I carry what I need to. Okay, I do that check.
Am I a person who has valued savings and investing for the future? Whether that's emergency funds, whether I'm contributing the right amounts to my investing for the future, right? Check that box. And am I a person who prioritizes generosity? If I'm doing those five things, I'm also working on my baby step.
Yeah. Increase your lifestyle.
Knock yourself out. Have a good time.
That's what it's about. It's not about I have to limit myself like this all the time, all the time.
Otherwise, what was the purpose? What was the point? Yeah, I agree. The only thing I would add to this, Sarah, is I think there's three questions that even now I'm constantly asking myself because we've got three teens.
One's in college. I got two drivers.
I got a third one on the way. I mean, I feel like I'm running a garage service.
I got so many cars at my house. And I think there's three simple little questions, and this is about intentionality, so maybe this will help.
Here's three questions. I could do it.
I should do it. I must do it.
So it's like, could I do it? Question mark. Yes.
should I do it mmm oh I got the mmm on the other end of the phone

and then must I It's like, could I do it? Question mark. Yes.
Should I do it?

Oh, I got the mmm on the other end of the phone.

And then must I do it?

So when I think about things, if it's in the must category,

well, then we've got some values that are driving that decision, right?

This is the important stuff. If I'm in the, should I do this?

Well, we still got values driving that question, but it's not apparent that it is fundamental. It's just, okay, do I do this? Like, I'll tell you, I got one of those right now.
It's a dry sauna, outdoor dry sauna. Okay, that's good.
Should I? I'm in the should I. Should I do this? And I'm doing my research, and I don't want to go down the rabbit trail and waste everybody's time.

Well, walk us through it.

Walk us through it.

I like this.

Well, it's an expensive purchase.

I mean, it's not a $500 purchase.

Yeah, that's right.

That's an expensive purchase.

So I'm looking at it going, should we, Stacey and I, should we do this?

I've got to get a car for Josie who turns 16 in a couple weeks.

We're doing the homework on that.

And, you know, she's not going to be ready to drive right away,

but she's going to be close.

You start looking through other things. I've got a college kid.
Okay, we're cash flowing the homework on that. She's not going to be ready to drive right away, but she's going to be close.
You start looking through other things. I got a college kid.
We're cash flowing a lot of that. I start walking through, okay, that's a sizable purchase.
So I'm going, should I do this? So I start to weigh it's got a lot of health benefits, and I've already gone down that. It's really good for Stacey and I in our health.
It has all of those positive benefits. We've got space for it.
I've got a space for it, an outdoor space. As you know, you've been over the house.
And I go, okay, it's not going to cramp anything. I've got the cash for it.
It's not going to hurt me. And you're still doing all the other things, though.
And I'm still doing all the other things. So I'm in that place of going, I'm walking through that, even at this stage where I've got the money.
I'm not going to feel it, but I do feel it. I still go, that's a sizable purchase.
Yes. And do we do it now? So then Stacey and I change our Christmas plans for each other and go, this is what we're going to do.
I mean, all I'm saying is I'm using a super simple thing that I like to walk through. Could I do it? Yes.
Should I do it? Well, we've got to wrestle with that. And then the must I do it.
And I think maybe that'll help, Sarah, with staying in view of your values so that you know if your values are right, your money's going to be right. Yeah.
And the truth is your values change and get to change throughout this process. Something that would not have been important to you maybe three baby steps ago could become important to you now.

And that's also okay.

So just a little permission to...

Let's say you and Sam call us up and go, hey, let's go on this trip.

I'm going right to should I?

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Because we have margin in our life.

That's right.

The could is there.

So, but there are times in life where it's going, hey, I... No, could.
Yeah. Nope.
Private jet. No.
Can't do it. No.
No. Yeah.
Could I? No. The answer is no.
So, you know, Sarah, I hope that helps you. I think you need to give yourself permission.
I thought Jay did a wonderful job of setting it up. But I hope those little questions, that just keeps you, I think you're worried about you're doing something dumb.
And I just don't see that if you've got values aligned with how you spend your money. Thank you.
I appreciate it. Yeah.
Good, good, good. I mean, that's, and we see this a lot, Jade.
I want you to share with our audience that's on the front end of this. Okay.
Why we got that phone call there. Because there are a lot of people who are just in baby step one.
Yes. Or they're in baby step two and they're just like, rice and beans, beans and rice, it's gazelle.
Well, now Sarah's on the other side of that and still dealing with some of that, I'm going to call it leftover intensity. Yeah, you put the rubber band on tight when you're on baby step one.
It's like, oh my gosh, it's like you're squeezing into a tight pair of jeans. I like that.
If you put a rubber band on your wrist, it mark it'll leave a mark you gotta let some time for that skin to heal yeah that's interesting and it's like okay have you ever this is a horror i'm not going to use this analogy i was going to say it's a horrible analogy but you're like in the tight jeans and then you get in baby step four you know when no one's looking you can let the zipper down a little bit and you can just listen i think every man in america identifies with uh being in the jeans and you went to the buffet one too many trips. Man, okay.
And you get underneath the. Listen, I think every man in America identifies with being in the jeans

and you went to the buffet one too many trips.

Man, okay.

And you get underneath the table and no one's looking.

You just a little air.

Just a little air.

Just a little out.

Just a little breathing room.

Set that top button just so we go back and get a little more stuffing and gravy.

A little bit more.

You know what my theme is during Thanksgiving and Christmas, folks?

This is bonus.

Eat through the pain.

You want to know what mine is? What? If it's brown, it's going down. There it is, folks.
That's why you come to the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back.
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Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman, and you have joined the conversation about you and your life here on The Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.
We're here to coach you up today. Sharron is up next in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sharron, how can we help? Hi, thank you guys for taking my call. So I'm in a bad situation that I can't really get out from under.
I'm about 350,000 in debt. Mainly, I've really high car payments.
I don't have the option to get a loan or anything, so I'm considering a voluntary repo or bankruptcy.

Okay, I want to make sure I heard you right.

Did you say $350,000?

Yes, that does include a house.

Okay, how much of that is the house?

The house is $153,000.

Okay. Okay.

Okay.

Here's the thing.

I want to know more about this car because I'm never going to tell you that bankruptcy is the way out of this,

and I'm never going to tell you that voluntary repossession is the way out of this.

So let's get our head around the numbers and let's see if we can offer you some better solutions.

I can't guarantee they won't be painful, but I think that they'll be better than what you're talking about so tell us about the car um so there's two cars um one was for my son who obviously that didn't work out so first car payment is $9.92 I owe about $49 and it's only worth about $23. Okay.
I have a car, $7.80. Wait, before you go on, you said you owe $49, and it's worth what now? $23.
$23. And what happened that caused that steep depreciation? Is it a lot of miles? What's the year? It's a 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz.
Interest rate is about 9%. And you've been paying minimum payments? Have you, I mean, where are you getting the value of it? Let me start there.
Are you going on Kelly Blue Book or did some dealer tell you this? This was from Edmonds and some offers from like the CarMax. They gave me around 23K.
What would cause this to drop 50 in two years less than two years you said 2022 uh the car is actually at 2023 i have absolutely no idea okay so edmunds is private seller is that what you looked up there like kelly bluebook or edmunds did Did you look at private sale, you selling it to somebody else? I believe that value was private. Well, maybe not private sale.
Is it electric? I do have it listed, too. Is it an electric vehicle? How many miles you got? It's not.
About 18,000. Something's not right.
No, I just think your numbers are off. Here's what we want you to do so that jade can keep coaching here you need to go look kelly blue book be as accurate as you can on it and you're looking at private seller value the the number seems really low and that that matches up to what a car max or another car dealership they're going to give you way less for the car because they got to build some profit into it so did you roll a lot of other negative equity into it when you got it?

I did have negative equity.

Okay.

All right. Now we got somewhere.

How much did you roll in?

I'm just trying to understand.

Do you remember?

Honestly, I don't know.

I purchased these two cars the same day, and they did some fancy stuff.

Okay.

That was fancy. All right.
That was. Okay.
So tell me about car number two that your son has and by the way how old is your son he is 18 he no longer has possession of the car anymore um so who does it's 782 uh my sister who is helping with the payment all right $782 car payment. What's the loan on it?

$30,000. $782 car payment.
What's the, what's the loan on it? 30K. And what's it worth? Um, this one is, it told me around 12K, but there's damage to it.
Um, so I wouldn't think it would be too much higher. Okay.
Um, is it the damage that is it running? Like, is it working? It does run. It does work.
There are a few mechanical things, but it's mostly just body damage. It was side swiped.
Okay. All right.
But it's your name on it, even though your sister is operating it and paying the loan. It's your name on it.
She's only paying a little bit towards it, but yes, it is under money. Okay.
So, and tell me, you said before, like, there's no way I can get a loan. There's no way I can get out of this.
Because I would rather you owe another lender $18,000 than owe $30,000. And I would rather you owe another lender $26,000 than owe $49,000.
Do you see what I'm saying? Highly understand. My credit has tanked.
There's been a series of unfortunate things that took place so I don't actually have the ability to even get a loan at this point. Okay, so then in that case, tell us about some of the other debts that you have and then tell us about your income.
Um, so the house is 150K. It's a duplex.
I bought it for the sole purpose of having someone help me pay my mortgage. Uh, so I do have a tenant.
Um, I have 80,000 in student loans. They're on the deferment.
Okay. It wasn't $80,000, obviously, when I graduated.
Sure. But nothing's due on those right now, right? You're paying almost zero.
Correct. You should be.
Okay. Correct.
What else? About $8,000 in credit cards, $18,000 in personal loans, another $10,000 to $12,000 in medical. I recently started working with a nonprofit debt management company and they're handling that, but that's also a very high payment.
Yeah. I wish you hadn't done that.
Okay. So the credit cards, personal loans, medical debt, is there anything else? No.
Okay. So tell me about your working situation.
Tell us about your income. I make about 75 to 86 with bonuses at my job.
I work more than full time. When you say 75 to 86, are you telling me 75 to 86 per year? Or are you you telling me 7500 per month 8600 per month tell me give me your monthly okay give me your monthlies uh monthly i'm at about uh do you want take home or growth take home uh take home is 52 56 okay so here's what the there's only a couple of ways to remedy this the first is you get your income up there's no there's no other way around this and then the second thing is is time okay so you getting your income up i mean you have a great income now don't get me wrong i'm not saying that you're like behind the curve or anything like that, but you've got a lot of debt here.
And the whole thing with the car situation, I mean, I'm going to look for anything almost is better than what you've got yourself in now, truly. Anything to lower this number so that you can find some breathing room because paying $992 for one and $782 for another, any way that you can knock that down so you can find some breathing room and get further into this, I'm doing it.
I'm looking at whatever I can to get a loan for the difference on these cars to get out of them, especially the second one because you don't even need that car. Your son is almost grown now basically and he's not driving it anyway so you got to get out of that that 18 000 find any way to get that that you can come up with um the the duplex uh what's it worth um i think the last time i checked it was like 205 okay so there's not much there.
Okay. Not much there.
Yeah. You're going to have to, Ken, I mean, there's no superpower on this.
Well, I think, I know you've, you don't have time to tell us we're running short on time. One of the things I want to do is I want to get her, I want to get her session with a financial coach because there's so much complexity here.
So hang on the line and I'm going to have Christian connect you there. But what you're going to have to do is you can't assume anything.
You go, oh, this happened, this happened, this happened, I can't get a loan. I would be going to every credit union that you can locally and go, here's my situation.
I've got a good paying job. I've got to lower my expenses.
And to Jade's point, you sell these cars. And if you can consolidate that loan through them and get those payments lower, number one, that's a raise.
Yeah. But real talk though, I mean, with her income, unless she's investing or doing something else after the car payments, I don't know what percentage her mortgage is, but her student loans aren't due at all.
And so that's still, there's still $3,500 left. So if you're not on a budget, you got to get on one.
But when I look at the $10,000 in medical debt, which you should be

settling the 15,000 in personal loans and the 8,000 in credit cards, there is money here to

pay these debts. There's something here that we don't know about.
Challenge yourself. What do you

have to do right now to make an additional 30,000 a year that goes to this mess and you can get out

of this? Hang on the line. We're going to get you a session with one of our coaches and that'll help you a little bit more.
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Welcome back to the Ramsey Show America. Thrilled that you have joined us.
I'm Ken Coleman, and I'm alongside my friend Jade Warshaw. So, so good to have you.
888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. But before we get back to the phones, we've got today's question of the day, which is always brought to you by our friends at Y-Refi.
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Yeah, today's question comes from Dylan in Montana. He says, I fully subscribe to Dave's philosophy on personal finance, but here's an issue I don't recall being addressed.
What are your thoughts on zero percent financing for cars oh yeah yeah we've never addressed that one in all the years while that's not readily available now my hope is that it will return at some point perhaps with some manufacturers extending the term for 60 months i realize this is, but it's cost-free debt, right? Oh boy. I'm going to let you handle that one, Jade.
Well, hey, let me just call out the obvious. If you fully subscribe to Dave's philosophy, then this would not even be on your radar.
So there's holes in that argument. But anyway, yeah, at the end of the day, we're talking about risk.
That's really all this boils down to. Let's say the car that you want is $32,000 and you say, okay, I can get it on a typical term.
I think right now the average loan term is 69 months, which is ridiculous to be paying six years for something. Really? Yeah.
69 months? Yeah. That's a thing? Yeah.
Wow. Yeah.
The stats right now are the average new car loan is $31,722 with a monthly payment of $545 on an average loan term of 69 months. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is where I need Tums. Yeah.
I need to just like open the bottle and chuck a couple Tums right down, right down here. Yeah.
So this guy's like, this guy's like's like well what if i want the same car and i get zero percent over the same term or okay a little bit less so five years free money right it's free money but i'm like okay think about all that can happen in five years and so we're again it's really back to the risk situation of okay why carry debt a when you don't have to and why? Because when life hits, as it will, you're on the hook for that.

So if something were to change with your lifestyle, you still have to make the payment.

And so for me, even though you're not paying for something at a premium, in this case,

APR interest rate, you're still carrying debt around your head and around your neck that

you don't need to have.

And so for that reason, I'm out.

Yeah, well, speaking of crazy terms, I cannot believe what I have in front of me. Folks, this is real.
This is an actual article I'm holding in my hands. Yeah, what is it? This is the dumbest person in america i'm gonna that's the title um this is a headline from finance yahoo yahoo finance um apparently uh this gentleman uh made a thousand dollar down payment to joe the car plug sounds reputable to me oh my gosh That's the dealer's name.
Joe the Carp. Oh, wow.
Joe the Car Plug. Sounds reputable to me.
Oh, my gosh. That's the dealer's name.
Joe the Car... Oh, wow.
Joe the Car Plug. Okay.
You're going to begin to see how this thing unravels quickly. And the deal he agreed to was, Jade, and this is not a typo, I'm assured by Kelly, the producer.
This is not a typo. $590 per month.
Wait for folks for 27 years what uh which means he will ultimately pay $191,000 for a BMW 530i now a brand new one according to BMW's website is is it's got an MSRP of $58,000. And it gets worse, folks.
Oh, my gosh.

Not only is this moron. to BMW's website is it's got an MSRP of $58,000.
And it gets worse, folks.

Oh, my gosh.

Not only is this moron agreed to pay $590 for 27 years.

Oh, my gosh.

The car already has 289,000 miles on it.

Joe, our board op, about fell out of his chair. It's not a typo.
So we actually have real evidence of this. This is not just an article.
We also have a TikTok apparently about this story. Let's roll this, and then we'll react to it a little bit more.
Yes, sir. Mr.
David just saw this off with his BMW 530. Mr.
David, how much did you put down? A hundred and a hundred down. Mr.
Joseph hooked me up. How much is there a month? 590.
Alright. How many months? We're 20.
Oh, I am speechless. We're celebrating this.
I am without speech. He's happy as he could possibly be about this decision.
I mean, the facts are the facts.

He's thrilled that he only put $1,000 down.

Now, that BMW at 289,000 miles has a lifespan of about seven weeks, I think.

Am I right?

There's nothing about this that makes sense,

and there's nothing about this that there's no logic here. Yeah, but he's as happy as he can be.
Did you see a smile on his face? Joe the car plug did me a favor. They should arrest the guy who owns Joe the car plug.
Isn't there some kind of laws against this? Yeah. You know, I can't resist because I'm an opportunity cost person, and so I can't resist running numbers on something like this.
Okay, take it look at this and go oh David with interest he's ultimately going to pay 191,000 which that alone is shocking like that's a that's a lot of money but that's not even the like that's that doesn't even scratch the surface of the true opportunity cost here so a 27 27 years I mean we say it on the show all the time the car payment is what keeps middle class broke or the car payment truly is what keeps whoever wants car payment broke. Right.
So because you're locked in and when you lock yourself into a five, six year term, in this case, 27 years, that is a term of time that you're saying with this money, I will pay my car. No, I will not invest it.
I will not do other things. And so that is the opportunity cost that we play here.
So, but this doesn't even, can I just say this doesn't even make sense because I'm in the used car game because I got three teenagers. I've bought, as you know, two cars in the last three years.
Yes. Joe, you're a gearhead.
I know for a fact that a BMW with 289,000 miles on it, it could be a 2023. Yeah.
the most you could probably charge for that is 15 000 at the most i'm making that's if it's a 2023 and if that's two or three years old that car's not even worth 10 grand at that kind of mile yeah on bmws so i really think i was making a joke but i think this is illegal well like this is how do you charge this man 590 a month for 27 years? This man is paying rent for Joe the car plug. Well, that's what he's doing.
He's paying the man's lease. He's paying the man's lease.
I have to believe, and I don't know. His numbers don't add up.
I don't know how vetted this is because anything's possible on the internet. And so, who knows? This can't be real, guys.
I'm starting to wonder if this is even real. They did it for the gram.
I believe that. But just know that if he had taken that same money and invested it over the same term, it's almost a million dollars.
Literally, it's $970,000 that it really is costing him to operate this vehicle. If this, in fact, is...
This can't be real. The more I think about this, let's round it up to $600 a month.
It's $7,200 a year. The car itself, I know this is real.
I just don't think a person could be that clueless. I'm told that this is real.
This is a real article. That cannot be real.
Are you with me, studio audience? That's absurd. That is fraudulent.
Yeah. He's being defrauded.
That's not a word, is it? Is that a word? He's being defrauded that's not a word is it he might is that a word he's being defrauded but he also is playing a role in this because yeah i don't i don't mind saying he's not a smart guy nobody twisted his arm it doesn't look like to get this man i don't know what to do this is a sign of the apocalypse it's it's what this is yeah this is a sign of the apocalypse This is a real news article from a reputable thing and here's a tiktok with this guy with a smile on his face like he just won the lottery in the music i got five on it that was messed up i didn't even pick up on that i was listening to the music i was like this is a I just, the idea, like I literally was just from the question of the day. I was processing, because I don't pay attention to this stuff anymore.
I was having a hard time processing a 69 month term on a car. Yeah.
That's what people are doing. And that means rooms to go must have a 10 year plan now.
But here's the thing. Delinquencies are up.
They've always got something. They're always the leaders.
No interest for 99 years. I'm watching college football, and it's like, you can get a sofa today and finance it to the year 3000.
It's like, what? Will I be here? Oh, gosh. Oh, God.
Rescue us, folks. Yeah, we need help.
All right, more of your calls coming up. This is The Ramsey Show.
Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you, America.
This is where we coach you to win in your life, win with your money, win in your work, and win with your relationships. Alongside my good friend, the incomparable, fabulous, fantastic Jade Warshaw.
I'm Ken Coleman. And I've got my fall sweater on.
That's what I got for you today. This is nice.
Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
I appreciate that. I just saw it in the camera.
I realized, oh, you know, it's kind of cool here in middle Tennessee now. Sweater weather is what I like to call it.
Sweater weather. John's going to get us started first in Houston, Texas.
John, how can we help today? Hello, thank you for taking my call. I got myself into a situation.
I signed a lease for an apartment about three months ago, and I kind of think I bit off more than I could chew. Everything was going good at first, but unfortunately the brakes went out to my car, and I kind of fell behind on rent.
And so I am contemplating whether I should, um, break the lease, uh, and get a roommate to get my finances under control or, you know, uh, what would be the next, uh, the best option. All right.
Well, give Jade a picture of your finances. How much do you bring home and how much is this lease and what other debt do you have? Give us a bit of a picture.

Okay. So what I bring in every year, so this is gross.

Tell me monthly. Tell me monthly.

Yeah.

$2,000.

Okay. So $43 a year, $2,000 a month.

Correct.

Hold on. Quick clarification.
Is that take home? $2, 2000 is take home okay gotcha all right keep going okay and the the lease is 899 a month um there's you know various other charges like water sewage all that stuff so it comes out to like 980 underground um i've kind of looked at kind of like what the termination costs would be for this contract and they talked about a re-letting fee which is 80% of the $8.99 and then $8.99 for the rest of the lease which comes out to like seven, eight grand. How are you getting that? I thought it was $8.99 for the lease plus the half of the lease.
So like $4.50? What am I missing? She said 85% of the letting fee and then the rest of the remainder. When I calculated, it came out to a grand because this is what, I think a 12-month lease.
Oh, for the entire thing. I got you.
I got you. Okay.
okay so yeah that's not an option because you don't have that money definitely okay um so yeah so uh this is a symptom of a much much larger problem um my first question when you first started talking was i wanted to know how far behind how many months behind are you well that's the thing it's just only actually it's only like two or three weeks but okay this happened in October when the brakes went out I was late they say on the contract you can't be late I talked to him but know about my situation they said okay we'll take that payment late and I said November is gonna be late as well now you know this is messed up my paycheck to paycheck uh so they said we'll take november's as well but now they're saying okay december the first you have to be on time if you're not yeah we're going to go ahead and file for an eviction what do you what do you do for a job i uh actually work in mental health uh unfortunately doesn't pay a whole lot what do you do in mental health uh i i work with people who have chemical dependency issues. Okay, and so are you an hourly wage? Yes.
What is your hourly wage? Well, right now it's about $20.70 an hour. Yeah, I'm jumping in very quickly because Jade can help you and walk you through this, but you have an income problem in addition to the fact that we know you know you've signed it you know you've already admitted it you signed up for a lease you couldn't afford um but you can dig out of this um and uh jade will walk you through the rest of the debt whatever but i'm going to tell you that right now you can happen to this problem and right now you're a good man who loves taking care of people and you're just not making a whole lot of money, but you got yourself way over your head.
And so until you get yourself out of this, you're going to have to work like an absolute madman and you're an able body. So that may mean swallowing your pride and working the graveyard shift at Walmart, stocking shelves, getting 20 an hour somewhere else.
You have got to bring in some income to get current and get yourself some breathing room here. But this is going to be hard for a little while.
I'll hand you to Jade on that, but I wanted to at least make the point that you can work and you should be working. And I mean every second of the day at this point to get yourself out of this.
Well, John, how long have you been working? How long have you been in the career that you're in right now? I actually entered it earlier this year. Earlier this year.
And before you entered this career, were you doing something that earned you more money or less money? No, I made a little far less. And actually the last four years I was actually in training.
Okay. My internship.
Where I'm struggling with this is I think that you know, how old are you? I'm 30. I'm 30.
Okay. I think that you know that $2,000 a month, it's impossible.
Right? I think that you know that. And what kind of shook me on this is you're like, OK, back in October, my breaks went out.
I'm I'm struggling with, man, if that happens, then it's like, OK, I got to go tonight. Like I got to get to Wendy's tonight and get a job.
I got to go over to Dollar General tonight. And like there's this urgency that I feel like is missing.
And then when I'm like, well, how long have you been doing this job? Then I realize, oh, this urgency has been missing for a while. And then when you told me that you're earning less before that, there's something missing here.
And you've got to have a, when the house is on fire, you don't just lollygag around and be like, oh, you know what? I think I left a pair of socks upstairs. You know what? I think I need to go over here and get these keys off this dress.
You run. You move with a sense of urgency to get to safety.
And I think that you got to start moving with that sense of urgency because this house has been on fire for a little minute now. One quick question on that urgency issue, Jade.
Is this a two-bedroom apartment? No, this is just a one-bedroom. Man.
All right. I was going to try to get you a roommate real quick but um yeah that's not enough no i think right now we got to go to work today that's it i mean you're literally selling stuff anything you own right now income everything income you're selling your bed you're selling everything that you have that's there's a value on it you're selling your bed you're getting a couple hundred bucks and you're buying an air mattress for 30 bucks at walmart and taking the rest and putting it towards this because you got to hit this december 1st deadline to kind of get everything right side up again for you um and don't let that trick you into thinking okay i'm okay now now i'm safe no that was just you getting from upstairs to downstairs the house is still on fire so um I mean, that's what you've got to do.
$2,000 is not going to make it work. And I understand if you love your career, but then you got to be proactive about adding additional income to it every single month and a lot of it.
Yeah. I mean, for advice for other people that may be in John's shoes here, if you want to get into the mental health space and we'll see what a ladder looks like for him going forward.
But at that point, Jay, this is why we teach percentages of your income that go to housing, to give you this safety net from getting overextended because he should have been renting a little place over some old lady's garage. Bax, 500 bucks, Max.
For 400. I was thinking 400.
Yeah. You know, because that gets him at about 25% or, and, and, you know, no one wants to hear that, but what's the alternative? You go out and get an apartment going, well, I got a job.
I'm doing the thing I want to do. I'm an adult now.
And then you go, oh, I actually can't afford it. If anything bad happens in my life.
Oh, like the brakes going out. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
I mean, this is bad. This, Michael Jackson.
So, man, tough stuff. Oh, folks, listen to what we teach.
Keeps you from doing this stuff. This is The Ramsey Show.
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Welcome back to the Ramsey Show, America. So glad you're with us.
I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is alongside.
888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225.
We go next to San Jose, California. Jeff is there.
Jeff, how can we help? Hi. Yeah, me and my fiance, we're about a million dollars in debt right now.
And we kind of, most of it's student loan debt, but we still have a million dollars. We just don't know how to really tackle my goodness is this what type of degrees

did you guys have yeah we're we're both dentists so i guess that's a good thing kind of yeah yeah

i can tell you're fired up by that bless your heart yes are you making money like what are

you guys making every year uh so i what we're told when we go into this is we'll be able to pay it off. Don't worry.

That's right. We make about, uh, probably average 170 a year.
That's what you guys are actually paying yourself. Yes.
And our taxes before taxes. Oh my gosh.
170 gross. And are you separate practices? uh we currently, but we're probably going to group in together and just try to grow, I guess.

Did you say 170 each or combined?

Okay, okay.

170 gross each.

That's not bad.

And you're living in, okay, well, San Jose is expensive.

That's an expensive part of the country.

What is your debt?

Break it down for Jay. Let's go you first.
You're the one on the phone and an expensive part of the country. What is your debt? Break it down for Jay.

Let's go you first.

You're the one on the phone, and you're not married yet.

So what's your debt?

About, let's see, $450,000 right now in all student loan.

Okay, and no other debt?

Luckily, we're both pretty good on that side.

Okay, pretty good or good? Good. How long have you been practicing? About a year now.
We just came out of school. It's just kind of a nervous thing to be a million dollars in debt.
No, no, listen, brother, this is real. And I, oh, this makes me so mad on your behalf.
Not mad at you, but, but people are just selling this and now you're facing it. It's like staring down the barrel of a gun right now.
I can feel it all over you. And, and well, here's the thing I'm asking about.
You're only a year into this based on, I don't know if they teach you any business skills, probably not, but. Unfortunately, they don't.
They don't. Any sense of how big your practice is in its first year? Are you small for first year? Are you medium-sized? Do you have any sense of that? I would say we're probably small getting to medium, hopefully, by the end of this bill.

Do you know any dentists at all that are very successful?

Huh?

Yes, I do.

Are you in contact with them on a regular basis to go, how did you grow your business?

No.

You need to be.

I'm not.

You need to be.

I'm not kidding you. Jay's going to give you some financial advice, but I was leading you this because let me tell you something.
They don't teach you how to run a business. They teach you how to take care of teeth.
But taking care of teeth is not enough to be a successful dentist. You have got to know how to get people in the chair.
Yeah, that's right. And I want you on the phone.
I'm going to give you as a gift of mine, Christian, at the end of this call, I want to give him the proximity principle. It's worth a quick read.
You can get the audio book if you want that. We'll give you whatever version you want.
But I want you to be in touch with successful dentists, and I mean successful. And I want you telling them, I need your best advice.
What would you say to me where I'm at right now about growing my business and try to replicate this with two or three other successful dentists, get all that feedback in one bucket and start doing it. Because the quicker you grow this business, the more you can pay yourself.
And the more you pay yourself, the easier it is to do what Jade's going to tell you.

I just wanted to give you that.

You've got to be like,

and she's got to be the same way.

If you guys combine practices,

this can't be like,

we were married and we have to know.

You both are like,

you're the most,

I don't want to say desperate dentist we've ever seen,

but it's like,

you got to get creative in the community

and be competitive so that everybody's coming to you to get their teeth cleaned. Okay.
Can I ask a question? And this is both to Ken and you, Jeff. So you, you come out of dental school, you've got all the goods to be able to, to practice.
Are you working for someone else or you started your own thing? Uh, I'm working for someone else, but we're working on a contract to hopefully partner. And is that going to cause you to have to go into more debt? Cause that's what I'm trying to get a sense of what your next plan is.
Cause I don't want you to go into more debt. And that's why we're trying to hold off.
Cause we don't know if we're getting more debt. No, you got to do your own practice, man.
I thought that's what we were talking about. You can't go into debt.
It's not worth it. No.
Like, you got to work for someone else until you can afford to do whatever the next step is. Is your income fixed, though, after all that big speech I gave? Is your income fixed, or are you able to go recruit new patients and get some of that? No.
Not fixed. Okay.
So you can benefit from hustling like I told you to do? Yes.. All right.
That's good news. That's all I was trying to get at.
And I don't want you to go into any more debt until this is cleaned up. Because again, what you're realizing now is true.
Yes, you have agency over this, but there's no guarantees and there's no guarantees at how quickly this will go. And so going into further debt, I would not advise that.
Looking at the numbers, the hard part for me is you are in an expensive area. What are you paying? Like, what's the housing situation? Are you renting? Do you own a place? What is it? We're going to be owners because it almost doesn't make sense to rent because then we're just throwing that away from the map.
What are you doing right now? What's the situation now? About $4,500 a month. For your place? Or are you guys together already? Together.
You're already together. It'll be $4,500, yep.
Okay. To rent.
But to buy, it's the same. Yes, but you're going into debt to get it.
You're adding more debt to your name. We will be, yes.
And you're tied to that. Like you got to pay it.
And now you're adding expenses to your life as well. You can't afford to do that.
You need to be living as cheaply as possible. And if it's the same price per month, it's not really the same price because your complex or whatever is paying for yard and garbage and all those things.
So I don't want to add weight to you of having to replace an AC or having to replace a roof or having to, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. So that's it.
Or adding insurance, you know, all that stuff is really expensive. And so I would continue to rent.
You're not throwing money down the drain. You are buying yourself time until you can truly afford to buy.
So please promise me your homework coming off this call is to promise me that you won't go into debt into this practice right now and that you will not buy a home right now because that would add insult to injury. And I'm going to throw in here, I'm going to challenge you to get a much, much better rent situation.
Just try. Find a place over an old lady's garage.
I say that all the time, but I'm telling you, I don't think you guys should be paying anywhere near $4,500 a month. Not now.
You guys are so broke. You almost need to be staying in a place where they're paying you.
Jeff, you're going to have to fight hard because the truth is you guys have got these shiny degrees. You're in a great profession where there's the potential to make a lot of money.
And the people around you, probably the people that you're working with, they're coming in with their Tahos and their Cadillacs and their Teslas. And they get expensive salads and juices for lunch.
You don't do that. You eat lean cuisine and you drive a Ford Taurus.
And I would prescribe a lot of fasting for this company. It's the new craze.
It's a biblical principle. And I think it's got some financial advantages here.
Y'all need to try fasting three days at a time. You're going to look great, but you can't even afford to buy cold cuts.
Yeah. Carl Budding.
Do you remember? I don't know. Listen, Jeff, I don't know if you remember when I was coming up.
Yeah. The cheapest cold cuts you could buy were called.
We're older than these youngsters. Okay.
But in all seriousness, Jeff, listen, you have got to reduce your living expenses right now. That's one of the biggest raises that you could give yourself.
So I'd be, as soon as this rental term is up or whatever's going on, I would be to slash those costs I mean big time okay if even if I got a drive aways at this point I'd rather pay gas you know y'all ride together uh it's called public transportation everything's on the table now right everything you get you a bus pass it's on and popping it's the It is. And by the way, you're brown bagging it and you're recycling the bag.
Oh, yeah. Do you know what I mean? That thing's going to be all crinkled and refilled.
When you rinse out the Ziploc bag and you got to dry it out and use it again. Yeah.
Like, y'all put the whoa and broke. I mean, yikes.
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I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is alongside, you know, we were talking during the break today about some of the calls we've had so far on the show today, and we keep coming back to the same thing.
People get into tough financial situations largely because they have no budget at all. And because they have no budget at all, they have no idea when they make a decision for too much rent what the real impact is.
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Yes. Because you know what you actually have coming in.
That's right. And what's going out.
And you're not susceptible to shiny things or things that are going to hurt you. Keep your pulse on your spending by downloading Every Dollar for free in the App Store or Google Play, or you can click the link in our show notes if you're listening on YouTube or our podcast.
All right, John is up next in Dallas, Texas. John, how can we help today? Hey, guys.
Thanks for taking my for taking my call you bet so kind of in a situation right now um job searching setting up interviews um but we're getting towards the end of the year right um and i work uh in an industry where i guess bonuses are pretty much guaranteed at the end of the year, even though I don't bank on them at the end of the year. I'm setting up these interviews.
I'm due up for an end-of-year review of my current job. I'm pretty, I've taken the should I quit my job quiz.
And it's actually, you know, told me I'm in a wrong role, wrong place. Okay.
Those were the results. Good.
So the answer is yes, you should quit your job when your results are wrong role, wrong place, unless you raise your hand and your leader or other leaders go, we see that, and we'd like to get you the right role. But when you get the wrong place, that still may not change it.
So let's just keep going with the question. So what is your question on this? Well, I mean, with the bonus, I guess, I'm expecting usually $5,000 to $10,000 at the end of the year.
That's what I'm due up for. And I don know when i'm going to get a job offer i'm pretty confident in these interviews that i've got coming up here in the next week that i'll i'll have an offer in my hands before the bonus is due and probably before my end of year review i'm just wondering how to navigate the situation where i feel that i'm owed this bonus that i've, you know.
And what makes you feel that sense of, I am owed this bonus? What makes you feel that? Well, I just feel, well. This is not a difficult question.
I know what the answer is. I want you to say it, though.
Okay. Why do you feel that you're owed this bonus at the end of this year?

It just feels like I'm leaving money on the table.

No, that's not the right answer.

Let me ask you a couple questions.

Are you doing a good job for these folks?

At my current job?

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Are you giving it your best, even though you know it's not where you're supposed to be long-term?

Are you giving it your best?

Yep, absolutely. All right.
So let me re-ask the question. Why do you feel like you deserve your bonus? Yeah, because I work hard for it.
Yes, all right, ding, ding, ding, all right. Jay, tell him what he's won.
Some confidence. Yeah, all right.
So, John, I led you into that because let me just tell you, I know what the question is, so I'm going to jump ahead. Okay.
First of all, I appreciate that you believe that you're going to have an offer before your year end review and bonus. But the reality is you don't know that.
I don't know that. And Jay doesn't know that either.
So I would keep walking forward. You are not doing anything unethical by searching for other jobs.
Nothing, nothing dast and dark and unethical, nefarious, great word. There's nothing wrong with what you're doing.
Now, let's just say that you do get an offer before your year-end meeting and your bonus. And they say they want you to start first of the year.

What are you going to do? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, you do.
I don't know. What are you going to do? Do you deserve that bonus for the work you've done this year? Yeah, absolutely.
So, John, what are you going to do if the start date is after the first of the year? What are you going to do? Going to get my bonus? Yes! Because here's the deal. Here's the deal.
First of all, this isn't the normal question that we get this is not for jade and i to tell you what you should do i'm trying to walk you into a situation where you are thinking clearly uh because you've got two strangers who we don't have any dog in this fight but if in fact the bonus is based on the work you've done for this organization this year, then get your bonus. If you don't feel comfortable with that, then walk before the annual's up.
I don't think there's a right or wrong here because the bonus is based on the work you've done for them to this point. If I'm understanding this correctly, Jade, do you have any kind of head tilt on that? No, not at all.
So, you know, I just don't, I don't think that you're as certain as you think you are. I think where my concern comes from is what people think of if I do leave after the fact.
And then, you know, I mean, I like the people I work with and the industry I'm in, like, I just think right now with that change, I don't want people to be like, oh, that John guy. Right, and I appreciate that.
But, John, is accepting a bonus for work you've done and then leaving is that unethical no it's just called planning is it it's just planning one more question john is it illegal no all right then i don't give a crap what anybody thinks about me taking the money that i've earned you can think all the things you want to and I'm going to tell them to go pound sand. Kick rocks.
Kick rocks. Listen, here's the other thing.
You're a good guy, John, but this is about some manufactured guilt that you've got put up in your head because you're a good person. And I don't think that if this scenario plays out this way, you get to choose.
You get to choose because the bonus is not a signing bonus.

The bonus is on work that you've done this year,

and you're not stealing any money from the company.

So there may be people who take issue with Jay and I on that.

I don't think anybody would even think that of you, John.

Well, first of all, they've got too many other things going on with their life.

You're leaving for a better opportunity.

If they don't like you because of that, guess what? Those aren't people I want to do life with. Also true.
I can tell you this right now. This is a true story.
If me or Jade leaves Ramsey Solutions, I can promise you that me and Jade will be friends with each other after this place because I'm for her. She's for me.
We're friends outside of this place. And I'd have no thought of, I wonder if he tried to stay longer to get a bonus.
I would be like, if Jay came in and said, I get this great opportunity and I'm going, I'd go, two things I would go, I'm going to miss you around here. And then I'd go, go girl.
That's the absolute truth. So I'm only bringing that up to say, that's who you know are your actual work friends.
People that would bad mouth you because you took a good opportunity for you. Yeah, that's not a friend.
That doesn't even make sense to me. I agree.
Yeah, 100%. I think you're overthinking this greatly.
Yeah. So, John, this may not even be a problem.
You know what I hope happens? I hope that these interviews go well and you get a job offer late in the year and they pick the start date and it's not until mid or late January and you cash the bonus and everybody's right with the world and then the people that like you and value you, they're going to go, way to go, John. Good for you, pal.
Are we still getting together for pickleball on Wednesday night? You know, or whatever. I think that's the play here.
So you're a good man. I walked you through that because when there's guilt, Jade, we've got to go, why is there guilt? And there should only be guilt when it's unethical or illegal.
Yeah. Or mean-spirited.
Yeah, none of that was there. A jerk move.
None of that was there. Yeah.
So, John, you're a good man, as evidenced by how you handled that. So, I hope you get a fat bonus.
I hope it's not a jelly of the month club like Clark Griswold got. Well played.
That's no fun. Although, Cousin Eddie said it was the gift that keeps on giving.
This is The Ramsey Show. Hey guys, George Camel here.
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at the best price. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash insurance, RamseySolutions.com slash insurance.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman.
I'm joined in studio with, or by rather, Jade Warshaw, 888-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828-828 Warshaw, 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225.
All right, let's see. We've got our Ramsey Network app question, and this is from Gabriel.
He asks, can you really win money with apps like Bingo Winner and Mr. Beast's new app, or is it a scam? Also, I was wondering if Acorns and Robinhood.

what's happening i'm sorry our good investment options uh i i i i i'm 50 years old i don't know what bingo winner is and and I barely know who Mr. Beast is, so I'm unqualified to even answer this question because I don't even know what that means.
Can you win money with their apps? I don't have the foggiest idea. Anybody in there? Anybody? Zach, Kelly, do you know what they're talking about? I have no idea.
The last game I played was Words with Friends,

and there was no option to win money.

So I'm guessing it's one of these apps, like a Candy Crunch.

The only app that I play in is a fantasy football,

and that has nothing to do with any of this.

Can I give a hot take?

Yes, please.

Bail me out, because I don't know how to answer this question.

All right.

This is controversial, and I own that. Oh, boy.
I am here for this. I'm going to get here for this.
I feel like if you have time to play games on your phone, something's wrong. Like, if you're out working and crushing it and taking care of your family, you don't have time to play games on your phone.

I have zero problem with this.

This is not controversial to me.

And to put money into it.

Here's my phone right here.

I have no game apps on my phone.

So I feel like I'm in Jade's good stead right now.

And I'm like, I just, I can't understand that.

I can't.

Watch a show.

Like watch a show with your spouse or read a book. Have a conversation.
Have a conversation. But to spend money on a game inside your phone that's called Bingo Winner? Yeah.
I'm going to go ahead and say that I don't know if it's a scam, but you should not be spending your time on it. There's no ROI on your time.
And I'll bet there's not much ROI on the money. And then I was wondering if Acorns and Robinhood are good investment options.
Robinhood is an investment platform. We are very clear at Ramsey Solutions what our investment strategy is.
I'll hand it to my colleague to give a very quick, give a 60 second investment strategy. That would be our answer to any of this.
Yeah. I don't like these apps because they're really more about trading and the idea of I'm putting a little bit here, but I can move it at any time.
And that's not our strategy. We are long-term investors.
We are people who dollar cost average. We are people who set it and forget it and keep it there for a long period of time.
And so that's why I don't like these apps because they don't promote that. So I would invest with my 401k through my job or I'd be a part of a brokerage and have my Roth IRA.
I got to confess. I just put the old readers on.
I mean, look at the graphic. Look at the graphic on that thing.
I just typed in bingo winner app and boy, talk about getting me in trouble. Yeah.
Anything that looks like that is designed to suck the brain right out of your head. Yeah, it is.
That's my ruling on that. It looks like it's designed to keep you addicted, whatever it is.
So let me tell you what I know. Successful millionaires aren't spending a lot of time on bingo win.
So now I've got a ruling okay now we can move on move on goodness wow that was something wasn't it I'm never getting that time back neither are you Matthew's up in Austin Texas Matthew how can we help how y'all doing well we're better now yeah we're glad you're here we're thrilled about your question. What is it? You sound like you always got it together, son.
Just need your help thinking I'm supposed to get married here in a couple weeks. Congrats.
Thanks there. But yikes, kind of.
And it has mainly to do with kids. I've got kids and how my new wife interacts.
I guess the question being, how much does my new wife have say so into how I raise my kids, spend money on my kids, and that type of thing? Because I'm really kind of struggling with it. All right, real quick question, because my colleague is loaded up, ready to go.
I want to know this. How long have you two been dating? Two years.
Two years. And in the two years, has there been moments of tension based on her maybe stepping into some situations that the kids weren't really cool with,

or you weren't cool with, or there have been some comments.

I'm just giving you what I mean when I say moments.

Have there been several moments of tension that lead to this concern?

There's enough.

I knew the answer to that.

Yeah, my friend.

I would just say this.

This needs to be settled in premarital counseling stat. How old are the kids? Immediately.
They're not young, and so I got two in college. I have one that's a teenager.
Well, the two in college, that's a non-factor. She doesn't get to say anything about that.
And how old's the teenager? She's 16. But, for example, like when the subject comes up, and I don't like saying this, and I know it's probably wrong, but I say I'm a dad first if you make me choose.
Is that a wrong thing to say? Yes. Yeah, because you're treating it like she's expendable.
And technically, now I know this is different, and I am going to step lightly on this, but typically when you get married, it's the marriage first. That's why I said what I said.
And then it's the kids. Now, also traditionally, the person you're married to is the person you've had children with.
So it's easier to make that statement. And I want to hang out there.
It is easier to make that statement when that's the case. In your case, I don't think it makes it any less true, but I think it makes it more difficult to stand on that.
I agree. I'm going to default to you called us because you've got some real fear and I'm glad you called us.
If for no other reason than I'm telling you as a guy who went through premarital counseling.

And I've been married 26 years. Long enough to know that had Stacy and I not been on the same page about the major things.
I don't know that we're here. Same.
Same. You know.
Yes. And so I'm just saying that, Matthew, you need to invest time and money into premarital counseling to sit with a professional therapist and get this stuff out on the table.
You've got to say, she has created this tension here. I feel like she stepped over here.
She needs to be able to say, I didn't like it when you said I'm a dad first. We got to get this all out before we lock in.
And then there's the kids' side of this, too. There is the kids' side of it, but they got to solve it between the two of them first.
You got to know what life is going to look like day one. Now, we manage those decisions after that.
She's nice to my kids. That's not it.
But we're kind of different when things come up like, well, I go, well, if they're 22, they're going to be on their own. Like, yeah, but I sure hope so.
But what if something happens and they need to move back in? You know, that kind of thing. Again.
Those things come up. Are you going to pay for the master's's degrees too instead of us going to hawaii for vacation those it's something like wait a minute so yeah she's got to realize that there's a whole life here and there's other people she's marrying she's marrying the into the family not just you and that's the case with anybody you marry into the family you marry into the situation whatever.
So I think that you guys, Ken is right. There's a lot that must be discussed before this happens.
And Matthew, look. I only got two weeks.
Oh, wow. Okay.
Well, you know what? Is this a big fancy wedding when we got a lot of people coming and a lot of money being spent? No, but I can't live today. It's not moving, so.
You know what? appreciate matthew he's going listen ken i know where you're going pal i don't want to walk down that path um i would i would i press pause i would because what i don't want i would never want you to feel like you don't have a choice or like once the wheels are in motion you can't you know put a wood stick in it and grind it to a halt. You can.
You have choices still. You have a lot less choices once you say, I do.
I agree. I'd get a session in at least and talk about these majors.
I really would before the wedding. But can I also say that if she says, hey, are you going to pay for their master's degree or are we going to go to Hawaii? The answer is, where is my grass skirt? That's what the answer is.
The kids can pay for their master's degree or are we going to go to Hawaii? The answer is, where is my grass skirt?

That's what the answer is. The kids can pay for their master's degree.
Go with mama to Hawaii,

man. Aloha.
Come on. I thought you were going in a different direction.
No, kids need to pay

for their own master's. I'm glad you did.
I'm glad you said what you said. This is the Ramsey Show.
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What are you doing?

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Bada bing, bada boom.

All right, I'm getting out of here.