Stop Chasing Payments and Choose Freedom

Speaker 1 Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today.

Speaker 2 Normal is broke, and common sense is weird. So, we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio.

Speaker 2 This is the Ramsey Show, and I'm Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with Dr. John Deloney.
We're answering your questions, so you can give us a call at 888-825-5225.

Speaker 2 Up first, we have Emma in Ohio kicking off the show. Hi, Emma.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 Hi, thanks for having me. Yes, absolutely.
How can we help?

Speaker 4 So basically, the car I'm currently driving, there's still $15,000 owed on it, and it's not in my name.

Speaker 5 My mom's ex-husband signed on it for me, and the divorce was messy.

Speaker 5 so he's been letting me pay it off while I'm still in college

Speaker 10 but the payments are $4.20 a month and it's just too high for my income right now okay and I've tried to work with him to you know get it dealt with and he's not very cooperative well he shouldn't say his name's on it if something happens to the car it's all in his that's that's are you on it at all

Speaker 12 No,

Speaker 13 then just drop it back off to him.

Speaker 9 Yeah, that's well, that's what I'm planning on doing today.

Speaker 5 I'm actually driving home.

Speaker 4 It's two and a a half hours away.

Speaker 5 I'm driving home and I have the opportunity to get a car for a thousand down from a family friend who owns a dealership and he'll let me basically pay $200 a month on it.

Speaker 5 And it's a $3,500 car that's within my means and it's a reliable car.

Speaker 5 And so I guess that's my question. Should I just, you know, drop it off and tell him?

Speaker 9 Because he's the only problem is he's threatening to sue my mom.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 what's his basis legally to do that?

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 yeah, I was going to say, I mean, there's not much he can do in a court system unless there was something in the divorce decree that states that this was an asset or something.

Speaker 2 I don't know if there was something in there about the car, is there?

Speaker 15 The only thing that I know that was in there was that he basically has the right to repossess it if it gets behind.

Speaker 2 Yeah, which is exactly what he said.

Speaker 13 It's his car.

Speaker 12 Just hand it to him. Just give it to him.

Speaker 12 Yeah,

Speaker 6 which is kind of what I'm trying to explain.

Speaker 13 How old were you when you took this loan out from him?

Speaker 5 I think I was freshly 19.

Speaker 13 Okay.

Speaker 4 And I'm 21 now.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 13 I'm torn, and I'm talking to Rachel here on your behalf. I'm torn between

Speaker 13 it's his car,

Speaker 13 he signed the note for it, and he gave it to a teenager.

Speaker 2 Which is his issue.

Speaker 13 It's his issue, give it back. And also, if you were 17 or 16, this would be a no-brainer for me.
Part of it is you were 19 and you shook hands and said, I'll pay this thing. And so there is, I mean.

Speaker 2 You're going back on your word is what John's saying.

Speaker 13 But you can't afford it.

Speaker 2 From a moral standpoint. Well, and if we're talking all morals, he should be able to say, okay, great.
If you can't pay it,

Speaker 2 then as the guy that puts you in this position, let me go ahead and just sell it and like, yeah, here's your car and help you figure it out.

Speaker 13 But please don't then go jump into another

Speaker 13 family loan situation.

Speaker 2 That's what I was going to say. You're not going to like that part of my advice.

Speaker 16 Yeah, don't do that.

Speaker 2 What's your,

Speaker 2 are you working or are you just a full-time student?

Speaker 8 I work and go to school, yes.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 And do you have any money saved?

Speaker 5 Um, just the, I have 800 saved right now.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 5 And my, I'm engaged, and my future mother-in-law was going to loan me another 200.

Speaker 12 Okay, no, okay.

Speaker 13 No, no, no, don't do that. Don't do that.

Speaker 2 Don't do that. Okay.
We got to stop the, we got to stop this whole borrowing money in general, let alone from people that we know. So, Emma, I mean, if, and again, you called the show.

Speaker 2 So, what I would do, number one, drop it, drop off the car. It's in his name.
It's his issue. And yes, are you going back on your word? Yes, but he also did this to an 18-year-old.

Speaker 2 So it is kind of like, okay, or 19. And

Speaker 2 I don't know. It is what it is.
And so that's his issue. He's going to have to figure out.
And then for you,

Speaker 2 how much do you make? How much do you make a month? If you don't have this car payment, you're not paying $420.

Speaker 2 How much extra margin do you have on top of this $420 per month?

Speaker 4 I would probably have

Speaker 5 $1,500 for the month.

Speaker 2 Total or extra?

Speaker 19 Extra would be

Speaker 5 an extra $500.

Speaker 2 Probably $500.

Speaker 2 Okay. So honestly, what I would probably do is I would just, I would work, and it's so inconvenient.
I know it is, but the car you're talking about is what, $3,000 or something.

Speaker 2 And just say, hey, it's going to take, you have $800 that you're starting with, which is great. And just say, hey, this is going to take me a couple of months.
I'm going to be inconvenienced.

Speaker 2 I'm probably going to be asking people for rides here and there.

Speaker 2 You know, I mean, it's going to be annoying for a few months, but that way you at least have cash saved up so you're not continuing this cycle.

Speaker 2 And I know you may not do that, but that is, that's probably what I would do just to avoid any more debt, to avoid getting back into this,

Speaker 2 yeah, this payment cycle of cars.

Speaker 13 You're going to owe money to your mother-in-law first,

Speaker 13 which means you're going to be in debt to her, not only financially, and she might be a great, a great, wonderful person.

Speaker 13 If she called into the show, I would say, just give you 200 bucks if that's what she wants to do.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because what's $200 going to do?

Speaker 12 I don't get it.

Speaker 13 Well, it's going to get her the $1,000 as a down payment.

Speaker 12 Oh, for the car.

Speaker 13 Yeah, you have to borrow the down payment to them for the privilege of borrowing more money from yet another family member.

Speaker 13 Yeah. In the middle of a situation that you're dealing with, which is you borrowed money from a family member.
It just creates so much internal chaos.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And it'll literally be three months.

Speaker 2 Three months to pay cash for it. And the fact that it's a $3,000, what, $200, $3,200 car, maybe you can talk them down to $3,000.

Speaker 12 Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 13 $2,500. If I go get cash.

Speaker 2 If I have cash, can I pay you this in 60 days?

Speaker 2 And I would figure a way out. Because what that's going to start, Emma, is this new way of not just looking at money, but acting out of a set of principles that is going to be good for you long term.

Speaker 2 And so, and this is a really small step to do that. So, in my head, I'm like, it's really encouraging.
You know what I mean? That it's that you have the opportunity to buy this car.

Speaker 2 It's not that much money. You're working hard.
You're making some good money that you can set aside each month.

Speaker 13 Here's exactly how I would have this conversation at 21 years old. I would call the family member who's going to sell this.
Who's selling it to you?

Speaker 5 My fiancé's family friend.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 13 I would call that family friend and say the following. I am dealing with a relationship issue where I borrowed money from a family member and it has cost me tons of grief.

Speaker 13 And so I've made a commitment to not put relationships, not put money between me and those that I love and care about. And so I really want that car.

Speaker 13 I don't have $3,200 and I have committed to not borrowing money, especially from friends and from family.

Speaker 13 And so please hold that car for three months and I'm going to work really, really hard to save up that money.

Speaker 13 Either what's going to happen is they're going to say, give me a thousand bucks and I'll just sell you this car because that's pretty awesome and noble.

Speaker 13 I want to be a part of supporting a young 21-year-old like that. Or I promise you there's going to be $3,000 cars that are all over the place coming up.
So if they sell it, then so be it.

Speaker 13 You ubering around and getting rides for three months will change your life because you will never, ever, ever, ever, ever borrow money again.

Speaker 13 And then you'll never find yourself in a situation where you owe your stepdad and your stepdad's threatening to sue you.

Speaker 2 Your ex-step daddy.

Speaker 12 I mean, it's just like, yeah.

Speaker 13 Good grief. But yeah, great.
I hate that you're in this situation. Totally honor the, I mean, I appreciate the call, but

Speaker 13 I don't think we would be doing our job if we told you, yes, get out of this bad situation where you borrowed money from a family member and go do it

Speaker 13 with two other people.

Speaker 13 I wouldn't sleep well knowing that we told you to go do that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so it's a little bit of a different reason why you called is how we ended it.

Speaker 2 yeah, I think it's going to give you more peace.

Speaker 2 And again, it's going to set you up for a way of making decisions with money that's going to just prosper you in the future instead of take away your income.

Speaker 1 I love entrepreneurs. Don't forget, guys, I started my company on a card table myself.
So I know what it's like to have people counting on you, your team, your family, not to mention your customers.

Speaker 1 And when you're the one signing the paychecks, you can't afford to fly blind.

Speaker 1 But I'll be honest, early on, one thing that nearly sunk us was wasting time with spreadsheets that didn't add up because business units didn't talk to each other.

Speaker 1 I finally told my team, just fix it, and they did. We got NetSuite.
That was years ago, and we've never looked back. See, NetSuite isn't just for tech giants.

Speaker 1 It's built for growing businesses like yours. Over 43,000 businesses already run on NetSuite, including a lot that started just like you.
And now with built-in AI, NetSuite is helping them even more.

Speaker 1 It's one system connected to every part of your business for real-time insights, not guesswork. NetSuite AI flags inventory issues, cash flow risks, even supplier delays before they become problems.

Speaker 1 So you can trust the data, stop wasting time, and make the right decisions faster. Take a free product tour today at netsuite.com/slash Ramsey.
That's netsuite.com/slash Ramsey.

Speaker 2 It's official. The Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway is here.
Let's give it away.

Speaker 2 Each week, someone's going to win $100, John.

Speaker 12 $200?

Speaker 2 $300?

Speaker 12 $500?

Speaker 12 More racial. More! $500.

Speaker 2 Each week, we are giving away, and the grand prize winner will win $5,000.

Speaker 2 So you can enter every day from now until December 20th and enter daily to increase your chances to win go to ramseysolutions.com slash giveaway now to enter no purchase necessary all right let's head to chris in pennsylvania hi chris welcome to the show

Speaker 2 hey thanks for having me yes absolutely how can we help

Speaker 13 yeah so i have a performance review tomorrow and i wanted to get some tips about how to ask for a raise oh do you not have one built into that this that's triggered by performance?

Speaker 21 Nothing triggered by performance, though we typically get

Speaker 21 yearly cost of living increases and

Speaker 21 a firm performance bonus at the end of the year based on how well the whole company does.

Speaker 20 Okay.

Speaker 2 So how much is so how much are you slated to probably how much will what percentage will your income increase after tomorrow? And how much more are you wanting?

Speaker 21 Yeah, I'm thinking it's been going up about 4% for cost of living. And then, you know, the last couple years for bonuses have ranged from $4,000 to $8,000.
Okay.

Speaker 2 And what are you wanting?

Speaker 2 What are you thinking?

Speaker 21 I don't know. I've been thinking about asking for a raise for a couple years.
And because of the economy and, you know, the things that are going on with COVID, I've just been sitting on it.

Speaker 21 And I feel like the time is right based on the increased workload that I've had over the past couple years.

Speaker 21 And I'm really getting to the point where my kids are almost college age, and I'm looking to cash flow college.

Speaker 21 And I don't want to use that as a reason to ask for the raise because, you know, I feel like it should be based upon my effort and my performance.

Speaker 21 But that's really what's driving it.

Speaker 21 I'm in baby step seven, but I'm really,

Speaker 21 you know, trying to keep the kids

Speaker 12 staying out of debt.

Speaker 2 Okay. So how much are you making a year right now?

Speaker 21 I'd say $125 is the base.

Speaker 2 Okay. And then if you go out, marketplace value for your line of work and what you're doing with your experience, how much should you probably be making considering your workload and everything?

Speaker 21 I think it could range from starting there all the way up to maybe $150, $175. Okay.

Speaker 2 Are you guessing, Chris, or have you done some research to know a lateral move at a different corporation or a different company would bump me up?

Speaker 21 I've looked at a couple things, but I feel like they're all going to be in that range.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 2 So $150 isn't wild. How long have you been with the company?

Speaker 2 10 years. Okay, so a good amount.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, we always say around Ramsey, the phrase is always

Speaker 2 that your raise is effective when you are.

Speaker 2 So when you are showing something that's going above and beyond, that you are actually doing a workload, that is more than what is traditionally inbounds for the specific salary.

Speaker 2 I would have specific examples of that. I mean, I would start with obviously

Speaker 2 a level of humility and gratitude to your employer, but to say, hey, here are the things that I'm seeing have increased over time. My salary has not kept pace with it.

Speaker 2 I have noticed that very similar positions and other companies are ranging more in this way.

Speaker 2 Can we just talk through this? Or

Speaker 2 what is a way, a pathway for me to be able to make more? Because that's my desire. And, you know, kind of just open the floor.

Speaker 2 And again, with more humility than ever, because I feel like from an employer standpoint, a leader, they're going to be more apt to want to help you if you're wanting to help yourself versus going in with demanding anything, which you don't sound like a guy that's going to do that.

Speaker 13 I love that question. When employees used to come at me and say, hey, I want to raise, that would always put me on the defensive.

Speaker 13 When they came in and said, I want a path to $100,000, or I want a path to

Speaker 13 $150,000 in your case, or I want a path to $175. Is there a path to $75,000?

Speaker 13 Then what you do is you are, like Rachel said, it's an invitation. It's not an accusation.
And that gives your supervisor the opportunity to say, dude, I see how hard you work.

Speaker 13 There is, like, here's what's happening above me. And you are capped as high as you could go.

Speaker 13 Or it gives him or her the opportunity to say, well, there's actually a leadership position opening up or this role is capped here, but we've been thinking about you for another role.

Speaker 13 But it gives them an opportunity to talk through it and then i you are dead on right i would not bring up i you have extra costs coming on your horizon that your boss needs to solve for you um because that's man no boss wants to be put in that position um and so i think you need to ask yourself if like if they can't or if your boss says no

Speaker 13 What is your or what statement? Is your or what going to be, I actually like this job. I like making 125 base.

Speaker 2 But I may not be able to help my kids the way I I thought I was going to be able to.

Speaker 12 So we're going to have to spend it.

Speaker 24 So so being

Speaker 13 or I'm going to get on the market and try to go get one of these $150,000, $175,000 jobs.

Speaker 13 But asking them, what is a path for me here to $150,000, $175,000,

Speaker 13 I think that's a great way to open up that conversation.

Speaker 21 So actually don't say, you know, bring up, because

Speaker 21 money doesn't typically come up in these reviews.

Speaker 21 So what would be the right phrase maybe to

Speaker 13 it's a starting gratitude the last few years I've made $125,000 with a $4,000 to $8,000 thing is amazing. I'm getting paid.
I'm super grateful.

Speaker 13 What is a path that I could move my salary to $150,000 or $175,000 here doing this job that I'm doing or any other job in this company?

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 13 that's a,

Speaker 13 I want to partner with you, supervisor, not a, you haven't been paying me fairly and I've caught you, which puts them on the defensive.

Speaker 21 Yeah, I don't actually feel that way, but

Speaker 2 I am doing more than yeah, yeah, and I think, and I, and I would be okay

Speaker 2 because I do think, depending on how your company's structured and your relationship with your leader, they may not even know what you're doing, all the extra stuff. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 So I think that's fair to be like, hey, listen,

Speaker 2 here's what's been on my plate. And

Speaker 2 I want to talk through this because I feel like I am adding a lot of value.

Speaker 2 So, I do want to figure out like, how can I, you know, not just see that from a compensation standpoint, but also for the company. I love adding value.
I want to continue to add value.

Speaker 2 What's my pathway to do more so I can make more? I mean, I think all of that is

Speaker 13 a pathway. Instead of saying, I want a raise of $25,000 or $50,000,

Speaker 13 saying what, like, I'm doing all, here's my assignment, and here's what I'm doing extra. Here's the other roles I'm taking on.
Is there a path for me to 150 or 175 with all of this that I'm doing?

Speaker 13 Is is there a path here and again you want to you want your supervisor your leader to feel like you want to partner with him and continue to add value to the customers y'all are serving into the company not making it a you versus me you've been screwing me i've been doing all this and and now i want this um because

Speaker 13 in in a

Speaker 13 at the end of the day he's he or she's got hierarchy over you they got power over you so entering into a fist fight with somebody that is ahead of you what's your losing proposition what's your position chris what are you doing

Speaker 21 No, I'm a marketing manager.

Speaker 2 Marketing, okay.

Speaker 2 I was going to say, because sometimes those skills, whether it's writers, marketers, I mean, like sometimes the outside world, you know, goes faster than a company is actually keeping up.

Speaker 2 And if you don't have a good, you know, compensation plan as a company, those positions can outrun what you're paying. And this sounds so ignorant, but I think it's true.

Speaker 2 I think some leaders, depending on how big the business is, look up and they're like, oh my gosh, we haven't kept up with market value in two years. And they may not even know.

Speaker 2 There could be a level of small ignorance. I don't know.

Speaker 2 I hope companies run a little bit more efficient than that. But I think that is the case a lot.

Speaker 2 Is it a small company or a big company?

Speaker 22 It's a big company. Okay.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Well,

Speaker 2 they may have tiers in place that they keep up with it.

Speaker 2 But that's also always in the back of my mind, too, because I just know those kind of positions, especially if they start to have a lot of value in the marketplace, they can outrun the average salary and a company doesn't even realize it.

Speaker 13 So, but keep your or what question, your or what statement, if you will, to yourself. If he says or she says, No, absolutely not, you're paid fairly, this is all, this is going to top out.

Speaker 13 Are you going to then think to yourself, Okay, I'm going to get some side hustle work as a marketer or a social media marketer on the side to put my kids through college?

Speaker 13 Great, tons of people do that. Or, I'm actually going to go hit the market, or I like this place, it's comfortable, I'm going to make some changes with my kids.

Speaker 13 You get to decide what you do next with that information. But I always like the partnership question.

Speaker 2 Y'all, do you want to know a game changer for your grocery budget? Start your weekly shopping at Aldi. Seriously, by making Aldi your first stop, you can easily check off your family favorites.

Speaker 2 From fresh organic produce to grass-fed ground beef, marinated, ready-to-cooked chicken breasts, and high-quality dairy products.

Speaker 2 You'll be able to make incredible meals while keeping your budget on track. So, no overpriced gimmicks or membership fees here.

Speaker 2 Now, real families like yours are saving up to $4,000 a year just by making Aldi their go-to grocery store every week. Find a store near you at Aldi.us.
That's A-L-D-I.us.

Speaker 25 Savings based on regional analysis of Aldi versus select competitors. Prices may vary by location, product availability, and the market.

Speaker 2 Up next, we have Carlos in Miami. Hi Carlos, welcome to the show.

Speaker 7 Hi, thank you for having me. Quick question.
I have, since both of you have a PhD on the seven baby steps and I only have barely a GED,

Speaker 7 why don't I ask you a quick question?

Speaker 7 For one split second in 2020, my wife and I, I'm 54, she's 52. We make

Speaker 7 decent money. She makes about 170.
I make about 115. We have three children.
One of them is in college, two in high school. And for one split second,

Speaker 7 around this time in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, we were on baby step seven.

Speaker 12 We had everything.

Speaker 7 We had paid off the house. We did everything.

Speaker 14 But now

Speaker 7 we're kind of like, okay, well, obviously we have step one.

Speaker 10 We have step four.

Speaker 7 We invest probably 25% of our

Speaker 28 entire income into retirement.

Speaker 13 Holon, on, did you go back after you paid off everything? Did you go back and borrow some more money?

Speaker 12 Oh, yes. Oh, no, Carlos.
Carlos! What are you doing?

Speaker 2 You go backwards. We're supposed to go forwards.
Like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Speaker 12 You won.

Speaker 13 Yeah, we, like, you crossed the marathon finish line. You're like, you know what? I'm going to go back to the starting line and start again.

Speaker 12 What happened?

Speaker 7 Well, like I said, we were ready to start step seven. And,

Speaker 7 you know,

Speaker 7 things started opening up after COVID. And we're like, we like to go here.
We like to to go there, and we like to get this Mercedes and next thing you know, we're Carlos.

Speaker 12 Oh, no. You feel me? You live in Miami.
You went full Miami here.

Speaker 2 You went full South Beach.

Speaker 12 Oh,

Speaker 12 okay. Yes.

Speaker 13 So how bad is it? How much do you owe right now, brother?

Speaker 7 Look, we have about $29,000 in zero interest credit card debt where

Speaker 7 we're trying to pay off.

Speaker 7 And then

Speaker 7 we have one lease of a vehicle, and

Speaker 7 all the other vehicles are paid off. So, we decided to buy a car for each one of our kids and pay it off.
So, our daughter's car is paid off. Our second son's car is

Speaker 7 a brand new car. We have about 17 grand.
We're going to pay it off in exactly one year because we're sending three times the payments on a very low interest loan. My car is paid off.

Speaker 7 So, $29,000 in credit card debt and $17,000 in a car loan.

Speaker 2 And a car lease.

Speaker 13 Wait, you said your wife makes what? $170,000? And you make what?

Speaker 13 $115. $115.

Speaker 2 Oh, $15. I put $100.

Speaker 13 Okay, so you guys make about $300K. You said at the beginning of the call, y'all do pretty well.
Y'all are doing incredibly well.

Speaker 2 Okay, so Carlos. Okay, is that it? The credit cards, the lease car, and then the car payment.

Speaker 12 Is that it?

Speaker 7 That's it.

Speaker 2 Did you take out a second mortgage after the house was paid off? Oh.

Speaker 12 Oh, hell no. Okay, all right, good.

Speaker 13 Good, good, good.

Speaker 2 We are on the same page here. Okay, I just need everyone to to hear this because this doesn't always happen.

Speaker 2 We get people like Carlos every now and then, but they do the baby steps and then they go backwards. So I just want to know from you, Carlos, did you have more peace in 2020 financially or today?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 7 In 2020, but then the whole world opened up again and I was screwed.

Speaker 12 What were you doing? No, you weren't screwed. You were

Speaker 12 choosed it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You could have kept on going.

Speaker 7 Well, you know, the whole world opened up.

Speaker 12 No, no.

Speaker 12 Hey, listen, mommy.

Speaker 13 You've got to take ownership of

Speaker 13 like it's like mom and dad went out of town and you're in high school and you're you didn't have to throw a huge kegger and you're like, I'm going to.

Speaker 2 But you're like, mom and dad, listen, y'all went out of town. What was I supposed to do? We had to do it.

Speaker 13 There were five kegs. We had to go get them.
We had to fill them all up. So, listen,

Speaker 13 take ownership. You did it.
But here's the thing, dude: 300 grand a year. You can have this paid off like in three months if you'll just suck it up.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

Speaker 12 Why are you waiting a year

Speaker 7 Oh, a year to pay off the car.

Speaker 12 Pay off everything.

Speaker 2 No, Carlos, if you guys lived, you don't have a house payment, okay? So

Speaker 2 I know you have some car payments and stuff, but if you just lived on $100,000, God forbid,

Speaker 2 you'll have $200,000.

Speaker 13 Extra. And

Speaker 13 you put a quarter of your money away every month.

Speaker 12 Stop for a while.

Speaker 2 Y'all have to be able to say no to yourself. Y'all's behavior has gotten completely out of control.

Speaker 7 Yeah, yeah. Well, we like to travel.

Speaker 7 That's our acute health.

Speaker 13 So do I, but I

Speaker 13 can't say, I can't go to Italy right now.

Speaker 2 Like, I can't. Like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 No, I know. It's different than that.

Speaker 12 I like yachts.

Speaker 2 They look pretty on Google Image. Like, but I don't know.

Speaker 13 No, see, you're blaming. You're blaming Miami.
You're blaming

Speaker 7 number one international port of the world.

Speaker 12 It doesn't matter. Be a proto.

Speaker 7 The brand new Royal Caribbean ship is docking next month, and I'm like, oh, we got to check that out.

Speaker 13 Oh, my gosh, dude.

Speaker 12 All right.

Speaker 13 you're giving me hemorrhoids Carlos I don't know

Speaker 2 I don't think you really want to be deputy Carlos I think you're I think you are fine with your life that's how I feel what do you do for a living

Speaker 7 oh well that's the other thing I'm not getting paid right now because I'm a federal employee but my wife is not so at least we have her check

Speaker 7 but here's the thing we've noticed that we can live off her check

Speaker 13 no way you mean y'all barely scratch and claw on $170,000 just tell me more Carlos yeah we have a live studio audience out here and they're all just sobbing for you.

Speaker 12 They're devastated for you.

Speaker 7 I called my wife last night. I go, you know, I'm going to call the show because we've proven one thing with this government shutdown with me not getting paid for a month.

Speaker 7 We can live off your check and then use my check to pay off this stuff.

Speaker 13 Good God.

Speaker 13 If y'all can scratch by, hold on. You missed two humongous lessons, though.
You missed the two bigger lessons, which is

Speaker 13 y'all make a bunch of money right now

Speaker 13 and COVID happened.

Speaker 13 And then y'all made a whole bunch more money. And then

Speaker 13 the leaders of our government decided to sit in a sandbox and throw crayons at each other. And so

Speaker 13 the thing you're missing here is

Speaker 13 there's always a day after the party.

Speaker 13 Right. And in between those days after the party, you live like this is the last party that's going to happen.

Speaker 13 Right. And if you go back to 2020, if you had not have have just gone bananas, if you had lived just a regular, ridiculous life,

Speaker 13 you would have taken a whole bunch of vacations and gotten some nice cars. You wouldn't have bought your kids brand new ones that depreciated 20% the day they drove them off the lot.

Speaker 13 But you would, your kids would be fine. Y'all would be fine.
And you'd have 200 grand in cash in the bank.

Speaker 11 Hello, are you kidding me?

Speaker 26 Okay. I know.
This is you.

Speaker 13 And listen, this government shutdown is going to happen. And then you're going to go, you're going to be like, dude, we can live off my check.

Speaker 13 And you're going to pay all this off in three months, which is all it's going to take, or maybe two months for you guys. And then

Speaker 13 you're going to be like, that boat's in the harbor. And you're going to go down there and you're going to start this whole thing over again.
And then one of y'all is going to get laid off.

Speaker 13 Or one of you is going to get the call that, hey, go to the hospital because one of your kids, like, you're going to get those calls. And so let this be the final time.

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 7 100%. I think it's a lot easier to sell to my wife if we can say we can live off one of our checks and take the other one.
No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 13 There's a layer beneath that.

Speaker 13 You're not hearing me. The greatest thing you can give to your wife is to say, hey, for the first time in our marriage,

Speaker 13 I want to act like grown-ups.

Speaker 2 That's the hard thing for me, Carlos. I know we're joking around and having fun.
Because listen, I love a great trip. Like, it's fine.

Speaker 2 Like, the things you're saying, a nice car, a nice trip, those are not bad things. They're awesome things.

Speaker 2 But you're doing it out of order and you're doing it in a level of impulse and a little bit of just kind of immaturity.

Speaker 2 And so there's, you know, Dave always says that children do what feels good. Adults devise a plan and follow it.
Like there's a level of growing up.

Speaker 2 And to say this too, Carlos, you have two kids in the house. Are your kids still in the house?

Speaker 12 All three kids are still in the house.

Speaker 7 So each one has a year left and the other.

Speaker 12 That's fine.

Speaker 2 That's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I'm just saying, like, what are you setting for them, the example?

Speaker 2 I'd rather set an example of, hey, we have a level of limits and boundaries because that's what money, we have to with money. Like that, that is part of the name of the game.

Speaker 2 We can always make more and all of it. That's great.
It's not a scarcity mindset, but we have to live within our means because that creates a level of peace and stability.

Speaker 2 So when I get, you know, furloughed and I don't get a paycheck, we're totally fine. And guess what?

Speaker 2 We can still go on the roll of cribbing because we have no debt and we're able to save up and like, we have a great income, but we're living with a level of reality.

Speaker 2 And there's a little bit that you guys are just like, oh, that feels right. Let's just go, go, go.
And what scares me is you both sound like that, you and your wife.

Speaker 2 Usually there's like one boring person in the marriage that doesn't want to spend or do anything. And then you have the partier.

Speaker 2 But both of you, I mean, that's what it's going to take, Carlos, for you guys to buckle down and just say, hey, we are going to live on less than we make significantly.

Speaker 13 You can live off half a leaf.

Speaker 2 Clean up this lease, clean up the car and the credit cards, cut up the credit cards, and we're going to live life differently. I don't know if you're going to do it, Carlos.
I don't know.

Speaker 13 I want peace for you. I just can't want it more than you want it for yourself.

Speaker 16 Listen up, people. If your phone bill is more than $25 a month, you're basically donating to keep your mobile carriers' private jets stocked with caviar.
But Boost Mobile isn't playing that game.

Speaker 16 Unlimited talk, text, and data for just $25 a month. No contracts.
No, we're raising your rate because we feel like it emails. Just a simple low bill every month.

Speaker 16 And because they actually believe in what they're selling, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee. So if you don't love it, get your money back for zero risk.

Speaker 16 Go to boostmobile.com slash Ramsey to make the switch today. That's boostmobile.com/slash Ramsey.
Restrictions apply. See boostmobile.com/slash Ramsey for details.

Speaker 2 If you are wondering if you are on track with the baby steps, well, you can find out. You can take a quick quiz to check your progress and receive a personalized plan just for you.

Speaker 2 Just head to the show notes if you are listening on YouTube or podcasts, and you can click the link titled, Are You on Track with the Baby Steps? and complete the quiz.

Speaker 2 All right, let's go to Martha. She is in Florida.
Hi, Martha. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 32 Hi, thank you for having me.

Speaker 23 Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 How can we help?

Speaker 20 Yes.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 34 I

Speaker 23 am just wondering if,

Speaker 23 you know, if I should file for bankruptcy or not.

Speaker 12 Oh.

Speaker 2 What's going on? What's happening?

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 23 we've kind of overwhelmed ourselves, mine and my husband,

Speaker 34 and about 90% of the debt is mine.

Speaker 23 And,

Speaker 18 you know, it's

Speaker 13 what does that mean? Pretty much what that means.

Speaker 23 What's the debt?

Speaker 10 Including

Speaker 23 his debt with mine, we have about $20,000 in credit card debt,

Speaker 18 about

Speaker 34 $12,000 in personal loans.

Speaker 23 I have about $15,000 in collections.

Speaker 12 Is that credit card collections or medical debt?

Speaker 34 That's medical.

Speaker 12 Medical. Okay.

Speaker 23 I have about $15,000 in student loans.

Speaker 34 And I know that doesn't go away with bankruptcy, but

Speaker 23 we have $16,000 in car loans.

Speaker 2 Are those two separate cars, Martha?

Speaker 34 No, it's just one.

Speaker 12 One car.

Speaker 15 We have one car that's paid off.

Speaker 2 Okay, wonderful. Okay, keep going.

Speaker 23 And then we have our mortgage, and our mortgage is about probably 70% of our income.

Speaker 2 Per your your payment your mortgage payment is taking 70% okay

Speaker 2 and for the house how much is the house worth

Speaker 2 it's right about 285,000 okay and how much do you have left on the mortgage of that

Speaker 2 277,000 okay so it's basically a wash

Speaker 18 we haven't we haven't we haven't lived here not even a year yet I gotcha okay and how much we tried

Speaker 34 we were talking about you know selling the house But then we looked at our contract and since it was a USDA loan We can't sell the house until we lived here a year.

Speaker 2 Yep. Yep.
And when will a year hit what month?

Speaker 34 December.

Speaker 2 Okay, coming up.

Speaker 13 You can put on the market right now and put a 30 or 60 day contingency. You can't afford a house if it's 70%.

Speaker 18 Yeah, I absolutely 100% agree with you.

Speaker 23 And my husband is just like completely not interested in selling the house.

Speaker 15 He wants to like get rid of all of our other debt and then keep the house.

Speaker 2 Okay, so those are two separate conversations. Yes, we need to get rid of the debt regardless of the house payment.

Speaker 2 But if your house payment for sure is more than 50% of your income, but we even say 25% of your income. So, no, you have too much house.
So, your husband needs to understand the math.

Speaker 2 I mean, you can't live your life with 30% of your income.

Speaker 2 Like, that's what it ends up being. So, yeah, no, you guys have too much house.
You bought too much house.

Speaker 2 How much do you guys make a year?

Speaker 2 We make

Speaker 18 I currently, you know, do DoorDash and Uber because I am a full-time student.

Speaker 34 But I am also starting a job in January.

Speaker 12 How much will you be making a year in the job in January?

Speaker 23 It really depends.

Speaker 18 It's a tipped worker's wage.

Speaker 34 So it really just depends.

Speaker 34 I worked there a few years ago and I was making around $30,000 a year.

Speaker 2 Okay. And how much does your husband make?

Speaker 15 He makes $56,000 and he works two jobs.

Speaker 13 Hold on. You're going to school.
What are you studying?

Speaker 6 I'm going for social work.

Speaker 13 And so you're going to get a degree that you've paid a bunch of money for, but you're going to go back and make the same exact money you made two years ago without that degree?

Speaker 18 No, I just

Speaker 34 don't have my degree yet, so I'm still going to school for it.

Speaker 13 I know, but when you graduate from

Speaker 12 May.

Speaker 13 Oh, okay. So you're taking another job in January that's going to hold you over until May.

Speaker 12 I'm going to make it, yeah. Okay.

Speaker 2 Okay. And then when you graduate in May, Martha, and you start a position, what on average do you think you'll probably make if you are using your degree and you're in it for social work?

Speaker 18 I looked in

Speaker 18 the average in my state is about $50,000 a year.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 2 Well, you're not bankrupt. You guys have a massive mess on your hands.

Speaker 13 You do not file bankruptcy though.

Speaker 2 Yeah, no,

Speaker 2 it's going to take

Speaker 2 some significant sacrifice of time and energy for you guys to clean this up. So it is very doable.

Speaker 2 And so what I want to start with is there's a couple of highlights. If the car, do you know if you Kelly Blue Book, the $16,000 car, how much you could sell it for? I have.

Speaker 18 Kelly Blue Book says it's about $3,000.

Speaker 2 It's $3,000?

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 2 When did you did you guys roll over bad equity from another car into this loan?

Speaker 36 I did not.

Speaker 34 I bought it out. I, you know, bought it, you know, I had a clean slate when I bought the car about three years ago.

Speaker 12 For how much?

Speaker 35 How much did you buy it for?

Speaker 35 I got it for about $18,000.

Speaker 34 My interest rate is pretty high.

Speaker 18 What is it?

Speaker 23 I think it's about 18%.

Speaker 13 Did you buy it at one of those corner markets?

Speaker 23 No, I bought it through CarMax.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 2 Martha, did you, when you looked on Kelly, did you look at KellyBlueBook.com?

Speaker 18 Yes.

Speaker 2 And did you do dealer trade-in or did you do like an individual selling to an individual?

Speaker 34 I did individual.

Speaker 13 There's no way to do it.

Speaker 2 I just don't think it's $3,000. What kind of car is it?

Speaker 23 It's a 2013 Uson Pathfinder, but it has a lot of miles on it because when I bought it, it had about 80,000.

Speaker 18 And then in three years, we've gotten it up to 150.

Speaker 18 My husband, you know, he works out of town and he also

Speaker 15 part-time.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't know. Okay.
Well, I would do some homework digging there because if you can do,

Speaker 2 gosh, if you could sell it for even, I don't know, eight, nine, I mean, I don't know, it may be a wash, you may be stuck with it.

Speaker 2 The medical, the collections from the medical debt, have you contacted them at all?

Speaker 23 I did contact them to get, you know, how much I owe, like everything I owe,

Speaker 34 but I haven't set up like any payment plans with them yet.

Speaker 23 Okay.

Speaker 34 But, you know, it's almost to the point where, you know, they are contacting me either, you know,

Speaker 12 most bad debt.

Speaker 2 Credit card debt for sure and sometimes medical debt you can actually talk them down significantly sometimes pennies on the dollar depending on what it is what's it through is it a collections agency that has it right now

Speaker 2 yes okay so yeah i would tell them like hey i have no money i cannot pay this you know fifteen thousand dollars and they may settle it with you martha for five thousand i mean i usually you have to have cash i would yeah you would you would but i'm just saying like you want to be able to get to a position where that is at least the one debt That and the car were the ones I was trying to kind of finagle for you to see what we could figure out to get out of this.

Speaker 2 But usually, debts and collections, you're able to negotiate. So, remember that.
So, that 15,000 hopefully can get significantly down.

Speaker 2 And if you actually get them to a place where they will take that payment and you've negotiated, get it in writing. But that's what I would do.

Speaker 2 So, I would just start, honestly, Martha, with the baby steps. And you guys, I mean, your income isn't, you know, terrible.

Speaker 2 I mean, if you're making 30 starting in January, 86,000, but the house is a pain point. You, you have, what John said, put it on the market.
You have to.

Speaker 2 Like, there's no way you guys can afford this house.

Speaker 13 And Martha, I've done this. I bought a house and we had it sold within 10 months because I got into it.
And that plus my student loans, plus my car note, it was overwhelming.

Speaker 13 And it was a hard conversation. My wife cried when I said we have to sell this house.
I moved this into a residence hall apartment.

Speaker 13 I mean, it was, it was, I was just, and I was the associate dean of the university and I I was embarrassed for myself. But that's what we had to do because we had a math problem.

Speaker 13 And underneath your math problem, you have a relationship issue, which is you, you, you need to be able to tell your husband, I'm not safe here. I don't feel good.
I don't feel safe in this house.

Speaker 13 We owe too much money. I'm getting buried by this thing.

Speaker 13 And if he looks at you and says, I don't care, then y'all need to address that issue because it's going to take both of y'all pulling in the same direction to get out of this mess.

Speaker 32 Absolutely.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So getting the house sold, which I know is a feat that's going to be, you know, hopefully, I think we're seeing on average, it's about 60 days on the market.

Speaker 2 But I mean, I'm praying for you guys by February. Hopefully, you have an offer on the house, you have a new job, and you're like, you guys are starting this process.

Speaker 2 And then, and then, Martha, I would just start working my way down the debt snowball, and I would be paying off the personal loan, the student loans, and then going to

Speaker 2 the car,

Speaker 2 then to the credit cards. But don't be digging yourself into a hole while you're trying to get out.
So, you guys need to stop the debt.

Speaker 2 You got to cut up the credit cards, you got to be done. But I would look into that car, and then I would be saving some cash to see if I can settle on the medical debt because I really think you can.

Speaker 1 Health insurance open enrollment starts November 1st, and this year's changes might be even more confusing than usual.

Speaker 1 You'll probably have lots of questions about coverage, costs, and what makes sense for your situation. So listen, this is not the year to wing it.
That's why I recommend Health Trust Financial.

Speaker 1 They're the only health insurance broker I recommend to help you find the right plan because they advocate for you, not the insurance companies.

Speaker 1 Their team of trusted trusted advisors helps you cut through the noise and figure out what exactly works for your needs and your budget.

Speaker 1 And the best part, Health Trust Financial Service is completely free. There's no commitment, no pressure, and you won't get caught in an endless loop of phone menus.

Speaker 1 You'll work with a real person who actually listens, someone who's on your side. So stop guessing and start making smart, informed decisions.

Speaker 1 Go to health trustfinancial.com and let them help you protect your family and your wallet. That's healthtrustfinancial.com.

Speaker 2 Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair Winds Credit Union Studio. We are taking your calls at 888-825-5225.

Speaker 2 Up next, we have Christopher on the line, and Christopher is in Florida. Hi, Christopher.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 12 Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 Absolutely. How can we help today?

Speaker 37 My question is: I have $10,000 worth of credit card debt. I'm wondering if I should use money from an old retirement account, a 403B, to pay off that credit card debt.

Speaker 2 No. No.
What have you done with that 403B, the old one? Have you rolled it into another fund or an IRA, or is it still there with your old company?

Speaker 37 It's still there with my old company. Okay.
And I just moved in July. So I'm settling into the new company right now.
Gotcha.

Speaker 37 But if I can explain, a year ago, I was at $32,000 of credit card debt.

Speaker 12 Nice. And I paid it all

Speaker 12 off.

Speaker 37 Yeah, I paid it all off before I moved in July. Okay.

Speaker 37 It basically came on because I had a car

Speaker 37 repairs that I needed to make $12,000 of disaster anyway. Okay.
But then I paid it all off. I took a second job.
I paid it all off. I moved to Florida.
And then I had $10,000 in repairs for my house.

Speaker 37 Okay.

Speaker 37 And I had to put that back on the credit card. Okay.
Because I didn't have a savings.

Speaker 37 I didn't have a savings yet. Yeah.
Because I had just paid it off.

Speaker 12 So

Speaker 37 I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Speaker 30 Yeah, going back to I Carey.

Speaker 2 Totally, totally. How much money do you make a year?

Speaker 37 I'm at 100 grand in a salary.

Speaker 13 Okay, perfect. Okay, can I challenge you on one thing, Chris? And this is going to be key to you getting through this.

Speaker 13 I want you to say the words, not I had to do this stuff with this house. I want you to use the words, I chose to.

Speaker 37 No, I had to. It was repairs, damage to a sewer.
I could not do anything with the house, rent it out, sell it, or anything unless I made this repair.

Speaker 2 Right. But to John's point,

Speaker 2 you could have paused, taken on a second job, saved up $10,000 over two to three months, and then gone back and done the repair.

Speaker 13 See what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 You could have, though.

Speaker 38 I'm not beating you up.

Speaker 37 In the moment, because it was sewage backing up, I was in a desperate situation. Totally.

Speaker 12 I needed to get this.

Speaker 13 I totally get that. But the key to

Speaker 13 I think

Speaker 13 you and I both, we both and Rachel, we live in a culture that says

Speaker 13 everybody else has to come rescue us and everybody else is the cause of our challenges. And I want us just to sit in the driver's seat of our own lives and say, I had an emergency.

Speaker 13 I didn't have any money. I chose to deal with this right away.
I had sewage backing up in my house. And when they dug in, it was a wild, wildly bigger deal than I thought.

Speaker 13 And I went and borrowed thousand dollars just shift it's not about blame it's not about being a victim it's none of that it's just about you saying i did these things instead of these things happened to me and so i had to go it's just that tiny little shift because then you're in the driver's seat of your own life about what you're going to do next

Speaker 13 and if 80 year old you

Speaker 13 like Would you go borrow $10,000 at 30%, 35% to pay off this credit card?

Speaker 13 No, I wouldn't. Okay, so if you cash out this 403b, you're borrowing that money at 20% taxes or 30% taxes plus the penalty.
You're borrowing that money at 30-something percent.

Speaker 37 Okay, because so in my mind, I was thinking that money is making me 10% return every year,

Speaker 37 and the credit card is at 15%. So

Speaker 37 you're actually flipping it on me, which I'm grateful for because I was thinking I'd be saving 5%

Speaker 12 of the money. You'll be borrowing that tax money.

Speaker 13 You'll be pulling that money. So how much is in that 403B account?

Speaker 37 It's $42,000.

Speaker 13 Okay, so you'll probably get, what, $30,000?

Speaker 13 No, you wouldn't get that much. You get $25,000, $28,000?

Speaker 13 Probably, yes, yep. And so just do the math on how long it would take you to earn that back.

Speaker 13 Yeah, so Chris.

Speaker 37 In the account, yep.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so what I would do, I would meet with one of our Smart Investor pros in your area and figure out a way to get that 403B out because not keeping retirement. And this is true for a 401k.

Speaker 2 When you leave a job, you want to just roll it over to an IRA so that you have full control and it's out of the company that used to be at.

Speaker 2 So I want you to roll that over, but to John's point, not touching it. It's not worth the taxes and the penalties.
And then

Speaker 2 getting yourself in a position where you not only pay off this credit card debt, but then you bump up that to that emergency fund as soon as possible. And that urgency is what causes the second job.

Speaker 2 The urgency is what cuts the lifestyle and all of it. And, you know, not to belabor this point, Christopher, but it's just a good example, just to say out loud again is

Speaker 2 we get so many calls on this show with exactly what you were saying at the beginning of like, I had to do this. And what we force people to do, and again, it's either, well, my car broke down.

Speaker 2 I had to go get a car payment because I have to have a car. Or I was going to college.
There's, I didn't have any money saved.

Speaker 2 So I had to take out a student loan, you know, whatever the cause is that causes us to go into debt, we hear one line of thinking, meaning that there's no options.

Speaker 2 And when you feel like there's there's only one singular option, this is the only thing I can do, debt is going to be the route that's just right there and available.

Speaker 2 And so what we want to push people to, not just you, Christopher, but people listening, is when you get backed in a corner of a situation and thinking, this is the only way I can do this.

Speaker 2 The only way is with debt. That's it.
That's the only way. I'm going to push you for options.
A, B, C, and D, because there's always other options.

Speaker 2 But when you feel like there's only one option, we usually don't make a great financial decision.

Speaker 13 And can I just call this out, Chris?

Speaker 13 This is is the worst. You busted it for a year to pay off 30 grand.

Speaker 13 Like, and you got to be tired, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
You're so frustrated.

Speaker 38 And I mean,

Speaker 37 I was working in a, in a ministry job and then took a job waiting tables at night.

Speaker 12 Yeah. Right.

Speaker 13 Which, by the way,

Speaker 13 you shouldn't have to do that. You're serving people all day long and to pay your bills, you got to go to another job.
Like, that stinks, man. Like, we'll sit here with you on that.

Speaker 37 The good thing is two good things is this change in job really boosted my income excellent uh it made me move across the country and then i do have a renter that's coming into the

Speaker 37 uh into the house the first of the month and it's actually one of those situations where i feel like i'm also helping her out right get on her feet cool and so i know that everything's working out but it's

Speaker 37 you know, looking at the options of do I go and find another serving job? Yes.

Speaker 13 Do I go and

Speaker 37 drive for ride share?

Speaker 13 For three months. For a couple more.
It's going to be miserable. And then just make a plan right now.
We're talking to you right before Halloween weekend.

Speaker 13 Make a plan that February 1, you owe nobody anything ever again.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Christopher, with your new job, how much, are you single?

Speaker 38 I'm single. Okay.

Speaker 37 And the job boosted my income. I'm so glad.

Speaker 12 So every, have you done a written budget?

Speaker 30 I did much more. Okay.

Speaker 2 Have you done a budget?

Speaker 12 Yep. Okay.
How much extra do you have?

Speaker 2 Wonderful. How much extra?

Speaker 37 And I did, I mean, I changed my lifestyle to, you know, I shop at Aldi. I don't go out to eat.
No, it's perfect.

Speaker 12 Perfect. You're crooked.

Speaker 2 Okay. So how much extra do you have per month with just your normal job, just the new one?

Speaker 15 $2,800.

Speaker 2 $2,800. Okay.
So that's what's crazy about the math is I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, if you go and you make an extra, let's just say

Speaker 2 $2,200 a month, you know, you're at the, you're at $5,000. You'll have this paid off in two months,

Speaker 2 which is the the holidays, which sucks, but maybe you get better tips because

Speaker 2 November, December, and then, like what John's saying, and then keep doing it for two more months, rack up another 10 grand to set aside for

Speaker 2 your emergency fund. And then you can actually start saying, okay, now I feel good.

Speaker 13 Four months for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2 I go back to my normal job, but I'm going to keep my income limited to get that three months back on. And then you just pick back up.

Speaker 2 But yes, within five months, Christopher, your life could look different.

Speaker 16 Hey, quick reality check. AI isn't just for sci-fi nerds and Silicon Valley tech bros anymore.
It's the new weapon of choice for every scammer with fast Wi-Fi and bad intentions.

Speaker 16 Identity thieves could be using AI right now to steal your info in ways that would have sounded impossible just five years ago.

Speaker 16 We're talking voice cloning, deep fake videos, filing bogus tax returns, draining your bank and retirement accounts, and even home title fraud.

Speaker 16 And it can happen fast, so most people don't find out until it's too late. So as someone who has had his identity stolen before, I don't mess around.

Speaker 16 I use Xander ID theft protection because it keeps up with today's threats without the crazy price tag other companies charge. You get real-time monitoring across your whole financial and digital life.

Speaker 16 And if something does go down, they'll give you the full white glove treatment, like 24-7 restoration services by pros based in the U.S. and up to $2 million in stolen funds and expense coverage.

Speaker 16 So, you don't need to live in fear, but you do need to be smart about protecting your identity from thieves. So, go to xander.com or call 800-356-4282 and get yourself protected today.

Speaker 2 One of the best ways to spread the word about this show to be able to help your friends and family and other people, even around the world, is just sharing it.

Speaker 2 Whether it's on your social, maybe you subscribe, you comment, whatever you can do to help spread the word. That is so, so helpful.

Speaker 2 And even on some platforms, even like YouTube, if you are commenting or subscribing, it helps the algorithm to get the show in front of more people.

Speaker 2 And so, you are our best way to spread the word, honestly. So, we are so grateful for you all that listen and watch.

Speaker 2 And we're praying that this show helps you. It's why we do it every single day, hoping to give somewhat good advice, right, John? Somewhat.
And

Speaker 2 to be able to help when it comes to your life and your relationships, your career. And so just continue to help us do that by liking, subscribing, and sharing the show.
We appreciate you.

Speaker 2 All right, let's go to Kristen in Arkansas. Hi, Kristen.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 15 Hey, how are y'all?

Speaker 2 We're doing great. How can we help?

Speaker 28 Yeah, so me and my husband have been working really hard um to get some of our debt paid off we you know work a bunch of side jobs and i'm just trying to figure out what the best way it is to deal with our friends if they like they get upset if we're busy or if we don't say we're not going to send them money to go on a weekend trip or something like that um because we're too busy you know working to try and get out of debt yeah and what when you say that they're upset what does that mean that they miss you guys and they're like oh man we hate that you can't come or is it like come on y'all y'all are being crazy

Speaker 28 a little bit of both probably um it's kind of like, you know, one of our friends has said, like, hey, I'm just trying to figure out how have free time again so that we can hang out.

Speaker 28 And it's like, they get it, but they're also like, they're quality time people. And so they just want to also just spend time with us.

Speaker 13 How old are you guys?

Speaker 28 I'm 30, and my husband is 27.

Speaker 13 Okay, so this is going to be the question, the answer to the question beneath your question. And that is this: you're at an age, and it stinks.

Speaker 13 It's the worst when the friendships that served you really well in your 20s start to thin out and really change

Speaker 13 yeah and it comes somebody's gonna have a baby and you're gonna find out they're like a weird little league parent or someone's gonna get like a doodle and call themselves a pet parent

Speaker 13 or you're gonna get like you're gonna be the weird cult people that like start paying off your debts it's just like when you just start the values you have begin to emerge in a weird new way and the people that were by your side in your 20s there might be 10 of them you'll suddenly look up and at 35 and there'll be two.

Speaker 13 And it just stinks. It's just hard.
Because here's the deal. I had buddies when me and my wife started doing this.
And they, A, of course they made fun of me. That's what friends do.

Speaker 13 But they also were my chief supporters in whatever weird thing me and my wife wanted to do. You know what I mean?

Speaker 13 And so if you find friends that are getting on to you because you want to have peace in your life and have freedom in your life and they want to make your journey about them, then

Speaker 13 they may not be your friends down the road. Or if you just have some buddies that are like, dude, we miss you.
Can we come hang out?

Speaker 13 Here's what my buddies did. They would grab whatever was in their fridge and we'd come over once a week and we would just hang out at my house and have dinner.
We wouldn't go out.

Speaker 13 Somebody bring over a half bottle of wine they had left, a half eaten casserole.

Speaker 13 We'd make tacos and it cost no money, but it was just a way for us to all hang out because for a season, me and my wife couldn't go on vacations and we couldn't do weekend stuff. Or we'd go camping.

Speaker 13 We did do some camping together because it was so inexpensive. But it's just about being honest about your values.
And

Speaker 13 maybe it's, it's, it's, they're saying with their actions, like, we're not, we might not be friends long term.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And Kristen, this isn't forever either.
I mean, how much longer do you guys have?

Speaker 12 Oh, gosh. Um, probably a couple years.
Okay.

Speaker 2 How much, how much debt do you guys have? Let's see.

Speaker 15 We have do you want mortgage or just non-mortgage?

Speaker 12 No, non-mortgage.

Speaker 2 $162,000 non-mortgage okay is that student loans what is that

Speaker 28 that is credit cards some medical debt student loans um we have a rental property and a land loan okay how much do you guys make a year

Speaker 28 um our take loan is every month is forty nine hundred

Speaker 12 okay

Speaker 2 yeah so when you guys map this out what what's it what are you what are you finding from a timeline perspective

Speaker 28 so we're even working on like side jobs and we probably bring home an extra like three to four thousand dollars a month doing that.

Speaker 28 And so

Speaker 12 y'all are going to have to sell some stuff. Yeah,

Speaker 2 what's the rental property? How much is that?

Speaker 28 It's $40,000.

Speaker 28 It has probably about $5,000. It's been in remodel and it's probably got about $5,000 left to finish it.
Okay.

Speaker 4 And then

Speaker 2 you're going to sell it. Okay.
How much could you sell it for?

Speaker 4 Well, we're either going to rent it out. No, you need to sell it.

Speaker 2 Y'all can't afford it, Chris.

Speaker 13 Yeah, you're not in a place to be landlord.

Speaker 12 Yeah, you don't need to be landlord.

Speaker 2 So how much,

Speaker 2 once it's finished, how much could you sell it for?

Speaker 28 Probably $70,000, $80,000, maybe. Done.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because that's going to give you money then to turn around and throw at this debt, too. So, no, I would get rid of that.

Speaker 13 What about this land loan? Are y'all living on this land or did y'all just buy your dream property?

Speaker 28 Pretty much bought our dream property. We want to build on it eventually.

Speaker 2 How much is that?

Speaker 28 It is $75,000. It's a 15-year loan.

Speaker 2 Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Y'all need to unload some of this stuff.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So

Speaker 13 if you sold $75,000 and then you sold $40,000, that's what, $110,000. Plus you got another $40,000 from the equity in the home that you just fixed up.

Speaker 12 Yeah. I mean, yeah.
You're free.

Speaker 18 Yeah.

Speaker 28 We're hoping to have all of our cards paid off at the beginning of the year and then

Speaker 2 put start putting the extra to the rental house to get it finished and either you know to get it sold um and give us a lot more breathing room yeah my husband's also supposed to get an increase in pay um that's great yeah y'all are just exciting y'all have just done a couple of things out of order the things y'all have done are not necessarily bad you know buying a rental property buying a piece of land that's just out of order you guys have student loans you got medical debt you're having to work extra jobs to keep all of this it's not worth it it's not worth it because you can do all of that again chris and that's the other thing think about in in 10 years when you're 40, 40, you're still young and fun and great and you can do those kind of things.

Speaker 2 You know what I'm saying? Like it's not like it's a now or never thing. And so you guys in your late 20s, being 30, just get some margin financially.
And that's what I would be chasing.

Speaker 2 As John always has,

Speaker 2 what do you say? It's in the most

Speaker 2 solving for peace.

Speaker 13 And listen, I want lands. Yeah, my quote made such a difference in Rachel's life.
She couldn't even remember it. But I'm always solving for peace.
Here's the thing. I want land so bad.
So bad.

Speaker 13 Like, not healthy bad. And I can't afford it right now.
And we're saving like bananas for it. But like, I don't have the money for it right now.
And what I don't want to do is mortgage my anxiety.

Speaker 13 I don't want to mortgage my stress in my house. I don't want to mortgage my time away.
I want to just exhale and say, I really want this thing. And I got a target for how much I want to save up.

Speaker 13 And I'm just going to keep doing that until I got it.

Speaker 13 And sometimes, like for you, it's a side hustle. For me, that's an extra speaking gig on the road, or it's me taking some more, whatever.
But, like, I we're in the same boat. I really want this.

Speaker 13 I just don't, I don't, I can afford it right this second, and that's okay, it's totally okay. But you need to hear if you sold that land, that's what I'm trying to figure out.

Speaker 1 Yes, y'all are free.

Speaker 13 Y'all are free. If you sell this land and sell this house and you pay off these cars, y'all are y'all are free.

Speaker 2 Because your credit card debt is what four five thousand

Speaker 28 sixty, it's six, it's sixteen thousand five hundred.

Speaker 12 Sixteen thousand. Okay,

Speaker 2 How much is the medical debt?

Speaker 28 Like $1,500. It's not much.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So that, yeah, that can be cleaned up. Yes.
You guys, technically, if you think about it, once this house sells and the land sells, you guys have $16,000 of credit card debt to clean up.

Speaker 2 And then you could do that, golly, in, you know, six months or something. No, you're making an extra $4,000 a month.

Speaker 13 You can do it in four months, three months.

Speaker 8 Well, that's the goal.

Speaker 28 With how much we're extra we're making with our side of jobs. The goal is having a lot of money.

Speaker 2 I know, Kristen, but

Speaker 2 that was, okay, let me just i do want to just because i love you so i'm like i it was not your goal because you guys were like well we may rent it out oh no my husband there you know we bought our land like these weren't options at the beginning of the call but john and i just freed you guys freed you up yeah so you have to make some decisions of what or you're gonna be like exit you're gonna be doing this for So many years and it's not worth it.

Speaker 12 It's not worth it.

Speaker 13 You're going to wind up pregnant. One of y'all is going to wind up needing to go back to the hospital.
One of your parents is going to get, like, it's just life is going to happen.

Speaker 2 Yes. So again, these things are not bad.
They're great.

Speaker 13 I want you to have land. I really do.
I just want it to be yours. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Exactly. So get an emergency fund in the place.
You guys start investing after you pay this off. Then start saving some money on the side.
And yeah, and find some land.

Speaker 2 And I mean, it may be five or six years, but that's okay.

Speaker 12 That's great.

Speaker 2 That's okay. But just do it slowly and with cash, Kristen.
So I know you called about your friends, but we're your friends too. So we're just going to be able to do that.

Speaker 12 Your friends are right on this one.

Speaker 1 if you've got collectors breathing down your neck and you're drowning in credit card debt you don't need another debt relief company trying to sell you sunshine and unicorns. You need real help.

Speaker 1 And Guardian Litigation Group is the real deal. They're not a call center.

Speaker 13 They're actual attorneys.

Speaker 1 That means when a creditor tries to sue you, they can step into the courtroom and fight back. Now listen, debt settlement isn't pretty.

Speaker 1 It's not a magic wand, and I'd prefer you get out of debt the old-fashioned way.

Speaker 1 But if you're staring down bankruptcy and you've got no other way out, Guardian gives you a path to clean up the mess without paying a dime up front.

Speaker 1 Guardian's attorneys have helped over 55,000 people across the nation settle over $600 million of debt.

Speaker 1 So if you're ready to take back control of your life and stop cringing every time the phone rings, go to guardian LIT

Speaker 1 dot com slash Ramsey. That's guardianlit.com slash Ramsey.

Speaker 40 Paid endorsement, attorney advertising, Guardian Litigation Group LLP. Not available in Minnesota and Oregon.
Results vary and no specific outcome is guaranteed.

Speaker 40 Debt settlement may negatively affect credit and not all creditors will negotiate or settle. Savings vary and may be taxable.
Please review our website terms for more information.

Speaker 2 Our question of the day is sponsored by YReFi. If you didn't take out, you didn't take out private student loans hoping to default, but life happens, and YReFi will not shame you.

Speaker 2 They'll help you explore a real plan to get back on track. Head to yrefi.com/slash Ramsey to find out more.
That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y.com/slash Ramsey, not available in all states.

Speaker 13 All right. My husband and I are 45 and 43 years old.
We've been married for one year, and following your suggestions, we combined our money together.

Speaker 13 This was uncomfortable at first because both of us had financial trauma in our previous relationships. Good for you guys.

Speaker 13 Not for having trauma, but for feeling that and then going to do the next right thing. It's amazing.
However, we trust each other and it's been great.

Speaker 13 We feel closer together because we are making shared decisions around money. Awesome.
We make around $250,000 a year combined, and we have over a million dollars in assets. Amazing.

Speaker 13 We own previous homes, which we are using as rental properties, and we have opened an investment account together.

Speaker 13 Our question is: We're both recovering from alcoholism, seven years sober for me and eight for him, and we're both still active in AA.

Speaker 13 Should we do anything to protect ourselves if the other person relapses?

Speaker 13 It sounds like y'all are doing those things right now,

Speaker 13 which are we're talking about hard things, we're putting past traumas on the table, and we're acknowledging them, and then we're choosing to go do the next right thing.

Speaker 13 Y'all are staying in AA, which means you have sponsors. You've got people that are walking in life with you.
It sounds like y'all are doing those things.

Speaker 13 And so, if you were sitting, if this couple is sitting with me, Rachel, if Lindsay was sitting with me and her husband, I would ask,

Speaker 13 usually this question comes up when something's starting to feel wobbly.

Speaker 13 And so, I'd want to know what's the basis behind this question.

Speaker 13 But as far as two people who have

Speaker 13 trauma in your past, who have struggled with substance abuse in the past, y'all are doing all of the right things. And man,

Speaker 13 I would hug both of them if they were sitting there. I'm proud of them.
Incredible. And so I guess the next question I would ask is, what are you trying to do to protect yourselves?

Speaker 13 The only other thing I could think of is if you have

Speaker 13 somebody that meets with y'all every year that goes over your finances with you, that would serve like a buddy or a financial advisor.

Speaker 13 Starting to get some professionals in your corner because now y'all are stacking up some serious money. And anytime somebody's been in

Speaker 13 recovery or someone's in recovery, and you start getting this kind of money, I always want to make sure you get

Speaker 13 somebody else that's walking alongside you just because it gives you so much more resources to go get yourself in trouble again. But sounds like these guys are doing awesome.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because there was a book I read and they talked about this, how

Speaker 2 in recovery specifically, if you get too comfortable, you start to feel like we're good and money can do that.

Speaker 2 So to your point, you start to stack up a level of financial wallpapers over comfort and you're like, oh, we're good. Like I feel safe and good.

Speaker 2 And then you stop doing the things that got you to be in recovery.

Speaker 13 But the fact that they're still in AA,

Speaker 13 this would have been my first recommendation. If y'all said, we've been sober for seven or eight years, I would say go back, start going back to meetings, right? And go together.
Go together.

Speaker 13 And maybe share a sponsor or whatever, like whatever. I don't think you can share sponsors, but Lindsay,

Speaker 12 I'm blown away. I know,

Speaker 12 y'all.

Speaker 2 The work y'all are doing. So great.
So great. Good for you.
All right, let's go to Justin in North Carolina. Hi, Justin.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 31 Hey, how are y'all doing today?

Speaker 12 We're doing great.

Speaker 2 How can we help?

Speaker 38 So, long story short, I'm on baby step three.

Speaker 31 I think I'm about to hop right into baby step four.

Speaker 13 Congratulations.

Speaker 12 Good.

Speaker 12 So,

Speaker 31 what I'm want to know is

Speaker 31 how aggressive should I be on paying off my mortgage versus investment towards retirement at this moment?

Speaker 13 Oh, you hate that house payment now, don't you?

Speaker 22 I do.

Speaker 13 How big is it? How much do you owe?

Speaker 38 Well, right now I owe around $210,000.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 13 How much do you make a year?

Speaker 31 Okay, so I do have a salary and I also make VA disability. So right around now, I'm I'm around $90,000.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 2 Perfect. Are you married, Justin?

Speaker 30 I'm married. You are? Okay.

Speaker 2 Does your wife work?

Speaker 31 Right now, I've been able to drop her down to about two days a week to stay with the little one.

Speaker 12 Yeah, great. Yeah.

Speaker 2 How many kids do you guys have?

Speaker 30 Just one. One little girl.

Speaker 2 Oh, sweet. Okay.
Well, we always say when you're moving past baby step three, you're going from one to three, which is intense. I mean, you are full on.
I mean, it is sacrifice, going, going, going.

Speaker 2 And then baby steps four, five, and six, we move into intentionality, meaning you want to fund 15% of your income into retirement.

Speaker 2 So you guys start, you know, opening up, you know, two Roth IRAs if you haven't already, if you're, um, if your work offers a 401k. So start some of that investing, 15% of the income.

Speaker 2 And then I would open up a 529 for the little one and put some money in.

Speaker 2 You don't have to be too aggressive with that right now because I know you guys want, you know, you're filling this house payment. So baby step six is the house payment.

Speaker 2 And so I would get with your wife because my guess is she may not be as motivated to pay this off as quickly as you are.

Speaker 12 Is she as gung hoo?

Speaker 31 Well, actually, I thought I had this talk to her about a week ago, and I think she's on board.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 2 Well, if she's on board, that's great.

Speaker 2 I mean, you guys are both adults, so you can make a decision to say, yes, we're going to throw everything else at the house and we're still going to just go, go, go.

Speaker 2 We just don't want you to burn out because when you pay off your mortgage, that is a, that's a long game.

Speaker 2 Most consumer consumer debt can be paid off two to three years, where the mortgage on average is anywhere from eight to nine years. So it's just a longer game.

Speaker 2 And we want you to be able to enjoy your life during that too, right? You've worked hard. You are not being irresponsible by

Speaker 2 upgrading a car if you need to, going on a trip. So I do want you guys to enjoy this life.

Speaker 2 But again, you both together, if you both agree, hey, we're still going to buckle down and throw this at the house, you can. I mean, George Campbell did that.
John, if like you

Speaker 12 were that.

Speaker 13 I would say if it's going to go beyond two years,

Speaker 13 like if it's beyond possible, how old is your baby girl?

Speaker 31 She'll be two in December. Okay.

Speaker 13 Here's what I would hate. I would hate for you to wake up and she's seven and you've worked seven days a week and you missed some of the magic moments.
You missed all the magic moments. Right.

Speaker 13 And if you told me, hey, between my salary and my wife's salary, we could have this house if we just sucked it up for 24 more months and we could just blow through this thing or 18 months, I would say, in my house, that's what we did.

Speaker 13 If you're telling me it's actually we could just four to five years,

Speaker 13 yeah, go full steam ahead and it's going to take five years, I would tell you, man, slow down. You've done an amazing job.
Yep. Amazing job.
And enjoy a little bit of your life a little bit.

Speaker 13 And still,

Speaker 13 double up on your payments or pay an extra two a year or an extra three a year and shave off big chunks of that mortgage. But,

Speaker 13 man, there's there's something about enjoying life. Yeah, dad's been there on Saturday mornings when they can at soccer games.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and it's one thing when it's freaking credit cards and car loans and all of this, you know, but your mortgage, I'm like, it's your home.

Speaker 2 And so, and it's obviously a much larger debt, usually.

Speaker 2 And so, it is going to take that time. So, I would say just be realistic about where you guys are.
Because how much consumer debt did y'all pay off in Baby Step 2?

Speaker 31 Oh, Lord, y'all would have yelled at me about a

Speaker 31 month.

Speaker 13 No, dude. I promise it's not worth worse than most of us.

Speaker 31 You would have yelled at me in a good way.

Speaker 12 What is it?

Speaker 13 Oh, how much you pay off?

Speaker 31 So

Speaker 31 I pretty much lived it up in my 20s. I turned 30 this year.

Speaker 38 I've had boats, campers, trucks, you name it.

Speaker 13 Excellent. And

Speaker 38 it just got to the point where it was fun.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 13 How much did you pay off?

Speaker 32 I realized I'd say about 70 grand.

Speaker 31 That's amazing.

Speaker 13 I'm proud of you. That's incredible, Justin.

Speaker 2 I'm proud of you. Yeah, so my point is, is that you guys have already done an incredible feat of paying off $70,000 of consumer debt.
You have your baby, your baby step three.

Speaker 2 You have a fully funded emergency fund. Like what you guys are doing is incredible beyond what the average American is doing.
So if you are, if you've done those things, check that off.

Speaker 2 Be proud of yourselves. Be funding some retirement on the side.
Be thinking about college and then throw some extra at the house. That's great.

Speaker 2 But again, like John said, please don't go and work 80 hours a week just to get this thing paid off.

Speaker 2 Just slow down, be intentional. I want you guys to have a plan, and you can have more of an aggressive plan.

Speaker 2 And even the mortgage calculator, if you go to ramseysolutions.com, plug in in some of those numbers, I'm like, you can see how quickly this can get paid off by just throwing a few extra payments a year.

Speaker 2 Like, it's crazy how quickly it fast-forwards the process. So, do some math around it.
Take a breath, celebrate.

Speaker 13 I want to celebrate you, brother. You did

Speaker 12 well. Well done.

Speaker 2 The all-new Every Dollar is here, and it is way more than just the incredible budgeting app that it was.

Speaker 2 It is still a budgeting app, but now it has so many more advanced features to help you make progress with your money.

Speaker 2 The average person finds thousands of dollars in margin in just the first 15 minutes. So, Every Dollar Now, you guys, I mean, it's looking over your entire financial picture.

Speaker 2 There's recommendations, there's coaching involved. I mean, there's so much now in this app to help you with your money journey.

Speaker 2 So get started today for free, and you can download it in the app store or Google Play. Up next, we have Isabelle in Illinois.
Hi, Isabelle. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 41 Hi, thank you so much for taking my call.

Speaker 12 You're so welcome. How can we help today?

Speaker 39 So I was, my question is,

Speaker 41 how do I find a margin within my very small income

Speaker 41 about six, seven thousand dollars in debt? Which I know may not sound like a lot, but again, it's more so my very low income debt.

Speaker 2 Sure. Yeah.
How much are you making a year?

Speaker 41 I'm making about $27,000 to $30,000 a year.

Speaker 35 Okay.

Speaker 2 And what are you doing?

Speaker 35 I work for a small company.

Speaker 41 Roughly paycheck-wise, I get about $2,066

Speaker 41 a month.

Speaker 41 And again, it's just kind of paying down my debts to get to where I want to be financially,

Speaker 41 as well as securing a home down the line and everything of that sort.

Speaker 2 So, Isabel, you said you're working for a small company. What are you doing? Are you doing sales, admin? What's the

Speaker 39 basically a receptionist for a

Speaker 10 countertop company,

Speaker 10 which does okay, but again, it's not

Speaker 12 corporate money.

Speaker 2 No, for sure um do you are you married do you have kids

Speaker 35 i do i i'm not married but i do have a partner okay um so no kids though

Speaker 12 yes kids i have a toddler and one on the way okay oh congratulations

Speaker 2 um and toddler goes to daycare what does toddler do during the day okay So that's probably a chunk, too. How much are you paying in that?

Speaker 41 I'm paying roughly $800 a month for daycare.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 2 And how much is your rent?

Speaker 39 That's another issue.

Speaker 41 Our rent went up significantly

Speaker 6 last year

Speaker 41 going into this year. So we ended up, I could not budget my income to the rent.
Rent was about $1,900 a month for a one bedroom.

Speaker 41 And I did not find that feasible with my income plus my partner's income. So we ended up moving in with my parents to kind of lower all of our costs down.

Speaker 41 So that's where it's at now. I do pay bills within my parents' household, which roughly around with my bills roughly sums up to $800 a month in bills.

Speaker 2 And is the partner paying as well?

Speaker 41 Not at the moment.

Speaker 10 So what really took a toll on us financially

Speaker 41 regarding rent and

Speaker 41 why we had to move in was because he has his own business.

Speaker 19 Unfortunately, with the business, he's a mechanic,

Speaker 35 I'm really not sure, but more of a performance.

Speaker 41 He fixes engines, motors, transmissions, all of that stuff.

Speaker 12 Is he making any money, Isabella?

Speaker 12 No.

Speaker 39 So what had happened was...

Speaker 12 No, hold on, hold on.

Speaker 13 Let me stop.

Speaker 13 What you need right now, like what happened is important, but not right this second. And so let me say it like this.

Speaker 13 Y'all two were in a boat

Speaker 13 and the boat hit something, something broke, an old weld popped loose, somebody shot a hole in it. Right now, y'all are drowning.

Speaker 2 And you're the only one with a bucket.

Speaker 13 And it doesn't matter what happened to that boat. What matters is y'all need to swim to shore.

Speaker 13 Okay? So he had a business. Whatever happened didn't happen, doesn't matter.
He's got to get up today and go knock on doors.

Speaker 13 And every single mechanic shop I walk by has a sign outside that says, we're looking for ASC certified mechanics. Everybody, every single shop is looking for mechanics.
He's got to go get a job.

Speaker 13 Two jobs.

Speaker 19 He's pushing. Yes, he does do that.

Speaker 41 He has a part-time job right now. But most of that income is going to repay.

Speaker 41 all of the loans that he got for the business itself because we don't want to bring into if we ended up buying purchasing a home getting married all of that stuff what happened with his business really did put a lot of financial burden on us yeah

Speaker 13 how much does he owe

Speaker 10 his business owes roughly eight thousand dollars nine thousand dollars from what we've been able to pay down um that completely drained our savings okay so not he had a muffled he only owes nine thousand dollars Is that right, Isabel?

Speaker 12 Right.

Speaker 13 Okay, that's not a ton of money.

Speaker 12 He can go earn that.

Speaker 2 He can go drive Uber Eats and make $2,000 to $3,000. Do you understand? He could have this cleaned up.

Speaker 2 So you have a, if I were you, and I don't want to paint this picture, but Isabelle, like, this is, if I had a toddler one on the way, and the guy I'm doing life with

Speaker 2 had a major financial thing that wiped out, you said our savings. So I don't know if you put money towards money.
There is, there's a lot of,

Speaker 2 there's zero security. There's not a lot of safety in all of this.
And so, a part of me, you guys have co-mingled so much with kids living together and all of it and money.

Speaker 2 Isabel, just for you and just to make this as clean as possible, I would be separating everything.

Speaker 2 And he needs to go and do DoorDash and be a mechanic at night and be a mechanic during the day, to John's point.

Speaker 2 And I know that the business, that whole thing, I'm sure his self-esteem, I'm sure everything is just terrible.

Speaker 2 Like, I bet he does feel a lot of guilt shame who knows but he has to continue to provide for kids that he has do you know what i'm saying and a right girlfriend a fiancé whatever it is so he needs to go do all of that you then isabelle yeah i would be for your sake and your debt um it's not a lot either i know it probably feels very overwhelming like what you're saying with your salary i'm thankful that you have a place to land when you have family in town that's such a gift being um you know having two kids and you're doing this so i would be looking isabel at from a salary perspective to up your salary because um

Speaker 2 man i mean you're you're at the cusp with with two kids on poverty level so i would be i would be looking for something like you know 36 000 um you know something that you can do that's going to be bringing in more money and ideally it's a primary income position and so i would be thinking through family friends people that you know um anything that you can start to do to,

Speaker 2 yeah, open some doors. I'll send you Ken's book, Find the Work That You're Wired to Do, because he has a great assessment in there.
And so Jenna will pick up, we'll send that copy to you.

Speaker 2 And I want you to really start dreaming and thinking through Isabel, like, what I want my life to look like, not just in the next nine months, but what do I want it to look like in the next nine years?

Speaker 2 You know, what do I want to do with my life? And I'm hoping together, I mean, I pray that you guys get married and you guys, you know,

Speaker 2 flourish and do all the things

Speaker 2 because you guys have built a life together but my hope is that you're in a position where you feel good about that yeah he you're not going to feel good until

Speaker 13 he starts acting like somebody you can anchor into

Speaker 13 right

Speaker 13 and and here's what this looks like he's is this his baby on the way

Speaker 10 yes

Speaker 13 okay both of them are his okay yes then this is what this looks like right now He got knocked down. His business fell out from under him.
He wasn't good at it. Whatever.
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 13 It looks like him waking up at 4 a.m. every day and ubering people to and from the airport until he starts work at 8 o'clock.
And he is a mechanic from 8 to 5.

Speaker 13 And then he gets off and he has dinner with you and the young one. And then he goes back out into the world and does DoorDash until midnight.

Speaker 13 This is all of human history. Men have had to go work like crazy to provide for their family.
And $9,000, he can have that cleaned up in no time.

Speaker 13 But he's got to say, my two kids and my future wife

Speaker 12 are worth it.

Speaker 13 One year, two years of just working myself until I weigh nothing, I'm costing myself sleep, all that. He has a major priority.

Speaker 13 And like Rachel said, man, you also have to begin to visualize a world where he doesn't do that, which means you're going to have to go earn some more money and you're going to have to put yourself out on the market, which is going to feel weird.

Speaker 13 You got a baby coming. It's going to be hard.
People are going to judge you. All that.
Who cares? None of that matters.

Speaker 13 You'll have a real math problem, but underneath that, you'll have a security problem.

Speaker 1 How many times do you end up with too much month at the end of the money? Even if you can cover the bills, there's there's nothing left over. You work your butt off and you still feel broke.

Speaker 1 That's normal for most people. But you do not have to live that way.
You can completely transform your money and your life with Every Dollar. Our world-class budgeting app is better than ever.

Speaker 1 Now, Every Dollar coaches you to find extra margin every month so you can make real progress and change your family tree. The average person finds $3,015 in just the first 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 That's extra money you could use to beat debt, to build wealth, to finally breathe again. Don't settle for living normal with money.
Start every dollar for free by downloading the app today.

Speaker 2 Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm Rachel Cruz with John Deloney, and we're answering your questions.
So you can give us a call at 888-825-5225.

Speaker 2 Next in Wisconsin, we have Olivia. Hi, Olivia.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 Hi, thanks for having me. Absolutely.
How can we help?

Speaker 9 So my question is, what is the best way to manage or organize a single 529 plan that would cover multiple children?

Speaker 2 Yes. Okay.

Speaker 2 Was this passed down to you or how did you receive it?

Speaker 9 Yeah, it was the 529 plan that my parents set up for me, and then I didn't use all of it. So they just said that it is, they're using it towards grandkids when they're ready.

Speaker 2 Nice. Okay.
Very cool. Question.
Do you remember how much you had left in it when you finished college? And I go, I don't need that. And how much it is today?

Speaker 35 today

Speaker 9 it's about a hundred thousand dollars and the kids are 15 months and the next one's due in January oh well congratulations how long have you been out of school

Speaker 2 about five years five years okay how much was left in that 529 I guess it's only had five years of growth so probably

Speaker 2 how much was that

Speaker 9 I I don't know exactly how much yeah was when I yeah used the

Speaker 2 Well, yeah, well, that's one of the great benefits of the 529 is it can be passed down through family for educational funds.

Speaker 2 So, what I would probably do, Olivia, is get hooked up with one of our Smart Vestor Pros in your area. And you can't open a 529 until the second baby is born.
So, I probably would just wait.

Speaker 2 So, you could do it all in one meeting. So, you don't have to go back and do two meetings.

Speaker 2 But, yeah, you can go ahead and set two up under your both girls' names, and then that Smart Vestor Pro will be able to help you bring the funds down from your name.

Speaker 2 and you can, yep, disperse it within family members. So they'll be able to take that and fund it.
And you'll be able to see,

Speaker 2 you know, how much you may obviously probably put a little bit more in the first kid versus the second because the second will have a few more years to be able to have some growth.

Speaker 2 But that should be plenty. I mean, honestly, you could probably just check that off.
I mean, talk to you. talk to your Smart Investor Pro.

Speaker 2 Ours, we sat with ours and we do every January and he ran out the calculations of tuition as it continues and you're like, oh, God.

Speaker 2 So, do some numbers, some projecting. But that's what's great about having an investment professional in your corner is that they do all of that.

Speaker 2 They're able to look out and project, not even from like a market perspective, you know, with average rates of return, but also what tuition is going to do to make sure that you guys have enough.

Speaker 2 But you have a massive head start, which is wonderful. So, yeah, I would just get with an investment professional and they can help transfer those funds.

Speaker 2 All right, let's go to Ashley in Key West, Florida. So nice.
Hi, Ashley.

Speaker 43 Hello.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the show. How can we help?

Speaker 36 My situation is kind of unique. My husband is active duty military, and

Speaker 36 we have

Speaker 36 found ourselves in a very unique situation.

Speaker 36 We were up in Pensacola, the panhandle of Florida. We owned a home there, and we got orders to come to Key West.

Speaker 36 And

Speaker 36 the cost of living down here is astronomical.

Speaker 36 Our house has been on the market since April and we're now going into November.

Speaker 12 The house in the panhandle?

Speaker 36 Correct. We've had no movement at all on it.
It's being shown three to four times a week, but we've had zero offers. We've lowered the price twice.

Speaker 36 We've done updates, incentives for buyers, and it's just nothing is happening. And between our mortgage and our rent here in Key West, we're paying out over $8,000 a month.

Speaker 36 between the two things and because I'm still having to pay someone to maintain my pool on the home the yard the the lights and the water is still on so and then everything combined is actually like 79.80 something

Speaker 13 what's your real estate professional telling you

Speaker 36 well he told us about a couple months ago to put it up for rent also so we did that

Speaker 36 and we've also had no movement on it being rented. We actually made our mortgage on the house is 3,000.

Speaker 36 Well, when we originally bought it, it was $2,100, and it went up to $29 because of property taxes in that area.

Speaker 36 We have

Speaker 15 not a very ideal rate because we bought it in

Speaker 36 2023 when the rate was taken.

Speaker 13 The average time on market right now is two months,

Speaker 13 62 days. What is your real estate professional saying is the challenge? Because it sounds like it's being shown.
People are looking at it and they're interested in it.

Speaker 12 That's what's interesting. Have you run comps in the area to see?

Speaker 2 Is it overpriced?

Speaker 36 It is actually lower than the comps in the area.

Speaker 36 It's just

Speaker 36 for whatever reason in that Pensacola area, no one is buying and no one is selling.

Speaker 36 But my other issue is, you know, we both, we also have credit card debt and we have two car payments and

Speaker 36 we make good money

Speaker 2 just going out on payments correct okay how much do you guys bring in a month

Speaker 36 oh gosh I didn't write down the monthly I did I did it by year for y'all okay you can go ahead yeah what

Speaker 36 so together we both make 135 a year is that before tax

Speaker 15 that is

Speaker 42 before tax yes okay

Speaker 2 in the apartment that you guys are in now how much are you guys paying per month?

Speaker 15 So, we're actually on base.

Speaker 36 So, it's taking my husband's basic housing allowance. It's like an allotment that comes out of his paycheck.

Speaker 2 Okay, so y'all aren't having to pay for rent right now. I thought you said that rent's astronomical.

Speaker 8 It is.

Speaker 36 So, our rent, so the Navy subcontracts out

Speaker 36 their property management. So, they are taking $4,568 per month for us to live here.

Speaker 2 $4,000 on base?

Speaker 15 Yes, that's correct. $4,568.

Speaker 12 Gosh. So could you all

Speaker 12 have to go?

Speaker 13 Could you get a one-bedroom apartment?

Speaker 12 Take your loan?

Speaker 36 So there are no apartment complexes down here. That is the issue with Key West and service members coming down here.

Speaker 36 There are no barracks. There are no places for military members to live.

Speaker 36 I did actually Google this this morning. I went on Zulo so that I could get some examples for you guys.

Speaker 36 An average 3-2 is between $6,500 to $8,000.

Speaker 12 Yeah, that's a 3-2.

Speaker 2 What's a 1? What's a 1-2?

Speaker 13 What's a one-bedroom? Yeah. Like a survival?

Speaker 36 Around $4,000,500 to $4,000.

Speaker 13 For a one-bedroom apartment?

Speaker 36 Correct.

Speaker 36 And I mean, like, this is, you know. Yeah, totally.
Now I hear you.

Speaker 2 Okay. So the cars, tell me about the cars.
How much do you owe on each of those?

Speaker 36 So on my Armada, I owe $20,000. My monthly payment is $5.50,000.

Speaker 36 My husband's F-150,

Speaker 36 he owes $18,000, and his payment is $575,000.

Speaker 12 Yep. Yeah, I mean, that's over $1,000 going out in just that,

Speaker 36 and then we have $30,000 worth of credit card debt.

Speaker 36 And then we actually

Speaker 36 last week,

Speaker 36 as crazy as it sounds, had to take out a Coast Guard mutual assistance loan in the amount of $2,500 because my transmission, something failed on my transmission.

Speaker 15 Now that loan is 0%

Speaker 36 interest because it's, it comes from

Speaker 2 what I would say is I would look at seeing if you guys can sell these cars and get two $5,000 cars, even if you have to take a small loan for the difference, just to get this $1,000 freed up

Speaker 2 because that's going to help you a ton. Cut up the credit cards and you guys have to draw a hard line in the sand and say, no more debt.
No more debt.

Speaker 2 And it's going to take a little while to dig dig out, but I'd be working extra doing what you can.

Speaker 13 And get a new real estate professional, go to ramseysolutions.com/slash real estate.

Speaker 2 Hey guys, it's Rachel Cruz, and I've got great news for you. The Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway is here.
We are giving away $500 every week, plus a grand prize of $5,000 in cash.

Speaker 2 Listen, you can enter daily to boost your chances of winning, and there's no purchase necessary. Just go to ramseysolutions.com/slash giveaway.
That's ramseysolutions.com/slash giveaway.

Speaker 2 Good luck, you guys.

Speaker 13 Hey, real quick, we were just talking about this off-air, Rachel.

Speaker 13 If you went and bought a ton of house during the, like, not during the pandemic, but after the pandemic, right?

Speaker 13 Or if you went and followed your neighbor who does really well, or followed somebody at your local church, whatever, and they bought a property, like a beach house, like this last caller, or they bought a lake house, whatever, in 2023, 2024, and you're like, yeah, I want to do that too.

Speaker 13 Somebody's going to pay the piper on that deal, man. Yes.
And it's one of those things that we keep,

Speaker 13 I don't know, man. Dave's been beating this drum forever, and now we're picking up the drumsticks and beating it too.
But it's like

Speaker 13 it's not a statement on the greater economy if a whole bunch of people went and bought two and three million-dollar houses or bought a this and then a this, um, and then now they find themselves in a stuck position.

Speaker 13 My heart breaks for that last caller who got

Speaker 13 new orders, had to move, and now they can't sell a house here. But people flocked to these places and they bought a second, a third, and a fourth house, and they mortgaged it here.

Speaker 13 Man, it's a mess people are finding themselves in.

Speaker 2 Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 Keeping your life financially simple, you guys, it's boring, it's not exciting, but it brings peace because you're not trying to play this game where you're juggling this, and then we're gonna pull it out of here, and this and this.

Speaker 2 We've just heard so many stories recently, kind of of that happening, and people are hitting the wall, is what it feels like.

Speaker 13 And I'm heartbroken for this military family who just got moved, and that house won't sell. Yeah, yeah, everyone in the neighborhood bought their third house.
I don't know. Yeah.
It's just, I hate it.

Speaker 13 I hate it a lot.

Speaker 13 Boring is not flashy, but boring is peaceful. Yes.
Boring is peaceful.

Speaker 2 And the same is true just with investing. When we talk about like

Speaker 2 invest 15% of your income into 401ks and Roth IRAs. Everyone's like, borrow, let me go do something.
Why real estate cash?

Speaker 12 Boring.

Speaker 2 Yeah. But man, I'm telling you, yes, it takes some patience for sure in this, but you're doing it the right way.
You're not building a house on sand, right?

Speaker 2 Like it is strong and the structure is there because it's real money. You're being wise about it.
So everyone, slow down and feel it out.

Speaker 12 All right.

Speaker 2 Well, everyone also needs insurance and it can be hard trying to find pros

Speaker 2 who aren't looking to make a buck and agents who know their stuff. And with Ramsey Trusted Insurance Pros, you will never find a sleazy business or slimy salespeople because they're all interviewed.

Speaker 2 They are vetted and they are coached by our team to make sure that they are market experts and have your best interests at heart.

Speaker 2 So, go to ramseysolutions.com/slash coverage to find the type of insurance that you are looking for and connect with a Ramsey trusted agent.

Speaker 2 Or click the link in the description if you are listening on YouTube or podcasts. All right, up next, let's go to Susan in Florida.
We've had a lot of Florida calls. Hi, Susan.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 29 Thank you so much for taking my call.

Speaker 2 You are so welcome. How can we help today?

Speaker 29 I have been a caregiver for three handicapped family members for 28 years.

Speaker 35 Wow.

Speaker 29 I have dumped all my retirement into taking care of them, which was over half a million dollars.

Speaker 29 And I need to know how I go about rebuilding my financial life

Speaker 29 as I have none right now. I have no credit.
I owe no one anything,

Speaker 29 but I need to know how to build my

Speaker 29 stockpile of funds so I can have some kind of retirement because I know I will have no one to take care of me.

Speaker 13 Yikes. Are these three family members still living?

Speaker 29 Yes, they're here now in the house with me.

Speaker 29 I have two mentally handicapped brothers, one who now is crippled, one who is going through prostate cancer, and I have my 90-year-old mom who has severe dementia.

Speaker 2 Oh, wow, Susan. That's a lot.

Speaker 13 Do you have support?

Speaker 11 Yeah, and I had a wonderful life before this.

Speaker 29 I worked for one of the richest men in the world. I had my own corporate jet.
I was making great money.

Speaker 29 My dad passed away, and I stepped in, and I had left home when I was 14.

Speaker 8 Man,

Speaker 13 you're a saint.

Speaker 13 Do you have, I mean, have you explored things like

Speaker 29 I haven't done anything truthfully.

Speaker 11 How old are you?

Speaker 29 I am 66.

Speaker 2 You're 66. Okay.

Speaker 29 I want you to

Speaker 12 explore

Speaker 13 SSI benefits for your brothers.

Speaker 29 Yes, we do have benefits coming in. I have them on a program called CDC Plus.

Speaker 13 Okay.

Speaker 29 So I am now, they kept telling me I couldn't get paid as the caregiver because I was a family member. But I found this program through another woman who had a handicapped daughter.

Speaker 29 And I'm getting paid, but I've only been getting paid now for like seven years.

Speaker 13 What about for your mom? Is she on Medicaid?

Speaker 29 She's on Medicare only. They kicked her off of Medicaid for some reason.
So that's where part of my money went to paying her medical bills as she got older.

Speaker 13 Well, here's what I'm worried. I'm worried that because

Speaker 13 of your

Speaker 13 wild and amazing generosity, you're going to find yourself

Speaker 13 in a hole, and unable to take care of yourself, much less take care of them.

Speaker 29 Right. Because I'm at,

Speaker 8 I'm going to say the truth.

Speaker 29 At this point, I'm at burnout mode. And everybody has always called me superwoman.
And they say, my God, you run on rocket fuel, you know.

Speaker 29 And I'm getting to the point where I not only can't do it,

Speaker 29 I don't want to do it.

Speaker 13 And that's okay. That's okay.

Speaker 13 Rachel and I are right there with you. We get that.
Totally get that.

Speaker 13 But the greatest thing you can do for them,

Speaker 13 the greatest thing you can do for them right now is make sure you've got a plan for yourself.

Speaker 8 Right.

Speaker 35 And you've heard this.

Speaker 29 I've hired a part-time caregiver to come in and help me.

Speaker 2 Are you okay?

Speaker 12 Good.

Speaker 2 Yes. Are you, is there any income, Susan, from that, from whether it's the caregiving position or anything else that you're doing that you're bringing in money?

Speaker 29 I am making very good money

Speaker 29 I have available to me $170,000 a year okay that I can take for myself but at this point like I said I'm on burnout and I need to hire people and I'm paying $30 an hour for caregiver okay yeah

Speaker 2 so what I do have money available to me but is that is that 170 like a retirement package that will be ongoing or what what happens when you're going to get that?

Speaker 29 No, that's the money I get paid from the program to take care of them.

Speaker 2 Okay, I hear you. Okay.

Speaker 29 So take care of only two.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 4 Mom doesn't get anything, so I'm still paying all her costs.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 13 Well, $170,000 a year is a chunk of money if you have no bills.

Speaker 2 Is your house paid off?

Speaker 35 My what? Your house?

Speaker 4 No,

Speaker 29 it's not my house.

Speaker 29 It's in my mom's name, but I'm paying the mortgage. Okay, and I have $80,000 left on the mortgage.

Speaker 13 $80,000. Is it left to you in a will when she passes? Will it become yours?

Speaker 15 It's in trust.

Speaker 29 She put it in a trust.

Speaker 11 Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 12 For the three of us.

Speaker 2 Oh, for the three, you and the two brothers.

Speaker 3 Yes, because those are the things that

Speaker 4 you're going to have to make financials.

Speaker 2 Yes. Okay.

Speaker 17 Yep.

Speaker 2 Okay. Well, I would probably sit down with a lawyer because they're going to need

Speaker 2 even like a special needs type of trust.

Speaker 2 I mean, there's some some ways to go about this estate planning to make sure that because they're living with you, making sure, obviously, that I'm not trying to write them out of the estate or anything like that or her will, but to be wise about how to divvy all this up realistically.

Speaker 2 Do you see yourself ongoing, Susan, to be with your two brothers or are you hoping maybe to find someone?

Speaker 29 I will never, ever give up on them. Never.

Speaker 2 Yes. So you're going to plan on living with them and then just maybe supplementing some help throughout the day.
Okay. You know, I honestly, Susan, would probably sit down with an attorney.

Speaker 2 Is your mom,

Speaker 2 I know you said she has cancer. Is she got to get

Speaker 2 dementia? Dementia.

Speaker 12 Oh, it's your brother that has cancer.

Speaker 12 Make any decisions. Yes, okay.

Speaker 29 The trust was made before she declined. Okay.

Speaker 13 Yes, good, good, good.

Speaker 2 Do you have a good estate attorney?

Speaker 12 Do you guys

Speaker 12 work with that?

Speaker 29 I've never been to an estate attorney.

Speaker 15 Okay.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 I may reach out to someone in your area, honestly, Susan, because I would have them look at not only the income that's coming in, but some things that you can do around to help your brothers.

Speaker 2 And there might be some way to shuffle some money that's actually going to be good for their best interest that you're going to be able to help them.

Speaker 2 And then, with the real estate and everything on top of that,

Speaker 2 what that looks like. Because if you can prove that you've been paying a certain level of mortgage, you know, there might be something that you guys can do in that.

Speaker 2 I just want you to be set up, like what you're saying, really well. But, but $170,000 a year is wonderful.

Speaker 2 I would just budget really specifically how many hours a week you can supplement some help with that, the mortgage payment and all of it to make sure you don't run out of that money.

Speaker 1 You work your butt off for your money, but your money's never going to return the favor if all you do is hope for the best.

Speaker 1 If you're ready to learn how to make your money work for you, check out the Smart Vestor program.

Speaker 1 SmartVestor can help you find advisors who specialize in retirement planning, charitable giving, advanced investing strategies, and more.

Speaker 1 Whatever your goals, your pro will take the time to explain your options so you never have to invest in anything you don't understand. Head to ramseysolutions.com/slash SmartVestor to get connected.

Speaker 25 Ramsey Solutions is a paid non-client promoter of participating pros. Learn more at ramseysolutions.com/slash smartvestor.

Speaker 2 Well, in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, we have Rebecca here. Hi, Rebecca.

Speaker 12 Hi.

Speaker 24 How are you doing? It's so amazing to be here.

Speaker 2 Oh, we're so glad that you're here. We love a debt-free screen.
We are so glad. So, where are you from?

Speaker 24 Wake Forest, North Carolina. North Carolina?

Speaker 13 Beautiful part of the country. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 Amazing. Okay, how much debt have you paid off?

Speaker 24 $207,000.

Speaker 2 Oh, my gosh. Making what kind of money?

Speaker 24 $100,000 to $130,000.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 And what was the, or what amount of time? How fast did you do this?

Speaker 24 91 months. 91 months?

Speaker 13 Not that you counted exactly.

Speaker 12 I love it.

Speaker 2 Okay, what was the

Speaker 2 $207,000? The house. Oh, my gosh, you did it.

Speaker 24 I did.

Speaker 2 You paid off the house.

Speaker 12 Congratulations.

Speaker 13 Wait, did anyone else help you?

Speaker 24 No.

Speaker 13 But hold on.

Speaker 13 I've been reading the news a lot, and single people can't do

Speaker 13 what you've done. So clearly, you've made all of this up, right?

Speaker 24 No, never.

Speaker 13 Single people can't work really hard and grind and scratch and claw and do this.

Speaker 24 Oh, they can if they truly want it.

Speaker 12 Golly, dude. Unbelievable.
Unbelievable.

Speaker 13 Funruiner.com. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 Okay, so tell me this. How much is the house worth?

Speaker 24 I think the last estimate I saw was like $390.

Speaker 2 $390. Okay.

Speaker 12 Oh, good for you.

Speaker 2 Okay. So what happened? Was that eight years-ish, right?

Speaker 24 Seven and a half. Seven and a half.

Speaker 2 Okay. I'll give you that.

Speaker 2 Tell me what happened seven and a half years ago that you were like, I went to.

Speaker 24 I was a first-time home buyer. So

Speaker 24 longtime listeners might remember that back in 2016, my siblings and I were at your old studio doing our debt-free screams all on the same day.

Speaker 2 Oh my God. I do remember your family.
I'm not kidding, because y'all all did it. Uh-huh.

Speaker 24 So, like, that was me. I was debt-free at that point.
Okay. And I followed the baby steps, did my three, my 3B.

Speaker 24 And by the time I was ready to start the qualifying process for my mortgage and buy the house, I wasn't quite at the like FICO score disappeared.

Speaker 24 So I was in this weird limbo of they wanted to pull it, but then like stuff was falling off, so it didn't look good. So then they had to do the manual underwriting.

Speaker 24 And I had saved up my 10% Dow payment

Speaker 24 and my emergency fund within 14 months. Oh my gosh.
And by 16 months, I had signed the paperwork buying the house.

Speaker 11 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 It just started happening.

Speaker 24 Yes. It just started happening.
And then once I signed the paperwork for the house, I had done my budget before I even bought the house of what can I afford, how much extra could I put on it.

Speaker 24 The bank obviously qualifies you for way more than you really probably want or need or should have.

Speaker 24 And

Speaker 24 it was so great. I worked with an ELP that I had worked with previous realtors.
I thought I had wanted a historic house because my grandmother had a Victorian. I thought that's what I wanted.

Speaker 24 There were two realtors that just completely shut me down, didn't even want to show me historic homes. And the realtor I worked with, who was an ELP,

Speaker 2 one of our Ramsey Pros to programs.

Speaker 24 One of the Ramsey Pros, Rob Parton, he was so great. And he showed me historic houses so that I could see what I was getting into to be like, maybe that's not what I want as my first home.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 There's some work to be done.

Speaker 24 There is some work to be done or what previous owners might have done to change the house that it's not really then what you want because it's not what you were expecting.

Speaker 2 It's interesting, yeah. It looks one way and then you go in and you're like, yeah, this isn't.

Speaker 24 And I got him to understand that if you showed me the floor plan first,

Speaker 24 that might just shut it down right there. We don't even need to go see them.

Speaker 24 So finally, you know, I got off. I didn't want the historic house anymore.
He

Speaker 24 showed me the house I ended up buying, and it's been amazing so far, but it is so important to have the emergency fund in place first

Speaker 24 because

Speaker 24 three years into the house,

Speaker 24 there was a mouse on the first floor, and I saw him come up through the floor vent from the HVAC system.

Speaker 2 Oh, no.

Speaker 24 So that led to me calling an HVAC person to go in the crawl space, and there was work that needed to be done on the HVAC.

Speaker 24 And then while he was down there, he's like, hey, do you know your water heater's leaking?

Speaker 2 And then you got to get that fixed.

Speaker 12 And then you have to get that fixed. And you're a homeowner, so so you're paying for all this.

Speaker 24 It's coming out of your pocket. You're the maintenance person.
You have to pay for that.

Speaker 24 But I had the emergency fund in place, and I still had enough room in my budget that I was able to replace the emergency fund within the next few paychecks.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 24 After those two things came up. And it's, you know, it's just so nice.

Speaker 2 It's such a good point because people want to rush into home ownership, which we want that a part of people's plan, obviously. Like, it's wonderful.

Speaker 2 But when you have no money and you have payments and debt and everything, and then you go buy a house on top of that, it just magnifies so much.

Speaker 2 So, you're like, Yeah, you doing the steps perfectly did exactly what it was supposed to do, where it's supposed to be more of an inconvenience when things come up than this total crisis.

Speaker 24 Yeah, and when I first started, I was doing 12-hour night shifts, and I was- Are you inert? What do you do?

Speaker 24 Um, at the time, I was working on the manufacturing floor for a pharmaceutical company, okay.

Speaker 24 Um, and I was confusing some of my coworkers because they didn't know which rotation I was on because I was doing overtime, okay.

Speaker 24 And then

Speaker 24 COVID happened, and that kind of burnt me out because, as an essential employee, you had to work no matter what.

Speaker 24 And then, if other people were out because of the COVID protocol, you know, other people had to fill in or there was extra work that you had to get done on your shift.

Speaker 24 And so, finally, in 2022, I got off of night shift and I got off of the floor. So, now I'm an eight-hour Monday through Friday person, which I never thought I would like, but I do.

Speaker 2 Yes, good quality of life there, yes.

Speaker 24 And my salary did drop a little bit when that happened because I lost the shift premium and the overtime and the built-in overtime that I could get.

Speaker 24 But it has been such a nice change. Yes.

Speaker 12 And so glad.

Speaker 24 And there were other compensations of

Speaker 24 my bonus compensation went up, my stock compensation went up.

Speaker 2 So good.

Speaker 24 And that was one of the things I did was the company gave a stock as part of our compensation.

Speaker 24 And some of my coworkers would look at me like I was crazy every time I cashed it out when it vested. And they're like, what are you doing?

Speaker 24 And I I was like, I have other things I'd rather spend that money on

Speaker 2 than hope that

Speaker 2 it goes up.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 Oh my gosh. Okay, so what was the hardest part during these eight years? Because that's a long time.

Speaker 24 It was a long time. And I think the hardest part was learning the intensity versus intentional.
Yes. Because coming out of Baby Step Two, doing the 3B, going into this, I was still on the intense.

Speaker 24 And I was like, I don't need to just start enjoying some of this and making it worth it. And so then finally in like 2023, 2024, I was like, okay, I can see the LA at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 24 I can slow down a little bit. I was definitely a nerd and had my AM schedule in a spreadsheet.

Speaker 2 I believe it. And I'm talking to you for about two minutes.
I'm like, Rebecca, she knows.

Speaker 12 Oh, look, there is a lot of things.

Speaker 24 Oh, yeah, there it is. So I actually, that's like the pretty cleaned up version of it.

Speaker 24 As I was doing it, I had it broken down by like years of like, if I put this much extra on it, I would be done by this year, this year, this year, this year. That's amazing.

Speaker 13 Let me jump in.

Speaker 13 If there is a single person

Speaker 13 listening to the news, and here's the reality, buying homes is expensive. It is.
It's hard. It's a madhouse.

Speaker 13 What would you tell that person who just feels hopeless?

Speaker 24 There is hope. You just have to want it bad enough, like I said, to find the way to make it work.

Speaker 24 Don't buy more than you can afford.

Speaker 24 Sometimes you have to go further out than you want to go for your commute. Sometimes you might need to start start in a smaller house than you might originally want and work your way up.

Speaker 24 I was lucky enough that this was back when the market was

Speaker 24 a little bit better. And I have a good salary that, you know, my starter house is actually the house I just want to stay in.

Speaker 24 I don't want to move, but there were other properties available that were smaller and more reasonable that I could have. you know, started as a starter home instead.

Speaker 13 Well, dude, this is, you're amazing.

Speaker 12 Incredible. I'm just crying.
Rebecca.

Speaker 2 So proud of you. Good to see you again.
after all these years. How funny.
I bet your family's so proud.

Speaker 24 They are, yeah.

Speaker 24 My dad kept saying, Has it been paid off yet? I need to brag. I need to brag.

Speaker 12 Has it paid off yet?

Speaker 24 And I was like, And my dad was so great, too, that there were things that I wanted to do project-wise in the house.

Speaker 24 And he's a mechanical engineer and very handy.

Speaker 24 So he would come help with some sweat equity.

Speaker 12 Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 Well, let's do it because it's well worth it. The screen is well worth it.

Speaker 2 Okay, so we have Rebecca from North Carolina, paid off $207,000, which is the mortgage, making $100,000 to $130,000 and did this in seven and a half years. All right, girl, count it down.

Speaker 24 Three, two, one. I'm debt-free.

Speaker 24 It's amazing. So good.

Speaker 24 So good.

Speaker 2 Rebecca, man, that's it. That's the story.
It's what you do.

Speaker 13 You know? That is for you.

Speaker 2 Seven and a half years later, you got no payments in the world.

Speaker 13 Nothing.

Speaker 2 Well done, Rebecca. I know your parents are proud, we're proud of you too.

Speaker 2 Our scripture of the day comes from Philippians 3:17. Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.

Speaker 2 Alice Cooper said, drinking beer is easy, trashing your hotel room is easy, but being a Christian, that's a tough call. That is rebellion.

Speaker 12 Yeah, James.

Speaker 2 Alice Cooper.

Speaker 13 James, stop trashing hotel rooms. Act like a Christian.
It's harder.

Speaker 2 He was a metal. What did you say he was?

Speaker 13 He's one of the legendary metal singers of all time.

Speaker 2 Is he part of a group?

Speaker 13 Alice Cooper. That was the name of the band.
Oh. So that's his name, too.

Speaker 2 I listen to Taylor Swift.

Speaker 12 Dude, Alice Cooper.

Speaker 2 I'm sure I've heard his songs.

Speaker 13 Same as Taylor Swift.

Speaker 2 Just same. Just all in the same, in the same genre.
I'll take it.

Speaker 2 All right, let's go to

Speaker 2 people are just shaking their heads at me. It's fine.

Speaker 13 It's like, I don't know what world you live in sometimes, and it's so. I think we live in the same world.

Speaker 2 I have no music world.

Speaker 13 We sit by each other.

Speaker 2 I have no music. Genuinely.

Speaker 13 It's like. It's like Tail Shows in the Backstreet Boys.

Speaker 2 That's it. I'm going back in February.

Speaker 2 Give me like Pop

Speaker 2 2003, and I am in my prime.

Speaker 12 Or give me, give me that. Okay.
All right.

Speaker 2 All right, let's go to Sarah in Washington, D.C. Hi, Sarah.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 12 Hi,

Speaker 26 I will try to cut to the chase. My ultimate question is, should we rent or buy?

Speaker 27 My husband's active duty.

Speaker 41 Active duty Army.

Speaker 26 We move a lot, but it's never been overseas.

Speaker 27 We've just found out we have an opportunity that a sliver of a chance that we might

Speaker 27 need to go overseas.

Speaker 27 It would be in Belgium.

Speaker 29 It would be for NATO.

Speaker 26 So usually in that case, we would consider living on post, but there is no post there. It would be, we would have to live in the community.

Speaker 26 We have rented houses.

Speaker 27 We've been married since 2020. So about five years we have moved eight times in that course of action.

Speaker 12 Wow.

Speaker 6 We've been spooked a couple of times.

Speaker 26 The first house we rented, we were in Missouri. We were paying rent on time, never late.

Speaker 27 We got an eviction notice in the mailbox one day.

Speaker 15 The homeowner was not paying the mortgage.

Speaker 26 We were paying them rent and they weren't paying the mortgage.

Speaker 2 Oh, geez.

Speaker 27 that was the first time.

Speaker 26 And then we've moved a couple of times since then while we were in North Carolina.

Speaker 6 We liked the house we were in.

Speaker 26 I was pregnant with

Speaker 35 our daughter, our second child.

Speaker 26 And we signed a lease to stay in the house.

Speaker 27 And then two months later, into the lease, the owner decided to sell.

Speaker 11 So we are a little bit more.

Speaker 12 Yeah, you've been burned. That's what it's feeling likely.

Speaker 13 We took a call earlier from a veteran's wife who they had bought a house and they were settled in.

Speaker 13 and then they got transferred to another part of the state and they've been sitting on that house for months and paying two more

Speaker 2 mortgages a crazy rent and a mortgage so as much as y'all have been burned in the past which i hate it's still the it's still the better financial move for you guys especially if you're going to be overseas and you're not going to you know be there long term probably right

Speaker 26 yeah he has seven years before he's up for retirement to the 20 year mark and you guys still have been moving

Speaker 11 multiple times I mean,

Speaker 2 yeah. So I would not, Sarah, just because,

Speaker 2 and especially overseas, I would just rent because, you know, number one, you don't know when you guys would be, you know, transferred out.

Speaker 2 And also, you don't even know what part of the city-ish you would even want to be in. Because do you guys have, do you guys have kids, little kids?

Speaker 15 Yeah, four and two.

Speaker 2 Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 So I would even want from a, I mean, and I would tell you this, if you were moving to a new city, let alone another country, to know, like, okay, this is like the the area I want to be for grocery shopping and for the kids and school.

Speaker 2 And I don't know, all the things that life is, you know, you could get stuck in a really crappy situation, a crappy side of town that you're like, no, we do all of our life over here and we moved over here.

Speaker 2 We didn't know. So, from a location perspective, I wouldn't buy.

Speaker 2 And then also from the investment side, because, again, it's so short term and you need, I mean, at least four to five years for a house to be able to kind of run its mark, you know, after all the closing costs, all the stuff that you pay, and whatever the market's doing at the time, just to actually gain some equity to make it somewhat smart financially.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 no, Sarah, if I were you, I would definitely rent. But thank you guys so much for your service.

Speaker 2 That is a dedication of how much you guys have been moving and sacrificing. So thanks.
Thank you to both of you.

Speaker 13 Well, and like, I think it's an important thing. We talk a lot about

Speaker 13 how grateful we are for the servicemen and women who are enlisted, but for every service person who's enlisted, not for everyone, but for many of them, there's also a spouse that has to pack up and move.

Speaker 13 And there's little kids that have to pack up and move at a moment's notice,

Speaker 13 often at great cost, financial cost. And so it's an honor to talk to everybody.

Speaker 13 What I have found in this situation when somebody's getting moved a lot is

Speaker 13 the temptation to make a decision that feels like I'm putting roots in the ground of some sort.

Speaker 13 And like you mentioned, it wouldn't be wise to go buy a house in a country you don't know anything about and you don't know how long you're going to be there.

Speaker 13 And so what we want to do is to create, where can we create roots in an alternative way other than in a mortgage? And so coming up with concrete family rituals is often a thing you can do.

Speaker 13 We never deviate from Monday mornings or from Sunday nights or from an evening meal together, whatever. But we're going to create home in these regular practices that we never deviate from.

Speaker 13 And we can carry those to all these different rent houses and across the country. This becomes home for us until we can anchor into a geographical location.
Yeah. But

Speaker 13 it's not as rooted as a home. Like, this is our land, but it is something that gives you some anchor point.

Speaker 2 No, that's a good point. Just the consistency

Speaker 2 to have the normal. Yeah.
The normalcy. All right, let's go to Katie in Washington State.
Hi, Katie. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 27 Hi, thank you. Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 How can we help you?

Speaker 9 My husband and I are in disagreement.

Speaker 6 We're in babysitter two, and we have a daughter that just started college, and he kind of thinks we should focus on getting out of debt ourselves before we help her.

Speaker 34 But I just, I'm terrified for her to even touch debt at this point.

Speaker 4 So I don't want her to take out any student loans.

Speaker 34 I'd rather cash flow it.

Speaker 6 And then, but I know that would kind of slow down our debt-free journey. Yeah.

Speaker 13 So you're missing option three.

Speaker 13 All right. And you're not going to like it.
But can I tell it to to you anyway?

Speaker 13 Of course. All right, here's the umbrella principle.

Speaker 13 Whenever you feel like you're forced into an either-or decision, that's when people make bad choices or choices that I don't say bad, but they're not helpful.

Speaker 13 It's when people get themselves in trouble. And so, whenever I feel like I have an either-or

Speaker 13 decision to make,

Speaker 13 then I always want to force myself into a practice of putting four or five imaginary variables on the table that prove to me that I don't have to do this one or this one.

Speaker 13 So you've backed yourself into a corner, which is either our daughter takes out debt and falls right in the same trap we're trying to get out of, or

Speaker 13 we continue treading water so that she can go to college. Option three is

Speaker 13 y'all sit down and have a honest, direct, loving conversation that is

Speaker 13 We are not in any way going to support you taking on debt. Look at us.

Speaker 13 We're living that reality right now.

Speaker 13 And we don't have the money. And so we're going to be in Washington State and we're going to, I'm making this up.

Speaker 13 I don't know if they got it, but you're going to participate at least in your freshman year.

Speaker 2 Free community college.

Speaker 13 And the free community college. Or you've got to start right now applying for every single solitary scholarship possible.

Speaker 2 And maybe, Katie, how much do you guys, how much debt do you guys have left?

Speaker 6 We have about $150,000.

Speaker 2 Have consumer debt, or does that include the mortgage?

Speaker 6 That's just consumer debt. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, yeah. So I, I mean, I'm a little bit more on your husband's team that you guys

Speaker 2 clean this up in. And for her sake, like you said, still talking to her and having that conversation, but where can she go to school that's really inexpensive, which may mean changing, right?

Speaker 2 She may be in the middle of a semester somewhere.

Speaker 13 Is she in school or is she a senior?

Speaker 10 She's currently in school.

Speaker 6 She's a freshman in college this year. We paid for her first semester and we're getting ready to pay for the second one.

Speaker 13 Okay, so I've worked in colleges for years. Every semester, parents had this hard conversation with their kids, which was, We can't afford this past this year, and we're sorry, and we're heartbroken.

Speaker 13 Here's the truth.

Speaker 2 We're going to change it, yes. And that's some big-time decisions, and it takes a lot of maturity, but it's the wisest path, Katie.
All right, John, great show.

Speaker 2 Always fun hosting with you, everyone in the booth. Thank you.
And remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.