The Ramsey Show - App - $100,000 Isn't As Much As It Used To Be (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thanks for joining us, America. We're so glad you're here. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jade Walshaw Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Sula is on the line in Hartford, Connecticut. Hey, Sula, what's up? Hey, how's it going? First of all, thanks so much for the work that you do. I've been following Ramsey Solutions for a while now and subscribe to the YouTube channel,

and I'm really, really happy with, you know, the results that I've seen following what you guys are putting out. So thanks again for what you do. Well, thank you. And I think I butchered your name. Pronounce it for me. It's Salah. Salah it's salah salah salah okay i'll get it right sorry about that okay what's up tell me what's going on all right so um some background i'm 22 years old i graduated college um i got married a year ago or yeah about a year ago. And I've got a baby on the way, which has been kind of the driving factor in getting my affairs in order. Wonderful. Yeah.

So my big thing is I know that I make definitely gross over $100,000 a year, but I'm just struggling with, you know, just balancing everything. I feel like somehow, some way the money's not stretching the way it should. You know, I come from a family who definitely didn't make that much money and somehow things felt different. So I always thought six figures would be that big number, but it's just not what it's not what I thought it would be. It's not as much as it used to be. Is it just you working or does your wife work as well? My wife was working, but we agreed that once we have a child that she would be a primary homemaker. And so she's not working now. Okay. So tell me a little bit more about your debt to where you're feeling like this $100K isn't what it used to be. Okay. So the primary debt that I had when I first started getting into credit cards,

I would just get a 0% interest and then flip it onto a bet with a 0% intro offer for a balance transfer. And I did that about three times. So how much credit card debt do you have? So yeah, now I'm sitting at about $6,000 in outstanding debt. That doesn't include the month-to-month cards that I'm paying, but those are almost paid down to zero, probably like $1,000 between the three or four cards. I pay those fully month-to-month, but the two that are in 0% interest, they end in March and they're about $6,000. What's the total amount of the debt? All the balances combined?

Probably $9,500, I believe. Okay. What else do you have? I have $5,500 in student loans that, of course, just started being due for repayment. And my wife also has about $10,000 in student loans. Okay. How much on your cars? No cars we i'm a car guy so we own our cars outright what's your mortgage no mortgage i rent so wait a second how much is your rent 1500 a month okay and how long

how long ago did you start trying to follow our stuff, a month or two? It's been like three months, but I mean, I didn't really have much income to go off of. Initially, I started, I'm an Uber driver. I have a full-time job with my degree in, effectively, in IT. And I also started Uber driving, and I started kind of kicking that into high gear to try to get these credit cards paid off and that's been my avenue. So you're just getting started and you've not really gotten the budget dialed in yet? No. That's really all this is because I'm looking at a guy who makes $100,000 a year. You got $25,000 of student loan debt or of debt, period.

Actually less than that so i don't think it's a lot of debt but i don't think it's the big fire and exploding thing that you think it is in your head i think that if you guys get on a simple budget and you live on eighty thousand dollars instead of a hundred thousand dollars you're knocking this debt out super fast that's that's if you just okay we're gonna we're gonna cut back but if you really got crazy you'd knock this out very quickly yeah beans and rice rice and beans a detailed written budget on the every dollar app you and your wife agree that we are doing nothing except eat and diapers and electricity and pay rent.

That's it. Nothing. We're doing nothing until we get this paid off. And $2,000 a month and you are free in one year. Yeah. You guys are newly married. You got a baby on the way. You guys have been spending a lot.

That's what I'm seeing here. Well, and I'll add to this. I'll take up for you just a little bit. You live in a very high tax, high cost high-cost-of-living town. That's also true. Connecticut is the highest-taxed state in the Union, and Hartford is a beautiful town, very expensive. Agreed?

Yeah, that's kind of my big thing. I know it's $100 gross, but, I mean, after taxes, it's definitely not a hundred. No, I know. I know it's not. I know it's not, but you can do this. You can still live on. Even in spite of that, you can do this. Okay. This is doable in New York City. It's doable in LA. And so it's doable in Hartford. And thankfully you have a good rent situation too so that's good so i think the thing is that the piece that'll come to this is you and your wife are in agreement that for a short period of time we're going to live like no one else so that later we can live and give like no one else including super big time take care of this baby and so you have a new reason to delay pleasure, and that's adults devise a plan and follow it,

and children do what feels good. You're going to do great. So we're going to give you a gift to say congratulations on a new baby and help you get started on all this, and we appreciate you following us on YouTube. And the gift is we want you and your wife to go through Financial Peace University and get signed up in the EveryDollar app, the world's best budgeting app. And it'll break every one of your paychecks down for you.

It'll show you how to use the baby steps exactly. And Financial Peace University will teach you the things you should have been taught about money but weren't taught. The things we all should have been taught about money but we weren't taught. And so we're going to give you every bit of that, and it's completely free. You hang on. Austin will pick up, and we'll get you signed up for that. Jade, one of the things we saw with the EveryDollar app, you've been doing some of these EveryDollar webinars,

is that showing people how to do the budget. By the way, you can sign up for those if you just go to everydollar.com slash budgeting, and Jade will be doing those, and Rachel Cruz and George Campbell as well. Anyway, one of the things we're finding is we've always said to everydollar.com slash budgeting and jade will jade will be doing those and rachel cruz and george camel as well um anyway one of the things we're finding is is we've always said it feel like you get a raise when you're on a budget yes but we've actually found a piece of research that they said you it literally is 10 to 15 percent a year yeah well most people are finding 332 extra that's just money that they were piddling away at Target, groceries. They're able to find

that money. So when you happen to your money, instead of the lack of money happening to you, the efficiency increases. Yeah, you get a raise. And it'll feel like you got a raise. And then you don't use that raise to go buy a new car. That's what most people do. Most people get a $232 raise and go take out a $400 car payment to celebrate. No, no, no, no, no. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy.

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slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Jade Walshaw, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Well, the stock market's been rough lately. It's been up, it's been down, and it's basically about where it was a year ago. But it was a wild ride to get to even. The facts are, if you invest $200 a month from age 25 to age 65, you'll have between a million and

$2 million. No, that's not too good to be true. That's based on the long-term average return of the S&P 500. Now, if you're not 25, well, that's okay. You can still get started. A huge predictor of investing success is that you actually invest. So get a pro in your corner to help you get started. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash SmartVestor.

Our SmartVestor pros are people that have the heart of a teacher, do things the way that we teach around here. They don't work for us, but we recommend them. They'll drop down a list of the the smart vestor pros in your area you can meet with all the different ones and decide which one you want which one you uh match up with the best you pick ramsey solutions.com smart vestor they'll guide you through the ups and the downs of the market louise is in new y City. Hi, Louise. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello, Dave. Thank you very much for taking my call. Boy, I sure need your

advice. We'll try. How can we help? Okay. Well, let's just say in the past, I'm 68 years old, and right now in the past, my investments, anything I ever did was, let's just say it would make you cringe as far as money goes. However, at this age in my life, I'm about three years from retirement. I mean, I can retire now. I'm working. I have social security and a small pension. I'm taking all at once. The question I have is this. I have a small mortgage on my house and a car that I'm leasing. Those are really the only debts that I have right now. And in my bank account, let's just say 125. I want to pay off the house and then start putting that money into like the 401k for these next three years. But people are like every time when they see money around here, it's like, no, no, no, I can invest in this, I can invest in that.

So I'm not too sure what I should do. Should I just wait till I retire, then pay off my house? Why do you want to wait till retirement to be free? The question is, and here's the other thing that maybe I'm just old school, don't know really honestly, ignorance. I worry about the income that I am having coming in right now, working full time, collecting Social Security, and a small pension all at once, putting money in the bank. Then I won't have anything to claim, just me.

On your taxes? Yes, on anything. I mean, does that matter? So then I would have to really make sure so that I am not paying extra. I would have to really sit down with some good... You're not claiming anything now. You're not itemizing. You're taking standard deduction now, aren't you?

I believe so. Yeah, I think you are. You have a small mortgage and a car lease that's not deductible. The mortgage interest is. What's the balance on your mortgage? Right now it's $73,000. And what's your interest rate? 4.2.

Okay. So 4 times 7, so $2,800 is your annual interest. You're not claiming that. That's not enough. Your standard deduction is probably $15,000 or $18,000. You're taking standard deduction. So you get no tax benefit whatsoever from this house mortgage. Okay.

And you certainly don't from the... And car leases aren't deductible. Right, that I know. So by paying this off and then mining. You just don't give the bank $3,000 a year in interest, which would be kind of nice. Oh, definitely, definitely. How much is in your savings? How much is in your account?

How much money you got? You said you had $100? How much? $125. Right now I have $100 and $125. Pay off your mortgage and your car today. All right, all right. How's that? Wait a minute. Breathe that in in what's it feel like to have no payments oh it sounds good yeah now what are we going to do we're rich now

because you got all your income to start investing okay that's the thing though with investment because everybody i meet wants to take the money and put it here put it there put it lock it up for three years why are you wanting to meet with people like that? I don't know, because that's who I seem to run into when I go to my bank. Well, just keep running. You know, every time they see my money, they want it. Yeah, just bounce on that. You need to get online and get, go to Ramsey Solutions and find one of our SmartVestor Pros,

so that once you've gotten all of this paid off and you're working full-time, you're going to invest 15% or more because now you got your money freed up and you can start really packing away on your retirement. And as you know, what are you working two more years? At least two more years. I'm going to be going to Bible school. So then, you know, Paris Bible. So I just want to be able to, when I do that, well, I'm going to do it part-time, and then eventually my second year I'll be full-time. Get a SmartVestor Pro in your corner and don't do what they say. Learn from them and do what you say.

Nobody gets to tell you what to do with your money. Not even me. And I'm good at it. But not even me. You get to decide. you get to decide you get to decide i'm teaching today and i'm giving you an opinion of what i would do if i woke up in your shoes i'd be debt free by the end of the day i pay off that car call the lease company find out what it takes to pay it off and be done with it call the mortgage company find out what it takes to pay it off and be done with

it and then i would take the fact that i have no car payment and no house payment, and I would load up a bunch of mutual funds and build me up some money. So when I go to Bible school, I got a little pad. And never lease a car again. Ever. Ever. You don't need to borrow money ever again. That's right.

You're now rich people. Kay is with us. Kay is in St. Louis. Hi, Kay. How are you? I am certainly blessed. Good. That's the reason for my call.

Ah, cool. What's up? Well, my family believes in generational wealth, and based on their amazing decisions, I have been blessed to get incoming over a million dollars. Wow. Whoa. Yes. Sheesh.

I knew these people existed, but I've never met one. Way to go. That's awesome. Who was it, mom and dad or grandparents? Grandma was 94, and she passed away peacefully and was ready to go to heaven. Wow. And it turned out she had been saving and properties were sold. Wow.

That's something. I can't even hardly imagine. How can we help you so the only that i have is my mortgage that's automatically going to go away good um what's it how much is it like a hundred thousand dollars good okay so now we got 900 okay well it's going to be more than that that's at least what it is as of now, but there's other things coming in. So in excess of a million. So I don't want to do anything big with it. I can't obviously put it all in one account. It's over 250. So I guess my question is, what do I do with this for a year until I can actually absorb this and sit down and take the time like um high yield savings account yeah i'd pop it in some high

i'd pop it in some high yields and some different banks okay so you're not over the 250 are you married yes okay well you can put oh you can put 500 in one bank right if you got both names on it so yeah and the um yeah if you want to do that and just let it sit there for six months and then study and read and listen and learn and think. Yeah. And study and read and listen and learn and think. And get some people in your corner that have the heart of a teacher. Again, like we were just telling the last caller, the SmartVestor pros. Yeah.

I'm just, I'm like you. I'm blown away by this. I think it's really exciting. And I agree with Dave. You don't need to make any quick movements. You've got time to think about this. And I like what he said about listening and learning, because here's the thing, at some point, you are going to make a move with this money. And you are going to get with an investment pro. And you want to be able to understand what they're saying. You want to have, be able to invert your say on it and say, this is what I'd like to do and have those conversations and know exactly what's going on. And until you know exactly what's going on, don't do anything. Yep. Yeah, just take your time.

And so I end up with my investments, Kay, in real estate that I pay cash for and in mutual funds that I understand. And both of those things, you probably got a learning curve on, and then you can decide if that's right for you. But that's all I do. Mine's very, very simple. And I ended up with a lot in both of those categories. This is The Ramsey Show. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. All right, so I was born and raised in Texas, and I love the myth of the lone cowboy. You know, the guy who doesn't need anyone or anything. It's a fun story, and it's a lie. In our self-obsessed society, we're obsessed about our own diets, our own workout routines, our own jobs, our own social media feeds, everything.

It's easy to forget that no one can do life alone. And I don't care if you're an introvert, an extrovert, or whatever you want to call yourself, we all have to have a community and a support system to do life with. It's time to shift the focus from doing it all by ourselves to knowing that we can only be well and whole when we ask for help. Therapy can be a great source of help and support for any area of your life. And if you're thinking about starting therapy, try BetterHelp. BetterHelp is 100% online therapy, so it can fit with your schedule. To get started, just fill out a short online survey to get matched with a licensed therapist. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch

therapists at any time for no extra cost. This month, start to build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash Ramsey Radio to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P, dot com slash Ramsey Radio. Jade Walsh, all Ramsey personality is my co-host hey if you're out running around america and you're in the nashville area just south of nashville is a wonderful town called franklin tennessee civil war era square that you can walk around and enjoy and one exit south of there you'll find the ramsey headquarters which includes includes a lobby and free homemade chocolate chip cookies and coffee. Come in and visit.

We do the show on the glass every day from 1 to 4 Central Time. And so you can come in and watch this happen every single day. And part of what happens in the lobby is usually 50 to a couple hundred people sitting around. And part of what happens in the lobby is also we have this little thing called the debt-free stage, and standing on it are Ivy and John. Hey, guys. How are you? Good.

Good. Love having you guys here. Where do you live? Appleton, Wisconsin. Appleton, Wisconsin. Awesomeness. And how much debt have you guys paid off? $347,000, $356,000.

Wow. Boom! Wow, wow. Get it, Avi. I love it. Well done. Well done. How long did this take? 74 months. 74 months. Yep. And your range of income during that time? Anywhere from $80,000 to $180,000. Cool. And what do y'all do for a living? I'm a registered nurse. I'm a plumber. Very good. Two great careers well done very good stuff always in demand both of you yeah yeah never without work for sure no yeah whether you want to do it very good so i'm gonna guess and say in appleton wisconsin on 74 months and 347 you paid off your house yes yes baby step seven boom what's this house worth with this market i don't know i mean guess just roughly probably 300 i'd say 300 000

why did you owe 347 on it it wasn't just the house oh that was oh you paid a bunch of stuff everything this is what we paid off to get so you paid off a bunch of stuff. This was everything. Everything. This is what we paid off to get those debts. So you live in a $300,000 house. It's paid for. Yes. And you paid off what other kind of debt? Well, so I started back in 2012.

I had all of the debt. I had the student loans, the car payment, the credit cards. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis back in 2004, so medical debt. And then I had a very short marriage in which I paid a lot of money, so divorce debt. Later that year, I was kind of wondering what I should do financially wise. And in the bulletin at church was an advertisement for your class. There you so i didn't know how i was going to pay for your class when did john come along in this couple years later i was hoping he was in the financial peace class just waiting on you we took it together again again okay all right i started

working here it's romantic i'm not sure but yeah well it's something no I'm not sure. It's something. No, I started doing it. I met John later that year, actually. We got married in 2014. Excellent. But we didn't do our finances together. Uh-oh. How long before you did that?

Two years. Okay. Two years. This was a journey. This was a journey. So in 2016 is when we started with the gazelle intensity. I'll let you, I'll let John tell us. Well, I have a question. Yeah, sure.

I want to know what happened to make you guys get on the same page. I mean, two years of doing your finances separate. Then what pushed you together? Well, one, I had my own business for 10 years before, roughly 10 years before I sold the tools and the truck um but i guess it came to he wanted to buy a brand new work truck and it scared me got it at the time it was going to be a sixty thousand dollar truck probably much more than that now um but we kind of kept the business and the personal stuff separate and the whole idea of a car payment a truck payment on a business where he was his only employee scared me so you're like

i gotta be able to control this a little bit so i said before we buy a truck can we go take financial peace university again because you're kind of hard to explain to people you flunked yeah okay i got it no i know you said again did he i never took it oh that was your first one that was my first okay so it wasn't again for him i got no but i wanted him to experience the whole experience so you knew i could talk him out of it right and you did yes that's pretty much what happened it's all good it was please don't buy a truck till you talk to dave oh that ended that i think it was a trick john

all right so very cool now you're 100 free yes now obviously you're doing really well with the MS. Yeah. I actually found out that a lot of it, the really expensive stuff, the drugs doesn't work for me. So diet and exercise. And stress. Well, no more money stress. There you go. That's a big deal. I've got a good friend that has been dealing with it for about 20 years, and they keep

her stress level down and her fatigue keep her from getting fatigued and she does great yeah and and is doing no drugs yep yeah but i mean it's different for different patients i understand i'm not medical you are but but um i mean you're obviously doing great congratulations i'm proud for you very cool guys very cool congratulate has a feel to be a hundred percent free 11 years into marriage awesome really good no debt of any kind yeah it's weird so rich unbelievable how much is in your uh nest egg already oh you missed that part of the story john will tell you that part of the story okay

all right your retirement what you did with your business. A mistake way back. Yeah. So I worked for a company as a plumber, and then when I started my business, things were financially not that great. I ended up trading or... You cashed it in.

Cashed it in, which I learned I wasn't supposed to be doing that. But now we're doing really good. Yeah yeah we're playing catch up so where are you now what's your nest egg now between the two of you all right five hundred thousand there you go so you're almost millionaire yeah yeah we're getting there baby step millionaires very good i'm probably we just look at it as where could we be no it's a journey no no i mean i i could have been a slumlord i could have kept a bunch of lower income real estate aid that i had and it's all gone and i went bankrupt i could be there thank god i'm not you know i mean life is you could be a lot of places but now you guys you're together you got

a great marriage you're smiling you're fun you have a paid for house and you're almost millionaires and you're still young pups well done thanks very well done i'm proud of you good good work wow very cool yeah love i love to hear it okay what do you tell people when somebody asks and they say okay how'd you do that what do you tell them the key to getting out of debt and building wealth is you have to talk to the other person about money i mean we tried that the first couple years of our marriage and it didn't work um there's some pretty stressful conversations that are had you have to have them yes uh yeah you buy a truck i'm gonna kill you oh yeah that one well not quite that you would never say something like that. Pretty close.

Just slow down. Pretty much. Yeah, it's really the difficult conversations that you don't want to have, and they're tough. But it's worth going through that, coming out on the other side of that. There's an incredible peace and cleanliness that comes with complete openness complete unity we're dialed in we're doing everything together making decisions together even though sometimes it causes some momentary discomfort the long-term benefits are

unbelievable they're very good yeah so uh i'm so proud of y'all thanks excellent job excellent job you're why we come down here. Very, very cool. Good stuff. All right. It's Ivy and John, Appleton, Wisconsin. Quite the journey. Everything's paid off. Baby Steps 7.

House and everything. Approaching Baby Steps Millionaires status. $347,000 paid off in 74 months, making $82,180. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah!

Yeah! Get it! I like it! Powerful stuff. It's great. Hey, we've got the Live and Give bundle for them that includes the total money makeover book, the Baby Steps Millionaires book, and another Financial Peace University membership. They'll be able to give those things or keep them for themselves.

Everyone who comes and does a debt-free scream gets that. This is the Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 4, 25 and 27 27 look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you mark out a straight path for your feet stay on the path stay on the safe path don't get sidetracked keep your feet from following evil francis bacon said fortitude and the power of fixing attention are two marks of a great mind oh the ability to focus and stick with it wow scott is with us scott's in pensacola florida hey scott how can we help hey uh hey i'm uh wanting to know um about uh bringing my credit score up i haven't

financed anything in 15 years at least or owned a credit card in 15 years at least. I'm 59. My credit score is a zero as of last week. I looked it up, and I have just a little bit of money. I mean, just a couple of thousand dollars in savings. I just went recently unemployed. I'm probably going to be making about $500 a week. Self-employed, my wife makes about $650 a week.

After tax, we have a house that we owe about $50 on. It's worth about $220, $230. It needs some work. I can do all the work. I did remodels for 25 years and I want to get that credit score up so I can buy property eventually. You've done so good for so long without a credit score.

Why can't you just save up and pay cash for the property that you want? Because at this point, you don't want to borrow. Well, I mean, i could do something like owner finance of a house about to fall down do all the work and sweat equity and not have to pay for that enormous labor bill on it um is the one thing i'm wanting to do i'm going to buy some old houses houses and flip houses and find owner finance and with a little money down, you know, the thing. I had an idea of borrowing small loans against my savings and paying them off and getting out of zero. At least I can figure out within a year let's let's let's stop a second okay um you're you're new to this process around ramsey and i appreciate you calling and uh we'd love to

try to help you get ahead so what we have learned scott and what we teach folks is the most powerful wealth building tool you can have is not borrowed money. It is your income and staying out of debt. My credit score, Scott, is zero. I don't have one either. And so because I don't borrow money ever, I don't want those people in my life ever again. Life is too short to let banks speak into my life and own sections of

who i am and so i i'm going to recommend that you don't do flips with borrowed money um the number of people that do flips with borrowed money and are not bankrupt within five years is very small. The vast majority of people who do flips with borrowed money go bankrupt. It's a mythology. Now, can you get into the real estate business? Yeah, but you're probably going to have to improve your career and get your income up. You're not making any money. Well, my idea was to find people who, when I say alone, that would invest in, put up the money, invest in.

You don't need a credit score for that. Yeah. Okay. You need a credit score if you're dealing with some stupid butt bank. Yeah, right. And the only way to get a credit score is borrow money so that you can borrow money why so you can borrow money why so you can borrow money why so it sounds like we're supporting the banks when we keep a credit score open because we are right so i'm going to advise you to do your deals

without going into debt and if you bring in somebody with you like a money player like you're talking about give them a piece of the profits and you don't have any payments with them and you don't have a credit score so let's say you go find a house that is um uh worth uh two hundred thousand dollars but it's all the pieces and you can buy it for a hundred okay right your money your money guy puts up the hundred and puts up some money for materials and you go do all the work and a year later you sell it uh for uh the 200 and you and the money guy split the money but in the meantime you don't have any payments right okay that's an okay deal i don't mind that deal but that's what i'm planning on doing

eventually you don't need a credit score for that what you need is a deal and a money guy that wants to be in a deal okay that's the two things you're missing it's not i need to go borrow a bunch of money so later i have the opportunity to play kissy face with a stupid bank right you don't want to be there man you work too hard to get away from them right yeah and in the meantime while you're doing all that i think you need to get your income up too you're not making any money so let's get your income up you have the opportunity to make a lot more than you're making right now if you poke around out there and there's a different side hustle different thing to do there's no reason you can't do all of it at once uh but don't go be borrowing that hundred thousand dollars from that bank and be making payments for two years while you finish up this rehab that

takes longer than you thought it was going to take and then it takes longer to sell it than you thought it was going to take oh and then you become motivated because the bank's about to foreclose now you become the guy who gives somebody a deal because you're in debt to the bank. This is how that world works. Yeah, these foreclosures eat each other sometimes. So that's what I would do, sir. Thank you for being a new listener. I hope we can continue to serve you.

Chance is in Birmingham. Hey, Chance, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Good afternoon, Dave. How are you? Great. How can we help? I was calling to get some guidance from you. I've been following you for years, and you've helped me tremendously.

I want to personally thank you for that. I'm debt-free now. However, I am running into an issue where housing prices and interest rates here in my area, in my county, livable houses are at least in the $200,000 range. And I've been working for a while to set up my down payment. However, even to get a down payment large enough to get a 15-year mortgage with a payment that is at least less than 25% of my bring home seems to be impossible. Sounds like your bring home pay is low. What are you bringing home? My gross is $70,000. I i think after taxes i bring home around 52

okay which that includes health insurance and everything yeah we don't need what we're talking about by take-home pay is not a health insurance deduction it's just simply taxes okay gotcha so a little different take-home pay than you're calculating on, number one. Number two, I'm looking for some ways to increase my income if I'm you, so that you can get into a house that you like. Definitely. See, I've been saving for the last year, which I intend to save for the next few years. I'm just afraid that by the time I have enough saved, interest rates and home profits are just going to continue to increase.

Well, I think what Dave was saying is the anecdote for that. If you can get your income up and you continue to save, you're going to get there eventually. But you've got to do those things combined in order to make that happen. Because here's your other option. Your other option is you stop saving today. And if you stop saving today, then you're never going to make that happen. Because here's your other option. Your other option is you stop saving today. And if you stop saving today, then you're never going to get a house. But if you keep saving and you keep trying to drive your income up,

then don't you think eventually you'll get there? Absolutely. You will. You will. It's just... If interest rates go to 14, you're not in the market anyway. Right. True that.

So you're going to wait on it it come back down at that point so um you know and i was selling real estate in the 80s when they were 14 when they were 17 they came down to 14 and we thought it was a deal but um you know six is really not exactly a hardship compared to history anyway i mean you have to look at your options, and none of them's good. If you stop today, you're not going to have enough money saved. And if you bought a house with what you have today, you're going to be house poor.

And that's not an option for you. Janza, I just want to assure you, you're going to get there. Yeah, you'll get there. You're going to get there. You're going to get there. You're going to make it. Don't let the fear of being priced out of the market

cause you to do something stupid. Be patient. Get there. Buy something you can afford. Move up later. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you following us. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books.

Austin, Ben, James, Zach, and Andrew, the booth dudes, are pulling it off in the booth. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.