The Ramsey Show - App - 5 Things You Need To Know Before Filing Taxes (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 18, 2023

Jade Warshaw & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "Should I keep living with my parents or move out?" 5 things you need to know before filing taxes, from the blog: Tax Season 2023: What You Need to Know (and Looking Ahead to 2024) Selling and building a new home, Saving for fertility treatment, Refinancing a home. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage is taking the places of the BMW as America's status symbol of choice. This is where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money, your life.

I am your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by the illustrious George Camel. Thank you, so kind. George, we got a great show for you guys today. Hey, by the way, if you like this show,

if you've been listening to The Ramsey Show, please, please, please consider liking and subscribing to the show. Man, go on, leave a review. If you're listening on YouTube, if you're going on a podcast provider, please leave a review and consider sharing that with a friend. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. And we would love if you did that. And by the way, if you are a new listener, we're happy to have you. And we actually want to dive deeper. And if you want to dive deeper into the Ramsey baby steps, we want you to go to ramseysolutions.com and you can click on the get started button. And from there, we'll help you figure out the best next step on your financial journey based on exactly where you're at today. So head on over there, go to ramseysolutions.com and click that get started button. All right, George, let's get to the phone line. Let's do it. It looks like we've got Emmy from Kansas City.

What you got going on, Emmy? Hi, guys. So I was just calling to see if I could get some advice on what to do considering my current living situation. I've been listening to Dave's advice and everything. I'm 27 years old, and a part of me is like, why am I living with my parents right now? I feel like I'm being irresponsible, blah, blah, blah. I mean, I have been, but I just got out of a bad relationship a couple months ago, and unfortunately, that's kind of a reoccurring thing where I've been basically living with people and getting in relationships that are unhealthy because I can't get control of my financial situation, and I'm just now realizing that.

And so I don't know if I should continue to live with my parents or if I should move out being 27 and everything. Now I don't have anything saved up. But with that being said, the living situation, money is really tight with my parents. And we all are living in a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with my two brothers who are living and sleeping on the living room floor. My dad works from home, and then I also work from home selling health insurance over the phone. And we've got three dogs. Oh, Lord.

Okay, okay, okay. Wow. Can anyone afford to move out? Why is everyone stuck at home with the parents? That's my question. Well, my two brothers are unable to live on their own, so they've continued to live with the parents? That's my question. Well, my two brothers are unable to live on their own, so they've continued to live with my parents, and so they're just doing the best they can, and my mom's health is declining quickly, and she can't get a job,

and my dad's just doing the best he can. So are they relying on you to help pay the bills? No, no, but it has came up in conversation. You know, if are you able to help? And I mean, I know that they have taken me in and helped me so much. And so it's kind of that fine balance. And I, this is my first time I started watching like your guys' show maybe a month ago. And it's the first time that any, like all of this financial advice is like just new to me. I didn't really have that growing up.

Are you working full time from home? Yes. And what are you earning? So I started the job in January and have only been on the phones during the busiest time of year that just ended in December. And however, when I got the job, they said that the average first year agent income was anywhere from 65 to 72k. With that being said, I don't know how much I trust this agency. What have you been making per month? Let's see if you're on track for that. Well, taking into consideration that I sell health insurance and AEP is like some agents, they make their entire annual income during those three months so this is like the most that I've ever made what is it or probably that I will but um what do you say

maybe like 10,000 why didn't I have that number I have all my other numbers prepared for this phone call but I didn't have that number so you made 10,000 in in month000 in one month or was that a... I would say that my average paycheck was like $2,500 and then I made a couple of like $5,000 roughly. Okay. And the $2,500, are you getting that twice per month or is that one time per month you got $2,500? Like, are you on a bi-weekly pay or is it once a month pay? Bi-weekly.

Okay. So if you were making, if one paycheck was 2,500, then let's say the next one, so about 5,000 a month, does that sound about right? Yeah. Okay, cool. How much debt do you have? Well, watching you guys has really humbled me. Total debt, including student loans, would be $54,000. Student loans, that breaks down to $32,900 for student loans. I've got a car that I'm willing to sell.

How much? I have $18,5 still on that car. I bought that car specifically because I can fit a mattress in the back if that kind of tells you where I've, yeah, my mind's been. This is tough. This is tough. I mean, keep going down that list of debt. I want to make sure we can help you before we run out of time student loans car loan anything else a cell phone i have um 440 dollars on that and then uh like credit cards i've been using them but i pay them off every time but that doesn't matter because i'm gonna cut them up eventually cut them up today cut them up today i'm telling you right now this is me getting on you as as big sister this is mama jade you as big sister. This is Mama Jade.

You cannot afford to use these credit cards. Cut them up. No excuses. Cut them up tonight. You don't need them. You got a place to live. You got a place to sleep. That's what you were worried about.

Cut up your credit cards. They are not helping you in this situation. All right. So, Emmy, we want to get you. Two thousand credit cards, and I will do that. Well, I've lost one of them, so I don't know where that one is, but I'll cut up the rest. Yes, cut up the rest. We want to get you out of the apartment as soon as you're able financially.

So I would start looking and going, what do I need to make? Do I need to go get a roommate? Can I go find a responsible female? Maybe it's a friend or a friend of a friend and vet them so that you can cut the amount of rent you're paying down so that we still have margin to tackle this debt. But I want you to break out of this cycle. I feel like you've stopped believing in Emmy and you've resigned yourself to, well, I'm just a person who gets in bad relationships

and I'm just a person who's bad with money. And I have so much faith in you. That's right. And you will crawl out of this and you'll be on the other side within a few years in a totally different place financially. I agree with George. Look, we are going to gift you with a copy of Financial Peace University and Emmy. I want you going through every single class. It's nine lessons. You can work it on your own time. This is going to teach you everything you need to know. In the meantime, you're getting out of your parents' house. All right. You can do this. Get your money saved. Get through Financial Peace

University. And before you know it, you're going to get that debt paid off. We're rooting for you. We believe in you. We know that you can do this. This is The Ramsey Show. សូវាប់ពីបានប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្� all right welcome back to the ramsey show i'm your host jade warshaw joined today by george camel we're taking your calls about life and money but before we do y'all know tax season is coming up everybody Everybody's favorite time of year, George. I just got a little acid reflux when you said that. I need some tums. Favorite time of year is an overstatement by far, but we want to make sure that you guys are ready and we have five points that we're going to give you to help you guys prepare for it. But because tax does give us indigestion, for some people it is just the most boring thing ever.

But we're going to make it fun. Is that right, George? That's right. We've got some tax trivia that our team has come up with, and we thought it would be fun to quiz you all out there to see if you know individual state tax law, which I'm sure you've been studying up on for a while now. So here's the deal. These are true or false questions.

We're going to throw it out there. If you're watching on YouTube, we've got some fun graphics to go along with it. Here's the first question. Hit me. True or false. In Kansas, riding a balloon that is tethered to the ground is subject to the amusement tax. True or false? I feel like we need to play the Jeopardy music.

That one's weird enough that it feels true. I'm going to go true on this one. Yeah, I would say true because Kansas folk, you know, I don't know. I'm just saying that. Oh, she was about to throw shade at Kansas folk. I used to live in Kansas, George. I'm a former Kansan. It is true. And here's the law behind it. If it's not tethered, it's considered transportation and that is tax free. Yes. I take my hot air balloon to work. All right. There we go.

Take your hot air balloon to work day. All right, let's see this next one, George. In New Mexico, if you live to be 100, you become tax exempt. Is this true or false? Ooh, that one also feels strange enough to be true. I would think, I would pray that if I'm 100, I ain't paying taxes anymore. I feel like New Mexico rocks that way. Is it true? Let's see.

Boom. If you're not a dependent and you're a resident by december 31st then you are tax-free i love how it's written you're tax-free i love that also i mean if you make it to 100 give throw them a bone you know look if you make it to 100 you don't have to do nothing you don't want to do i'm just saying you're out all right arkansas taxes its residents for getting tattoos or body piercings true or false false? Now, if you're in Arkansas and you've got a tattoo, you know, because you've probably paid this tax. Yeah, it's true. Wow. It's a six percent tax. Six percent tax. Apparently it pays.

Oh, my goodness. It pays to keep that body God gave you in its most natural state. Au naturel. Well, I love this next one. OK, let's talk about a little bit of tax evasion okay did or did not nicholas cage go to court for tax evasion yeah he's got the face for it i think he's evaded some taxes in his day he's a he's a crazy dude i gotta believe that he's done some crazy things yeah are we right yeah it's true now hopefully hopefully he didn't do it maybe he got out of it i don't know my guy needs some help all right who is this leo messi who is an argentinian professional football player oh there he is did he go to court for tax evasion i'm gonna say yes i feel like professional athletes like they're not paying attention to who's handling the money they get a bad rap

is it true it is true yeah wow i bet you are crying all right this next one man i already know that come on dolly parton did she go to court for tax never never that dolly you would never she's a good woman let's see pull it oh false she did not and she maintains her reputation as america's america's sweetheart really absolutely i don't care if you love country music or not everybody loves dolly all right george we gotta get back to the phone. Oh, we don't need to get back to the phone line. We had some fun, but I think we need to give the listeners some real information. Let's do the real deal.

People have been asking, hey, what's going on with taxes this year? What's changed? What do I actually need to know? Can you just give me the facts? Yeah. Well, let's talk about that. We've got five things here. Quick details.

Number one, guys, you can start to file your taxes early. You do not need to wait until April. You can start by the end of January. So get it done early. The filing deadline is April 18th, but you do not need to wait until April 18th. Okay. You don't want to be scrambling and scratching. Now, if you do need to file an extension, the deadline to do that would make your filing deadline October 16th. So make sure to get that in. George, what do we got here? We got the standard deduction. So that increased.

It's $12,950 for single filers and $25,900 for married couples filing jointly. And that's a good thing because that deduces your taxable income, which means you're paying less in taxes. That's right. And partially, you know, thanks to inflation, which income tax brackets also went up in 2022

to account for inflation. They did. And guys, we want to warn you about scams. Watch out for this because you'll get people coming out of the woodwork talking about tax relief, debt consolidation scams. And I want you guys to know you might come home to emails or voicemails.

Text messages or anything. Of people saying that they're the IRS. They are not the IRS. The IRS will only communicate to you through the snail mail. That's right. Not even email. It's only if you get a letter in the mail from the IRS. So if you've got voicemails, if you got anything else like that, it's a scam.

And always check the IRS website for the phone number. If you do get something in the mail, it's a good way to double check. That's right. Don't just call back any old number and start handing website for the phone number. If you do get something in the mail, it's a good way to double check. That's right. Don't just call back any old number and start handing out your social security number. Yeah, you can Google those numbers and it will tell you if it's a scam or not. So that's a great reminder for one of our listeners there. Another one, the IRS was warning people to wait for these 1099-Ks, but that's on pause. So false alarm.

And if you're wondering what the heck the 1099-K is, well, there was a tax code change that would have mandated a declaration on any exchanges over these payment apps like PayPal, Venmo, other cash apps. If it was over 600 bucks in exchanges, they wanted their cut. But they're waiting. They're going to kick that can down the road for another year. So you don't have to worry about that. Which technically they're entitled to the taxes, but I'm just saying. Anyway, smaller refunds.

The IRS warned people to expect smaller tax refunds this year, guys, in 2023. Think about it. We were all used to that 2020 money, you know what I'm saying? But there were no economic impacts, thank goodness, in 2022. So taxpayers will not get an extra stimulus payment in their 2023 tax refund check. So I know that y'all were used to getting that money, but it's not going to feel like that. They had all the expanded tax credits and deductions like the child tax credit, charitable contribution deduction, but now

it's all reverting to the pre-COVID amount. So that's a bummer. That's a good thing. That's tax dollars. All right. Number five, stay away from advanced loans. I cannot say it loud enough. Do not take out a loan for your tax refund. These ads are everywhere and I'm going to call them out by name. Asian Art Block, we see you. We see you, bro.

TurboTax, we see you. We see you. Jackson Hewitt, we see you. We see you. Trying to peddle loans to people for these, we'll get your refund now. We'll give you a loan for it.

And I'm mad about it. Look, you've already loaned your money tax-free and interest-free to the government. All right? Interest-free. You've been loaned your money tax-free and interest-free to the government. All right? Interest-free. You've been giving them your money, every paycheck. And now they want to turn around and offer you a loan for your own money.

Don't fall for it. Don't take the bait. Just wait and get your refund. All right? That's all we need to do. So I want you guys to know that we've got you covered as far as all of the resources that you're going to need for this tax season. Head over to RamseySolutions.com slash taxes. You're going to find everything that you need for this 2023 tax season. All right.

I love it. Man, oh man, oh man. George, let's see. Do we have time to take this call? Let's take a look at it. We got... We can hold. Yeah, we'll hold. Let's see. Bill, what do we got going on in Wichita, Kansas? All right, let's see. Let's get straight to the question. Yeah. All right. I wanted to buy some land and move out of town,

and I can give you my financial stance real fast if you'd like. Sure. Yeah, we got time. So the land selling is for $125,000. I can get 75% of it borrowed for a loan for a 20-year loan. I owe $125,000 on my house. I make $18,000. My wife makes $15,000. Is that an hour?

Yes. Okay. You make $18 an hour. She makes $15,500 an hour? Yes. And the land is 10 acres and has a shop on it that we live in until they build a house later on, five, 10 years. Do you have any debt? Nope, debt-free. Debt-free. How much money do you have in the bank? We've got about nine grand.

And was that going to be your down payment, or is that your emergency fund, or what? So the down payment is equity. I have my house. I only owe $125, and I can sell it for about $180 to $190. Okay. So you'd have about $50 in equity, $45 or so? Yeah, and I would use about $20 to build it to make it livable. Okay.

Well, what is this 20-year loan? That doesn't sound like a conventional. Mm-mm. What kind of loan is that? It's a land loan. Since it's not residential, I can't get a regular mortgage on it. Ah. What's the interest rate on that?

It has all the stuff on the land. It's about 6% to 7% that varies every day. Mm. But it already has tech there, has gas, has water. Internet has everything there. The house was there had burned down. Man. I might pause on this and stack up more cash so that that puts you in a

better financial position in order to pay off this new mortgage. So I'd walk slowly with this and try to get the income up so that you can cover all of the new expenses with this land project. That's right. I agree with what George is saying. We don't want to get into too much and bite off more than what you can chew. This is The Ramsey show this is Jade and I've got George here and guys in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage we We got Daniel and Cody. Guys, it's nice to have you. How are you guys doing? Good. How are you? We're doing well. How are you? We're doing great. Where are you guys from? Sumter, South Carolina. Sumter, South Carolina. So you're in here. You got to do your debt-free scream. How much did you guys pay off? $218, Yep. What kind of debt was it?

Our house. Whoa. Yeah. Hey. What? Yep. I love it. Wow.

How long did that take you guys? 13 months. Wow. There's a story here for sure. Yes. Yes, there is. Because that's godlike. Amazing.

So tell us a story. What was the range of income during that time? How did you guys make this happen in 13 months so um we he's military and we moved to south carolina in the midst of covid and bought a house um he was working i was not so i got my real estate license and we went from 60 000 to 330 000,000. Hey, what? Yeah. Wow. Was that from real estate? Yeah. So you just got your license and then you just crushed it year one. Killed it. You killed the game. I mean, what did you make your first year of real estate? Well, I started in July, so I made 40,000 my first half of the year and then the next year 292. Oh my goodness

my dog that is incredible unbelievable and have you been able to keep that going like have you just yeah yeah oh my goodness he tells me every day if I don't sell a house I can't come home so wow that's the motivation you're doing she's home every night oh my goodness Cody was like the secret hot sauce. She was the secret sauce. And Cody, thank you for your service and sacrifice, man. You guys are an incredible couple. Yes, sir. Man, this is exciting stuff. So like, you know, how did you find out about FPU? How did you get started on this whole journey? Like what made you want to pay off the house? I would say it all started during college. Cody's mom is really big into Dave Ramsey.

So we first learned through her that we needed to get through college debt free, which we both did. And then we both saw how much our house costs and then how much we're going to pay in interest and said, absolutely not. Wow. So it started at that moment. You decided, Daniel, to go like, we're not going to have this debt sitting around. Absolutely. Wow. Seeing how much money we were going to pay that didn't go to anything. I'm still stuck on the fact that you went through college without student loans so you guys are just smart people you guys are smarter than the average bear how old are you two i'm 27 he's 26

oh my goodness wow wow wow i cannot wait please tell me you'll come back when you're when your baby steps millionaires yeah hopefully because it ain't gonna be long i'm nervous it's gonna be like they're gonna come it's gonna be like, they're gonna come back tomorrow and be like, we did it. Yeah, the goal hopefully is by 30 to come back as millionaires. I love that. Incredible.

Wow. So tell me, when you guys were on this journey, Cody, you start doing real estate, you guys are just getting busy. Did anybody, were there any naysayers? Were folks telling you, you don't need to pay off your mortgage? Tell me what that was like.

Yeah, I would say there's tons of people that think like that or, oh, you have such a low interest rate. Why would you pay your house off? What would you say to that? I'd say you're not very intelligent with your money. Get Daniel behind the desk and tell him. I know, right? We knew that he wasn't going to stay and so our and he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do either so we were like how can we not have a bill and then you decide and not have to worry about anything once you once you get out so we actually created our own amortization chart and said okay a month before you get out we're gonna going to have our house paid off. And it was like six, 6,000 extra a month to the principal that we had to pay. Wow. And then we just started, we were like, we kind of have money floating around. We can pay this off quicker. So then

we just started. So you guys realize, Hey, we could have like options if we didn't have a mortgage and the secret sauce is you just paid extra on the principal of the mortgage. People are always trying to come up with a hack. And if you do one extra payment and you guys just said, no, let's just slap an extra $6,000 a month on this thing instead of having lifestyle creeps set in. Because you guys could have spent some money. Oh, yeah.

You could have bought a guy's cars. I think that's what ultimately we learned from this is that discipline is going to get us to wherever we want to go. So if we're able to say no to the short gains, then ultimately we're going to have a lot at the end. Man. So how does that feel? I mean, you made that final mortgage payment. What month did you make the final payment? April of 22. Ooh. So how, I mean, explain, tell the people, cause I think people need to know that this is a real feeling, like something truly happens inside of you. What did it feel like that

first month that you didn't have a mortgage payment and all the income that you were bringing in was just yours i would say honestly felt weird because we didn't have a mortgage payment so we had extra money left over that was great um i would say it's truly freeing knowing that i don't owe anybody anything extra don't owe anybody anything now most people go well you guys aren't enjoying life at all would you say that is untrue have you been living and enjoying the money too we just came back from an eight-day cruise over christmas come on so we're here like shaking this is exciting so if we're not living that i don't really know what these feelings are okay she said if this ain't living i don't know what

is most people are like well yolo fomo i gotta live my life i can't just sit there trying to pay off all this debt like i'll pay it off when he gets paid off 30 years from now or you can live that way after you pay off all your debt okay and you can be baby steps millionaires when you're 30 okay that's what I'm talking about I'm excited well we know the mother-in-law was a big cheerleader who got you guys started on this who are some of your other like who are the people that I mean when when when times got hard you were like I gotta call so-and-so because I need to stay focused how did you guys stay focused we have an awesome church community just our um a group of friends and then we actually had some people um Chris and Maria shout out to them they were great encouragers as well and I would say for me the biggest encourager was Daniel um there were times

where I would come home and be like, I feel like I'm working so hard. And then it's just going to debt, going to debt. And he would just keep encouraging me and tell me like, this is not going to be a long process. And we're kind of being silly thinking that it's going to be a long process. It's going quick. So yeah, he was awesome. I love it. You guys, it was easy from my perspective, just watching her bring in all this money. So I just tell her to keep going. It's a good on each other. It was easy from my perspective just watching her bring in all this money. This is how I keep going. This is a good deal, man. So what are you guys doing now? What's the next goal? Yeah. We

want to own a million dollars before we're 30 so we're saving up right now to purchase rental properties and that's amazing. You're going to crush it with that especially doing it with cash. What's the house worth? Our house is like $270,000, $275,000 going to crush it with that. Especially dealing with cash. Yeah. What's the house worth? Our house, like $270, $275.

I love it. Incredible, incredible. Well, guys, we've got a live and give box for you. That's the next step in your journey. Inside of it, there's a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires. That's for you. And then there's a copy of the Total Money Makeover. That's for you to give away.

Plus one year of FPU. You can pass this forward forward give it to somebody else this information has obviously changed your life and i'm sure you can't wait to share that with somebody else so they can change their life but now it's the time that we've all been waiting for guys all right we've got on the stage right now daniel and cody they have paid off $218,000 in 13 months, making $330,000 income. Guys, let's hear it. A debt-free scream.

Count it down. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! That's how you do it right there. Wow. I'm just like, I don't want to get in their way. Oh, I'm not getting in their way i'm oh i'm not getting in their way i'm certainly not getting in cody's way because she she's on that real estate

train she'll plow me right now goodness gracious that's the way you do it george it is but all the names out there with having the right inputs having the right material the right education the right people in your life yeah and you know what i like is the mother-in-law, the mom came in and said, Hey, this is, you guys need to do this and you need to get on this plan. This is going to change your life. And, and they did it. They took the advice. You know, I think about that scripture that says fools despise wisdom and fools despise discipline, fools despise understanding, but these people, these ain't no fools. These people heard it. They went, they followed what the mother-in-law said and they got on a plan. It changed their life, George.

Well, when you can just swallow your pride and go, hey, my financial plan, it ain't working. I'm going to try this one over here. And what if I could just live a debt-free life? What if I could have a paid for house by the time I'm 26? It's that kind of vision that creates the right habits that actually creates the right results. Exactly. But most people, they're not willing to do what Cody and Daniel did. No, they're not willing to do it. They'd rather sit in their own filth and go, well, I'm just going to sit here and just keep meandering through life, YOLO, FOMO.

And they decided, no, we can really live big time if we're willing to live like no one else right now. Yep. Got to live like no one else now so later you can live and give give like no one else and no one's going to do it for you. Mama can't do it for you. Daddy can't do it for you. It's you changing your mind and you deciding that I can't live like this anymore. I want a better future. I want a better life.

I can have a better life. All you got to do is look at Daniel and Cody. They changed their life. I love doing it, George. This is why we do it. This is The Ramsey Show. All right, we're back. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade.

This is George. We got our scripture in quote of the day. It says this, but you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a royal nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. That's first Peter two nine. And then Prince said this, my favorite, my guy, Prince, despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people. I know that's right, Prince. He came along with it. So George, it's a new year.

It is. And thank you, Lord. And that means you can't be giving up on the goals, George, that you set out to accomplish this year and neither can you guys. And if your main goal was to build those money muscles, but you've only been to the money gym once. Personal attack, Jamie. I'm not trying to, George. I've been twice to the actual gym. But for those listeners out there, if you've only been to that money gym once,

just like everything else, man, it's time to start making progress and stop making excuses, please. I know that it can be hard when you don't have a plan or if you're just starting out, or if you're like my husband and I and you're trying to climb and claw and scratch your way out of four hundred and sixty thousand dollars of debt. It's tough. But let me tell you something. If you want a practical, proven plan to climb out from whatever debt you might be facing, whatever bills, if you want to start building wealth, you need to grab yourself a copy of The Total Money Makeover. Guys, I cannot tell you enough. This book has literally changed our lives. It's literally the reason that I'm sitting here today next to the illustrious George Carmel. This is Dave's bestselling book for a reason. Guys, you will learn the seven baby steps to guide you

through your money journey with real life stories from people. They don't have to struggle from money anymore, guys. These are real life stories because they followed these proven principles as well. And let's be real with you paying off debt, with you building wealth. I can tell you this. It's for you. It's not just for those people out there. It's not just for the people that you see on TV. It's not just for your neighbors, the Joneses building wealth, paying off debt. It is for you, too. So get back on that money treadmill today and order yourself a copy of the Total Money Makeover. You can find it at RamseySolutions.com slash store.

And I tell you right now, you got this. You can do it, America. George, let's get to the phone lines. You can give us a call today at 888-825-5225. And we've got Phil. Phil's on the line here from Grand Rapids, Michigan. How can we help you today, Phil? Hey there, Jade, George.

Thanks for your time. Appreciate it. No problem. How can we help? Well, my wife and I, we're both 32 years old. And for the past eight years now, we've had the goal of starting a family. But we've been faced with the challenges of, frankly, overcoming some unexplained infertility. We're currently halfway through baby step 3A.

Okay, excellent. We feel the urgency to start a family due to our age, of course, although at the same time, we don't want to lose our gazelle intensity and get distracted. So doing some research, we'd really like to be able to cash flow embryo adoption. Where would you put this in the baby steps? And what percentage of income would you dedicate towards it? Well, there's a couple of ways we can look at this. What's your income right now? We have a combined gross income of $100,000. Awesome.

That's good. And where are you at in the emergency fund? How many months would you say you have right now? We're over halfway. We probably have about another four months until it's fully funded. Would you say you have about three months of expenses? Yeah, we have about three months saved up so far. Okay, okay.

As you've priced this out, what's your research telling you that this is going to cost you price-wise? Yeah, for all the research, approximately about $15,000. $15,000. I've heard some higher numbers. So how quickly, let's say you guys stop right now. You've got three months of expenses saved. If you just did nothing but save up for this embryo adoption, how quickly could you save up $15,000, make $100,000? We'd probably be able to do that, beat to the fire, probably six, eight months.

And is that money owed up front? It's due along the way, so it's not all up front. Oh, well, that's great. They come in very large chunks though, normally two to three grand at a time. So I'm wondering if you guys could, you had five grand, could you start the process? And then you get the next five a few months later and the next five a few months later so that you can get started on this. Yeah. Have you guys been investing at all?

We have not. Ever since starting our debt-free journey, we have done zero investing. Okay, so you paused that. Great. Yeah, you know, I think George has a good plan. 15K is a lot of money, but at the same time, I've heard it priced out higher. So I was happy to hear it on the, what I've seen heard as the lower end of the spectrum. So that's good.

If you had six months of savings set aside, I might say you could pull a little from there, but because you only have three months, I really don't want to dwindle your savings anymore because typically, you know, in the case of somebody having a baby, we would say, pause all the baby steps and pile up as much money as you can, you know, to get ready for this big life change.

You know, it's a medical procedure. So there's a lot of things that are associated with it. And we want you to be ready for that. So that's the only reason and a big, a good reason why I would say, hey, in this case, I wouldn't dip into 3A, your baby step or your, I'm sorry, your savings account. However, I think that what George was saying is great. You guys should be able to cash flow this. And I love that it's not this big lump sum that's due at once, but you can kind of, as you get to those different milestones,

pay what the next fee is. How does that sit with you, Phil? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. That was our big thing of just being able to get into a place of our own. And our ultimate goal is having my wife be stay at home. And, you know, so having something we can cash flow is definitely ideal. ratchet down that budget as much as you can. That could help get this first 5,000, let's say, in the next two months to get the process started and create that timeline of, hey, when are the bills going to be due? When are we going to have this money? And if an emergency does pop up, we pause and go, all right, we've got to make sure this is covered. You have three months worth, which should cover you through this process. But I think it's a worthwhile goal to do whatever you can to stack up this money and get the process started. Absolutely. You know, with George, when it

comes to family planning, planning for children, fertility, we always recommend don't forego having a family to get out of debt. Don't forego having a family. I mean, that's a really important thing, but there's a way that you can go through that process and do it the right way. And once you've got the treatment paid for, then we can save up more. We can begin investing for the future. And you guys are 33. You've got a long life ahead of you, and we're wishing you the best on that fertility journey. That can be so, so tough.

Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the call. All right. We've got Alicia in Sacramento, California. What's going on, Alicia? Hi there. Good afternoon. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to refi on my house. I've had some unexpected things come up like a pipe

burst or broke and the repairs are really expensive. It's like about $11,000. But it means like I have no sink and no dishwasher, no laundry. And I have a baby on the way in about like five months. And it's just me. And then also my car broke down and then I had some debt. So I was looking to see if it was good to refi to pay off the debt and to get the repairs done and to like have some emergency funds in time. Yeah. So you're thinking you want to roll the cost of that into a new mortgage? Are you doing a cash out refi? Is that what you do is take out equity?

Yes. Cash out refi. Yeah. We would never suggest to do something like that, Alicia. We want you to pay off your debt using the debt snowball. We would never want you to leverage or put that kind of strain on your mortgage since that's your living situation. And like you said, you've got a baby on the way. What's your income? My income is like, at the lowest, I make $3,200 a month.

At the highest, $4,400 a month. So it's like I'm struggling if I'm at the minimum. I'm trying to work as much overtime as i can um but like i just don't think i would make it in time before she gets here how many more months until she gets here about five months five months yeah so in five months we need to save up and we need to cover this repair asap uh Is the home worth selling right now because of your situation and downsizing? Um, I thought about selling the house. It's just that I don't see any other places to go into.

Well, it may be wise to rent for a while and get back on your feet financially and will become a homeowner later down the road. But right now we've got a storm. We've got a baby on the way as a single mom. There's a lot to be thinking about. That's right. We're going to get you hooked up with Financial Peace University. And as part of that, you're going to have access to some financial coaching, and that's going to help you on your journey on the way to becoming motherhood and to get you set up with your money. Guys, thanks for listening today. This is The

Ramsey Show.