The Ramsey Show - App - Advice on Remodeling Your Home for Better Resale (Hour 1)

Episode Date: April 10, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is Jackie in Boston.

Hey, Jackie, how are you? I'm doing well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I am looking for suggestions on how to ask for a salary increase. I have been in, the first time I've really been in a corporate job for about the past five years, and while I've moved up in positions and gotten increases at that point. I've been in the same position now for about three years and just gotten my annual 1.5%, 2% raises, and I'm really looking for a larger increase. So I'm looking about how to present that to my director.

Okay. Swap shoes with your director for a minute. You're now sitting on the other side of the desk and a lady that's worked on your team for three years with cost-of-living raises only comes into your office, and she's going to ask for a raise. You're leading her. She's valuable to your team. Why would you give her a raise?

What would she say to you if you're sitting there as the director? Under what circumstances are you giving out raises? Right, right. So initially what I thought I could do is maybe go over my portfolio of work over what I've done maybe in the past year or so and present to them the additional workloads that I've taken on as well as support to other departments that I have provided. Now, you're on the other side of the desk.

You're on the other side of the desk. The person comes in, and they're going to show you their portfolio of work. Is that what you want to see? Is that why you're going to give them a raise? Well, yeah. I'd like to see that they're going above and beyond what their normal workload is. Okay. Good.

Good. And that they are an asset to the team. I can tell you as a business owner, there's two or three reasons I would give someone a raise if they came into my office and asked for it. Okay. Number one, we are underpaying them accidentally. We just haven't kept up. We just haven't kept up. The position is worth more than it is being paid. And I would need to see some data points that say that.

Project managers in Boston, you know, PM2s make X. And here's a comp study that says the typical person doing what I do in this area makes, what do you make now as an example? I make $70,000. Okay. And so you do a comp study and you go, here's three different data points uh from compensation studies on the internet that show that uh project managers that do what i do at my level of pm2 pm3 whatever you

are uh you know make 80 000 i'm being paid 70 i i you know i really don't want to leave here i like this place and i just like to be paid market value so one reason is is that i'm not paying market value as the owner or the director and that's an accidental thing i didn't intend to underpay and when you bring it to my attention boom you've gotten a raise okay that would be one reason you would get a raise the second reason you might get a raise is if you show me that you are worth more because you've added value somehow and that could be something like the working extra. It could be you brought in some clients. It could be you closed out on a project three times earlier than the typical project manager,

and you got this thing done and moved on to the next project. I'm making this company a lot of money, and I can prove it to you, and here's the value that I'm bringing. And so, you know, I'd like a raise, right? So generally speaking in a corporate environment, you are paid what you can be replaced for. Right. And if they can replace you cheaper than you are being paid,

your job might be in danger, right? Okay. And vice versa. Yeah, I agree. And vice versa, if they can't buy another person just like you for 80 grand and they're paying you 70 grand, they'll probably get you up close to 80 just to keep you around because they're going to have to go get somebody else and they're going to have to pay them 80.

And that was the first version of that, a comp study. But you don't go in with entitlement and the number of years I've been here and the fact that I breathe air and you owe me money because I'm me and I'm special and you're not and I'm not. And we're only as special in a company setting as the work we get done. That's what adds value. That's what adds value. And that's what I'm worth here on the radio.

If I don't do a good job, I don't make my advertisers money, I get fired by one of them, right? And they leave and go give somebody else their money. So you have to add value and prove it and then that. Now, the only other thing, and sometimes this is difficult for someone in a corporate setting to put a value on, but I teach entrepreneurs and small businesses to put a value on this. If you have been doing this particular job for three or four years, you know the culture, you know how to get things done inside the politics, you know who to go see and pull things off.

If they hired someone new into your role, it might take that person several months, maybe even a year to get up to the speed that you are because you know how to get stuff done there meaning my personal assistant has been with me 17 years to replace patty would be uh she is worth more than than a personal assistant would be that replaced her because of the 15 years of experience and she can read my mind you know and she knows what's going on right so she is more valuable because of that experience than than just the position and i always try to teach young company owners young business people that because they think you know i'm just trying to replace the position and i would never pay

somebody that yeah you would if they get been doing it 10 years because they bring value to the table that is beyond what just the new person coming into that slot would. Sometimes it's harder in corporate America to get people to get a hold of that. So, hey, thanks for the call. Good question. I like having that discussion. Folks, those of you that are having career-type questions, we have the Ramsey personality that is the expert on careers, Ken Coleman. He has a new book coming out in May. We're pre-selling it right now called The Proximity Principle,

a proven strategy to get you in the job you want, the life you want, the proven strategy that will lead to the career you love. That's the actual subtitle. And you can pre-order it. You can hear Ken. He's got a very popular podcast talking to people about how to do stuff like she's talking about a raise or get into the job you want or should I take this job or should I take that job. And he is our guy on that.

And I'll answer your question. I've always got an opinion. I'm an expert on my opinion. But Ken knows a lot more about this stuff and will go uh and probably give you a lot better advice so ken coleman.com he's on sirius xm every day on the ramsey network there you can hear him live answering questions just like me but it's all on career it's all on you know self-employment working for someone else getting in this job you want finding that sweet spot he calls it and uh you want to be sure and check out KenColeman.com and check out the new book and check out his

podcast and radio show. This is the Dave budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees. And if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage, think again. Our voice and data service covers 99% of Americans. And our 4G LTE network provides the fastest internet speeds like more expensive carriers. We operate on the largest GSM network in the U.S. to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime, anywhere.

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Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking in my call. Sure. I just need your advice on something. Okay. I purchased my townhouse 10 years ago when the economy went down for about $300, and now it's probably worth about $800. My question is, I was thinking of either selling it or renting it out versus renting it out,

and I'm trying to move to Southern California where my family is. Our household income is about $120,000, which is below poverty over here. So, I mean, baby step number three, working on, you know, saving. Good. Yeah. So what do you owe on your townhouse? I owe about $220,000. Wow.

Okay. So you'd walk away with $600,000 and be able to use that to buy a property when you move to Southern California? Correct. So I just want to know. I mean, I'm confused. I'd like to just rent it out because rent over here is one bedroom. What's that? I would sell it.

You'd sell it. Okay. Because you use the equity out of it to buy your next property in Southern California. Yeah, and I'll be jumping the baby step number five or six and stuff. Yeah, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that at all. And you've made a good profit on it, and you get out of there. Because let's play it in reverse if you were sitting in southern california in a house you owned

would you borrow money to buy a townhouse in san francisco as a rental no no no and so the only way you end up with this as a rental is by default not by strategy and so no i would sell it take your money and move to Southern California. It never rains in Southern California. So there you go. Alicia is with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Alicia. How are you?

I'm doing well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so I have a quick question. So I would like to move out of my parents' house. Good. I'm 26 years old, and I want to make the move to Nashville,

but my parents are kind of on the fence because they want me to stay at home and continue paying off my debt at a faster pace. So I'm just trying to figure out what would be the best move for me. Okay. How much debt do you have? I have about a little over $50,000 in debt from student loans, car loans, things like that. How much do you owe on your car? I owe $9,323 on my car. So 10 on the car, 40 on student loans. That's correct.

Okay. And what do you do for a living? I'm a claims representative at an insurance company. What would you do if you moved to Nashville? That I am unsure of. I'm looking to continue doing claims representative, but I'm not sure. I don't love it, but it pays well. What are you making?

I make about $46,000 a year. Okay. All right. Well, cost of living in Nashville is less than D.C., without a doubt. So if you've made the same money, you know, obviously you would have to pick up rent and utilities that you don't have now. And so it would reduce your get-out-of-debt plan on that. But $50,000, making, say, $50,000 in Nashville, how long would it take a single lady to pay off $50,000 in debt, making $50,000? Probably a couple of years, you know,

and that's living on beans and rice, and, you know, maybe a little more, between two and three years. If you stay home, how much does it cut back on that? Well, the amount of rent, plus or minus cost of living change, right? And so, you know, $12,000 a year, yeah, that could be substantial towards this. So it's okay to do either one. I find people out on their own when they've not done it with rashness or done it unwisely, tend to grow up more, accelerate faster in their careers

than people who live with their parents. Mathematically, it sounds appealing to live with mom and dad, but there's something that happens to Alicia when you are standing on your own two feet, buying your own groceries and paying your own light bill that causes you to standing on your own two feet buying your own groceries and paying your own light bill, that causes you to accelerate in your development. And I've seen this with my grown kids as they would come home from college, live with us three months,

and then they'd move out on their own. Something changed when they moved out on their own. It was just a different level of whatever. And it's not saying you're inept or something. You're not because you're having this discussion. You're not begging to sit there and do nothing. So I think your mom and dad probably are not quantifying that part of this equation. So I'm going to probably move if I'm you. Okay.

Thank you so much. I've loved listening to you, and I've listened to you my whole life. I didn't accept the principles right at first, but I'm really trying to get out of debt and doing well with that. Well, come on to Nashville. We'd love to see you. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Haley is with us in Chattanooga. Hi, Haley. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm just wondering, my husband and I, we were looking into selling our home.

We just had our son. He is eight weeks old. So eventually we wanted to move due to the school district. But then we had decided, you know, the payment would be too much. We like our payment. We like where we are as of right now. But we are wanting to do some updates to our home. So we were looking into refinancing because it would also get rid of our PMI that we pay, which is $60 a month due to it being an FHA loan. So we were just curious if it would be worth it to take out some of the equity

and go ahead and do those updates that we want to do. No. Okay. You should pay cash for those. We're not going to go further in debt to buy decorating or a new kitchen or whatever. And, yeah, it's very wise to not move for school systems when your child is eight weeks. It's a little premature. And do you think that it would be worth it to put the money into our home to do those updates since we'll eventually be moving?

It can be. Here's your equation. What is your property worth today? What's it worth today? When we talked to the realtor who also, she said she used to do appraising, said about $125,000. Okay. And what is the most expensive home on your street or the three contiguous streets? About $139,900.

Okay. Well, then you wouldn't want to spend more than about $10,000 or $15,000 on your updates because then you would be the most expensive home in the neighborhood in order to break even. Mm-hmm. That make sense? Yes. What kind of updates are we talking about? Mostly just our kitchen. For the most part, everything else is updated, but our kitchen is still pretty much kind of the original.

What would you think the budget would be to fix up the kitchen? I would say at most $6,000. I probably would do that for two reasons one is it's going to increase your enjoyment of the home uh with a new baby and you're you know you're planning on staying there a few more years before you make the move into the other school system and then two is a kitchen is a uh a real hold back on a property selling well it's um people buy kitchens um you know they don't buy hallways they buy kitchens with a house attached the places they know they buy cool rec rooms or you know family rooms or whatever nice backyards and there happens to be a house attached so

if you've got a bummer kitchen it pretty much shuts down the discussion pretty quickly when they walk into your house looking at it. And especially if you're in an old enough neighborhood where a lot of the kitchens have been renovated that you'd be competing with. So, yeah, I'd do that. I think that's a good move. See, what we're doing is we're not overbuilding the neighborhood. If you told me I want to do a $60,000 addition, I would be going, no. Because it'd be $120,000 plus $60,000, it'd be 120 plus 60 be 180 nobody looks

at 180 000 homes around you there's not any so you would have overbuilt the neighborhood you're gonna lose your butt so you'd never do 60 but six puts you in the 130 you know range and you got one of the nicer houses in the neighborhood now and you can you can get out of it you're not going to get killed you always want to be middle to the bottom of the neighborhood if you can be. Top of the neighborhood at the most, but never the top of the neighborhood. Never, ever do that. It's not going to appreciate. You can't get your money out because people looking for a house with that price don't drive down that street.

They drive down a different street. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Randy and Amanda are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Great, how are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. So, where do you all live? We live just a little bit north of Louisville, Kentucky.

Okay, welcome. Good to have you. Thank you. And all the way down here to do a debt-free scream. That's correct. And get a warm cookie. There you go. Yeah.ville, Kentucky. Okay, welcome. Good to have you. Thank you. And all the way down here to do a debt-free scream. That's correct. And get a warm cookie. There you go. Yeah.

That too. I may get one of those at the break. So how much have you paid off? We have paid off $165,000 in 21 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? We started off $110,000 and went all the way up to $200,000. Wow.

How did you double your income? Well, when we started our debt-free journey, I decided not to say no to overtime, so I did all the overtime I could. And Randy here, he's a stay-at-home dad. He picked up a job at the local post office delivering mail. Wow. Okay. So both of you went to work is what it amounts to.

So he is at the post office and at home. What do you do? I am a pharmacist. Oh, okay. Yeah. That gives you all kinds of upside. Yeah. Good for you.

Wow. So I'm going to guess and say 165 was a lot of pharmacy school. That is correct. And how much other debt was there? What other kind of debts? We had a little bit of credit card, not much, maybe less than $2,000, an $8,000 lawnmower. There you go, of course. Yes, and the rest of it was student loans. Ah, okay, cool. So how long have you been out of pharmacy school? About five years. So after three years of being

out, you looked up and something lit the fuse. what happened to you two yes uh we had no money at the end of our two weeks and uh our student loan payments were more than our mortgage and we just didn't know where this money was going to yeah you did down the hole that's true yeah for real yeah okay so but, but what prompted you to change? Well, I get it. Okay, things are tight. So then one night we what? Had a talk or what?

I mean, what happened? Yeah, we were just fed up with being broke and having such a large shovel but having nothing to show for it. We have a four-year-old daughter. So at the time she was two. And we wanted to do something better for her and change our family tree right okay cool so what'd you do so um my father has been giving me dave ramsey books every year for christmas for like the last six years i'm pretty sure we have all of them we have a book in every room of the house yes Yes. And some in the backseat of the car. True.

We've re-gifted them and we still can't get rid of them. We have. So we picked up one of the books, started reading it. And then not long after that, we saw an advertisement for FPU at a local church. And so we attended that. And since then, we've attended F fpu twice but not because we needed it twice um we took back my sister and her husband and they actually um are debt free and they were debt free before we were wow so yes cool so it spread all through the family then it did yes

and and dad's just sitting back smiling going i tried to get you to read the book yes yeah he didn't he didn't push us, but it worked. Yeah. He was excited about it, I'm sure. Yes. I'm sure he was cheering you on. Yes. Well, that's a lot of money to pay off in 21 months. I mean, you guys have been on beans and rice.

Yes. You made good money, and you worked your butts off, but I mean, you have not done anything except pay debt. Yes. I don't even think we were on beans, just rice. Just rice. Yes. Oh, man. Well, congratulations, just rice. Just rice. Yes. Oh, man.

Well, congratulations, you all. Yes, thank you. What do you tell people now that you've done FPU twice and you paid off $165,000 in 21 months? What's the secret to getting out of debt? Just stay organized. Make sure you do your budget. And I think a big thing for us was balancing the checkbook and seeing where this money was going. And then the accountability of going to Financial Peace University or having somebody to hold you accountable.

FPU really helped me a lot because I don't hold myself accountable. But when you sit at the table with other people who have done it and are doing it and you share your mistakes and they share theirs theirs it really helps you realize what's going on well yeah it normalizes that we've all goofed up yeah and we don't have to stay there correct you know we have to stay in the goof up land you're right that's a good point randy very good very good yeah it does do that it's a different kind of accountability it's not like somebody up in your grill necessarily yes it can be but it's more like just positive peer pressure yes that's great yeah very good so who were your biggest cheerleaders while you were doing this um obviously

my dad he's a huge cheerleader and then a lot of my co-workers were big cheerleaders too we did have the naysayers but sure um since then those people have come back and they're asking us what we did yeah how you like me now yeah yeah i'm being paid off 165 000 yeah how'd you do that yes worked a lot a lot both of us did yes did you sell anything big um nothing super huge we did sell a white truck and it took us a while to sell it um it was a snowplow truck and it didn't snow last year so it was one of those boy toys that we had around yeah okay yes so we sold that and we had a few yard sales but nothing too crazy okay the lawnmower survived it did yes yes good i love it that's fun good for you guys yes very well done proud of you

thank you i know your dad is yes i know your financial peace class is proud of you too yes we've got a copy of chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaires book for you. Hopefully, that's one you don't have yet. Not yet. And that's because that's what you're going to be. That's our next chapter in your story, to be an everyday millionaire. You've gotten out of debt, and now we keep rolling, and we keep working the steps. And now it's more of a steady rhythm than it was this gazelle sprint that you've been on.

Yes. So, very very very well done again congratulations you guys thank you and we were going to show you also we had our little visual tool okay that we used uh each box represented a thousand dollars paid off and it just kind of helped us keep ourselves accountable at home we would color in the boxes as we went along and that way we knew like as we got closer to the the goal it was more exciting you know yeah it helps to be able to see things it really does that's that's a great tool very well done good for you guys randy and amanda louisville kentucky 165 000 paid off in 21 months making

110 to 200 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream. Okay. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Love it. Well done. Well done, you guys. Very, very cool.

I love that. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos every month, you will save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best possible deal. Rules and restrictions apply. Today's question is steven in indiana i'm 24 years old single still in school wondering if i should get life insurance allstate where i have my car insurance wants me to buy life insurance i'll bet they do they're saying it'd be cheaper

to buy it now than when i'm older well of course but you don't need it now should i get life insurance no how much should i get? None. You're single. You don't have people counting on your income. You're a college student. You're a liability. You're not an asset. No. No, you don't need life insurance.

And if you were to buy life insurance, you sure as the devil wouldn't buy it from Allstate. Very expensive term or rip off whole life is all they sell. So now I wouldn't do any any life insurance business with allstate so steven you buy life insurance to replace your income for people that are counting on your income and when there's no one counting on your income you don't have any dependence no one is harmed financially by your death, then you don't need life insurance. And when you buy something that you don't need, it's never a bargain, even if it's cheaper. And so buying life insurance because you're young when you don't need it is something you don't need.

So it's not a good deal, even though, yes, it's cheaper. Obviously, the older you get, statistically, the more likely you are to die and the cost of insurance goes up. But the difference in a 24-year-old and a 28-year-old on term life insurance at ZanderInsurance.com is almost not measurable. It's almost exactly the same. So when you're 28, married, got a little kid running around or something like that, then we'll talk about you getting some term life insurance. And you would go to ZanderInsurance.com and get 10 to 12 times your income on you and the same on your spouse.

But today, you don't need any. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Thanks for being with us, America. We're so glad you are here. Andrea is with us in Fort Collins, Colorado. Hi, Andrea. How are you? Great, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. How can I help? I was wondering if you thought it would be wise if my husband and I sold a single stock that we have to put it on the principal of our mortgage. Yes. Okay. I would do that. It's not in a retirement account, right? It's non-retirement.

What's the value of the stock total? It's $60,000. And what do you owe on your home? $195,000. Cool. So it gets down to $130,000. And what do you owe on your home? $195,000. Cool. So it gets down to $130,000. And what's your household income?

With overtime, it's about $80,000. Okay, good. And I take it you have no other debt and you have your emergency fund in place? Yes. We just hit that. Okay, yeah. And so that takes you up to baby steps four, five, and six. You're putting 15% of your income away to retirement. Do you have children?

We have two. What ages? My oldest is seven, and the little one is one. Okay, cool. Well, make sure you get something started for college as well, but you can do that out of cash flow. Yeah, I would do this. Do you have any idea what the basis in the stock is?

No. Okay, because you're going to have some taxes probably. So would you set aside money from that for the taxes? Yes. And it's just the rest on the principal? Oh, definitely, yeah. You need to calculate your tax bill on it. You can ask the – I'm sure it's through a company benefit program of some kind, right?

No, it was a stock that my husband's parents invested company benefit program of some kind, right? No, it was a stock that my husband's parents invested for him when he was young, and it's just been sitting there. Okay, so it's sitting with a broker then? Yes. And you can ask the broker to, they'll have it on their computer in about 30 seconds, so they can tell you what your basis is. Okay.

No, wait a minute, they can't either. Wait a minute, tell me again how he got it. he got it from his parents yes uh-huh they invested it for him yes when he was really young and um so now it's under his name um and like i said it's just been sitting there because we haven't added anything to it what they paid for the stock over time is the basis. The difference in what you sell it for in that will be taxed at 15%. So it will just be the gain. It will be the gain. So let's pretend that their basis, when you ask the broker, he can tell you.

It's right there in their file, okay? It should be right there on the front page of the file. But he says $10,000, and you say, okay, and the market value today is $60,000, and so we're going to net $50,000 over basis that's going to be taxed at 15%. Then that's $7,500 you've got to set aside. Okay. But you just, you know, 15% times your gain above the basis would give you what you need to set aside. If you have any questions about that, sit down with a tax pro and help them calculate it for you to be sure.

And then you set the right amount aside. Because we don't want to have a $7,000 tax problem next year, right? Right. And so we want to make sure we're prepared for that. But net of taxes, yes, I would throw it at your house. Very cool. I love it. Brian is in West Palm Beach.

Hey, Brian, how are you? I'm doing well, Dave. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So my short question is my fiance and I are both on Baby Step 3, and we're trying to figure out how to best save for our wedding, like how to work that into Baby Step 3.

Well, it'd be 3B, really, but you can limit Baby Step 3. When are you getting married? September of next year. Good. Okay. So over a year away. Yeah. Okay. Why are you waiting so long uh it was a more of a logistical thing

because um where her family is where my family is and the time of year we were looking at so we weren't trying to make it that far out it just kind of happened that way okay and uh what do you make uh i make about 80 a year cool what she make uh $80,000 a year. Cool. What does she make? She makes about $60,000 a year. Good, good. Okay, cool. And so what are you planning on spending on the wedding? We priced it out, and the venue we're looking at comes to about $35,000.

Okay. That's okay. So you've got 18 months to do $35,000, right? Yeah. Okay, that's okay. So you've got 18 months to do $35,000, right? Yeah, and we've already made some progress on it, though, because we're about $3,000 or $4,000 saved up already. Okay. But a couple grand a month gets you there. You save $1,000 a month, she saves $1,000 a month,

beyond your emergency fund. And your emergency fund, you could limit to three months of expenses right now it should be between three and six months of expenses wedding savings at the level you're saving for particularly is not an emergency so we you know it's like saving up for a couch or a car or something like that you do it after your emergency fund in your case and um both of you have good incomes, and you've got a plan, and you've got a lot of time. You've got a good time window to work with.

So, I mean, a couple grand a month for 18 months is 36 grand. Right. So just put that in your budgets, and in addition to that, make sure you have your emergency fund, and you'll be ready. Suggestion, having done a few weddings uh we're event planners around here we're not wedding event planners but we do events all the time and um uh all three ramsey kids had a huge wonderful celebrations we like to party and so um you need a detailed budget just like you're running any other project and then you need to then you need

to freaking stick to it so if 35k is the budget then that's what we're going to save towards and that means x is going to be spent on photography y on the venue and z on the dress and so on right and you line item the puppy out and you run it just like you were building a house and you've got a line item of every item that's going to be spent, and it's already spent on paper before you start. That's all a budget is. And you manage this like it's a project, because it is. But then brides and their mothers get involved.

And so you need something that we've all agreed to ahead of time. Right. Yeah. Okay. Could have happened at our place. So you need something that we've all agreed to ahead of time right yeah okay could have happened at our place so you need something that we've all agreed to ahead of time this is our contract this is what we're sticking to and if we're gonna we're gonna spend this much more on the dress then we have to spend less on something else we don't just get to expand this infinitely we're not in congress and so you have to have a game plan you are sticking to

and lay that out ahead of time. But you'll be fine. You've got plenty of time. Both make good money, $1,000 a month. It's not going to kill either one of you. And you can do that. Thanks for the call. Some of you are going, $35,000.

Well, their household income is $140,000. Average household income in America is $54,000. The average wedding in America is $140,000. Average household income in America is $54,000. The average wedding in America is $28,000. So average wedding in America is about 50% of household income. And their wedding is not even going to be that. It's going to be about 30% of their household income. So that's why I didn't flinch. I went to a wedding a while back that they spent over

a hundred thousand dollars on but the the grooms i mean the uh the bride's parents in that particular wedding they make like five hundred thousand dollars a year and so and they're multi-millionaires so they dropped a hundred grand you know but it's like i blow my mind you know like wow but um but you know it's it's all about ratios and it's all about percentages as to whether something's out of line. Just because it blows your mind doesn't mean it's bad. It just means you don't understand. And that means I didn't understand. I thought, geez, man.

But then you look at what those people make and they can afford that. They can afford a party of that. In this case, that particular case, it was very fancy. So I was completely out of place. But anyway, it was a very high-end, high-brow wedding. You ever been to one of those? It's like, you people ought to have more fun. Oh, well.

Anyway, you're not going to do that, I'm sure, Brian. I'm sure you guys are going to have a blast. So that's why, for some of you that are getting ready to tweet me if you hadn't already making fun of my approving of his $35,000 budget because that's a big wedding it is more than average but they make more than average considerably more than average between the two of them so they can afford it they're going to pay cash for it and it's not out of control and the way we know that always when we're looking at the car you're buying, the house you're buying, the clothes you're buying, is ratios. Your percentage of your income.

Are you messing up your life with these decisions? And that is not. So it falls under the heading of a wise purchase or a reasonable purchase. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.