The Ramsey Show - App - Am I Working Too Much? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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, flying solo today. We're glad you're with us. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. John is in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, John, welcome to the Ramsey Show. How you doing today, Dave? Better than I deserve, sir. What's up in your world? Dave, where it is, I work for my father, and we're in the construction business. Pretty large company. We've got 40 employees, about a 7 million top line gross. But anyways, uh gross but anyways i'm 29 years old i've been working with him for 10 years now

and uh i'm working around 60 to 65 hours a week and i'm wondering uh i've talked to him about scaling back uh my hours but he you know continues to emphasize you know you need to put your time in and you need to work. And financially, I have all my ducks in a row like you teach. You know, I've got emergency funds well more than what you teach and out of debt. And I'm just kind of wondering, am I wrong for wanting to drop my hours back because I have a wife and two kids? And I just kind of want to know your thoughts on that. The only time I work that amount of hours or ask somebody to work that amount of hours is for a sprint, a short season, to knock something out. Now, the short season could be for a year.

It could even be for two years. But it's, you know, while we're trying to get something up and moving, or there's an emergency, and it falls under the heading of, you know, country sayings, but, you know, make hay while the sun shines, right? And so if you've got to put in 16-hour days, get the hay out of the field before the rain kills it and kills your dadgum crop, you've got to go do that. Shut up, you know? And the other one is get the ox out of the ditch meaning that there's something's broken right it's something and we got to get the you know we got to get that item fixed so if the

servers go down around here my guys here are here at two in the morning but they're not here at two in the morning every week it's because something broke right yeah And I'm not here because I can't even spell server, so it wouldn't do any good for me to be here unless I hand somebody some coffee. But, you know, so the question is, is this a way of life, or is this the fact that we're in the middle of a construction boom and you guys need to get the hay out of the field? Well, it's a way of life. I mean, we've been doing it, like I said, and he's worked 60, 70 hours his whole life,

and that's just what he does. Well, I like hardworking people, okay, as opposed to lazy people. They're handy to have around. But when I'm coaching small business people, if I was coaching your own small business, based on what you just told me, I would say you have a breakdown in staffing whatever it is you are doing with that 60 hours you need to hire somebody to do part of it if all of that time is spent in leadership that means you guys don't have enough leadership in the organization you need to put some supers in there and have some money come out of your pocket so you get a quality of life back if you're in there

swinging a hammer then you need to get somebody else in there swinging a hammer part of the time or whatever it is that you could get your life back. Because, you know, when I started this thing, I mean, Sharon Ramsey, I'll tell you, she was a single mom for two years. Freaking 16-hour days, man. I mean, I was busting it. But that was for 18 to 24 months to get the airplane off the ground. But once it's in the air, you can throttle back.

It doesn't take as much fuel to keep it flying as it does to get it off the ground but once it's in the air you can throttle back it doesn't take as much fuel to keep it flying as it does to get off the ground and so that's that that's the distinction i make and but if your dad is signing you up for 30 more years of workaholism i'll pass yeah well i sure i sure appreciate dave uh just i've been stuck on the fence and just trying to kind of just get some you know know, I trust your opinion. Well, here's the thing. He's not as good at his job when he's working 60 hours a week, year in and year out, because you're freaking tired. Your brain doesn't work as good.

And so you're not as good a leader. You're not as good an estimator. You're not as good at whatever it is you're doing during that time because you're tired. I mean, you can do it for a sprint, but you can't do this over an extended period of time and get the maximum use out of the business. It's a bad business decision. But, I mean, I understand. I grew up in a household where the answer to everything is work. You know, shut up and go to work.

You know, so I get it. I get the – and I'm kind of that way wired inside, but I've had to learn to be a little bit more sophisticated business owner and say if I have a team that's working 60 hours, that means I've understaffed the area. Yeah. And I'll get better efficiency and better quality results out if I'll properly staff.

It's kind of like, you know, never taking off on Sunday. Take off on Sunday. God said rest today. You know why? Because your productivity goes up dramatically in the other six days if you rest today. If you bust all the way through seven days, you don't get the productivity studies tell us. You don't get the results. And it's the same thing here.

So I would make the case to your dad if I were you, Dad, we rethink this this is what got us here and i honor you for your hard work all these years you built this with the sweat of your brow and the calluses on your hand and i love you and i honor you and i respect you but we're our business has grown to the point we need to reach a better level of sophistication where we can have a life and oh by the way we can't attract good quality people if we work them like donkeys if we send them into the salt mines and don't let them out you know nobody wants to work for us because of this and so that that's you know i think you can make the case to him but if he absolutely just says no i own it shut up you're gonna do what i say then dude i guess you're gonna have to hit the eject button but that'll be real painful for him

and you because his dream is for you to work with him. And it's a joy to work with your son when you can or your daughter when you can. I have the joy of doing both. But, you know, there's no question. You have to look at this through some good, strong eyes. Good question, man. We appreciate you joining us.

Not something I usually have to coach someone on less work you have to coach them on more work you know it's oh man open phones at 888-825-5225 the bible says i've been young and i've been old, but I've never seen the righteous or their seed begging bread. Also says the diligent prosper. Diligence is excellence in the ordinary over time. Diligent people prosper. I've been young and I've been old, but I've never seen the righteous or their seed, their kids begging bread.

You just don't want to read Proverbs unless you understand work ethic. Because the Bible's really clear that work is where money comes from. And it's also where dignity comes from. The fact that you throw your shoulders back and move some stuff around out in the marketplace builds your self-confidence. It builds your personal value. The tipping point is when you're doing it 80 hours a week. See, that's why we don't have any trouble hiring developers.

We can never get enough of them because we're growing so fast. But we get these Ruby on Rails guys and these platform architecture guys because we work 40 hours a week. In the tech world, they all work 80 hours a week. They work those guys into the dadgum dirt. And they come to work here and they get to do work that matters. And they're here 40 hours a week. So we're a highly attractive position for people in the tech world.

By the way, just check. We're hiring at ramsaysolutions.com. Check it out. This is the Ramsey Show. Registration is now open to attend our largest leadership event of the year, Entree Leadership Summit. We will be at the Hyatt Regency Orlando in beautiful Orlando, Florida, May 22nd through the 25th, 2022. We always bring together the best leaders for this event, and next year is no exception. I'll be there speaking, as well as our very own Ken Coleman, Christy Wright, and Dr.

John Deloney. We've also got legendary comedian and former host of the top-rated Tonight Show, Jay Leno. Best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni. Founder of It Cosmetics, Jamie Kern Lima. American restaurateur, Will Gadara. Classic concert pianist and powerhouse speaker, Jade Simons. Best-selling author, Henry Cloud and more. These are leaders and speakers who have made their own rules in business and are going to inspire you

to do the same. To learn more about the event and get your seats, text the word SUMMIT2022 to 44222. That's 44222. this is the ramsey show i'm dave ramsey your host one of the beautiful things about living in nashville and doing business here is i've gotten to meet really cool, really famous people and become friends with a few of them. And one of them just stopped by a minute ago. So Michael W. Smith is in the studio. Forty five Dove Awards, more than 15 million albums. Mr. Christian music for sure. The worship music and stuff is absolutely unbelievable.

And he's got a new book out that K-Love did with him, The Way of the Father, just in time for Father's Day. How you doing, brother? I'm doing good. Good, good. Pull that up just a little bit. There you go. Good to see you. You too, man.

And it's been a while. It has been. I think we bumped into each other on a golf course the other day. We did. You were coming out and I was going in. Yeah. Something like that. But that was in the middle of COVID. was nobody out there i know and we were

the but you know we're lone ones out there swinging uh hanging out so this is a great lessons from my dad truths about god now a lot of people don't know this but i've heard a lot of your testimony all your story over the years because we worked together on a lot of your testimony, a lot of your story over the years, because we worked together on a lot of different things, that you grew up in West Virginia. So tell us about Paul Smith, dad in West Virginia. There's got to be some stuff there. There's a lot of stuff. He came from that great generation that when you were sick, you went to work. Yeah.

You know, blue collar, oil refinery, swing shift, days, then evenings, then, you know, all night, you know. And he hardly ever missed coaching me in baseball. And Dave, he was the kindest man I'd ever known who happened to be my dad. And I knew one day I would write a book about him. When he got dementia in 2011, that's when i started to recollect all these amazing stories about my dad and um he passed went to heaven in november 15 and 2020 was a good time to write a book yeah so it was good time on our hands yeah yeah wow so little known fact you actually are uh good at baseball as well as music well i was as a kid i wanted to i wanted to play

for the cincinnati reds i was the big red machine yeah my dad used to take me to crossley field oh really yeah so that's that really shows you how old i am so coming out coming out of west virginia so yeah he had a dream of you playing baseball i think he did he he really had a dream to play baseball. Matter of fact, he was a great ball player and I think I was a pretty good ball player because of him.

He went to the minor leagues but he made a decision one day that he had to come and take care of his mom. His father died of a heart attack when he was 16 but his dream was to play major league ball

but he came back and took care of his mom. And so that's the kind of man my dad was. So he kind of lived out that dream through me a little bit, but he never, ever pressured me to stay in baseball. So when you went music versus baseball, it wasn't a problem? Oh, he became my PR agent, just telling everybody how great I was all the time.

I said, Dad, you've got to stop that. You don't have to do that all the time. He said, Why not, son? You're the best. He said, Dad, you've got to stop that. You don't have to do that all the time. He said, Why not, son? You're the best. He affirmed me my whole life. So I remember you telling the story. We had an event that you and Amy and Stephen Curtis did with us together, which was like having the Mount Rushmore of Christian music right there in one event.

I remember that night. It was pretty iconic. And I remember you telling the story on, i believe it was friends i believe uh whatever whatever your force that was that's the first big hit that you wrote like a bazillion songs before anybody before one of them caught right i read a lot of songs they were pretty bad you know they were i was on the learning curve in the early days but i mean didn't you have a like you had a seriously large catalog before anything yeah i had 150 songs yeah i mean you were it wasn't like you just sat down and

uh lightning struck on the first song and you're in your multi-platinum no and didn't that's not how it worked it kind of was a slow what made me think about that was his work ethic was transferred to you it was because you you applied that to your songwriting yeah and you know that okay because a lot of people don't realize songwriting is is work like a lot of other things yeah it's hard to write a good song being in the studio and getting something arranged and getting it right i know nothing about music but i know a lot of folks in the music business and they work right and you're on the road it's work right it's it's fun and you get the you you do a whole lot of stuff to get to spend three and a half minutes on the stage right yeah you know i i

a lot of my work ethic comes from my dad yeah and uh he was a hard worker um you know the way he loved my mom loved my sister and i the his community worked in the homeless shelter he's always giving himself away. The thing that used to drive me a little crazy, I built two houses with my dad. And if it was off, he was a perfectionist. If it was off just by like one 30 seconds of an inch, he would take it apart. I said, Dad, it's okay. Nobody's going to notice.

It's not right. It's not right. So that was the only thing that drove me crazy about my dad but his work ethic was pretty incredible the book is the way of the father by michael w smith lessons from my dad truths about god so how did he transfer truths about god to you he showed me what god was like i think on so many levels. He always was for me my whole life. It was never based on performance.

I got that whole story at the beginning of the book where I was on this little league team and he's coaching us and we had 16 games and we were 0 and 15. We were awful. And if you won, you got to go to Dairy Queen. And we got beat 30 to nothing that first game 30 to nothing I remember it I was eight years old thrashing and uh and my dad walked in

that dugout you know we got our heads hung like then it was end of the world my dad walked in says boys we'll get him next time let's go to Dairy Queen oh and every time we went to Dairy Queen 15 times in a row and then that last game we won I remember every detail I was on second base I was scoring run 3-2 and we won the game and we were just

we won the World Series my dad walks in the dugout and says boys great job let's go to Dairy Queen we go to Dairy Queen the times we lost those you know the winning team would be in there going what are you guys doing here we just annihilated you but he took to Dairy Queen 16 times and I tell that story because he never based his love um for me and my teammates it was never based on performance he just he just uh affirmed us all growing up so the michael w smith your

soundtrack your your music is a soundtrack for so many of our faith walk so many of our lives your family five adult kids 16 grandkids they call me g daddy seven man papa dave's got seven but i ain't got 16 you can catch up be fruitful man i'm telling you do these do your family members and did your dad did they grasp how big this your music career had become how many because it went so exponential you've touched people you'll never see never hear i mean there's just bazillions of connection points out there, right? Did they get it, and did he get it? Yes. Yes and yes.

But you would – you know, I live a very normal life, but I live an extraordinary life, too. But at home, I'm just dad. I'm just dad. I'm just a – you know, I don't have bodyguards, and I don't live some crazy lifestyle of the rich and famous. I'm just dad, and I go to the store like everybody else does. So if you would talk to my kids, I think they would all tell you, I think this is true, that they were more important to me than my career. We always did the two-week rule never away never away from home more than two weeks ever and we've we've held on to that rule so that's why i've been married

almost 40 years yeah september so yeah me too me too and both because both of us married up yes we did what that was we did so talk about him i love the scene in the book where he's dancing in the aisle while you're singing yeah i would look out there and all these love the scene in the book where he's dancing in the aisle while you're singing. Yeah, I would look out there and all these, you know, back in the day, all these kids are just going crazy. And there's this old guy out there. Who's that guy? And I go, oh, my gosh, it's my dad. He's out there singing every word to every song and dancing with these teenagers.

I love it. Fatherhood is something that's going to be one of the things as it comes back, as there is a revival in fatherhood that heals this culture. We need our dads. Yes, we do. We need our dads. The Way of the Father, Michael W. Smith, Lessons from My Dad, Truths About God. Pick it up.

I highly recommend anything my friend here does, and this book is no exception. Be sure you check it out. This is The Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Joshua and Ashley are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi. Hi, Dave. Welcome, welcome.

Where do you guys live? Middleport, New York, which isn't quite Buffalo. It's not quite Rochester. It's just out there in the middle. So, go Bills. Middleport. Middleport, New York. All right.

Cool. I got it. So, welcome to Nashville. That's a bit of a haul, I can tell you that. Yes. Long drive. So how much did you guys pay off? $87,026. Good for you.

And your range of income during that time? $100,000 to $110,000. All right. What do you all do for a living? I am a food scientist for a chocolate manufacturer. Yum. Yes. So am I. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. scientist for a chocolate manufacturer yum yes so am i

oh my gosh way to go you guys so how much what kind of debt was this000? It was our house. Woo! Look at the weird people. Yes, yes. We've waited a long time to hear you say that. I love it. How old are you two? I'm 33. I'm 32. And you have a paid-for house.

We sure do. In Middleport, New York. What's it worth? $110, $120. Yeah, $110, $120. And it's yours. It is. Shut up.

Yes, yes. I love it. Wow. Excellent job, guys. I love it. Wow. Excellent job, guys. So what in the world happened? What inspired you guys to be so weird? It was a long journey. It goes back several years ago when we were living just outside of St. Louis,

you know, working hard every day and just didn't have the money to do what we needed to do and really didn't understand the money to do what we needed to do and really didn't understand what was going on. And we said we need to make a plan because we knew eventually we wanted to move back to live with our family. And we weren't going to be able to do that if we didn't get our finances in order. So we just kind of, we heard about your book, read a few pages, tried to get started and really weren't on the same page. So we kind of hemmed and hawed for a few years on that and didn't make much progress. And then we got the opportunity to move back home.

And from that point on, we said, okay, we really got to make a change here. So just after our youngest daughter was born, I had an opportunity to go back to work. And it wasn't something that I was expecting, but we said, you know, this is what we need to get that house paid off and to do what we want to do. And if I'm going to go back to work and sacrifice that time with my children, then we're going to make our money work. Yeah, we're going to get traction.

We're going to do what we need to do. Yeah, I think it was a lot of chaos. We always had good intentions, but no plan. It was never a separate thing. So what about that decision made you guys get on the same page when you didn't before? I think it was, you know, we went to a wedding on New Year's Eve. And, you know, we were talking about what are our goals for this year? What are we going to do?

And, you know, Josh said, well, I think this might sound a little crazy, but we really need to pay the house off. When we moved back, we had paid off all the rest of our debt, and, you know, it was just that mortgage, and we still felt that burden of it. And he said, you know, we really need to make this happen. And so on the drive home from that wedding on New Year's Day, we got out the EveryDollar app, and we built our first budget together. We both had kind of tried to do things here and there on our own before, and we said, nope, this is it. And it probably took us the whole car ride back, which was like an hour.

And we said, okay, we got this now. And we fumbled for the first few months, but that was it. Once we had that plan and we knew where we had to go, we said, we got this. We can do it. I will say, too, that she had gotten your book before and read it while we were still by the Illinois side. I'm not much of a book reader. So I was like, yeah, okay, whatever. It wasn't until we moved home.

I heard you on the radio and I came home like, you've got to listen to this guy. He's a genius. She's like, I read his book. That's the one in Illinois. I was like, oh, yeah, well, there we go. There's the combination between the, I read his book. That's the one in Illinois. I've been trying to tell you. I was like, oh, yeah. Well, there we go. There's the combination between the radio show and the book. One's an audio learner, one's a brain learner.

Everybody's got their own way of getting at it. That's awesome. Then we found the EveryDollar app and that just turned everything around. EveryDollar got rid of the credit cards and just did the debit card and one bank account. From there it was like boom game on it was it was crazy it was a process yeah what took us you know nine years with our student loans and a car loan um we did our house in two years you know

and we make less now than we did before so go figure that right well it's amazing what a plan does it's the difference in being on the same page and having a plan and sticking to the plan. Yeah. Yeah. That's everything. Yes. You don't have a payment in the world. Nope.

How's that feel? Good. It's just light. There's just nothing holding us back, you know? And it took us a while to get here, but it's something that we did together. And so, you know, now when I turn and look at him, I just, I feel unstoppable. Like we can do anything together. We've done this and there's, you know, there's going to be more things that are going to come our way and we're going to get it.

We're going to get through it because we know how to work together now. And you plugged into my ear for about two years working, you know, just every day listening to these podcasts. It was awesome. Those debt-free screens helped me go crazy yeah my work got the most out of me as they could have 200 of me probably yeah definitely every every overtime opportunity the big thing was the the big why right i got three why sitting there there to the right of me right now and let me tell you that that'll spark some uh spark something for you yeah absolutely yeah Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, bring them up. What are their names and ages? All right. So we've got Noah, Hunter, and Evelyn.

And Noah sometimes is a little shy, so he might choose to sit back. So Hunter is five, and Evelyn is almost three. And she's not shy. She is not. No, not at all. She's ready for the camera. Yeah. It's ready for her, too. She's cute.

Well done. Well done. Well done, you guys. Well, we're so proud of you guys. I mean, you are absolutely stellar. Early 30s with a paid-for house, not a payment in the world, and, you know, making $110,000. You guys can do anything you want to do. Like you said, you're unstoppable now. It's all good.

Yeah. Who was your biggest cheerleader outside of you guys? Our families were very supportive. I mean, you know, Josh took every opportunity he could for overtime, and our parents stepped in, helped with babysitting, and just said, go, you can do this, you got this. Actually, I had some coworkers I would converse about, you know, and actually probably got them on your plan, too, somehow.

I love it. Well, it's the fact that you won. I mean, I paid off my house. I mean, somehow. I love it. Well, it's the fact that you won. I mean, I paid off my house. I mean, how do you debate this? Right, right. It's kind of like done then. That's like done.

Mic drop. Yeah, but it was healthy discussion, right? Oh, yeah. Hey, what are you doing? What am I doing? Like, how much did you get from your car loan? Awesome. Keep going.

Yeah. It's a nice friendly race, I guess. Yeah, accountability, encouragement, competition, all that. It's wonderful. Very good, I guess. Yeah, accountability, encouragement, competition, all that. It's wonderful. Very good. Good stuff. All right, we've got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you because that's the next chapter. Like you said, these are your whys, your legacy, and make sure you change your whole family tree. Never go back in debt.

Got a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give to somebody. Pay it forward, and maybe you can get them to read two pages, and then they'll be standing here a few years later with a paid for house you never know it's a magical book you read two pages you get all this result pretty cool good stuff i'm so proud of y'all thank you well done you are you're an inspiration having all this material for us well you're an inspiration joshua and ashley noah hunter and evelyn from middleport new y York. $87,000 paid off. House and everything in 26 months, making $100,000 to $110,000.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! free! That is how it's done. That's how it's done. Wow. You know, if your why

has some nobility to it, if why you're doing something is more noble than just selfishness, it drives you harder. it'll make you sacrifice deeper if the only reason you want to be out of debt is so you can get rich so you can buy a filet mignon for yourself that's not evil that's not bad it just doesn't motivate you like looking into your kids eyes and going their kids are going to be changed because of what I'm doing right now. When you start talking about changing your family tree,

if you're a parent and you have like a heart that beats in your chest, it changes your level of commitment. It changes your level of sacrifice to win. If your why has some nobility, then your why has some power. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. This is The Ramsey Show. We're glad you're with us, America. Thank you for joining us.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jennifer's in Minneapolis. Hi, Jennifer. How are you? Hi, Dave. It's an honor to speak with you today. You too. How can I help? We have a question about Baby Step 3B because we want to move significantly up in-house. Our question is, in this market, we understand contingent offers are generally not accepted, so we have been advised to consider a bridge loan. What would you say? I would say the idiot that advised you that should agree to pay the payments. Okay.

Here's the problem. Stuff like that doesn't work unless everything goes perfect, and everything never goes perfect. Okay. Okay, let's just pretend that something like a pandemic happened. Okay. I don't know. I mean, I never experienced anything like that. But let's say you were right in the middle of this, and you had one foot on the boat and one on the dock, and the boat was leaving.

You know where you're going to end up, that's in the lake uh-huh meaning you're going to end up with a bridge loan payment a house payment and another house payment okay can i give you our numbers in our scenario and you can tell me kind of what you what i would do is sell your house and go rent something while you buy if a contingency won't work okay and that's what i that's what i personally have done by the way because see i'm more i'm worse off than you because i don't borrow money at all sure and so i if i have to have the money out of the house to buy the next house i can't buy it until i get the other one closed and so that that entails a double move or a contingency offer. Okay.

And so that's the only way around it. And I've done that. I mean, Sharon and I have done that. Not a whole bunch of times, and it's not ideal. It's not my favorite. And if you can get a really good, solid offer on your house that's a cash offer, you know, because the market's so hot people are waving they're waving appraisals they're waving everything and they're just making offers

right waving inspections they're doing everything and you get a good solid cash offer on your house then you can make a really good solid contingency offer and talk them into just waiting until yours closes right quick because they ought to be able to close them both within a week or two and just run them back to back dominoes it can be done but it's uh it's very it is very hard it is very hard and it's harder it's more work for your poor little realtor bless their little heart and so they're going to get two commissions the sale of yours and the purchase on the other side and so they're just going to have to do their little work uh instead of you getting a bridge loan and getting caught in the middle. Please don't do that.

Everything that can go wrong will. You're going to meet Mr. Murphy. John is with us in Cincinnati. Hey, John, how are you? Thanks. Thanks for taking my call. This call is more about an opportunity and with the real estate market. So my situation is I'm a pastor here in Cincinnati.

I've got about four or five more years till my wife and I retire. Right now, our net worth is probably about 1.5. We own our house. Thank you. We own our house in Cincinnati. Its market value is about 500. Our only debt is our second home in Florida, and we built the home two years ago for $260,000. And our realtor, the realtor's down there. I mean, obviously the market's very, very hot. And the current market value of that host right now is about $450,000. They're getting cash offers, you know, and it's only the 1400 square foot house. I think our long term plan is when we do retire, we want to move to Florida, get something a little bit bigger for our family.

But I'm at the point right now where I'm just kind of like trying to discern, you know, should I be selling my house, maybe take that money payoff, obviously, the market paid off with that money, more towards investments, and, you know, see what the market correction does. It's just, you know, when the house was worth $350,000, I was like tempted. And then it went up to $400,000 and now it's up to $450,000. So just looking for some guidance about what would be the best thing for us to do, especially looking at retirement in four years. Is this property like beach property? No, actually, it is in Southwest Florida, and they have put in, obviously, some nice developments. It's a resort property, but it's single-family houses, several resort centers.

Here's the thing. The most volatile type of real estate is resort property. Beach, mountain, resort, whatever. In other words, it goes up super fast and down super fast, much more so than traditional housing does. Does that make sense? Yeah. Like, I've got a lake house, and right now there's just absolutely no property for sale on that lake, and people will just give you anything. It's just because – but, you know, like in 2008, you couldn't give away a house down there. I mean, it was just – the market just disappears because resort property is luxury money.

It's toys. And the first thing people quit buying when times get hard is toys. And the thing they overspend on when things are prosperous is toys. And so it just shoots way up and way down is what it does so i think you're riding the curve up it sounds like you don't want to rest in this house when you retire anyway it's only 1400 and you want something bigger yeah okay i'm cashing out then okay on that the only the only flip side of the whole thing was you know i also stole the business uh and so this year i whole thing was, you know, I also sold a business. And so this year I'm looking at, you know, looking at a payout on the business for this year of about $250,000. And then obviously capital gains because it's a second home in Florida.

So just trying to, you know, I know there's no way we can hedge taxes, but it just seems like, you know. Well, your capital gains rate will be 15% on your gain. Okay. And it may not be after next year, after Biden gets done. Okay. Because they're talking about jacking it up. Yeah, I know. You rich people that have worked all your life and built up a million and a half in a little beach house, you should be punished.

And Washington's going to see to it. So that's what the word is. Now, they've not actually proposed any legislation, but they're making a lot of noise about how much they're going to soak the rich. And you qualify, my friend. Thank God. So anyway, I don't know. Here's the thing. Given that, that it's a 15% rate and it might not be next year,

given that this is volatile property and it could be peaking. It could go on up from here before it peaks, but we don't know. Given all of that, if you had $450,000 sitting in the middle of your kitchen table, plus or minus some taxes, and you didn't own this house, would you go buy it? And everything you told me says the answer is no. Yeah, absolutely. this house would you go buy it and everything you told me says the answer is no yeah absolutely and if you wouldn't go buy it right now for 450 that means you should sell it for 450 doesn't it yeah definitely okay i see what you're saying yeah i mean it's you know it's only like i said 14

square feet i mean it just it just ballooned florida is crazy right yeah so and it was crazy down just a few years smart decision yeah i mean right after a hurricane or right after 2008 it's crazy down and you can't you know you can't give stuff away down there they have entire condominium projects just sitting like the wind is blowing through them when times are bad but then when times are like they are now i mean you it's any old dump will sell it's crazy so and obviously you don't have a dump you've obviously got a sweet little house there so very cool way to go pastor proud of you man you've done a great job handling your money and building wealth i would cash out based on what you told me if i were in your shoes

and those are the reasons so folks you can always do that reverse engineering thing it's called a sunk cost analysis if i didn't own it and instead i had that pile of money sitting in the table in front of me on the table in front of me would i go buy it you can do that with a boat looking at the boat in the driveway i could sell it for ten thousand dollars okay get ten thousand dollars in the middle of the table if you didn't have a boat would you take that ten thousand dollars off the table and go buy a boat no i haven't used a stupid thing in three years okay then that means it's time to sell the boat son you know you reverse engineer the whole thing right or the other way around you go uh if you know if i didn't have a boat would i go buy one yes i'd go buy one our family uses it every weekend it's a it's where

our family loves going to lake and by the way that's the ramsays we love going to lake and so uh you know that kind of thing so yeah you would keep it then because you'd buy it again and uh you know you just have to ask yourself that question. If somebody put that much money in front of you, would you go buy that item again? You can do it with an investment. And what it keeps you from doing is like you bought something, you bought an investment, a stock at $70 a share, and it's down to $50.

And you go, well, I'm going to wait on it to come back up, although I don't really think it's going to come back up. How's that logical? If you wouldn't buy the shares at $50 because of what you know now, then sell them at $50 and get out, regardless of what you paid for them. What you paid for them is not relevant. It's what you think is going to happen in the future that's relevant, and that analysis makes you think through a future lens,

a sunk cost analysis, reverse engineer the process. Great decision-making tool. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head to theramseyshow.com.

Thanks for listening.