The Ramsey Show - App - An Inheritance Has Made Us Millionaires (Hour 2)

Episode Date: May 4, 2020

Rachel Cruze, Home Buying, Debt, Retirement, Career Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Rachel Cruz joining me this hour to answer your questions ramsey personality best-selling author also my daughter the phone number here 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 so rachel we were having a discussion before um the music started playing to start this hour and uh ramsey team comes back to work today um our governor has opened our state up and um our

guys are in the building last week voluntarily uh the ones that wanted to rest of them working from home and have been for about 45 days uh and then uh this week we came back to work officially and uh when we're you and i are connecting with media people and connecting with people uh in the states where it is still completely shut down there's a completely different feeling there is so yes so i was talking to someone that was in a state that everything is completely shut down out in California. And we were just talking right before I got on. I was like, man, I just have a total – not that I forget at all what's going on by any means. I mean, there's obviously still a huge economic problem and health crisis going on.

But here in Tennessee, my perspective is so different, even just the last week with restaurants opening up at 50% capacity. Businesses are opening up. We're opened up here for people that are healthy and that don't have any preexisting conditions. We don't have child care issues. We definitely had our stipulations with people here at Ramsey to come back. But it gives such life, and you just see, okay, you kind of see the other side of the crisis a little bit a glimpse a small light at the end of the tunnel a small ray of hope and i just forget that and so speaking to um my friend out in california it's just she's it's there was still a whole lot of fear a whole

lot of fear there and i realized oh wow a lot of that's just kind of started to go for me, I think probably because of my perspective. Yeah. I mean, you don't – we're – you know, you're not – we're not seeing the same results. We're not seeing the same situation. We're not – we don't have, you know, police, you know, pulling you over for driving down the road and stuff. I mean, it's not – there's none of that here. No. And so it does, it kind of, it's a relaxed, much more relaxed environment where people are choosing what they want to do.

Some people are choosing to stay home. Yes, yes. Some people are choosing to, you know, observe more stringently guidelines than others. But it's not a governmental mandate. Right, right. And they're choosing what they want to do, and different ones are choosing different things. But it's just a governmental mandate. Right. And they're choosing what they want to do, and different ones are choosing different things. But it's just much more relaxed.

There's a lot more. But that's just come in the last week or two. Prior to that, we were in the exact same situation. So regardless of where you guys are, we're here to help you. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Lily starts off this hour in Texas. Hi, Lily. How are you?

Hi, Dave. How are you? Great. How can Rachel and I help? I have a question. I'm kind of in the point of my life where I'm looking to buy a house. Cool. But when I speak to different mortgage lenders,

I feel like they're just trying to approve me for the highest amount of money. You're right, Lily. So I wanted to see how you would kind of budget into looking for a home if you were in my position. So how old are you, Lily? I'm 26. 26. Okay. Do you have any debt right now? No debt. No debt. Do you have an emergency fund in place of three to six months worth of expenses? Yes. Oh, amazing. Well done. Great job. That's so great. Cause that's usually kind of my, my first two filters for people before buying a home, just making sure that those are in place before saving up to purchase that home. So our rule of thumb always is to make sure that you're applying for a 15-year fixed rate, that the mortgage payment is no more than 25% of your take-home pay,

and you have at least 10% to put down on a home. And when I always think about home buying, I always – to know that you're at least going to be there for five years is kind of my rule of thumb as well, timeline-wise. So mathematically, that is kind of my rule of thumb as well timeline wise. So that mathematically that's kind of our boundaries and our principles into going into buying a home. And Lily what you've discovered is they'll qualify you for almost double that. Right but the problem is my income fluctuates a lot so that's kind of where I've struggled with that. Well the budget is a

different thing than what how much house you can afford. So if you take your income over the course of a year and you say a fourth of your take-home pay average per month, then that'll be fine on a 15-year fixed. Now, if you need to set some extra money aside in a different savings account to cover some of the months that are down months so you don't get pinched, that's a different issue, and you can do that. But you've got the up months to replenish that account too.

So that's not – by the end of a 12-month cycle, the fluctuation has evened out into the averages. And so that's what I would use as an average. And I think going into the home buying process, having those numbers is so, so important because, like you're saying, they're going to qualify you for so much more. And it's so easy if you're not principled in it and knowing, okay, this is the, this is where I'm going with my money. This is what we're doing. And you go in emotionally. It's so easy to say, oh yeah, I can get this bigger house. Yeah. And they'll qualify you

for it in a heartbeat. Right. James is in Tennessee, if I hit the right button. Hey, James is in Tennessee. How are you, James? I'm doing well. How are you, Dave? Good. How can we help? I'm a rising high school senior, and I plan to go to medical school.

I should be able to get a full-ride scholarship for my undergrad studies. I am assessing the possibility of maybe a service academy. If not, I plan to attend whatever school offers me the best financial aid package, but I probably will have to borrow for medical school. I have been saving since I had been working when I was 16, and I plan to all the way through undergrad if possible and save that money. So I should only have to borrow $150,000 to $200,000. How do you feel about that? Why do I have a feeling you have an unusually high GPA? I do, Dave. I've got a 3.75 and I'm very proud of it. Oh, 3.75. Okay. All right. Well, there's a couple of options. No, I don't teach people to borrow money for school of any kind, James.

Never have. Not what you wanted to hear from me. So what are we going to do? How are you going to get there? Obviously, you've done a great job saving. There's two or three things you can do. Obviously, one is the military, like you said, Service Academy, and they'll pay for it for you. And then you'll serve some time with them to, you know,

to meet the obligation that goes with that. The second thing is in start investigating. Now, there's probably 10 or 12 programs that are med schools across the U.S. that are what's called the MD-PhD program. And what you do is you end up becoming an employee under a fellowship program of the university, and you're doing some work while you're there, teaching and other things as a grad student while you're going to med school. And they pay for your med school then. It's free because you're an employee. Your tuition's free. And it's's very hard program to get into that's why i was asking about your gpa but if you can get in that program is uh lights out amazing and lastly i would check with

pharmaceutical companies and uh health care companies like the hcas of the world and see if they have any programs at all for young docs where they pay for you to go and then you work for them when you come out. For most of us, health care costs seem to increase every year and saving money on health insurance feels more and more out of reach. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Cherise had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had a health scare involving one of their kids that was completely unexpected. With today's health care climate, this could have bankrupted them. But thanks to Christian health care ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of Christian

health care ministries, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the original health cost sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau accredited charity. It's biblical, affordable, and it's shared nearly $97,000 to help the Olszewskis.

To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Aaliyah is with us in Alabama. Hey, Aaliyah, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Hey, how can Rachel and I help?

So I have about $63,000 in student loans, and then I have a $7,000 home equity line of credit where I just recently rolled my credit card over into for the lower interest rate. What I'm wondering is if while my student loan interest is zero and the payment is zero should I take the payment that I would normally make on my student loan and throw it at the seven thousand dollars on the home equity line of credit just to kind of get it out of the way and then resume with my student loans as soon as I can. Well, I mean, we have the six months. I think right now it's up to October 28th when how the interest rate is going to be zero. So just

wondering what you thought about that. Yeah. So the other way we always look at paying off debt is never by the interest rate anyways always just by the loan amount so the fact that you have a seven thousand dollar loan paying that off first and foremost for sure and since there is uh wait a minute do you have student loans that are smaller than the seven thousand i don't how many different is there one line of credit and one student loan payment. Just one single student loan. There's not a group of them. Right. Okay.

Then Rachel's right. So, yeah, based on that, then, yes, paying off that $7,000 first and foremost, 100%. Yeah, I would knock the $7,000 out. What did you say your household income is? My income is $80,000. Okay. Well, you ought to knock that seven out real fast and here's the thing just because there's no payments or no interest doesn't mean you can't pay on it

right i agree with you but i was just wondering if it made sense to maybe stop paying just to well you are yeah you don't have to pay you don't have to pay anything on it so throw it all at 7,000 but that 7,000 ought to be gone in, like, what, two months? That's not hope. Well, no, it's not hope. It's a budget. You're right. You've got to do it.

You're right. You can do it. Lay that budget out and get after it, kiddo. In other words, don't use this as a chance to kick back and put your feet up. Use this as a chance to lean in and make that much more progress because you don't have the payment and you don't have the interest and that's just going to accelerate you getting out of debt that much faster if you lean on in but don't don't use it as a reason to go oh well i can kind of coast a little here don't do that for sure yeah which is hard because i feel like when they are giving these grace periods it does does feel like this. Oh, I can just take a deep breath.

And kind of relax. Yep. And so having that opposite emotion is tough during this time. But, man, if your income is still coming in, attack it. It's a real chance to make some big-time traction on that student loan. If you knock that seven out in two months, that would be a real tight budget for you. But, you know, you'd just be totally focused and going i'm getting rid of this this is my time and then that gives you several months of throwing three four thousand a month at these student loans before they even

kick the payments and interest back in and you could make some serious progress i mean let's say you got seventy thousand dollars in debt you make 80 if you paid off 35 a year that'd be three thousand a month um you'd be $3,000 a month. You'd be done in two years with all of it. That's the kind of numbers you're looking at. And this little bit of interest savings between now and October helps you that much more. So get after it, kiddo. Get it.

You can do it. All right, CJ is with us in Georgia. Hey, CJ, how are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Good. How can Rachel and I help? Well, Dave, we found ourselves in a situation where I hope you can help us.

About, I would say about a year ago now, we had a death in our family, and me and my wife ended up getting a significant inheritance out of it. Wow. And it's all over the place like there's an inherited ira we have nua shares like single stock shares and and oil and then about about 300 000 became liquid and it's just this stuff's all over the place and it's like drowning in our own blessing we can't figure out where to even start with it. Okay. There's a real good decision-making paradigm that's served me well in a lot of areas of my life over the years. When I'm overwhelmed, the best thing I can do is break it down into parts and then prioritize the parts. Okay?

So you've got 300,000 liquid. What's the NUA stocks worth there are about 500 about 5,000 stocks around $30 a share 150,000 right does that sound right and then about yes okay and then you've got how much in the inherited IRA? About $700,000. Okay. Wow. Who passed away? It was actually my wife's father.

Wow. Okay. So it left you a millionaire. Yes. Okay. How much debt have you got? At the point when he passed away, we had just paid off all of our debt, and we were running for that fully funded emergency fund. So what do you owe on your house?

I am actually military, so I don't currently own a house. Wow. Okay, so you're 100% debt-free with a million dollars worth of assets. Yes. Wow. Okay. Well, what I would do is I would cash out the stock immediately because I don't do single stocks. If you're dying to keep it because you just love it, it's fine.

It's a small enough percentage. It's only 15% of this. I tell people not to have more than 10% in single stocks, and that's only if you love the single stock. Now, if you guys are in love with this particular stock, whatever it is, and you want to keep some of it, that's fine. I would keep it down to about 10% of your portfolio. What's the inherited IRA invested in? It's in Exxon stocks.

Okay, same deal there. Everything is in Exxon stocks. Okay, then see, that's really dangerous, because guess what Exxon stock did recently? It tanked. Oh, it dropped. Yeah. So I'm not going to liquidate all of it right now because it's like a worse time. Let's let this oil thing get past a little bit.

But by the end of the year, you're going to see a lot of that have recovered back when the glut in the oil market is over due to nobody driving for the month of april and so you'll see these oil stocks come back up by the end of the year you'll want to get out of them then inside the inherited ira you can roll it in to some good growth stock mutual funds at that point uh the rules have just changed on the, see if I can get my hands on it. Here it is. The rules have just changed with the SECURE Act at the first of the year on the inherited IRA. But you can roll it into some good growth stock mutual funds,

and you're going to be withdrawing that money over the next 10 years. You used to have a required minimum distribution, but now you're going to be takinging that money over the next 10 years. You used to have a required minimum distribution, but now you're going to be taking it out over 10 years. So it's going to come out pretty quick out from under the heading of that IRA, and you're going to end up with the taxes on that as it comes out from under there during that 10-year period of time. So about $70,000 a year is going to become taxable outside of that. So what you need to do is sit down with one of our. So about $70,000 a year is going to become taxable outside of that. So what

you need to do is sit down with one of our SmartVestor pros, and they can help you get the $300K invested, get the $700K rolled from the Exxon stock over into good mutual funds, and then determine how much, and time that towards the end of the year, and how much of the $150K in stock you want to leave in there. Again, if you're just enamored with this stock because he was or something, that's fine. I personally don't own any single stocks. 100% of Rachel and Winston's investment portfolio, 100% of Sharon and Dave's portfolio invested in the stock market is in mutual funds. We don't buy single stocks because they're just too much risk.

It is. So spreading it out is going to be key. And then even for the long term, right? Because like you're saying, if one stock goes down, if you had invested in an airline right now or a cruise or an oil company, or oil, which is not another great one right now, then, yeah, you're feeling that much worse than if it was spread over 90 to 200. Yeah, I haven't looked at Exxon stock, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's in half. I don't track single stocks, so I don't know. But I know the oil business is straight up tanked right now. And tankers are sitting all around the shoreline full of oil. No place to offload it right now. Just a huge oversupply because no one drove in the month of april to mount anything

and that has uh really messed up the oil markets big time among many others this is the dave ramsey show Hey, folks, there's literally never been a better time to try online grocery. My friends at eMeals make it incredibly easy for you. eMeals creates a shopping list based on the meals you want for the week and then directly sends it to Walmart, Kroger, Instacart, Shipt, or Amazon Fresh. Your choice. Head to emails.com slash grocery. Find what delivery and pickup providers are available in your area.

Try eMeals free for two full weeks. That's emails.com slash grocery. Rachel Cruz joining me this hour answering your questions here on the Dave Ramsey show Crystal is with us in Kentucky hi Crystal welcome to the show how can Rachel help um yeah uh my husband and I had taken FPU almost a year ago. We've been working through our debt snowball, and he had let me know that he had some student loans that have – he hasn't touched them in 10 years at all. He doesn't even remember ever making a payment to them.

Good Lord. I got a letter about three months ago. It says the debt is held by the U.S. Department of Education for Reliant Capital Solutions. So I'm curious, should we call them and start a minimum payment plan, or should I just go through my debt snowball and see if I can take lump sums and settle some of the smaller accounts some of the smaller student loan accounts yeah there's a couple that are only like

maybe 1500 or two grand like are you able to settle student loan debt for less than what was owed not like you can credit card debt because it's federally it's federally insured and they're going to take your tax return money, and they've got the ability to garnish you. They've got all these other things that they can do. So because of the federal insurance on it, the bank is going to get their money. So they will not discount typically the principal amount, the original amount borrowed, or the interest.

Now, what you can get waived with some negotiations sometimes with a lump sum offer is, you know, collections fees, late fees, attorney's fees, anything like that. You can get all that stuff knocked off. But the interest that has accrued and the original amount borrowed, you usually cannot get rid of that. Now, if you can pull it off, I don't mind you doing it doing it but um you know just make them an offer and see what they do uh but you know you need to get into it and figure out what is really owed and why in other words if they say hey he owes two thousand dollars on this one and he hasn't paid it in 15 years ago you know what was the original amount

borrowed what was the interest rate and how much of this is late fees right and then see based on that little miniature audit what they'll take off if you pay them in a lump sum but yeah you probably have some leverage doing some lump sum like that but like a credit card an old old credit card like that you could settle that for you know 20 15 cents on the dollar you're not going to do that with a with a student loan would it be wise to contact them like asap or as long as they're not hounding us could i keep going through my snowball until i get closer to the student loan debt i would wait till you get to them okay unless they start really hounding us yeah let's sleep in dogs lie until you get there but but this time you guys got to combine your finances and deal with it because the fact that this is how long have you been married

uh just a year so we've already actually paid about twelve thousand dollars in debt so far good for you um only you know we only have about um six we have sixty four thousand total including the student loan debt and how old is the student loan debt of his how old is the student loan he's pretty sure 10 years he believes okay 10 years okay yeah it's it's you know the big deal now is to combine it own it together and work your way through it you're obviously taking point on that because you're the uh probably the nerd like i am at my house i'm the one that does the math but in your house rachel would be winston probably be taking point on that yeah right exactly but yeah i think the key here is the fact that he even said it right because that can be a pretty shameful thing of

like hey i've had this debt for 10 years i haven't paid on it and i've talked to a lot of couples where they continue to hide the debt or they continue what we call financial infidelity and keeping it a secret so the fact just as encouragement to you guys, that it is out in the open, it's talked about, he showed it, you guys are working on it together, is huge progress in and of itself because sadly there are a lot of couples out there that just don't communicate about it at all and it's just like running on two different paths. So if you're listening out there, the quicker you can combine your finances, the faster you're able to work as a team to get this paid off.

Yeah, the faster you're going to get out. And so Financial Peace University caused that conversation on this one-year-old marriage to deal with a 10-year-old shame. Yep. And you're right. That is a painful thing to work through. But the good news is they're doing it. I'm proud of you.

Well done. Folks, if you want some extra cash, ramsey summer cash giveaway is here we're giving away five hundred dollars every week to three lucky winners this may plus we're giving away a grand prize of three thousand dollars cash you can enter daily to win increase your chances to win of course there's no purchase necessary just go to DaveRamsey.com slash giveaway and enter. DaveRamsey.com slash giveaway. We're giving away three grand. You probably ought to do that.

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DaveRamsey.com slash giveaway. Deanna is with us in Canada. Hi, Deanna. How are you? Pretty good. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can we help i'm 50 this uh just turned 50 and

i'll be debt free this month and i just want to i don't think my retirement is the best it could be and i just need to know what i can do to boost that a bit okay so you're out of debt is that what you said next week this month yeah i'll be uh my mortgage is paid off i have a line of credit with a couple grand and i'll be paid off this month so you're 100 debt free and you're 50 years old way to go yeah thank you house and everything yes and vehicles are all paid off great Great. So what's your household income? I make $3,000 a month. Okay. So with no payments in the world, how much are you going to start investing?

Well, I started investing when I was in my 20s. No, now. You want to build up your retirement. How much are you going to put in there now? I can probably do $1,000 a month. Okay. Have you run any calculations on what that's going to be? No. No, I haven't.

Okay. Jump online, pull you up some investment calculators, and look at the investments that are available to you in Canada. I'm not that familiar with them. I know you guys have obviously a different retirement program or system than our 401K system in the States. And, you know, how are you going to invest that money is rss is that what it's called we have rsp rsp yeah i've been putting in since i was in my 20s and that's up to only about 110 000 do you have options to invest inside

of that no i don't think so. I do work for the government, and I have a public service pension plan as well when I retire. That's good. So you've got $150,000 plus that, but then you want to do some additional investing. So figure out what the return is on that level of investing and say $1,000 for 10 years.

That's how much you'll have at $60,000 a month. $1,000 a month for 15 years. That's what you'll have at $ thousand dollars a month thousand dollars a month for 15 years that's what you'll have at 65 and uh i think you're in really good shape chris hogan wrote a number one best-selling book called retire inspired i'm going to send you a copy of that because i think it fits right into where you are here's the thing you're not making a ton of money but you've done a really great job becoming debt-free. Yeah, which is just massive. When you're going into retirement, that means all the money you're getting is strictly for lifestyle and none of that is having to go pay off debt. And so getting yourself in that position is something we obviously encourage everyone to do. But the fact that you're there already and you

still have some investments, I mean, she said, what, $115,000? I mean, that's there. That's something that you've been doing. But really, I think the great thing about retirement that you're able to kind of back out the numbers is that it really is based on facts. You just have to do the math, back it out and say that plan in place and to know, okay, I should invest a little bit more, maybe a little less if I don't need as much and whatever you decide to do. But it's so fact-based, which will give you a lot of peace yeah it um when it's a this vague thing and it's like oh it just becomes a worry a panic a monster in the closet of you know the boogeyman under the bed right well even her calling in right now she hadn't run the numbers even and so so it's that idea once you

can control what you can control so we've been saying around this place a lot but it is true even with the retirement is to be able to say hey here's what i need here's what i, once you can control what you can control, that's what we've been saying around this place a lot. But it is true even with the retirement is to be able to say, okay, here's what I need, here's what I have, and you can work on facts. Yeah, the facts do clear up the emotions on that. So, yeah, jump online, do some calculators. You know what? If you'll go over to Chris Hogan's website, it'll do it for you. ChrisHogan360.com.

You can run the RIQ on it, your Retire Inspired quotient, your retirement IQ. And hold on. Kelly will pick up and we'll send you a copy of the book, Retire Inspired. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Please hear me loud and clear. The government is not going to bail you out of your student loans, at least not completely and not without a catch. What they're talking about only impacts federal, not private loans, and you need to take responsibility for what you owe and pay

your debt down quicker. Right now, Splash Financial is offering their lowest rates ever. With lower rates and extra payments, you could just find yourself debt-free in the next five years. Visit splashfinancial.com slash Ramsey Show. Charles is with us in Florida. Hey, Charles, welcome to the show. How can we help? Hey, Dave, thanks for your time. Sure, what's up?

I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Hey Dave, thanks for your time. Sure, what's up? Appreciate it. Yes sir, well, I guess I want to start off on a positive. First off, we started Financial Peace University about a year and a half ago. We paid off my wife's school loans and two small credit cards. Way to go, man. Yes sir, yes sir. About $12,000, more or less. I just got let go.

I'm a disabled vet, 100% disabled, but I can still work. I just got let go of a job. I thought it was a decent job. I'm actually working for veterans also. Actually, anyway, long story short i gotta let go i'm in the middle of a covid crisis and thank god we're good you know we are listening to you and we're able to stock up some money to help us through the summer here but i'm like uh all over all over the world in terms of jobs so i'm trying to look for a little clarity towards a job.

And I don't know if it's a job. You know, I was, in the beginning, I was a shoe salesman. I was in the Navy. I was a medic. I was an IT guy. You know, I got out of the Navy. I was in the ministry for 15 years. After that, I started, I've had a business, doing construction, you know, all kinds of things.

But, and I also want to, I got, cleaned up my education and got a career of writing degree, a master's of fine arts. So I'm just trying to figure out what to do next. And I'm 57, and I know I got at least, God willing, another 20 years of work, my belt or whatever, whatever God would have me to do. What's the nature, Charles, what's the nature of your disability? It's kind of a combination. I have problems with my lungs. I had two blood clots. I have a problem with my lungs. I had two blood clots. I've had different things like that.

Mainly it was the inflammation in my lungs that was causing inflammation in the rest of my body. It was attacking. It's an autoimmune deficiency situation where it was attacking the different parts of my body. That's kind of under control, but it kind of flares up sometimes. I have to watch out. I don't want to catch colds. I have to watch out for things like that. Yeah, I can imagine.

Good for you. Thank you for your service. I appreciate that. Thank you. So let's just start. Let's just back up. Like you said, you're all over the place. And and you got a big whiteboard in front of you it's blank called the next 20 years and a lot of people in the in the deck in the 20-year period of time that you're talking about

make the most money they've ever made in their lives because that's when all their different experiences and passions and those kinds of things come together and start asking yourself this is my encore you know the curtain went down the everybody's giving a standing ovation so the curtain goes up and you play your last couple songs here this is your encore career right that's what we call these and they're very very profitable and very very fulfilling if you put some thought into it um and so i would just back up on that whiteboard and go gosh i'm 18 years old again only i'm 57 i can do anything i want to do with the next 20 years you got a master's you've got this vast array of experiences what is it you would love to do and how do you go

about making some serious money doing that i gotta're not going to do it just for money. We're not going to do it just for love. We've tried both those. They didn't work. So this time I want to do it for love and money and go make some serious money doing what you love. And Rachel, Ken Coleman's materials are very, very helpful with that. Yeah, that's what I was just thinking about.

He talks about where your passion and your purpose intersect and finding that is where your joy comes with work, that passion and purpose. And so, yeah, his book is incredible in navigating this whole spectrum of figuring out what were you put on the planet to do. Like that is his passion and how he directs people, and it's really, really good. Yeah, Proximity Principle. We'll give you a copy of it. It's the number one bestseller.

And be sure to check out his webpage as well. He's got lots of materials there that are free downloadables that will help you, guide you through not only a job hunt, a resume build, and those kinds of things, but also just kind of help you figure what he calls a sweet spot out, where you figure out what your sweet spot is, and that's where your passions intersect your talents, and you're gonna you know and you need to find an application of that that makes money that's what it was talents not

purpose what did i say that's okay it's passion and passion and talent yeah or purpose and talent i forgot sorry ken i read your book i promise i'm messing up his principles he's probably right y'all he would be if he was in here. I know. I know. But that's okay. Ken Coleman, you can listen to his show, too, on podcast and on XM and about 40 radio stations around. But just go to KenColeman.com, and there's a bunch of downloadables there. We'll send you a copy of the book. But the whole idea is I'm really encouraged about where you are.

You got a lot of opportunity. And Rachel, in the coaching that we've done over the years and the people we've run into, we do see a lot of people in those decades right there make a ton of money. Yeah, and even just hearing his attitude through it, which I think is really encouraging even for people right now, that he has a disability. He talked about that, but there was like zero victim play in his mindset. Like he said, I can still go to work at 20 years ahead of me. And just that passion, you could just hear through his voice. I'm like, you know what? Like you're going to, you're going to do it.

And some people I always question, okay, are you going to, are you going to actually do it? Like you're saying you are, but I think that that's always encouraging of hearing someone really feel like that they can take a lead into their own life and decide what to do. Cause he's obviously made multiple decisions of what to do throughout his life with all the different careers but uh the fact that i i really think once you once you figure that thing out that brings in the money and brings the joy that's that's it that's that's the where that sweet spot is caitlin's in ohio hi caitlin welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How can Rachel and I help? Hi, Dave. How are you guys?

Great. How can we help? So I'm 25, and I'm debt-free. I'm working towards baby step three, towards saving about $10,000 is what I'm aiming for. But I'm in a serious relationship that's tracking towards marriage, and he's in a lot of debt. So my question is basically, what should my mindset be going forward in terms of setting aside money once we're married to contribute to his debt versus getting that emergency fund set up? Yeah, great question. What kind of debt is it that he has?

It's a lot. He's about 80 grand in student loans okay and then six grand in credit card debt um kind of from school and then he has 10 000 on one vehicle and 20 000 on another so he's got two vehicles yeah so the one he purchased previously and then his new job his employer required him to have a pickup truck and he had to buy it, but he was upside down on his other vehicle. So he's in the process of selling it and then financing that additional money that was on his first vehicle to then pay it down. Okay. So my question was, you know, some people say, yeah, they have a lot of debt and it's, you know, a hundred grand, but it's all student loans. This is obviously a mixture of that with consumer debt. So my big question is number one, have you guys talked about this? And number two, are you guys on the same

value system going into marriage that you're both willing to work to get out of debt? Is living debt free something that he wants as well? Yeah. So it's funny. I actually just started this conversation with him recently and obviously it's a touchy subject because it's funny. I actually just started this conversation with him recently. And obviously, it's a touchy subject because it's uncomfortable. But we've been pretty candid about it. And that's what I have said that we need to continue to have discussions. But he does ultimately want to be debt free. For sure. So, you know, it's tough and he doesn't come from a family. Like I've been very blessed financially with my family. And he comes from a line of bankruptcy and foreclosure. So I try to show him a lot of grace because he hasn't had the same advantages,

you know, in terms of having that mindset. Right. Yeah, so we talk about it. Yeah, that's great because you guys, you need to realize that money fights money problems. It is one of the leading causes of divorce in America today, and the stress of not being on the same page is really, really big. And the decisions he's made thus far are ones that don't line up to be completely financially

wise. Like you're saying, he didn't have the tools in his toolbox, maybe do it. But to really focus, I'd say keep your things, keep your money separate until the wedding, build up your emergency fund, continue the debt snowball. And you guys get married, combine it all. Next time you need a pickup truck, don't buy a $20,000 one when you're broke and $80,000 in debt. That would be like one of the things you could do.

That would be in the mix too. That's not to shame him, but I'm just saying, these are the things he has to learn. Hold on, we're going to put you two through Financial Peace University. I'll have Kelly pick up and we'll get you guys signed up as a couple. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. In the middle of these uncertain times, Ramsey Solutions wants to give you some hope. For the very first time ever, we're giving you Financial Peace University free for 14 days. Go to DaveRamsey.com so you can watch from home.