The Ramsey Show - App - An International Debt-Free Scream! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 4, 2019

Budgeting, Retirement, Debt, Savings   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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. We're so glad you're here.

Thanks for hanging out with us. And we're going to start off this hour with Bob in San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Bob, how are you? Dave, I'm doing great. It is a real honor to talk to you. I've been wanting to do this for years. I'm honored, sir. How can I help?

Well, I have about $76,000 of extra money. I'm debt-free, everything except for my mortgage. I don't owe money to anybody except for my home mortgage. I've even got 15% going into my 401K every month, and my son's college is about half funded already. So I've got this sum of cash, and I'm trying to figure out the best thing for it. I've got about a $181,000 mortgage. Okay. Well, what we teach folks to do is do what you've done. We follow a process, and whatever step you're on is where we throw the cash.

Maybe step one is $1,000. You've done that, saved. Two is debt-free other than the house. You've done that. Maybe step three is an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. You've done that. Maybe step four is an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. You've done that. Baby step four is 15% of your income going into retirement. You've done that.

So we're working our way right up the steps here. Baby step five is kids' college is half done, and six is the mortgage. So you've got five and six left to do, and I would throw the money at those things. How old is your child? He's 20. He's a sophomore in college right now. Okay. And so what do you need for him to finish school?

How much more money that you don't have? How much of the $76,000 do you need to put in the account for him to finish? Probably another, I'm estimating another $35,000. Okay. Put $40,000 in that account and put the other $36,000 on the mortgage. On the mortgage. Okay. I'm 57, and I've only got about $79,000 in my 401K.

Okay. But you're putting 15% of your income in there, and now college is done. 15% now, yes. Now college is done, and any other money you can find out of your income or anywhere else, we're going to throw at this mortgage until the mortgage is gone. As soon as the mortgage is gone, you're going to start plowing even more in. So what is your household income? $105,000.

Okay. So, I mean, if you save $15,000 a year for 15 years, you're going to be okay nest egg-wise. And that's about what you've got left to work, give or take. Okay. But you're going to save more than that because you're going to have that mortgage paid off long before you retire and you'll be able to put even more aside. So you'll end up with a net worth in excess of a million dollars when you retire, if you stay right on the path I'm giving you.

And you should have, it sounds like seven, 800,000 or more in your mutual funds at that point. Your 79% plus 15% will grow to that. So do 15% of your income, slow and steady, into good mutual funds. Get the match. Put it in Roth. When kids' college is done, check. Throw $36,000 at the mortgage. That leaves us $146,000, I believe it was, to go on there, give or take,

or something about like that left on that mortgage. How quick are we going to knock that out? You'll knock that out probably in about five years would be my guess. And then from there, you know, we're not going to be limited to 15% anymore. We're going to max out everything in sight, and that will put the icing on your retirement cake. So very, very well done. Hold on.

I'm going to send you a copy of Chris Hogan's book, Retire Inspired, number one bestselling book, and it'll show you the steps. And baby steps are in that book and my books as well, but that'll show you how this applies to your particular situation. George is in Frederick, Maryland. Hi, George. How are you Frederick, Maryland. Hi, George. How are you? I'm doing wonderful, Dave.

It's such a pleasure to talk to you. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I have a retirement question, but before I get to that, first I want to thank you for everything that you and your team have done. I was introduced to you about, not personally, but to your book and your FPU classes about two and a half years ago.

I taught my first classes. I went through it myself. And in about 10 months, my wife and I were able to become debt-free ourselves. Very cool. I've taught three classes since then and continue to teach so that I can stay in touch with the program itself. So thank you so much. Thank you.

Absolutely. So my question, I'm going to retire in 10 months. My wife and I are wanting to move from Maryland to North Carolina, and we want to build a custom home for ourselves, our dream retirement home. And I don't want to go into this with a mortgage, but when we sell our house here in Maryland, we're not going to have enough to cover the expense of building the house we want. So a quick run of numbers here. I'm going to have a pension of approximately $70,000 a year.

I've got about $762, approximately $70,000 a year. I've got about $762,000 in a deferred comp account. We have another $451,000 in IRAs, and I also have available to me a drop account, which will be fully funded when I retire, with approximately

$238,000. Way to go. I'm looking to pull out a... What's that? I said, well done. You're a millionaire. Way to go. Well done. I'm looking to pull out. What's that? I said, well done. You're a millionaire. Way to go. Oh, thank you.

Thank you very much. So how much is this house in North Carolina? Well, we don't know yet. From talking with the builders in the past, I'm going to assume it's going to cost me about $550,000 to build. We already owned a lot. What will the house in Maryland bring? After I have an existing mortgage right now with approximately $50,000 left, it'll be a little bit less than that, obviously, in 10 months when we sell.

So I'm going to say between $400,000 and $450,000. Well, you got almost all of it out of that, so you're going to put, what, $100,000 out of your $1.4 million net worth and pay cash for a house? Sure. Okay. Definitely. I was thinking up to $200,000 max.

Yeah. Because, you know, I figure construction costs always tend to run over, but you don't think that's going to be an issue? No. And give her $100,000 to furnish it with and shut up. You got it, man. You did it. How old are you?

I'll be 51 when I retire. Okay. Well, you know, I don't know. You may have to think about where we're pulling this money from to avoid the penalties. But I suspect you're probably – I mean, you did it. I can pull it from the deferred comp without penalties because there's no age restriction from the avoid the penalties. But I suspect you're probably, I mean, you did it. Well, I can afford the deferred comp without penalties because there's no age restriction from the deferred comp. Right.

Okay. You'll just have the taxes on, that's all. But your tax rate will be fairly low because your income will go down, of course. So, yeah. And then the next thing you've got to do is figure out what you're going to do for your encore because you're only 51. You're not going to fish for the rest of your life. Right.

I know that I'm going to work somewhere, because I do want to cash flow college. We have an additional $160,000 in mutual funds that's earmarked for our two-kids college. Man, you've done so good. Well done. Congratulations. Man, that's awesome. Wow. The other one of those everyday millionaires starting from nothing.

I'm talking net worth just under $2 million. Did you all do the addition while I was doing it? Well done, sir. Touchdown. Touchdown, baby. Woo-hoo. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down?

Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for

over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. We'll be right back. oh god it's monday they're looking out forward and they're thinking and there's two things that millionaires do they play offense and they play defense offense is they do the right things to build the wealth they do the investing to build the wealth you know investing in your mutual funds in your 401k investing in paid for real estate. They do these kinds of things. The defense is avoiding stupid stuff that calls you to lose everything, all the progress you've made. And so that's stuff like the right kinds of insurance,

the wills, all that kind of stuff. And so having a good solid financial plan is both offense and defense. And that is one thing we find. One of the data points we find with all these millionaires, they're really good at defense. And it sounds tedious. It can be, but we've got a thing to help you. It's free.

It's called the 5-Minute Coverage Checkup. So you get your phone out and you text the word CH up to 33 789 or go to Dave Ramsey.com slash check up but text the word check up to 33 789 or Dave Ramsey.com slash check up it's completely free and it'll really help you I mean it'll help you get that millionaire mindset going and that's what you've got to do Andrea Andrea is with us in Pasadena, California. Hi, Andrea. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thank you for having me on. I am so happy that we're able to speak with you. It's my husband and I, and we currently have two leases, which we know you're totally against. We've been listening to you about three months already. Okay. And just trying to see what our next step is. We have about $6,000 in credit card debt, and we have about $14,000 in savings. And we have these two leases, and I feel like they're really holding us back.

But we're just not sure what we can do with them. I mean, can we get rid of them? I'm just not really sure what to do. Right. Well, we can do some math and determine if you want to just ride them out or if you want to sell the car. Now, if you want to sell the car, here's what you would do. And you need to get this information gathered up. You need to call the fleece company and ask what the early buyout is meaning if i

wrote you a check today to get my title what would it be now it should be less than the total of your remaining lease payments plus the residual value of the buyout at the end okay and um so you get that number that's like the early payoff without the interest on a car payment. Okay? It's the same thing. The early buyout number. That's what you're looking for. And then you compare that to the value of the car.

Have you done that on any of these cars? Yes, we have on both of our vehicles. Oh, wow. Okay. So we've got the actual numbers. Well, let's talk about vehicle number one then. What's the early buyout? The early buyout is $33,000.

Okay, and what's the value on that car? The value of that car, I believe we looked at it, was like $25,000. Okay, and that's Kelley Blue Book private sale. Yes, yes, my husband just said it's $32,000. That's how much it's on Kelley Blue Book. I'm sorry, $32,000 or'm sorry 32 or 23 i made a mistake it's the early buyout is 33 and the kelly blue book number is 32 oh great not too far off okay so you'd only lose a thousand dollars by selling that car you'd only write a check for a thousand

dollars if you sold it for 32 but you had to give the lease company 33 to get the title you're a thousand in the hole, right? Right. Okay. Now, your lease payment is how much? Our lease payment is $542 a month. And how many payments do you have remaining? We have about 18 more payments.

Okay. All right. I'm just putting that in here. That's $9,576. Okay. So if you sell it today. That's $9,576. Okay. So if you sell it today, you lose $1,000. If you keep it, you lose $10,000. Yeah.

No-brainer. Sell it. Okay? Okay. You see how I did the analysis. Now, let's look at the second one then. All right? What's the value of the second one?

So the value of the second vehicle is $25, vehicle is 25 okay and what is the early buyout on it the early buyout on it apologies the early buyout is 25 okay you haven't done the kelly blue book amount but i'm sure it's way less i think actually my husband said he said 11 000 so that one we're really in the hole okay and what is the lease payment on it the lease payment is 230 dollars all right and how many of those are remaining 14 more payments okay so that um let's see here 230 and 14 times is 3200 if you keep the car till the end of the lease and hand them the keys, right? Yep.

That's 230 times 14, okay? And that one is somewhere around $14,000 in the hole today, okay? So you get to drive this car for free until the end of this lease on that one. You keep it because I'd rather lose $3,200 than $14,000, and I drive the car. Okay. You see what i'm doing yes so i'm comparing the total of your payments against the amount you're in the hole so that one that one i would probably keep if your husband's numbers are correct on the value i suspect there i suspect you're going to keep it anyway because i don't think he's going to be that far off. I mean, we've got a $14,000 deficit right now if his 11 value is right. But even if he's half wrong, it's still a $7,000 deficit versus $3,000 to keep it. So that one we keep.

Okay. And you pay it out. Now, is it over on miles? No, that one's way under on miles. Okay. miles no that one's way under on miles okay and the wear and tear you're going to keep it up so you're not going to have to write a check when you turn it in 14 months from now no they're both well that one's in great condition okay good good yeah that one uh you see how i did that analysis yes yeah that really clears it up for us we were really struggling with what to do

yeah i'm keeping that one and you know what i would do is move on past uh baby step two once you've gotten rid of the the big car the more expensive one and once you've gotten rid of all your other debts except this but if you still had this one with the 230 payment we're just renting a car all the way through the end here and you might as well keep the car you get no advantage to turning it in early right right you're going to write the three thousand two hundred and twenty dollars worth of two hundred and thirty dollar payments no matter what you do so you might as well drive the dadgum car you know and um if you want to put thirty two hundred dollars aside extra in your emergency fund just to make sure you got that plus your emergency fund covered to call yourself in baby step two and three, then that's fine. But that's how you do the analysis on whether to keep a lease or not.

And most of the time, unless you're close to the end of the lease, you're going to be selling the car. And that's what happened with the more expensive one there. It's killing you. Now, that one was a beast bite you so good question thank you for joining us if you've never heard the saying it's kind of a country saying you're getting fleeced which means it's it's like a sheep getting its fur removed, that's where it comes from, you're getting ripped off is what fleeced means. That's why I call them car fleeces. Because if we take the value, the original market value of that car,

that $33,000 car on the expensive one there for those folks, and I put that 542 into a calculator, and then I put the end value into a financial calculator with residual value at the end in other words the residual value is what you can buy the car for at the end of the lease your game's up number at the end of the lease you put those numbers into the calculator you can back out what the effective interest rate is and most of the time it's around 14 they They call it cost of capital, and they don't have to disclose the interest rate, the APR, to you.

You know, if you get a car loan, you get this truth in lending sheet that the Federal Trade Commission makes them show you the APR, the annual percentage rate that you're being charged. But when you're leasing, it's technically not debt under the law. And so, because you're renting the car. And so they are not required federally to disclose the cost of capital or the interest rate. But you can figure it out with a calculator and it'll make you puke. I mean, it's ridiculous.

That's why we call it leasing. It's the most expensive way to operate a car. The car lease is a disaster. It's a disaster as a financial decision. And if you just do the math, you can understand why I'm saying this is the

Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Chris and Ashley are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave. Welcome. Where do you all live? We live near Toronto in Canada. All right. Love it.

Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. Thank you. And all the way here from Canada to do a debt-free screen. Exactly. This is an international debt-free screen. It is. I love it.

How much have you paid off? We paid off $113,000 in just under three years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? Started at about $72,000, and now we're just under $100,000. Good for you. What do you guys do for a living? I work in roads now, so I do pavement assessments and ash.

And I'm a real estate assistant. Very good. Fun, fun. How long have you two been married? Been married just over three years, like three and a half years. Okay. And what kind of debt was the $113,000? We had a car, line of credit, credit card.

Family loan to my dad for our house. So you guys were pretty normal. Pretty normal, yeah. You just guys were pretty normal. Pretty normal. You just owed everybody. Exactly. Wow. And then you get married, and something happened, and boom, we're on this three-year journey, almost from the honeymoon on to get debt-free, right?

Yeah. Tell us what happened. Tell us your story. Well, like most stories, it starts at the bachelor party. No, my best friend Brad, who I've been friends with since I was four, we finished watching a hockey game going out for dinner and we're standing around talking.

He's a cop, so he's in his car all day. And I said, you know, I'm in my car all day for work. I was, you know, I'm getting bored of music. I'm like, is there anything else you listen to? We kind of grew up the same. Family's never talked about money, anything like that. And he said, you know, there's this guy, Dave Ramsey. I listen to these financial talks. And he said, you know, there's this guy, Dave Ramsey. I listened to these financial talks and I said, you know, I guess I listened to that.

And that was about two months before we got married, just after we had literally just bought our car as well. So it's horrible timing, but it was great. And I listened to your podcast every day for about two months and I wanted to buy your book but Brad said uh you know I'm getting that for your marriage so you know you get that as a wedding gift oh okay yeah so literally we got married came back from the honeymoon and started right away and every dollar had just come out then so very cool so Ashley um your your fiancee starts listening to a podcast and loses his mind um what did you say about all this? I was happy. I love plans, and I like knowing what I'm doing and where I'm going, and I just like it just like that.

Okay, so it was kind of a dream come true for him to get a clue. Yeah. Like I thought I had a plan, but it wasn't a plan. Gotcha. Okay. And you said her dad was happy? I'm pretty sure, because I remember before I ever met you, I sat down with him and showed him a pretty crazy-looking Excel sheet of how kind of our life was going to work.

We thought it was a budget. Yeah, we thought it was a budget before I knew. And he was nice and didn't roll his eyes in front of you. Exactly. Yeah, good. Way to go, you two. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I would say the budget and just telling your money where to go and making it do what you want it to do instead of it saying you have to pay this, pay that, pay this.

So the budget was really key. How does it feel now that you don't have any payments, Ashley? I feel invincible. I like it. I like that word. I feel like we can do anything. Touchdown. I like it.

Oh, very cool. Very cool. It's crazy. She's the latest Avenger. This is great. This is great. This is great. So, Chris, what about you?

What is your key to getting out of debt? What do you tell people? The budget and what else? Yeah, probably, like, that being intentional with your money. I think all my life I just knew how to make money and spend it. And then all of a sudden with that budget and just your plan, I was like, man, this is crazy. Like this is crazy how much life can change. I go like, it's just insane.

I remember the first time we ever did our budget thinking, we make a ton of money. I'm like, this is, I did not think we made this much and we could do this. Yeah, it's just. It does give you hope, doesn't it? The first time you sit down, you kind of have that moment, feel like I got a raise, I can do this.

For sure. And now we're on, we just started step four last month. So that was the first time where we're going, man, this is just unreal. We're going to be millionaires. Yeah. Well, you are. You really are. I mean, it really does happen all the time.

This is pretty amazing. Very cool. So did you tell a lot of people you were doing this or you were quiet about it? Think of the first month. Like, I was so bad with money growing up. For the first month or, like, year, maybe kind of kept it just with Ash. And then after that, my sister, who's also here, she kind of started asking me questions because she knew I was bad with money, going, you know, what are you doing?

And I'd give her all your books because we, they go in the whole library. So, but then slowly told my mom, dad. So who was your biggest cheerleader then? I would say his sister and then Brad and Leanne who told us about you. Got it. Would be our biggest cheerleaders. Very, very cool. Very cool.

Congratulations, you guys. Thank you. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. And that is, of course, the next chapter in your story for you to be millionaires. And we've got one chapter, debt-free. Next chapter, millionaires. Next chapter, be multimillionaires and be giving it away. I love it.

So well done, you guys. Very, very well done. Congratulations. I'm proud of you. Thank you. You're our kind of people around here, man, even if you are from Canada. We're glad you're here, man. Thanks for visiting.

Chris and Ashley from Ontario, Canada, Toronto, Canada area. $113,000 paid off in three years, making $72,000 to $100,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Okay. Three, two, one. We're dead free! There you go, baby.

Woo! I love it. Yeah! Touchdown. Oh, there is nothing that feels like being free. There's nothing like that. Wow! Think about it. Think about it. feels like being free. There's nothing like that. Wow. Think about it.

Think about it. If you had been married three years and you had no payments. Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish. It took me a long time to figure this out. I wasn't smart enough to figure it out as early as they did. Well, Dave, I wasn't either. I'm 56. I know in three years you'll be 59, so you might as well do this stuff.

You might as well be free. You might as well make the decision. When are you going to make the decision? Your most powerful wealth-building tool is your income. When you spend the average car payment, which which is 506 over 84 months right now according to the national auto dealers association when you spend the average car payment instead of spending it on a stupid car pay cash for your cars this is what rich people do pay cash for your cars is what rich people do i pay cash for my cars if i was rich people no

darling you will be rich people when you start paying cash for your cars may mean you drive junk for a little while then you drive a little better junk a little better junk you move up but right now we're going to pay cash and instead of putting 500 towards the prosperity of ford motor credit you're going to put it towards your prosperity and if you pick 506 504 you put a mutual fund mutual fund in your Roth IRA that's got a good track record from age 30 to age 70, you'll have between $5 and $6 million in that account. Touchdown! I hope you like the car.

How many of you are driving a $5 million car? Raise your hand if you're driving a $500 car payment. That's what you're driving. And when we look up stupid in the dictionary, we'll see your picture. Yeah, that's what you're driving. And when we look up stupid in the dictionary, we'll see your picture. Yeah, that's right. Because you're financing something that's going down in value to impress people at a stoplight you'll never meet. That just makes you stupid.

I know because I was stupid. Some of the people I talk to here on the air are stupid. And some of you just listening today are stupid. It's okay to be stupid. It's just not okay to stay there i've been there i just didn't want to set up camp you know you got to move on you got to do something different because when you don't have any payments when you don't have a car payment you turn yourself into a millionaire then you never have a car payment and then your

kids will never have a car payment and then your grandkids will never have a car payment and we're going to change this freaking family tree now the, the other branches, the Ramseys, they can do whatever they want. But this branch, this branch right here, it's going to have fruit on it. This branch right here, we're not in the business of supporting banks. We're not in the business of keeping the car companies open. We're in the business of blessing our family and people around us. And we have the money to do that. Why?

Because we got out of debt touchdown baby no payments think about what if you didn't even have a house payment what if you gave sally may the boot and sent her to the curb instead of giving her her own bedroom for the last 15 years some of you you think sally may's your aunt she is not your aunt she is a ugly woman an ugly old woman and needs to go to the curb. Evict her butt. What are you keeping her around for? She eats too much.

She eats and eats and eats. She's got her own seat at your kitchen table. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Kick her out. It's time. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Our Scripture of the Day, Galatians 6-9 Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Maya Angelou said, you may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, and how you can still come out of it. John is with us in York, Pennsylvania. Hey, John, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hey, what's up? So I have a question about my car policy with work, or my car allowance, rather.

If my car is a specific color, I get a higher car allowance. Color? I don't want to sell my, yes, the color of my car is a specific color, I get a higher car allowance. Color? I don't want to sell my, yes, the color of my car. Company policy. Must be the company color. It's one of the company colors, yes, but it's not like some random color. The color is actually white. My car is currently like a metallic black.

And I know I've listened to you for a little while now, and I've heard you say you don't put money into things that go down in value. So what I've been considering doing is wrapping my vehicle with like a vinyl, and that would increase my car allowance each month. It would take me roughly 10 months of that additional allowance to make back what it cost me to wrap the vehicle. Okay, so how much is your car allowance now, and how much does it go up if it's white? It's about $350 a month now, and it goes up about $300 extra if it's white. You get $650 versus $350?

Correct. What is their motivation for that? I'm honestly not quite sure. I've got to know. Who's the company? Oh, I can't say over the radio. Okay. All right.

So it's a major national company? No, it's actually not. It's in Baltimore, Maryland. It's a fuel company. Okay. That's in Baltimore, Maryland. It's a fuel company. Okay. That's wild. All right. Okay.

So what's your car worth? My car, well, so that's a loaded question, but I'll give you the quick story, is that I purchased a car and didn't realize that it was a buyback. So when I went to trade it in a while ago, I couldn't get what it was worth. So the dealer wanted to give me like $20,000, not even $20,000. It was really worth closer to $32,000. So I don't want to sell it. I don't want to get a different car.

You want to wrap it. And it costs like three grand to wrap it. Correct. Interesting. My wife and I have the cash to do it if we need to. Do you have any debt? It wouldn't be just this car yet. I still owe $20,000 on this car, roughly.

And do you drive a lot for work? I do. I drive about an hour every day back and forth, two hours total. Wow. But that's a commute. Correct. Wow. Okay.

But you're not like on the road for work? Not a whole lot, just a little bit. Okay. What's your household income? We're about $165,000, roughly. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. You'll get your money back in 10 months.

It's a break-even. If you get fired inside of 10 months, you lose money on this, but it sounds like you feel like the job's pretty stable. Right. And so if you do and you don't mind driving a car that is wrapped, and, of course, you can unwrap it and clean it easily when you get ready to sell it. Yeah, and I'm told the wrap lasts roughly seven years, so it looks like any other regular painted car apparently.

Yeah, if it's done right, it can. It's almost like a skin. It kind of protects the paint, actually. Wow. That's wild. That's bizarre. I know. I thought it would be a great question for you.

It's different, that's for sure. So, yeah, I believe I would do that. Pay cash for it, certainly. We're not going to do anything with that. And then take your wonderful income and get this stupid car paid off as soon as possible if you're going to drive it, because you're obviously putting a lot of miles on it just with your commute, if nothing else. But, yeah, sure. They're willing to double your car allowance almost.

Wow. That's amazing. All right. Ramsey is with us in Maryland. Hi, Ramsey. How are you? Hey, Mr. Ramsey. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. How can I help? Well, first, I just want How are you? Hey, Mr. Ramsey. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? Well, first, I just want to let you know, you know, you're really inspirational to me, and I'm kind of trying to get my friends involved in listening to you and, you know, plan our young adult lives the right way. So thank you for what you're doing for everybody. Well, thank you, sir. How can I help today?

So my girlfriend and I are currently renting, and through listening to you and getting inspired, we've decided to move home for about a year or two to do some really hardcore saving. Our goal is in the next three years to get a ring, get a wedding, and get a house. How old are you? So my question to you is, you know, we currently, debt-wise, all we have is our vehicles, $20,000 each on each vehicle. And we want to go and we want to maximize our savings. And I'm trying to convince us to maybe get rid of the vehicles, although I love my car very much, and so does she. What is your opinion on, you know on getting rid of those to maximize saving for the next two years? How old are you?

I'm 26, and she's 25. Okay. And what do you make a year? I make $90,000. What does she make? She's currently making $40,000, although she's in school for nursing and will graduate in the next two years and hopefully make another $90,000. Okay.

What would be wrong with just getting married? Well, we've been together coming up on two years, and I really want to hit that two-year mark and, you know, at least have that under our belts before committing. And also, I'd like to save up enough money to pay for the wedding in cash, which would take about a year. You make $90,000. And she makes $40,000. Listen, you do whatever you want to do. It's certainly cool.

And I appreciate you being a listener. The way I answer questions on this show is what would I do if I was 26 years old and I was in your shoes? I would sell both cars and I would get married tomorrow. Okay. Well, she'd love that answer, and I appreciate that. And then if you want to celebrate six months from now with a huge celebration that looks like a wedding, after you went to the Justice of the peace or the preacher or whatever on the cheap right now and you save up a bunch of money and uh you're married yeah i mean after two years dude

you know you just got all these other things you got all these other things swimming around in your heads all and you got to decide if this is the girl that you're willing to move back home for and you're willing to sell the car for and you're willing to save money and all this other stuff, then this is the girl. You know, get married. It's time. Do it. If this is it, game on. And because you guys can work out of the debt on the cars or you can work out of her.

She's going to make a great income as a nurse. You're making 90 grand. You're making a lot of money for a 26-year-old. You're doing great. You got a good income. You're thinking about this. you're using critical thought process you're way ahead of your friends in that sense and so all i'm doing is just saying take action you can do this get married sell the both cars and then start saving like a crazy person and have a big celebration six months

from now called a wedding that's after a wedding. It's after the wedding thing, the wedding after the wedding thing. And then save up and buy some cars. And finish up her school, and it's game on. You guys are going to be very, very wealthy if you learn to set priorities and execute on decisions. No, I don't think you need to backtrack and move on. You're 26. You're too far along. You got things going.

You're making good money. There's nothing need to backtrack and move home. You're 26. You're too far along. You got things going. You're making good money. There's nothing holding you back here except some decisions. That's the only thing holding you back. You guys are rock stars, man. You got it on the run, Ramsey. Good job, man. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jeff is on Twitter.

Dave, my wife and I are debt-free, including the mortgage. Wow. First child's due in February. Should we be doing any additional investing or just saving? Household income, $115,000. No. You have your emergency fund in place, you're debt-free, including the mortgage? Way to go.

And you got $115,000 income? No, you're going to be just fine. When a baby's born, if you want to start your 529 or your ESA, your educational savings account at that point, when you get the social security number, which you have to have to do those two things on the baby, then, and they have to be born to get that. So there you go. Then, you know, you can move forward at that point. But right now, I think you're doing great.

Thanks for following us on Twitter, Jeff. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there is ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, guys, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rantz, debt-free screens, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Rantz Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.