The Ramsey Show - App - Are Russia & China Going To Destroy The US Economy? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss:   EveryDollar, budget for the life you want today for free: Click Here "Will BRICS put the strength of the US Dollar in jeopardy?" "What should I do about my student loans?" Check out the Ramsey Student Loan Hub for tips, tools, and the fastest way to pay off your student loans, "Should I pay off my car or house first?" "How can I stay gazelle intense in Baby Step 2?" "Should I repair or replace my car?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance to win $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSCashGiveaway Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: Click Here Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: Click Here Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? Click Here Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Jade Walsh, our Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. We're glad you're with us.

This is your show. We talk about you right in front of you. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Kevin is starting off this hour in Nashville. Hi, Kevin. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. How can we help? I've got a question about the dollar seemingly's a highly anticipated summit that they're doing on August 22nd, and people are expecting them to announce their own gold-backed currency. They say these five nations represent 40% of global GDP, and Saudi Arabia is throwing their hat in the ring with them. So the rumors are if Saudi joins them and drops the dollar, then we lose the petrodollar, and every country that holds treasury bonds to buy oil from the Saudis gets their dollars,

and all those dollars come home and cause catastrophic inflation. How much of this is substantial? What do you think about BRICS? Is there any real threat here or anything to do to prepare, or is it just another passing bit of fear-mongering? Well, I think there's a lot of discussion about it, particularly if you read too much on the Internet. But you're asking my opinion, and that's worth really everything you're paying for it. My opinion is that Russia and China probably can't get the Saudis to the table

because the Saudis are probably way too smart to think they're going to undermine the U.S. economy. Oh, by the way, undermining the U.S. economy would not be profitable for all of those other countries because they're supported by the U.S. economy. And so if 40% of the GDP kills 60% of the GDP, kind of kills the whole thing. It's stupid. So no, they're not going to kill themselves by killing us. That's economically. It's counterproductive. And the idea that you can get all of those communists to line up and not try to shoot each other is going to be humorous on the long play. They might be able to do it in one day in August, but are they actually going to pull this off? Listen, they couldn't pull the euro off in Europe to the level that it had any effect on anything.

And those people all get along versus the group you're talking about so i think it's a you know they they're working on it but i don't think that the chances that it's going to change your life or change my life is there personally if it did do everything you're talking about i don't prepare for meteorites i don't have a meteorite plan if a meteorite strikes the earth and kills everything i don't have a plan for that and i don't have a meteorite plan if a meteorite strikes the earth and kills everything i don't have a plan for that and i don't have a plan for apocalypse like you're talking about so uh there's not one by the way uh because what you have then is you have a total economic and governmental collapse and the only plan then that works is bottled water and bullets. Gold is a joke because no one trades gold bars in the middle of a collapsed economy. And certainly no one trades paper money in a collapsed economy.

But the U.S. government, our way of life as we know it, private property rights as we know it, all the real estate I own would be taken by the next guy with a gun. And so, you you know bullets and water is how you'd survive i guess but i just don't believe i'm not i i am not stockpiling either uh except that bullets go up too fast in price and i shoot a lot but i but that's not that's your role but that so all that to say i'm not sitting and wringing my hands over it i do have some um friends that spend too much time reading that crap that are wringing their hands over it.

But I had a big argument with one of them the other night. I'm like, dude, you really need to get off the internet. Yeah. And so because you can't, A, you can't do anything about it if it actually all unfolded the way you did. But B, the theory is broken. And the broken parts of the theory is that you can get all these people to agree and number and stay agreed because they're evil at their core evil

people cannot continually agree because they serve themselves and don't serve others and so it can't you can't find unity in that long term number two if they represent 40 of the economy and they use 40 of the world's economy, which I'm not sure that number is accurate. I think that's pretty high. But if it was that, and if they destroyed 60% of the economy by doing this, then they've destroyed themselves in the process because everything they do hinges on the U freaking S. Hello.

I mean, it really does. And that's economic mathematics. So I'm not worried about it i'm a i'm a control the controllables type gal yeah you know like you that's like one of those serenity prayer moments where it's like i just need the serenity to realize i can't control this i'm not i have no idea if there's aliens yeah yeah and ufos and if they take over i mean i guess I guess I'm going to call Will Smith because I don't, you know, I can't, I don't have a plan for that one, you know? Yeah, I don't control what Saudi Arabia does.

There's probably aliens. I'm guessing there is. Come on, Dave. I don't know. Or somebody throws a lot of Frisbees in front of cameras. I'm not sure which. But, you know, I have no idea. And you know what? The time I'm going to spend worrying about it is really close to zero, Kevin.

I feel that. Really close to zero. So I appreciate your question and it was earnest and honest question. I honestly do not spend any of my time planning my personal finances or my life around the end of the world. That's right. End of the world scenarios. And I have also made one other promise. A lot of guys in the financial world, when they get old like me, they write the end of the world financial book.

There's something about people in my world. You're not going to predict the end, Dave? They get paranoid and they predict the end of the economy. They predict the end of the world. And there's a lot of old financial people that did that and i'm not gonna do that one either i told my kids take to unplug the computer if i start writing about the end of the financial world so i'm i'm the glass half full control the controllables yeah i think we're gonna be okay and i'm not making fun of you kevin it an honest question. And the numbers you gave me were very precise and accurate.

And other than I think those guys are overstating. Well, of course, they're Russians. They're egos. They overstate everything. I mean, the only bigger drama queen than a Russian is an American. So, I mean, they're drama queens. So, of course, they're acting like they've got something they haven't got. You know, they're starving to freaking death.

The whole communism thing. Oh, here's another one for you. I read a credible economist the other day who said, in 20 years, you're going to worry anything about China. You know why? They got no workers. That's a good point. Their birth rate hasn't been negative for two decades

because they're controlling the birth rate. And so the number of people that are going to be eligible in the workforce is gone. That's a very good point. So their ability to be a major economic player in 25 years, very low. They killed themselves with their birth rate issue. This is The Ramsey Show. Jade Walshaw, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Thanks for being with us. Our question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. Home improvement isn't always about repairs or remodels. Sometimes it's about comfort. Neighborly's Mosquito Joe service can handle your outdoor pest control and make it fun and comfortable to go outside all season long. Visit Neighborly.com to find a service near you. Today's question comes from Roger in Oklahoma. He says, I have two

bachelor degrees, the second in nursing with $180,000 in student loans. I travel nursed during COVID and was able to save up a lot of cash and haven't touched it knowing that the debt pause would be ending soon. I just took a clinical specialist role with a great company and I'm on track to get into sales in the next two years. I'll be making $125,000 salary and I currently have $100,000 in cash spread around secure investing accounts, making a guaranteed 4.6% growth year over year. I'm asking for any guidance on how to approach these student loans. I'm engaged and do not want to bury my finance with student loans. All right, good question. I'm glad that he started saving up money, knowing that he was going to have to pay off these loans. I kind of wish he had just went ahead and made the payments instead of,

you know, keeping it there. But it looks like he's got $100,000 saved. It sounds like it's just in an HYSA based on the rate, even though he said they're investing accounts. Would you agree with that, Dave? Could be, could be be bonds I don't know hmm if it doesn't matter whatever it is I would liquidate that and I would today pay off these student loans I mean you're gonna have 25k let's see you're gonna have 80k left and you can just you are gonna burden your fiance with student loans if you're getting married anytime soon because you're making 125 25 and you still got 80k in debt uh-huh but depending on when y'all are getting married you might have if you take this job and you hustle your butt off you might could have this paid off before you get married if the if the wedding is a year away i don't know but the the truth of the

matter is go ahead and pay them off and for anybody by the way if you've got cash a lump sum of cash i don't care how much cash it is if you've got cash sitting there and you're saying to yourself hey i don't want to pay this off but you've got debt it's not real it's not real like basic math tells you if you've got 80 000 in debt and you've got 80,000 in debt and you've got 80,000 saved you got zero that 80,000 saved is it's just an illusion so throw the hundred at the debt today today today today today quit screwing around and trying to figure out a way to scheme out of this you got to pay it off and you got to roll up your sleeves and go headlong into it like a crazy man that's right here's the other thing dude 125 000 clinical specialist uh is that a little you're still a nurse uh so you're now working er on the weekends there you go we're gonna add another 40k to your income because you

don't want to be a burden to your fiance and you're gonna live on beans and rice rice and beans nothing no eating out no travel no nothing yeah you get this mess cleaned up you made a mess mess mess before you start anything you got to clean up the mess mess mess yeah so here's what we're gonna do we'll work like a maniac and we're gonna live on nothing and you're gonna pay this on pay this loan off pay this hundred thousand that's right today nothing nothing remember that commercial nut he's gonna go into that wedding with nothing honey And you're going to pay this loan off, pay this $100,000 today. Nothing. Nothing. Remember that commercial? He's going to go into that wedding with nothing, honey. That's it.

Oh. You remember that? Some cereal. Yeah. They can serve that at the reception. Some nothing, honey. That's what I'm bringing. That's the debt I'm bringing into this marriage.

Nothing, honey. I know. That's it. There you go. We just made up a thing. We did. Look at that. All right. So, yeah. You can pay this off, but you go we just made up a thing we did look at that all right so yeah you can pay this off but you're gonna work like a maniac and you're gonna live like

people think you joined a cult yeah and you're gonna go cray cray here get this knocked out man and let's address that wedding you don't need to spend a bunch on the wedding you need to knock out these loans and let me tell you about the spirit of I'm going to invest and make a spread of 4.6%. Let me tell you what that got you. Nothing. Nothing, honey. In one year, if you had zero on your student loans, which is what you had, and you made 4.6% on $100,000, you know what you made? $4,600.

Well, aren't you impressive you still got a eighty thousand dollar freaking problem while you're screwing around with these little flippy do's that don't do anything a whole four thousand dollars on a hundred grand yeah whoopee yeah you didn't do nothing get it paid off now and lean in that's what you do this is let me tell you guys the when you start being i'm a math nerd extraordinaire and i tried for years to try to get the math to outsmart the debt and the only way you knock out the debt is you punch it in the nose repeatedly that's it it's that's it and if that doesn't work hit it with a club if that doesn't work, hit it with a club. If that doesn't work, stab it with a knife. Kill it.

Kill it. Kill it. Dead dead. This is someone robbing your home. We are merciless. Yeah. Okay? No.

No. Quit screwing around with some kind of little $4,000 math riddle. Yeah. And act like you did something. Pay off your debt now everyone listen to this this is how you get out of debt you get this thing in your voice where you go that's it i've had it and that's when you it doesn't move until you do that move doesn't move it doesn't move come on dave gotta get pissed it doesn't work until you do man i'm trying to figure this out with my little

math nerd brain and all i did was make a mess all right roman is in orlando hi roman how are you hey mr dave how you doing better than i deserve how can i help uh yes hi ms jade hey what's going on question uh oh not much my question is um should i stop or reduce my contributions to my 457 in order to pay off my mortgage sooner rather than later? And by sooner, I mean probably by February of next year, which is when my third child is due. Your mortgage? Correct. How come it says car on my screen? Because it was either the mortgage or the car, but my wife told me, no, the mortgage, not the car. And I was like, oh, okay. Your wife's wrong.

It's probably a novel idea for her, but she's wrong. Yeah, so that was part of the question was that I forgot to mention that. Yeah, I noticed that. If you're in Baby Step 2, you would pause investing contributions. And you would attack your car loan. Yes, because that would be part of Baby Step 2. So that's how that works. You pay off the car.

What do you owe on your car? 24. And what's your household income? Single income, about $120,000. Okay. Let's get it. Good. And what do you owe on your house?

$48,000. Okay. $1,000. Yeah. We're going to pay off the car. Do you have any money in savings? We do, actually. We have $35,000 in savings, and $20,000 of that is a no touching and 20 of that is a pay off your car pay off your

car today now write a check tonight pay off the car stop your four and then you don't have stop your 457 by the way you build your emergency fund so baby you you're fairly new to us roman and we're picking on you i'm sorry you because you don't you don you. I'm sorry. Because you don't know all this stuff. You just walked into the bear's den. Yes, you did. You did. I'm sorry. So let's start again, and we'll start nice.

Okay, here's nice. Now, what we teach is a thing called the baby steps. And the first step is $1,000 saved. You've done that. Step two is to become debt-free other than your home. This is the fastest way to wealth wealth as proven by the largest study of millionaires ever done okay so this is not a game and it's not an accident it's not something we made up because we're on youtube or some crap okay this is stuff we've been doing for 30 years

and we've led more people out of debt and into wealth than anybody else this is the process we use maybe step two is pay off everything but your house. That would be your car in your case, and you have the money, oddly enough, in your account to write a check today and do that, right? Yes, yes, we do, actually. So now you're debt-free. Now, then baby step three, other than your house, baby step three is have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses.

If you don't quite have that left over after you pay off the car, let's round that up real quick. Maybe step four is 15% of your income going into retirement. I would prefer a 401k or Roth IRAs over a 457. A 457 is just deferred comp. So I'd prefer to do that unless you're getting a match there. That wouldn't be my first stop um and then with any money i can find the budget i'm gonna knock out this little bitty mortgage you got and i'll be on your wife's team at that point but it takes me a while to get to your wife's team hey thanks for calling in man this is the ramsey show jade washall ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225 jade i gotta do a better job remembering so many people calling her brand new yeah because like a whole bunch of

new listeners out there like bazillions of them bazillions thank you guys for spreading the word out there we appreciate it if you subscribe to show, if you click the subscribe button, click the follow button on your podcast or YouTube or however it is you're doing it, it helps us a bunch because it pushes us to the front. We're now in the top 12 Apple podcasts, as an example, in the entire world. There's 4 million and some change podcasts right now. We're number 12 this week so thank you and we know that that's you guys doing that you're sharing it you click the share button you're telling people about it you're telling people listen to your local talk radio station we appreciate that anywhere you're picking us up tell people where we are drop a five-star review

if that's available to you as well that's's very helpful. And so we're getting all these brand new listeners, and I got to be nicer to them. Well, we've got to remind them. We don't want to kill the new listeners. It's counterproductive. That's true. We have to teach them more than we can yell at them. Yeah. Well, I just don't want to kill them.

I mean, we can yell at them, but we can't kill them. Yeah, I like yelling. I'm not going to lie. It's fun. You like yelling too, David gonna lie it's it's fun it's you like yelling too david midget i i just tried to be nice and look at what you're doing all right samantha is in salt lake city hey samantha what's up hey dave hey jade how are you two better than we deserve what's up yes I'm so glad I get to talk to both of you. So a little background. I am 37 years old, and I'm just getting to Baby Step 1.

I'm working on it. But I've also been a long-time listener since, like, 2019. So I'm not new to the game. Okay. I actually got to talk to you, Dave, a couple of years ago. Was I nice? And you were very nice. Good. You were very nice, but very direct. And that's what I appreciate. That's what we want to be. We want to tell you the truth today. Yes. Yes. And I appreciate that. I love your show. I listen to it

all the time. The reason I'm calling today is it's hard to be motivated, even though I know that I need to do this and I know that it's going to change my life for the better. I'm working so much and it's getting to the point where I'm like working so much and I'm not spending a lot. And I mean, I get why I need to do that. But I guess my question is more for jay today because i know jade's story and jade i just wanted to ask you directly when you're in that debt and you were trying to get out of it what was the main motivation for you when you were like oh this this is like draining it so hard to just work and not spend what kept you motivated kept going how long you've been doing this um hardcore where you're working all the time and not spending about six months okay okay thank you

um to answer your question i had i had a couple of things i had a very crystal clear picture in my mind of what my life was going to look like on the other side. Very, very clear. It was me walking down a street, walking my son to school. I knew the way I felt. I was, I had no debt. I was living in a home that we were affording. I was in a situation of autonomy. I had a very, very clear picture and it was peace and it was totally not my current situation because at the time there was no way I would be buying a house because I had so much debt. You know the story. So having that picture there is so important and no one can find that for you. You've got to dig deep and figure out like, why am I doing this? Am I doing

this? Because it, you know, there's got to be something beyond the math generally now for some people math is enough but you gotta have a why you gotta have something in there that is driving it's it's it's um it's not optional it must happen i definitely have a why okay what's your why it's hard to stay focused on that sometimes my why is to be able to just have peace, like you guys talk about all the time, financial peace, being able to go into a restaurant and not look at the price and just order what you want. Or, you know, like going to a grocery store and I'm in line and then the person behind me, you know, is a mom that has two kids and I'm like, you know what? She's got to turn off the groceries, I'll just take care of that.

You know, just to be outrageously generous and be... How old are you? Samantha, how old are you? 37 years old. Okay. Are you married? No, I have a fiancé that we've been together for about three years, and that's mainly, he's my biggest why.

Okay. And I want us to both be a power couple and be able to, you know, conquer the world together. And we can only do that with being financially stable. And he's awesome. He's got like $30,000 in the bank, no no debt he uh has over hundred thousand dollars in 401k how much do you have in debt i have about thirty thousand dollars in debt and what do you make what do you make about um actually i have a pull-. I think I make $2,200 a month. And so I make $33,600. What do you do?

I do a lot. What's your main gig? A technical support for a diabetes company. I work from home. And that pays $25,000? It pays $18 an hour. Okay. And I work full time. Okay.

And Is that what you want to be doing? Is that what you... I mean I mean yes I definitely find purpose in my job because I get to talk to people and get to help them all the time. And I'm also diabetic, so I can relate to the customers.

Is there something that, I want to challenge you with a couple of things. One, is there something that you could do in that same field where you're helping people, you're helping diabetics, you're relating to people where they are, where you can earn more money? Because I think that you can, I think your skill set's more valuable than $25,000 yeah I did too like I've been in customer service for a long time um but yeah like I I've been definitely trying I'm definitely looking but I'm also doing pet sitting and doing task rabbits when are you getting married? I would say probably next year. You would say. So you don't have a date set? No, not yet.

Why? Our main focus right now is to, I mean, he's working on some stuff with his mental health. It's not that he's unmentally unstable, and I'm mainly just working on getting out of debt and getting financially stable. Is the mental health thing a caveat to whether you marry him or not? No, no, no. It's more about him being ready to marry me. Interesting. That sounds interesting.

I'm not going to lie. You've been engaged for three years. I need to be more financially stable. You've been engaged for three years. No, we've been together for three years. We've only been engaged probably about three years. I need to be more financially stable. Yeah, you've been engaged for three years. No, we've been together for three years. We've only been engaged probably about three months. Can I ask you something? Does he want you to be debt-free before you get married? No, he just wants for me to be able to prove that I can follow a budget and be financially disciplined. And I don't think that's too much to ask.

You got to get your income up. That's key. You've been together three years. You said you've been listening since 2019. This debt that you have, is it old debt or have you been creating new debt since you met him? Because I'm basically trying to understand

his question. I'm basically trying to understand his point of saying, I want to prove that you're not a princess, basically. But my question is, well, if you haven't been creating any more debt, if you made $133,000,

you might be a princess, but at $33,000, you're not a princess. And it's not like she's been taking on more debt, Dave. This is old debt. She's proven herself. I don't like the way, I don't like what this guy is saying to you. Something, something.

There's something wrong in paradise. Yeah. Trouble. It's trouble, Dave. Something, something. I don't know what it is. Yeah. Okay.

We got to get your income up, hon, because you're not making any money at 37 years old. You're close to the poverty level. So let's do some things on your career if I were you. Hang on. We're going to send you Ken Coleman's book, From Paycheck to Purpose, and help you move that direction. This is The Ramsey Show. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today christina is with us in huntsville hi

christina welcome to the ramsey show hi guys thank you both for all that you do for everybody well thank you how can we help yeah my question is i have a 2014 uh bewick lacrosse. I owe 5,000 on it. And, uh, the transmission has gone out. We've called around and got the lowest quote. We got it started at 6,500. Now it's at 5,000. This is the cheapest one that we can get. Um, my husband and I are looking to move in February back home to Washington state from where we are now. And my parents have a car that they can just give me. And my thought, after talking to some other people that do Dave Ramsey, is to let this car go and just get what we can get for it in the condition that it's in and go with just one car.

We're both self-employed. We don't have to have two cars. It's not like I have an 8-to-5 I have to get to. And to take that extra money that instead of having to pay $5,000 to get it fixed and I'm trying to pay off my debt, we're both working on paying off our debt. We wouldn't have to pay the $5,000 for the repair. We wouldn't have to pay $5,000 for the car. I'd save $500 a month by not paying insurance in my monthly payment. So I am of the mindset of letting the car go and taking my parents' car in February.

When you say let it go, let it be repoed? No, sir. I'm sorry. When I say let it go, I just, probably because I'm emotionally attached to my car. Oh, I see. I just mean, just sell it. Like not repair it. What can you get for it?

What can you get for it what can you get for no transmission yep i looked at that i did put that into kelly blue book and it would be either right at what we owe possibly a little bit more somewhere in that not with no transmission you're getting i put the i know i marked that it doesn't have a transmission. It's not drivable. But that was what it said. But let's just assume I'm wrong. Who do you owe the $5,000 to? My credit union. Okay.

All right. You're not going to get 5K for the car, I don't think. I could be wrong. I hope you do. I wish you would. It's a very, it's the fancy version. If it's the fancy version. I thought it was worth $5,000.

What was it worth with the transmission in it? Oh, if I had the transmission, $8,000 to $10,000. Okay. No, it doesn't depend. What's it worth with the transmission in it? The price range that they gave with a functional car was eight to ten and with it without the transmission okay it was five that makes more sense okay you might get five for it then okay so you wouldn't take the five and buy another car you would know she's got to pay off the loan no

i want it that's my that's our plan if you can get 5k for it, and 100% of the time I'm doing what you want to do, yes, I'm in. If you don't get 5K for it, I'm still selling it and asking the credit union to let you sign a note for the difference. Okay. Because you don't have any money saved, right? We do. I could pay off the difference.

I wouldn't have to get a loan. We have a little nest egg over there. It's, I mean, small, like $3,000. We're both self-employed, so we have our tax money that we set aside. We scrape off the top of every check. Yeah, dump the car. Sell the car. Okay.

I'm with you. I think I like your plan. Here's the thing. Here's the formula for everybody out there and for you, okay? If the car is worth eight thousand dollars fixed it's worth five thousand or four thousand dollars and the repair is let's let's call the work car worth four if the repair is five and five and four you now have nine thousand dollars in a car that's only worth eight you don't fix that car right so if you're driving a hoopty

that's three thousand dollars and somebody comes in with a thousand dollar repair you don't do that you dump the car for salvage and go get you another throwaway car um and yours is borderline hoopty it's not quite all the way down to hoopty i mean it's eight thousand dollar car fixed or nine thousand dollar car fixed okay so yours is questionable and the other possibility and i wouldn't do it here i like your plan better is to buy a used transmission that fits it from a salvage yard oh we did look at that too and it was still it was the the labor that kills you to to get those kinds of things done that you can shop okay okay but i i think you could probably do it for half of what you're

talking about but i'm still dumping this car i love your idea and you can you're gonna sweat it out till you make the move with one car and that gets rid of the debt right yes yes yeah i like i like your willingness to sacrifice i like the plan it's a lot of freedom in it i do too it kind of breathes good doesn't it you like you breathe good when you're talking about it right even though you cry just a little bit because you like that car yeah yeah my husband uh likes to have definitely uh two cars but i am totally down like i am totally of the mindset that i'm just willing to do whatever it takes come on where we want to be. I like you, Christina. I can tell from the moment you started talking, you weren't making excuses. You were willing to do what it takes. I love that. You can hear it.

You know, January, February, it'll be here pretty fast. That's right. It will. Yes. Just blink and it'll be here. I mean, it was just 20 minutes ago it was here. I know, right? I don't even know what month we're in now. I'm just rolling. Goes really fast. Jake's in Texas. Hey, Jake, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than we deserve. How can we help? Well, I'm venturing into the exciting and stressful world of home buying, and I am trying to consolidate and get all my debts paid off and just trying to

do this the right way because uh that sucks what's your question um well currently i've uh i have let's see i have three major debts i guess you would truck, my wife's car, and I have one credit card that is very close to being paid off. What are the amounts of each? I owe $17,000 on my truck. My wife's car, it's almost done. I owe $2,000 on her car and $2,400 on the credit card. And currently, I've bumped up, I'm trying to attack that car cause it's my lowest one. Um, and I got it bumped up to where I'm paying $600 every two weeks right now, trying to really attack and get that one out of my way. And then I was going to

go up to the credit card next. What's that? What's your question jake um should i should i get all of this debt even my truck gone before i commit to a house yes what made you here's what i want to ask you what made you ask that question because i think you know the answer to it um i mean i've been up to debt in my eyeballs before and i'm finally out of that and um you know i just uh i don't want to go back into that but i'm with a i'm with a job now that um i'm doing very well what's your household income um well i actually i'm it's just me that works my wife stay at home mom she homeschools and stuff, so I'm the main source of income. But about, it varies because I'm hourly, but it's average.

On a normal month, what do you see? About 9K a month. About 9,000. Sometimes 10. Okay. I think that your first instinct was correct. When you said, I've been in debt up to my eyeballs, you don't want to experience that.

Because if you go and get a mortgage right now, the fact that you said you feel stressed about this, it's because you have this debt. When it's time to buy a house, you're going to be debt-free. You're going to have a nice down payment saved up. You're going to have three to six months of expenses. Including your truck. Including your truck.

Okay. You guys need to get on beans and rice rice and beans and get these stuff paid off and then save up your down payment if you want to do it faster sell your truck but i don't think you want to do that so and you don't have to you just have to because you could be debt free in about six months you'd lean into this pretty easy and you can pay more in your pay-in by the way your little six $600 thing is wimpy on $9,000 income. Yeah. So you need to lean in harder than that. Like, I want a house lean in. Like, I'm sick of this lean in. Like, I'm pissed, and I'm getting out of debt lean in. Not like I'm mildly aggravated. No, you need to get really angry at it. And you need to get on a budget.

I have a feeling they're kind of just living in whatever's left. They're just talking about it. They're throwing it on the deck. They're just talking about it and acting like we're doing something. You're at the beginning stages, my friend. You're going to do well, but turn up the heat and get this done so by next spring you're buying a house with no debt and your emergency fund in place plus a down payment. And that's what you do in the spring. And you bust it between now and then.

That's what I would do. This is The Ramsey Show. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.