The Ramsey Show - App - Are We Overspending on Our Wedding and Honeymoon? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

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Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Christy Wright, and joining me today is my good friend, George Camel. Welcome to the show, George. Christy, this is so fun. This is my first time co-hosting with you and anyone but Dave. Which I consider this a big honor.

It's a blessing. I'm so excited. George and I are taking your calls about money as always, about time management, because y'all know I'm on a kick about that right now with my new book, Take Back Your Time. But we're here for you. So maybe you have a question about business, leadership, or just need some advice in what decision to make. Really, in any area of your life, we're here for you.

Give us a call, 888-825-5225. George and I are hosting together all day today. And George, this is your first time hosting with me on Fun Friday. What do I need to know? Here's what's great. Friday is just a little bit more casual. Everybody's excited about the weekend. Everybody's excited about their fun plans.

So maybe you want to talk about that. I don't know. I don't know what you want to talk about. I do personally. I don't know if anyone else cares about my plans, but this is big news for me as a millennial. Okay, let's have it. Trader Joe's just opened 15 minutes north of our headquarters. Okay.

And that is a big deal for me and my family, Christy. Well, I'm so happy that we could announce that. That is fantastic. This is big news. I'm excited for you. I'm excited for you. Some people are cheering in the lobby. This is great.

What about you? I am actually going to be a bridesmaid in one of my very best friends' wedding this weekend. And so it's going to be a lot of fun. We kick it off this evening as soon as I I leave here this afternoon, actually, we're going to the rehearsal dinner and all that good stuff. So if you want to give us a call, 888-825-5225. George and I are here to answer your calls. George, I want to kick it off while we're waiting for the calls to come in. And I want you to talk about, because I've heard the announcements

in our staff meeting. I'm sure you've talked about it on the Ramsey Show. But I want to hear from you directly about your new show, The Fine Print. And I've heard you talk a little bit kind of in some meetings about one of your hearts to help people, especially in the area of money. I've heard you say, I don't just want to put the cookies on the bottom shelf. I want to put them on the floor. I want to help people understand everything they need to know in really simple terms. And I'll tell you, George, personally, right now I'm in seminary and I'm reading these textbooks where I don't understand nine out of 10 words in a sentence. I have to look them up. I appreciate someone that has the heart of a teacher to speak human language that someone

can understand. And the finance industry is one of those where it can be intimidating. It can be overwhelming. There are lots of big words. There's lots of legal fine print. And you are going right into the space to give hope to people and help them understand what's going on. Talk a little bit about your heart behind it, because I'm so excited to see this for you. Yes, you nailed it, Christy. And the reason I'm so excited about this is exactly what you're talking about. There's so much noise out there. There's social media and the headlines and your broke brother-in-law. And my dad said to get the FHA loan because the housing market's hot. And there's just so many voices in your head. And you can get so overwhelmed, which you talk about this all the time, that you're just paralyzed by all the indecision and you do nothing.

You don't know who to trust. Or you do the wrong thing. Exactly. There's so much noise out there. I mean, I'm consuming a lot of TikTok these days. And let me tell you, everyone is an expert on TikTok and there's 16-year-olds telling you

to buy into this cryptocurrency over here. And I'm going, oh, dear Lord, someone help these people. And then we go, oh, that's what we get to do every single day. And so what this podcast is attempting to do is really show people the hidden truths that are keeping them broke.

And we want to do that in a fun, narrative, storytelling way in a way that we've never really done it before at Ramsey. So this is short form, 30 minutes or less, and it's a crafted podcast. This is really made for people who love podcasts, right, the podcast nerds out there. And so we're talking to experts. We're hearing from real-life people. We're hearing from Ramsey personalities, and we're really digging in with facts and research and stats and empathy and humor to help people change their paradigms, to then change their decisions, to change their habits, because we know that when you do that, you can change your life.

Yeah. Well, I love hearing you talk about this because it's so needed. And it's one of those things that I think that people do not understand that the vast majority of people out there, the vast majority of companies out there that are giving financial advice have an agenda. Right. If you're learning how to manage your money from the credit card companies, they have an agenda. They're not looking out for your best interest. They're looking out for their bottom line in the big buildings that they're coming up with these marketing strategies in. And so I remember back in the day when I would teach on money and travel and speak on money with Rachel Cruz. And we would travel and speak to college students.

And I would just tell them, listen, these credit card companies are not trying to help you out out of the goodness of their sweet little hearts. They have an agenda. And so many, even tax filing companies often, even insurance companies. There's a lot, the vast majority really of these companies have an agenda that is going to affect them making money off of your financial decisions. And if we don't realize that, then we're going to think, oh, well, gosh, they're here to help me. So I need to get this credit card

because they really want to help me out. No, they don't. No, they don't. They don't want to help you out. They want to make money off of the interest that you're going to accrue from your spending. And so what's so great about you, George, and all of us here at Ramsey Solutions is that you don't have an agenda other than to help them.

You're not making money off of them getting credit cards or getting a certain insurance. We are in the business of helping you. We are in the business of seeing you win. When you guys call us and you tell us you're debt free, that is how we win. That is success to us. And so I just love that you're going into this space. You've got some podcast episodes that are out now. I love this one. The first two here out now, how TurboTax is screwing you. Prime example. Yeah. Prime example of what I was just talking about. And the true cost of credit card rewards. great example that's a huge one christy of what i'm talking about people just love those rewards don't they they really do it's it's

gamified and we just get sucked into the game like oh but i could get a pair of jeans i could get two hundred dollars cash back if i spend thirty thousand people people people let's do some basic third grade math it's hard christy common core. That's not a good math. Common core, okay? It's very difficult these days. It really is. I hear all about that. Listen, you guys, listen to The Fine Print with George Camel

wherever you listen to podcasts. This is going to help you see what's going on behind the scenes that is affecting your financial decisions and it's really those things like George said that are keeping you broke.

We don't want you to be broke. We want you to build wealth. We want you to be debt-free. We want you to have control of your money. Everything we teach you and every answer we give you is for you, for you to have more money, more control, more power, more options, and a better future.

That is the driving force behind every one of our principles, every one of our baby steps, every one of our books books every single thing that we do is for you to win that's the why and i just love how you're doing this george i love how you're doing this on the fine print and everything that you're doing you guys give us a call 888-825-5225 we'll be taking your calls george and i are here for you on fun friday all right ge right, George, before we go to break, give us a teaser of what is something we need to know about one of these first two episodes, the TurboTax is screwing you and the true cost of credit cards rewards. Give us a teaser of what's

included in that episode. I'll give you the hook. So the first one on TurboTax, I talked to Dave, and we go through this 200-page keynote that they had for their shareholders, who they are obligated to. Guess what? Not to the user, not to the customer, but to their shareholders. So we unpack how they're actually coming to get you with debt later on. And credit card rewards, of course, we know, Christy, you're not going to get to wealth by using that credit card and swiping away. So we unpack so many facts. I talked to an ex-Capital One insider who really breaks down how they're getting you.

So go subscribe to The Fine Print. Listen to the first three episodes. It's a good time. Man, just the information can set you free. You don't even realize how that is holding you back. And George is going to show you. The Fine Print, wherever you listen to podcasts. This is The Ramsey Show. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way

of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. I'm Chrissy Wright. Joining me today is my good friend, George Camel. And we are taking your calls about money, life, business, time management, you name it.

We're here for you. 888-825-5225. If you try to call during the week and you have trouble getting in, Fridays are good because sometimes people are a little distracted. George, it's fun Friday. They're getting ready for the weekend. But, hey, we're here for you. We're ready to answer your questions. Give us a call.

888-825-5225. We're going to go to Cliff in Indianapolis, Indiana. Hey, Cliff, how are you? I'm good. Happy Friday. Happy Friday, Cliff. What's going on? How can George and I help? Well, I had a question regarding the envelope system. Instead of using a physical envelope and putting cash into it, is it okay to use a reloadable gift card that you put money onto and use that as the envelope? Well, this is an interesting question, Cliff. Cliff, I've actually never heard this asked, but I first want to ask you why you want to. I'm just curious well um so our local uh marching band um one of their fundraisers

is using as a gift card program so i can purchase gift cards and get reliable gift cards and each time i put money on it the band earns money to pay off band fees. So I actually paid off my son's band fees just by purchasing gas and groceries with gift cards. Interesting. Well, let me tell you some information about gift cards, and then I'm going to let George jump in on this one. Okay? Because this is interesting. This is a little different, a little weird, which is why I like it, Cliff. We like weird.

Especially on Fridays. I like weird questions. I do. Okay. First thing you need to know, when you use a card, credit card, debit card, gift card, any kind of card, your brain does not register that as any type of significant pain, sacrifice, loss. Okay. Research shows this. When you use cash and you actually hand over dollar bills, your brain research shows that with through MRI imaging, your brain registers that as physical pain. We want you to feel a little pain when you let go of your money because we want you to know that it's happening. It's the exact opposite effect of when you, uh, I was teaching, uh,

Dave about this a couple of weeks ago, George and Cliff about add to cart. Sometimes you just add things to cart because it feels good. You don't really feel the pain of that. When you hit submit, submit order, or you swipe a card, you don't feel it, which becomes a problem in spending because you spend more than you realize. So that's one thing you need to know about swiping a card. You're not going to feel that transaction as much emotionally as we want you to, and you might be tempted to spend more. The second thing you need to know about gift cards is 50% of them are never used. 50% of gift cards are never cashed in. So companies love selling gift cards because they have a massive profit margin on them. People lose them. And you've probably done it, Cliff.

I've done it. I'm guilty of it. I've got gift cards in my desk at home right now that I haven't used. So I camp our answer in that information. And this is kind of like what we were talking about earlier, George, where we were talking about, you're not going to get rich off credit card points. Oh, cash back, cash back. We're not in this to play the game cliff. So what I would recommend, here's what I would recommend with that in mind about we spend more when we swipe a card, we don't use gift cards and we lose them and we forget they're actual real money with a value. What I would recommend you do, if I were you, is I would stick to the plan, stick to the baby steps, stick to the cash envelope system. And then if you just want to give out of your tithe, out of your giving, because you just want to bless your son's school out of your giving to be able to pay for their band things, then do that.

Then it's all kept separate. It's all clean and it's going to keep you on track. I'm just afraid that that's going to become a slippery slope where you're swiping right and left. You're losing cards, having trouble keeping up with your budget. And I don't want you to get caught up in that. George, what would you say to that? Yeah, I love that mentality. And I'm assuming these are like reloadable debit cards. I don't know the exact parameters of this. But like you're saying, Christy, there's this element of if you want to help out, pay down the band fees, you can do that with real money too. You don't have to hope that your $5 out of 100 went to the band. I would just budget for this as a giving item. And just go, hey, what if I could give 20 bucks a month to help them pay

this down because it's something I'm passionate about. So Cliff, I love your heart behind this. I want to call that out. That's so cool that you want to be generous. I just think logically there's a better way to be generous than by using the gift cards. So you can use a debit card, you can do the cash envelope system, whatever you're going to do is going to be best for you. So choose the one that's actually going to work that you stick to, and then make this a part of your giving as part of a line item so that you can help the band out. a part of your giving as part of a line item so that you can help the band out. Let's talk about this though really quickly, George, because I think this brings up an interesting point that's actually bigger than gift cards. And it kind

of ties back to what we were saying at the beginning of the hour of this idea of credit card rewards. When we get distracted on our path to managing our money, on our path to building wealth, when we get distracted by the games, games being credit card rewards, gift cards, incentives. If you buy a pair of shoes, someone else gets a pair of shoes, all that's good and fine and well. But if we begin to make purchasing decisions based on it,

for example, I'm gonna buy some shoes because someone's gonna get shoes, we can get really distracted by the game and lose sight of what our money is doing and who's actually in control. And I think the psychology of that is really fascinating because Dave and I were hosting earlier this week and you'll have people call sometimes and say, well, mathematically XYZ of the baby steps and they've got some criticisms or some pushback.

And the reality is that if we were doing math, we would have never got ourselves in debt in the first place. It's more about focus. It's more about momentum than it is about math. And so even if, yes, you could earn two free dollars for your son's band in this example cliff or credit card points or get a pair of jeans or get cash back, we're not doing it for the game. And the game actually will distract you from what you're trying to do, which is get out of debt and build wealth. And I know you see this, George, when you talk to people, because when you get questions, it's often these

type of questions where they're asking about ancillary, I'll call them carrots, you know, like in email marketing, you give someone a carrot for their email address. It's kind of like they're holding out these carrots, like, do you want this? Do you want this free pair of jeans? Do you want this? And when we get distracted by the carrots of like they're holding out these carrots. Like, do you want this? Do you want this free pair of jeans? Do you want this? And when we get distracted by the carrots, when we get distracted by these, you know, incentives, we lose track of what we're trying to do. And we can actually make bad decisions a little at a time and not realize it. Oh, yeah.

And when you're talking about, you know, the school making this whole thing happen, of course, they're going to say, hey, get gift cards, because then it makes it about you. Right. Instead of about, hey, we need money to pay down the band fees, right? And they're holding out the offering. It feels a little bit different when it says, hey, buy some gift cards and you'll help us out at the same time. Right. And so it kind of makes you feel like, wow, I can help out and I can kind of get what I want too, right? Right.

Oh, I've done that before. There's a buy one get one. You go, well, I'm really getting it for a gift for a friend, but hey, I get something out of this too. Right. So this gamification is all over the place. We're seeing it with cryptocurrency. We're seeing it with credit card rewards. We're seeing it with everything out there because there is a psychology to it where

you say, Christy, but you don't understand. I can beat the game. And that's exactly what they want you to think, right? Right. Like, perfect. They're going to play this game for the rest of their life and think they're winning. Right. And the interesting thing is, let's look at the fruit of that because you are in debt, barely getting by on your bills, and they are

in multi-billion dollar buildings coming up with strategies. Who is winning here? Right. It's not y'all. We're not the ones winning when we're playing these games that they come up with. Here's a good tip, okay? If they came up with a game, it's because they're going to win it. They didn't come up with a game, they're going to lose. They came up with a game that they're going to win. So if you're playing someone else's game, you're most likely going to be the one losing in that scenario, whether it's credit card rewards, airline miles, even gift cards. And it's not a bad thing, but the principal here, Cliff, and for all of you,

is keep it clean and separate. It doesn't mean we're saying, oh, don't support your son's band. Oh, yeah, no, just give. When my son started school a couple weeks ago, and the teacher had like a wish list on Amazon. And so that was super fun. I knew what she needed. Here's all the things I was able to go on Amazon, select some items, purchase them, and just bring them on the first day and be like, hey, just we just want to donate these to the class. Fundraisers are not bad, y'all. They're not bad at all. But when they distract you from your financial goals and they lead you to spend more than you would normally spend, then that's where it becomes a problem. So because it can be a slippery slope, keep it clean and separate. Give and be generous. We

always teach you guys to give and be generous. And you can do that, whether it's through your school, through your church, whatever you want to do, but that's going to keep you focused on your financial goals. And then you've got a line item for giving, and you've got a line item for groceries, and you've got a line item for everything else.

And it's going to keep you on track, which is what you need when you've got the whole world pulling at you, telling you to buy this and do this. No, no, no. We're going to stay focused on the goal to get out of debt and build wealth. And the best way to do that is with the baby steps and the cash system. It's a great question, Cliff.

Thank you for calling. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. I'm Christy Wright. George Camel and I are hosting the Ramsey Show for you today. We are taking your calls, 888-825-5225. So if you have a question, give us a call. 888-825-5225. And I'm so excited, George, because in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage are Giovanni and Mariah. How are you guys?

Hi. Good, Christy. Hi, George. Hey. Hey. Okay, guys. You are debt-free. Tell us the story.

How much did you pay off? We paid off just over $78,000. $78,000? In 11 months. Oh, no joke. Okay. What's your range of income during that time? Our total was $119,450.

Wow. All right. To the penny. Okay. Where are you guys from? We're from Wilmington, North Carolina. Awesome. I love it. Okay. So what do you guys do for a living? So I work in human resources at a optical fiber company.

Okay. And I work for North Carolina State Highway Patrol. Awesome. Cool. How long have you guys been married? Just over two years. Wow. Okay. So you got married a couple years ago. What happened 11 months ago? So it all started. It was actually, we had just gotten back from our honeymoon in March of 2020. And it was when the whole student loan was going zero interest with the COVID.

And one night I was looking over my loan bill still. And he walked in and he was like, oh, you've graduated since 2012. How much have you paid down? And I was like, I really don't know. I feel like it's grown. So it did grow. And it kind of forced us to really look at it. And right then and there we were like, we're going to hit this out.

We're going to do it. Gotcha. So was it just the student loan or was it other debt as well? Yep. So it was my student loan're going to do it. So gotcha. What kind of, uh, so was it just the student loan or was it other debt as well? Yep. So it was my student loan was the majority of it. Um, and then we had some credit card loans, which were also mine. And then we had a car loan, um, 27,000, the car loan credit cards, about 6,500. Gotcha. Okay. So you realized your student loan was growing even though you were paying on it. Yeah. Wow. That must've been a moment where you're going, something has to change. Yeah. It was pretty defeating,

but it kind of was a pivotal moment for us. Gotcha. So I'm curious the way that you said that is interesting. Mariah, you said, you know, he asked how much the loan was. Had you guys not really put your money together yet or communicated about

money at this point? No, not really at that point. No. Gotcha. Okay. So, so what,

what was the light bulb moment? What'd you guys decide to do? Well, her cousin Haley, I guess, had mentioned Dave Ramsey to her. In passing, pretty casual. I didn't really know a lot about him. I knew nothing about him. Yeah. You're like, we just need some help.

Yeah. I had talked to my buddy. I know it's probably weird to talk to your friends about financial stuff, but he had mentioned that him and his wife had done Financial Peace University. They became debt-free and kind of gave us the Financial Peace CDs and all that. We listened to them. Dave talking about gazelle mentality. There's no looking back after that.

No looking back. Yeah. We're going to do it. Just hit it hard. So we just jumped in. So it got you fired up. Yeah. All right.

What did that look like for you guys? What were the things you did, the changes, the sacrifices you had to make in order to do this in 11 months? Yeah. They say rice and beans, beans and rice. Kind of that. know i started cooking from home um just you know we stopped going out to eat we started focusing on like hey do we really need this um you know not spending so much on frivolous things and knew that if we put our

heads down we could make it work stop eating out yeah and she says rice and beans beans and rice that first meal i think she forgot the rice because it was literally all beans. Or taking an extra step, no rice. We've got to tell people you can season it, too. Don't forget about spices. Wow, I love that. And I was talking to you guys in the lobby yesterday,

and I was just super inspired by your story. And I know, Giovanni, you made some sacrifices because you told me you like toys. Yes. And so that must have been hard for you to say, you know what? I'm not going to do this. At least for 11 months,

we're going to go hard and get rid of this thing. Absolutely. What was the hardest part for you guys? It wasn't always easy and just saying no to a lot of things, you know, and every other week when we got paid or we'd say,

you know, get the book, our budget book, and we'd sit down and, you know, there lot of things, you know, and every other week when we got paid for, we'd say, you know, get the book or budget book and we'd sit down and, you know, there were times where, you know, I was crying and I was like, this really stinks. You know, this is so hard, but I think the journey was the hard part for me. I only get paid once a month. Um, I don't get paid weekly or biweekly. Um, so every month it was twice we sat down. I would come home, get the book. We would sit down and budgeting. That's honestly the key in working together. Yeah. If you don't work together, there's no teamwork. It will not work. Yeah. So tell me, after you guys decided to get on board, follow the baby steps, all of that,

do you all now have your money together, working as a team, communicating, all that sounds like it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm curious, did this impact your marriage? I mean, the money stuff aside, do you feel like, wow, we grew together as a couple because of this?

I think it's made us stronger. Yeah. Knowing that we can do anything if we put our minds to it and just work together. Yeah. And one of us is struggling with staying motivated. The other one, come on, we can do this. And I think that's key. Yeah.

So it was hard. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. That's awesome. I love these stories because, yes, there's sacrifice. Yes, there's have to say no to the toys and eat rice and beans or whatever.

But it's for a short term, for a short amount of time. In y'all's case, 11 months. And now that's in the rear view mirror. You're debt free. You don't have a payment in the world. Tell me how it feels to have all that weight off your shoulders. Amazing. Yeah.

I still can't believe it's real. You know, it's just awesome. Yeah. If I didn't use some of the savings that I had because there was one point I was actually at work listening to Dave talking to a caller who called in. And she was telling Dave about her husband not wanting to use the capital, which is his savings. he pretty much told her that you using that savings is pretty much you admitting that you took that loan out to pay it off. And at that point, I called her when she was at work. I said, as soon as I get home, we're paying it off. Look at you.

Be done. Well done. Be done. Well done. It's interesting how I've noticed this in some of the calls we get on the Ramsey Show. Sometimes we do things that don't make sense financially because it's justifying something in us emotionally. It's like, oh, well, this is not my debt or, oh, I need to hold on to this because I'm going to somehow justify this in a backwards way. It's like the shortest path between here and wealth is just these very simple baby steps.

And when you guys put your money together and to begin to communicate, you start to make more progress faster. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? Definitely our families. I mean, we have the best families. They're so supportive. Friends, my cousin, EB. My buddy, Audette. He's the one that told me about Dave Ramsey.

And that's never looked back after. I still listen to him while I'm at work. That's awesome. That's really cool. It's amazing what the power of having that community around you to champion you, support you, and not make you feel so crazy for these 11 months. But, man, y'all busted it. 78,000 in 11 months.

That is quick. How old are you guys? 31. 33. Wow. And completely debt-free. Congratulations, you guys. What are you going to do now that and completely debt-free. Congratulations, you guys. What are you going to do now, now that you're debt-free?

Enjoy Tennessee while we're still here. There you go. Back to work. There you go. Our next goal is we're trying to save to buy land and build our house. I'll pay cash. Wow. Well done, y'all.

Y'all are amazing. Y'all are amazing. All right. We've got a copy of the legacy journey for you guys. That's definitely the next step in your journey. We'll give you a copy of the total money makeover as well. You can give that to a gift. I mean, to a friend as a gift.

Hopefully get them started on their journey and just love seeing you guys win. Way to go. All right. Here we go. It is time. It is Giovanni and Mariah from Wilmington, North Carolina paid off $78,000 in 11 months, making $119,000. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Yes. That was fast, George. 11 months. I George. 11 months. I know. But here's what happens. You want to do it faster and faster, and it becomes addicting. And that is the type of game I do like.

Yeah. Right? Yes. They're inspiring. Yes. I love it. Hey, the greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward, the greater the gazelle intensity, the faster you get there.

So, yeah, it's hard. Of course it's hard for 11 months and now you're debt free in your early 30s make 120 000 a year never gonna look back and they always say it was worth it always can always go back into debt always always worth it this is the ramsey show I'm Chrissy Wright. Joining me today is George Camel, and we are taking your calls about all things money, life, side business, small business. By the way, we have our Business Boutique Conference coming up in October 14th through the 16th, and there are still tickets available if you want to join us in Nashville.

It's a great city to vacation to, visit, make it a girl's trip. You're going to get everything you need to start and grow your business. Or you can always join us on live stream. Y'all, we've done this every single year since 2015. And it is incredible. Lineup of speakers. It's always a really good time. And for many people, it becomes the catalyst that really sets your business off.

We give you the tools that you need, but also the inspiration you need. You can go to RamseySolutions.com or BusinessBoutique.com to get your tickets. But if you have a question about business, side business, small business, leadership, George and I are here. We're here to answer your questions and help you out. All right, we're going to go to the phones. We've got Renee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Hey, Renee, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Good.

What's going on? All right. Well, me and my boyfriend have recently become engaged. Congratulations. Thank you. And we both agreed on the amount that we would spend on the honeymoon and the wedding. But as we were like, you know, spending the money on the different things that we need, we're like, wow, this is a lot of money. So we were just wondering, like, we're trying to be responsible with it while also at the same time, because COVID has taken so much away.

We're still trying to have a good wedding. So are we being responsible with our money or not? Are we overspending on our wedding and our honeymoon? When you say you said we realized, wow, that's a lot of money, you mean the amount of money you budgeted? Or you mean you started actually pricing things out and the quotes you're getting are more than you expected? Which one are you referring to? I would say it's just like as we were spending the money, we were like, wow, that's a lot of money. And because neither one of us have a fully funded emergency fund, we were like, okay, yeah, this is a lot of money.

Should we just be putting it into our emergency fund? Or, you know know we are cash flowing everything everything so yeah it was just like as we're spending it we're like this is a lot of money what's the budget what's the number y'all came up with ten thousand for the wedding and the honeymoon okay cool and you do you guys have any debt no No. No. We're both debt-free. Okay. You said y'all haven't got a fully funded emergency fund yet, separately or together or whatever. What's that amount between both of y'all?

Between the two of us, well, he has $6,000 and I have $2,000. So together we have eight. Okay. Cool. And what's your income? He makes about $2,000 a month. I bring home about $7,000. Okay.

Well, here's the thing, Renee. $10,000 is a lot of money for a week, essentially, for your wedding and a honeymoon when you're going, oh my gosh, this is a short amount of time when you look at it through that lens. And then when you go for a wedding budget, it's actually a really conservative budget in the wedding industry. Now we're not going to use either one of those lenses to be the only lens we look at it through. And what's interesting about money is, yes, it's a physical thing, but it's also emotional. And so even if George and I said, yeah, I think the amount of money you're spending is fine. You're cash flowing it. You do have some emergency fund going.

You can continue to build that up. You're kind of setting aside this money for the wedding. And it's not unreasonable. You're not being a diva, Renee. Like for a wedding and a honeymoon, that's very conservative in my opinion. But the but here is that if you're not comfortable with it, if you've got a check in your spirit, well, it's your money and it's your wedding and you can change the budget.

You can rein it back and say, hey, we feel better about eight or we feel better about seven or whatever. We're never going to tell you not to save money because that's always a good idea to set you up for financial success. But I will say that in the grand scheme of things, you guys are debt-free, you're smart, you've got a good income, and your budget is not unreasonable at all. I think you're fine. But it doesn't matter what

I think because if you feel checked in your spirit about it, then you're welcome to change that. George, what would you say? I mean, this is one of those, it's a very safe... It's funny. I just did research on this because someone asked on Reddit. And I was on Reddit. Don't get me started with Reddit. Well, here's the thing, Christy. I thought this is a good question. They were asking, you know, what is the right budget for a wedding? And there's no Ramsey parameter.

You can't Google and say, well, Dave says no more than $10,000. That doesn't exist. What he says is pay cash. Don't let it be a huge portion of your world. And it sounds like you guys are doing this on your own. There's no family helping out here. And so again, like Christy said, do what makes you comfortable, but also realize you're not a bad person. Weddings are just expensive. The whole industry is basically a scam because they can charge whatever they want. People go, well, a venue is what a venue costs. So

if you can find ways to trim, that's fine. But I want you to have a great time. I don't want you sitting there worried the whole day that you're, you're like counting the minutes and comparing it to how much dollars that costs going, well, it's a thousand dollars an hour to throw this party for everyone. So I want you to do it on your terms. And so if you're doing it for anyone else other than yourselves, that's when I would go, let's rethink this. Yeah. And the other thing, I love how you said that, Renee. I mean, George, cause Renee, we want you to enjoy it. Like this is your wedding day. You don't want to be thinking about the, the dollar per hour cost. And I just want George, because Renee, we want you to enjoy it. Like this is your wedding day. You don't want to be thinking about the dollar per hour cost. And I just want to say it again, $10,000 in the wedding industry.

I want to reiterate wedding and honeymoon. I'm really conservative. That's really conservative. You guys have done well. You're not you're not being crazy here and you're cash flowing it. And so here's what I would say. And this is in light of George's advice. I love how he said this.

You guys maybe revisit that budget. And if you're like, yeah, 10 is good. We've done our research. We can, you know, 10 is what we want to spend. We're comfortable with it. Then don't look back. Decide on 10, commit to 10, and don't think about it and make it work within 10,

but then be like, we feel good about this. We're going to be excited about this day and what we've committed to. Because, you know, George, I'll tell you, when it comes to like house projects, like improving our house, we're actually doing something right now. We're paying someone to restain our deck. It's kind of worn down. Matt and I can come up with a number we feel good about. But when it comes time to spend it, I'm still not excited to spend the money. Now, I'm excited to spend money on clothes, shoes, earrings, fun stuff, but house stuff, I'm not. And a wedding is obviously more exciting than house stuff.

But sometimes when you get into those higher dollar amounts, it still can be emotionally hard to let go of that amount of money. Even if you know you want the thing, like a stained deck or even better, an awesome wedding. And so there is something to it of just committing. Be like, we're committing to this amount of money. We feel good about it. And we're not going to look back.

We've got the money. We're not going to look back. We've got the money. We're not going to feel guilty. Money should be enjoyed, you guys. And so, yeah, Renee, I love your question. I love how conservative you and your husband are being, future husband are being, and I hope you have a great wedding. I think you're being really smart about it. Well done. All right, we're going to go to San Francisco, California with Marco.

Hey, Marco, how's it going? Hi, Christy and George. Hey. I'm doing good. So I had a question. So I'm a high school senior, and I've saved up $20,000 from a part-time job, and I would like to invest it for a year before I go to college. And how should I invest it to get the most money back for a year?

Great question, Marco. First of all, that's amazing that you're a senior and you saved up 20 grand. Thank you. You're crushing it. There's a few ways to go about this. You're looking at a really short term time here. So I'm not going to go tell you to put it in mutual funds or get some cryptocurrency. I want you to be conservative here because I don't want you to lose money. I'd rather you gain very little than lose half of it because your buddy told you to invest it over here. So if I'm in your shoes, I would put it in a good money market account. You can do a high yield savings account online. I have mine in one that pays about a half a percent, maybe 0.7%. And I know it's not impressive, but the

point here is not to get rich quick. The point here is for you to not lose money and just park it somewhere safe. Yeah. The key here, Marco, is access quick. The point here is for you to not lose money and just park it somewhere safe. Yeah, the key here, Marco, is access. You want access to this money. So investing is a long-term game, and you're playing a short-term game right now. The other thing that I want to highlight for you, Marco, is you are at a very, very transitional time in your life. So high school senior, I think it's awesome that you're thinking about this. That is amazing. You're going to do so well in life and you're going to be so smart

financially and you're going to be ahead of most of your peers because you're asking these questions. But you also don't know what changes your life, what you're going to go through in your life in the next four to six to eight years. In that time frame, in the next decade, you're going to potentially go to college, potentially go to further education if you want to maybe get married, maybe buy a house, maybe have kids, a lot's going to happen. All of that costs a lot of money, Marco. And so we definitely want you to invest at some point in your life. But right now, your first priority is going to college debt free. And the best way to do that is to have that money in savings, you have access to it. And that's true for any of your savings in the next four years.

You're going to put in a savings account so that you have access to it. Great question. Thanks for calling. Yeah. I want to thank my co-host, George Camel, and producer James Child. No, Ben Hill and Kelly Daniel. James is out today. I'm just reading the script here, guys.

Hey, it's Friday. Sorry. Ben Hill, Kelly Daniel, and you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.