The Ramsey Show - App - Beat Inflation With These Money Hacks (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

George Kamel & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "How do I tackle my debt?" Inflation hacks for groceries, housing and utilities, transportation, and lifestyle, Avoiding a flashy lifestyle on a high income, Preparing for a loved one who has terminal cancer. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 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 Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey Personality, George Campbell, joined this hour by Jade Warshaw, one of our newest Ramsey Personalities. And we're having a good time here, and we're excited to take your calls about life and money. And here's the number, 888-825-5225. Stephen kicks off this hour in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Stephen, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you doing? Thank you for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? Yeah, so I am currently a full-time student. Also have a full-time job, just finishing up my last year in school. I have around $20,000 in student loans and $10,000 in car, a car loan that I have. I was just trying to get more advice on how to kind of handle all of that while finishing school. Should I wait till after? Should I start tackling this debt now? My income's pretty good, although I think after I graduate, it will be much more.

So I would just call in and get some advice. What's the income now? Around 55. That's pretty good. That's impressive, man. Not bad at all. Why a full-time student? Yeah. How much time did you say you have until you graduate? This is my last year. Okay. So, go ahead, George. Looking at your income, looking at the payments, are you able to cash flow the remainder of school? So, I did just take out recently a loan in order to uh finish up my summer classes and everything that's kind of where i have to is that part of the 20 that you mentioned correct okay that's total okay so the damage is done there and so if school is completely covered we could go ahead and start to pay this off since you are working full-time and there's no danger of going into more debt. I would, especially depending on the type of loan you have, student

loan. Right. And recently I just got a raise. So after taking out that loan, I thought it would be best to kind of put that loan back while there's no interest on it and just kind of pay out of pocket since I have the remaining money to do so. That's great. When you say put the loan back, what do you mean by that? So after they refunded me out for what I was going to pay out of pocket for summer, part of that loan, I could just kind of pay it back to the lender and then pay my cash for whatever I need to pay in summer. Cool.

So if you're following the Ramsey plan, your first A1 would be a $1,000 emergency fund. Do you have that already? Yes. Okay. How much money do you have beyond that? I have around $9,000, $10,000 saved up. Oh, that's great. So we're about ready to wipe out this car loan. Right, right that's great yeah you can do that you could do that tomorrow

pay it's not a joke i'm telling you go ahead and do that yeah okay take that 9k put it towards the car you'll have 1k left and then you've got this great income where you can start cash flowing your debt snowball so once you have eleven thousand dollars to your name, you can clean up that car loan and still have that $1,000 emergency fund. Now we're ready to tackle the student loan. And if you can pay that off before you graduate, that would be amazing. Are you able to pay off the loan before graduation? I think it would be just based off how the rent and stuff has gone up in this area. It would be kind of difficult, but I think I could.

It's just based off what I'm doing now. You seem like a driven guy who's ready to clean this up. And so I just love the idea of you graduating completely debt-free with no payments. You'd be such a unicorn. And then you'd be able to save up that three to six months in no time. Right. I know it's not the most extreme situation, but just watching all the recent videos, I'm like, I should probably figure out the best way to handle this now. So that's why I just wanted to get some insight. I love it, Stephen. Well, you know, when it comes to extreme, and I've been there, it can feel extreme. I mean, there's people who have

$7,000 in debt and it feels like they can't breathe. And so don't minimize your situation and you becoming debt-free at your age is incredible. Way to go. It is life goals. I wish I had been that way at 19 and 20 and 21. These young cats, man, they're smarter than I am. You're getting it early.

They are so much smarter than I was back in the day. All right, Cassandra is up next in St. Louis. Cassandra, welcome to the show. Hi. Can you hear me okay? We sound great. Okay. Hi. Yes. I'm just feeling kind of lost in my debt. We're trying to pay off all of my student loans and medical bills while also trying to get a house. And so now I'm feeling overwhelmed with it all. I got in a car crash this morning, so it shook me up really bad. Are you all right? Yeah, I'm okay. My car is not. Well, let's see if we can ease some of this stress for you today. I'm glad that you're feeling,

I'm glad that the car crash wasn't more than what it was, especially with the call we had earlier. Yeah, I'm glad my son wasn't in the car, so. Yeah, that's a blessing. Yes, me too, me too. So what's your income? I'm currently making like 4,000 a month take home. Cool.

And so is my husband. So $8,000 total? So we're talking about $100,000 take home pay. Roughly, yeah. Okay. How much student loan debt do you have? I have $37,000 right now. I'm still in school.

I'm expecting it to be $ when I graduate, but I'm hoping that we can pay it off before I graduate. Well, let's let's try to let's try to set this up to where you're not taking out any more student loans. So that's what we're going to try to walk you through here, because you've got debt. We don't want to create any more debt. So you got the 37K in student loans and you mentioned medical debt. Can you tell us about that, how much that is? Yes, it's roughly $22,000 right now. And is there any other debt on the table between you and your husband? No, he has $4,000 in medical debt, but we already paid off our credit card.

Okay, so no credit card. So it's just the $37,000, $22,000, and the $4,000, correct? Yeah. Okay. So you guys are making a great income. $8,000 a month, $100,000 take home. You're in $63,000 of debt. Do you have anything in savings? We currently have $13,000 in savings because we're trying to buy a home. We're living with the in-laws and that's not going over too well anymore. Okay, so what I think we need to do is focus on one thing at a time. At this point, we're not in a really great position to start buying a home. You've got this debt around your neck. You're trying to finish school. If I'm you, I'm going to take a look at this 13K that you have in savings

and I'm just going to walk it through the baby steps. So the way that we teach is baby step one is getting a thousand dollars saved that's thing one so out of that 13k in savings I'm going to put 1k aside and then that's going to leave me with 12k to start putting towards debt does that sound right yeah and then so you can go ahead and knock out your husband's 4k bill with that and then after that you've got a little bit left to throw onto that medical debt and then from then on I'm just going to walk out the baby step two in order. I'm going to keep working that debt snowball. Like George said, you've got a great income. Start paying down that debt with a vengeance. If you can pick up extra income, that's great. And then once that debt is knocked out, we can go to our three to

six months of expenses, start building back up that savings. And I want to make this clear. Don't start saving that for that house until you get that debt cleared up and until you get to baby step 3B. And once you guys are out of debt, maybe you move out and you rent for a while, but home ownership is a more distant dream. And I want you to do it when the timing is right. And so you'll get there in no time if you do this stuff in order with focused intensity. And cash flow that school. Absolutely. This is The Ramsey show I'm George Camel host of the fine print entree leadership and co host of smart money happy hour joined by Jade Warshaw. And Jade, we are both pretty frugal people, I would like to say. This is true, George.

And a lot of people are struggling right now with inflation and the economy, and there's too much month at the end of their money. So I thought it would be fun if we gave our listeners, our viewers, some inflation hacks, per se. I love it. Let's do it. And when I say hacks, they all take work. And so there's no true like life hack. This is here's some sacrifices you can make to find some margin and create some margin in your budget every single month so that you can accomplish your money goals. Most of them are pretty simple changes, though. If we really look at this list, George, let's get into it. Yeah. So let's start with groceries because that seems to be on everyone's mind right now.

None of these will blow your mind, but knowing when to buy in bulk. So you can ask yourself a few questions. Can I eat it before it goes bad? Because if you buy in bulk and it all goes bad, you wasted a whole bunch of money. Is the price per ounce cheaper? Most people are not doing the math. A lot of times it's actually on the label. It will show you the per ounce price. And so just because you got it at the wholesale club doesn't always mean it's cheaper than at your local grocery store. That's true. I made that mistake with jelly. And here's a big question asked, do I have room to store all of this mueslix? So much mueslix. Don't do it. Don't make that mistake. So storage can be, it can be a problem if you don't have a lot of space. And then obviously, will I actually use this? So there's some, of course, choosing

generic brands. That's a tough one for a lot of people i don't know why married to their brand name they're made in the same factory people it's just marketing it's literally just a different label on it let your tell your brain that next time you go to the store because it's true yeah the acetaminophen versus the tylenol it's the same thing made on the same line yep and you know i love this one george eat less meat that's a big one for you that's coming from me y'all know I'm the resident vegetarian. You offend millions of meat-eating Americans when you say stuff like that. It's not a... Look, I'm not telling them to go hungry. I'm telling them to eat a different form of protein. And a lot of times you're getting the same amount of protein per ounce.

I just feel like tofu infringes on my rights as an American. George, you come to the house tonight. I will prepare you the best tofu you've ever had in your life. And you will rave and you will go on the streets and rip your shirt off and tell these people how great that tofu was. That's not the site America needs right now.

Unbelievable. Another thing you can do, switch up the grocery store. A lot of you, you're stuck. I go to this grocery store. But I'm telling you, Christina Ellis is doing her no spend challenge. She's been shopping at Aldi and i am just shocked at how how much she can stretch those dollars she's spending under a hundred dollars a week for a family of family four don't tell me it

can't be done it can be done shopping online can be helpful if you're one of those compulsive going by the snack aisle type shoppers so ordering in the app for pickup and maybe having an accountability partner to look over what you are ordering. Be careful though, because sometimes in those apps, they do add premiums. I know the Publix apps, the Publix app trips, just I'm letting you know. I would much rather do that with like some of the other apps that don't add as much of a premium. That's good. And of course, meal plan. Jade, you're amazing at this. I know it's work. People are like meal plan. That's like CrossFit. There's too much work. It's work on the front end. What you need to do is get a list of meat, like start out by writing out all the meals you love,

all your family favorites. Then you can come on websites or, you know, social medias like mine and get, you know, some other ideas. And then after that, it's just about plug and play. The hardest part is writing out and really getting that kind of list of all the things that you like to eat, separating it out. But we've got you covered. Well, now you can just Google and YouTube all this stuff. You can't invent it from scratch. No, you don't. But people eat the same thing over and over. They get bored. And we don't need to talk about eating out because the best hack for inflation is just to not eat out if you don't have to. If you are like, I don't have enough money at the end of the month, one of the easiest ways to make money back into your life is by not eating out.

It is astronomically expensive these days. Okay. That's a good point, George. But even for folks, let's say you're in baby step three and you're doing, you know, you're past that baby step two phase, but you're still like, man, this inflation and you're going to restaurants every now and then. Can you pick it up instead of dining in yes you can avoid the tip and here's my favorite tip for folks who are still going to restaurants but trying to save leave your kids at home that's big don't bring those but then you gotta hire a babysitter you

gotta offset the cost now george i would rather pay for child care than to pay 14 for whatever their food was and it ends up on the floor. And I'm talking about times two because I got two kids. Warshaw kids. She's coming for you. All right, let's move on to housing and utility. Saving on your electric bill. There's a lot of things you can do here. Number one, replace those air filters.

They're probably crispy and nasty and it's time anyways. That's right. But your air filter, your HVAC is having to work so hard. It's working overtime because of those nasty filters. Only run appliances when they're full. That means being a little more strategic, a little more patient. Turn off the dang lights when you're not using them. And if my dad is listening, he's like, yes. I want to know how much does it really save? Because I grew up on that. Turn the light off. It adds up. Cut that light off. And washing your clothes in cold water. I was just watching someone

who's an appliance pro and they were like, washing cold water with today's detergents, it's going to clean it just as well as your warm or hot water. Yes, it does. That's a great one. Save money there. Water bills, take quicker showers. Notice I didn't say fewer. I said quicker. Some of y'all, y'all need to get hanging out like it's a hot tub in there. Get what you need to get done and get out. George, why are you coming at me this hour? Why are you coming at me? Well, I think this is a woman problem.

Now, some guys probably take super long showers. Man, I take the long, hot shower until the skin comes off. I'm just burning myself in there. Don't run the dishwasher or laundry until the machine is full. That's another good one. Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth. I'm guilty of that one. When you're shaving, washing your hair, turn off the tap. Don't just let it run for fun. That is very good. We live in a society, people. Act like it. And then you can install a low flow showerhead.

So people get upset about this one. This is taking it too far. Well, some of those showerheads, I mean just the the pressure coming out of those things that's we'll take your skin off so i'm just saying all that helps rent this is a tough one right people are going well how my rent's so expensive if you're single it may be time to get a roommate and cut it yeah if you're married some married couples are like we got an extra room we're going to use this to make money we did it when we were in baby step two our rent was 1200 a month and we as married people got roommates who were other married people and we did it for When we were in baby step two, our rent was $1,200 a month. And we, as married people, got roommates who were other married people. And we did it for a year and saved $600 a month.

That's a life hack right there. And then you can also look into a lease that's longer than a year. If you know you're going to be somewhere for a while, you can sign up for a longer lease, which can lower your rent, which is great. And here's a life hack. Move out and find somewhere cheaper to live. It exists. And you may not want to do it, but that's one way to lower your cost there. Transportation is another one that has gotten real expensive. And so things like combining your errands, there are gas reward programs out there that are free that can save you a few cents on the dollar. You probably have all this, all the crap in your car that may be weighing down your car.

That's true. And that can help with your fuel economy and cruise control. Aggressively speeding and breaking on the highway, all that, that can lower your gas mileage by from 50 cents to $2 a gallon. Yeah. $2. That's true. Just, I remember my dad used to tell me, take the highway because it's less stop and go and you'll save on gas. Dads. Way to go, dads. Way to go, dad. They were the first frugal folks out there. I love it. He was the one that said, cut go, dad. They were the first frugal folks out there. I love it. He was the one that said, cut the light off. Now let's end with some lifestyle savings hacks.

And the biggest one is subscriptions. We live in the subscription economy and they all add up and everyone wants to nickel and dime you for their thing. Prime has gotten, I love me some Prime, but they've gotten out of control with this price. So let's just say you cut, Netflix know, Netflix is now $16 a month. Spotify is $10 a month. YouTube Premium is $12 a month. Hulu without the ads is $13 a month.

That's $50 a month just on TV shows and music. And I can't keep up with the amount of content on there. No. If you have enough, can I just say this? I'm about to harp on. And I'm talking to myself too. If you have all these subscriptions and you're using all you're watching that much tv we need to find something else to do with our time and i'm saying we an hour

because i'm in it too well what's amazing is you cut all the subscriptions because you got a part time job now because you're trying to get out of debt yeah you don't miss it no you're too busy for that you're too busy working and that's 600 bucks a year that you can throw a debt you can afford your groceries all of that kind of stuff and extra time you'll have when you're not you're watching i don't know what the cool shows are emily in paris i don't know what's cool these days it sounds like you watch emily in paris george my wife my wife does it happened to be on and i was in the room uh the other lifestyle wants clothing don't buy clothing unless it's an actual need we have so many clothes in america today your closet is just full of crap that you

once thought was going to be cute. Yeah. And now it's still got tags on. And there's really cool ways that you can do those clothing exchanges too. Like if you have something and you paid a little bit of money for it, you can go on one of those exchanges, sell it, and then maybe take the money and either put it towards debt or buy something else. So it's more of an exchange. Yes. And lastly, make coffee at home. I know it's one of those tried and true. Well, what's the five bucks? Oh, it saves you big. It adds up. And lastly, make coffee at home. I know it's one of those tried and true. Well, what's the five bucks? Oh, it saves you big. It adds up.

And it tastes better, George, because you get it right every time. That's right. And you can make your own little frothy lattes at home. And it's $14 cheaper than Starbucks. And no more gas station runs. That is keeping y'all broke every day. I'm going to stop in, get my little snack, get my little drink. That's how they're making their money right there.

And it's putting the pounds on, too. Don't sleep on it. Good hacks. Thanks, Jade. Are you sick of planned obsolescence? You know, when companies make products crappy, so you have to buy more of their crappy products? Well, me too. And it's why I love companies like Grip6.

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We are doing a free live stream event this Thursday called Building Wealth in 2023, because we want to show you that it is still possible to make progress on those goals, to build wealth, to have peace with your money, even in this crazy economy. During this event, you're going to hear from Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, myself, and we're going to be joined by John Deloney and Ken Coleman to have some fun talking about how to set goals, how to create margins so that you can build wealth this year. And here's the good news. It's completely free. So it's a great event to send to your friends, send to the folks you wish were on the Ramsey plan and go, hey, could you spare an hour of your time to tune into this free live stream wherever you are in the world?

Go to RamseySolutions.com slash wealth to sign up for the free live stream. That is RamseySolutions.com slash wealth. Jade, you'll be watching, I hope. I will definitely be watching. I love those live streams. And they always come at the right time. Just when you need it. They've helped Sam and I in many a a hard time

many many a dark dark hour well i'm going to tease a little bit of what's what's going to be in this event dave is going to kick it off with a state of the union talking about all the things all the things we're feeling all the different aspects of the economy from the inflation the recession the stock market roller coaster the job the job market, consumer debt, anxiety, and really center it and bring us home with some hope. And then I'll get out there and hopefully have a good time showing people how to create margin in their finances, regardless of where they're at. And a lot of that is we got to get on a debt. We got to get on a budget. We got to find where all the money leaks are happening in our life and take control of that income, our greatest wealth

building tool. I love it. And then finally, Rachel Cruz, she's going to be kind of closing out the keynote section, talking about how to ride this roller coaster and how to addressing all of the fears that we have when it comes to investing, because so many people don't do it because there's legitimate fear and they're going, I don't want to lose money. I'm risk averse. I'm conservative. I don't want, and because of that, they retire with nothing. Ooh, that's no way to be. We can't let our fear guide. Absolutely.

And so beyond that, we're going to have a fun round table with Ken Coleman and Dr. John Deloney joining. That's a good time. A lot of surprises. You don't want to miss it. I love it. January 12th, 7 p.m. Central Time, 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash wealth.

Facts over fears. I like it. That's what it's all about. Max is up next in Phoenix, Arizona. Max, welcome to The Ramsey Show, my friend. How are you doing? Good. How about yourself? Doing great. What's your question today? All right. So my question, it's a little bit more of a broad one. I am, just for context, 19 years old. I do work full-time.

I've been working full-time for the last year and a half. I make about $200,000 a year pre-tax. What do you do? I sell cars. Excellent. That's a lot of cars. Yeah. How did you do this at 19?

Really, it was just being relentless. There were a couple of programs in my area. I started going and investing really in myself, going to training seminars, stuff like that. And really, I mean, I'd work 12 hours a day, then study four hours a day. Wow. That's amazing. Just basic selling. Awesome. First year, I really struggled, I mean, I struggled.

I made $100,000 my first year. Quite the struggle there for an 18-year-old. I know, right? Wow. So that's really good. But now the market shifted. Again, I was just ready for it. Now I'm just looking on how I can invest properly.

I don't have a lot of debt. I do have a leased car. I'm smoking like a true car salesman. Right. How much other than the car? And I want to know how much the car debt is. Do you have any other debt? No, I have no other debt.

I just have rent. Okay. So just the car lease? Correct. Okay. You just the car lease? Correct. Okay. You know this better than anyone. What is the early buyout amount on that car? $30,000. Okay. Well, how much money do you have in the bank? Well, so just to explain it better, the residual value on it is $30,000. That's the buyout plus what I currently make payments on, which is $20,000.

So it would be a total of $50,000. Oh, my Lord. That's the full early buyout amount if you wanted to own this car free and clear. Yes, it's a $65,000 car. What kind of car is this? It is an Infiniti Q60 Red Sport. Wow, sick whip. And if you, oh my goodness. Well, the good news is as a part of your world and your income right now, it's actually reasonable if you can

continue to make $200,000. Now, if you make $100,000 next year, we got a problem. That's right. Right. Yes. I can terminate the lease early for $5,000 and turn it in tomorrow and forget about it. As a $5,000 stupid tax and call it a day. Correct. All right. That's an awesome. I do have the money to pay it off. What's the big question that's on your mind that we can help with today? Really, it's just, I'm trying to start saving my money, spending my money a little more wisely. I have about a hundred grand in the bank right now. What? Amazing.

Yeah. I'm trying to learn how to invest that and just really get started. Outside of the car, I'm a very frugal saver. I know where my money goes. I just found Dave about a month ago, so I just started getting into it. I'm probably going to go through a financial piece here shortly. I'm really just trying to dial in on this and figure out how do I invest that money. So as a car salesman, are you your own man or are you on... Do they offer any benefits towards you is what I'm asking to figure out what your retirement situation looks like.

401k. They do offer a 401k. Is there a match? Yes. 50%. Sweet. Is it up to a certain amount? Yeah, it's up to, I believe, 20% of your take home.

Cool. Wonderful. Well, that's a great place to start. Yeah. As far as, have you been doing that? Yeah, I haven't been doing the full 20. I've been doing about 10, which is commission. It fluctuates a little bit. Just taking 10% of it a month is

really about a grand, two grand a month, give or take. So we could, you could really walk up the baby steps with this. You know, you could make sure that out of that 100K, you're keeping three to six months of expenses out. In your case, I'd go ahead and keep six months out just because your profession is a little bit more volatile and there's only one of you. It's only one income. So I'd keep six months of that. I would continue to do the 15% investing. And, you know, do you have any goals? You're 19. Are you thinking about, I mean, what, what are you thinking about housing wise? Yeah, I've been, I've been looking at it. I mean, what are you thinking about housing-wise? Yeah, I've been looking at it. I mean, I just moved to Phoenix about six months ago.

So I'm still learning the area. Very smart. Moved from Nashville, Tennessee, actually. Good, very smart. Keep doing that. Keep learning the area. Give yourself about a year over there. And I think that you can kind of keep some of this money stashed away, maybe in a good money market account where it's getting some interest. And when you're ready, you know, you're going to have a nice hefty down

payment when the time comes. Yeah. I mean, with your income, you truly could pay cash for something if you want to go real intense. But as long as you've got 20 percent or more down, you know, with your situation, you could put 10, but you make so much. There's no reason why you couldn't have 20. He needs to go for the gold. Get a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. I know that's controversial in today's society, but man, when you get a 15 year where the payment is no more than a quarter of your take home pay, you have money left over, which means you can live your life. You can pay it off early, which means in your twenties, you could have a paid for house. Think about that. That's right. No payments in the world, a giant pile of money in the bank, and the rest of your life ahead of you to continue investing. You could buy more property with cash. The world is your oyster

at that point. And Max, no more leases. All right? That was it. We learned the lesson. The snake bit us. We're not leasing anymore. Because I want all the other car salesmen to look at you at 19 making this kind of money with no car lease. And they're going, I don't understand, Max. Leasing is great. This is what we do for a living. And you go, nah, dude.

I found Dave Ramsey. I'm trying to live a debt-free life. And they're going to look at you going, will you show me how you... Oh, wow. You're investing that much? You have a paid-for house. Okay. I'm listening to Max's plan now.

All right. I love it. Way to go, dude. That's inspiring right there. These young people killing it, George. Step it up, old people. Max has got you beat by a mile. Are you talking to me, George?

No, I didn't look at you when I said it. I was not making eye contact. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day comes from Proverbs 15, 23. A person finds joy in giving an apt reply, and how good is a timely word? Ralph Waldo Emerson said, Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. That's a good coach right there.

Love it. All right. Let's go to Jake in Billings, Montana. Jake, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Yeah. Hey, George and Jade. Thanks for taking my call. You're welcome.

I'm a long-time listener, first-time caller, so bear with me. I'm a little nervous, but we'll get through it. Yeah. caller so bear with me i'm a little nervous but um it's all right we'll get through it yeah so um uh long story short we found out last week that my dad's got uh terminal cancer and probably got weeks maybe months and um i trust you guys's opinion on things and i just wanted to see uh if there's anything that you know we haven't thought of that maybe you guys would recommend we check into or do before all that takes place. Jake, I'm so sorry. We're so sorry.

That's tough. What kind of cancer is it? Lung cancer that's spread to everything else. So sorry. Well, we're happy to give you some good next steps and kind of a checklist of things to go through um is there other family in the picture is your mom yeah yep yep um yep mom mom and dad are still married um and then my brother and i okay well does he have a will in place or an estate plan uh they they do have a will i'm i'm sure it's a simple will but yeah

they had it drawn up a couple of years ago now. I would triple check that and maybe go over it with them and have him make sure all the, you know, the I's are dotted, the T's are crossed there. Yeah. Do you know, do they have any debt? No, they do not. The house was paid off as well. Oh, wonderful. What a blessing that is. So the other pieces of information that would be really helpful is where all the insurance information, any important information, logins, make sure that's all written down somewhere that you'll have access to. Okay. Yeah. And that's the not fun part. We talked about that.

There's just so many places. Yeah, I definitely should start writing that stuff down. Account numbers, contact information, all of that. Okay. Okay. Okay. And is he still in a spot where he's able

to interact with you guys? Yes. Yep. Yep, he is. Okay. It may be special for him

to make videos for each person in the family saying everything that he wants to say. That's such a gift to have that. Has he considered doing that?

No, it's not something we've talked about yet. I think that'd be a wonderful gift. Yeah. It's not an easy thing to do, but man, you will treasure that for the rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah, I think we would. Yeah, it makes you reevaluate your time with somebody for sure.

And so, yeah, we're just trying to wrap our heads around that. Is there any kind of bucket list things that he's mentioned that he wants to do, that he's able to do? Um, oh, no, no, not particularly. And I think we'll probably pass that point. Mobility is a major issue, but his mind is still good. Yeah. What's your dad's name? Nick. Man, it sounds like Nick was a great dad. He's really set you guys up. No debt. Yeah. The will in place. I mean, that is just such a, it's such a blessing. That's such a legacy. That's

right, George. Yeah. And as far as expenses, funeral expenses, is all of that going to be covered? Well, so yeah's that's kind of you know that started all this discussion um the funeral he wants it simple but like you know we've never had to plan anything like that so i'm not sure what if if there's things that you know we're simply not aware of um we did get um funeral home, or I guess, well, it's the funeral plot involved. And so we're asking those questions with them, but kind of looking at where to go from there too. And just make sure in the will, all of his wishes are in there. Yeah, that's why it's a good idea to go over it ahead of time. I mean, I know it would be difficult, but have everybody in the room, everybody that it involves, go through that.

Make sure, like George said, all the I's are dotted, T's are crossed, and everybody's understanding what the next step's going to be. Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. I think we'll do that. We'll go pull that out. We also have an estate planning checklist that we'll make sure you get the link to when you get off the phone. Oh, you do? Yeah, and that would be great just to be able to go through that. There are several steps that you can just make sure this is all taken care of,

and it's going to give you peace through all this as well. Okay, cool. Yeah, that'll be super helpful. Is there an executor of the will currently? Yes, I guess. Would that default to my mom? It sounds like it would. I would just double check the language in there because whatever that will says is what's going to happen.

Okay. And you may have to go through probate to finalize all the assets and all of that. So I would also get in touch with an estate attorney and figure out all of that stuff ahead of time because the last thing you want is, oh, I didn't understand or I didn't know and I didn't know the assets moved this way and here's what we have to go through

and this could take months. And so I just want you to make sure you know exactly what's coming because I want you to have space to grieve instead of have to deal with all the details. And how old is your mom? Yes, that's all the details. And how old is your mom? Yes, that's what we want too. How old is your mom?

She's a little 62. Okay. She's a little 62. Okay. And she's in good health? Yeah. Yeah. She sure is.

She sure is. Yeah. But yeah, it's that weird stuff. I don't know what will happen with his IRA. I know he's got a rollover IRA or social security. And I don't know how that all plays out, but. Yeah. You want to make sure she's set up with, you know, whatever, whoever you were using or your dad was using or that they were using, making sure that she was fully a part of that and understands all the investments, understands what the game plan is there. And I would go through every single account and for

bank accounts, for example, make sure that she's joint on that bank account. So everything would just flow to her making sure on the IRA that you have the beneficiary set up and it's who you want it to be. And so those are some pieces of the puzzle that you could knock out quickly to give you some peace of mind when it comes to the financial side. Yeah. But I assume she's going to continue living in their paid-for home? Yeah. She, perhaps. It will be like it's some acreage. It would be a lot for her to maintain,

but we could rent it if we had to. My wife and I have had rentals and still do, so we could figure that out. Is this kind of family land that you would want to keep generationally or is this something where she might be willing to sell it downsize later on? Um, we would certainly prefer to keep it. Like it's an awesome place. Uh, but that's, it's up to her at the end of the day. It's that's entirely her decision. Yeah. Well, part of this is just supporting mom and obviously the rest of the family through all of this. And man, this whole family just sounds incredible. I'm like, this is the kind of family I want to be. Absolutely.

The kind of dad I would want to be. And they're wonderful to have a son like you stepping in and making sure everything is in place and that this is as smooth of a journey as possible. So thank you for that. How old are you, Jake? My brother and I are both, oh, 35. Wow. I can't imagine losing a parent at brother and I are both, oh, 35. Wow. I can't imagine losing a parent at that age, man. I'm so sorry. Yeah, it came as a heck of a surprise.

It's a real punch in the gut for everybody. Have they been following the Ramsey plan? Did they get you guys turned on to all this? No, they've always just been very frugal. Just common sense. I can't say that I'm a Ramsey follower, but I definitely practice the same things that you guys preach, I guess. So like my wife and I are debt free as well, how to pay for stuff. So like, it's all good. Financially, we're all good. I just don't know what is coming. You know, this is a new one. Yeah. Well, with all the

unknowns, there's a lot of things that are in your control right now to knock out and give the family some space to grieve. And I'll send you a copy of John Deloney's book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. There's a lot of principles in there that I think will help you and the family grieve through this, process all of this in a healthy way. And we're also going to make sure you get that estate planning checklist, which is free online if you just Google Ramsey estate planning checklist. But we'll get you the specific link. Austin, he'll figure that one out for us.

But Jade, what a lesson in legacy and saying I love you to your family in such a tactical way. Oh, he has proven that taking care of your money well is one of the greatest ways that you can love your family well. Because this could have been filled with chaos i was fully expecting it to be a nightmare and instead it was just like oh yeah he did that we've got the will in place so if you're listening america get a will done today today today go to our website we've got a link over there to our friends at mama bear legal forums you can do this online and it doesn't take long. And it's just one thing to check off. You're not going to die any sooner if you get a will in place, by the way. Right. But man, what a legacy. Jake, we are thinking of you and your family today. That's right. During this really, really difficult

time. Appreciate you trusting us with this call. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Jade Warshaw, all the folks in the booth and you, America. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from The Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to The Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.