The Ramsey Show - App - Being Debt-Free Is Worth the Sacrifice (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

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

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Phone number is 888-825-5225. Ron starts off this hour in Arkansas. Hey, Ron, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yes, sir. I was just calling. My wife and I are on baby step six, and we're getting really excited about paying our house off. We currently owe $25,000 and I was wondering if we should sell one of our cars that's completely paid off to pay off our house and then use the extra money that we have available to buy just another vehicle to

get around with what's the car that you would sell for $25,000? It's a Toyota Tacoma. Mm-hmm. Okay. It's a Kelly Blue Book at about $28,000 on the low end. Mm-hmm. And what's your household income? $75,000. And what's the other car worth? The other car is worth probably around $8,000, $8,000 or $9,000. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right.

If you don't sell it, how quick can you pay the house off? Our goal is to have the house paid off by December of next year, so December 2020. Okay. Do you like the car? I do. Okay. And you can pay the house off in 18 months without selling the car? Correct.

I would not sell the car okay now let me tell you why okay because it doesn't matter what dave ramsey thinks but why i think it might be important because that's where you learn something if you sell the car now your house is paid off yay what are you gonna do and start saving to buy another car and in 18 months what are you gonna do you? Start saving to buy another car. And in 18 months, what are you going to do? You're going to buy something about like you got now. That's a lot of exercise for just 18 months.

You're going to get right back where you are now. I mean, so if something was going to change and you were never going to end up back here exactly again, then that's different. But in this case, I would just keep your car and plow on through. Because baby steps four, five, six, where you do 15% of your income into retirement, you know, money going into your kid's college and everything else goes on the house, are where you let the foot off the pedal a little bit. When you're in baby steps one, two, and 3, folks, you're saving your emergency fund or you're getting out of debt, you've got the pedal to the metal all the way.

You're gazelle intense. There's no room for any luxuries. Once you get through that emergency fund in Baby Step 3, you let your foot off a little bit and it allows you to do life, save up and buy a couch, save up and go on vacation, save up and buy that dishwasher that hasn't been working and you've been washing your own dishes, whatever it is. And you also put 15% of your income away for retirement.

You also start doing something for kids' college. And you also, with what money is left after those two things, put it on the house and try to get your home paid off. And that's right where Ron is. And he's in really, really good shape and has made a lot of progress. You can just tell by the way his story unfolds. So very, very good, Ron. Very well done.

Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best possible deal. Today's question is from Dave in Missouri. He says, my wife and I are currently following the baby steps to get out of debt.

Should we contribute 10% of our income to tithes? We know how important this is, but it also seems like that amount would go far to help dig us out of debt. Well, when you're dealing with a tithe, most of the time when someone asks

this question, it would be an evangelical Christian who believes in giving 10% of our income to the church, to our local church. And if that's the context you're answering the question, ask the question, and I'll answer it in that context. The word tithe literally means tenth in the Hebrew when you look it up. It literally means a tenth of your income. And evangelicals have taught for 1,500 years that it goes to your local church

because your local church provides, should provide, the same functions as the Old Testament storehouse, which is to take care of the Levites, which were the pastoral or the priest of the tribe of Israel that was assigned to be the priests and assigned to be what we would call pastors today. So you pay your preacher. How that the local church does.

And the local storehouse was to take care of widows and orphans. And so you need to take care of widows and orphans at your local church. These days, that includes single moms as far as I'm concerned. 52% of them live below the poverty level, and the local church ought to have a program to help them keep their cars fixed and help them with their careers and help them move along and help them get the dignity and get their feet under them and get away from the poverty level. Sharing is what that's called,

and it's a good thing for the local church to do that. For that matter, I'll go even further, and this is not in the Bible. This is just Dave Ramsey. But I think that if your church has military families in it and the husband or the wife is deployed, your church should be taking care of the one back home. They should be watching over them. That's just me.

I think that goes in that same category. So all of that to say, God gives us this guideline in Scripture, those of us that are people of faith, to give a tenth of our income to the Old Testament storehouse, which is very much like the local church today. Now, he does say in Proverbs several times that it should be first fruits, which means off the top, the first thing you do. Now, is this a legalism thing? Are you going to hell? No.

Does God like tithers more than non-tithers? No. He's crazy about all his children, even the ones that misbehave. He loves you. He doesn't necessarily like your behavior, but he loves you. He's crazy about you. He's not looking for an excuse to zap you or an excuse to not bless you. And so we're not going to set this up where you are somehow trying to get brownie points with God. No, no, no, no, no. Not at all. We're not going to do that. Instead, we're going to not be performance-based Christians, but we are going to say,

Hey, our loving Heavenly Father says, Son, Daughter, this is the best way to live. The best way to live is to give a tenth of your income off the top before you do anything. That's the best way to live. And I want you to start there. And so I want you to start there, but not out of legalism, not out of, oh, I can't be blessed unless. No, no, I'm not going with any of that. It's a real simple thing. When you give, it changes you because generosity always changes you. And we want you to be changed. We want you to win. It's that simple.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us, America. Hey, outrageous generosity is the reason we do this stuff. We are out of debt so that we can change our family tree, so that we can build wealth, so that we can be outrageously generous. Outrageous generosity is where this starts and where it ends so you can't mess up giving you just can't mess giving up this is the dave ramsey show No matter what time of year it is, focusing on your family's financial plan is always a smart move. I get questions all the time about where to start and what to do first.

One of the most crucial and affordable first steps to take is to protect your family and get term life insurance. I know it's not glamorous, but all the other steps mean a lot less if something happens to you and your family has no financial protection. Getting term life insurance needs to be a top priority. I recommend 10 to 12 times your income and lock in rates for 15 to 20 years. This gives you plenty of time to get out of debt and build wealth, and I've been recommending Zander Insurance for over 20 years. They understand and live this

strategy, and they will take the time to help you find the most affordable term life rates. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It's not that expensive, it's not complicated, and you need to do it right now. That's 800-356-4282. epic failure plague that has blotted out the sun where you can't even see in america 1.6 trillion dollars in student loan debt this This is not okay. Graduates are walking off the stage with their degrees and $37,000 to $137,000 to $237,000 worth of debt. Is this what we want for our children? No.

We do not want you to start your adult lives with so much debt that you can't even move into your dreams. Education is supposed to be a blessing, not a curse. I want you to start your adult lives with so much debt that you can't even move into your dreams. Education is supposed to be a blessing, not a curse. This is out of control. It long ago entered the stupid zone and moved over into the crazy zone. This is nuts. It doesn't have to be this way.

It is possible to go to college and get a college degree debt-free even if you have no money there are some steps and there are some sacrifices and there are some choices to be made but this is why we are pumped to announce this listen to this carefully first time i've about this anthony and o'neill and i are hosting the debt free degree town hall in our brand new corporate headquarters here on monday night september the 30th right here on our main stage in the corporate headquarters on september the 30th we are going to do a town hall that we will broadcast live called the debt-free degree town hall and we will not hold back well you didn't expect us to we're going to tell you the truth about the student loan mess where it came from what it is and where it's going if we don't stop it. And we're going to do questions and answers with the audience, and we're going to have some experts.

It is going to be a major, major event, a live debt-free degree town hall here in our brand-new headquarters on Monday, September the 30th. If you would like to attend this live facebook and youtube channel event and you can watch it there as well but if you're in the nashville area or you want to come to nashville and plan it around september the 30th you can be in the studio audience completely free tickets are free for this event this is the first moment i have discussed this with the public and so if you're hearing this right now it is the first moment I have discussed this with the public, and so if you're hearing this right now, it is the first chance, and it might be your last chance,

because we've only got 300 seats, and they're free. They will go very quickly. So if you'd like to come to the Debt-Free Degree Town Hall broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube from our new corporate headquarters main stage on Monday night, September the 30th. Go to DaveRamsey.com slash events and register online for your free ticket today. It's free, but there's only 300 slots. We will cut it off. Or you can call Ramsey Concierge Team and they can give you a ticket at 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223.

Did I mention there's only room for 300 people? This is going to be a major fun event. Anthony and I will both be talking. We'll probably have some experts on the stage. We're trying to figure that part out right now. And we'll be doing Q&A with the audience on how to get a debt-free degree. This coincides with Anthony's new book, Debt-Free Degree, which comes out the following week.

The actual ship date is the following week. You can order it now on presale today. Same thing, anthonyoneal.com, daveremsey.com, Ramsey Concierge at 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223. Jared is with us in West Virginia. Hi, Jared. How are you? I'm doing well, Dave.

How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, I wanted to get some of your real estate wisdom. My father inherited a farm from his father along with my two aunts. And one day I would like to own the farm, and my aunts are getting older in years and didn't know about how to go about purchasing that from them. I'm on baby step six and just want to get some wisdom on how to possibly handle that.

Well, it's an emotional transaction to start with. Yeah. So it causes people to abandon wisdom sometimes in these situations. I obviously would not recommend you do it if you didn't pay cash for it. What is the farm worth, and what is each of these shares worth? It's split evenly to a third apiece, and the farm's worth approximately $150,000. So if you inherit your dad's portion or do you have siblings? I would get his portion. Okay.

And so you need $100,000 to buy out the two aunts approximately. Yeah, and they have five kids between them, and I really don't want to have to deal with them once they pass away because it's too hard to get everybody to agree with things. Amen. I'd rather get it done ahead of time. Amen. Okay.

So what do you make a year? About $75,000. Okay. And you're trying to get your home paid off. Yes, which is about $76,000 left. Okay. Is there a home on this property that you would live in? My parents live, their home is adjacent to this farm.

No, that's not. When you buy the $150,000, is adjacent to this farm. No, that's not, when you buy the $150,000, is there a place for you to live? No, it would just be land. And you're married with kids? Single. You're single? Yes. What's your house worth?

Probably close to $ why don't you sell it and put a six thousand dollar trailer on the land uh it would put me farther from work uh probably i'm only about a mile from work now and it probably put me over 30 minutes uh from work yeah, but you'd own the land. Well, that's true, too. My dad actively farms it right now. And you'd have zero debt. That's true, yeah. And you could rent an apartment in town if you wanted to, or you could save up and buy your little condo in town if you wanted to.

Okay. For cash after a little while. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's an inconvenient thing, but it does the deal instantly. Right. And here's the other thing.

When the ants die, they're not going to get $50,000 net to the kids if they sell the land to somebody. If they sell the land for $150,000 to somebody or try to sell their share to somebody it would be minus sales expenses a real estate commission other stuff so it's probably really only about 45 000 a piece about 10 of that would be expenses to sell so if you offered if you offered them 40 000 each cash that would not be a bad offer okay are they are the ants of sound mind or do you have to deal with the kids already no no the answer they're they're still in good health they're willing to sell to you i think they would be um i mean my grandfather wanted to try to keep it in the family so i think they would be open to it because they don't have anything to do with it now.

So it's just there. My dad takes care of it. Okay. Here's the deal I would like to see you do. How old are you? 36. So 200 and you owe 76, right? Yes, sir.

So that's 124 minus expenses, and we only need 80 if we offer them 40 each. Hmm. See, here's a clean deal. I would sell your house and rent me an apartment in town, put a little money in the bank, and you don't even have to buy a trailer. Just rent an apartment in town. I'd just sell your house, rent me a little money in the bank, and you don't even have to buy a trailer. Just rent an apartment in town.

I'll just sell your house, rent me a little apartment. You're a single dude. It's not a big deal. And your dad needs to go ahead and deed the portion that he's going to will to you. I'd rather him go ahead and deed that to you now. Okay. For cleanliness. I don't like it from a stepped-up basis standpoint, but that's okay.

This way you own 100% of this property if you're willing to do this transaction you're right okay at number 140 at number 240 and dad deeds his portion to you now and you have uh you know you've got 30 000 bucks or 40 000 bucks in the bank and you live in an apartment you own the land and then you start saving up to buy you something that you in in town, want to live in for cash. Gotcha. That's what I would do if I were a 36-year-old single, making the money you're making in this situation. And that's assuming you're willing to sacrifice this deeply to get this land.

And I would. I would. I would do that if the land is worth it to you. I like dirt. I'm a dirt guy man some say joe dirt but there you go this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage is Erica. Hey, Erica, how are you? Hey, Dave.

I'm doing well. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Good to have you. Where do you live? Columbus, Georgia. Okay.

Well, welcome to Nashville. Thank you. Not a bad drive up. So you get to tour the lobby and see everything? Not everything, but I plan to after. Okay, welcome to Nashville. Thank you. Not a bad drive up. So you get to tour the lobby and see everything? Not everything, but I plan to after. Okay, cool. Well, we'll get you a personal tour. I know a guy.

Okay. So there you go. Good to have you. And all the way up here to do a debt-free screen. Yes, sir. How much have you paid off? $65,000. Awesome.

And how long did this take? So I put 28 months on a lot of things, which was inaccurate, but it was actually 27 months. But because my photos show 28, we're just going to, whichever, 27 to 28 months. Whichever one we want. Yeah. Okay, good. And what was your household income range during that two and a half years? My range of income was 52 to about 62, up to almost 80,000 with my side job. Whoa,

side hustle. Yes. Look at you. What do you do for a living? I work as a web product analyst for a payments credit card processing company. Gotcha. Cool. And what was the side hustle? I worked part time as a psychometrist. A what? Psychometrist. What does that do? I do psychological evaluations, IQ tests, trauma assessments. Oh, okay. Yes. Okay. Wow.

I didn't know the term. Excellent. Very cool. What kind of debt was the $65,000? $50,000 of it, excuse me, it got up to $57,000. So $50,000 was private school student loan debt and then credit card and kind of sort of a car. Sort of. Okay. I was first generation going to college in my family tree.

Were you? I was the first to get my bachelor's and then my master's. Yes. Okay. Yes. So first generation college graduate. Yes, sir. Okay.

In your tree, in your family tree. All right. Cool. So how old are you i'm 31 what happened 27 months ago you're 27 28 years old something lit a fuse right so in 2014 my wife she was born and fast forward to the 27 months before now I was out of gas gas tank I hadn't planned properly with my finances and it was the gas light the gas light came on that's what sparked all of this and I didn't have the money to put it in the car and I had to set my pride aside and ask

my dad for money and he didn't take me seriously because I was always the one with money, right? But nope, I didn't have it. And that was the moment I said, I had enough. I cannot live like this. I'm a single mom. I cannot do this. I have all the degrees. I have the ability. Right.

And we're just out of control and something's got to change. Right. The gas light came on. I like it. Yes, sir. I like it. That's great. Oh, that's fun.

It's actually the opening paragraph in my first book, Financial Peace. You may never read it. You probably read the other ones. But I was standing at the gas pump with a Jaguar, and all my credit cards are getting denied, and I can't put gas in a Jaguar. And I'm thinking, there's something wrong with this. That was kind of the same thing the gas light came on i love that yes sir so what did you do you said okay i had to borrow money from dad put gas in the tank for the car i'm not living like this what'd you do i found out where your class was being offered so in february 2017

i was a dropout so i was in your class before and I dropped out. A Financial Peace University dropout. Dropout. Oh. So I decided to re-enroll. I decided to re-enroll. At the time when I first took it, I didn't think that it applied to me. I thought you had to have debt.

I didn't understand that your program was about building wealth. And my understanding is much greater now. I love it. But in February, that's when I went back and I decided to just get on a track cut everything out I wasn't doing any frivolous spending but just really maintaining my finances better is what I needed to do yeah yeah you thought our program was about debt and you had $40,000 of student loan debt so you didn't think it applied to you so first of all when I went the first time I didn't have anything oh you didn't have I didn't

have anything oh so that was you did that for your grad work? Just to go. I just wanted to learn what it was about. And I was like, this isn't for me. I mean, your 40 grand was your grad work. 57. Oh, that was 57 was the grad work. Okay.

All right. Okay. That makes sense. So you weren't kidding. You really didn't have any debt. All right. I thought you just didn't think you had debt. No.

Well, I'm proud of you. Who was your biggest cheerleader? Oh, my gosh. I have a tribe of people. My parents, my friends, my wife, my daughter. What's your daughter's name? Her name is Layla. Layla.

And how old is Layla now? She's five. Five years old. Yes. Awesomeness. Very, very cool. Well, congratulations. Thank you.

How does it feel to have no payments? I want to sing and dance, but I can't do either of those things. So I just, you know, I'm just going to be thankful right now. It feels, I'm speechless. I have no words to put to it. I want to do those things. Was it worth the sacrifice? Absolutely.

Absolutely. You're poised now to make some serious money, aren't you? Oh, yeah. And build wealth like you talked about. Yes, sir. The thing, when you went to get that degree and then you went to get that master's degree, it was all thinking, hey, I've got to do something different. I've got to win.

I've got to build some wealth. And yet you did it in a way that held you back, and now you're free. Yes, I am free. This is so good. Very, very, very good. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, because that for that is the next chapter in your book i can see it very very clearly and so did you bring layla with you i did you want her in the in

the shop while we do the debt-free no doubt yes okay get over there layla you're the why baby girl i love it that's fun she's pretty awesomeness very good all right here go. It's Layla and Erica, Columbus, Georgia. $65,000 paid off in 27 months, making $52,000 to $62,000, but with a side hustle all the way up to $80,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Thank you, Jesus. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Woo-hoo! Oh, that is a family tree that has changed. Right there. That mama just changed some stuff. Well done, kiddo. Very, very well done. Man, that's amazing. That's what you do.

You heard it, man. I tell you, the first hour, the guy did his debt-free scream as a member of our team. He said he's in the garage fixing a hot water heater that had blown out, freezing his butt off, and I'm talking to him on the radio, and he goes, that's it. I've had an I've had it moment. And then Erica says the gas light came on. That's like your signal. I'm broke, and I don't have the money to put gas in my car and i gotta raise this baby it's my signal and she answered the signal she answered

the bell and she says i'm gonna change my life here's the thing i don't know exactly where you are. I don't know exactly what your situation is. But what I do know is you have more control over your future than you think you do. Anytime you get stuck, it means you're hopeless. I've been stuck. I've been hopeless. I've been so scared I couldn't breathe. I know exactly how it feels when the gas light comes on. Sitting down to do the checkbook in the old days.

Some of y'all don't even know what a checkbook is. I'm sitting down to do a checkbook, and I add up stuff, and I realize I've not posted a check, and I'm in overdraft. And your heart rate changes and there's sweat on your upper lip and right in the palm of your hands because you're having a oh lord what am i gonna do moment because there's more money owed out there than you have in the bank because you've messed up. The gas light is on. You ever been there?

In the old days, we called it bouncing a check. Some of you people don't even know what that stuff is. Spending money you don't have, you do know what that is. It scares you. The only good news is you don't have to stay there. Proverbs says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick. When there's no hope, you're sick.

But, but, when desire comes, it is the tree of life. When the gas light comes on and you say, that's it. When the water heater's out and you say, that's it. I'm changing my life. I'm going to control the variables in my future. I'm not living like this anymore.

Well, then you get to be a hero like Erica. Way to go, Erica. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Charles is in Virginia. Hey, Charles, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking the call, man. Sure. What's up?

So my wife and I are currently on baby step number two. We just started. We've got the budget going well. And so I'm trying to get as much money as I can from my paycheck. Now, for as long as I've been working, I've been claiming zero on my W-4s. And I've been getting a pretty good tax return at the end of the year. And hearing you talk about tax returns, I've heard that you're not a big fan of them. You can't claim less than zero. Correct. My question

is, at this point in the year, with it almost being September, should I go to my HR and have myself claim my wife and my son, or should I stay at zero and budget out my tax return that I get? stay at zero, and budget out my tax return that I get. Well, I mean, you should have – your goal is to have zero return. So whatever adjustments you need to do to get to that. You do not want to get $2,500 back at the end of the year.

If you can keep from having that much withheld from your check, then do that. You know, because basically what you're doing is $2,500 is $200 a month that you are loaning to the government with no interest on it, and then they give it back to you in April. And so if you can avoid having a tax refund by adjusting your withholding, that is always a wise thing. I'm not sure if you can or not, but sit down and calculate it with HR and whatever your return has been the last few years, if your situation is still the same as that, you can just adjust it by that much. Or you can completely sit down and do your taxes and say,

well, this is what my tax bill is going to be, and that's exactly how much I need to have withheld from my check and just set that amount out of your check. You can do that too. But the goal is if you're consistently getting a large tax refund, you're loaning the government money at no interest, and then they give it back to you in April. And Santa Claus does not live in Washington, D.C.

I know him personally. He just doesn't live there. So that money's not coming from him. That's your money you're getting back. Eric is with us in Georgia. Hi, Eric. How are you? I'm good. How about you? I'm good.

How about you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, me and my wife are starting Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6. And outside of work, what's mandatory to contribute, we need to contribute about another $12,000 a year. We're trying to figure out if it's better to just split that up over 12 months or should we try to knock it out in the first three or four months of the year and just be done for the year it doesn't matter um much uh there's a benefit to having it set up where it's just steady and

you don't have to think about it anymore i mean twelve thousand dollars oddly enough thousand dollars a month and oddly enough that is $1,000 a month. And oddly enough, that's two Roth IRAs. And having that withdrawn from your checking account very steadily and very predictable, there'd be an advantage to the steady and predictable part. Technically speaking, mathematically speaking, you're investing money. And so the faster you invest money, the more money you're going to make on the investment so in other words if i let's just say i had twelve thousand dollars in january or i didn't put in the twelve thousand dollars until december i will have missed out on the

money i would have made during that whole year right and so if you can do it in three or four months you will have missed out on the money you would have made through the whole year if you do it monthly. Okay? So technically, you might miss out on some returns. Of course, it depends on where the market cycles and when it's up and when it's down and all that crap, right? But overall, if you believe the market is going up on average, which you wouldn't be investing if you didn't believe that, then the sooner you invest the money, the more money you're going to make. So that's the math answer i probably would set it up on the steady answer because i see more data that tells me steady makes people more rich than playing with it

okay that makes sense i mean just here's the thing if i can do investing where i almost forget i'm doing it because it's just the rhythm of my life and i do my tithing that way at my church too if i can do my giving where i almost forget i'm doing it because it's just the rhythm of my life i am a giver i am a saver i am a giver i am a saver i am a giver and it just becomes like breathing in and breathing out and and if you can do that that seems in in the 30 years of studying this to have more impact than the little bit of math you would gain uh obviously we're talking about invest or invest neither one of these are bad things so it's just a matter whether you're going to do it all up in the front of the year or not um so generally speaking you're going to do it all up in the front of the year or not.

So generally speaking, you're going to make more money if you put it in sooner, but probably you're going to end up with more money by making it a character trait, the rhythm of your life. Breathe in, breathe out. I'm outrageously generous. I invest. I'm outrageously generous. I invest.

And you just make that a part of who you are, and that kind of stuff on the steady track has better long-term results, not necessarily mathematically, but just because we stick with it. All right, Isaac is with us in Texas. Hi, Isaac, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you doing? Better than I deserve, sir.

What's up? So I'm currently in the United States Marine Corps, and I'm enlisted. And if you've seen all the pay for that, it's not the best. So my goal is to, by that age, whenever I'm done with my current job, I want to make sure that I'm financially secure with a house and I could start a family. And while I'm in or deployed, I was wondering if there's any passive income ideas while I'm in deployment that I can just let it sit and grow. Instead, what I would do would be to work what we call our baby steps. How old are you?

I'm 19. Good. Do you have any debt? No. Not at all? Good for you okay thank you well i would make sure i had an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses set aside beyond that um you're 19 you might be saving like for your first house in three or four years you're gonna do like one tour and up or what um excuse me what do you mean you're gonna do one four year

stint and then you're quitting or what are you doing do you know uh no i'm gonna make it a career oh it's a long-term career okay all right so there's two things you can do one is you're saving for a house and one is you're saving for retirement the tsp if you want to do that do the roth tsp uh put 80 of it in the c uh 10 in the s and 10 in the i in terms of if you want to save five years for something like a down payment on a house, aside from retirement, to where, like you say, I'm 25 and I want to put a big chunk down on a house six years from now, you want to chunk some money in something like that. On that, I would just use like an index fund, an S&P 500 index fund.

You can get one with Fidelity or Vanguard or any of that. If you need some help with either one of those things, our SmartVestor pros will help you. Just click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com, and they can help you get your investments started. Thank you for your service to the country. Hold on, I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, to walk you right through

the proven wealth-building steps that we have. Well, a lot of parents think their kids have to go to college to be successful, and even more think the only way to get a college degree is with a lot of student loan debt. Here's the truth. You can go to college without debt. And we are excited around Ramsey right now to tell you all about our best-selling author, Anthony O'Neill. Ramsey Personality has a new book coming out. It's on pre-sale right now.

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We're going to throw in $40 worth of stuff. The Debt-Free Degree e-book, a talk on how to in $40 worth of stuff, the debt-free degree e-book, a talk on how to connect with your kid by Anthony, and our premier smart parent event, two hours of talks with Anthony O'Neill and Meg Meeker. You can get it at DaveRamsey.com, AnthonyO'Neill.com, or call us at 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.

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