The Ramsey Show - App - Bought My Dream Car With Cash…From My Emergency Fund (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 12, 2021

Retirement, Education, Saving, Budgeting, Relationships As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Thank you. 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, your money, your everything, your relationships, your mental health. I'm John Deloney, joined here by best-selling author and good friend Christy Wright, and we are taking your calls on everything, 888-825-5225.

The Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. Christy, you doing well? I'm doing great. It's Friday. I'm always in a good mood on Friday. Who's not, right? Outstanding, outstanding. Even if you love your work, Friday's fun. You're kicking off the weekend.

Exactly. All right, let's go to Daryl in Minneapolis. Minneapolis. Minneapolis. We are off to such a strong start here, people. Reading. Reading. Reading. What's up, Daryl? Hey there. How are you guys doing? Remarkable. how are you? Good. So I had a question about contributing to my retirement and cash-flowing school. Okay. I'm just about to start my FNP program, Family Nurse Practitioner, and I'm planning on cash-flowing it all the way.

Good for you. Yeah. So first year is all didactic and I should be able to cover it no problem. Second year is a lot of clinical work and I'm looking at possibly having to reduce my hours at work in order to make the clinical section work, which would make, you know, cash flowing my degree a little bit more challenging. I was just wondering, what is the best option in terms of, should I hold off on contributing to retirement for that one year, just to kind of give myself a little extra breathing room? Where are you working right now? So I work as an ER nurse in the Minneapolis area.

And how old are you, Daryl? 28. Okay. Give us some more details about your financial situation. Do you have any debt? So I have no debt besides my mortgage. That's for you. $125,000.

Right now I have about $45,000 in savings. That includes my emergency fund. In terms of my retirement accounts, I have about $60,000 in a Roth and 401k. And then I have about $275,000 in another retirement account. So let me ask you this. I'm trying to run these scenarios in my mind because just at first glance, it doesn't sound like you really have to. It sounds like you might want to, to have some margin, have some breathing room, as you described it. It doesn't sound like you have to. What's the difference if you stopped contributing for whatever period of time in order for you to make sure that you can cash flow this? Like, what amount of money are we talking about?

Have you added that up to the total? So right now I contribute, you know, about $400 to my 401k, and then I max out my Roth every year. So, you know, the way I have my budget set, it's pretty tight. Just to do school, it's about $22,000 a year. So, you know, I don't want to touch my savings too much. I think the most important thing, Christy, hop in here. I think the most important thing here is to get through this program debt-free. Yeah.

And so if you can cash flow that, great. If that means for a year, two years, you're going to pause, you're going to max out the Roth, but you're going to pause on that $400 a month or a 401 contribution, or you're going to end up pausing for two years on all of your retirement to get this new position. And the difference between an ER nurse and a nurse practitioner, is that what you're going to school for, right? Correct. Yeah. I mean, the pay difference is significant, right?

You'll make that money back up on the back end. I just want you to do whatever it takes to not go into debt. I have had students of mine who might, when they get into clinical rotations, they may even go, if they can, go part-time in their clinical rotations and extend the program a year in order to stay out of debt. And not every program can do that, but I'm okay with that. Yeah. Here's the thing, Daryl. You are in a great financial situation because you're already committed to going to school debt-free. You have no other debt. You have $45,000 in savings or whatever you said. So you're already in a great spot. Whatever you do, you're going to be fine. The thing that I want everyone to hear, anyone listening right now,

that is kind of maybe in a similar shoes, like, ah, should I pause retirement for this? Or should I make this decision here to give me some breathing room? That's the only thing that gave me a head tilt because I want you to be in a situation where if you can contribute, you do. Now, if you can't, and that's going to put you in a position where you can't graduate debt-free, like John's saying, then absolutely, you can pause retirement and jump right back in. You're going to be in a great spot either way.

But some people will sometimes say, oh, well, I need to dip into my emergency fund because I need a little extra wiggle room. It's like, well, you know, if you need to, sure, do it. If you don't have to, it doesn't hurt to continue contributing to your retirement as well. So you're going to be in a good spot either way and uh congratulations

congratulations on going to school sounds like you are working really really hard and i know it's going to pay off i absolutely love that i going into school i think it's always important and she's done it and i want everyone to hear this she's done the math this is not a prayer and we'll figure it out right There is no guessing. How much will the tuition cost? The room and board cost? The fees cost? How much money do I have? How much money do I make? Let's make a budget. Let's make a two and three year plan because

that's how long this program is. The number of college students I've met with over the years who seem surprised year two. Like I've got just enough money for year one but that year two. Year two's gonna come so plan for it. Right. Right.

Good for you. Good for you. Good for you. Yeah. Way to go asking the right questions. That's awesome. Yes. And as, Hey, as we run up to the break, I'm excited for this.

The new questions for humans cards are out. I create, I created these cards. Here's what they are. They are non COVID non politics. These are questions for you and your friends. When y'all are hanging out. Questions for you. You are trying to reconnect with your spouse. There are

a deck of cards and questions for kids that are multi-generational. You can sit with grandparents and little ones. You can sit around a table. This is for the holidays. This is for driving. Oh my gosh. These are perfect for the holidays around the dinner table. Okay. So true or false, you have not looked at these since you submitted them. I just took the plastic off of them.

Okay. After the break, at some point today, I'm asking you some of these questions, and I can't wait to see what the questions are and can't wait to see your response. It's going to be fun. No, I'm super excited. I'm so excited. And the reviews are coming back that are fantastic. One of my favorites is-

Who is this for? Say who this is for specifically. So the most common thing I get is this. Let's have it. All right, Deloney, we turned all the screens off. Now what? I'm staring at my four daughters around a coffee table, and they're all looking at me like, now what, dad?

Yes. Or now what, mom? Or I am picking up my young son, and then I drive through the next pickup line, and there's 30 minutes between when I pick up my son, I pick up my daughter, and I just ask my son, like, hey, how was school? And he goes, fine. Right. And we're all feeling awkward. And we just stare at each other. Yeah. son i pick up my daughter and i just ask my son like hey how was school and he goes fine right and we're all feeling awkward we just stare at each other yeah and so over the last 24 months

we have lost we've lost it way before that but it's easy to poke in the last 24 months we've lost the ability to just connect with one another yeah and so these are decks of cards there's three of them you can go to johndeloney.com or ramseysolutions.com it is three decks of cards that are not about politics yeah not about hey man what do you think about the vaccine there is no vaccine questions they're not controversial which is wonderful they could be controversial different kind what's the thing what is the thing you wish i did around the house more and i am getting i am getting comments back for especially from wives saying oh I've been wanting to tell my husband this for years. And now I can just say, oh, it's in the game. I've got to answer it.

Oh, it's not my fault. So, yes, we'll ask each other questions throughout today. I can't wait. It's going to be a good time. Hey, 888-825-5225. We're taking your calls on anything and everything, your money, your relationships, your life. We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show. It continues to amaze me how identity thieves keep finding ways to use our own identities against us. Not only do they commit crimes related to financial fraud,

medical ID theft, and insurance benefit fraud, but now we have to deal with home title fraud. Thieves are using your own personal info to take ownership of your home so they can take out loans, and you end up with a pile of debt and foreclosure notices. Over 4,000 data breaches happened in 2018, exposing 3.6 billion records. So thieves have plenty of identities to use, and there's a one in five chance it will be yours. That's why Zander Insurance is the only program I use and recommend. Their plan covers all types of identity theft,

and it takes over all the work if you become a victim. Visit Zander.com or call88-825-5225. Let's go to Matthew in Baltimore, Maryland. What's up, Matthew? Hey, thank you for taking my call. You got it, brother. What's up? I am about 15 years old, and I have about $20,000. I'm kind of wondering what to do with my money.

How'd you get $20,000 at 15? I've been working for a long time. I work a lot. What do you do, man? Here's what I'm asking you. Most adults in the United States, statistically speaking, don't have $20,000. You are already in rare air, and you can't even buy cigarettes yet. So what have you been doing?

Well, when I was really young, I started working with my dad. As I got older, I started mowing lawns, and now I have a little landscaping business. I also work part-time at a restaurant, little odd jobs here and there, and just do whatever I can to make as much money as possible. You are a go-getter, Matthew. That's incredible. What a stud. All right, so you want to know what to do with this money?

Yeah. So I have about $12,250, give or take, in cash savings right now. Okay. I also have a brokerage account with my dad. It's a custodial brokerage account. And we did a lot of research, I don't know, eight, nine months ago and started investing. I started investing a piece of what I make every month. I now have about $7,700 in there with the interest added to it. And now I'm kind of sitting here and I don't know what to keep doing. I don't

know if I should keep investing in those index and mutual funds I'm in. I don't know if I should just save all of my money. I don't know what to do. Well, the fact that you're asking about investments at your age is incredible, and the fact that you're starting investing this early is incredible. You're going to have a lot of money in your life, Matthew, just by the sheer drive and habits and the foot that you're starting out on. Here's what I do want to remind you, and you can maybe tell me what your plan is

for this. You got some expenses coming up, most likely, potentially a car. I don't know if you're planning to go to college, a house, maybe get married. So like in the next 10 years of your life, you could have some major expenses. Have you thought through what you want to do for a vehicle or do you have one or college if you want to have any further education? What's your plan there? Yeah, so I'm pretty planned out. So for the vehicle, my dad told me he would go half and half with me. We've had that conversation.

I decided that, or we decided through our conversations, that with the market right now, what I have, what he has, everything, we're going to go for about $12,000 for a total for the car. So I'm not looking to buy a car until late next summer, like say August, maybe even September, because that's when I'll be getting my license. So I'll just need $6,000 saved up by then, which obviously I already have that money. Yep. Excellent. As far as moving on towards college, I just want to go full time with my landscaping business out of high school and then do community college at night.

I don't really want to go to a university. I also am lucky enough that, well, lucky in a way. When I was really young, my mom passed away, and we have some kind of money, I don't know what it's called, that is through the government that my dad does not use, some kind of assistance that he refuses to use, but he puts it in an account, and his intent there was that I could use it for college if I wanted to.

Gotcha. Very cool. I believe there's right around $75,000 to $100,000 in there, so it would hopefully take care of most of my college tuition. Yeah, for sure. Well, you are a planner, Matthew. Well done. So can I ask you a sideways question, and then we'll get to your money answer?

Of course. What do you do for fun? I go out with friends. I like to go to the gym and work out. Nothing crazy, though. Okay. Your drive is incredible. And your thinking things through like,

like I'm, I'm just smiling here, Christy. I don't know adults who've planned the next two or three years like you have. Um, you're an incredible young man and I want to make sure you have relationships in your life and you've got joy in your life too that you're taking time to be goofy to act 15 and to laugh and to make memories as well you can mow a bunch of yards and man I tell you what I mowed a ton of yards in high school

I don't remember any of them maybe one or two I remember the laughter and the fun so remember to have relationships and joy when it comes to your money, I'm with Christy. I like the idea of you, even if it's $30, $25,

you started this index mutual fund, that's fine. I would tell you to start a college savings account. You've already got that. I would keep as much of this stuff at $15 liquid as possible. You're not trying to earn a jillion bucks. The 50 bucks you're going to earn an interest on X dollar,

you're going to be better spent being able to go buy that car, to be able to go write a check for your books and your first semester of community college tuition, whatever those things look like. And so I would keep that stuff as liquid as possible through graduation. The goal is to get through your associate's degree or whatever certificates you want to get

completely debt-free. And that's when you're going to loop right back into the baby steps and you're going to start investing 15% of your income. You're going to start saving for a house. You're going to start doing some of those things. And you're just on an accelerated path. And so it's going to be tempting to overthink it

because you plan ahead and you move so quickly. And remember, you're playing a long, long game here. Don't overthink it. Don't be like, you know what? I'm going to just go put all Bitcoin. You are doing the right things, brother. Get through the next five, six years of your life completely debt-free. Continue your practice, putting a little bit of this stuff in index funds, and then you can be ready to rock and roll. Yeah. I think one of the other things, just to remind you, and I'm sure you already do this, Matthew, it sounds like you are on top of everything, but just keep your personal finances and your business finances separate. This may have started as a small little thing,

but the more sophisticated you get with your landscaping business, and if you take it full time, you're going to want to have all those records for taxes for any equipment purchases you want to make. And you just want to know what's your money, what's your business's money, what are the business expenses and so on. And so some of that money coming from the business can stay in the business in the business savings account for those future equipment purchases as you scale up your business. And you'll be ready for it because you're working hard and you're a saver. So great job.

And Matthew, I just thought of one more thing, even though I said I was done. Yeah. You got one more segment? Of course. Yeah, all the time you have. Do you have a regular practice of giving? I do, yeah. Good. Who's somebody you give to?

I give stuff to my friends, and I buy them food and everything all the time. And I also, last year I started this. This year I'm going to do it much bigger. But last year, around Christmas, I gave away about $500 to a charity. Okay. This year I'm hoping to do it much bigger. But last year around Christmas I gave away about $500 to a charity. This year I'm hoping to do like a couple thousand, to be honest with you. Excellent. So giving to your buddies, buddies will just leech on people like you? They're going to always like you.

Matthew's got us, dude. You're paying for it. You're the one with the job. Don't let them become leeches on you, okay? That's separate and apart from a regular practice of giving and again we're playing a long-term game here both with accumulating wealth and then getting to the root of why do we even earn money and that's so that we can um have our safety here but we can give generously and almost reckless let me just give

giveaway giveaway start that practice now i mean that, that's another key component to having a good financial future. Yeah. Well done. You're incredible. You're off to an amazing start. All right. We've got a minute left. Pull one up. Let's do this. I'm ready. Questions for humans. Go to johndeloney.com. Save your marriage and your holidays. I'm going to ask you one of the kids questions. This is fun. What is the grossest thing in the whole wide world? Knowing the things that you talk about, I just can't even imagine what you would say for this. Oh man. The grossest thing in the whole wide world knowing the things that you talk about i just can't even imagine what you would say for this oh man the grossest thing in the whole wide world you wrote this question can i tell you i don't know if i'm ready for it when i was no it's not going to be as bad as you think when i was a young child and this is me shaming my mom on the radio great she's gonna tell me john you're so cute and you're so smart and i love you

but your feet are so disgusting. Oh really? You have gross feet. I think I was married for three years before my wife saw me. She's like, like I wore socks everywhere. You're traumatized by it.

Oh my gosh. And so whenever I see other humans' feet, it literally gives me the heebs. Like my body, yeah, there you are on the cover of your book.

I can't even look at the cover of your book because of your bare feet. I just came here today to gross John Deloney out with the cover of my book, Take Back Your Time, where I am barefoot.

Or just give me the bleh. What about you? What's the grossest thing? Gosh, I don't know. I feel like when I became a mom, my threshold for gross went out the window. Oh, yeah.

You could be on the phone. Throw up on me. Sure. Whatever. Oh, look. Half of the diaper caught half of that. The other half is all over me.

I tell you what. Ironically telling you this, I don't love bathroom humor. It's one of your top favorite things. I think it's hilarious. I don't even laugh at it a little bit. I'm like, come on, get more creative than that. She doesn't think any of it's funny. Kelly's got me.

Kelly's got me back there. That is not good company. That is not good company. 888-825-5225. Questions for Humans. We're answering everything right here on the Ramsey Show. Triple A 825-5225. James told me I'm a little bit amped up today.

I'm just excited. I have a good time on the radio. But I'm going to bring it down a notch. And just in time, is it too soon to start talking about Christmas? I know Thanksgiving is still a couple of weeks away, but here's the deal. Me and the rest of the Ramsey Solutions team are already in a Christmas frame of mind. And a big reason is we're already giving away cash as part of our Christmas cash giveaway. Every year we celebrate Christmas with our Ramsey Show listeners with our Ramsey Christmas cash giveaway. It's a tradition now. If you do it more than one year in a row,

it's a tradition. And this year we're giving away 500 bucks every week and a grand prize of $5,000. You can enter every day to increase your chances of winning. Just text cash to 33789. That's cash to 33789. You can go ahead and get in on the giving too. We've got all kinds of life-changing gifts for your family and friends. And our famous $10 sale, that means you can shop over 40 of our bestselling books and envelopes for just 10 bucks or less. You can get books like my number one bestseller, Redefining Anxiety. Dave's that little, I forgot the name of, what's that little book he wrote? Oh, The Total Money Makeover. Yeah, that one. You can get Rachel Cruz's newest book. You can get Christy Wright's bestselling book. Tons of them, 10 bucks. This year, forget the one-time use presence and give a lifetime worth of hope with a gift.

Go to shopthetentendollarsale at ramsaysolutions.com. Let's go to Lisa in Pittsburgh. What is up, Lisa? How are we doing? Good. How are you? Outstanding. How can we help?

Okay. Question for you. I use my vehicle for work, and I drive four to 500 miles a week. It's a 2008 and I have 205,000 miles on it. My boss pays for all the repairs and upkeep and all that. So I need a new vehicle and he was going to give me 10,000 towards a new vehicle. And he said, I can do with it what I want. So I owe $4,500 on this vehicle still, and I have $3,800 in credit cards. So I'm wondering what's the best way to spend that $10,000. Did he give you money for a new car and say this needs to be for a new car? Because that's a real big deal

if he gave you money toward the car for the car because you used the car for work. He said I could do with it what I wanted, but it was to try to help me out to get a vehicle with lesser miles. How much has he spent in repairs on your current car this year?

How much has he spent? repairs on your current car this year? How much has he spent? I am not sure about that. He pays for my oil changes, tires. I just recently had to put like $1,700 into it. It's getting to the point where it's kind of nickel and diming you to death. Yeah, I just wonder if he's being altruistic or if he is doing this as a business investment on his own part. Right, right.

He just sees the writing on the wall, here's $10,000, get yourself a little bit of an upgrade. Because if he gave you that money because he wants you to be in a good, dependable car that's not nickel and diming you at the end of this, and you're not because you put that money towards debt, he's going to be frustrated, as would I, as would anybody be. Or you're going to pay off all of your debts, you're going to be debt-free, and next week the transmission is going to fall out of your car, and you're going to go to him and say, hey, you said you were going to cover this, and he's going to say, I just gave you $10,000. I'm absolutely going to be debt-free.

I wish that would do it. Well, the thing is, my payments right now on this are $216 a month. I can't afford $400 to $600 a month for a vehicle. So I'm kind of in a catch-22. So my reasoning was if I paid off that $3,800 credit card debt, then that frees up some cash flow for me, you know. Yeah, you got a $10,000 check, some cash flow for me. You know, and I don't know what to get.

You got a $10,000 check and you're trying to come up with some really cool ways, yeah, a shell game to make it work so you can keep it. You feel like you won the lottery.

You didn't. You got $10,000 to get a new car. Right. Well, obviously, yeah. How much is your broken down car? How much is it worth? I'm guessing around $7,000 and I have $4,500 on it.

I would sell it before the day is over, and then buy a $13,000 car, and tell your boss you're grateful for his or her investment in you. And then you got a $3,800 of credit card debt. You're going to get that knocked off. But you said that wasn't it. What else do you have? What other kind of debt? Oh, I don't know if you want to know.

You called and you know exactly. You called the Randy show. You know I'm going to ask. Lisa, you know I'm going to ask. Let's have it. What do you got? After listening to that 15-year-old, I'm kind of embarrassed.

You're going to have to get in line behind that 15-year-old, man. He's way ahead of most people. So what's up? Well, I own my house. I owe like $77,000 on my house. We're not talking about house. Mainly just consumer debt

here. Like windows in my house. Does that count? I owe $55,000 on that, but there's no interest on it. $55,000 or $5,500? $5,500. $5,500, okay.

I was like, those are some windows. Okay, how many credit cards? The credit cards, it's a $3,800. $3,800, okay. And then you got $45,000 on your car that you're going to sell today. What else do you got? You got windows that you owe money on. You've got student loans

oh well there's no my daughter i have a student loans in my name but it's my daughter's and yeah but it's it's got your name on it how much is that 43 000 how much do you make every year does she make make? No, you. Me, 57. And I have two kids at home. Single income? Yep. Okay. Yeah, if I'm you, by the end of this day,

I owe $3,800 in credit cards and $5,500 in my windows. I'm going to get those credit cards taken care of as fast as humanly possible. Even if I have to pick up another job or ask my boss if I can make another shift or another drive or whatever, and before the middle of next year, I'm going to have that knocked out. And then it's just going to be you versus those windows. And the stress of not having a car payment and the stress of having a car that you're not worried about breaking down on you all the time is going to let you sleep just 2% deeper?

I miss that. What am I supposed to do about a vehicle then? You go buy one with that $10,000. You're kidding me. You find me a $10,000 car that doesn't have 100,000 miles on it or more. So I don't think I don't. And I put 500 on a week. I don't understand how I'm going to find a car that cheap that I'm not in the same position I'm in right now. You said your car's got 200,000

miles on it? 205. 205. So yeah, you're trading for 100,000 miles. What kind of car do you have? Toyota Highlander. Okay. You may downsize in car. You may downsize in brand. It may not be your dream car, but you absolutely can find a good, used, moderate mileage car for under $10,000. People do it every day. You're going to have to do some digging.

You may have to look outside of your neighborhood, your city. You might have to negotiate. You can find a $10,000. And you know how I know? Because I drive one. It's not an absurd budget. find a ten thousand dollars because i drive one it's not an absurd budget me that i drive one the other thing lisa that i hear in your story and i just want to say this before we go to break you're not working the plan no you're not you're trying to move things around and hoping that moving things around or skipping steps or dodging things

or find different way shortcuts is going to get you to where you want to be. It won't. It won't. You have to work the plan. You have to commit to stop digging yourself in more debt. Stop accepting that payments are our way of life. Stop looking for shortcuts. Get your $1,000 and then dig away at your debt. And don't give up until you get out of debt.

I hear it in your voice. You're okay with those payments. And as long as you're okay with those payments, you will never do anything different and you will never get anywhere different. And as long as your attitude is, oh, just $10,000, what am I going to do with that? You can change everything, Lisa. Everything with $10,000. And is it going to be your dream car? No, no.

It's going to be something that's going to get you another 24 months down the road or 36 months down the road. One person will call and say, I've got $10,000. I can make this go so far. I could be so smart with this. Someone else calls and goes, that's not enough. I can't do anything with that. Attitude matters how you view the amount of money because it's going to determine what you do with it. Yes. And so let me say this in a different way. You're in an emergency situation. You got two young kids, you got a car that's falling apart and you owe $43,000, $50,000, $55,000. This is an emergency. Take the $10,000, buy the car, get yourself down the road and get this debt paid off. Start working the plan. This is The Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. Taking your calls on money, life, relationships, everything.

Let's go to Anna in H-Town, Houston. Hey, Anna, what's going on? Hi, thank you for taking my call. Absolutely's going on how can i help and i'm going to seek advice in regards to my debt i have 110 000 in debt and i own the irs 35 000 so i would like to know i know that I have to follow the snowball in the form, but I would like to know if I have to pay the IRS first and then go back to the snowball, or how can I do it? Yes. Do you want to get the IRS off your back? Okay. Give us the numbers.

You have $110,000 plus $35,000? No, including $35,000. Oh, including $35,000. Okay, okay. Yeah. All right. And what's the rest of that debt? Car loan, cell phone, personal loans, credit cards, you name it.

So you're just pretty much normal, right? How much is your car loan? Yeah. The car loan right now is like $12,000. How much do you make a year? I make anywhere between $55,000 to $75,000. $55,000 to $75,000. Are you married?

I recently got married two weeks ago. Oh, congratulations. So how much does your partner make? He makes between $35,000 to $40,000. Okay. How much debt's he got? He has no debt. No debt at all.

Okay. So combined, y'all are about $80,000 to $110,000, right? Yes. And now you got to, got to, got to get this IRS off your back. ASAP, all get that off. And I know we have the baby steps and we talk about going in order there, but you got to get rid of that IRS debt. Okay. So put everything else on pause and just attack the IRS. Yeah. Yeah. You want to get that out of here and then then you'll work the debt snowball like normal where you list your debts from smallest to largest by balance

regardless of interest rate and then you will knock those out. But yeah, you got to get serious with that one. That's not one you want to drag out. That's not one you want to have any problems with. Have you and your new husband, have y'all been through Financial Peace University, the class? No. Okay, so

our wedding gift to you. Congratulations. I'm going to give you a year's worth of Ramsey Plus subscription for free, so stay on the line here, and we'll get you a subscription there. And I want you and your husband. Here's the thing, though. It's an expensive gift we're giving you. You all have to commit to going through all nine lessons,

and this is going to set your entire marriage up for success, and it's going to walk you through how do we get out of this giant 110 000 hole that we've started our marriage in as quickly as possible is that cool yes thank you very much i really appreciate it do i have your commitment you're going to work through it yes excellent i love it love it love it all right congratulations and yeah next step let's get it going, but get the IRS out of your life forever because we'll be back in April for more. Let's go to Antonio in Phoenix. Hola, Antonio. What's up? Hey, how are you doing?

Excellent. How are you? Doing good. Thank you. So what's up? So the reason I called in is I was basically looking for some advice. I'm a pretty huge automotive enthusiast, and I know you guys always say don't finance, buy in cash. And so I've been saving up for quite a while, and I ended up purchasing one of my dream cars.

What did you get? Now I'm kind of in. I bought a Skyline GTR. I don't even know what that is. I don't even know what that is. I don't even know what that is, Antonio. How much did it cost? It cost me $41. Okay, so give or take a Toyota Camry. Give or take maybe like a Prelude.

Oh, okay, all right. Okay, so you're one of those guys. All right, so you got this car one of those guys. All right. So you got this car, you paid for it in cash? Yes, sir. Outstanding, man. All right. So what's up?

Thank you. So now I'm kind of in a tough financial situation because I did just blow- $40,000. Yes, sir. How much do you make a um now how much do i make i make 35 a year oh antonio oh okay what are you doing brother does that feel wrong as you say it out loud does that feel wrong in the same breath i paid 41 000 for a car and i make 35 000 it doesn't feel wrong because i same breath. I paid $41,000 for a car, and I make $35,000 a year.

It doesn't feel wrong because I bought it in cash. Okay. It should. It should. That just means your radar is out of tune. We're here to help set us right. You did it close to right, so good for you. Yes.

Partially right. Yes. You did it less wrong, so we'll high-five you. Are you going to ask us, should you sell this? Yes. The answer is yes. Sell the car? Yes. You did it less wrong, so we'll high-five you. Are you going to ask us, should you sell this? Yes. The answer is yes. Sell the car? Yes. You don't have the money for it. You don't have enough money for that car. Here's the deal, Antonio. If you were making $100,000

a year, you were completely debt-free, you had all your investments, had worked the baby steps, you had everything else on track, and you wanted to pay cash for a $41,000 car, cool. Yeah. That's a very different scenario than the one that you're in. You just, yes, you saved up in cash, but you weren't ready for that. And you can't afford that in other areas of your life, which you called in explaining.

Do you have other debt, brother? I do not. I'm debt free. Okay. Where do you live? I live in Phoenix, Arizona. Do you have an emergency? Like a house or an apartment or something like that. Oh, gotcha. I live in a townhouse. Okay. Do you have an emergency fund?

As of now, I use my emergency fund to divide the GTR. See? See? See? And there's problem number two, Antonio. That car wasn't an emergency. You were doing great with your savings. You had an emergency fund.

If an emergency were to happen, now you're struggling paying bills, making ends meet. If an emergency occurred, you would have had that fund to pay for it. That's what it's for, not for the dream car. I'm not saying you can't have the dream car one day. I think you can. I think you will. But using your emergency fund for it was not wise. And yes, you need to sell it. You need to put that money back in savings. You need to get your income up, save some more, save and save and save and

save. And when your income is up and you have a really good savings above and beyond your emergency fund for a car, then sure, buy you a car. You just, you try to, you try to skip some steps and do it a little faster. Car should not be more than half of your annual income at the apps. And I mean, and in my house, we're way, way, way below that, way below that, um, to avoid this exact scenario we're talking about, because it's indicative of, of having your, your, your strategy backwards, that we're going to pay more for a car than we make in a whole year, even if you saved to pay more for a car than we make in a whole year. In a whole year?

Even if you saved and paid cash for it. So, yes. But here's what you proved. You proved you can work really hard. Yep, and safe. You can save, and you can put your eyes on a goal. So, yeah, your goal is going to be having a fully funded emergency fund

and making more than $35,000 a year. So you're using that willpower and that grit and determination and go crank it up and get that income up and go from there. Man, 41. All right, let's do another question. We're running up against the clock here. Let's do one more.

Okay. Questions for humans, johndeloney.com or ramsaysolutions.com. These are your family savers. Do what, James? Okay. I thought James was going to come in with one, too. He's going to embarrass me. Okay, I'm ready. I got one for you. Alright, which one is this? These are for kids. Okay, there's three

decks. There's one for couples, one for that you can do with your kids for multi- generation. So I'm thinking about Christmases where all anybody wants to talk about is the latest conspiracy theory YouTube clip or COVID. And this is going to give everybody from grandparents to children something,

a new way to learn and talk to each other. And there's another one for friends. You all are all having drinks, and this helps grease the wheels there. So go for it. Okay. I just changed my mind. I've got several here I'm going to ask you throughout the day. But I like this one.

What was your favorite birthday? Oh, man. I love birthdays. I'm like a high I on the disc. I've got some Enneagram 7 in me. I love to celebrate. So I get excited about holidays and birthdays. What was your favorite?

Well, this is going to be a cheesy answer, but it's the truth. My favorite one was my 24th birthday because I surprised, I invited all my friends to my birthday, and then I surprised my wife by asking her to marry me on my birthday. Oh, that's so – totally that should be your favorite. Anything else would be amazing. My mom makes a dope cake, so those – I was thinking all the cakes she made were good. But, yeah, that was a great birthday. That was fun.

That's a really good one. What about you? What's your favorite birthday? I don't know. You don't even know. I mean, I love them all for different reasons. Oh, no, I don't know. You don't even know. I mean, I love them all for different reasons. Oh, no, I take it back. Last summer, a couple of couples, we went to the lake house and did an adults-only couples weekend.

No kids. Went tubing, riding the boat, staying out late. That was great. It was awesome. Hey, questions for humans. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. It's an hour in the book. We'll be right back on The Ramsey Show.

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.