The Ramsey Show - App - Budget Your Way to a Life of Financial Freedom (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 2, 2018

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. This is your show, America. Thank you for joining us. Open phones today at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Bernice is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Bernice. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call.
Starting point is 00:01:01 Sure. How can I help? Well, I am calling because I have just finished Baby Step 1 because I make less than $20,000 a year, so I only saved up $500. And I started paying off some credit card debt, and I stopped going to school. I only have about a semester and a half left to receive my bachelor's degree. But everybody is telling me to keep going back to school. And I just can't afford it right now without taking out another $10,000 worth of loans. I'm already about $50,000 in student loans right now. What is your field of study? It is short of basket weaving.
Starting point is 00:01:49 It's interdisciplinary arts and sciences, but that's only because my goal is to go to law school. So I just need a bachelor's degree. Yeah, but okay. I am working as a certified paralegal. I obtained my associate's degree and my certification. A certified paralegal makes $20,000 a year? No, I can make about $50,000 a year if I get my bachelor's degree.
Starting point is 00:02:20 I'm only working part-time right now due to some medical conditions. Are you single? Yes, I am. What are your medical conditions? I have spine disorders. So I wasn't able to work for about nine months. Ooh. You have back problems?
Starting point is 00:02:41 Is that what you're saying? Yes, I do. I have a spine disorder. Oh. Yeah. Ouch. I had a couple of accidents, so, yeah. Very painful.
Starting point is 00:02:54 Okay, so if you were to finish all of these degrees with the spine disorder, how are you going to work full-time? I am limited to the type of work I do. I just can't lift anything over 20 pounds. I am able to work in the office environment. Well, paralegals don't generally lift. No, we don't. Okay.
Starting point is 00:03:24 So why would you not be able to work full-time if that's the only limitation? I can now. I cannot turn to that now. I was just in physical therapy three days a week. Oh, I got you. Okay. So you're recovering. You're recovering.
Starting point is 00:03:36 Yes, I was. Okay. I didn't understand the picture. I'm sorry. Okay. So your deal is you've got $50,000 in student loan debt, and how much else? I owe about $3,500 in credit cards. It went down from $6,000. Good.
Starting point is 00:03:55 Okay. Well, it sounds like what I would do probably, your student loans, if you're in school, are deferred, obviously. What I would do is get back to the $50,000 or $60,000 or $70,000 because I'm working crazy hours level, and let's get the credit cards cleaned up, save up the $10,000 right quick that it takes to finish your school. Okay. You know, I don't even know that that matters right now because really finishing this undergrad at this stage, I want you to get around to finishing it and finish your degree and, you know, live your dream of becoming an attorney and so forth. I'm with you on that. But finishing the undergrad does not really change your income.
Starting point is 00:04:38 No. It just sets you up for law school school is what you're telling me. No, I think I'd probably just go make a bunch of money and clean up the debt that I've got, and then I would pile up the cash to go finish the undergrad, and then I would work like crazy and pile up the cash to go to law school. And I think you can do all of that because you're used to living on nothing. I mean, if we get your income up $50,000, $60,000, and you're used to living on $20,000, I mean, my goodness, you're going to be out of debt so fast, and you're going to be able to pile up cash.
Starting point is 00:05:06 Keep your lifestyle down like that. I mean, we're talking $30,000, $40,000 a year on this that you can put on this just by working like a crazy person. And as you're physically able to heal and do that, that's where I'm going to direct you. So, hey, good question. I hope this continues to turn around for you. Kathleen is with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Kathleen.
Starting point is 00:05:26 How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a 403B account with an old employer, and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. We do have about $50,000 in debt, and in that account it's about $30,000.
Starting point is 00:05:47 And I've reached out to some of the SmartVestor pros, and about five or six of them have called back. Good. Yeah, a lot of support in the area. Good. Okay. Well, on old 403B, we do not cash out retirement to pay off debt because, unless it's to avoid a bankruptcy or a foreclosure, and you're not facing that. The reason is that you're going to get hit with a 10% penalty plus your tax rate.
Starting point is 00:06:14 What's your household income? About $90,000 to $100,000. Yeah, so you've got like a 35% tax bracket plus a 10% hit. That's going to be a 45% hit on this 403b if you cash it out yeah it's kind of like borrowing money at 45 interest to pay off debt no we wouldn't do that so instead we'll just get one pick you out of smart investor pro and roll that 30 000 over into a direct rollover direct transfer rollover for an IRA, and pick you some good mutual funds and put it in there, and it's really not that big a deal.
Starting point is 00:06:48 It's fairly easy to do. Go ahead. Okay. Are there any, like, questions or things that we need to be asking these different SmartVestor pros before we, like, take them? No, I mean, anytime you're meeting with a financial professional, and we vet the SmartVestor pros for this, but you need to have the same experience that we think you're going to have and the main thing i'm looking for
Starting point is 00:07:08 is do they have the heart of a teacher and the way you'll know that is if you leave the room after having met with them and you feel like you were sold then they have the heart of a salesman if you feel like you learn something and they are assisting you in making your own decision, then that's the heart of a teacher. And that's what you always want in a financial professional. And then it's you that's making the investment decision. You're learning from them. And they say, okay, you know, here's what Dave teaches, and here's what we believe, and here's some things you need to understand.
Starting point is 00:07:39 And then based on all of that, you know, here's one thing you could do, or you could do this. And then you look at it and you understand what they're talking about. If not, keep talking until you understand. Don't do something because Dave Ramsey said do it or because a smart investor pro said do it. Do it because you understand that. And, of course, you know that we tell folks to spread their mutual fund investing across four types, growth, growth and income,
Starting point is 00:08:06 aggressive growth, and international. So with $30,000, you'll pick out four funds and put about $7,500 in each one of those categories, and you're looking for funds that have a long track record, preferably 10 years or more, and you look at that fund, you understand that fund, and you say, that fund's been open for 30 years. It's averaged 11.7%, or it's averaged 13.4%. Oh, I can go with that, and it beats the S&P 500. Okay, I can go with that.
Starting point is 00:08:32 What's it mean that it beats the S&P 500? And you learn those kinds of things. Just take your time. There's no rush. It's not a very big deal at $30,000 for these guys, and they don't mind teaching you as a part of this transaction, knowing that you'll be a customer for life. Did you know that if you combine the data breaches that have occurred in the past 12
Starting point is 00:09:00 months, almost every American has had their personal info compromised or hacked. Over 50% of our listeners and viewers tell us that they or someone in their family has been a victim. And 70% of those folks have had it happen more than once. See, this is unbelievable. Once thieves get your info, the risk never goes away and they can use it whenever and however they choose. It truly has become an issue of not if, but when.
Starting point is 00:09:25 That's why the only plan I've ever recommended is through Zander Insurance. I actually sat down with them, and we put together a plan that I felt provided the best protection, but didn't waste dollars on things you could easily do yourself or were just gimmicks. The key is getting protected before you're a victim, and it's too late. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. We are all at risk, and it doesn't make sense to wait. Numbers don't lie. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282.
Starting point is 00:10:09 Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sarah is with us in Richmond, Virginia. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:10:30 Hi, Dave. I am 23 years old, and I am still living at home right now. I have $27,000 in student loan debt, and I have $3,000 saved up in savings and then an emergency fund as well. I was just wondering when I should move out and if I should use that $3,000 in savings to start attacking my debt. What is your income? I make about $16.50 an hour. Okay. And you're getting 40 hours or 60 hours or what? Yes, 40 hours a week. So what do you think you're going to make this year?
Starting point is 00:11:05 If I do the math right, I should make about, I would say, 32, give or take. Okay. And what's your career? What do you do? I'm in marketing. I work for an ophthalmologist. Okay, very good. Good for you.
Starting point is 00:11:21 Well done. And you have $3,000 in addition to your emergency fund. And your emergency fund is what? How much is in it? Right now I have $900. I'm just waiting until my next paycheck to top it off at $1,000. Oh, you've got your starter, your beginner emergency fund. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:11:38 Yeah. All right. So you don't have a lot of cushion here. And you have $27,000 of student loan debt. Do you have a car payment? I do not. I just bought a cheap little three-grand car. I love it.
Starting point is 00:11:50 Good job. Good job. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, you can start to look towards moving out. You've got to put together a budget of what it'll be like when you're out. If you're going to have a roommate, are we going to split expenses? And what's the rent going to be? And what's groceries going to be?
Starting point is 00:12:09 And, you know, talk to the apartment complex you're looking at. What's the average water bill, light bill, or whatever's included that you have to pay? And you begin to lay out a budget of what it would look like if you were living there this month. And then you lay that against your income and go okay how much wiggle room have i got here you're going to need some money for a deposit you're going to need some money for utilities deposits uh and that's going to use up some of that three thousand dollars so i probably would wait and you're probably going to need a little bit of furniture aren't you yeah yeah so i'm thinking that three thousand dollars is probably going to get you out.
Starting point is 00:12:46 Okay. And then you're going to start working your total money makeover baby steps, which baby step one is $1,000, emergency starter, emergency fund, and then you start working through your debts as fast as you can and pick up as many jobs and do as much as you can do to whittle on that and beat on it as fast as you can. How are things at home relationally? It's great.
Starting point is 00:13:09 Like, I love living at home, and my parents are letting me, so that's why I'm like, do I move out or do I stay? Yeah. Okay. Well, another option would be, I don't recommend you stay long, but if you stayed like six months and made a big dent in this, that might be okay, too. But I know I don't want you there until you're debt-free, because that sounds like two years. Yes.
Starting point is 00:13:37 And I don't want to stay that long. Okay. Something will happen. It's good for you emotionally, and you'll just walk different and be different when you're on your complete own and you have to pay the light bill or there's no lights, you know, that kind of stuff. Exactly. And it's good. I've noticed with my kids when they moved out, it just changed them. They felt the weight of carrying the responsibility, and they grew up one more notch. And I'm not saying you're not grown up. in it. They grew up one more notch. And I'm not saying you're not grown up.
Starting point is 00:14:06 I'm just saying they took one more notch. And but I might I might stay six months or nine months or some kind of a plan like that. But lay you out a mathematic game plan and a target date and say, OK, before next Christmas, before next Thanksgiving. That's a that's a year, right? I'm gone. And in the meantime, I'm going to pay off this much debt. I'm going to work extra. I'm going to completely focus, and I'm going to build up enough of a slush fund to make
Starting point is 00:14:37 the move out, buy a little bit of furniture, make the deposits and stuff like we were talking about a minute ago. If it's a strain at home and you want to go ahead and do it now, you know, you can. You can. But it sounds like you've got a good situation. I just don't want you to stay too long, just long enough to kind of get you a good solid footing and then jump, you know. And so if you stay another 6, 9, 12 months, something like that, I probably wouldn't stay more than 12. By next Thanksgiving, I'd be gone if i were you um if i woke up in your shoes that's what i would want to do knowing what i know
Starting point is 00:15:10 now and if you were my kid living in our house that's probably what i would tell you to do for your sake not because i don't not because i want you to leave because i mean our kids it was easy for all three of them to have lived there as adults. It would have been real easy. Now they've got grandkids, and it would even be ridiculously hard because I don't want to raise babies anymore. I just want to hand them back. But I love babies, but somebody else's. But, you know, at your stage right now, I think you're in a good situation.
Starting point is 00:15:42 Abigail is with us in Cincinnati. Hi, Abigail. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than good situation. Abigail is with us in Cincinnati. Hi, Abigail. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I would like to know, my husband and I would like to know, if we should sell our rental.
Starting point is 00:15:57 Okay. We owe $85 on it. It just appraised for $255,000. Okay. And we owe $230,000 on our home. Mm-hmm. It was purchased. The house was his from his previous marriage. It was where he grew up, and he bought it from his grandparents.
Starting point is 00:16:22 So there's a little bit of an emotional attachment as well a positive and a negative uh yes yeah yes and um okay uh what's your household income about 120 you have no other debt we have um 30 no 25 on cars that we hope to have paid off by next June. That sounds good. Okay. It depends on whether it's more of a positive or a negative emotionally. Does it weigh more that it was his family home on a positive side, or more negatively that the ex was there? Positively that it was a family home.
Starting point is 00:17:11 Okay. I'm probably holding it then. I'm going to work my way through this. Darn. Okay. But there's not a right or wrong answer, okay? Okay. It's kind of a call that the two of you can make.
Starting point is 00:17:32 If you want rid of it because the ex was there, that's a fair statement to make. I want rid of it because we could pay our house off in six years. You could pay your house off in three years. Even better. I mean, you'd be done in no time because you'd almost pay it off with the sale of that. Yes. You ought to do it really, really fast if you're going to do that. I like that idea. I like that idea. The question just becomes, do you want to fight through more debt for seven years or do you want our eight years or nine years or however long it takes you to clear these two debts not counting your cars or do you do you want to keep this rental house that was in the family i you know i love rentals and you're going
Starting point is 00:18:16 to fight through it all in under 10 is what i'm hearing and so i'm not going to yell about it because it's real estate um What would Dave and Sharon do? I think it would depend on how emotionally attached I was to that particular piece of property. And I don't get emotionally attached to property much. But if it was your grandpa's house, it might be something I'd think about. Okay. That's all. I mean, some people are more than others.
Starting point is 00:18:39 And some people have more memory there, less memory there, that kind of a thing. And, you know, like my grandpa passed away years ago. He had this old, really cool old 1967 truck. And I should have bought that truck from the estate. And I didn't. I wish I had that truck. You know, now it's only a truck. It's probably a couple grand, you know.
Starting point is 00:19:00 It's not hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, you know, it's that kind of a thing. There's a few things like that that this is personal finance, and it's okay to admit nostalgia or attachment to reasonable things, and it's reasonable that a family property is something that you can admit some attachment to. Doesn't mean you have to keep it, but it doesn't mean you have to rise above it and just look at it only as a financial transaction, because there's more going on here than that. Good question. Thank you for joining us. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Why in the world would you trust some random guy in a cube when getting your mortgage?
Starting point is 00:19:56 Do you really think he cares about your long-term money goals? Well, he doesn't. Those companies care about getting you into whatever home loan program they're pushing that week. When it comes to ordering a cheeseburger, the meal deal works fine. But let's get real, people. We're talking about the largest investment you'll probably ever make, so don't be naive and trust an order taker who pressures you into a prepackaged loan. My friends at Churchill Mortgage have been helping my listeners for over 25 years.
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Starting point is 00:20:44 NMLSconsumerAccess.org Equal Housing Lender 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Midwest Tennessee 37027. Thanks for joining us, America. We're so glad you are here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You know, one of the things we found is there's the highest correlation of anything, any activity we know towards wealth building. What's the number one correlation to wealth building?
Starting point is 00:21:28 People who become wealthy, what's the number one thing we see them do? Well, here's the thing. You never accidentally do anything, do you? Nothing randomly occurs. People don't win the Super Bowl and go, how'd that happen? Oops, I won the Super Bowl. Wow, that was random. Nobody says stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:21:50 It's a very intentional set of acts, very intentional set of things you have to do in order to win the Super Bowl. So if you're going to build wealth, it's an intentional act, isn't it? So what do you think the number one correlating thing is? Well, yes, getting out of debt is one of them, but that's really it really ends up being a byproduct. The number one thing that we see people who become millionaires as a result of going through Financial Peace University is they're on a budget. It's the number one thing. The people who are on a budget are the ones that are able to give the most, they're able to get out of debt the fastest, and they're able to build wealth
Starting point is 00:22:23 the fastest. They're able to live their dreams because they're intentional with their dollars. They make their money behave. On paper, on purpose, before the month begins, every dollar has a name. Every dollar has an assignment. Every dollar has a mission. That's why we named our EveryDollar app that's free for your iPhone or your Android, EveryDollar. It's the best, most robust, most elegant budgeting software on the planet. Over 3 million people are using it.
Starting point is 00:22:52 Michelle and her husband in Alaska are using it. They're in the process of becoming debt-free. They use the free budget app, EveryDollar. Now, before EveryDollar, Michelle was budgeting on her own on a spreadsheet, and she always felt overwhelmed because it was such a manual, time-consuming process. Once she and her husband started budgeting together with EveryDollar, because they both have it on their phone, she was shocked at how much easier it was.
Starting point is 00:23:20 They could both see the budget on their phone. They could easily track their spending. And Michelle went from stressing about her complicated spreadsheet to clearly seeing how much they were saving and reducing debt every month. This is a game changer. Now, she's not the only person who's had this experience. It's called freedom. When you get a sense of control over something, an area that no one is winning in hardly makes you weird. If you're ready to get control of your future, your finances, go to everydollar.com.
Starting point is 00:23:53 It takes about 10 minutes to get this set up on your iPhone or your iPad. And if you want to do plus, every dollar plus, it hooks to your bank and downloads all your transactions automatically. The bank system charges us, so we charge a small fee for it. Plus, every dollar plus, it hooks to your bank and downloads all your transactions automatically. The bank system charges us, so we charge a small fee for it. But you can use the whole every dollar system except that completely free. So you don't have to do the plus, but the plus is worth every penny. It makes it really interactive and really fun, real easy to get on top of your money that way. Most things that are this easy aren't good, but this actually works and is easy. Allison's with us in Laredo, Texas.
Starting point is 00:24:30 Hi, Allison. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for having me. Sure. What's up? I'm trying to do the right thing and save up for a house or at least get the 20% down payment. Okay.
Starting point is 00:24:41 And fortunately where I live is the market's pretty expensive. I've got $2,000 sitting in a savings account. Obviously it's not growing any money. And I was wondering should I put it in like a mutual fund? And I really don't understand mutual funds. And what would be a good suggestion to go with that? I would use a regular savings account. It's not earning you anything, but it's not losing you anything.
Starting point is 00:25:04 And if you put money in a mutual fund and you don't leave it alone at least five years you stand a decent probability of it going down in value so you don't want to do that we want to unless you're going to be leaving alone at least five years i don't i do not use mutual funds for investing i just you're just parking money somewhere safe you're not the money that you end up with is going to be money you put in there, not money that grew, because you're not doing it for very long. Well, I'm not sure exactly, because really I don't want a house. I want a condo because it's just me.
Starting point is 00:25:37 But it can get kind of expensive. I mean, everything may change by the time you build up the money, but for right now I want to build up the money. That's the thing. And so, just pile up money, pile up money, pile up money. Make sure you're out of debt. You have your emergency fund in place. Make sure all of that stuff's going on.
Starting point is 00:25:54 And then you're piling up for your down payment. So, good stuff. Hey, thanks for the call. Jasmine is with us in San Jose, California. Hi, Jasmine. How are you? Hi. Thanks for taking my call, California. Hi, Jasmine. How are you? Hi. Thanks for taking my call, Dave.
Starting point is 00:26:08 Appreciate it. Sure. What's up in your world? So together, me and my husband, my husband's 26. I'm 23. We together, and our debt is about $56,000. And we owe about $16,000 together in our credit cards and about forty thousand in our cars so we both bought new cars back in 2015 our question is should we get rid
Starting point is 00:26:36 of our new cars he has maybe some positive equity of maybe just a couple thousand but for me i'm upside down about ten thousand in my car and i don't work right now currently well i just have unemployment uh my husband works he makes about 45 000 a year so we're just one you know we just recently discovered you so what did you make when you were working i'm sorry what was that again what did you make when you were working? I was making about $35,000. Okay. And why are you not working now? Right now, I'm currently looking for jobs.
Starting point is 00:27:14 I got interviews lined up, so I'm hoping to get back on that track. Okay. And his car is worth how much? Probably about $20,000 to $25,000. Okay. And so your car is worth what? About $15,000 to $17,000. Okay.
Starting point is 00:27:34 Yeah. You're in trouble on both of these. And you're saying your car is only worth $7,000? Oh, no. Mine's worth about like maybe $15,000 to $17,000. Oh, you owe $25,000, like, maybe $50,000. Oh, you owe $25,000 on yours. Yes, yes, yes. That's what it was.
Starting point is 00:27:50 Okay. All right. And he owes how much on his? $20,000 as well. Okay, but it's worth $25,000? Around, yes. Yeah, okay. Here's the thing.
Starting point is 00:28:04 If you're making $40,000 a year, $45,000 a year, there's no way these cars make sense. If you're making $70,000 a year, this is way too much cars. If you own more than half your annual income in things with motors and wheels, you are going to struggle financially. Okay. And so if you're making $70,000 in the household in the household or 80 in the household, the most you should own are cars that are worth about 40, and that's the most you should own. And in your case, you guys are struggling and broke. So what would I do if I woke up in your shoes? I would
Starting point is 00:28:37 say I'm going to drive like no one else so later I can drive like no one else. I'm going to live like no one else so later I can live like no one else i'd sell both of these okay even upside down with the 10 grand yeah i wouldn't sell them to a dealer i just put them on the market and sell them he gets 25 out of his and goes him buys him a five thousand dollar car you're upside down you dump yours and you know you go get you a little three or four five thousand dollar car and we just reduced your debt way down. You're about to get your life back. I see. And then when you finish off all the debt, think about what it would be like to have $10,000 in the bank and no payments.
Starting point is 00:29:14 Yeah. That's where I want you to head. That would be a pretty cool place to live, wouldn't it? Yeah. And then you could save up from there and buy better cars. Save up and buy better cars. Save up and buy better cars. Save up and buy better cars. But you guys are, you're car poor.
Starting point is 00:29:27 These cars own you. You don't own them. So I would, and it's a temporary thing. It's not a way of living. I don't want you to drive a junk car the rest of your life. I just don't want this car to own you, and they do own you currently. That's how it works. So, hey, good question.
Starting point is 00:29:42 Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825- 5225. Hey, I like cars. And I want you to get a nice car. I just don't want your nice car to get you. That's all. I want you to have
Starting point is 00:29:58 a good life. And when you're walking around with car payments coming out your ears, you can't breathe. And there's just no correlation statistically. If you want to read the probabilities, there's no correlation statistically between people that have car payments and people that build wealth. You get rid of the car payments, you start getting wealthy. It's really simple. And no one, no one builds wealth with car payments.
Starting point is 00:30:24 They just don't do it. You can't find them. They don't exist. They're like unicorns. So that's what you have to think about. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Gregory is in Tampa.
Starting point is 00:31:03 Hi, Gregory. How are you? Good. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have an investment question. My parents started a mutual fund for me back when I was in high school, and I've never touched it. And currently it has about $117,000 in it. Boom. And the 10-year average on that is about 11.2%.
Starting point is 00:31:23 Sweet. Currently, I put about $100 a month into my Roth IRA, which only has $11,000 in it. And that fund 10-year average is around 11.4%. I use your investment calculator on your webpage and using those percentages. And that comes out to about $366,000 in my Roth when I turned 67 years old. Now, if I use instead, invested that $100 into the mutual fund my parents started, when I turned 67, that's about $2 million in that account. So a big difference between the two. The $100 didn't do that, though.
Starting point is 00:32:02 The fact that there's already $100,000 in there did that. Exactly. It's the compound interest. Yes, definitely. So my question is, is there a way to put that money into a tax shelter? And two, should I stop investing the $100 in the Roth account and start investing into that mutual fund my parents started and just take the tax hit when I get older? I think you misunderstood the math calculation that you did. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:28 Okay. If you don't put $100 into that $100,000 account, it's going to turn into $1.7 million. Okay. If you don't do anything. Okay. The fact that you put $100,000 in turns either the Roth into $300,000 or adds $300,000 to that. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:32:51 Because both your percentages are the same and your distance of time is the same. So the $100 is going to create what the $100 is going to create regardless of which one you put it in, assuming the rates of return are similar and the distance of time that you're investing is the same. Does that make sense? Yes. And so you somehow thought that putting the $100 a month in the $100,000 mutual fund account was more advantageous mathematically, and it's not. Okay. Yeah, that was the other thing.
Starting point is 00:33:26 I wanted to make sure I was doing my calculations right, which is obviously not. Yeah, you did your calculations right, but you just drew the wrong conclusions from your calculations, is all I'm saying. So you're either going to add $300 to one of these two accounts by adding 100 a month now the question becomes which one is the better one well if the interest rate if the rates of return are similar which they are if they continue to be well the roth is going to grow tax-free and the other one's not so we would rather fund the roth gotcha yeah and take the tax shelter exactly and you probably need to step that on up and let's get that thing up there to fully funded.
Starting point is 00:34:07 What do you make a year? Between me and my wife, it's about $150,000. And we definitely want to step it up. Right now, that's where we're at, but eventually we want to fully fund that. Have you got a bunch of debt you're cleaning up or something? I don't have, well, part of like about $60,000 or $70,000 of that is earned income that we actually don't get from businesses that we're a part of, but I don't know where we really want to go with that. So really, take-home pay is only about $80,000, and we don't have any debt.
Starting point is 00:34:38 We don't have any car payments. The only debt we have is our mortgage. Well, we teach folks to save, and you can save 15% of your household income, and you're not. So you should be investing 15% of your household income. If you want to do that calculation based on 80 because the other is not, you're not getting the cash out of the other businesses, I get that. But just to say we can't make it on 80 and save and invest with no debt, that's not an okay answer. So you guys need to get to 15% of your income going into retirement of that 80.
Starting point is 00:35:10 And that would mean that you're either loading up 401ks that have a match in Roth or you're loading up Roths up to some point. And that's independent of the $100,000 over to the side. So the good news is you're paying attention and you've got a really good head start from a couple of different sources here, and apparently your family are people that have taught you to think about and talk about this, because they set these things up in place that you're participating in. So that's good. Good.
Starting point is 00:35:42 Very good. Kelly is with us. Kelly is in Orlandolando florida hi kelly how are you hi i'm great how are you better than i deserve what's up um i want to cut straight to the point i went through your financial university with my husband we let stupidity come into our lives we bought a forty thousand000 truck and then we turned around not even a year later, bought a $175,000 home. My husband currently is the only one bringing in an income of right around $57,000. I did try to start an online eBay stuff, selling things. I'm to the point now,
Starting point is 00:36:19 it's like I'm treading through water and I'm not getting ahead. And I'm to the point, should we let the car company repossess the truck? Should we try to sell it out? Because we are in the hole right around $10,000 on it. Your household income is what again? Right around $57,000. And you bought a $40,000 truck. Yes. We let stupidity move in.
Starting point is 00:36:44 We shouldn't have bought the house when we did. $40,000 truck. Yes. We let stupidity move in. We shouldn't have bought the house when we did. And, I mean, I realized we were so over our heads. I mean, we still are. But I'm to the point now of just they can have the truck back because between the house payment and the truck, it's almost $2,000 a month. And I'm just, I'm drowning in debt. I can't do it no more. But my husband don't want to let the truck get repossessed.
Starting point is 00:37:10 And apparently he's not helping at all. No, not really. Yeah. I mean, is it the best option to give the truck, like repossessed, or sell it and pay the difference? No, you sell it and pay the difference, because when you give it to them, they're going to sell it for $10,000 less than you would have sold it for,
Starting point is 00:37:30 and they're going to sue you for the difference. You get to pay the difference either way, but you're going to have more difference and screwed-up credit with a repossession than you are if you sell it yourself. The problem is I don't think you guys are going to do any of this. Because I think you're going to look at him and say, we're going to sell the house and sell the truck, and he says, no, we're not. And so they're going to come take both because y'all are not willing to address the issue.
Starting point is 00:37:57 That's how you got in this mess in the first place, him. I mean, he sees where we have an issue, and we do have like 2,000 savings. He doesn't see where you have an issue. He doesn't want to sell the truck. That's a lie. Right. You're kidding yourself. You're right.
Starting point is 00:38:14 So I predict more pain until somebody wakes up named him. Okay. I sure hope I'm wrong. But let me tell you what, if both of you woke up, if I can throw enough hot water or cold water or whatever kind of water I need to throw on you guys to wake you two up this time, then you need to put a for sale sign on both of these and get rid of them immediately. They're both insanity. House and car. They're insanity when you did it. They're insanity to keep them.
Starting point is 00:38:42 You know that. You knew that before you called me. You told me that they're insanity to keep them you know that you knew that before you called me you told me that they were insanity now the only question is are you going to pretend like this is not going to happen and wait for it to happen because it's going to happen this stuff is leaving your life they're either going to take it or you're going to sell it and you're going to decide whether it's going to happen to you and you're going to be a victim or whether you're going to happen to it and clean up your own mess. If I'm in your shoes, I'm putting everything up for sale today. And it sounds like you two need to sit down with a marriage counselor
Starting point is 00:39:12 because, man, I don't know where this guy's brain is. Whew. Cooked. Cooked. Good luck with that. I sure hope you turn it, darling. If you need help, I'll be happy to help you, but I can't help you unless both of you are willing to do it.
Starting point is 00:39:25 If one of you is, you know, filling in the hole faster and the other one is digging it out, you ain't got a chance. And that's what's going on here. You're scared to death finally. Way too late. You got scared to death. You should have been scared to death before you signed any of those papers. But now you're finally scared to death and he's still just walking along like a bear in the woods or something. I don't know what he's walking along like.
Starting point is 00:39:48 I can't even come up with a good metaphor right now. He's lost. I'm thinking of that guy on the Bear and Jungle book, you know, just the bear necessities. I can't sing it, but that's kind of, you know, just diddy. Down south, we call it diddy-bopping along, you know, and crap runs over you like a train when you do that. You're just going to be train wreck. That's what you're going to be. So I sure
Starting point is 00:40:08 hope you guys address this. Please address it for your sake. It doesn't affect me, but my gosh, what a mess. And you're either going to happen to the mess or the mess is going to happen to you. There is no in-between. It's physics. It's coming. It's coming. I need the bump music from
Starting point is 00:40:24 the Jungle Book. That's what I need now. Oh, that puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. Hey, guys, this is Blake Thompson, chief production officer for The Dave Ramsey Show. Here's a tip. To keep from missing Dave's classic facial expressions to some of those calls, make sure you watch him live. Just visit DaveRamsey.com slash show each day from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern.
Starting point is 00:40:58 Enjoy.

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