The Ramsey Show - App - Can I Buy a Tesla Before I Buy a House? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 3, 2020

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🎵 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, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one New York Times bestselling author, and my daughter joins me to answer your questions as my co-host today. The phone number 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Caitlin starts this hour in Atlanta. Hi, Caitlin. How are you? Hey, Ted.

Thank you. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Good. I just have a quick question. It's kind of on behalf of my mom. So I have a 19-year-old brother, and he recently was living with my dad um in a different state he now lives

back with my mom he's not really on a path to college he says he wants to go to college when he can pay for it you know out of pocket which is a good thing but um i don't know that he has a realistic idea of where he will go. But he's making some bad choices. He just has a small job right now, not making too much. And he does help out. He, you know, pays for gas. He pays for his groceries and that type of thing, but he's not really respecting her just as far as just how she would like him to live while he's living under her roof. And so I just wonder if

you had any advice as far as how I could help her or how she can set some boundaries for him. If he's going to live under her roof, this is how she expects him to behave. And, you know, how maybe I could just help him with preparing for his future. He doesn't seem to have much of a plan. So I would say, Caitlin, is he being, like, belligerent towards your mom or he's just out partying and it's just, he's just being irresponsible or he's just not driven. What's like the, not really driven.

Um, and as far as he's not bored or anything, he, um, he's just, you know, if he's kind of going off with, um, girls, um, um overnight she would rather him not um and there was actually a situation where he um had a girl that he dated whose father was training order against him and um they're actually um they've gotten a lawyer for this and a family friend actually um paid for that lawyer, and he's paying them back, which I don't believe was a good idea in the first place. And he's just paying back, like, I think $200 a month, and the lawyer was $2,500, but yet he's going off to the beach for the weekend with another girl against my mom's wishes, obviously.

You know, just kind of decisions like that. Yeah, and is your mom as tore up about it as you are? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Much worse. Okay, okay. So she's your mom. Yes.

Well, for sure, for sure. Some people just have a higher tolerance. She's not that worried, but you're the concerned sister. I didn't know how on board your mom was with it because, yeah, I mean, I think it's totally fair for your mom to set boundaries. He's 19 years old. He's living in her home. And for her to say, Hey, this is what I expect X, Y, and Z. And if you can't do that, um, then I'm not going to be able to support you in this way. Uh, I think think I said I think we know why he left his dad's house oh yeah I think so there were rules there that were enforced mom is not doing that. How old are you?

I'm 29. How many siblings do you have? Just one. Okay. All right. Well, number one, you can't make either one of these two people behave. The easiest one to convince is not brother, it's your mother. And the thing you need to convince your mom of is that she needs to give him a new place to live. He needs to move out.

Right. He has 30 days to look for a place, and he needs to move out. He's 19. He can make it. Right. And I think with that, and I've said that, I think with that, I think, you know, she's concerned how will he pay for that. Oh, well. And, right.

He'll figure it out. Right. Or he can straighten up. But as for me and my house, we're not whoring around all over the country. You have to stay, you know, quit dragging girls off the beach while you've got a freaking restraining order, which you don't even defend that to start with. The way you defend a restraining order is you restrain yourself from going near that girl again, and then you don't have to pay any legal fees.

It's not a problem. True. You don't need $2,500 worth of legal crap just don't go near her again kind of like her dad by the way yeah and I think the hard thing in this situation Caitlin is you're you're the removed party right so you can have a conversation with your mom to do it you see your brother but at the end of the day you cannot control either one of them right you can control how you're how you're dealing with the boundaries you're setting for yourself.

But helping give your mom advice, give her some tips, give her guidance, give her permission to say, hey, mom, listen, he's walking all over you. He's 19 years old. He's got to learn to grow up. Like he needs to learn how to do this stuff on his own. And sometimes just getting kicked out of the nest forces you to do that.

Otherwise, you know, there's a little bit of the enabling situation so he has a lot two choices one he can just go out on his own right now or number two if he chooses to stay then here are some things in place you know of what your mom needs to say by the way the things your moms are upset about are not affecting your mom she's upset because he's he's messing up his own life it's not because he's messing up your mom's life she she only reason she's upset is she loves him right the only reason you're upset only reason you're upset is you love him and so let's just love him better enabling and when someone allows misbehavior to go on and and we call that enabling is but is done by the nicest people on the planet enabler your mom is a sweet sweet person oh yes very much yeah i'm gonna send her

a pint of my blood because i'm just i'm kind but i'm not sweet. Right. And so, you know, if you're going to live in my house, you're going to do it my way because I love you. And I want good things for you. And your mom is doing harm to your brother when she realizes that by allowing this. And when she realizes that, she'll stop doing it. So pick up a copy go jump on amazon right now and buy henry cloud's book boundaries buy two copies send one i've got it okay then you only need one copy then you only need one copy send a copy to your mom because henry does one of the most gentle and kind non-dave methods of describing what good boundaries and how they're healthy for everyone involved

and how it is an act of love. It's not an act of, you know, well, that's tough love. No, that's just love. When someone's on a track of self-destruction and you can help get them off that track by putting some boundaries in their life, putting some speed bumps, some fences up, then you are loving them well. And your mom's going to have to do that because Junior ain't going to straighten out otherwise. We're all going through challenges.

And our lives have been impacted in ways we've never anticipated. If we learned anything, it's that change is constant. And having a plan is crucial to our family's livelihood. This is why I talk about term life insurance every day. And for those of you that haven't taken care of this for your family, I'm not sure what you're waiting for. Hopefully, recent events have opened your eyes, and if you need some extra motivation, companies have started raising rates so the smart move is to get this taken care of right now for over 20 years and through all the challenging times the only company i have recommended who gets the job done is zander insurance

their team will shop all the top companies find the best rates for the coverage you need and get this done quickly. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Your timing is crucial, so please get this done. Thanks for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personnel. He's my co-host today here on the air. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Heather is with us in Topeka. Hi, Heather, how are you? I'm doing good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help?

Okay, so I'm an incoming freshman at a public university, and I'm trying to figure out how to find funds. Well, not necessarily find funds, but manage my money through college so that I can graduate debt-free. Good for you. That's a great question. Heather, how much money do you have saved right now? Well, my parents have been saving. They've been very, very, very gracious, and I am so lucky to have them. I have quite a few different funds. I have CDs, a mutual fund, ESA, and a savings and checking account. Total, that is up to $59,000. I will be coming up soon because my car is starting to die, and I'm trying to figure out how to cash flow.

What's wrong with your car? Well, so it's an older car. It's got 1,000 miles on it. You're cutting out. It's got how many miles on it? 180,000. Typically, that's not a lot, but we took it to a shop, and they said it cost $1,500 to fix it.

What's it worth? It's not worth that much. Okay, so you wouldn't fix it? I don't. Yeah, so we're not fixing it. So how much does school cost? Well, with all of the scholarships, I think the first semester will cost $5,000, but that's not going to last.

Like, I'll have to go to school for seven to eight years to be what I want to become. What are you going to become? Either a surgical nurse or a nurse anesthetist. So I have to get my four-year bachelor's degree and then go back to school for either anesthesia or just other certifications. Okay. Have you mapped out what all of that is going to cost no um i just thought well i didn't even really get um how much it's going to cost this semester starting in 10 days so i think the balance this semester will be 5 000 but it'll um are you uh are you able to live at home and go to school? I can, but since I'm in the honors program, they want me to live on campus with the honors students. Yeah, I want you to too, but you don't have any money.

So it's not really an option. You want to be a nurse anesthetist. You don't want to live in the honors dorm. Yeah. One's a high calling. The other one's not. So be great unless if they want to pay for it and if you can live there for free that's fine but i don't think that's what they're offering is it no it's only a five hundred dollar scholarship yeah but it costs you how much to live well total cost the dorm i'm not sure the dorm is probably with the food meal plan is probably

close to ten thousand yeah and so and you can save ten thousand dollars by living at home yes yeah done ding ding okay we just moved that. All right. And so you're going to sell your junkie car, and you're going to get you a little better junkie car. But not much better. But not much better. $2,000 car. And in case your dad and mom aren't walking with you on this, let me tell you what kind of $2,000 car to buy. Ugly. But very reliable mechanically.

Okay. Yeah, that's the problem with mine. but very reliable mechanically. Okay. Yeah, that's the problem with mine. It's not mechanically sound. Yeah, one of my buddies picked me up the other day to drop me off at the shop in Big Red. Big Red is a 1994 Granada land yacht. Land yacht, okay? land yacht land yacht okay 22 000 actual miles it had been sitting in his grandmother's garage it is pink it's not really red because it's faded it is the ugliest freaking car i have ever seen and it is so reliable and it's 500 bucks but only 22 had only 22,000 miles on it.

Now, but you got to give a car like that a name. But you know what that name is? That name is Nurse Anesthesis School. You know what a nurse anesthesis makes? I'll tell you what they make. A lot. A lot. 300, 400 grand, some of them. Okay?

So I want you to go get that school and drive anything you want later because you drove Big Red. Okay. And I want you to live at that school and drive anything you want later because you drove Big Red. Okay. And I want you to live at home so you get that degree because you've got a great career path. But here's a rule when you're setting goals, and Rachel and I talk about this all the time. We talk about it here in our business all the time. Begin with the end in mind, Stephen Covey said in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. What that means is you need to go ahead and lay out exactly what we're going to do. We're going to live at home, and we're going to do this, and it's going to cost us this.

I think you can get through undergrad there for less money than you have. Okay. If you live at home, matter of fact, I'm positive you can, that you can get through undergrad in an in-state school, in-state public public university in Oklahoma or in Kansas, I'm sorry, and you can get through for less than $60,000 and buy a $2,000 Big Red. Yeah, and I would say, Heather, you don't have to buy a Big Red. Just get you a little Blackhawk Civic. Call it a day.

Do what you got to do. Dave, let's talk about the ugly cars. You can find a cheap car that's just black. Yeah, but don't concentrate on it. I know people that want a little Mazda 626, and the stupid thing's got 180,000 miles on it. But it's sexy when you're sitting on the side of the road broken down. Right. I think, Heather, I don't want Heather to take you literally.

If it is big red, it's great. But I'm just saying, you can find a great $2,000 car that's a black Honda Civic. Well, that was a $500 car. True. So that's what you got to do. Get you an old car. It's fine. And then you need to map out very specifically what this school is going to cost you for four years.

Look at your ESA. Look at the growth. Look exactly what's going to happen. Map out how much money, if you need some each semester, how much you need, and then how many hours you have to work to fulfill that. And then you're looking on to medical school. Much easier to work a bazillion hours in undergrad than it is in grad school. Yes. Much easier.

Live like the classic college student. Just broke and working. No, not even, no. Don't live like, you're not playing bear pong. You're working. Don't, you know. Classic college student is like broke and you are working. Like, that's like, that's a college student.

You eat ramen noodles. That's what I did in college. Yeah, you're broke. You don't have money. So like, that's how you need to live. It's because I'm a good dad. That's right. That's why you had ramen noodles in college.

Great. Built character. Turned you into a character. I'm not complaining about it at all. I'm not complaining. I at all i'm not complaining i'm just telling heather you're gonna have to work and you're gonna be broke and it's fine like that that's the time to do it you don't want to be broke and eating ramen noodles at 32 years old with two kids well you don't want to do that you call me you're four hundred thousand dollars in

debt that's right because you wanted to be a nurse anesthetist and um so don't you know you can do this you're a bright young lady. This is very possible. All we did was take you through the first couple of steps of making decisions that cause you to hit your goal. Once you have your goal, you say, this is the goal. I want to graduate here. I graduate in six years, 6.5 years, and here's a program I can do that in. And that's about really what it will take you. And here's a program, and here's a less expensive program,

and I've got to get qualified for that, and I've got to get scholarships, and I've got to drive a cheap car, and I've got to live at home. And what has to be true for me to be able, with my $59,000 worth of stuff, what has to be true, how much money do I have to make, how much money mom and dad ship in in addition, mom and dad have been generous already, so that we hit this goal. And if you come out of school as a nurse anesthetist, 100% debt-free, touchdown, baby. Touchdown.

I mean, the financial goal, the financial milestones you will be able to hit will blow your freaking mind. Or you'll spend the next decade cleaning up the mess because you didn't have a plan. So are too smart to do it the wrong way you're going to do it the right way you called here thank you for the bravery to do that i applaud you you're a rock star develop a detailed plan of what has to happen and what your prices you're going to pay to get there and it'll be worth it you can do this this is the dave ramsey show Well, this year may not have been what you hoped for, but guess what? You get to choose what you do with your money going forward. And I'm really excited.

Our number one best-selling author, Rachel Cruz, co-hosting with me today, has written a brand-new book called Know Yourself, Know Your Money, and it is available starting today for pre-order. The actual publishing date will be on January the 5th, and that's when the books will ship. And we've taught you the baby steps on the how for many years. Now it's time for you to go beyond money basics and discover why you handle money the way you do. Your habits, your tendencies, your unique fears, all of these things motivate your decisions and put gas on the fire that cause you to win, cause you to become successful faster.

If you pre-order Know Yourself, Know Your Money today, only 20 bucks, you get $50 in free stuff added on. The audio book, the e-book, and a new exclusive video lesson from Rachel that will go out at the first of the month. And so pre-order today in the online store at DaveRamsey.com. Exciting. Another number one, I'm sure. Well, I'm sure. Your lips, God's ears. I don't know.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I think it's an exciting time always when you're launching a book because your time, your heart, your soul, your thoughts, everything is in this thing, in this book right here. So it's exciting. I'm excited for people to read it. So when you know yourself, you'll know why you handle money and it'll cause you to be able to handle it better and for that matter, know your spouse. Yes, for sure. I think it's so, so key to understand your motivations and why that matter know your spouse yes for sure i think it's so so key to

understand your motivations and why you make the decisions you make um and so it's a scope of reasons and so through the book we kind of walk through eight big sections of that and i think you'll have light bulb moments you'll discover things about yourself but like you said even those around you from your friends your spouse your, your parents, your kids, all of it. So just really, you know, self-awareness for self-awareness sake is pointless, but using it as a tool to help you in your life and in this case in your money is really powerful. Awesome stuff. The book is Know Yourself, Know Your Money, Discover Why You money handle money the way you do and what to do about it DaveRamsey.com or RachelCruz.com either one to pre-order it and if you want a free quiz

to kind of give you some insights on some of the things you're going to learn you can text a free Quiz to 33-789. Money Quiz to 33-789. Brandon is with us in Seattle. Hey, Brandon, how are you? Hey, I'm good. Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Hey, Rachel. Hey, what's up? Hey, so my question is if I should buy a Tesla if I don't.

Are you there? Oh, no, Brandon. Wait a minute. You're cutting in and out. You're cutting in and out. You're still there? Yes, I'm still here. Can you hear me?

Okay. I'm worried about you buying a high-tech Tesla when your phone doesn't work. Okay. So. All right. Your question is can you buy a Tesla? What? Can I buy a Tesla? What? Can I buy a Tesla if I don't have a house?

And I'm still saving for a house, and in a few years, I probably want to have a house. Okay. Well, what's your financial situation? Yeah, so my financial situation is, I guess, income is around $240K a year. Maybe 40% of that is in company stock. Currently, like, my debt is paid off, so I have about $30K of that, or maybe a little over, in a truck that I can sell to put towards that. Okay.

So you're going to pay cash for a Tesla. How much is the Tesla that you're looking at? So it's used, so it would probably be maybe around $60,000. Okay. Well, I don't think it matters whether it's a Tesla or not. Can I make $240,000 a year? I'm single, and I'm completely debt-free, and I have the cash to buy a $60,000 car.

Is that okay? Yeah. That's the question, yeah. I think so. I'm single, yes. I do have a girlfriend, but I'm not married. Yeah, what's her name? We've been dating for a while, so there could be expenses, I guess, the question, yeah. I think so. I'm single, yes. I do have a girlfriend, but I'm not married. Yeah, well, that's what I mean. We've been dating for a while, so that could be expensive, I guess, for that, too.

I'm just saying, you know, you don't have children, you don't have a bunch of responsibilities, you don't have something else going on. You make a ton of money, you're buying a $60,000 car, and you make $240,000 a year, right? Yes, that's right. Rachel? Yeah, do it, Brandon. I'm a little jealous. Tesla is kind of my, I'm not a car person.

I'm impressed with Teslas. I'm not going to lie. So I'm all for you getting one. Financially, 100%. But I also think it's a really cool car. And I'm not a car person. So I think it's great. Yeah, most Tesla people aren't car people.

What does that mean? It's the fastest car on the road. Did you know that? No, but they're not car people. I mean, it's a battery. Have you been in a Tesla before? It's a battery. No, have you been in one?

It's a battery with wheels. Wait, I'm being for real right now. Have you been in one? Have you been in one? Have you sat in one and driven one? No, I have not. No, I have not. It's pretty crazy.

For me, they would have to put an app in there that had muffler noise. I have to hear something running to know I'm in a car. You're such a redneck. Definitely. Definitely. I own that completely. You get in one, and it's just, there's nothing. Boy, you may have got no loud mufflers.

One big screen. It's pretty impressive. I'm not going to lie. So, I think that's. I think most of the guys that I know that love them are tech guys. And he's Seattle, so I don't doubt it. your tesla i see him all the time rachel rachel highly recommends rachel's endorsing tesla they really are really cool and again hey you cannot hate if you've not sat and drove in one they cut they have listen if you want one baby you just get back to calls we'll get back to calls. We'll get back to calls.

But there's a thing. You just get you one. Oh, man, I forgot it now. They call it some kind of mode. Oh, shoot. Rocket mode. No, yeah, it's called. Oh, my gosh.

Demo mode. It's something. You turn it on and you put your foot on the gas. You did it? And you. You did the demo drive where they sell you. No, no, no, I didn't. I didn't.

I was with a friend. They completely sold you. Shoot. It's called a phrase. I forgot. Anyway. It does have, no, no, I didn't. I didn't. I was with a friend. They completely sold you. Shoot, it's called a phrase. I forgot. Anyway. It does have, yeah, I've heard of this. I've heard of it. It's part of their demo.

It's insane. It's part of the demo. You literally have like vertigo. You literally feel like you are on a roller coaster. I was with a guy last night that did the new Porsche, the new battery Porsche. Not a Tesla though. And no, zero to 60 and 2.9. He said that snapped his head off.

I think a Tesla is like 2.3. It's a battery car too. It's the same 2.3. It's a battery car, too. It's the same thing. Okay. It's the new Porsche battery car. But, yeah. Well, anyways, I can't talk anymore. Answer me this.

Here's what I don't understand, okay? I got 1,000 folks here, and we have like six or eight of those plug-in things outside. Yes. And those plug-in things to plug into the electric cars are on my electric bill. Oh, that's smart of them. I should bring my Tesla if I buy one here. So why is it that I don't have a gas tank out there to give free gas to the rest of the people? I would assume it's way less expensive.

No, it's not. It's way less expensive for them.'s more expensive for me you would save money on gas i'm providing free fuel to some team members but not to others i don't think that's fair hey we're all on board with that fyi it is everybody in the booth wants a new gas tank installed so we'll work on the epa on that to work. No, I think it's much more inexpensive to charge up the car than to fill it up with gas. It is for them. I'm paying for it. No, either way.

If you, no. I just think it's interesting how that culture, how that worked culturally that I, no one ever thought that there was anything wrong with me paying for that. It can't cost that much, though. I know, but I'm not griping about it. It's just interesting to me that I'm supposed to do that culturally as the owner of the building. I'm supposed to provide electric for the electric cars, but the poor gas people, you know, I don't get it. It's just very interesting.

So, yeah, get you a Tesla, dude. Rachel highly recommends it. And put it in whatever that mode is That she's talking about too Shoot I know All the Tesla I'm sure they'll be tweeting Oh I'll get worn out for days Over this

It's something But it's alright Just give you one more thing To be pissed off at Dave about Nuclear mode I'm gonna have to Google it Give me something else Listen I want something

With a muffler And a big engine I can't even stand the fact That that Raptor has A little tiny six cylinder in it It's a tiny little six I had to put booster I had to put a turbo booster on it. I don't really, yeah.

Yeah. Until you sit in one and drive one, then we can have a discussion. I have to admit, that is a valid argument. I have not sat in one, and I have not driven one. And I do have good friends who are totally geeked out about them. It's fine. I did love that Malloy, when he spoke, the guy that was president of Ford, called him a battery with wheels.

Ludicrous mode. Thank you, Kelly. Ludicrous mode. That's it. Sounds like a rapper. Yes. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. our scripture of the day first samuel 16 7 but the lord said to samuel do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as a man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Herman Melville said, It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Ooh, that's good. Very good. All right. Up next is going to be Jacob, and Jacob is in Washington, D. starting. I just finished reading your books, Dave, and I took a bonus pay from work and used that. Traditionally, I would just throw that in savings and let it sit, but I actually used that to pay off my credit card debt. So I just paid off about $35,000 in credit card debt, and I'm looking to start chipping away at student loans,

which is a grand for me. So thank you. My question is actually, I'm driven to go Gazelle, but I'm a little hesitant, kind of multifactorial. One, obviously the state of the world right now, but also my company might be going through a restructuring. So I'm very highly motivated to go in Gazelle after paying off the credit card debt. I'm a little bit hesitant, so I would love to have a little bit of advice from you. Okay. Well, whether you – I would not – I would either go Gazelle

or I would just push pause and pile up cash. Okay. You're either not doing the plan or you're doing the plan with Gazelle. Does that make sense? And pushing pause is a reasonable and a smart thing to do depending on the level of uncertainty that you've got. All jobs are uncertain. Some people are under the illusion that they're not, but they're all uncertain.

Everyone is on straight commission. Try not going to work for six weeks. You'll quit getting a check. Everybody gets paid when you work, period. And so, you know, everyone has a level of uncertainty whether they perceive it or not. Now, yours is added because of a restructure and some COVID implications. So what would you put percentages, percentage of probability that you're going to lose your job before you get the $50,000 paid off?

I would probably say less than 10% now. However, with a potential second wave, that would exponentially increase within the next six months. Okay. So what do you make a year? Around 140. And how quick do you pay off $50,000? Is that your only remaining debt? I have a mortgage as well. Okay, but I'm talking about your baby step two gazelle intense. Okay, so $50,000 makes you debt free since you cleared the credit card. Do I understand correctly? Correct. How fast are you going to do that? I would like to do it as soon as possible.

Give me a date, number of months. Let's do by end of year. I would like to have my student loans paid off. So you're going to pay off $50,000 in six months, making $140,000. Correct. Pretty aggressive. That's like zero life. I'm not even sure that you can do that mathematically, but let's just say you did. Okay. So then what happens during that six months, you have almost no probability of being laid off, correct? Correct. But you'd be 100%

debt-free. and then after that six months your probability being laid off would be what i would say close to 30 to 50 percent in their ballpark depending on how they're restructuring what do you do what is your career field i work in medical sales. Oh, good. That's wonderful. Okay. So, and if you've been successful doing that, you can do a lot of different stuff, right? Correct, yeah.

Including other medical sales. Very transferable skill, big time. Yeah, and I think you said, Jacob, if a second wave hits, that's the probability of you losing your job. But we don't know. Oh, I mean, you're talking about the second wave of COVID or the restructure? The restructure. Oh, my bad. Sorry, I'm in COVID brain. I was thinking the second wave.

I guess it could be either. You guys are both correct. Sorry. It could be either. Yeah, so the restructure is going to have two waves of occurring, and your probability of being laid off in the second wave comes up. Let me ask you this. If you got to October,

are you going to get more news during the six months that's going to give you an indicator up or down? Yes, absolutely. That's usually how the leaves get. Yeah, the rumor mill or whatever increases, and you get either more secure or more scared, right? Correct. Yeah, why don't we crank it until October and keep our ear to the ground.

Let's listen to what the tea leaves are saying. Sounds like a plan. I just needed that external guidance. I appreciate that. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm just thinking through. All I'm doing is asking you questions to kind of think. So if overall your worry is 10%, period, the answer is no.

You go gazelle intense because everybody's got a 10% worry. Some of them just don't know it. But the month-to-month reass reassessing i think it's great yeah so staying is all a month but then if there's like oh no i need i really need to pause right here because in two months it's gonna get bad sure pause it then if you get if you get news in september that there's a 60 chance in january you're going to lose your job, push pause. Pile up cash. But that's new news that you don't have today. Right, right.

And you just work that through. You're exactly right, Rachel. Just do the month-to-month reassessment. And so, yeah, what you're doing is you're setting up a war room to do a battle plan, and you're just fighting your way through this. And you're going, okay, how far can we extend that without getting ourself in trouble? But at the point that you can see a true probability not a worry of a layoff at that point push pause and pile up cash wherever that is and just constantly be watching that and and that's a north of 50 probability you go okay there's a better than half chance i'm gonna to lose my job. Boom, push pause. I'm kind of generally worried.

No, go for it. That's a good principle to run on. James is also in Washington, D.C. Hi, James. How are you? I'm focused and not finished. How about you two? Better than I deserve.

How can we help? Got a good problem than I deserve. How can we help? I got a good problem, I guess. My in-laws very generously offered my wife and I $250,000 to help with the down payment on our home. Obviously, the amount exceeds the yearly gift, so they want to structure it as a family loan, and they're telling us that it's one that we won't have to pay back. So I just want to kind of get your guys' feeling on how it could potentially impact our relationship. If we say yes, then we'll technically owe them a lot of money, and if we say no, they may be offended.

My wife is fully on board with taking the money. Oh, it's her dad. Yeah, that makes sense. She's got it. She's more comfortable with it. I would do it. I would want it all in writing. And it sounds like this, okay, that it's going to be forgiven at the maximum allowable annual gift rate. And in the event of death, it is included in the estate, and there will be zero call on the note.

In effect, that's not debt. It's an advance on your inheritance then. Does that make sense? You don't have payments to your in-laws. Under no circumstances do they have any grounds to ever call the note, nor would any other heirs have the grounds to call on the note upon death the loan is forgiven and can can or might be applied to the estate balance in other words you might cut might lower the amount you inherit versus your brother-in-law okay you see what i'm saying or maybe they hadn't

done that for the 17 year old yet or whatever i don't know but um yeah but a hundred percent forgiven at death or applied to the estate and uh and it's forgiven at the maximum allowable which is four times the annual by the way okay so he could he you know father-in-law can give you mother-in-law can give you father-in-law can give your wife and father-in-law mother-in-law can give your wife that's four times annual yeah and that's the maximum forgivable and that's the way i would set it up and that way it's not dead and it doesn't get weird that's a good question nice gift rachel good job thank you thanks for having me on that puts this hour of the dave ramsey show in the books we'll be back

with you before you know it in the meantime remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from the Ramsey Network, subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.