The Ramsey Show - App - Can I Get Dave’s Blessing To Buy a New Car? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, host of The Ken Coleman Show, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ken, long before there was a Ken Coleman, when I first started this broadcast a long, long time ago, it was called The Money Game. And back in those days, 30 years ago, we were on in Nashville only. And a friend of mine that I had known from church put a book out helping people like you do in the career space,

48 Days to the Work You Love. His name's miller and uh dan and his wife joanne have been friends of sharon's and mine for almost 40 years now and um uh 48 days became a perennial bestseller sold millions of copies and helped millions of people in the same space that you're in with their career and selecting the right passion and all of those kinds of things. Dan and I were in a Bible study with a bunch of high-performing guys. We call it the Eagles group. We met every Wednesday morning for 14 years, and that group disbanded.

It ran its course several years ago, about a decade ago or so, and Dan moved. He and Joanne moved to Florida, and he called me in December and told me he had a very aggressive cancer. And he went home to be with Jesus last night about 9, 915. And so lost a dear friend and a guy that's an icon in the space that you're in, for sure. And has helped a lot of people in that career space so we'll honor him today and yeah um and continue to cry and pray with his family and uh so just incredible incredible friend incredible man uh great dad great husband too that's what people sometimes behind the scenes you don't know what people are and this guy's like the real dude well you know he i had the

privilege of having dinner with a couple guys that he has mentored about my age. And just the way they talked about him. Of course, I got to know Dan was on his show, and he interviewed Dan on my show as well. And, you know, when you think about someone's legacy, it's the impact that they leave behind that has nothing to do with the public stuff. And he had a tremendous impact there. But just the way he has impacted people for decades, pouring into guys in a mastermind group. I got to talk to two of these guys, and they both teared up just talking about the impact that he had had on their lives. Yep, absolutely.

Which is what it's all about. Absolutely. Quite a legacy. Yeah. Quite a legacy. Great man. Quite a guy. Our condolences to our friends there.

And just take a second and honor the work that he had done. It's absolutely incredible. All right. Billy is with us. Billy is in Atlanta, Georgia. Hi, Billy. How are you? Hello, Dave.

Hello, Ken. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. What's up? Well, my wife and I want to make a new car purchase for the first time in over a decade, and I just want to make sure that it's going to be a pretty sizable car purchase, and I just want to make sure that this makes sense from your perspective. We've been followers of yours for quite some time now, and I would just like to get the Dave blessing if I can.

Well, it's not something that's required for a car, I can tell you that. If you've been following us a long time, you know that we don't buy new cars unless you have at least a million-dollar net worth. Are you talking about new to you or a brand-new car? It's a brand-new car, and the only reason why I'm calling in is because before I was about $10,000 underneath the millionaire status, and now as of this morning, I'm $3,909 over the millionaire status. Just crossed the finish line. All right. So you're sure you're ready to go on that one.

All right. And you probably also know, we tell folks, regardless of their level of wealth, not to buy things with wheels and motors all added together. That equals more than half your annual income. So what's your household income? About half a million dollars. Wow. You're killing it.

What do you do for a living? I'm a solutions architect at a technology company, and my wife's a tech sales executive at a startup. Phenomenal. Way to go, you guys. Well, it sounds like you're going to be able to afford this car. What is it? What kind of car?

It's an electric SUV. It's a Rivian. And I know you're a car guy, so it goes zero to 60 in three seconds. Yeah, I know the Rivian, yeah. I was talking to a guy. I bought one the other day. I parked beside him at church, and I know you're a car guy, so it goes zero to 60 in three seconds. Yeah, I know the Rivian, yeah. I was talking to a guy. I bought one the other day. I parked beside him at church, and I parked my Raptor beside him. We were talking about it as we were walking into church.

It was a great conversation. It was a lot of fun. I'll bet. So it's a wonderful vehicle. I mean, if you like the electric stuff. I mean, it's incredible. The engineering is very cool. What is that thing, about $90,000, $100,000?

Out the door with tax title license and everything, $98,000. Yeah, okay. All right. And I assume you've got the cash. Yes, I just crossed $100,000 on the high-yield savings account, so I wanted to pay for everything, you know, the insurance for the whole year and everything as well. So unless your wife is driving a $150,000 vehicle,

your two vehicles would be under half your annual income and you're over a million dollars and you're paying cash that's the only thing we tell people to look at awesome awesome yeah and we're driving right now like a 10 year old hyundai and we're still going to keep it until it dies just for like memory's sake yeah yeah yeah i mean it's uh yeah it's apparently the engineering on this thing is incredible i've not driven one of them uh the only thing i worry about with a brand new manufacturer on anything is i end up owning a delorean or something right yeah you know or studebaker or something that goes out of business you know and and then leave you you know they make they make them for three

years and they're gone i don't i don't have any reason to think that this company is going to do that, but I'm just saying just as a general comment, but can you afford this? Yes, you can afford it, sir. And yes, you should go buy it if it's what you want. Amazing. Thank you, Dave. I really appreciate it. Very cool.

That's fun. Very fun. He walked through it. I don't get to do that very often. Most of the time I say don't buy the car. Well, yeah. Or sell the car right usually when they call saying i need your blessing it's because they feel like they're gonna do something stupid that's stupid yeah please save me but this guy had uh walked right through it i i'm with you i still wouldn't do it taste yeah i would do it i get a year old one or something like that because it is a new manufacturer but you know i guess it I guess it's coming with all the warranties and everything, but it's brand new.

I see them driving all over the place. Oh, yeah, they're great. They got a dealership about a mile and a half from my house in downtown Franklin. Okay. So I see them. They look cool. I'm telling you, it's a BA car, man. It'll ride.

It'll go. It's faster than a Tesla. Zero to 60 in three seconds. It makes a Tesla look, yeah. What's the, is it a foreign manufacturer, I guess? No, they're U.S. It's U.S.? Yeah.

Okay, all right. Didn't even know. Yeah, it's crazy. But, ah, man, it's expensive, too. But it's good. Hey, that's what. But he's earned it. This is why you work.

He's saved up for it. That's right. You live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else. Freaking making a half million dollars a year, got a million dollar net worth, young guy. Yeah. But, and has saved up the cash to do it. Yeah. And that's what he, and he's making a big leap up big jump from i feel bad for the poor hyundai for a hoopty

the 10 year old hyundai is going to feel bad when the new shiny vehicle shows up but they're going to keep it i like it yeah so what's the thing on the hyundai's all getting stolen have you seen the tiktok thing no you know dave i'm not on TikTok. I'm not either, but I heard it this morning in a different setting that it's hard to have, that there's some kind of a... This is true? A guy in the audience is shaking his head.

It's hard to get insurance on them. They're getting stolen because somebody put out a hack on how to get one started, how to break into it, and all these people are using that hack. Oh, I see.

And they're stealing Hyundai's okay like crazy so you Hyundai people be careful out there wow wow get the low jack who knew who knew this is the Ramsey show Ken Coleman Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Hey, folks, we want you to join us in Nashville for a brand-new event that we just launched the ticket sales on. It's called the Total Money Makeover Weekend. It's going to be May 10th and 11th. There's millions of you out there who have been listening for a while and are still sitting on the sidelines.

No more setting. It's time to do it, time to take action. In just one weekend, we're going to give you a crash course on everything we teach you about money, and you're going to hear brand new content. In addition to that, from the Ramsey personalities on budgeting, beating debt, investing, careers, and more. No matter what baby step you're on, this event will light a fire under your butt, and you'll make progress all the ramsey personalities including ken coleman am i right i'll be part of this weekend the total money makeover weekend it's going to be live

question answers all throughout the weekend lots of opportunities for fun and pictures and everything else it is a total immersion so come join us may 10 and 11 early bird tickets went on sale uh just a couple days ago at $99. And they are for a limited time. We're going to re we're going to up the prices as we go along. So if you want the best prices, you do it now. Get your tickets right now at Ramsey solutions.com slash events. The event center only holds 2,500 folks.

So you do need to get your tickets as soon as possible, please. For your sake. Cassandra is in Colorado Springs. Hi cassandra how are you hi guys i'm good how are you guys better than we deserve what's up so i'm curious about doing um a he lock to consolidate our debt to pay it off quicker. So, um, we have about 55,000 that we are wanting to pay off, but what I was hoping to do was to do the HELOC. Um, so pull out the 55,000 and then do about a $400 payment a week. So it would be either an automatic withdrawal or we do, well, automatic is easier. So if we do the automatic withdrawal, and then I'm hoping it would be paid off in about three years. Not at $18,000 a year it won't be.

The interest is $18,000? No. $400 a week is $1,600 a month. That's $19,000 a year times three is not 55 i don't even might get there you might get there but it's gonna be tough yeah you'll get there i guess but uh okay so um all right so what kind of debt is this? We've got about just under $10,000 on a credit card, and then the rest are auto loans, no student loans, and this is not including the house. What's your household income?

Like after taxes take home, it's about $7,100 a month. Husband has two jobs, and then I also work on commissions, so I get bonuses. And so whatever we get in those extra incomes goes straight to debt, but I'm wanting it to go faster. Going faster will be about you guys sacrificing and cutting deeper. It won't be about interest. Interest rate's not your problem when you have only a two-year or a three-year problem uh your problem is just straight cash flow and you can increase that of course by increasing income or decreasing outgo which is sacrifice

the the problem with it with with moving this onto your home is you've now put your home at risk for your misbehavior and your misbehavior was you bought things you couldn't afford to buy. Right. And now recognizing that and changing that behavior. Yeah, maybe. 88% of the people that do debt consolidation end up going further in debt, not less debt, because they don't change the habits and the behavior. I personally would tell you to never do

it. I would list these debts smallest to largest. I'd cut up the credit cards. I would sacrifice so deeply that people think you joined a cult. I'd sell so much stuff the kids think they're next. I would go crazy and get this done in about two years with your income and live on nothing, not going out to eat, not going on vacation, not looking for an easy way out, attacking this with an absolute freaking vengeance. That's the formula that we have seen that has the most success. Because here's the thing. Debt is not the problem.

Debt is the symptom. And interest rates, when you run the actual math are not what's killing you here especially when you pay those credit cards off really really fast because they're going to be the smaller of these debts the cars are going to be the larger of the debts and so when you list these things smallest to largest pay minimum on everything but the little one attack the little one with a vengeance credit cards are going to be the first thing out the door they're going to be gone and so now your interest rates are not going to be substantially different from that point forward between that and the HELOC,

and you put your home at risk to buy a car, or in this case to keep a car that you shouldn't have bought. Yeah, the key that we have seen, Cassandra, in all these years, when Dave talks about it, you've heard him talk about it over and over and over again, gazelle intensity, the word there is urgency. And here's what happens. When you take the route of the HELOC, you remove all urgency. In fact, the way you laid it out to us was so relaxed. And we'll pay $400 a week, and in three years, we'll pay it off. And that's where things go awry, and Dave's right, and the data backs him up. So urgency is we don't rely on the HELOC.

We don't rely on a steady monthly payment to get out of this. We get after it right now. We sell a car if we've got some equity. We drive a car that maybe we wouldn't choose to drive. You know, we work two and three extra jobs. We sacrifice, like Dave talked about. What's going on there is urgency. And when your urgency is driving behavior, you're going to see faster results. And you see permanent behavior change. That's correct because you don't ever want to do that again. Yeah, you don't see that when you just ease into it. That's right.

The HELOC's too easy. Yeah. I'm going to keep eating donuts, but I'm also going to start having a protein shake. I'm going to walk five miles a day but i'm not giving up the donuts that's right and six big macs at lunch yeah and so yeah that that's you know that that is the equivalent of what we're talking about it's you there is a thing so you you asked and so we're answering you fairly and that is i wouldn't do it because when you lean into this with that urgency with that level of sacrifice, you'll never go back.

It causes the behavior to permanently be changed because you never see it the same way again. This is not a math problem. It's a behavior problem. And when you address it through that lens, it changes the answer dramatically here. Never would I see you go out to eat and you put a steak on your credit card and then you put your credit card on your home you've now financed a steak on a heloc oh that's a great way of looking at it i mean that's just when you think about it's just nuts all right roger is in tampa florida hey Roger, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

How you doing, Dave? How you doing, Dr. John? Great. Ken's with me this hour. What's up? Oh, sorry about that. That's okay. All good.

Ken likes to be called doctor, but it's just not accurate. I've never been called doctor ever, so I'm going to take it. Cool. All right. My question is, you know, I've worked in the wedding industry doing music for weddings for almost 18 years now. And in 2022, I was making about, you know, $80,000 a year. Halfway through 2022, I decided to go into business for myself. um last year 2023 i did really well and took in about uh almost 250 000 dollars raised my income up uh in the same thing doing the same thing in the same thing just wow just starting yeah good for you thank you so you know we spent the last year we paid off our credit

cards uh we don't have any car loans or anything but we do have two loans that are kind of hanging over my head. And I'm a little overwhelmed just trying to figure out how to manage the money. We have, my wife has about $120,000 in student debt. And I, years ago, made a bad decision, took out an SBA loan, small business association loan. And it's about $100,000 that I took out. So you got $220,000 to pay off and you made $250,000 last year? Correct. Dude, you used to make $80,000.

Yeah. Live on your old income and you're debt-free in two years. Yes. Okay. So my, well, the question I have to you is, uh, you know, because as the business has really grown pretty quickly, almost, almost quick, quicker than I, a lot quicker than I expected. So I'm like facing these issues where not issues, but I need to, I'm looking at future jobs and realizing that I need to purchase. I mean, you don't need to purchase anything else. You need to keep making $250,000 and pay off $220,000 in debt.

You don't need to be buying anything right now. You need to clean up your mess first. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. One of our other fellow Ramsey Personalities is in the middle of book launch week. Tomorrow will be one week that the book has been out breaking free from broke by George camel, the ultimate guide to more money and less stress. It is fun and packed with research and you will never look at some of the villains in the marketplace.

The same again, he exposes everyone that is ripping you off it and breaking free from broke you will love the read it's a lot of fun to read a lot of people hadn't read a book in five years of reading it that's a good indicator that's a good book george camel check it out you can get it at ramsey solutions.com or anywhere great books are sold. Lexi is in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hi, Lexi. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. How are you guys today? Better than we deserve. What's up? Hi, I just wanted your advice on some career trajectories. I just need some background. I'm a recent law student graduate. I chose my law school because I got a full ride, so I'm out debt-free. Great. Good for you. Thank you. And I took a job

with my state government as a civil litigator, where I currently make $80,000 a year. And I love this job because I get the mentorship of a corporate law firm, but I get to do work that is meaningful to me, and I get to volunteer 15 hours a week. What is the work that you're doing that's meaningful? I get to help protect people in my state from bad actors. Protect who? Residents of my state. Residents of your state.

So who are the bad actors? Give us an example of who you're protecting them from. So, I mean, if there's someone who isn't paying fair wages to their employees or there's harassment in the workplace, I get to help step in and make sure that that isn't happening to my fellow vets. Is that a form of regulation? Are you working for the Attorney General? Yeah.

Are you working for the Attorney General? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. I'm trying to make sure. That makes sense then. Okay. Cool.

Yeah. And I love the work. I get a lot of really great mentorship. I get to go into court three to four days a week, which a lot of my classmates who went into big law, I mean, they're in cubicles. I don't, they're not going to experience I am. And I get to volunteer, right?

I run a housing clinic through a legal aid. I get to volunteer 15 hours a week. But I chose my law school because I would come out debt-free and I went into it after spending three years working for a legal aid. And that's really where my heart is. That's where I want to give back to. And I'm wondering if I should suck it up and go into a corporate law firm where I'd make an additional $100,000 a year easily, pay off my house and, you know, be able to really give myself some legal aid without any financial burden. Or if I should go straight to legal aid work and, you know, potentially burn out because it's a

lower paid position. And, you. And it's hard work. Option A. Now this is me. I'm going to answer it as what would I do if I were in your shoes with everything you've given me? You love the work that you do. You love the result of that work. And you want to volunteer and legal aid is close to your heart. But the reality is, is that if you go into a legal aid position, you are probably going to burn out. Your income is going to be absolutely capped. And I don't know that you're making more of a difference working in that type of a situation, 40 hours a week, 50 hours a week as you would going to work for a great law firm with no cap, essentially,

or certainly raise the cap tremendously on your income ability, and then give back with your time that way. The more money you make and the more money you keep, Lexi, always leads to more freedom, more options with what you want to do with your time. You can give back financially, and you can give back with your time in both positions. And I think you've got to create more income and more freedom for you to be able to have more impact now I'm not going to say that you wouldn't make great impact you wouldn't be fulfilled but I'm telling you what I would do I'd choose both income and impact Dave is what I would choose because you can still volunteer making more money there's the good news is there's almost an infinite number of answers to your question.

There's a lot of different ways you can use the law to accomplish your goal. And I don't think it's necessarily, you know, all in on legal aid versus all in on big law. And I lose my soul, but I make a lot of money so I can come back and find my soul again. You know, that kind of thing. I don't think you have to go one direction or the other there. You're in a mid-level, you're in a mid-middle decision where you are, where you're getting to do some of the legal aid work, and like you said, you're getting great mentorship, you're in court every day. So for a season, staying where you are might not be bad.

Then a third option pops into my head because I'm entrepreneurial. I wonder what kind of boutique law firm you could own and operate after you've got a little bit more experience under your belt that would allow you to make a couple of hundred thousand and still have a lot of room for pro bono and you select the type of legal aid you want to provide as a part of the business model of running your own firm at some point where you made serious money off of good people that you want to help and you're also have have the the margin to do the other stuff too so there's a lot of different ways to get at this um uh i i just i i don't i always um uh resist the idea that the only way you can do

something noble and fulfilling is to be broke right that's why the contrary is true you can do a lot of noble and fulfilling things and you know the people that you're helping will uh help you to help others in the process and um so i i you know i don't mind where you are for a period of time uh it's it's it's scratching a whole lot of your itches right now yeah and just say okay this is my uh this is my internship this is my apprenticeship and I'm going to do this for three years. Or I'm going to do this for four years. And then I'm going to take that and go open a boutique firm, make serious money on part of my clients and pro bono the rest of them,

and still scratch a lot of that itch. I don't think you have to necessarily build up a pile of wealth and then work for nothing at Legal Aid to have done good in society or done good in society the way you're defining it even. So I just – you've done – and I love that you did this debt-free. That's pretty stinking amazing. You and I were talking about this recently that most young people don't realize the amount of law schools that are in this country because they think well i got to go to the big name law school you know ivy league or vanderbilt and our and our neck of the woods but there are law schools in every state that if you have the right gpa and the lsat score

they will give you a full ride lexi's an example of this and i want to applaud her too dave because here's a young lady who's come out and she's getting courtroom experience, which is incredibly valuable. She's right. Her colleagues are sitting in the cube. They're waiting for their chance to get in court. She's in there every day on the battlefield. I like my option plus Dave's option, Lexi. I thought both of those are sound ideas for you. Can give back, but you can move up at the same time. They're not separate choices, as Dave said. That's a false narrative, and you don't need to feel bad. I didn't like how she said, you know, I have to suck it up and go to the big law firm. I wouldn't look at it that way, you know, and I would look at it as if I don't like the big law firm, that's one thing.

But moving up doesn't mean that I'm somehow not being authentic to who I am and wanting to use the law for good. Yeah, she just doesn't want to – she doesn't like that environment. I get that. And I don't blame her for that. I agree. I get that. I don't blame her for that. She's a warrior. Basically, they ride you like a horse, man.

I mean, it's like nuts. So, yeah, I don there's a lot of ways to get at helping, helping folks, um, with, you know, with the law. And there are a lot of, a lot of angles on that, that you can do that are not in any way a sellout. So good question. Good question. You're amazing young lady.

Thank you for calling in. This is the ramsey show our scripture of the day luke 14 28 suppose one of you wants to build a tower won't you sit down first and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it dan miller that we referenced at the top of the hour uh said success is never an accident it typically starts as imagination becomes a dream stimulates a goal grows into a plan of action which then inevitably meets with opportunity don't get stuck along the way. That's good. Really good. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Morgan is in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Hey, Morgan, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? Better than we deserve. What's up? Yeah, my husband and I have been married for about two and a half years, and we have no debt. We would love to buy a house, invest more into retirement, and grow our wealth, but with the budget we have, there seems to be no extra room, even though we're living on as minimum

as we can. So what advice do you guys have for growing wealth on a small budget or maybe maximizing that wealth? Well, either you're not living on as little as you can or you don't make much money. Which is it? I think if we don't make much money. What's your household income? About $50,000. Okay. Yeah, you're below average. I don't mean that in a negative way.

I'm just saying the average is $72,000 nationally. What do you each do? My husband is an audiovisual technician, and I currently don't work. I'm a full-time student. We have a baby. Full-time student. When will you be done? In about six months.

And what do you plan to do? I don't really plan to work. I probably plan to stay home with the kids and eventually homeschool my kids. Why did you get a degree? I'm not paying for it, so it was kind of presented to me as a way to get... I started school before I got married

and was maybe going to use it then, and now i am married for a few years with kids so what's your degree in christian ministries okay all right um well i mean there's only two sides to the equation the income and the outgo and so if you all want to address your income side then you're going to have more margin it's that simple you'll have more you'll have more wiggle room in this budget um if you you said you got two kids one kid one kid okay and you guys are what 25 uh i'm 21 my husband's 26 okay all right and um so i mean you do not have a lot of room in a $50,000 budget. That would make sense in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I mean, it's not like you're some kind of crazy spender, like you're going out on the town buying $300 dinners every night. I know you're not. You don't have room in that budget to do that. You've done a good job staying within that budget, not getting into debt. Way to go. Good job. job staying within that budget not getting into debt way to go good job um but i think what you've got to do is you have you know i remember a guy teaching one time i was in a conference on leadership and business and he said the problem with hitting goals is not what you're willing to

do to get there it's what you're willing to give up to get there and giving up in your all's case might be uh if we want to have a house we're going to have to give up some time and be working if we want to build some wealth we're going to have to trade some time for that and so um at 21 with a baby you've got this uh stay-at-home mom homeschooling thing dream dialed in which which there's nothing wrong with at all. My wife stayed at home with our children. But you have to, on the other side of the equation then, go make some stinking money. And if you're going to be doing that,

he's going to be working more and or differently. What's a number? Do you guys have an idea in your head how much more per month would make a real difference for you realistically? I mean, probably $500 to $1,000 because that's $500 to $1,000. Okay, here's why I asked that question. It's really important to get that number in your head and you two sit down and go, okay, what do we have to do to come up with an additional $1,000? Could you find some of that in the budget?

It's possible. I don't think you have a lot of fat. So now it's how do I make $1,000. Could you find some of that in the budget? It's possible. I don't think you have a lot of fat. So now it's, how do I make $1,000? How does he make $1,000? Can we do it collectively? Could you make $1,000 even being home with the one baby? Could he make $1,000? You can rack that up pretty quickly. And now all of a sudden you've got $2,000, but you've got to reverse engineer your activity to go, all right, this is what has to be true for us to be able to make an additional $1,000. And if you go above and beyond that, that's fine. But that's when you get some laser focus, and now you've got that margin. Yeah.

I'm going to send you a copy of Ken's book, From Paycheck to Purpose, for your husband. And you can read it too, of course. Yeah. a purpose for your husband uh and you can read it too of course yeah but um what i'm thinking about for him is i think this is just a job he fell into like he ran sound over at the church and some buddies that were in the sound business had come work for us now he runs sound and um you know he's 26 so you start asking yourself the question what am I doing when I'm 36 that I'm making $100,000 instead of $50,000? That's right. And do I own the sound company?

Do I have a completely different career direction? Do I take a class or two to make myself more valuable? But if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, that's the definition of insanity. So change something. And from paycheck to purpose helps lead him through a really clear path to do that. Yeah, it'll go from ideation in stage one all the way to realization of that, as Dave is talking about, 10-year, 20-year, 30-year plan. And he's got some skill set.

He's got some experience. He can freelance with that skill set. But he needs to be raising the bar as to what he can make in the now, but with an eye on the next. That's how you guys get to real financial independence and then the ability to do whatever you want to, fund those dreams. Very good. Excellent stuff.

All right, Nick is with us in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Hi, Nick. What's up? Hey, thanks for taking my call, gentlemen. How are you guys doing? Better than we deserve. How can we help, sir? Excellent.

So here's my question. My wife and I are new to the Ramsey program. We have significant savings already built up. We do have some consumer debt that I think we can manage rather quickly. What is the – how much significant savings? About $18,000. And that's not in retirement? No, no, no.

And how much debt do you have? So I have a couple car loans in a credit card. So $18,000 for my wife's car, $7,000 on my daughter's car, and a credit card that we have on the remainder. Okay. So how can we help? Well, so my question is, you know, my wife and I, once we take care of this consumer debt and we start to tackle our mortgage, we sort of have a disagreement. I contribute roughly 35% of my income to retirement and the question is should i reduce that and take that extra money and contribute it

towards our mortgage in addition to any additional funds that got you well nick what we teach is this idea of total focus because your most powerful wealth building tools your income if you didn't have any payments right now except your house you have a lot of wiggle room in this budget and so you've been trying to do three things at once and you ended up financing your car because you're over investing in your 401k so you don't have the money to buy a car and so in a sense you borrowed on your car to put money in your 401k. Mathematically, that's what's occurred. So, yeah, temporarily, I would stop putting any money in. Not reduce it. I'd reduce it to zero temporarily.

Temporarily, I'd not go out to eat, not go on vacation. I'd be on a tight budget, scorched earth. You and your wife sit down, make every penny scream. And then I would take every dollar of that 18 except $1,000, and I would throw it at your smallest debts. List your debts smallest to largest and pay them off in that order. So those cards and that daughter's car are gone. The debt's gone.

We're going to put a big chunk on your wife's, and then we're going to attack your wife's really, really quickly and get it finished up. Now you've got no payments but a house payment. That feels good, although it didn't feel good to stop that 401K for a minute, but it was just for a hot minute. Now we're going to build an emergency fund back of three to six months of expenses,

put that savings back. And then you got your rainy day fund and then you restart your 401k. The problem is you try to do everything at once. So you're doing nothing. And that's the order of attack. Hang on. I'll send you a copy of the book, the total money makeover to help you do it.

Ken Coleman. Good show today. Thank you, sir. That puts us our, the Ram of attack. Hang on. I'll send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, to help you do it. Ken Coleman, good show today. Thank you, sir. That puts this hour of the 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. Thank you. We'll see you next time.