The Ramsey Show - App - Can We Afford for My Wife To Stay at Home?

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel discuss: When it makes sense to get into real estate investing, Increasing retirement income, When it makes sense for a spouse to stay at home, Helping family with money. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The 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. The Ramsey Show, we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. We're glad you're here. George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, host of the Fine Print Podcast on the Ramsey Networks, is my co-host today. The phone number here is 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Tom is going to start us off from Cleveland, Ohio this hour. Hi, Tom. How are you? Good. Good. How about you guys? Better than we deserve, brother.

What's up? So I'm looking into becoming a real estate agent. But first, if you're wondering where the southern accent comes from, it's because I moved here from North Carolina and in the, in the process of doing that, um, I was, um, fortunate enough to,

um, have the services of a local ELP here and I paid cash for my place here. So, um, so, so from that, um, that, you know, there that I'm a, I'm a baby step seven guy. That has motivated me to become a real estate agent. And in talking with

these ladies, it is being suggested that I start out by doing some investing in rental properties without becoming an agent. I know I don't need to be an agent to be, to be a landlord, but my purpose in doing that is to, as you like to say, get the boat close to the dock before jumping ship, um, on a full-time job. Um, part of my motivation for becoming a real estate agent is I'm visually impaired, and I want to bring a relatable experience to those others who are visually impaired. So today my question is, how do I even get started in real estate investing?

I hear you use words like cash on cash, and I'm not entirely sure what we mean by that. Okay. Answer that one first. Cash on cash rate of return is how much cash you put in versus how much cash you get out. So if the rental property makes you $10,000 net profit after all expenses in a year, and you paid $100,000 for it, your cash on cash is a 10% rate of return. Okay, now that makes perfect sense. Okay, if it's a $200,000 cash investment into the property, and you pull out $10,000, then you have a 5% cash on cash rate of return.

If you only pay cash for properties, cash on cash iscash rate of return. If you only pay cash for properties, cash-on-cash is the only rate of return that there is. Well, actually, there's an internal rate of return too, but if you're leveraging, meaning borrowing money into real estate, then you would use some other measures as well, but I don't. I put in some cash. How much cash am I getting back as a result of that? What's my return on investment?

Same thing with a mutual fund. You put $100,000 in and they send you $12,000, then you made 12% on your money. Right? Same thing. That's a cash-on-cash rate of return is what that means. Now, I do not agree that this is the best method for you to become a real estate agent. Really? Really.

I have never, I mean, almost never known someone. I knew some real estate investors who later decided to become agents, but I can't think of in 30 years of doing real estate that i've run into someone who said oh i'm going to be a real estate investor so that i can be an agent i just wouldn't do it i i think that's a long i think that's a long play um what are you doing now for work tom so i'm working on okay so, okay, so that was just going to tell you. I'm working at an Amazon facility where we load boxes and all that good stuff. What do you make? And we're 15, 15 hours.

That's what you live on. Are you married? Negative. Okay. I haven't met each other yet. Okay. So where did you get all the money to be a baby step seven guy making 15 bucks working boxes at amazon

oh well not i didn't i inherited some and um i started off in 1998 with a little place that i paid like 75 000 for and i paid that off with um so you made money on your houses and that led you into yet another house that's now paid for you've just been very careful correct correct and then you make enough at your at your profession to eat correct okay cool all right so what do you make a year what. So what do you make a year? What do you make a year doing boxes at Amazon? I'm right at 30. Okay. So the bad news is you only make only...

Credit card companies hate my guts. Yeah, but the bad news is you only make 30. The good news is it doesn't take a lot to replace that. So why don't you go get a real estate license and start selling houses on the side while you're doing boxes can you can you do that i mean i don't know i've never i'm not i don't know how all this works yeah what's the extent of your of your visual impairment how blind are you i can see well enough to get around and that's pretty much it you wouldn't want me behind the wheel okay so you don't drive correct but you could walk through a house with someone and it wouldn't be a major problem you can i assume you've got some technology where you can access the internet and utilize that

right correct okay all right good well i think you can be a real estate agent and by the way i think it's wonderful that you uh can uh help people that have similar impairments to what you've got. I think that's a great mission. It's too small a market to make a living in. So I'd like for you to do that. I'd like you to sell everybody houses and some of them be sight impaired, and you're going to be a special help to them to the sight impaired folks but that's not a big enough market for you to make a living in

i understand and that's that's um that's a consideration of mom yeah tom my dad did this later in life he's a full-time civil engineer and he got his real estate license on the side much like you he wanted to help people in our local church that were immigrating here find homes and so to this day he still does that on the side for fun but it's it's a hobby for him it's not how he puts food on the table yeah but dude if you sell three or four houses a year you'll make more than 30 it won't take long yeah so go get your license and then once you get once you get a little bit of income coming in from the real estate you can drop the amazon gig and be like a real estate guy and then save up some money. And if you want to be a real estate investor later with some cash, meaning you pay cash for your rental properties, then fine.

But the idea that you have to go buy three rental properties so that you're a landlord so that you can relate to a buyer is absolutely no. No, it's just not true. It's not a path that is normally used. And it's I mean, there's very be hard pressed to find-pressed to find somebody that did it, actually, that way. Yeah. I just hadn't run into them. I mean, I know a lot of real estate investors that, you know, do a few deals with their license here or there. And I know a lot of real estate agents who have never owned a single piece of property except the one they live in.

That's okay, too. And that's actually very normative. Most real estate agents don't have a real estate portfolio. Most of them don't. They just don't. Hope that helps, man. Thanks for the call. George Camel with me this I'm so excited to tell you about the newest product from Ramsey. It's called Gazelle, and it's a digital banking experience that will help you spend and save the Ramsey way with banking services provided by Pathword NA. You'll get a single spending account with no monthly fees, and it's FDIC insured through Pathword NA. We're offering early access to our beta customers, so you can help us make it the best experience it can be. Just go to

ramseysolutions.com slash gazelle to sign up to the fullest. Picture all your favorite speakers together on one stage, empowering you with the tools, the principles that will create unstoppable momentum. That is Smart Conference. It's not just another pep talk. We're going to talk to you about your relationships, your mental wellness, your leadership, your money. Yeah, we're going to talk to you about your marriage. We're going to talk to you about your career. Yeah, and when you leave after being with us all day on Saturday the 22nd in Dallas, 22nd of October in Dallas, you will be smarter.

All the Ramsey personalities will be speaking, along with Craig and Amy Groeschel from Life.Church doing a talk on money. Event passes start at only $39. That is a great price for a full-day event like this. Get your passes now before they sell out. Get to ramsesey solutions.com slash events you can learn even more open phones here at 888-825-5225 sherry is in peoria illinois hi sherry how are you hi i'm good hi dave hi george hey what's up? Nice to talk to you again. I met you at your SMART conference in 2019.

My husband and I went to, so it was a very, very exciting day. So, yes. My question is, I'm 49. My husband is 60. We're in the process of selling our rentals right now because we did do it backwards before we came into the plan. So, we do have our house paid off, our personal residence. And then I said, we're selling our rentals. We also just bought his dad's farm and moving to that. So when our house sells and all the rentals sell,

we have two more. We're going to be real estate heavy as opposed to then our retirement accounts. So I have $112,000 in mine and my husband only has $33,000. So my question is, how do we, I want to concentrate on his because he's going to be 62 here soon. We will be taking his Social Security at 62 and we plan on investing that. We are self-employed. I do work outside the home, but he's a self-employed contractor. We're planning on putting the business in in my name so he can continue after age 62 to continue working. Because I think you're capped out at a certain amount when you start taking your Social Security. So we're just looking for some investment for retirement advice um you know should we put into ross um i haven't put any money into mine

since we've been together we've been married for 14 years so we're just looking for some guidance so how much cash are you going to have the farm will be paid for farm will be paid for it'll be worth um probably about 650 okay and you're going to have a pile of cash from the sale of everything else. How big? Well, that's like our house right now is on the market for $270. And then we have two rentals that we still have mortgages on. We are looking to make $57,000 on one, approximately $47,000 on another, and we're hoping to get about $250,000 on ours.

We may still have like a small mortgage of about $20,000, $25,000 to finish paying off when we get done because we're going to put everything to the mortgage on the farm. Oh, so the farm has a mortgage? The farm, yeah, we did take a mortgage out of that because we have our personal... So what do you owe on the farm, like $350? $397. Yeah, okay.

So you're not going to have any money. Okay. Well, we have our emergency fund. Yeah, but I mean, you're going to use all of this to try to clear that mortgage as soon as possible. Correct. Yeah, and then your baby step four is what it amounts to. You're putting 15% of your income aside until you reach, until you get that mortgage paid off, and then you're going to load up everything. And, yeah, I'm with you.

I'd load everything you can. Hmm? Into his account because. Doesn't matter. I mean, you can put it into his, but I just load everything into Roth's. And as much as you can, you're going to want to load up everything. Okay, so that's my question, too. Do we do Roths first, or do we do his SEP?

Either one's fine. You can do a SEP Roth. Okay. Yeah, and I don't want to make him, I don't think you need, I'm not sure we're going to take his Social Security. I think you can leave it sit there for a little bit if you're worried about that. I think he needs to just keep running that business and make a big pile of money over the next 10 years. Okay.

And let's just load the SEP. Load the SEP and SEP Roths. Load the Roths. Do you have anything available at your work? I will be finding that out because this is my third year working there, so now I'm eligible. I will be getting a SEP check from them, so whatever they put into theirs, like last year they put 25% into the employees. But they don't have anything other than SEP?

No. Okay. All right. Load him up a SEP, load you up a couple of Roth, each of you have a Roth, and then load yours up. You know, you don't have any choice. They're going to put what they're going to put up a SEP, load you up a couple of Roth. Each of you have a Roth, and then load yours up. You know, you don't have any choice. They're going to put what they're going to put in your SEP. So, yeah, just max all that out, and let's get the farm paid off.

And so with a paid-off farm, how big a pile of money can we build outside of that in retirement? And sit down with your SmartVestor Pro, and you can even do some more there once the farm's paid off. It doesn't have to be all inside of retirement, i would i would load up these retirement accounts for sure and she's about to be 50 so there should be some catch-up contributions depending on the types of accounts she can put they've just got the they can do a little larger roth is all it amounts to yeah there's not a catch-up on a sep and both the others are set that's all they've got could the farm become income producing atcing at some level, depending on what they do with it?

Yeah, I guess you'd farm it. I mean, if you put something on there, that might create some income. That'd be nice to add to the equation here. But let's get his business going, and then let's just load up the retirement you can once the farm's paid off, and then let's see how big a pile of just regular investments and mutual funds we can have and when you got no payments you don't need as much in retirement which is and you can build a lot yeah go so go ahead and let's try to get you know half a million

million dollars in there before we slow down too much um because you know we're talking she's got two decades he's got a decade at least minimum of work time available so let's go let's go bust let's go get some money you know i mean that's what it amounts to philip is in new york city hi philip how are you i'm doing okay it's great to talk to you guys sure what's up so uh my wife and i are in baby step two uh we've been there for about two years now and, you know, probably have about two years left realistically. And I know you recommend trying to do it in three and we're doing our best. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that. But we have a third kid on the way. We're both working and coordinating child care has gotten to be crazy with two and three sounds

even more crazy. I've always wanted to have her be at home, and she wants that also, but, you know, we're just concerned about, you know, getting through baby step two and losing her income, and so I'd really like your thoughts on how to go about doing this and whether or not that's a really pertinent idea. What do you make? Started when we first started. What do you make now? I take home $14,000 a month. You do? Yes no what do you make now i take home fourteen thousand dollars a month you do yes what do you do i'm a psychologist okay and what does she make she she takes home fifty thousand a year so five five thousand dollars a month for ten months she doesn't get paid in the summer she's a reading specialist. Great.

Because a reading specialist can do tutoring from home with her kids. And she could probably make $50 doing that. Yeah, we actually had considered that. But with the baby at home, I guess I'm not sure how she would actually do the tutoring from home. Well, during nap time. We just kept our one-year-old and, you know, our son's one-year-old for the weekend, and we got the benefit of enjoying nap time. Yeah, I guess it feels like a huge risk to do that. And, you know, I trusted myself to build the business that I did when I left a more stable job and went into private practice.

And I guess it's making the same kind of leap. But I was doing it part-time before moving full-time. How much debt do you have left? $198,000. We started at $350,000. On what? Student loans? Student loans, sir. Yep. Well, I'm fine with her coming home. Y'all just got to work your budget

out on $14,000, but it's pretty easy for her early in this process. Maybe not the first three months or whatever, but early in the process to start doing some tutors. And tutors are, reading specialist tutors are making $50 an hour right now. And so reading specialists are in high demand.

And so there's no reason at all. You can't get a lot of private tutors set up to the extent that she can do that. I don't think you have to count on it. It's not high risk, but yeah, you can, you can do that. We'll be right back. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Austin and Brown are with us. Hey guys, how are you? Good, how are you? Good to have you guys. Where do you all live? San Antonio, Texas. All right, good, good to have you. How much debt? Good to have you guys. Where do you all live? San Antonio, Texas.

All right. Good. Good to have you. How much debt have you paid off? $271,018.98. Love it. How long did this take? Seven years. All right. And your range of income during that time? Anywhere from $132,000 to $160,000. We dipped and did all sorts of stuff during that all kinds of

gyrations what do y'all do for a living i'm a in-house counsel for a specialty insurance company group okay and i am a nurse and then i have a small etsy shop too oh good good for you guys. All right. So seven years, $271,000. That's your mortgage? I wish. Oh, no. No. Student loans and kitchen appliances that we have since had to replace. Washer and dryer, cars, medical bills, credit cards. You name it, we got it.

You were kind of normal. Yes. And it was a mess. Yes. Yes. But we got a lawyer and you said a nurse right yes big student loans big student loans stupid student how much of the 271 was student loans oh i think 160 that's what it was when we started after interest i'm not sure how much it was

right side of covid no interest wow so what happened seven years ago that put you guys on this journey? I think it actually happened about eight years ago. Our marriage went through a really rough time and lots of different aspects. But when we decided we needed to reconcile, we needed to reconcile completely and redo everything we were doing with our marriage. And that included... My life. Yes, absolutely. So we started looking with our marriage and that included our yes absolutely so we started looking into your plan and I kind of started doing it just with my credit card to see how it would work and it worked fabulously so then we brought it when we put our income back together after that separation we just went for it wow good good cool so did you go through financial peace university at that point

or you just read the book or what we read the book and we listened to a lot of of your show whenever we passed the the bmw car slot my son who was just six five years old he thought that was your office he's like look there's look, there's BMW. That's amazing. Where the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW. BMW, that's Dave. So Dave's over at the BMW lot. He owns the BMW dealership. That's good. That's fun.

Very cool. That's a long track, y'all. It is. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Absolutely. What was it like paying off appliances you didn't even own anymore? Was that frustrating?

It absolutely was. And, you know, when you're paying them with a credit card, you don't really look into everything. You just, oh, I can afford this, and you just hand over your credit card. But then when we had to replace all those appliances, we really looked into reviews and how much things cost it it changes the way your mind works so that you pay attention what's your own money absolutely absolutely when it's real money instead of fake money borrowed money yeah yes very good cool and during that time we were able to cash flow pretty much everything we did we we had a whole nother human during that um and then those new appliances and some,

we went on some small vacations during that time since it was such a long time. Yes. And some emergency trips, but we made it. Wow. Very cool. So was anybody from the outside, outside your family cheering you on?

Did you have any cheerleaders outside your family? Oh, for sure. Her parents were very strong role models for us, both spiritually and in that financial leadership type role. Yes, and they're the ones that insisted we come here today instead of just calling. So they helped us get here today, too. Oh, wow. Even with that. That's fun.

Well, it's good to celebrate a milestone this big. It's taken this long to get to. Yes, absolutely. They're right. This is very important. Very good. Proud of you. So what was the biggest sacrifice you guys had to make along the way that really was hurt?

Probably golf for him. Not that I'm good, but I like spending money on the course. So that was out of the picture for a while there. Correct. Are you back at it now? A little bit. Still just as bad as you were? Yes.

Okay, good. Nothing's changed. Wow, that's awesome. Wow. Well, good for you guys. Well done. Very proud of you. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

Just keep trekking along, I think. And the budget, too, is huge for us. For me, anyway, once we put the budget together, it kind of felt like we were getting that raise to where, okay, we have this much little spending we have every month. And before it was like we've had none. So just doing that budget and actually sticking to it. Very cool.

Good job, you guys. Good job. Hey, we got a copy of the latest number one bestseller that we've done, Baby Steps Millionaires, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth How You Can Too. That's the next chapter for you. Yes.

You're going to be Baby Steps Millionaires next. You ready? We hope so. Yes. You are. We're ready. You're on your way. The people in this book did just exactly what you're doing, so I'm proud of you.

Very well done. And also a copy of Total Money Makeover, which was your guide on this process. You can hand that off to somebody and get them going. And a one-year subscription to Financial Peace University. Awesome. So we'll get you guys signed up for that and for the every dollar, the upgrade on every dollar. So you've got the best budgeting app going. You've got the whole package here going. So we'll make sure you guys get into that next gear now and move on.

Now that you've come through really the hardest part, And now you're in the position to build wealth. So very well done. Thank you. Great job. You bring the kids with you. Bring them up. Let's get their names and ages. So we've got Brady, and he is 12, and Lola is 10, and then CeCe, Cecilia, is 4.

All right. Very well done. Good job, you guys. Well, we're honored to have you. We're proud of you, heroes. Well done. You took control of well done. Good job, you guys. Well, we're honored to have you. We're proud of you, heroes. Well done. You took control of your life. Yes, thank you.

In a whole bunch of different areas. Yes, yes. Very, very important. Good stuff. Austin and Brown, Brady, Lola, and Cece from San Antonio, Texas. $271,000 paid off in seven years. $132,000 to $160,000 income. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! That's how it's done. CeCe just left the stage. She couldn't handle it. It was too much for her.

She's bouncing all over the wall exited stage left that's fun stuff that's awesome a marriage restored a family tree changed that's why we do this that's good it gets old that's good that's the thing and here's the thing folks um what they recognized seven years ago in that process is something that a bunch of you need to recognize because it's the best route for you. It's the most effective route for you is that these things in our life, our marriage, our kids, our finances, our health are not standalone subjects. They're interwoven with each other your mental wellness your career these things all affect each other and so when you start working on the whole package you and a part of that is we lead you to financial peace you go to financial peace university part of that is you know you're plugging in with dr john deloney and you're learning some boundaries with your family and

you're learning that you're worth being loved and, you know, good wellness issues, mental wellness issues. And, you know, you walk around this building and you start plugging these things in your life. Your life starts to round out and every one of these subjects gets better simultaneously. Your marriage, your parenting has changed. Because financial stress, when you take that off the table, a whole bunch of stuff is affected positively. Yeah. Well, it's taking up brain space. You're burning a lot of brain calories when you're stressed about money.

And it's going to be hard to have a great marriage. And if your career sucks, it's hard to come home and have a great life when you get home when you're carrying that around. And so we want you to get better in all of these areas. And that's part of why we've expanded this thing. Ken Coleman helping people find that career path. John Deloney helping people get well. And it all matters. It's all interconnected.

Absolutely. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, my co-host today. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. George Campbell, Ramsey Personalities, my co-host today. Megan is in Phoenix. Hi, Megan. Welcome to the Ramsey Personalities, my co-host today. Megan is in Phoenix. Hi, Megan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. I am so happy to talk to you.

I've been dying to talk to you forever. Well, we're honored. I've been following you for like five to six years so far. Oh, my goodness. Well, thanks. How can we help today? Hi. Okay, so my question, my main question is this, and then you can ask me whatever. Okay. So I have a 401k from my previous employer that I no longer work for. And there's about 6k in there. And I was wondering if I can pull it out and use for a down payment on a house.

I would be a first-time home buyer, and I'm not paying any rent right now, which is good at the same time, I guess. How old are you? I just kind of want to get a house. I'm 32. Okay. I'm about to be 32. Well, the short answer and the long answer is no.

Don't do that. Because the penalties you're going to pay on the money you take out is going to crush it. And it's only $6,000. How quickly could you save up $6,000? I have, I want to say like in six months. Okay. i want to say like in six months okay and we're just trying to get like we're before the housing market is just like it's crazy yeah too late it's already crazy if i'm you i'm rolling it over to an ira direct rollover to an ira so that you have control of

it and let that money grow for you over the next 30 years of your career here's the problem megan if you take it out you're going to get a hit with the 10 penalty plus your tax rate so it's going to be like borrowing money at 30 interest for a down payment you would never do that okay so don't do it george is right sam is in toronto hey sam welcome to the ramsey show hi thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? I've got a bit of a family question. My parents grew up, and they were very, very frugal, and I found out a while ago that they were pretty well off because they were so frugal.

And I've been involved in just helping my parents make some decisions and do some things going forward because I've got an interest in it and I'm pretty frugal and good with money myself. But now I've got two siblings and they don't have, I would say, as good a relationship with money. And my parents, I think, are kind of struggling. I don't think my siblings really understand that my parents have some money and my parents want to be able to give them some money in a way that's not destructive to them. And they were considering, you know, some pretty substantial gifts to maybe help them with buying houses and that sort of thing. And I'm just, they asked me what I think about it. And I'm, I'm just a little nervous about giving people who don't have a great relationship

with money, too much money at once or helping them out too much where, you know, they might, they might not strive for as much if they get too much help with their life. Well, your parents are making you the middleman here to decide? Well, not really making me the middleman. They were asking what I think. They trust your opinion because you've managed money well, and so they don't want to ruin this kid's life. Yeah, they trust my opinion.

I really, at a young age, really liked learning about investments and money and that sort of thing. At one point, my dad said, well, why don't you take a look at my stuff? And I was really surprised to know that he had quite a bit of money. How old are your siblings, Sam? Late 20s and early 30s. Okay. I think your dad and mom just need to sit down with them individually and say, guys, we've done pretty well, and we've done pretty well with money because we've handled it well,

and we're not going to be able to give it to people who don't handle it well. And so we want to help you guys get better at handling money, and we want you to go through a class called Financial Peace University, or we want you to do this or read this book or do whatever, or you have to watch 5,000 Debt-Free Screams. I don't know, whatever it is, right? But somehow they need to communicate this to them, and it's not your place to do that.

It's their place to do that. So, you know, if it was my kid, I would sit down and go, look, I manage money for God, and it's my job to pass it on to people who can manage it well. And I can't pass it to you because you're not managing it well. And I'm not going to finance your misbehavior, your immaturity, your impulsiveness, your whatever it is. And so I'd really be honored to come alongside you, coach you, help you learn to do some of these things, and then we would be able to really reach over and do some substantial things to help you guys in your lives. But we really can't do that right now because we're not comfortable doing that.

And if you want to just keep living like you're living, then we can't. You know, we're prohibited. We will be really sad that you chose to not receive these gifts, these financial gifts that we have prepared for you. Okay. You know, and I think, you know, I think you just got to call them out and go, guys, you know, and it's not controlling. It's just, look, if you want to do this, this is the path. I mean, and, you know, have some suggestions of the class you want to take, the books you want to read, whatever it is. And then you want to observe that they are now being mature, responsible adults with money.

So we can put some stipulations on this gift because it's our money, and we can do what we want with it. Yeah, and it's okay if you don't want to do it. I'm not trying to control your life. I'm just controlling my life. And so if I'm going to do this, and we do the same thing. Ramsey Family Foundation does not give money to ministries that are poorly run. That's a bad investment of God's money.

And so if you're operationally moronic, I can't put money into that. You can't subsidize too badly. Well, what they do is really sweet. I'm glad it's really sweet, but they're really bad at it. You know, they're bad at being sweet. And so, you know, it's the same thing. And you've got to just, it's not being cold it's not being mean or sarcastic or smart i like it's it's quite the opposite of all of that it's an act of

love well you don't want to be an enabler either that's exactly it bethany's in new york city hi bethany how are you i'm good dave how are you better than we deserve what's up so i'm in the process of purchasing a house and right now i have enough saves to cover both the house and the closing cost the down payment the closing cost and i've been listening to you for a week and so now i'm really and i paid off my student loan yesterday 10k and now i'm super charged and i wanted to wipe out um my auto loan as well with the house. So if I do both of that, I'm only left with about $3,000. So my question for you is if I should go all in

or if I should just wait for the house to close, let it settle, and then see what happens first before moving towards the auto loan. You need to get in the house and get settled before you pay off the car because I don't want something unexpected to come up that's $4,000 in this process and you only have three. You're down too tight in the middle of buying a house. Of course, we would have recommended you wait until you were debt-free, but you already had all this in process before you found us.

Yeah. What's left on the car? It's $23,000. Yeah. So, yeah, you have $26,000 in the bank if everything goes as planned, plus your emergency fund when you move into the house. Is that right? Yes.

Okay. And then you'll write a check and pay off the car. You know, get in the house, get settled, two weeks, three weeks in the house, and make sure all your bills are paid, all your stuff is set up, everything's moved around, and then write a check. When are you closing on the house? Well, it's supposed to go June 30th, but it became a short sale. So now we just don't know, but they have until June 30th where I can back out of the deal.

Okay. All right. So you'll be done in a couple weeks. Yeah. Yeah. It's not in a couple weeks. Yeah. Yeah. It's not that big a deal. Let's get settled into that house, and then you'll know what you're dealing with, and then get the car paid off as soon as possible after that. It's good that you're excited about becoming debt-free. I like that part.

Just to recap, for those of you listening, we would tell you to be 100% debt-free, have your emergency fund in place before you contract for a house and uh so that these things get these things in the right order because it's going to give you a lot less risk but she found us after she had already had the house under contract and so you're obviously not going to tell her to break her word on that so good stuff good question thank you for joining us that puts this hour of the ramsey show in the books our thanks to austin ben zach andrew and j Show in the books. Our thanks to Austin, Ben, Zach, Andrew, and James in the booth. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll

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