The Ramsey Show - App - Can You Still Enjoy Life While Budgeting?

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

George Kamel & Rachel Cruze discuss: How to enjoy your life while budgeting, Discuss why Gen-Z doesn't treat cash like real money,  Repairing an old car vs. buying a new one, Struggling to save money after a divorce, What's the next step to financial freedom? 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

🎵 From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you get control of your money, get ahead in your career, and get on the path to living well. I'm George Campbell, your host, joined today by Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author, host of The Rachel Cruz Show,

a mother, a daughter, a friend to all. That's her. We are excited to take your call. So give us one. 888-825-5225. Let us help you take the right next step. Maybe you're at a crossroads. You need some inspiration, some motivation.

You're stressed out about inflation. We can help. We can help. We're blessed to be a blessing. So let's do that this hour. 888-825-5225. Jordan kicks us off in St. Louis, Missouri. Jordan, welcome to the show. I don't have the show here. Let me flip back. There we go. Jordan, are you with us? Yes. Yes. Thank you for taking my call. Yes. How can Rachel and I help? Hey, just wondering if you guys had any tips on staying forward thinking in terms of saving and doing everything, you know, the way I should do it, but also being able to be present and enjoy the moment.

Interesting. That's a good question. So what's the pain point there? Are you, you're budgeting right now, currently, and you feel like you're not able to enjoy it? Well, not necessarily. It's just, I feel like, you know, saving and everything is much more geared towards the future. But I don't want to stay, I want to be able to enjoy the moment and enjoy the present, but also be able to secure the future. So that can be reflected in your budget.

Do you have things in your budget that involve spending and vacations and buying things that you want to buy? So I think it's more of just a general mindset thing than like budget specific. So it's like, it's hard for me to shift gears from like future, future, future to enjoy the present. Yeah. And I think that there's a time and a place for all that, that thinking and dreaming. I mean, I, I'm probably more like you, Jordan. I probably enjoy the present easier than I do thinking about the future. So I just know with my personality, then I'm like, okay, I have to set time to make sure that I'm looking at future goals.

But I don't do that every day. I mean, Winston and I, my husband and I, we call it dream dinners. I don't know how cheesy that is. I like it. That's nice. It might be a little cheesy. But we'll just go to dinner and be like, hey, if money wasn't an option, what would we do? And some dinners, we take the conversation down to, what if we lived in Montana on a ranch?

And we're like off the grid? Like it's that to buying a new car. I mean, whatever it is, but it's like you just let yourself dream. And then out of that, you really see, okay, where do I want my future to go? And then, yeah, then you kind of set money aside to get there and to hit that goal. But, but I'm not sitting there every day thinking, oh, what am I going to be when I'm 50? Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh. Do you know what I'm saying? So I feel like I do enjoy the moment while having goals for the future. But I think there's a level of probably contentment, Jordan, too, of the present of just being excited and happy where you are. And then when the time comes that you carve out specific intentional time to really

think about the future, then you're able to be in that mindset. But I think you can turn that mindset off and you don't have to live in that on a daily basis. Does that make sense? Does that help? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's great advice. I do think I kind of get stuck in that mindset sometimes, and it produces a lot of anxiety. So I appreciate that. What helped me, Jordan, was having a good, healthy mix

of short-term and long-term goals. So an example, me and my wife, we want to go to Europe later this year. That's a short-term goal we want to save up for. We also know we want to save up to buy an upgrade in-house later down the road. That could be a few years from now. But we also have things that are happening this weekend that are in the budget that we're saving up for. And so I think having that mix makes you feel like I'm not just thinking about the future. Yeah, and it helps when you're doing the thing for the weekend that you're present in the moment in the weekend and you're like hey we planned on going out to a nice dinner with friends so when you're enjoying your nice dinner you actually enjoy the dinner and thinking about

the moment you're not thinking oh gosh i gotta fund my 401k to make sure i have this amount of money you know what i mean don't let yourself go there because i do think jordan to your point that can be unhealthy and it steals the joy of the moment that you're in if you're constantly just thinking about the future and the past like i know people that live in the past and it steals the joy of the moment that you're in if you're constantly just thinking about the future and the past. Like I know people that live in the past and it's the, either the regret or the, oh, those were great years if we could just go, right. And there's a time and a place to go back, but I think that there's a healthy mentality to be in the present and to enjoy it. So I think you're on the right track, Jordan. I think it's a great question.

Are you married, Jordan? No, I'm not. I'm single. I'm 28 years old. Okay. What I would do if I'm in your shoes, I'm going to find some friends that I think are wise and that I want to hang out with and go kind of dream a little bit with them and use them as accountability and use them as kind of that bouncing launch pad to go, hey, let's have some fun. I want to budget for some things in the short term. I want to budget for some things in the long term. I want to budget for some things in the long term. Maybe they'll give you some ideas of what that could look like. Yeah.

All right. I hope that helps. Thanks, Jordan. Yeah, appreciate the call, man. You know what would be interesting? I'm just doing this on the fly. If it works, it works. It's Friday.

It's all live. Okay. There are single people out there. Call in because I do want to have a discussion about this quote-unquote like accountability partner so i say that because we talk about that a lot at ramsey if you're not married i kind of hate that word can i say that too yeah accountability feels icky i don't know it feels like old youth group of i don't know i don't know so find a friend that you like and the idea and the reason we say this is because you don't need to do life alone. And when you're single, all of your decisions are up to you.

Everything from buying groceries to making sure the oil is fixed in the car. If you have a car that has oil, fellow Tesla owner there. Right there. Don't leave me hanging. Oh, I'm sorry. But what I'm saying is you're not... Sorry, George. The decision making, you're making it in a vacuum in so many areas of life.

So having a person that walks beside you to bounce, especially those big decisions with, is really important. When you're starting out budgeting, having someone that's wise with money to be like, hey, I just want you to look at this and make sure I'm not missing anything crazy. And it's a very organic, natural conversation. I feel like sometimes it can sound so robotic. You don't walk up to someone and go, will you be my accountability partner? And see my budget every single month. Can we meet on the 15th at 3 o'clock so you can see my every month budget? But I do. If you're single out there and you have this person in your life and it's working well,

I want you to call in because I want to talk about it. I think there's a really great way to do it that is very helpful and is possible, but it's not overly, you know, that it's not just like awkward or something. Wow. Well, there it is. Rachel just opened up a singles theme hour. So give us a call. 888-825-5225. Let's talk about it. This is good. Because, too, I'm going to keep adding on here. Because I got married young. So Winston is all, I mean, I've had a husband for basically my whole adult life. Yeah. So when I talk about it, I know friends that have done it.

And I have a friend, and she's great at having someone in her corner. But I always like to hear real life, how this works for people day in and day out and what it really looks like tactically. But for you, did you ever have a good friend that was that before you, Whitney? Because there's friends that have been mentors to me

that I look up to. A lot of people that work here. And did you really show them your budget? Yeah, we talked about the ins and outs of money especially in a place like this at Ramsey. I know, it's so easy. It's very normal for us to talk about money

and so it's fun. It's almost fun. It's like a sport to us. What's in your budget this month? How are you saving up for that? How did you do that? You know, we kind of, it's like inside baseball here at Ramsey. But it is true.

When you get outside of the Ramsey bubble, you're like, oh, people don't talk about money. Right, right. Unless they're making fun of how, you know, screwed they are with their student loans and, you know, car payments. So give us a call, 888-825-5225, whether you're single or not. But Rachel wants to talk to the single folks. So give us a call. 888-825-5225, whether you're single or not. But Rachel wants to talk to the single folks. So give us a call. We'll be back with you. This is The Ramsey Show. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with healthcare

expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality and host of the Fine Print Podcast, joined today by Rachel Cruz, and we are taking your calls. The number is 888-825-5225.

Rachel and I just got back from Orlando with the gang, Dave, Ken, John Deloney. We were all out there doing a Building Wealth live event in Orlando, and it was amazing. We had, what, 3,000 people there? Yeah, it was amazing. They were pumped up, ready to go. And really, the takeaway from this event is, it is still possible to build wealth in 2022. It's possible, and we're going to show you how to do it in a wise way, because there's a lot of messages out there and tactics and ways to do it that sounds really shiny and exciting and fun and easy. And we kind of debunk a lot of that, sadly.

There's a lot of myths out there. There's a lot of myths. It sounds good in the short term. Well, and if you watch the news, you're like, well, there's no way, Rachel. The recession is here. I mean, inflation just keeps going. The housing market, the car market, nobody can build wealth. We can't even survive.

Yes. And it is a difficult time right now. So saying, okay, what are these issues? And we talk about that at a roundtable, all of us, and kind of dive into, hey, here are the things going on. Here are the ways to combat it. And here's the right way and the smart and wise way over time to win with money and build wealth.

So yeah, it's been such a fun event. We did Vegas two weeks ago, Orlando last night, and we hit the road for the fall. Yes. So thank you, Orlando, for coming out. You guys were amazing. People drove, flew from all over the country to be there. We were signing books, taking photos to the wee hours of the night, loved hearing their stories, talking with Financial Peace University coordinators,

pastors from the area. It was incredible. So our spring tour is wrapped up, but we are not done yet. Building Wealth Live is coming to a few cities across the country this fall, and we want everyone to hear how to build wealth the right way. So if you are near these areas or can make it to these areas, we'd love to see you. Phoenix, September 13th, Sacramento on November 1st. Minneapolis on November 10th. And San Antonio on November 15th. Tickets start at just $25, or you can get a four-pack of tickets starting at just $60.

So bring your friends. It's going to be amazing. RamseySolutions.com slash events is the place to go to get your tickets. All right, Rachel. So you know we like to browse social media every now and then. And I got this video from a friend the other day that was fascinating. And it's all about the newer generations, the younger generations, Gen Z, and the relationship to cash. Now, we say cash is king around here, but there's a new slogan for Gen Z, cash is free. I can't wait. know it sounds like an oxymoron

so we're going to play the video and we'll get your reaction okay the other day I was out and I made a purchase at a store and the Gen Z person who was checking me out said that'll be 18 something and I pulled out of my purse a 20

and I gave her the 20 and I said I just have cash and she said oh wow that's like it's then it's like free. And I said, oh, what do you mean? And she said, well, if you pay with cash, it's free. And I said, I don't know what you mean. And she said, well, like if you have a $5 bill and you buy a coffee for $4.98, it's like a free coffee. It's like it doesn't count cash. It doesn't count.

It's not real money. And I was very confused by this. So I came home and both of my kids are Gen Z. And I asked them both, what was she talking about? And my daughter, who is 18, said, yeah, cash doesn't count. If you have cash, it doesn't count. It's not like it's real money. The real money is what's on your debit card.

Is this true? Is this true? I love love this love her energy there she's just as confused as all of us that is so funny it raises an interesting question okay so here's my yeah here are my like knee-jerk reaction so when we say around here cash is king yes actual cash um is part of that. But I also under that say like it's your money. Like part of that is meaning you have the money to pay for something. So whether that's money in a bank account or that is money you tangibly have in your hand, the idea is yes, debt is dumb. Cash is king.

Cash is your money yes and but studies have a layer deeper studies have shown that you spend 12 to 18 percent less when you spend actual cash you feel the pain because you feel the pain of your own money um versus a debit card i think is a little bit different but versus a credit card where you have no emotional attachment because you know i'm just going to pay it you know i'm going to try to pay it at the end of the month and there's time and I'm fine you know there's just no big emotion there so all that to be said I like that they at least said that what's in your checking account is what counts and I'm like is it because you can track it like if you you know if I swipe my debit card I have to track that transaction for me in every dollar or if you go on your online bank statement

you see it shows up even though it's already been paid yeah it's there so i guess their feeling is once it's gone it's gone and it's not traceable anymore and it feels freer this generation they grew up in a digital world for sure for sure yes they're not used to actually having cash i thought she was gonna i thought the t the TikTok was going to go to that she didn't know how to make change or something. She had never seen cash. I thought Sarah was going, but it's funny that it didn't even feel,

you know, it didn't even feel real. And okay, there's a part of me that I kind of, small part, I get it. I had some cash. I don't even know what it was from, but it was in my purse and I went is Shlotsky's

is that like a national chain sandwich chain yeah Shlotsky's Shlotsky's it's so good so I went through and I paid

$10 you know it was like $9 whatever and I paid $10 and I was like okay I won't have to track that

in my EveryDollar app like it's not going to show up on my bank Rachel's admitting it felt free it felt free there's I thought because that money in my purse was not saying oh this is my cat this is my food envelope like I didn't have an intention outside of for that $10 bill I don't even know where it came from really yeah does that make sense like so it did kind of feel

I get the feeling even though it's really funny to say out loud I love that it sounded like you were buying something on the dark web and you were just buying a sandwich at Schlotzky's. Is that what I said? Schlotzky's. Is that how I set it up? I haven't even heard that restaurant name since like 1994. I love that Rachel's still holding it. Oh, and number one without black olives all day.

Rachel's keeping it alive. What do you think? What do you think, George? Yeah, my take is this. I don't think Gen Z has any real reason to handle cash. And so when they do get it, it's usually a gift from a relative. That's right. It's from a birthday. It's from Christmas. You know, their paychecks are direct deposited and then they use their card and they never have to physically

touch cash. And when they do have it, they go, well, that was from a gift. And so it didn't really feel like it's bonus money. Yes. So I can use this more frivolously. That's fair. That's how I see it. Okay. I'm going to gonna keep going because i'm like but then on the other side all the cash stuffing went nuts like last month yes where they were actually cashing out their paychecks and doing the envelopes as some they call it cash stuffing stuffing this folder it's a new trend that's been around yeah since like the beginning of time some of them are embracing this cash life and love it because they realize how responsible you can be with it. Whereas on the other opposite end, it doesn't even feel like money to them.

Yeah. Well, and when you see cash now, it's like, whoa, that's a lot of money because you don't see money anymore. I know. And so it's an interesting conversation. How do you feel if $10 just showed up in your wallet and you can't remember how it got there? I see it as bonus money. And you went to Shelotsky's and got a number one. Not going to do that. Got a number one without black olives. How would that, would you feel like? It would feel a little bit like bonus money. Yeah. I wouldn't feel obligated to go deposit that in my bank account and then budget for that. I would go,

okay, sweet. I got 10 bucks from wherever. Sure. So here's my thing. If that's you and you feel that way and you want to get control of your money, go deposit it into your bank account. You can do that at ATMs. I know they're like, what do I even do with cash? You can put it into the bank. That's amazing. But if you do that, then it's on your debit card and you can budget for it with every dollar and all that. And even with every dollar, there's simple ways.

You can still budget $200 for groceries and then cash that out into an envelope and actually spend that cash and track it. Yes. Yes. So it's still possible. You don't get an excuse to not budget because you use cash. Absolutely. Yes. And the intentionality, and actually it is very helpful when you're intentional with cash and you do something like the envelope system. It does help because you physically, you see, okay, I only have this much money left and out to eat or the, You know what I mean? It has a purpose. Yes. You know I'm a frugal guy, Rachel.

You are a frugal guy. So here's where I use cash. Every two weeks, I get my haircut. No. And my barber has a $5 discount if you pay with cash. No, and you do it. And I do the cash discount. So I always need to have cash on hand to pay for my haircuts.

How much do you pay? I'll tell America how much I pay. It's $35 for a haircut. Wow, that's really good, George. Thank you. I thought you were going to be way more bougier than that. No, and I'm frugal. You know me, Rachel.

I know. I'm always trying to get a deal. I know. The hair is great. And I tip. I tip. Okay, make sure you tip your barbers, okay? For sure.

So there we go. Cash is still king, even in 2022, Gen Z. You hear me? It's not free money. Budget for it. Get control of it. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined today by Rachel Cruz.

We're taking your calls, 888-825-5225. Adam joins us up next in Greenville, South Carolina. Adam, welcome to the show. Hey, George and Rachel. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. How can we help? Well, I've got a car problem I'm hoping maybe you guys could help me make a decision on.

I have a very old Toyota Camry. This is my baby step two and three car. Nice. And mechanically, I mean, this car is old enough to be registered as a classic car. That's how old it is. What year is it? It is 1997. Oh, nice.

Yeah. Mechanically, it is still dependable. Like, you know, it runs fine, but the suspension is pretty much shot. And to get that fixed is probably going to cost just about what the car is worth. And I'm trying to decide if it would be better, because, like, right now, you know, the used car market is worth. And I'm trying to decide if it'd be better because like right now, you know, the used car market's insane. So if I could potentially upgrade to something for just a few thousand more, you know, what I've got in my emergency fund, would that be a good idea? So are you in baby step four now? Do you have a fully funded emergency fund and you're out of

debt? Yes. Yes, I am. Okay. Have you been saving for an upgrade in car? I started. I mean, I just, I should preface, I just hit baby step four like in February, March. This is newer. This is recent. Well, I would continue saving. I think at this point you upgrade the car, man. You're not in debt.

There's no reason to be driving around a 25-year-old car at this point you upgrade the car man you're not in debt there's no reason to be driving around a 25 year old car at this point i want you to get a different kind of dave car which is your upgrade now that you're out of debt you've worked hard to do that and build the emergency fund so i would save up for a used car paying cash it doesn't need to be crazy but it needs to be better than the 97 camry with the shot suspension so how much can you sell it for when it's not, like, just as is? I could probably get about $2,000 for it, maybe. Okay. That is impressive. And if you fixed it, how much did you say the repairs were? About $2,000.

About $2,000. Oh, yeah, that's right. About what it's worth. And then how much could you sell it for if it was fixed? I really don't know if fixing it would up the value of it very much. Because it's just like what? Maybe $3,000. Okay. Yeah, very much. Because it's just like, what? Maybe $3,000.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just an old car. Sure, yeah. Yeah, so I would sell as is, you know, get the $2,000, put some money that you need. And it's drivable, right? I'm trying to think of how urgent this is for you. Like, is it? Yeah, yeah.

It's drivable, and it's still a, you know, it's a safe car. It's just, I'm just, like I said, I'm just going back going back and forth on well should i just drive it till the wheels fall off or should i you're getting close to that atom for sure so yeah i would yeah so i think you've done a great job um and i think yeah this is the point where you're able to upgrade and i think that that's awesome so selling it for 2k whatever money you have saves over the next couple of months and and the fact that you don't you know your emergency fund and everything is funded i wouldn't touch that so i would just save on the side uh put a couple more grand together and you could step up significantly

oh yeah to a seven eight thousand dollar car is going to feel a whole lot different than what you're driving right now you're probably looking at you know a 2010 a simple sedan i think that would do the trick and it would feel like a giant upgrade from what you're driving now. But the logic on it is, will you recoup what you put into it? And so if it's worth $2,000 and you put $2,000 in, well, it's got to be worth $4,000 or more to be even worth it. Otherwise, just sell it as is and save up cash and upgrade. Okay.

Awesome. Thanks, Adam. That was my question. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Adam. I really appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks for the call. And I think that that's the stepping up in car where you start to you drive like no one else

so later you can drive like no one else. And so, you know, he saves up, you know, a couple grand and he steps up to an $8,000 car. He drives that

for maybe a year as he saves on the side and that's the great thing about cars, they're not forever. So you could sell it again if you wanted and put the money you've saved and keep just stepping up and so that's the power and doing it with cash as you do it slowly but it doesn't

mean you can never have a great car yes people think well the ramsey plan is you drive crappy cars your whole life you look in our parking lot there's there's some real nice cars out there and there's some beater cars out there that's are some nice cars. And there's some beater cars out there. That's right. Because people are all over their money journey. So, Adam, you've done the work to get out of debt. So I just want you to upgrade because I want that for you. You deserve it at this point. You've done the hard work. Thank you so much.

Tracy joins us up next in Grand Rapids. Tracy, welcome to the show. Hi, long-time listener. I have a unique question for you. I'm 56 years old. I just was recently divorced the last eight months. I have a unique question for you. I'm 56 years old. I just was recently divorced the last eight months. I'm sorry. I started a home-based business in my kitchen, grew, and moved into a location, and I made it through COVID.

The business is a little over 12 years old. And I'm broke. I'm not business broke. If my business were to close, I owe nothing on the business itself. I'm also, my home is paid for. I have a work car and a pleasure car both paid for. But I am broke. So you have no debt, but you also have no savings. I have nothing. After the divorce, I have, I shouldn't say I have nothing. I have no money.

The business has a small cushion, but I have nothing. Okay. How much do you make a year, Tracy, in your business? I've always just put my business, I put the money back into the business. I'm a wedding and events florist, and it's an ever-changing industry, and you are ever-keeping up with the changes. So the money just went back into the business. How are you eating, though? Like, how are you paying your bills? Well, I do make draws.

So what would you say is your net income per month? Or what you take out to pay your bills? Monthly, probably less than $1,000. Okay. So Tracy, because of your age and where you're at, like I understand putting money back in the business, but you also have to watch out for yourself. Do you think the business is ever going to get to a point where you can sell it?

You know, it's the type of business that, no, I don't believe I could sell it. You kind of own a job. Yeah, yeah. Mom and pop florists just hardly exist anymore. Sure, sure. So I believe that it would not be a sellable business. Okay. So Tracy, what I want you to do, though though is map out what the next 20 years of your life

looks like. So that's everything from when you want to retire, if you want to, maybe you're one of those people that just loves to work, but you want to start to have these savings goals to put away money, right? So I want you to take advantage of these retirement vehicles with investing like a Roth IRA. And I want you to really push into that because you want to have money saved for the future. Because there's one day that you're not going to want to work and you're going to want to retire. I don't know if that's in 10 years or 20 years. But you need to sit down and really understand that. And I would sit down with a SmartVestor Pro and map this out because they're going to help put you in funds because you need to start investing.

And you're still relatively young. I mean, you're 56. So you still have decades ahead of you. But to figure out what's the smartest way to go about this to get you the most money as possible. But that's also going to require you to take money out of the business and pay yourself what you're able to so that you have a future. Yeah. And Tracy, I want you to ask yourself a hard question. Is the business worth it? Because right now you're making $10,000 a year busting your butt in this business. Could you go work for another florist and make more than that?

Yeah. That would be hard to do. I'm sure I could do that. I know this is your baby. I'm sorry? This is your baby, right? Yeah, I survived COVID. I started this in my kitchen, and it's a beautiful business. And I do want to retire. Yeah, and that's where I think you have the hard conversation,

whether that's with a friend, where you go, all right, I need to find maybe a different career path right now. And maybe this becomes my hobby passion project on the weekends that I do. But right now you need a way to make way more income than $1,000 if you ever plan on retiring. Yeah. Do you think you have more in the business? Because when you say that you're just putting everything back in the business is there money available like are you making more and you're

just being overly cautious to keep this business afloat like could you be paying yourself more or is that about what you're taking yeah i absolutely i absolutely could i want you to look at the books of your business and stuff before you do that because what george is saying is right though you may that may come to that crossroads where you realize, wow, because of my age and everything that's going on circumstantially, I need to put more money away. And maybe the business allows you to do that, and you just have to let go of that control to do that, or there might be a different path. But I'm sorry, Tracy. You've been through a lot, a lot the last 12 months. So we're thinking about you for sure.

You've got the perseverance down. That's for sure. And that will get you a long way. Rooting for you. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined today by Rachel Cruz, and we are taking your calls, your career, your relationships, your money. It all happens right here on The Ramsey Show. Brennan joins us up next in Virginia. Brennan, welcome to the show.

Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? Yeah, I just wanted to touch base with you guys. And, you know, I'm 27. I have a home. I still have college debt. I have a car loan and I have investments in crypto and really just want to navigate. I have $40,000 saved in my savings. And I just want to talk to you guys

and see what is the next best path forward for financial freedom. Yeah, that's a great question. How much student loan debt do you have left? I only have $34,000. $34,000. And how much is the car payment? $16,000. Sorry, the car loan? $16,000. $15,000. Okay. And how much is the car payment? 16. Oh, sorry, the car loan. 16,000. 15, okay. And you said you have a home. You have a mortgage? Yes, sir.

Okay. But I got a sweet deal on that, so the home is valued at 420,000. I only owe 200,000. Okay. And how much do you have in crypto? 14,000. Okay. Well, you do you have in crypto? $14,000. Okay. Well, you did great saving up.

I mean, you have a great savings account starting out. So overall, here's the way we kind of take our sand sprint. So we want you to be on the path of the fastest possible way to have financial peace and to build wealth. And so what we have found over decades is that fastest path is being completely debt free because your largest wealth building tool is your income. And when your income comes in and it's not going back out to student loans and a car payment, you have more money to go and invest in things that have long track records. And so getting to that point is really where we would suggest you go. So what does that mean? That means if I woke up in your shoes, and George, you can answer this question if anything's

different, but for me- If I woke up in Rachel's heels, what would I do? What would you do? I would get out of the crypto. I'd sell it, cash it out, get your $14,000 because then you're going to have $54,000 in savings. And you're going to be able to knock out all your debt right there. And so being able to pay off the car, I'd pay that off tomorrow. Go ahead and pay off the student loans and then build up a three to six month worth of expenses

emergency fund, a fully funded emergency fund. You can put that in a money market account, a savings account, but just having that buffer of cash that if or when something happens, just in case it's there. And then I would start investing 15% of your income into retirement. And when we talk about investing, it really is the things that have proven track records. And so we love mutual funds. If you have a job that offers a 401k and a match, doing that, getting into a Roth IRA, having these elements that involve compound interest, and again, being in the market some, and right now it's on sale because it's down, but really seeing, okay, what are the things some and right now it's on sale because it's down.

But really seeing, okay, what are the things that have long track records? And then at that point, if you want to get back into crypto a little bit, I think that's totally fine. If it's a small percentage of your world, I just wouldn't have a ton of money in something that does not have a long track record and crypto could get there. But as of right now, I would put myself in a position where I'm debt free and have cash in the bank. How does that hit you, Brendan? Yeah, I kind of knew what you guys were going to say. I just wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. He called you a horse, Rachel.

I don't take offense to that. Yeah, okay. I meant like the pros. But so I've been talking to my father about it as well, and he said something along the lines of doubling up my payments that way. Just so you guys know, I also – so I make about $75,000 a year. And so – I make about $75,000 a year, but I also rent out two of my rooms, so 75% of my mortgage is paid for. Oh, awesome.

So, yeah, and luckily, you know, I have good roommates, and I'm not in a committed relationship, thank God. So what the next part is, is do I, what I was really thinking of, do I pay off the car and make double payments on the student loans and then invest into a Roth IRA what my car payment was? Well, I think you're going to be able to be, if I'm you, you can go and just pay everything off, and think you're going to be able to be, if I'm with you, you can go and just pay everything off and then you're going to be investing really soon. And the timeframe between now and after you have your fully funded emergency fund,

it's not going to be that long, maybe a couple of months for you because you're already ahead five grand in what you have right now and you don't have a ton of expenses as a single guy. So I think you'll be investing really, really soon anyways. If this was going to take you five years until you start investing, then I would still have the same answer, but I would also be like, oh, I know that doesn't feel great. But I think, Brendan, you're going to be

able to invest here in the next five months. I think you would open something up. And that time period is not going to make or break you. I would rather you be completely debt-free, have no payments, have some cash in the bank, and then you can really start investing at that point. Brendan, what got you here isn't going to get you there. What I'm seeing is you're doing a lot of things right now all at once, and it's not getting you to where you want to go. And so when I started this plan back in 2013, I had about the similar debt you had. I had $40,000 in debt, student loans, credit cards, and I followed the baby steps. I put $1,000 aside. The rest went towards the debt.

I had to cash out some stocks I had from Apple when I worked there as part of their employee stock purchase program. I cashed that. It hurt to cash that out. But man, seeing that debt go away and seeing those payments go away and have that income back in my life, and then I went, oh, I have so much more money to invest now when I don't have any payments. And so the good news is on paper, you could be close to debt free today. If you cashed out the crypto and used all the savings except for $1,000, that would get you almost to debt freedom. And then you save up that three to six months, which with your income, and you renting out those rooms, you're going to be able to do in a few months. And then you're going to be able to invest 15% and then you can start betting on crypto again. So this is not

a five-year plan. We're talking within the next six, seven months, you're in a very different place financially. Right. That's what I wanted to hear. He's sold. He is sold. We're going to get off this call and he's going to say, yes, I'm going to do exactly what he says. Brennan, shoot me straight, Brennan. What's the holdup? I can tell you're not wanting to do this. Well, the tradeoff is that I know that crypto is a very speculative market, and that honestly is an indication of the price fluctuation. And I think we all know that, especially people that understand the financial world.

It's all right now based on speculation, but there are going to be winners and losers in the space. And if you do your due diligence and you find out what those true winners are that bring real world utility, it's almost, it's almost, you should bet on that because the, the upside to that, it's almost you should bet on that because the the upside to that it's almost like well why not

put fourteen thousand dollars that you can afford to lose you can't afford it and you're broke dude okay i don't know what to tell you i mean on paper i know you're you're here's the thing forty thousand dollars in savings and you have what what is it, $49,000 in debt. No, that's not right. Right. Here's the thing. I'm hearing language like this. You said multiple times, well, I only have $34,000 in student loans.

Well, I only have $15,000 on my car. Well, I only owe $200,000 on my house. As long as you see debt in that way, you can't build wealth because you see debt as a tool to be leveraged. And clearly, it's not working. You're doing too many things at once. And I want you to win, man. I'm really rooting for you. And I'm not mad at crypto. This is not a thing. I'm not bashing crypto. I don't care if it was single stocks. I'd tell you to cash it out. Right now, what you need to do is clean up this mess so you can have your greatest wealth building tool back in your life, your income. That's what we're here to do. We're

not here to tell you you're doing things wrong. I think it's awesome that you're 27 and you own a house and you clearly know a thing or two. And you're smart. I mean, you have roommates, they're helping pay the mortgage. I mean, yeah, you're doing it right. But the problem too is over time when you just keep sitting in this, it's going to take you longer to build wealth. And again, our plan is to get to the fastest point from point A to point B. How do you do that? And we found time and time again, not just in a math sense too, but also there's an emotional, spiritual sense too. That when you do not owe anyone anything, you have options.

And investing in things that have long track records that have been proven over time is the wisest way to get from point a to point b preach rachel preach that puts this hour of the ramsey show in the books my thanks to my co-host rachel cruz all the folks in the booth and you america we appreciate you listening and we will be back with you before you know it Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescream.