The Ramsey Show - App - Car Payments Can Cost You $5 MILLION (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 11, 2018

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. It's common sense for your dollars and cents, God's and Grandma's ways of handling money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Shelby starts off this hour in Springfield, Missouri. Hi, Shelby.

How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? We have a 2008 Nissan Rogue that we've had for 10 years, and it just died today. The car itself is worth $3,000, and we have it paid off, of course. The transmission to put into the car to fix it would cost $2,900.

So do we pay what the car is worth to fix it, or do we spend an extra $5,000 that would take about a year to pay off to buy about a four-year newer car? So you have the $2,900 to fix the transmission? Yes. Okay. But we don't have the extra $5,000 that we would in about six months to a year. Why an extra $5,000? Just because you want a better car? No. Is it smart to fix the car?

Both are dumb. That's only, what's that? Both are dumb. Both are dumb? What's wrong with buying a $3,000 car with the money that you have? It doesn't seem like it would last us with our, we have four kids. You're driving a $3,000 car now. Yeah, and it's broken.

Yeah. So you would say buy a $3,000 car that might have the same problems as our current $3,000 car? Well, your $8,000 car might have the same problems if you select a bad car. A $25,000 car can have a a twenty five thousand dollar car can have a transmission go out any car can have a transmission go out uh any car runs a chance of breaking down but if you want to use all of those emotions to rationalize going into debt you can but i'm not going to tell you to i think it's stupid i'll walk before i have a car payment but do we put the money into our broken car no like would you pay three thousand have a car payment. But do we put the money into our broken car?

No. Like, would you pay $3,000 into a car that's worth $3,000? No, I would sell your car as is for salvage. I would take that money and put it with the actual cash that you have, and I would not buy a car that had any debt on it. Okay. Now, you said you could pay off a $5,000 additional loan in one year, right? Oh, or less. Okay. How quickly could you pay it off if $5,000 additional loan in one year, right? Oh, or less. Okay.

How quickly could you pay it off if you went absolutely bananas? Maybe like two months. Two months? Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, then you could rent a car for two months and save up the money. Yeah. Okay.

And then pay cash for a better car if you want to do it that fast. Or you could buy the $3,000 car. How much money do you actually have in cash? About $3,500. Okay. And your car will probably bring about $500 as is, right? Uh-huh. So we're buying a $4,000 car with cash and then save like crazy between now and Christmas and trade again.

Uh-huh. Move up. But would that be a wash i mean we wouldn't i guess we would pay we would get four thousand if we just bought a car for four thousand yeah four thousand dollar car is not going to go down much in value in six months yeah it's pretty well done uh-huh so it'll hold especially if you get by a decent car you know something that's decent for four thousand dollars you're going to shop around make sure you get something that's reliable um and it's in. You're going to shop around, make sure you get something that's reliable and that's in better condition, honestly, than your Rogue was.

Yeah. And you can. You can buy a lot of cars for $4,000 if you watch what you're doing. We're not worried about the sex appeal of this car. We're worried about its mechanical substance. Yes. I don't care if people make fun of its body. I want it to work for those six months and during those six

months you save up and pay for it now let's back off just a second okay okay here's the um reasoning behind this so that you understand why i'm coming down so hard on it the average car payment in america today is 507 dollars if the average person with the average car payment were to instead invest that money from age 30 to age 70 instead of having a car payment their whole life, they would have an excess of $5 million. Translation, car payments are stupid because it costs you $5 dollars in the scope of your life because you see what i'm saying so if if the thing you've got to do then is you got to go okay every time i have a problem i can't solve it with debt even if i can in quotes pay it off quickly put your air quotes

up when you do that you know like pay it off quickly which is famous last words because usually then life happens and you don't pay it off quickly and you drags on out and you end up living your life from debt to debt to debt to debt to debt from car payment to car payment to car payment to car payment from this crisis solved by debt to that idea solved by debt to oh we went on vacation we didn't quite pay for it. We got that. Oh, last Christmas. I forgot it was in December, so it's debt. And this is how most people live, and they live broke. And you work your whole freaking life giving your money to some stupid bank.

And that's what I'm trying to prevent here. I want you to win. I want you to be wealthy. And the best way to do that is drive like no one else so that later you can drive like no one else. Today, you know what I drive? Anything I want. You know what I drove when we went broke? A borrowed 1978 Cadillac that the predominant color on it was Bondo,

and the vinyl roof was loose, so when you drove it, it filled up with air. It looked like a Bondo parachute coming down the road. You might be a redneck if was written on the side of it. Really. I drove that car for what felt like 10 years during one three-month period. That car has scarred me psychologically. To where I will never again in my life do anything that puts me or my family in a position that we have to drive some piece of crap like that again. We are going to save. We are going to live on less than we make. We are going to have a plan.

We are going to work like maniacs. We, the Ramseys, are never going to do that crap again. My family tree has changed, and that's what i want for you guys instead of living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck pulling up at a stoplight comparing payments i mean cars with everybody around you those are broke people at that stoplight they look good but they're broke people at that stoplight. They look good, but they're broke people. And if they got a ski boat or a bass boat behind that nice truck, they're really broke people because they got a $600 payment on a bass boat because the former bass boat, the engine wasn't big enough, and those bass were out running them, so they had to get a faster boat.

Don't we do this stuff? We do this stuff so we have to stop we have to go no at some point we have to break the break the mold break the cycle break the chains break the curses of our off our family tree and say as for me in my house we're going to serve the, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. As for me and my house, I don't care what you think about what I drive. Whether you think it's too nice or not nice enough, because it's not your freaking car, it's mine. Shut up. I don't care what you think about what I drive.

I'll tell you who does care. My grandkids. Their lives are changed. about what I drive. I'll tell you who does care. My grandkids. Mm-hmm. Their lives are changed. A godly man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Try that one on. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down?

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Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Thanks for joining us, America. Chris is with us in Washington, D.C. Hey, Chris, how are you? Hey, Dave. I'm doing good. I really appreciate what you do. I've been listening to you for a long time, and I you know, I can't say that I follow all the rules,

and I hope I don't get taken to the woodshed too badly, but you've definitely changed my family's life for the better. Cool. Cool. How can I help today? Sure. So, long story short, my wife and I sold a house that we had on the market for about a year, and we took all of the equity that we had. We have another mortgage in the house that we live in,

but we paid off all of our debt except for the $30,000 of student loans or so that we have. So we have an envelope budgeting system that we try to adhere to pretty well every month. But we have about $30,000. We could pay the student loans off today, but we would not any longer have like our 90-day slush fund. So I'm trying to decide if I should write a $20,000 check to pay off what I can today and keep another $10,000 or so set aside for our 90-day of emergency fund, or if I should continue paying what we've budgeted, which is $1,000 a month, and then write a check when I can just pay it off in a single lump sum.

I'm basically afraid to let go of the money that we've got right now. So that's kind of my question to you. What's your household income? A little over $200,000. Okay. And so, why would you only be paying $1,000 a month on this?

It's, I would say, Okay. We have a certain type of lifestyle that we don't want to give up, and we feel that, you know, paying off a loan in a year to two years is acceptable for us. Yeah, that's kind of pitiful, in other words. Yeah. Yeah, and you knew that.

You knew that. I didn't have to point it out. You already knew that was coming. Part of it is we're putting, you know, about $2,000 a month into 401K yeah and that's okay now let's let's stop you said earlier in the conversation that you listen have been listening to me for a good while yes sir okay so it ought to be fairly easy for you the only question is are you going to do your plan are you going to do the plan i teach either one's okay you're not a dumb guy you make two hundred thousand dollars you're gonna be all right you're not a dumb guy. You make $200,000. You're going to be all right. You're not going to go bankrupt.

But if you're going to work our plan, you know what that plan is, right? It would be to cut some of our lifestyle choices so that we can pay it off now and save up our money. No. Save up the 90 days as quickly as we could. No. You've linked the test. Okay. Baby step one is save a

thousand dollars when you start getting out of debt you clean out all non-retirement savings and you throw it at all non-mortgage debt in baby step two so all of that says we'd pay off the student loan 100 today leaving you penniless making two $200,000 a year. And, oh, by the way, during that time, we stop, and we stop putting money into the 401K until we get the emergency fund built and we're debt-free with Baby Step 2 and 3, right? You heard all that before? Yeah. Listen, you get to do what you want to do.

You're not going to do it, okay? But the system is. Well, no. Oh, you're not. I mean, it's okay. I'm not mad at you it, okay? But the system is. Well, no. No, you're not. I mean, it's okay. I'm not mad at you. I mean, and I'm not taking you to the woodshed. But the process is this.

What we have found is that you have a weak foundation in your home because you still have debt and you don't have enough savings for somebody that makes the money you make in your emergency fund. And so the foundation in your financial plan is weak. It's not necessarily going to fall in as long as your income stays where it is. So what would I do if I woke up in your shoes is the first thing I'd do before I went ahead and finished building my house is I'd shore up the foundation. And so I'd write a check today, and I be debt free that you're not going to do that, but that's what I would do.

And then I would stop my 401k temporarily and you're not going to do that, but that's what I would do. And then I would take every dollar I can squeeze out of my budget and I'd put $30,000 making $200,000 a year into an emergency fund, a rainy day fund. And I could do that in about five months. Okay. Okay, four or five months. And I'd have zero debt except my home.

I'd have my $30,000. And so at the end of five or six months or whatever that ends up being, I'm going to restart my 401k and I'm not going to play with it anymore. I'm going to now put 15 of my income into retirement which are the kind of money you make that's going to make you very very wealthy that's baby step four five is kids college i would start that or restart that at that point and six is pay off your house early with any other money i can squeeze out and what we're finding is with all the millionaires that we've studied the ones that

have followed our stuff or the ones that have followed their own stuff is they do there's two things we see them all doing they steadily invest in their 401k and they pay off their house early and they avoid all other debt like the plague some of them have a credit card much to my chagrin i don't want them to even do that i want them to have debit cards but some of them have a credit card, much to my chagrin. I don't want them to even do that. I want them to have debit cards. But some of them actually have credit cards, but none of them carry a balance under any circumstances ever and haven't in 30 or 40 years. They pay off their home in 10.2 years on average because they worked some semblance of what I'm laying out here. The problem with your situation is you're trying to do too many things at once.

You make really good money, and it covers up your mistakes. There's enough salve on this because of the income that you can limp along and be okay. You'll be okay. But you're not maximizing the opportunity that's at your disposal. So you get to do what you want to do my prediction is you're not going to do any of it but it's a good discussion to have it's fine and again i'm not calling you out it's just you know you make 200 grand you don't have to do it

you know and and and you don't you know it scares you to death and your wife will think you're crazy if you come back in say announce that that's what we're going to do and all that's going to happen and you know you're not going to do all that. And that's okay. It's okay. I appreciate having you a listener anyway and hope we can continue to entertain you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in.

We'll talk about your life and your money. Brian's with us in Modesto, California. Hey, Brian, how are you? Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, thanks to you, I'm out of debt, and I'm officially weird, so that's awesome.

Good for you, man. So thank you for your plan. So now I'm on Baby Step 6, which is a payoff mortgage, and I'm just having trouble figuring out how much and how aggressively I should be putting towards that, towards principal every month. Currently I'm thinking, okay, if I put $500 towards principal every month, that should be okay, I guess. I don't know.

I don't know if I need to be more aggressive or what you think. You know, I'm still kind of. What's your household income? 98. Good. You married? No, sir. Okay. You got your. You're married? No, sir. Okay.

You got your emergency fund in place? Yes, sir. I got $20,000 in there. Good. And you're putting 15% towards retirement? Yes, sir. My biweekly income is after retirement and health care and all that stuff is $2,100. Good for you.

Okay. And what's the balance on the mortgage? Just under $200,000. Okay. Well, $500,000 a month is $6,000 a year. And times 10 years would be $60,000 that you're reducing the principal over 10 years, in addition to what you're paying early. It's not bad.

I'd like for you to do a little better, because I'd like for you to get that house paid off in that 10.2 years. That would be my game plan. Certainly, if you get any other money coming in, like a bonus or an inheritance or some kind of found money shows up, I'm throwing that at the mortgage to accelerate this. There's nothing here to panic about. You're on a good schedule. How old are you?

31. Oh, you're young. Okay. You've got plenty of time. Cool. Well, here's my prediction. I think by the time you're in your early 40s, you're probably going to have worked around and paid the house off. But it's not from the 500 only. Yeah.

You're going to continue to concentrate on it. You're going to throw some extra money here and there at it. You're going to get some raises that you throw at it in addition to what we're talking about. By the time we get you up to your late 30s, you're probably paying $1,000, $1,500 a month by then from various things that are going to happen good in your life because you've been making really good decisions. Man, you are doing great. I'm so proud of you.

Very well done. 31 years old, $98,000 a year. Everything's paid for but your house, putting 15% away, and you've got your retirement in place. That puts you in the top 3% of Americans right there, dude. You are on your way. Well done. Don't stop, sir.

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Yes, sir. How are you? Great. Thank you. Wow. So what are you doing in Kenya? Yes, sir. How are you? Great. Thank you. Wow. So what are you doing in Kenya? Yeah, we both work for a company that works with smallholder farmers. That works for what?

You work for a company that does what? That works with smallholder farmers. I still didn't understand you. That's okay. So you want to do your debt-free scream. How much have you guys paid off? Yeah, we've paid off around $77,000 in three years. Good for you.

Way to go. Cool. And what was your range of income during that three years? We started around $34,000, and we're now currently making around $96,000. Wow. Cool. Okay. Good. Good. What kind of debt was the $77,000 and they're now currently making around $96,000. Wow. Cool. Okay. Good.

Good. What kind of debt was the $77,000? All student loans. Wow. How long have you guys been married? Around eight years now. Okay. Cool.

So where did you grow up? We grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. We've been together since we were 15 and then went to college together and then now in Kenya. Wow, and now you're on this adventure. Well, very cool. Very cool. So what made you decide to get out of debt three years ago and get your hair on fire? Because you guys have gotten with it.

This is impressive numbers. Yeah. I think we just took a look and realized that normal wasn't working and we wanted to be very intentional and we also knew we had some big changes like moving abroad and taking on kind of a unique job and lifestyle um so i think we just took that time to get really serious wow so uh how long will you be in Kenya, do you think? We don't really have an exit strategy. I think we're here for the long term until something leads us somewhere else for right now. But we're pretty happy where we're at. Cool. How long have you been there? We've been in East Africa off and on for the past four, almost five

years. But in Kenya for two years. We're about to celebrate our two-year anniversary here. Very fun. Good for you guys. Congratulations. Seventy-seven thousand dollars in student loans paid off in three years. What do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Yeah, I think we have three things that we did that worked for us. The first was the budget and the envelopes. I have to admit, I took throw pillows back to the store after I realized we didn't have any room in the envelopes for them. So I bought them, and the next day they went back to the store. And then the other one is saying no. We are living in adventure, but with that comes a lot of opportunities that we have had to say to in the past.

Now we get to say yes. And then just being weird and creative. We've had to kind of, we wanted to visit our family and fly back home for Christmas. So we've gotten, we've been on phone calls for hours with the site company to get the prices and the connections where we want them. So budget, saying no, and being creative and weird is what works for us and what we think the secret is. I think that's great. Well done, you guys. Very well done.

What was the hardest part for you all? That's a good question. I mean, it has to be doing without throw pillows right we are kind of living a bit more adventurous life um or have different opportunities that come up with where we live and we've had to say no quite often um yeah and i think that for me has been the hardest thing i'd agree i'm not seeing a family as often as we'd like or friendships and things like that. Yeah, very tough. Wow. Cool.

Well done, you guys. I'm proud of you. Did you have people cheering you on? Yeah, quite a few. Some people definitely thought we were weird and gave us a hard time. But we are pretty proud where we are right now. So it was all worth it. Well, you're definitely weird.

We love it. Congratulations. Well done. Well done. All right, Patrick and Callie, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. We'll send that on over to Kenya. And that will be the next chapter in your story for you guys to be millionaires

and outrageously generous as you're going along. And, hey, enjoy the adventures now that you don't have debt payments. That's awesome. Very cool stuff. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Patrick and Callie calling in from Kenya. That's our first Kenyan debt-free scream.

I can officially say that. $77,000 paid off in three years, making $34,000 up to $96,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're just free! Well done, you guys. Very, very well done.

Absolutely amazing. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. Stacey's with us in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hi, Stacey. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? Yes, we are on Baby Step 7, and my husband and I both fully maxed out a Roth IRA as well as my husband's 401k plan. His 401k has just offered us, they're offering the Roth IRA now. And I'm just curious, are we able to contribute to both his Roth and our regular independent Roth that we're investing in? Yes. We are? Yes. Okay, now his 401, we're able to invest $18,000 per year.

Right. Can we put $18,000 into the Roth as well? No. You can put $18,000 into a 401 Roth, yes. Okay. Yes. Now, do they match? They do not. Okay, they cannot match with Roth dollars.

They will match with traditional 401K dollars. And then once a year, you can move those before-tax dollars into your Roth and pay taxes on them with no penalty. Okay. And that's what I do with mine. We can do the $18,000. Yep. And then as well, we can still do our independent $5,500 per year. Yes. How old are you?

45. Okay. Yeah. You can do $5,500 each, and you can do the 18,000 you can get the full match that is not in the Roth and then once a year roll that portion of the match also into the Roth 401k that's what I personally do with mine and then you have to pay the taxes on that portion uh too which effectively is an additional investment. Correct.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. Hey, great job. You're killing it. You're going to have some serious money piled up. Very well done. Richard is with us in Boston. Hey, Richard, how are you?

Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm just wondering. My parents, they're fortunate enough to have a great deal of money and no debt, and they would like to buy me a car. But I have $15,000 in my own savings, and I'm wondering,

is it the adult thing to do for me to purchase a car on my own, or to pay for half, or to do something like that? Are you adult and mature with the rest of your money? Well, I'm 19 years old, so this is just summer money, and I'm not really living on my own or anything. I'm just a college student. Okay, all right. And they're going to buy you a nice car, and they're wealthy people. Yes. And there's no strings attached. There's no debt involved. Nope. They purchased one for my sister, and they say, we want to be fair. We'll do one for you too. And it'll be in your name. Uh, I believe it will be in their name just for the

insurance to keep it a little bit cheaper until what? Um, I think with my sister, when she turned 25, they said you're on your own now. Okay. All right. Um. And how wealthy are your parents? What's their net worth, probably? Millions? Millions? I'd say they easily make $200,000 a year of sold income. And are they worth several million dollars in net worth? I'd say at least two. Okay. All right. And how expensive a car are they buying you? They bought my sister, I think it was $22,000 out the door. Okay.

That would probably be the same for me. No, I don't think that's going to damage your character. I think you're going to be fine. Because of the way you've asked this question, and because of the conversation we've had around the question, it indicates that, you know, you're A, you're concerned about it, B, you know, you want to be a grown-up and on your own and that kind of thing. I will give you a piece of advice because I did the same thing with my kids as they hit that age.

I put the car in their name because if the car's in your parents' name and you have a wreck, they can be sued and they have money. You don't. So I would pay the extra insurance and put the car in your name as risk management for them. That way they don't have a target on their butt if you happen to have a car accident. And I did that with mine. So, just an idea. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. There are few things in this world that irritate me more than when people pay too much for their mortgage.

So many of you are paying way too much, and you don't even know it. I've got my good friend Mike Hardwick with Churchill Mortgage here. Mike, how do you help these folks? It's unbelievable, Dave, how much people can save if they just make a simple call. We've helped thousands of your listeners save hundreds each month or take years off their loan, helping them to save thousands of dollars in interest over time. Folks, do yourself a favor. Make a quick call to Churchill Mortgage today.

I'm telling you, if you're paying a mortgage, you're potentially throwing money away that could be piling up in your savings account. It's true, Dave. With the rates the way they are right now, if you're making any mortgage payment these days, you're probably paying too much. Call Churchill Mortgage, guys. It's well worth a few minutes of your time.

This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. Equal Housing Lender 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They're the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Today's question is from Tammy in New Jersey. Do you consider pension payments and deferred compensation taken out of my check as part of your 15% towards retirement in Baby Step 4?

If so, then should I just take the extra money and put it in mutual funds? Well, deferred comp is a choice deferred comp is a 457 and that's just something like a 401k i would do a 401k or a 403b in good mutual funds before i would do deferred comp if you have pension payments that are required and are mandatory and are removed from your check, whether you want them to or not, in other words, then I would not count them 100% towards the 15% because you're not in control of that money. If you have a 401k with $100,000 in it and your company goes broke, you don't lose a dime because the 401k with $100,000 in it is in your name.

If you have $100,000 in your pension and the company goes broke, you lose all your money. The pension is an asset of the company, not you. And so you ever heard the story, you know, the company went broke, I lost my pension. You ever heard that? That's because that happened. That's why people say stuff like

that now it doesn't happen that often and most companies are managing their pension in a you know a fairly conservative decent way they're not crooked they're not backward they've got a lot of regulations on them so i'm not panicking you about your pension but because you don't have control of that money it is not in your name no i would save as much as i can outside of that up to 15 but let's say you work for an agency that requires you to put 10 of your income into that would i then do five percent in 403bs or 401ks or 457s no i would do a little more than five i'd probably do 10 i'd probably count that 10% at about a 50% mark. In other words, whatever amount they're having you put in,

count about half of it towards your 15%. I'm going to discount it, in other words, because it's not in your name. That's what it amounts to. Because I want a bunch of money piled up in your name. The goal here is not how little can I save. The goal here is how wealthy can I become. And that's based on how much you save, not how little you save. So, you know, let's ask the question of how I can put more in,

not how I can put less in. But overall, that gives you something to think about there. And the 457, again, is not a mandatory thing. That's deferred comp. Deferred comp means you simply didn't take the compensation. Now it's set aside for you, so you haven't yet paid taxes on it, which is the same thing as a pre-tax 401k works the same way as far as the tax part of it goes and if it's invested in the same mutual funds

you're going to have the exact same result as a pre-tax 401k i'd rather you do roth 401ks if you have that available uh leah is with us in jacksonville florida hi leah how are you hi dave thank you for taking my call. Sure. Is it Lee or Leah? Leah. I got it right. Okay.

How can I help? Okay. So my husband is a chief in the Navy, and he has about three years left before he can retire. And he's struggling with trying to figure out, A, should he just stay in longer to give us more of just knowing what kind of pay we're going to have to put away. Because we just became debt-free two years ago. Good. Following SPU.

Mm-hmm. We funded our fully funded emergency fund last year. Good. And we're finally starting to put into his Roth TSP last fall. Wonderful. So we don't have much money in retirement. Mm-hmm. put into his Roth TSP last fall. Wonderful. So we don't have much money in retirement, and we really want to be able to buy a home when we move back to our hometown.

We're guessing what we're going to want to buy is around $230,000. So we're trying to figure out what's the best option to be able to save for a down payment on a house to keep us in the 25% range for a 15-year mortgage and not take away from contributing to our retirement because it took us so long to be able to do so. That's the purpose of that. Good. Good. You've thought it through. Well done.

So what does he make now? His base pay is $53,000. And when he hits the three years, that'll be his 20-year mark? Yes. Okay. So you have his 20-year military retirement, which is sweet. Okay. Right.

Then what does he want to do if he leaves the military after three years, and what would he be making doing that? He really doesn't know. He's looked into the Boots helm was it boots to hard hat program and he's thinking of doing a trade of some sort um he's just trying to figure out what he can do in our hometown that'll pay at least 80 000 which is what we make with our housing allowances and stuff like that over our base pay um he's not really sure if he should just get out and get into one of those programs and find something, or if he should stay in, because he can't really go look for something

while he's still in. He can't apply for any of these scholarships or any of that type of stuff while he's still in. No, you can't apply for them, but you can investigate and figure out what you want to do with your life. I think he's just at the point where going through fpu and the legacy program and everything he's just like it's about the money it's not so much about what i do no i disagree it's not it's not just about the money it is about

what he does okay um you guys have done a great job with the money but i want him to i want him to invest himself into something that he cares about. And if he wants to serve in the military, tell him thank you for his service. We appreciate his service for 20 years. But if he wants to retire after 20 years and he has a dream of doing X, then he ought to do X. I think he loves the military, but I think he's afraid of not making enough to support us in the long run with the four kids and all that. He actually facilitates FPU at the chapel alongside the chaplain. He loves the program. He loves helping people.

He's always talking to his sailors about it. So I feel like he's got a financial niche to him. But I think he's scared to make that kind of a jump in what it will pay. Well, you've just, again, you've got three years to figure it out, and he needs to figure out a career that he has a love for. If he has a love for the military, stay. If he's only staying in the military for the money, it's not a good idea to only stay in a job long-term for the money, only.

Okay, now, for the short-term, yeah, you feed your family. You do what you've got to do. But long-term, what is the next 10 years of your life? Well, it ought to be invested in something you care about don't just take a job for the money that's you can make good money doing a whole lot of different things there's a lot of things you can come up with but uh uh you know and so i think he just needs to continue to investigate that and it may bring him all the way back around to you know i do love the military and i'm going to continue to do that and i'm going to continue to teach fbu with a chaplain and

life is good and you know and yeah you make eighty thousand dollars a year including housing you're gonna be okay everything's all right and you've been able to get out of debt you've been able to build your emergency fund you've been able to start investing and you know at any point you've got this 20-year uh retirement available to you once you hit that three-year from now mark. So, you know, I think you're in really good shape. I think you've been very wise. But I would encourage him to find something that he has a deep love for and invest himself heavily into it and find a way to make good money doing it. That's the thing.

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