The Ramsey Show - App - Change Your Mind-Set to Control Your Destiny (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 12, 2019

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Linda starts off this hour in New Orleans.

Hi, Linda. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it. Sure. What's up? Well, unfortunately, I just found out about you and your program about five months ago, and I'm 100% in.

I think it's brilliant, and I wish I would have found you a long time ago. But with that being said, I'm all in. I'm 61, and I'm at baby step seven. So I don't have any debt, and my house is paid off. Excellent. Thank you. But I don't have a lot of savings. I only have $160,000 in my 401K, but it's a plain 401K.

And so I moved it to a loss. But my income is $150,000 000 and so i'm in a very high tax bracket so it like ate half my bonus and took 400 out of my paycheck my question is is should i bring it back into the regular 401 or should i just kind of suck it up and say with it as a loss? How long do you plan to work? Well, you know, retirement's all about a number. So I would like to be an everyday millionaire. But so I'm looking at probably 66, 67.

You should be there by then. Pretty close anyway if you're saving 15% of your income. Well, you'd be saving more of your income because you're going to save all you can, and you're making $150,000, and you're starting with $160,000. Yeah, you'll be there. Well, I also have $320,000 in investments. I have a support investor for it, too. Oh.

Well, you'll be there for sure then well the thing about the the roth is uh that that because i'm in such a high tax bracket now by me being in the regular 401 it helps me uh with my tax situation well it always does because it's a pre-tax investment now i would not move the money that is already in the traditional to a Roth, but I would do, given how much money you're going to put in there, I would do everything from this point forward in a Roth, and here's why. At 70.5, you have a required minimum distribution. It's called an RMD.

They require you to start pulling out of traditional. Roth does not have that requirement. And so you could leave this of your three accounts, your old traditional 401k, your new Roth 401k, and your open market non-retirement investments. Of those three accounts, the one you will leave alone the longest is this money, the Roth money, because it will continue to grow tax-free, and you're not required to touch it. You are going to be required to begin to draw down on the 401K at 70.5, and so that's the first one you're going to access as you move into retirement, and then the second one would be the open market investments,

and the last one would be the Roth because it's going to grow and grow and grow and grow tax-free. So we could look up and you could be 85 and that Roth could be a million dollars tax-free. Good point. So the regular 401, that doesn't grow tax-free? It grows tax-defer deferred you're going to pay taxes as you pull it out when it comes out but the Roth does grow tax-free you don't pay you do pay taxes on the amount you put in which is what you're experiencing right now that's why your taxes went up yeah that's why you got hit hard okay you pay taxes on what's going in now

but you do not pay taxes on the growth and by by the time you're 85, 25 years from now, the vast majority of what is in that Roth is going to be growth. It's not going to be the money you put in. Right, and I don't have to pay taxes on what? Any of it. Any of it. On the capital gains. There'll be no taxes at all on the Roth at all. Okay.

So I have about $150,000 cash in just the money market. all on the roth at all okay so i have a hundred thousand about a hundred and fifty thousand cash in a um just a money market should i start investing that yes yes you need an emergency fund of three to six months and anything above that should be invested to hit these goals that you're trying to hit okay you're too heavy too heavy in cash. Yeah, good questions. Hey, you are rocking it. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, Everyday Millionaires. Hold on. Kelly's going to pick up because you're just about R1.

You're going to be close before you know it. So, I mean, it's pretty amazing. So there's an old rule of thumb. Here, you can do this. You can go to Chris Hogan's website at chrishogan360.com. You can, in just a few minutes, do the RIQ and get your retirement IQ, your retire-inspired quotient, and you'll know where you stand on this. But here's what we were doing with her just now. Okay, she's got 160 and she's got 200.

160 and 401K, she's got 200 and um so she's got 360 i'm going to round that to 400 for quick easy math okay if you're in vet you can take the number 72 and divide your rate of return your interest rate into that and that tells you how long it takes a lump sum to double. Okay? And so if you divide 72, I'm going to put it in the calculator, 72 divided by 12, six years, a lump sum will double if you're earning 12% on your money. You're earning 10% on your money, it'd be 7.2 years. She's 61. She's going to quit working at 67. You following me here?

So around the time she quits working, that 400 is going to be 800. That's how I did that just now, okay, without a calculator. And then on top of that, she's going to be putting in a lot, 15%, 20%, 30%, she's going to be saving probably $50,000 a year. For $4,000 a month, it would be $48,000 a year. On top of that, for the next seven or eight years, six, five, six, seven, eight years, something like that, right? And then that's another million dollars. And she's got her house that's paid for.

So when she retires between 67 and 70 on her current trajectory, that's how I'm doing this math. She should have if she's investing in good growth stock mutual funds. And we just moved her out of cash on that 150 so that these numbers start to work now. But she should have between a million and a half and two million dollars fairly easily plus her house and that's where she's going to be sitting but she was rocking it long before she ever ran into us five months ago she was already i mean she had her house paid for she's 61 years old she's making 150 a year this lady's a rock star she's killing it y'all hear what's happening.

Watch how this unfolds in these people's lives because one of the things we're doing here with every single caller is you need to think, okay, wow. I have 21 years before retirement. That means my lump sum that I have today is going to double three times. Hmm. So the 400 is going to be 800 is going to be 1.6 is going to be 3.2. That's three times doubled. That's how that works. Hmm. Yeah, you should do this.

You should do this. This is why we're here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable biblical solution to your healthcare costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs. Christian Healthcare Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance.

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Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. A 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos that they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMZ to get the best deal. Check it out. Michael is in Kentucky. My wife and I are both 26 years old. Just completed Baby Step 3.

That means they're debt-free. They have their emergency fund. We only owe $70,000 on our home. It'll take us 14 months minimum to pay off the house. If we started investing, it would take us an additional 10 to 12 months to pay off the house. Which option would you choose? Because you can do it so quickly, probably just knock it out if it was um five months more i would delay that i'm not sure your math is exactly right though i don't know your household income and in this so it's very rare that it doubles the

length of time to pay off your home because you're putting 15% of your income into retirement. So I don't think you did that right. So the 10 to 12 months is not swaying me because I think that one's wrong. The fact you can do it so quickly, I'll bet you probably do it in 12 months. If you can do it in a year or less and you want to just delay, that's like saving up for a down payment for other people. You know, you just knock it out, then knock it out, dude. Knock it out. I'm with you.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. The largest study of millionaires ever done was done by our research team along with Chris Hogan. 140 of the statistical findings are in the book Everyday Millionaires. It is not a white paper on the research. It's only 140 stats, and you'll drive by them so fast you won't even know you got there. It's all about stories and inspiration, and it's proof that everyone can do this, because everyone can do this.

That's really what it is. And by the way, one of the things we found was is that, you know, I posted, actually my social media team posted something that I say over and over and over again. It's something I've said before. They reposted it on Twitter this week. If you'll do rich people stuff, you get to be rich people. If you do poor people stuff, you're going to be poor people.

If you're rich people and you do poor people stuff, you become poor people. If you're poor people and you do rich people stuff, you become rich people. And some idiot left-wing socialist crazy leftist thing picked that up and posted it and so i've gotten like 5 000 troll hate tweets from left-wing socialist crazy people oh so if i go buy a brand new ferrari and i rip people off from their pensions i'll be rich is the response to that tweet when obviously if you have half a brain cell, what that tweet meant was, find out what rich people are doing for real and do that. Which, by the way, I can tell you what they're doing. They live on less than they make.

They avoid debt. And that's how they became rich. It wasn't that they ripped people off or raided a pension fund or filed bankruptcy 22 times or all of your leftist crap are they inherited money oh i can't inherit money so how am i gonna do rich people stuff you're a moron you're just a moron i mean seriously but the problem is is that when people get to where they are have you know hope deferverbs says, makes the heart sick. So if you're 26 or 36 or any six, and you do not believe deep down in your soul that you're ever going to win

because you have believed a worldview that says the little man can't get ahead, you're trapped, and the mean old whatevers are out to get you, and Eeyore becomes your spirit animal. Oh, it's bad. It's always going to be bad. And then someone presents to you the idea that you actually are in control of your destiny. Oh, and you're control of your destiny. Oh, and you're responsible for your destiny.

That really will piss you off if you are living in a hopeless situation. And that's why I get leftist crazies that are really, really angry with me. Because I present to them hope, and they don't believe there is any. Oh, and I present to them that it is up to them to do it. By the way, you don't have to to be leftist crazy to understand this you could be a right crazy guy like an alt-right nut burger okay you could be one of those guys you know trying to live off the grid and collect ammunition you know i mean if you're one of those nut burgers you could be that and still what you have is you've lost hope that you are going to control your destiny.

And this millionaire study proves that 90% of America's millionaires are first-generation rich. 79% inherited zero. 5% inherited less than $100,000. Another 5% inherited less than $200,000. And inherited it so late in the process process they were already millionaires before they inherited any money so the inherited the idea that you inherited money it made you a millionaire is an absolute fallacy it's just factually wrong it's not where millionaires come from now that's something to think about you got to think about, am I in charge of my destiny?

Not 100%. Bad stuff happens to us. I can pull out of the parking lot and get T-boned, and it's not my fault, and that could throw me off. I don't get to control that part, but I control the controllables. I control the guy in my mirror. He's controllable. That's called self-control. It's part of being a grown-up.

But what do rich people really do? Do they really rip people off? Did you become rich by raiding a pension fund or filing bankruptcy ten times? Is that really where wealth comes from? See, if you really believe that line of garbage you know and i think honestly i think it's intellectually insincere to say you believe it if you have if you have two brain cells really you have to look around and go that is not where wealth comes from ripping people off is not where wealth comes from. Let me give you an example, okay? Business people are ripping people off, and that's how they, those evil business people.

Of course, you're tweeting on an Apple phone that you bought from a business person. So you should think about that when you're doing it, you moron. But anyway, here's the thing. Here's what happens with business. Those who do a bad job and rip people off, people talk about it and don't go back, both. So let's say this. You go to a car mechanic, and your car is broken, and you go in. And the guy rips you off.

He does a horrible job. He charges you too much money, doesn't even do the stuff he said he was going to do, and the car still doesn't work. Do you go back? Only if your parents are cousins. Okay, you really don't go back. Okay? So he's lost you as a customer.

Do you tell your kids and your friends and your parents to go there to get their car fixed? No. Not unless you're stupid. You tell them to avoid the guy because he's a ripoff artist. So he doesn't get any business from you or anyone you know. Now, I'm confused. Being a crook, how did he prosper? Only in your hopeless, left-wing, crazy world did that guy prosper. It's mathematically impossible for him to prosper ripping people off. Now, you might get a one-time hit. You

might just completely steal $10 million out of something and one time rip somebody off. But nobody goes back for seconds with crooks except stupid people. I mean, Bernie Madoff opens up an investment firm. How many of you are going to sign up? Think about it. Crooks do not prosper. Instead, the guy fixes your car. He does a great job. And he goes, oh, hey oh hey you know it was a 35

cent part it took me five minutes no charge what do you do then you tell everybody you know to get their car fixed there so honest good people are the ones that prosper please don't think otherwise it just makes you look stupid it just makes that and that's the guy who's running the business. Same with a heat and air company, same with an ice cream shop. I mean, if you rip people off, you don't prosper. Why is this hard? It's really not hard. pay less at the dentist one dental is a company i've been telling my listeners about because i know these guys will save you money every time you visit the dentist here's how. One Dental is a dental savings program that allows you to go to one of over 158,000 dental practice locations nationwide and save on things like cleanings, dentures, root canals, crowns, and even orthodontics.

Here's the really cool part. You can join One Dental right now, and you don't have to worry about high deductibles, waiting periods, or pre-existing conditions. Just find your highly qualified dentist in the network, make the appointment, and start saving 15% to 60% when you go. It really is that simple. Just text the word DENTAL to 77948 and get an exclusive Ramsey discount. That's DENTAL, D-E-N-T-A-L, to 77-948. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Carson is with us. Hey, Carson, how are you?

I'm going to steal Chris Hogan's line and say, focused and not finished. I love it. It's a good line to know. I like that one. So, where do you live? Harper, Kansas, 45 minutes southwest of Wichita. Wichita area. Very cool.

Good. Good for you. Welcome to Nashville. It's good to be here. And all the way here to do a debt-free screen. Yep. How for you. Welcome to Nashville. It's good to be here. And all the way here to do a debt-free scream. Yep. How much have you paid off, sir? Paid off $21,000 in 15 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that 15 months? Some of my co-workers are tuning in, so I'll just give you a range of $50,000 plus. Okay, cool. What do you do for a living?

I'm an engineer. Good for you. Okay. So how old are you? 32. 32, and you're an engineer good for you okay so um how old are you 32 32 and you're an engineer what kind of debt was the 21 000 all student loans all right and so you've been out of school a while uh no actually um i in 2008 had an income problem i was a mechanic and whenever the economy took a tank, my income dramatically dropped while I was fixing cars. Gotcha. And in 2008, my parents moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma. And then in 2009, I followed them to Stillwater. And then in 2011, I went back to school to be an engineer. Seven years ago.

Seven years ago. Okay. All right. Good for you. And four years in school. Five years ago? Seven years ago. Okay. All right. Good for you. And four years in school? Five years. So 2011 to 2016. Okay.

So you've been out of school two years. So when you came out of school, shortly thereafter, you started attacking the student loan debt? Not too long. I graduated in May of 2016, and then July 2017 was whenever I started. Okay. Very cool. Good for you. So what lit the fuse on this 15 months ago?

Well, several things, actually. In December of 2016, I bounced a check because I wasn't watching my money. I was one of those typical people where I was making more money and so my lifestyle increased. And then I decided I was just going to spend willy-nilly so to speak and so i bounced a check and then in february of 2017 i met my girlfriend and so we were actually dating long distance we were three hours apart so that was part of it because i wanted to make sure i had money to go see her every weekend. That's wise. Yeah.

She likes to see me every now and again. That's good. And then after meeting her, she actually taught me to dream again because previous to going to school and while in school, I didn't have any money. I was flat broke. And whenever we got together together she said she wanted to travel and go different places and i was like okay well then we need to buy an airplane and it sounds a little odd except for the fact in high school i got my eagle scout and my present

from my dad for getting my eagle scout was my pilot's license. Okay. And so I actually grew up around airplanes. And so then after starting to date Sarah and she's wanting to travel, I was like, okay, well, let's get an airplane because then we don't have to go through TSA and we can fly out from our home to a lot closer to where we're going yeah yeah so that that was part of it too was cool um being able to do that so you bust through the debt to be able to save money and buy an airplane exactly so what kind of airplane will you buy i'm looking at a beachcraft baron it's a twin engine four passenger, naturally aspirated. That's a beast.

That's not a bad plane at all. No, it's not. So what is that, a couple hundred grand? It's about 120-ish. Okay, depending on how old, yeah. Yeah, depending on old and hours and that kind of thing. Takeoff and landing, all that. Yeah, okay.

Very cool. Very cool. Well, you'll be able to do that, man. You're making 50 grand plus as an engineer and no debt at all. And now you know how to handle money and you're dreaming again. Yes. This is a good combination. Yeah, it's been pretty fantastic.

Very well done. I've got to give a shout out to Dollar Car Rental because we flew in here this morning. And I was actually wondering how we were going to rent a car because I don't have a credit card and I never have. And then you announced that Dollar got in business with you and I was like, all right, this is going to be easy. No, they're not in business with me. They just agreed to take debit cards. Yeah.

Sorry. I wish I was in business with them, but no, they just agreed to take debit cards and gave us an endorsement for the studio. But yeah. Okay, sorry, wrong phrase. That's okay. No, it's all right.

It's all right. I'm just making sure I get them emailed later. So you used your debit card at Dollar and got a car. I did. What did you rent? We actually started out in an economy car, and then we got a free upgrade while we were at the counter. Nice. So what are you driving?

We are driving a Chevrolet Sonic. I call it the Hedgehog. That'll work. That'll work. That's a fun car to drive around. And you used your debit card and no trouble? No trouble at all. Very good.

Okay. So what is the secret to getting out of debt? You paid off $21,000. Focus and obviously the budget. The budget was a big deal for me because when I first started out, I was not too far above 50. And then I was shooting for 12 months time period. And I didn't quite make it, but I got close enough. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you're there. That's very cool. So it's a whole different place than you were 10 years ago. Oh, for sure. For sure. Whole different world for you, man. Yeah.

What a decade will bring, huh? Oh, man. The next decade is going to bring some very cool stuff. Yes, it will. Okay. So who was your biggest cheerleader while you're getting out of debt? I actually had a bunch. Sarah, my girlfriend, my parents, because my dad's the one who actually introduced me to Dave Ramsey many years ago. Oh, okay.

When I was still in high school, actually. Okay. actually introduced me to dave ramsey many years ago oh okay i was still in high school actually okay um my sister and her family uh all of my co-workers um and i only had one detractor and only one only one and i only saw him once you need to make you need to make more noise well the rest of the people who uh't necessarily excited for me, I called them excusers because they would always wrap some sort of reason as to why they couldn't or wouldn't get on the plane. And it was usually either a spouse or kids. That's what their excuse was. Always blame somebody else. Yep, exactly. That's yep exactly that's true that's

true that's out there well very good man congratulations thank you well done well done well done very well played well we've got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires and any guy bought that book any guy uh flying around in a twin engine aircraft ought to be a millionaire right exactly there you. There you go. I actually already bought Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaire's Book. Oh, you did? I did. Okay. Well, have you got a copy of Legacy Journey?

I do not. I'll give you a copy of that. That's my book on wealth. I like it. And you're heading from money towards wealth. I like it. There's a difference. All right.

We'll give you both, and you can give one of Chris's away. Okay. So good stuff, man. Congratulations. Very, very well done. All right. It's Carson from Wichita, Kansas area. $21,000 paid off in 15 months, making over 50K.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! There we go, man. There we go.

Good job, dude. Very, very well done. Very well done. Well, we talk a lot about millionaire mindset around here, and what does it take to become a millionaire? Well, you get out of debt. You stay out out of debt that's what the data tells us you uh get your home paid off in an average of 10.2 years you invest steadily in your 401k that's offense to build wealth investing to build wealth that's offense but you know the other thing we found out about millionaires is they play defense. It's like when you're boxing, right?

You have to keep your guard up. That's your defense while you punch. But if you just punch, you're going to get knocked out by not having any defense. And so we have a thing called the five-minute coverage checkup to make sure you have all your guard up, to make sure your defense is in place. Now, it takes five minutes to do this, and you can make sure you have the right kinds of coverages, you've got the right kinds of defensive plays that millionaires do in place.

Get your phone out. Text CHECKUP to 33789. CHECKUP to 33789. Check up to 33-789. And you can visit DaveRamsey.com slash check up and find the same info. It's completely free. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. Scott is with us in San Francisco. Hey, Scott. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have an idea and a plan I've kind of formulated about us moving, and I just wanted to see if it's in line with your principles or if you would suggest this. So we are in baby step three right now, and our idea was to keep putting money away into the rainy day fund, but then also set aside some money for moving costs. We're going to be moving in the summer. And then when our current house sells, if there's anything left in the rainy day fund that needs to

be filled up, we would use some of the proceeds from the sale of the house to fill up the rest of baby step three. And then the remaining amount we would use as a down payment for our house that we're going to move into a couple hours away. Cool. Why are you moving? San Francisco is too expensive and I want to be able to build the life for my family. That's not what it is right now. Cool. Where are you moving? Sacramento area. Okay, good. All right. Not a bad idea.

I like it. And why this summer? I'm a teacher, so I've got to finish out this school year and fulfill the commitment, and then I'll start the next school year in Sacramento. You have that lined up? Not yet. I've got some things in the works, though. Okay.

It has to be lined up or we don't do this deal. You understand that? Yes, sir. Okay. It puts it off a year if it's not lined up. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. And what's your household income right now? $120,000. And how much do you have saved towards your emergency fund today? We just finished Baby Step 2, so I think we've got $1,400 right now. And how much are you adding to it a month? The goal is to do $2,000 a month. That's a little weak, making $120,000.

Okay. You probably ought to do more than that. See, if you do $3,000 a month until summer and you move in July, you should have plenty of money in your emergency fund. Let's see, one, two, three one two three four five that'd be 15 000 at least in there and then what are you gonna what's the move gonna cost i'm thinking about 3 000 okay yeah if you crank this up a little bit but the problem is i don't want you moving and after moving expenses having three thousand3,000 or $4,000 or something, that's not going to be wise.

You've got to create more margin than that. So it may be that you crank up your intensity. We keep gazelle intensity. We keep the foot on the gas through baby step three. And so I want to make sure we get that completely knocked out. And even if it's not 100%. But if you can get to three months of expenses which 15 000 will probably cover that i think you can probably get there um and then save your

down payment but you may be tutoring you may be working extra you may be doing some other stuff you may cut some other stuff out of the budget but two thousand dollars a month's not gonna get you there you're gonna be really slim at two 2000 uh and i gotta think maybe i'll wait a year if i can't uh do that so i'm with you i think you make the move but i think between now and august you guys go to the biggest cut budget the scorched earth that you've ever done in the name of making the move not just to get the emergency fund i mean if you wanted to not be quite as intense and build your emergency fund over the next eight months, that would be fine. But you don't want to make a move and after you pay the mover have $2,000 or $3,000 in your account. That's dangerous.

So let's crank it up here and let's make the move. David is in Tacoma, Washington. Hi, David. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, how's it going, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm in the military.

I'll be moving in about a year. My wife and I currently own our home here at Tacoma. We have about 130 left in principle, 130,000 left in principle. And we're trying to decide whether we should sell it when we move. Definitely. What's that? Definitely. Okay.

Don't keep it and try and rent it out? No, no. You don't be a long-distance landlord and end up with rental properties dotted everywhere you were ever stationed. This is not a property. I mean, you're sitting in another city two months two years from now and you're going why do i have a rental property in tacoma well it was by default it wasn't by plan and so what happens too often we work a lot with military folks we love you guys thank you for your service but what happens is every time you land and get stationed you buy a house then you end up

with um you know push pins all over the dad-blame United States where you've been stationed, right? Instead of having a portfolio of real estate right in your backyard where all of my rental property is within a 20-minute drive of my home, and I can go by and look at it and make sure it's still standing and stuff like that. I don't personally do the inspections anymore, but I do periodically drive by one of them just to see if it's still there and that kind of stuff. And yes, you can get professional management. Yes, all of that stuff. But you don't need a rental property, man. You're still trying to build wealth and you're trying to get yourself out of debt and that kind

of stuff. So I would sell that puppy for sure. Thanks for the call. Monica is in Newark, New Jersey. Hey, Monica, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. I am doing just fine. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Oh, Dave, so currently my boyfriend and I, I mean, we just recently got engaged,

so we're hoping to get married within the next two years. And so, I mean, we live just beside New York City, and personally I feel we should live together before we get married just because I feel we need to kind of feel out just kind of everything before we actually get married. And I've listened to a whole lot of your podcasts about the four actual, like, actual, like, tenants about what you should agree on before you get married, and we agree on about three of them. The only one we should actually work on is our in-laws.

And my actual question is, he is about to come into a big inheritance of about $300,000 from a court case that he's working on because he was actually hit by a distracted driver last year. He was on a motorcycle and he was hit by a teenage girl who was on her cell phone. Yeah, so he's about to get, his lawyer said a minimum of $300,000. And what he wants to do with it is pay off all of our debt, which I have $100,000 in student loans, and he has $20,000 in the car. And that's all that we owe. And he wants to pay that off and then start looking forward to our wedding and kind of our life together.

But personally, I would personally rather look to rent together before we actually get married. What is your question for me? So my question is, should we go into this mortgage? Because he wants to purchase an actual property. You should never buy a house with somebody you're not married to under any circumstances, ever. And husbands are not shoes. You don't try them on before you buy them.

That's not how it works. All the data and all the marriage research shows that people who do not live together prior to marriage have a higher probability of success in their marriage. Tons of research out there to back that up. It's not something somebody just made up. And so you don't combine finances. You don't buy houses with your roommate. And I wouldn't have a roommate until I was married.

You called me an ass, so you're going to get my opinion. That's the thing. And I just want what's good for you. I mean, here's the thing. How old are you today? I'm 26 and he's 29. Okay. When we visit the 46-year-old version of you, if she could talk to the 26-year-old version of you,

she would tell you the same thing I'm telling you right now. Date. get engaged, don't wait two years, get married quick, get married if you're going to get married. But don't get married until we're in agreement on those four areas, money, in-laws, kids, and religion. Do some pre-marriage counseling with a local pastor or a marriage counselor, something like that. Do all of that, and you increase your probability of success financially, relationally, in your marriage. That's what I would do, but I'm just an old guy. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, it's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for the show. You know, you can listen or watch anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone. Catch the full show or watch the highlights and check out Dave's upcoming guests. Head to the App Store and download it today.