The Ramsey Show - App - Dare To Be Different! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author and co-host of the super popular Smart Money Happy Hour on, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author and co-host of the super popular Smart Money Happy Hour on the Ramsey Networks is my co-host today. Also my daughter. Phone number 888-825-5225. Victoria starts this hour in Portland, Oregon. Hey Victoria, what's up? Yeah, hey Dave and Rachel. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. How can we help?

Yeah, my fiance and I are getting married in July. Just this week, we started your Financial Peace University. And within the last month, we've been meeting weekly to go over our personal budgets through the EveryDollar app. Just for personal debt, my fiance has about $4,000 left on his student loans that should be paid off in two months. Cool. My fiance is a contractor. He owns a construction company. He brings home about, not brings home, but his salary is about $65 annually. I work full-time. I have a side business that I recently started with my employer, and I bring home the same amount.

You guys are doing great. Congratulations. Thank you. My question is, how should we approach business debt? Who has business debt? We both do. So my fiancé has business debt. He has about $180. On what?

What did he buy? On a lot of equipment. So he has an excavator, two trucks, dump trailer, a loan, and a credit card. And there may be another loan. Okay. And what about you? I'm not recalling. Yeah.

So for me, mine might be a little bit unique. My business partner, who is my employer, she has funded $30,000 into it, into the business. I'm sorry. Your business partner is your employer. Those things are inconsistent. Well, you're like day job, and then you guys started a business. Is that right?

Correct. Oh, okay. Outside of my 40 hours. And so that person put $30,000 into the business that you started together? Correct. How is that debt then? They invested into it. Well, I guess it's not really then, is it? Because I'm not paying it back right now.

You're not supposed to. Is it supposed to be repaid by the partnership before profits come out or something? That's how I've always assumed is that he would get paid back. Do we not have an agreement as to how it will be paid off? I guess for that one, no, we don't. You need to get one by the end of the weekend. Okay. We need to know what's going on here. This is the kind of stuff that destroys partnerships and businesses okay she has one set of expectations and you have another and then all of a sudden the

thing gets blindsided so you guys need to determine that very very quickly usually it would be something like a percentage of the profits go to the debt until the debt is cleared okay that would be a normal thing and until there's profit they take profit there wouldn't be any it's not dead and until their investments their investment is recouped is really actually the terminology okay okay now over on his side he needs to quit buying equipment yep yep as of uh correct correct and he's on board with that, not buying additional equipment. Yeah, he's got way too much. He may need to sell some. Now, he took a salary of $65,000.

What was his actual profit? I don't know. So next week in our budget meeting, we're going to be going over his business, and then I'm actually going to be set up taking quick book classes and i'm going to be taking over that for his business to start helping out okay all right so um probably i do know probably we need to find half of that debt in equipment to sell because i don't think his business i don't think he's got another hundred thousand coming out of that business so i don't think he's got another $100,000 coming out of that business. So I don't think he's making much money considering the amount of debt he has.

So I'm scared. $180,000 on a $65,000 net is really scary. Right. That's what I mean. $80,000, I can see my way to work through that. So I'm selling about half of this stuff give or take and you know try to get try to get a bunch of the debt paid off that way now then let's let me give you one other nuance and then let's address your question okay the nuance is

this they're technically in both of these situations are not business debt because he signed personally for that equipment. Right. The bank doesn't think he has a business. The bank thinks it's him. The law thinks it's him. And you didn't borrow money, so you don't have that. You have an investor that has a recoup plan on the investment before you guys divvy up profits or as you divvy up profits or something.

You've got to figure that out. But his equipment is personal debt that he uses for business. That's the legal technical thing. That does matter because, you know, it's him that will be bankrupt if this goes sideways, not his business. That's what matters. So now once we said all of that, then we say we're going to get the quick books going you're doing very good stuff victoria you're asking all the right questions you're doing

all the right things congratulations and you've got good answers to everything so far um now when you're doing the quick books what we suggest when i'm teaching our entree leadership brand and he can start listening to the entree leadership podcast if he wants to as if he wants to learn business stuff from us. It's how we teach small businesses to grow their business like we grew this one. When I find that they have debt, I do it differently than I do with your personal credit card debt. Okay? Okay.

What we do there is we say, after he makes a basic living wage out of the business, which now he's getting married, he might make that be $40,000. Because put with your income, you guys can probably make it at home if he's doing that. Everything after that, we're going to call profit. So pretend like he was just a manager at this business and got paid $40,000 and I was the owner. Then whatever was left from a keeping books standpoint, income minus expenses, including the $40,000 manager, is net profit. You know that, right?

Right. Okay. So of that net profit figure, whatever it is, and you can adjust the salary to be whatever you want it to be, but of that net profit, I want the vast majority of it each month to go to debt reduction and the rest of it to go to retained earnings, which is business talk for savings account. Okay. Okay. Now, so most companies will do something like 70-30 or 80-20.

So like 80% of your net profit after you take a living wage goes towards the debt. 20 goes to build up your retained earnings because you have to have some cash in business to operate. And how much, like how many months of that would be of retained earnings? No, no, no, no, no. He's going to every month take a percentage. Every month take a percentage of the net profit, whatever that is. A bunch of it, 80%. Set the formula ahead of time.

Y'all look at that and figure it out. 70%, 80%, whatever is going to go to debt. The other is going to go in retained earnings. If retained earnings gets too big, you know, you got too much money in the bank, reach over and pay off a piece of equipment right but i don't think that's going to happen i don't think that's going to be your issue you're probably going to be short of cash with the formula i'm giving you you're probably not going to have as much as you want especially now that you can't borrow money anymore to buy more

equipment you're going to want cash to do that after you get the other equipment paid off but that's a formula that'll work for you i think you guys are on the track to success well done this is the ramsey show rachel cruz ramsey personality is my co-host today cassie is with us in denver hi cassie welcome to the ramsey show hi thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I'm looking for advice on how to improve my relationship with my husband as we struggle with burnout and the feeling of equity during baby steps two and three. So we've been doing the baby steps for eight months and had our first baby seven months ago. And prior to that, it was easy to feel like equal contributors to the household and relationship, which is important to us.

But now he's working extra and I'm doing more at home with the baby, even though we're both working really hard. It's just hard to get that feeling that we're both in the same spot. We're both dealing with the burnout right now and we're just kind of looking for any advice you guys might have. You're not burnout. You have a new baby. Yeah. It's really hard. I'm keeping one of my grandkids tonight. It's hard.

Yeah. I'm keeping the littlest one. It's hard. Yeah, because they take up a lot of energy they can't do anything can they they're completely helpless yeah and i guess you know me taking on more of the household stuff i i'm feeling a different burnt out than he is yeah well you got a brand new thing you've never had this gig before right if you guys weren't working baby step two and three just having a newborn it ain't no picnic yeah and it's a different kind of exhaustion yeah what you're doing you never sleep right yeah it's that and it's just uh yeah i mean it's yeah it's a lot it's a lot of stress

uh how much debt do you guys have left uh 39 000 okay Do you guys have a timeline on when you think it'll be paid off? So we're actually, we know we're getting inheritance, probably $50,000 to $60,000 this summer, but we're trying to live like we're not getting that. Yeah, that's smart. Trying to make the sacrifices now so we don't go back into that. And then also, we don't have a house. So the end goal is a down payment for a house. The more you can pay off, the more the inheritance can go towards the house. I love that. Yeah.

Exactly. That's a good goal. Yeah. Okay. So the way, number one, we have brand new baby is a different kind of thing. I'm not poking fun. I'm empathizing. It's a real, you've got, it's one of the toughest times for exhaustion and a different kind of fatigue

than you'll ever have any other time in your life okay as a matter of fact every day it gets better yeah after this it really does through the night last night yeah there you go i'm not see i'm not kidding every day gets better it's precious and it's wonderful but it's exhausting and so it's a different kind of thing than just we're working our tails off to get out of debt it's wonderful but it's exhausting and so it's a different kind of thing than just we're working our tails off to get out of debt it's also a different kind of thing because your body's adjusting after having had a child and so that the physical attributes of that um affect this discussion too in a very real way and that's wonderful too but it's also a very real part of

the chemistry of what's going on. It's just tiring. Yeah. It's just tired. You get tired. Yeah. Cass, so your husband, are you working outside at all, the home? Are you, are you there full-time? Oh yeah. I work, I work full-time too. And, and so, yeah. Do you, have you guys sat down? Cause even my husband and I, we did this when I was working and we had kids where it was like what what are the things around the house that I need help with that I feel like oh my gosh like I can't do all of this and where are the areas that he could step in right and it's and everything's for a season life is going to change when when you know even if you have a second baby it just it changes the dynamic again um but have

you guys sat down and had those conversations because i think to the responsibility at times especially if you're a driver as a like a you're a strong driver as a woman it can feel like oh yeah i'll just take care of it all i can do it and asking for help is really difficult and so have you guys sat down and talked about that yeah we have and it's honestly gotten better than since i originally wrote in already it's improved from talking okay good i think it's it's hard because he works a physical job and mine's a desk job and then we just start getting into that whole yeah it doesn't matter i think the relaxing yeah no no i think that's where you start splitting hairs because and there's a different type of exhaustion to all of it you

did a physical thing having a baby. Well, and her job, but her job is a desk job. I know, and then you're at work all day and then you got a baby. Yeah, I'm like, it's kind of all like we're all in this together. It's not this scorekeeping of, well, you do this kind of job here and I do this. And you know what I mean? Like it can get into that. And I think it's kind of this like whole mindset of like we're both exhausted so what is the plan of action for us to

get through even just day to day the basics and necessities of stuff and feeling some level of that control in the household because I can because it is chaotic I mean it's it's really difficult but when you have that stuff laid out and I think that's what Winston and I did we kind of blew up the whole like responsibility roles and responsibility of what we kind of thought and kind of assumed each other and for a short period of time we're going to make it whatever it needs to be yeah yeah it's kind of all hands on deck feel and we could change it back and forth and we could do it for two weeks and change it again yep but um I think you're you know when you said cassie y'all sat down and started talking about but i i want to give you um permission i i don't think it's burnout i think it's just tired yeah okay burnout is i don't emotionally that there's no light at the end of the tunnel except

an oncoming train you actually see your way through this you're just freaking tired yeah that's fair yeah and and sometimes when you have to pick up something out of the floor or take out the trash or something because he went to sleep because he just worked a 12-hour shift or something like that you know it's easy to it's when you're tired you get grouchy. At least I do. I'm grouchy sometimes when I'm not tired. A little bit today. So, but yeah, the, you know, see what I'm saying? So, I just want to give you, I want you guys to give yourself permission to say, we are in a very unusual season of life.

Yes, it's a lot of grace. We're trying to do two very hard things at the same time get out of debt by working very intensely and deal with a newborn both of these are heavy lifting together it's really heavy and it won't be for long yeah okay and and then that helps me if i'm in if if i'm at the end of the game and i'm exhausted i got to run one more play i got to do one more thing i got to push one more mile to finish that run whatever it is i'm at the end as long as i can see the end i'm not burnt out i'm just tired yeah and you're there you can see the end

and you and and you've done a honestly from what you're describing I think you're both doing great I just think you haven't given yourself enough credit for how much crap you've been going through I mean how hard this is it's hard the only thing we've never and to your point Cassie marriage changes so drastically after you have a baby I'm like your your marriage looks different in a sense I'm like the lack of sleep connection, like all of that that you're talking about is so normal, so, so normal. So yeah, I would say even for you guys, like find a couple of things. I don't know, for us, it just helped levity. Like if we could just find levity and laughter and like things just to like relieve some of that tension and pressure that can build up, I think is really helpful.

Because you guys may not be at a place where you're like, oh yeah, weekly date nights. I feel like some people are like, do a weekly date night. I'm like, do you know how crazy our life is? Like we're not in a season to do that. But like, what's something fun? And Dr. John Delaney will probably kill me for saying this, but I'm like, even like a stupid TV show,

that it's like the thing that you guys do, you sit down together and you watch it makes you laugh. Like what's a thing that just can bring some levity to you guys, I think is always helpful, especially in these seasons. And if they're just now sleeping through the night at seven months, it's just it's exhausting. Yeah. You guys are doing a really good job, Cassie, and it doesn't last forever. But I know exactly how you feel because it's a lot. But it also helps to put the right language on it, and burnout's not the right language.

Tired is the right language. And by the way, you have a right to be tired. That's what we're trying to tell you. But it's also worth it, so keep going. Figure it out. Sit down sit down parse out the chores go honey tonight i just can't do this i'm going to bed i mean whatever or or yeah you gotta you gotta take the midnight you know i can't do it you know whatever and and you just go back and forth with that and you just work your way through till the end on this and you do you do figure out what you can do and what you can't do

and keep handing it back and forth, handing it back and forth until you get across the goal line. And you'll get there. You'll get there. I think you're probably a lot stronger than you feel like you are. Matter of fact, I'm sure you are. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today on the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions headquarters.

John is with us. Hey, John, how are you? Better than I deserve, Dave. Very cool. And where do you live, sir? Seattle, Washington. Very good. How much debt have you paid?

$59,696. I love it. And how long did this take? Three years, nine months, 27 days. All right. And your range of income during that time? $20,000 to start. And then after a lot of side hustles and a little bit of overtime, $60,000. Very cool. What do you do now? I'm a youth pastor and I'm also a financial coach part-time with your uh ramsey preferred coaching cool so dare to be different romans 12 too yep all right be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind amen yeah good i love it more of my favorite scriptures good for you well done well done well done what kind of debt was the 60 000,000. Student loans. Oh, baby. Youth pastor with student loans. Yep.

Making no money. Did you get out of school and looked up three years ago, nine months, and said, I got to do this or what? Yeah. So kind of like everyone, or I was a high schooler, didn't really have any plans. I jumped straight into student loans, went to a private Christian school, and didn't actually think about it. I was like, oh, signing. Okay, whatever. I don't really care what I was doing. Two and a half years in,

I'm in my dorm and I see this book and it's five college mistakes you can't afford to miss by Rachel Cruz and Anthony O'Neill. I was like, oh, that's a good book. And I looked at it and the first one of the chapters was college choice. It said public in-state versus private out-of-state and that's what I did and I was like oh no what did I do and I looked and I saw I accumulated 60,000 and I was only halfway through my degree so I just had this holy crap like full of shame full of hopelessness like what am I going to do and uh during my part-time college job I I was actually kind of looking and I scrolled upon a Dave Ramsey, you know, bald guy giving someone hope on YouTube. And I just jumped all in, just started consuming the podcast, the YouTube. And I realized, wait a minute, I can pay for my degree

online while working full-time. So I actually stopped. It was December 2019, right before COVID. So I did online before it was cool. That wasn't a plan, but everyone kind of followed my footsteps. Not really, but COVID happened. You started the fad. Yep. But honestly, the COVID pause

actually helped me kind of accelerate my debt payment. But I made $1,600 a month to start off and it was nothing. Wow. And $150 a month for groceries, Instacart, DoorDash, house sitting, cat sitting, anything and everything. But long story short, I even worked for a car dealership for part of it. But using Ken Coleman's materials, I realized I have a passion for helping high schoolers find and follow Jesus. And that became just really evident

through the Ken Coleman materials, just community speaking into my life, as well as, oh wait, I also have this passion for finances since finances is the biggest and common reasons for divorce. So I then kind of did that. So now I'm actually at a church, Bethany Puyallup. We do FPU, which I love

because I get to point my high schoolers to it. But a new thing now that I'm debt-free and I can do is every senior that graduates, I'm going to give a copy of the Total Money Makeover and say, hey, I was an idiot with money and I didn't follow God's ways of handling money. I was a terrible steward for his resources, for his kingdom and for his glory. Please learn from me. And to talk about what scripture actually says about it, to also like help them set them up for success and to like recognize that your decisions, you know, have, they impact your future. So that's what you're amazing. Well done, sir. So great. Well done. How old are you? 25. All right.

Very cool. Good for you. Good for you. Who was your biggest cheerleader while you were going through this? I had a bunch of cheerleaders, my mom and my sister. I got a list.

Dave and Sarah Stahosky, the rental house I'm allowed to stay in. My community group, the gouges for my landscaping job, accountability, Jeff Brink, Sean MacArthur, Matt Rand,

Noah Lilly, and Tony Duck. Almost like he knew I was going to ask you. He's got i was gonna ask you i have listened to so many of these we've had this conversation so many times um but i just wasn't on the other end um but one person in particular i have a guitar pick that says never give up pork chop and pork chop was my family uh middle name and um july 21st um this year uh my dad passed away oh my and um he was one of my biggest cheerleaders and um i got out of debt in october and he didn't get to see it and um actually actually he did you're right um but he sent me or anytime you were on fox News, Dave, he would like send me articles.

He's like, John, you're kicking this dead's butt. Keep going. And he he modeled for me, sacrificed growing up. And it was hard, man. I there were times I didn't want to wake up early, go landscaping and do all that stuff. But dad sacrificed for me and my sister growing up. So I had that picture, you know, Rachel says more's caught than taught and i got that from my dad wow and um that's amazing i miss him and i'm actually want to kind of dedicate this to him because um i really miss him but yeah you got the t-shirt done that's great i like it i like it i like the pic on there that's very cool so good stuff gosh so for you i, your dad's story integrated throughout this.

I know it was a difficult part of the journey. But for you being in your mid-20s, kind of figuring all this out and wanting to do something extreme like get out of debt, right? And all these student loans, what was the hardest thing? Like, what was it? The work? You mentioned the landscaping. Like, what was the thing that was like, man, that was the difficult part? what was it the work you mentioned the landscaping like what was the thing that was like man that that was the difficult that was the difficult part I think it was everything it was submitting to a process that's worked for millions of people and I think

the key for me well it was saying no working a lot like being okay with like I can't go skydiving or can't go on this can't do that but. But I realized it was like, you know what? I want to be 25 without any student loans. And I get to, I want to be a good steward of God's resources for his kingdom and his glory. And I want to model it, you know? And don't let anyone look down at you because you're young. What's an example for the believers?

Speech and life and love and faith and purity. And I want to do that for my students. But I think submitting to a process that's biblical, that's clear, that has clear set paths. And I think there's something about that that impacts your mental health, your finances, your relationships. And there's something about God's ways of handling life

that not just thinking about it, but actually doing it is really powerful and you get to reap the fruit that comes from it. It's awesome. It is. It cuts through. It cuts through quick and deep. Well done.

Proud of you, man. Thanks, man. Good work. Good work. I know your mama's proud of you, your sister's proud of you, and your daddy's proud of you. Well done. Thank you for your mentorship.

Excellent. Excellent stuff. Excellent stuff. Okay, so when someone says what's the key to getting out of debt, what do you tell them? Ownership. you telling ownership ownership I think ownership vision um for me like I realized I didn't really know what I was doing when I signed those papers but I did and I have to own that um but I'm you know I was the problem but now I get to tell my clients I was like hey you were the problem but good news you're the solution you know you can do it. And the power of the renewing of your mind, it's like,

yes, the decision is hard, but you can do it. You can rewire your brain. You can do not be conformed to the powers of this world. And honestly, dare to be different. I think we as followers of Jesus should be different in areas, every area of our life, not just our finances, but our relationships, our marriages, every area of your life. So our finances but our relationships our marriages every area of your life so that's why i wrote dare to be different um and do not be conformed to the patterns of this world so amen it's awesome well done sir thank you congratulations very well done all right john from seattle sixty thousand dollars in student loan debt paid off in three years and nine months, making $20,000 a year up to $60,000 with lots of side hustles. Yeah, don't tell me you can't do this. Those numbers, that's tough.

That's some tough numbers right there. Well done, sir. Very well done. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Yeah!

Love it! That's as good as it gets, boys and girls. Love it, love it, love it. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 13, 12, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Tommy Lasorda said, there are three kinds of people in this world, people who make it happen, people who watch what happens,

and people who wonder what happened. Elizabeth is in Colorado Springs. Hey,izabeth welcome to the ramsey show hello thank you so much i'm excited to talk to you all you too how can we help um we are facing in the next several months um some changes in our finances we have not lived on a written budget yet we've just kind of lived in our means but I am tired of being panicky every night, wondering where my money is. And just now going into this season of uncertainty, I don't know how to start building that budget. And what's the season of uncertainty again? Sorry, I may have missed that. Yeah. So we just had our third child. And right before she was born, we found out that our daycare provider is moving.

So now we have to enroll our kids in a new daycare, which is essentially doubling our daycare bills starting in July. We are also, any day now, going to start receiving these bills from the hospital. So we're just trying to figure out what those are going to be while also still paying off our debts and, you know, trying to provide for our family. Okay. Good news, Elizabeth. None of that is uncertain. It's all very certain. Okay. It's happening.

It's not like you can't predict it. You can know it. It may be hard, but it's not uncertain. It may be. you can know it it may be hard but it's not uncertain it may be and the amount may be uncertain with that with the medical bills do you i mean you know no it's not i mean you know you've got insurance and you can tally up what the what your copay is and figure out what your bills are going to be you shouldn't on a normal labor and delivery if you've got normal insurance you shouldn't have a huge bill there but it's not it's not one that's going to break your back but what it amounts to is just as you decided to tackle this you had three things

come at you that were extra well two one is i want to get out of debt that didn't come at you but the other two things came at you so um you know what you're saying is it's going to be it was really going to be hard to budget anyway now Now it's going to be super hard. Right. Not to budget, to make the budget work with the income we have. And so what you're going to have to do is look and say, there may be something that has to give. Like you landed on this daycare that's double, you may have to keep looking. That one may not fit your budget.

Right. Yeah, we're on the wait lists for other closer cheaper options yeah but the one that the one that you had was some kind of it was a friend or something what was it yeah yeah it was just it was a stay-at-home mom that just wanted pocket money basically so okay you got to keep looking for that yes to replace the one you got and then it's not double how old's your baby how old's the third uh she's three weeks oh wow okay yeah you just had the baby all right so yeah i think what happens is as you say all right we're gonna we're gonna lay out the written game plan and the written

game plan is food is first shelter is second lights and water is third. And then with what's left, we try to figure out all this other stuff, right? Okay. And so, because you will emotionally be in a better place if you know you have a place to live, the heat is on, the water is on, and there's food on the table. Now, the rest of it's a monopoly game and when will you go back to work elizabeth or are the other two older ones i guess they're still in daycare yeah they're still in daycare i go back mid-june um and then with that i'm going to keep home my oldest when the younger two go to daycare until she starts preschool which we also have to build

into the budget and like when she'll start in mid-August then. Wow, okay. So I think what we're saying is the good news is you're going to see all this coming and you're going to happen to it instead of it happening to you, but it is still going to be tight and it's going to be stressful, but not nearly as stressful as if you added chaos to it right so that is a relief yeah and i would find out for even like the as much as you can get the facts i think is helpful is but so even the medical stuff you're like oh my gosh the medical

bills are going to hit figure out how much those are and see okay as we if we do a payment plan like you know can we are we able to pay off you know x amount next month uh really, really specific. And even for you, because there's going to be so much change with you going back to work in June, another kid starts a different preschool in August, like even do, if you do the EveryDollar app, which if you hold on the line, Emily will pick up and we'll get you the premium version for a year. But go ahead and build out a couple of months of budgets, looking out, knowing that these months ahead, that the budgets will change. But at least you can kind of get a plan of like, okay, this is what it looks like here, here, and here. It is amazing when you

have facts down and those numbers are actually down on paper. It's not just in your head. It does give you peace. It gives you a lot of peace. Yeah. Okay. No, that's exactly what I need. Yeah. Because when you, again, when you know the house payment's paid, the lights and water's on and there's food on the table, then you can go, oh, okay. Now the rest of this is inconvenient. Now, we know that we can pay the medical bills and even the preschool and installments.

Is that considered debt? Should we try to pay that off? Yes. Well, no, preschool is not. Preschool is just you're paying it monthly. That's like paying your electric bill monthly. I mean, you're paying for it as you use it. But medical bills would be debt.

If you can clear it, clear it. Do you have any money saved? Yes, yes. Oh, yeah. We're fine financially. I just don't know what things are going to look like right now. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Well, the more you do what Rachel said and dig up that information and lay it out in a very certain way. Yeah. And Elizabeth, have you guys ever done a really detailed budget? Like how much we spend for groceries or out to eat, kids activities, like you're really line item by line item. Have you guys ever done that? No.

And that's always frustrated me and panicked me. Yeah. No. So even go back checklist item yeah and go back Elizabeth like the even in your bank accounts the last two or three months and just kind of average out okay here's all my grocery store runs and just take a sheet of paper and just write them all down and divide it you know and just say okay on average on average this is what we were spending at the grocery before we were budgeting right and plug those numbers in and then usually when you're not budgeting you're overspending in categories

not realizing it and then say okay if we really were on a plan what could I limit that to what could I shrink that down to right and so it's kind of just ends up being this puzzle piece but you'll go back you'll run some numbers look back at your checking account for gas how much you guys fill up on gas every month like it sounds so granular and detailed but it is so so helpful and with every dollar it's going to be attached to your bank account so when those transactions come in you just drag and drop them into a category and it does the math for you and it just shows you here's how much is left in the month and and just having that control like it is it's amazing it really is it'll take you guys a few months to get it down it won't be perfect um and you and your husband are both looking at these numbers and you're both

carrying the weight of the decisions in the household both of you are looking at it you may be the one that writes the checks or he may be the one i don't care but both of you are looking at it and saying oh if you're going to have an oh crap moment, we do it as a couple. If we're going to have a victory moment, we do it as a couple. How much do you guys make a year, Elizabeth? We make $220,000. $220,000. Okay.

And any debt? We've got $50,000 in a car, a home repair, and some land. Okay. And how much do you have in savings? About $25,000. Okay. Yeah yeah you guys are in great shape elizabeth i think you're i think you're doing better than you think you are but follow the baby steps throw some of that 25 000 once you get those medical bills and kind of know okay here's the medical bills when they come in yeah and let's start cleaning up the rest of the debt and build a good strong emergency fund in. In your case, it's probably $50,000.

So if you had $50,000 in the bank and no payments but a house payment and a written game plan where every dollar had an assignment and you and your husband had agreed to it, your stress level is going to go down 90%. That would be incredible. Yeah. That's why we call it financial peace. Yeah. You're really asking all the right questions yeah this is going to turn out well for you proud of you good stuff you're going to get it good for you well done well done well

done that's how you work a lot of new babies this show it was a baby show i know a lot of baby show a lot of ones but that's great and it is funny how those different how different life events can come up and then you look at everything and you're like oh my gosh i was stressed about that i want that to change i see this and then the domino effect of yeah of really helping your life overall it it happens it's a beautiful thing it's a very john deloney-esque thing there we go love it good job rachel that puts this hour of the ramsey show in the books we'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. I'll see you next time.