The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Don't Believe What You Read on the Internet About Investing! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 22, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of BMW as the status symbol of choice. Chris Hogan, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225 as we take your calls about your life and your money. That's 888-825-5225.

Edwin in Greenville, North Carolina starts off this hour. Hi, Edwin. How are you? Hey, Chris. Hey, Dave. Thanks for answering my call. Sure. What's up?

So I'm 22 years old, and I'm trying to get back into college. Whenever the pandemic hit, I was doing my last year, and most of my family was put out of jobs. Now that it's been a year, everybody's gotten their jobs back or gotten new jobs. And I reached out to my advisor to see if I could re-enroll and finish up what I started. But he said that I could. If I did it any later, I would have to restart the program. So my question is... Wait, wait, wait.

What kind of a school are you in? It's East Carolina University. So East Carolina University won't sit on your credits more than 12 months. Horse crap. That's just what I was told. Edwin, I'm going to tell you, call a different advisor, buddy. Like, seriously, that is the most absurdwin. I'm going to tell you, call a different advisor, buddy. Yeah. Like, seriously, that is that is the most absurd thing that I've heard.

That sounds like a sales tactic. It sounds like them trying to rush you in to hurry up and get back preying on your emotions. So when are you supposed to start back in order to, quote, save these credits, according to this advisor? Between summer and fall, which is June or this august and what's tuition uh tuition for the last year is i'm pretty sure it's around uh six to eight grand i'm not uh fully sure but yeah that's just for okay so you know, number one, we've got to find out what the flip's going on. We don't know. So you need to know exactly what you need.

And let's pretend you're starting classes in June to finish up one year of school to get your four-year degree, right? Regardless of if this advisor's accurate or not on your credits, you're going to disintegrate. But let's pretend that's the case. And let's pretend that for discussion's sake, that as you look into it, you learn that it's $8,000 a year to go for the last year. So to do the next semester, you would need $4,000. Right? Right.

And this is February. You got until June to get four thousand dollars get to work right right right right now i'm uh doing a full-time job um that's playing about 20 a year and i'm staying out here uh and living off of that so far um i was just in there for i should do like student loans and pay as much as i could while i'm doing it or nope you need six jobs so that you have four thousand dollars extra extra laying around by June if $8,000 is what the actual tuition is as you look into it. You need to be doing Uber Eats, Uber Feets, all the other things that are out there at Home Depot. Listen, get after it, buddy.

And this is that mindset of you've got the first $4,000 is the first goal, right? That's the mindset that you're going to be in. And this, I'm serious, you're going to give up some sleep. You're going to give up a lot, but you're going to finish the degree and put yourself in a situation where you're going to be able to make more than about 20 grand. So it's just time, Edwin, to light the fire and to get more serious and to develop a game plan that clearly moves you in that right direction. And that means you're shutting down a lot of unnecessary stuff with friends because you've got a $4,000 goal. Yeah.

But here's the thing, dude. If you just wander into this and you don't know your numbers and you take advice from someone that you haven't checked out their advice to make sure it's accurate and you work 40 hours making 20 grand, you're going to end up with student loans. And then two years from now, the two-year-older version of you is going to be mad at the current version of you. And so don't do that. You know, it's time to get really sharp, really detailed, really precise, really goal-oriented, and develop some serious work opportunities of some kind out there.

Delivering pizzas, you know, six nights a week, five nights a week. You can make $1,500 a month, which is more than you make at your full-time job, by the way. And so, you know, you can do that right now, and you'll have the money to start school in the spring. And pay cash for it. And that's the only way we're doing this so that's what you got to move towards sir that's your best bet by far this is the ramsey show chris hogan ramsey personality is my co-host gerald is with us in charleston south carolina hi gerald how are you hello dave and chris appreciate you taking my call. Sure. So my question is, my wife and I are in baby step six,

and we are trying to, you know, attack a mortgage. And you talked about making sure that we don't go to sell intense on baby step six. Correct. So my question is question is you know we really want to attack this debt and and get rid of it but we also want to be able to enjoy some of the money absolutely so what would be you know a reasonable reasonable amount uh to be putting down towards the house and still able to enjoy would it be fair to say putting nothing towards the house is unreasonable, extra? Is that fair? Yes, it's fair. Okay.

And would it be fair to say that not enjoying your money because so much is going towards the house that it feels like it's gazelle intense and you're on beans and rice, rice and beans, right? That's not okay either. That's the other end of the pendulum. Do you understand? Yeah. Okay. Okay, either. That's the other end of the pendulum. Do you understand? Yeah. Okay, so we don't want to be unreasonable on either end. 100% going to fun, nothing going to fun. And baby steps four through six.

Anywhere in between there is called reasonable. So you decide. You can go 70-30, 50-50 50 how far through the pendulum do you want to go but you know so how much what do you what what you guys need to spend on fun okay how much money have we got left over to spend on fun and or the mortgage give me a dollar amount then we got to split up between fun and mortgage all right in total for the month, it's $7,200. Okay. Let's just call $7,000.

All right. So how much would you want to spend on fund if you really – and you know what? Don't give me the answer that you think I want. Tell me what you really want to do. How much do you guys really want to spend on lifestyle out of the seven i'll say a thousand not enough raise it 1500 and then go with the rest of it towards the mortgage i'm in i like it you can have a lot of fun on 1500 that's 18 000 a year of fun yeah so have, but keep making progress, baby.

The great news is, if you're asking that question, you already know the answer. Listen, this is important. Are debt collectors calling you at work? Are they reporting errors on your credit report? Folks, that's not just wrong. It's illegal. If you think you're being harassed, take a quick survey at collectionbully.com to determine whether you're a victim of illegal debt collection harassment. If you are, Collection Bully will help connect you to a consumer law attorney in your state to make the harassment stop. Learn more and get the help you need at collectionbully.com well if there's one thing 2020 has taught us about investing, it's this.

You cannot invest alone. You absolutely need someone in your life who knows the market better than you and helps talk you off the ledge so you make smart decisions when it gets rocky. Look, I love doing it myself. I love a do-it-yourselfer. But DIY investing, well, most people lack the experience to make good investing decisions they get emotional especially when there's a global crisis of some kind you invest in the wrong things you get caught up in trends you make rookie mistakes like bailing out

because the stock market's going to crash because of the pandemic and then it came completely back in 54 days yep uh and you missed out on 17 rate of return last year if you got out and if you got out at the bottom you missed out on what 30 or 40 percent rate of return yeah you don't need to do this stuff you need somebody in your corner not somebody tell you what to do but just somebody to go dude take a chill pill. Calm down over there. Stop reading the Internet. Because everything on the Internet is true. Abraham Lincoln said that.

So, man, people just make up stuff and put it out there. And these days, you know, they act like they know something. Let me just give you a clue here. If you're reading an article about investing on the Internet written by someone that calls themselves a journalist, you should stop. Because to start with, most of the people that today call themselves journalists aren't. They just make up crap and get clicks. Okay? They're not real journalists journalists there are some that are real and let's just pretend though that the person is a real journalist which means they went to school to be a journalist right not an investment professional right so you're now taking advice from someone who got a degree in english on your investing who has 125 000 in student loan debt

and this is who wrote the article living in their 20 and they're 26 years old they live in their mother's basement and so um you know don't mean, even if they're a real journalist. Right. There's a very high likelihood they're broke. Yeah. And they know nothing about investing. And so, please, God, don't read the internet. There's nothing on there.

There's just, I mean, the weather is not even dependable on the internet. It's not dependable anywhere. No, it's not. I mean, you know, I check the Weather Channel, and pretty much if it's on social media, it's a lie. So many things I have said and done this year in the last 12 months on social media, and the things you have done are horrendous. Oh, I don't know. It's horrendous what you've done.

Yeah, I know. I can't believe people just make up stuff. It's crazy. And so, you know, and I'm not talking about necessarily chris i mean i'm just talking about in general and so sit down when you're doing your investing this is your future get real information from people who really know what they're doing and then based on that, make your decision. But if you read some moron on the Internet who's writing about the coming collapse of the economy

and the fiat money, and oh my God, or the latest stock, or the latest craze. And I'm going to get, yeah, we're going to invest in shoes. Yeah, you do. You really want to sit down. We do this with dentists. We do this sit down. We do this with dentists. We do this with doctors. We do this with our cars.

And I really want to encourage you. I don't work on my own cars, and I used to. But the cars weren't worth a crap. And neither was I. And so, I mean, now I open the hood. I don't even know. What is that? Yeah, I open it and stare.

And I grunt. I make noises like I know what's going on. Yeah. The defibrillator and the thingy over there. Well, I used to, I mean, I'll tell you, cars had spark plugs when I used to work on them. Okay, that's how long ago it was. But anyway, I don't even know what connects. So it doesn't matter.

I don't even know how to get the covers off the plastic thing. So I don't pull my own teeth, and I don't work on my own cars, and I take investment advice. And I'm America's voice on money. And I take investment advice. And I don't read the Internet articles to come up with my best view of life based on which I make my investment decisions. I hope we're through with this.

Okay. So never again. Text the word invest to 33789 and get with one of our smart investor pros and they will give you they're not going to tell you what to do they're going to teach you and you're going to know what to do based on calm real wisdom yep and i'm going to tell you at the last break we have some people in the lobby dave that told me that they read Retire Inspired and took the advice in there, and they retired at age 57. And they're everyday millionaires.

They had, listen. They didn't say. Again, taking advice. They're staring at me right now. I'm looking at them. I'm so proud of them. No, I really am. Because, again, wisdom means you talk to people that have knowledge that you don't have.

You work the plan. You stay focused on the plan. You make sacrifices. And guess what? You get to reach some goals. You get to do some things that you only dreamed about. And that's the difference between talking about it or being about it. And I want more people to be about it.

And so if you're out there, you need to get started. Talk to an investment professional. Have them review what you have right now. The number one way people build wealth is slow and steady. There's no sex appeal to that at all. There's nothing that makes you angry about that. There's nothing that makes you excited about that. There's nothing that changes your pulse rate. And so articles that are written to do that don't get lots of clicks people that write for clicks write for drama and they make crap up

and they don't know what they're talking about in a lot of cases they pull something out of context and they move it over there just to get you pissed off on the political front on the racial front on the financial front the conspiracy theory front and they just you know and then they post something on youtube and it's all about emotion because emotion drives clicks and clicks are where you make your money when you write in that world and so the truth or wisdom neither one enter into the equation. And so just quit reading that crap. No, you really do.

Stop it. Yeah, you have to turn it off just so you're able to think clearly and understand exactly what's going on with you and your future. And so, again, it's just called wisdom. When discussing your investments, your pulse rate changes, you have the wrong plan. Yes. Yes. You have a wrong plan yes yes you have the wrong plan you don't need to feel fear coming up or anger coming up or anxiousness coming up out of your stomach into

your heart towards your throat no you don't need that means you have done the wrong thing or you're about to do the wrong thing as As soon as I get desperate, right after I get desperate, 100% of the time I get stupid. And right after I get stupid, I get broke. It has happened to me so many times. When I get mad or I get desperate and I'm highly emotional and I make decisions on that, it causes stupidity followed by a lighter wallet. That sounds like triplets, desperateperate, stupid, and broke.

It really is. Daryl and his other brother, Daryl. But you know that we do stupid crap when we are upset. Yeah, we do. And when we believe bizarre things, it causes us to engage in bizarre actions. And bizarre things are what get the clicks. And so when you read, you know, I watched the Tiger Woods documentary on HBO. Complete hit piece on him.

And, you know, I've had so many hit pieces done on me over the years that I watch that thing and I go, okay, I don't know Tiger Woods. I don't know. I could. I mean, obviously, he's famous, but I do not know what happened. I don't really know what happened in his life, in his personal life. Obviously, some crap went down. There's no question about that.

But I don't really know. But I know enough about HBO to know that they didn't tell the whole story. Right. They had an agenda. Yeah. And then I watched another documentary on Tiger last night on the Golf Channel, and you would have thought he was a freaking superhero. Two different people.

They're not even the same guy. I don't even know where they got the stand in. Two different stories, two different motives. But one is about getting clicks. Yep. Actually, both of them are about getting clicks. Yeah. They really are.

Just in two different settings. Yep. Two versions of what those people think are the truth, and neither one are. Yeah. Imagine the day you submit the last payment on your debt, and you finally have extra money to spend and save how you want. For some of you, that day feels like it will never come. I get it. I've been there.

But it doesn't have to be that way. It's a new year and it's time for a new way of thinking. You have to believe you can get rid of debt and take control of your money because you can. And it won't take nearly as long as you think. With Ramsey Plus, you'll learn practical ways to get small, quick wins that add up to big results fast. We'll help you put more money back in your bank account so you can get where you want to be faster, debt-free and spending your money without worry.

This year, you can make more progress on your debt and savings than you ever thought possible, and you can start today. Get Ramsey Plus so you can start living the life you want faster. To start your free trial of Ramsey Plus, text co-host today Pedro is with us in Kansas City it says on my screen Pedro you're debt-free congrats thank you sir I'm honored to be here we're honored to have you how much have you paid off in months, I was able to get out of my mess. It was $49,472.02. Wow.

And what was your range of income during that 15 months? In the beginning, it was $55,000. And then at the end of the year, last year when I got out, it was $67,000. 67. So what did you do to increase your income that much? I got out, it was $67,000. 67. So what'd you do to increase your income that much? I got out of my apartment. My sister was helpful enough to let me move in with her. So I sold pretty much everything besides my clothes.

I picked up some side hustles, working at Home Depot, unloading trucks. TaskRabbit was one option that I looked at through your website. I tried that for a little while. Did some Uber driving, and then the one that kind of stuck the longest was teaching English online. Ah, that's a good income. Yeah. Very good.

What do you do for a living? I'm a school counselor. All right. Very cool. Yeah, Pedro, so what was this debt, this $49,472.02? What did you pay off? It was more of what wasn't a debt. It was car, credit card consolidation, more credit cards, food loans, some medical payments, and then I had eye surgery as well. Wow. What'd you sell?

I sold furniture. I sold TVs. I sold art that I had available in the apartment. Pretty much everything that I had was sold off. What did it bring? What was the total? It wasn't much. I never really had much. So I'll say a couple of thousand was from selling the belongings from my home. So most of this was just all the extra jobs and tight budgeting?

That's correct. That's amazing, buddy. What caused you to wake up and say enough's enough? I guess God brought somebody into my life and that individual was very well managed with her finances and came from a different culture that was a lot more about, you know, being a good steward of your money. And she had also been listening to the show for a while. So when summer came around and she introduced me to the Total Money Makeover, I spent some

time over the summer reading it. I realized that it was a lot easier to manage things through common sense and making some lifestyle changes than to living my life in an unmanageable way. How old are you? 34. Cool. So you're dating this girl? We were.

We got engaged, and in the last couple of months, we decided to go our different ways. Oh, that's sad. Sorry to hear that. Wow. Thank you. Man, I'm telling telling you i am so proud of you you have busted it at least you got one good thing out of the whole process you completely changed your whole life i did i did between between the the health that she brought into my life and god's work into my life i also decided to to become a Christian, and I'm very glad that that happened.

My life trajectory and my legacy has completely changed. Wow. You've had a busy year, my man. Yes, you have. It's been busy. It's been busy, and that's the piece that was really interesting. You know, you become, as you say, very weird to a lot of people. You know, when you change your lifestyle completely in this way to make this happen you become very different in front of everybody man when you got common sense it's

like having a superpower in our culture today that's right that's right pedro have you at any point in your life ever been debt free i have not i have not that's the piece that is really interesting for me is in the beginning understanding that that I'm about to answer the unknown. I faced the fact that I had compiled nearly $50,000 of debt. And for me, I do believe that mismanagement of my finances was connected to my emotions and my emotional state. And so it was like me letting go of this was me letting go of a coping skill that I've used all of my life to deal with my emotions. So that unknown was really hard. And now that I am that free and having to imagine a life that is healthy is also unknown. So no,

I never have. And it's a really weird feeling. Well, brother, I tell you, congratulations. You just realized you're debt freefree in a couple of ways. Attacking and getting the debt out of your life, but also becoming a Christian. You've transformed everything, man. Yes, you have. The debt is just a small part of everything that happened to you. You're impressive.

100%, and that's God's work. It's the people that came into my life, and the partner that I had at that time was an amazing, amazing support system for me and and i'm extremely glad wow wow wow wow well way to go all right now let's back up when someone hears you said you're how old again 34 and you sold everything everything you took six extra jobs. You worked your butt off. What would you tell people the main thing that you did?

I mean, obviously, you created some extra income. You lowered all your expenses. And that gave you the margin to attack with. But what's the one or two things that everybody needs to know if they want to get out of debt? For me, it was just surrendering, man, recognizing that I had a toxic relationship with money, recognizing that I did not have the self-awareness to deal with this by myself, and looking for people, including this program,

that can provide me with something that I don't have on my own, and then trusting to follow the process and holding on tight. It was fun. I think you grew up on that. Well, go ahead. Finish up. I was just going to say that it was funny that as soon as I got out of that, I decided to move out of my sister's apartment and got my own apartment,

and then I got myself in that again for a short period of time, because it was, again, that was my finances is connected to my emotions. So as soon as I got free on my own and dealing with some of my own feelings, I went right back to that unhealthy coping skill again. Um, so for me, the key for me is paying attention to my emotions, you know, like, Hey, I'm entering this toxic relationship with money again. I'm medicating. So just kind of being self-aware and going back to what I know to be healthy for me now. Sounds like you grew up 10 years in one year.

I needed to, man. I needed to. Yeah, me too. Me too, brother. I'm so proud of you. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? My partner, Natalia, and then surrounding myself with other Dave Ramsey people. It was funny that evening, that relationship, she would also say, like, what would Dave say about this?

You know, you're not listening to me. What would Dave say? So you were also a cheerleader in your own way. Yeah, that's what some people call it. I was in a triangular relationship with my partner in New York at the same time. One too many sock books. Okay. Oh, man.

Hey, Joe, proud of you, buddy. Well done. And I want to encourage you to journal very well journal that journey but you need to write all this down before it slips away because this is a very important year in your life it's very impressive listening to your story the growth curve is really really steep very well done thank you we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you every day millionaires not any doubt that that's now the trajectory you are on sir all right it's pedro forty nine thousand dollars paid off in 15 months making 55 to 67 in kansas city count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one i am that free yeah wow don't you what a story you start hearing about those

finances being connected to emotions the need to grow up the need to get better people around you not in the process meets god meets the there's a reason we're here oh yeah changes everything wow that's impressive pedro wow buddy wow very impressive what a growth curve you know that it's not unusual i mean we've had folks on here that lost 100 pounds while they're getting out of debt not because they starve themselves but because discipline begets discipline yep and when you get this idea that i don't have to be perfect i just got to be heading in the right direction. That's right. And don't stop when you're heading in the right direction. Even if you fall down, get back up and do it again.

That's right. Even if you take a step back. Yep. He did. Yep. And got back in. And you recognize how you did that. Wait a minute, I don't want to do that anymore.

I'm not doing that anymore. I don't do that anymore. Nope. Not anymore. And that changes. I mean, Craig Groeschel talked about that in his talk on Reset. Yeah. How powerful that is.

He said, we're training, we're not trying. We're not trying. I love that. If you've not watched the Reset of it, get over there and check it out. Yeah, jump on DaveRamsey.com and find that thing. It's pretty incredible. It's eye-opening. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Psalm 107.9, for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul.

He fills with good things. Think about Pedro from a minute ago. Gerald Ford said, never be satisfied with less than your very best effort. If you strive for the top and miss, you'll still beat the pack. Yeah, because they're sitting on a couch. Talking about it. The pack is a low bar. That is a low bar.

Beating the pack is a low bar. Shelby's in Jackson, Miss. Hi, Shelby. How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm good. I'm a Dave Ramsey baby, and I'm very appreciative of your advice over the years after my mom for exposing me to your teaching.

Well, thank you. I'm going to jump right in. I have two questions. Some background is I'm 25 years old and my net income is $110,000. Wow. And I'm debt free on everything but my house. Wow. Yes, I'm very blessed.

But anyway, so my first question is about the home that I own in Midland, Texas. I rent it out, but I'm pretty sure you're going to tell me to sell it. I have $193,000 left on my mortgage, and I currently rent an apartment in Mississippi for $850 per month. I'm wondering if it's financially wise to keep renting and putting off buying a house in Mississippi. And then my second question is about my savings. Why would you do that?

Why what? Why would you rent and never buy? Not never buy. I just have felt a little intimidated, I guess, by the fact of buying here. I work on a rig in Midland, and so I still have to travel out there two weeks, every other two weeks. Why are you in Jackson? For keeping a house.

Because I can live wherever with my job. And this is where my family is. Oh, okay. All right. So you work on a rig in Midland, Texas, two weeks a month? Yes, sir. And then the other two weeks you have off? Yes, sir.

And so when you go to Midland, where do you live or where do you stay? At the rig. At the rig. So this house is just a rental income right now? Correct. What's it worth? It's worth about $230,000. And you said you owe $110,000 on it?

$193,000. Okay. Yes, sir. Yeah, I'd be selling that. That's not good enough equity to be anything but problems. Yeah, I was pretty sure you were going to say that. Because as soon as the renters stop paying, Shelby, guess what? You're still responsible.

And you don't make enough when they are paying to make it fun. There's nothing fun here. There's no fun any time of the year. There's definitely nothing fun yeah yeah and so are you reluctant to buy in jackson because your family's there no she just she's gone all the time and how old are you yeah i'm just gone a lot i'm 25 okay so let's let me ask you this all right what is your long-term career plan. Like when you're 35, what are you going to be doing? I plan on doing the same thing. I don't plan on it changing because if I went to an office job,

it would require me to move, you know, to like Dallas or Houston. Okay, so it is paramount in your decision-making that you stay in Jackson near family. That's your primary filter by which you're making the decision, it sounds like. Is that right? Nothing wrong with that, by the way, but is that right? That's correct. Okay. All right. So you're going to stay in Jackson, whether you go work the rig

or whether you work somewhere in Jackson. Correct. Okay. But the rig, working the rig is good money, I money i suppose very good you said you're making a hundred and something so it it matches with my major yes sir 110 okay all right um yeah i would sell the house that that you left behind at the other place to start with and i would continue to rent for right now because you're not there what i would do is just set yourself a goal and say every 24 months have something that pops up

in your uh email inbox or in your calendar that reminds you to think about do i need to buy now oh don't worry my mother reminds me like okay there's that that's a different kind of tickler but that's great all right so uh but you know if you said all right i'm not gonna buy for two years i'm gonna see what happens and see if you're still making this same decision if what you described to me is still what you're doing the 35 years old that you are still doing this exact routine, two weeks over there, two weeks back in Jackson, then I would buy probably a condominium in Jackson.

Because that way you don't have to worry about maintenance and problems when you're gone for two weeks. The pipes don't freeze and you've got a problem. You don't have to mow the grass. You don't have to deal with the exterior stuff of a single family and get you something where you're at least involved in ownership and it's going up in value right and for that matter once you get the house in texas sold if you are sure enough that you're going to continue the game plan that you're on today for at least three years you might want to go ahead and look at condos now but it's not

the end of the world i don't want you to be 30 and not own okay because i want you to because rent is going to do nothing but go up because real estate's going to do nothing but go up and i'd rather you ride the ownership up than the rent up agreed agreed long term, it's a bad plan. Short term, it's okay. So somewhere before 30, if you're still doing this, you probably ought to be an owner. And I might do it. I might go ahead and do it when that other property sells while these interest rates are low if you can find the right condo. But I don't want you to run around crazy like if I don't buy, I'm somehow screwed up my whole life. There's no rush in this.

That's where people make their mistake. They get all hot and bothered about ownership. And I want you to be an owner. It's a good part of your financial plan. It's a good part of personally being stable to own your own property and those kinds of things. It just stabilizes a lot emotionally in your life, everything else. And if you're going to stay there because of family, period, end of sentence, over, then, yeah, you ought to buy there because you're going to somehow be living there.

I mean, you're going to be working somewhere, but you're going to be living there. Yeah, and she's making a strong income, Dave. Yes, she is. And, you know, you can tell she's been you've been very focused shelby in your planning and you do need to be working towards something that's how you're wired you're wired to be an achiever and so keep putting those goals out there keep staying focused and keep pushing yourself ian is in canada hi ian how can we help hey dave and chris thanks so much for taking the call sure um okay so i'm getting married in June, Lord willing.

Yay. Thank you. We're waiting to buy a home and combine finances to last the wedding. Good. Once we do, we'll be worth about $1.2 million combined. Wow. So I'm 32 and she's 27, and we make about $300K a year. Wow.

But I still feel like we can't really afford a nice family home or even a townhome where we live. So the market kind of exploded since last summer, and a 1,500-square-foot house is selling for like over $1.2 million. So I'm struggling. I don't want to be a perpetual renter, but I also don't want to grossly overpay for a house. So what are your thoughts on kind of timing the housing market and what would you do in this particular situation a very similar discussion we were just having is um anytime you get where your emotions are driving you to rush on a real estate purchase you're getting ready to buy the wrong thing for too much at the wrong time and so i'm afraid the market's going to outpace me so i got to dive into dive into something that I know in my heart is ridiculous, but I'm diving in anyway.

You know, that's not a plan. So I don't know exactly what the answer to your equation is on where you get something, whether that market will soften or whether it will correct. I don't know much about Toronto real estate, like nothing. So it's a fairly easy bar for me to just go i'm completely freaking ignorant about that market but in general if you're in a major city and toronto is obviously a major city the further you move away from the city center that's where more prices drop that's right and so uh you know out in the country so to speak in air quotes um is always where there are cheaper per square foot prices and the closer to the center of the city that you are, typically, the more the prices are.

So that's one way to solve it. The other way to solve it is to, quote, try to time the market. And you'd have to really be a student of that market and say, has it ever really corrected down that far? Because a lot of markets have never corrected down as much as people think they have in their heads. So I would want to really know why I was timing it because there was a time in the past that that would have worked.

And don't let FOMO cause you to have no more money. See what I did there, Dave? Gotta be smart. Gotta be smart. Drop in a one-liner right at the end. That's good. James Childs and Kelly Got to be smart. Drop in a one-liner right at the end. That's good. James Childs and Kelly Daniel, thank you for a great show today. I am Dave Ramsey.

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. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.