The Ramsey Show - App - Dave Sends Prayers to Those Facing Devastation in California (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 27, 2018

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Starting point is 00:00:00 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Have you ever seen the list, I haven't seen it in a couple of years, of ten things that if two or three of these things happen to you in a short period of time, the stress related to it would likely put you in the hospital. It's stuff like filing bankruptcy or getting a divorce or the death of a child or having your house burned down.
Starting point is 00:01:15 One of the most stressful and emotionally, it's one of the top ten stressful and emotionally draining things that can happen. It's your home. It's your home. It's your memories. It's your stuff that gives you comfort, your wedding pictures, your baby pictures, et cetera, et cetera. The videos of Christmases from 10 years ago, if you hadn't backed them up somewhere and your house burns down they're gone 14 000 homes
Starting point is 00:01:50 that's more homes than a lot of you have in your community it'd be like your entire community our county that we're in i I bet, doesn't have 14,000 homes. It might, but I don't know. But that's like wiping out an entire county in some areas. That's what's happened in California. The Camp Fire is California's deadliest, most destructive wildfire in history. The news channels have moved on and they're talking about other things. They find something trivial
Starting point is 00:02:30 in politics to go bananas over. 14,000 homes are gone. 85 people have been killed at least. There's 296 people still unaccounted for. It's 153,000 acres destroyed by fire. The Woolsey Fire in Southern California, destructive as well. Napa last year got it as well. This is a really devastating hit.
Starting point is 00:03:09 I mean, this is like Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast, hitting Texas. I mean, it's just unbelievable. The devastation is so thorough, and it leaves folks just in a kind of emotional shock. And we certainly are praying for you guys. We understand what you're facing. And I'm starting to get a handful of questions coming in by email from people in that area. And so what do you do if you face complete destruction in a hurricane, fire, or some kind of tornado, those kinds of situations? What do you do in those situations? Because it's not like your, you know, three to six months emergency fund is going to take care of all that, right?
Starting point is 00:04:02 Hopefully, you're in a position with that kind of destruction that you have insurance. And hopefully, the insurance company, they generally load up entire truckloads of claims adjusters to go to these areas. A lot of them are subcontracted even because they move around and do this. But a lot of them are trying to do a good job, and a lot of them are trying to do a good job. And some of them aren't trying to do a good job. So what do you do if the insurance company isn't cooperating? Well, you know, the first thing you're going to do, obviously, is document every step of the way and the number of contacts you've had with them and continue to climb the ladder up into the supervisors and so forth to try to get, you know, your basic needs covered because homeowner's claim of this size to behave, you've kind of got two options.
Starting point is 00:05:14 You can get an independent claims adjuster that works for you and get them to work on your behalf and or hire an attorney now um what you've got to do in these situations where they get you and honestly i've been around the fires not not not where there's 14 000 homes knocked out but where a customer has lost a home and they've gotten us involved from the financial coaching perspective enough to know that sadly the life the the insurance companies you know they really do not um intend to pay out everything that's due and you pretty much have to make them in a lot of cases now there's some of them that do a good job but um i think if you assume right off the bat that you're dealing with rattlesnakes it'll keep you from being bitten you can still be nice and kind and all that, and you can be persistent, but I think you assume that there's things that you don't know.
Starting point is 00:06:13 So a certified public adjuster is one way to get some representation on your side. But listen, you've got to go back, and if you have any copies of videos, if you videoed the inside of your house for instance for inventory purposes which is always a good idea for everyone to do and you keep that off-site at your bank you know or keep it somewhere other than that and a fireproof safe doesn't work in a fire of this type a fire of this type is so hot it'll melt a safe okay i mean you're not going to go in there and find video that works in something that got got that hot it's not going to work i mean a hard item might survive inside a safe like that but it's not going to you're not going to find video
Starting point is 00:06:58 that hasn't got that's gotten that hot and it works so anyway the point is you've got to make detailed, copious lists of everything. And you just sit and think of everything in every closet, on every wall, every nook and cranny. Every item is covered. And then, you know, once we get the check, how do we best use the insurance money? Well, you've got to decide if you're going to rebuild or not. If you had a mortgage on the property, the check will be made out. If you had a mortgage on your home, the check will be made out to you and the mortgage company, and it'll be used to rebuild.
Starting point is 00:07:37 You'll be hiring a contractor in conjunction with your insurance company to rebuild. Or it's used to pay off the mortgage if you want to do that and you own a lot you own a you know a subdivision lot which a lot of people will own a lot of subdivision lots so not going to be that great a thing to have that right now dave should we take out the fema loans if we need. Only as an absolute last resort. Try to do everything to avoid that. It sounds like it's wonderful, but it is a loan
Starting point is 00:08:10 and it has to be paid back and it'll bite you later. If our mortgage company offers forbearance, should we take it? Only if you have to because all they're doing is delaying the inevitable,
Starting point is 00:08:23 which is payments. The payments are put on the back end. So, again, it's kind of like borrowing money. So if you can pay your payments, keep paying your payments. Because you're not going to get it as a discount. It's going to be stuck on the back end. You're going to end up paying it. So don't do that unless you have to in these cases.
Starting point is 00:08:43 If you want to give to the fire, we're going to come back and tell you for the fire victims in a moment how to do that. 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 health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian
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Starting point is 00:09:53 chministries.org. So we're talking about the California fires and how you can give. Beware of scams on givinggiving, and highly emotional situations like this, and give only to organizations that you know well and trust. Be very, very careful with that. Samaritan's Purse is one that we always, Ramsey Family Foundation always uses. Good folks, we've known them a long time. Franklin Graham and the team just does a wonderful job, and they're always on site in a natural disaster
Starting point is 00:10:52 like this or a disaster situation like this as fast as anybody can be. And Samaritan's Purse, American Red Cross, obviously the Red Cross, and they are facing a severe blood shortage there as well, for those of you in the area that want to donate blood. And, of course, Salvation Army does a great job. That's three that we use and that we know. There's obviously others that do a good job.
Starting point is 00:11:17 If you have good knowledge of some of the local churches in the area, they will be hands-on and be very, very useful when you want to do some giving. But again, there's lots of scams that run around this kind of stuff, which is like the lowest of the low, but there is. So be very, very careful with that. Mike's with us in Sacramento, California. Hey, Mike, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.
Starting point is 00:11:43 Sure. What's up today? So I have a question about my finances. I just found you about a month or two ago. I really like the plan that you have set out, but it's just straightforward. It's easy to follow. Cool.
Starting point is 00:12:04 But I'm kind of in a unique situation, I feel like, compared to some other callers that I've heard you speak to. And so I just wanted to kind of get your perspective on maybe an option that I was thinking of that I don't know if it's a good idea or not. Okay. So when I was younger, I inherited some money, about $70,000, and I've grown that in the last 17 years to about, I guess, about $160,000. And so I have this $160,000. I'm currently in $20,000 worth of debt. I have three children that are six, four, and one.
Starting point is 00:12:50 And I own my home. I owe about $225,000 on my home. And so I'm wondering if it is a good idea to call money out to pay off my debt as well as give me six months in, uh, emergency fund. Yes. And, and then,
Starting point is 00:13:12 um, yeah, I was wondering if it's a good idea with the remainder of that 160 that I have, if I should just hold onto that for kids, and then that way it kind of just catapults them to where I don't have to save as much per month or year for each one of them, and it kind of helps me month to month as well. What is your household income?
Starting point is 00:13:42 I make about $100 a year. Good for you. And how many kids do you have? I have three. What ages? Six, four, and one. Okay, good, good. Okay, you can do, of course, whatever you want to do.
Starting point is 00:13:55 You've done a great job. You've been very careful and very intentional with this money. And I like, for all of my money that i'm managing for god to be on a mission i want it all to i want it all to have a label what's it doing what's it for it's for christmas it's for vacation it's for kids college it's for my home it's for i don't care whatever it is it just needs to have a mission money that's just laying there like this money kind of is right now uh unlabeled um doesn't usually work as hard it doesn't cause my me to live the life i'm trying to live even though you've done a great job with it and it's invested very well right but yeah it needs to have purpose so what would i do
Starting point is 00:14:40 i would walk you right up the baby steps which which means baby step one is $1,000. You've obviously got that. Two is $20,000 you're debt-free out of that money. Three, I'd have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses sitting in a money market account. Nothing fancy. And so that's going to use that money. Four is you start putting 15% of your income into retirement. That doesn't affect this money. Right.
Starting point is 00:15:07 And you'd start investing $15,000 a year in 401ks, Roth IRAs, et cetera, right? So that doesn't affect this money. But we've used up 20. We've used up maybe $40,000 of it, maybe 20 in the emergency fund, maybe 40 or maybe 20 to pay off the debt, right? So we're down we're down to like one you know we're down to like 120 now does that make sense now then we come to baby step five which is kids college and uh that's what kind of where you were asking the question
Starting point is 00:15:36 and what you had kind of accelerated up to uh you work your way through that to that point or that's how we would have done it it sounded like you kind of read at the same point i personally would like to have that box checked and say kids college is done and so that's kind of you could put ten thousand dollars yeah you put ten thousand dollars into a 529 in each kid's name this year and do it again next year and you probably just about be done with college i mean twenty thousand dollars as young as they are you can run the numbers with your smart investor pro but sit down with a smart investor pro and calculate out and say okay what would twenty thousand dollars invested for a one-year-old be when they're when they're 18 what would twenty thousand dollars for a six-year-old be when they turn 18? Okay, and is that going to be enough?
Starting point is 00:16:26 And if it's not, you can make it up later. You'll be really, really close, though. And, you know, if you did that in a 529 where you control the mutual funds that they're invested in, it's not prepaid college, and it's not some kind of fixed program autopilot investing crap. It's just good mutual funds in a 529 that are going to grow tax free If you did that That's $20,000 a kid
Starting point is 00:16:49 That's another $60,000 out of your $120,000 That gets you down to $60,000 In that account And you kind of just went gulp But it's money you had earmarked for your kids anyways What you were thinking All I'm doing is letting it grow tax free in a 529 So click on SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com.
Starting point is 00:17:07 Find a SmartVestor Pro in your area that you like, and they can help you around the actual calculations. And I think I would be done with Baby Step 5 or very close to being done with Baby Step 5 at that point, which then brings you on to Baby Step 6. I'm throwing the other $60,000 at your house, and then I'm just going to start chunking on this house and get it paid off and uh why because that's the shortest path to being a millionaire or multi-millionaire and as young as you are and as good a job as you've done um it kind of feels weird that that money's kind of all gone now it's not all gone it's in your kids names the college funds it's in the emergency fund and you know, and it's in your equity of your house. We didn't spend any of it.
Starting point is 00:17:47 We didn't blow any of it. It wasn't irresponsible. But I'm just going to get about the business of getting this house paid off, and that's going to be emotional for you because you've kind of been a mother hen sitting on this nest egg for a while. And it may be emotionally you may squawk a little bit in order to have that egg removed from the nest you know but it's not really being removed it's just being reallocated to accomplish better purposes um because i want to get my house paid off as fast as i can and as soon as you get it paid off dude you're going to be on your way big time when you're
Starting point is 00:18:24 sitting in sacramento california with paid for, you're going to be on your way big time. When you're sitting in Sacramento, California with a paid-for house making $100,000, you're on your way. And kids' college is done, check. Retirement's done, check. You know, I mean, you're rocking here. You got no debt. This is a good place to be. So that's how I would do it. It may, admittedly, take you a little while to get there emotionally and i i i can empathize with that but i still would do it it's exactly what i would do
Starting point is 00:18:50 if i woke up in your shoes and that does nothing except follow our plan the unique thing about your question is that you're just accelerated you just blew through all those steps like in one phone call you know one through five you know we're down to baby step six paying off the house early and you just boom you just knocked it out but you didn't really blow through it in one phone call you blew through it in the last 17 years by being smart and saving and investing well and watching that money behave making it behave so really good job man excellent job well doneoud of you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Identity theft has become an epidemic.
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Starting point is 00:21:16 Better than I deserve. What's up? So, my husband and I just last night, thank you so much for your program because we ended up just paying off the last of our loans. Yeah, we are super excited about it, too. So we're technically on baby step number three now. We had a question about baby step four just looking forward, though. We work for a company that matches what we put in for retirement. Great. And so we're wondering, on step four, when you increase what you put into your retirement to 15%, does that include what our company matches?
Starting point is 00:21:52 No. It's what you put in 15%. The match is just gravy on the biscuit. That's that much more. Perfect. And your rule of thumb is you do match before Roth before non-Roth. Okay. Do you have a Roth 401k at your company?
Starting point is 00:22:12 We have a 403b. A 403b. Do they offer it as a Roth? They do not, no. But we did. Okay. And what you'll do is both of you at the same place? Yes.
Starting point is 00:22:24 Okay. Then you do up to the match of you at the same place? Yes. Okay. Then you do up to the match. How much is your match? 6%. First 6% is matched one to one? Yes. Okay. So that takes care of 6% of our 15 because both of you are doing it.
Starting point is 00:22:37 So we know that. Okay. And just take your total income times 0.15. And that's the dollar amount we're trying to get to but we've got six percent of that done at the match then i would do roth iras next because that's better than non match better than non-matching traditional which is what your 403b is okay so i'll tell you but the matching is a hundred percent ready to return before you do anything. So you definitely do that.
Starting point is 00:23:07 Mm-hmm. Then you do two Roth IRAs, and that would be $11,000 if you're under 50. Are you all under 50? Yes. Okay. $5,500 each is $11,000 more on top of that 6%. If that gets you to 15%, you're done. If it doesn't, then you'll bleed back to the 403B and put some more in there until you get up to a total of 15%, including the two Roths.
Starting point is 00:23:31 Does that make sense? Okay. Yes, sir. You see how I did that? I did. Match first, Roth second, traditional third. Yep. That's your order of attack.
Starting point is 00:23:40 Well done. You're going to be rich. I love it. Kevin is with us in San Francisco. Hi, Kevin. How are you? Oh, I'm all right, Dave. I'm much better than I deserve. How are you? The same. How can I help? So my wife and I, we had a baby this year. Yay! Thank you. So we're modifying our estate plan, and we're having trouble
Starting point is 00:24:03 collecting a guardian and a trustee. And, you know, I was just wondering what criteria you would use for both picking a trustee and a guardian for our baby. With rare exceptions, I want them to be separate, two different people. Yeah. Two different people. The trustee would be someone that's going to, A, follow my wishes, and B, has a bit of an administrative or money flair. They're fairly good with taking care of business. They've got a little business acumen. They've got a little bit of ability to get things done.
Starting point is 00:24:41 They're organized. They're not flighty, irresponsible, obviously, that kind of thing right um the trustee the trustees to execute your wishes um and so if you died you live i'm assuming you're naming your beneficiary on your life insurance to be a trust formed at your death for the good of your children right yes we're doing this springing trust okay good and um yeah so you a trustee, and you name in there in detail what you want the trustee to do, how the money is to be handled. But as far as the guardian for the child, it's a different criteria, obviously. It's who's going to raise this child the way I want them raised.
Starting point is 00:25:20 Yeah, that's the hard part, and it's also a problem with the trustee, too. You know, we would like family to be the trustee instead of the corporate trustee, maybe the corporate trustee in conjunction with family. But our family on both sides has had some issues with money and boundaries, and they don't really handle money the way we do. Well, here's the thing. Even if they don't handle money the way you do, are they honest and smart enough to follow the law?
Starting point is 00:25:58 Now, some families are dysfunctional enough, they're going to not follow the law. But the law is they have to follow what the document says or they could get their butts sued by your kid when they grow up right but people misbehave all the time in these situations so if you can trust them to do what you say in the document then then that's okay because they don't they want you're going to tighten the thing up. You're not going to leave them a lot of leeway. I mean, we're definitely going to. The way we're writing it is to keep it as specific and tight as possible.
Starting point is 00:26:34 It's just, you know, when someone has access to a few million in life insurance and about a million in assets, it's very tempting. We're super worried about it. I don't blame you. You're very wise to be concerned about it. I probably, it sounds like you need to use just a professional trustee. I'm not a big fan of those, but I'm a bigger fan of them than I am dysfunctional family. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Starting point is 00:26:58 I mean, it's not my favorite option, but for a lack of better options, I think that's what we're going to end up doing. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the other thing sometimes you can do is if you had a close friend that would be willing to take it on. I thought about that. That actually might be a better idea. Yeah, they'd be willing to take it on. And even the guardian thing, sometimes people do that. We had some friends, it wasn't us, but we had some friends who named a family that was having trouble having children as the potential guardian.
Starting point is 00:27:31 And they were very, very, very close friends, obviously, but they named them as the guardian. They were having infertility issues, and they named them as guardian. They didn't die, so the transfer never happened. But that was just an interesting way of looking at it, you know, a little different thing. And it was somebody, you know, in their church that had the same Christian values that they had and shared in that kind of a thing. And that's really what Sharon and I were looking for for a guardian in our case. We had family that we could do that with in our case.
Starting point is 00:28:07 But obviously our kids grew up. It's a good idea to explore. Yeah. And our kids have little kids right now like you do, and so our grandkids. And they're looking at the exact same kinds of issues as, you know, do you want the grandparents to step in? And do you want another brother or another sister to step in and that kind of thing and it's man it's it's you got a it's it's a lot of things to think about but you're very very very wise to be thinking about it it's the you you're you know you're going to do very well with money and you're going to be a great dad because those are the types things that great dads do and great moms do and people who are good with money do,
Starting point is 00:28:47 is they're diligent on things like estate plans, wills, life insurance, and all that kind of stuff. And so very, very good. And then the thing you're going to find is you end up updating it, you know, over the years. Things are going to change and you update. Things are going to change and you update. In our case, we end up updating ours, not major moves, but we fine tune it every year.
Starting point is 00:29:10 And my personal estate plan, because it's gotten so stinking complicated. So, but anyway, hey, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Erica is a member of our Facebook, private Facebook group. You can join it. It's called the Ramsey Baby Steps Community. If my job offers a complimentary two times my income in life insurance,
Starting point is 00:29:36 do I just get my own eight times in personal life insurance to make up to the ten times my income, or do I still do ten times in case I lose my job? Well, we always say 10 to 12 times your income, so you might do 10 times instead of 12 times. But what you've got to keep in mind is if you lose your job, obviously you lose the life insurance, and if you became uninsurable while you were working there and then lost your job, you're not getting any more insurance.
Starting point is 00:30:05 So if you had a cancer scare, a heart scare, diabetes, something like that, you might not be able to get insurance if you left your job. Because life insurance is almost never portable. It almost never leaves with you. And so that's why, you know, it's nice to have it as a benefit, but it's kind of gravy on the biscuit. And I probably would have the meat and potatoes in there that you personally own 10 to 12 times yourself. 10 times is fine.
Starting point is 00:30:31 10 to 12 times is the rule. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they'll remake your window blinds for free. Site-wide savings are happening right now. Plus, take an additional 5% off at blinds.com slash Ramsey. Questions from Reese in Oklahoma. Is it ever okay to skip baby step four in order to pay off all debt?
Starting point is 00:31:23 I currently owe about $275,000 in real estate. This is income-producing property. My wife and I have been making extra payments every month. We're on track to pay this off in eight to ten years, and we're currently maxing out our Roth IRAs. Should we stop investing into our IRAs to finish paying off our debt. No, you shouldn't. That's not how it works. So, no, you need to get out of debt. I mean, you need to get 15% of your income going into retirement at baby step four. You don't want to wait to start saving for retirement.
Starting point is 00:32:01 Pay off $275,000 worth of real estate. That's not smart at all. No, we've got to get the investing started. I want you out of debt as bad as anybody. I want you to get out of debt as fast as you possibly can. That's the thing. And so, but I don't want you to do that and have absolutely no money saved for retirement. That doesn't work at all.
Starting point is 00:32:22 So, good question. Thank you for writing in. We appreciate you being with us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jake is with us in Detroit. Hi, Jake. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:32:40 Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for having me on. It's an honor to speak with you. You too. What's up? Well, I was just calling because I was wondering if now is the best time to make a career change. I've been a restaurant manager for probably about seven years, and I could make a lot of money doing what I'm doing, but I just don't think it's the career for me. Someone has offered me an opportunity to become kind of like a mortgage banker. Uh, the only downside is, is that like it, it has lots of turnover and I don't know if
Starting point is 00:33:09 that's the right thing for me either, but I'm just kind of thinking about changing, but I'm, I'm kind of on the fence about it. Okay. Um, I don't think you picked mortgage broker. I think it just came out of the woods. Yeah, that's kind of true. Just someone that I know, like I said, I know a lot of people in the Detroit area that are doing it, and I'm just not honestly sure.
Starting point is 00:33:31 I don't think you picked mortgage broker, so I don't think that's right. Is it time to change careers? Maybe. But I don't think you picked mortgage broker. I think it just picked you, and that's not how you select what you want to do. Stop and ask yourself. Get you a cup of coffee and sit on the back porch in the morning real early and sit there and say, all right, God, what do you want me to do?
Starting point is 00:33:53 What do I want to do? And what can you – how old are you today? 24. Okay. Okay. When you're 44 years old, what would you love to be doing and making a lot of money doing it by the way yeah what would you love to be doing any ideas um i i don't know you know like a part of me kind of wants to do something sales you know i mean i want to do something where um my my um my salary is not dictated by
Starting point is 00:34:26 like um the amount of hours i put in or um you know what i mean like something that is not just about time you know where time does not equate to like an hourly wage or something like that that's smart you know okay so you got one you got one of your boundaries you don't want to do straight salary stuff unless it's taking you somewhere where you have some control over a future upside on income. But tactically speaking, I mean, what kind of a thing are you good with your hands? Do you like artistic things? Are you a detail person? Are you a people person?
Starting point is 00:34:59 I mean, you know, where do you land on some of those spectrums? I would say I'm probably more of a people person. I'm usually pretty good at talking to people, and I definitely like kind of like a dynamic work environment, you know, someone that is on a team. I like working on a team, that's for sure. Okay. So you're an extrovert.
Starting point is 00:35:19 You get energy from people interaction. It doesn't drain you. Yeah, 100%. Okay, then that helps. Okay, so you kind of start making some things like that that you know about yourself. So if I told you you could be an engineer and never talk to people all day long and draw things, you would say, oh, God, no. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so you could be a programmer, a, you know, just looking at the screen, and you love the design and the whole thing of the syntax of computer programming. You would say, oh, God, no.
Starting point is 00:35:51 You know, that's not how you are. That's not how you're wired. You're wired the other way with people and some kind of an interaction. And that's probably the parts of your current job that you enjoy the most. Yes, 100%. Okay. So, you know, start to make some lists of things like that, and it could lead you to say, hey, I want to be able to do that. So some of that stuff does lead you towards mortgage broker.
Starting point is 00:36:16 It's sales. There's no ceiling on your income. You know, it's definitely people oriented. You know, you're helping people get a home and, uh, uh, helping them, you know, get approved and you're working them through a kind of a stressful time in their life because they're moving and buying a house. It's exciting and stressful and people freak out and, you know, all of that. So, you know, you'd be in the middle of some pretty dynamic situations doing that.
Starting point is 00:36:43 So I don't necessarily have to take that off the table. That's a possibility. But never take a career path step that isn't taking you where you want to be when you're 44 or 54. Okay. And that's where I want you to back into. And check out the Ken Coleman Show on SiriusXM and the podcast of it as well. Ken does a great job working through career issues with people
Starting point is 00:37:11 and helping them do exactly what you and I have been doing here for a moment. And check out some of the handouts he's got on how to do a proper interview and how to do a proper resume. They are very good documents. They ought to be books. I may turn them into a book they're really good on at ken coleman.com check those out by the way folks a big first today ramsey personality ken coleman is in new york city today and he is broadcasting his show
Starting point is 00:37:39 the ken coleman show live from the sirius xm studios. I think that's pretty neat. Proud of Ken. Done a great job. Andrew is with us in Sacramento. Hi, Andrew. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. How are you? Better than I deserve.
Starting point is 00:37:55 What's up? All right. Well, I wanted to call and ask. So my wife and I are on baby steps four, five, and six, and I'm about to come in to anywhere between $17,000 and $20,000 between bonuses and a couple other year-end things. Wonderful. Yeah, wonderful. So I'm trying to figure out. So we don't own a home.
Starting point is 00:38:16 I'm in the military. We're in California. So I don't want to buy a home out here, especially with the real estate market so high and not knowing how much longer we're going to be here. We've already been here five years, so it could change in a moment's notice. So I don't really want to buy a home while we're here. So I'm wondering if the best course of action is to take this $20,000 and throw it into a mutual fund and watch it grow, or if since we don't own a home, if we should just put this into baby step four. No, I wouldn't put it in four. 4 is 15% of your income going into retirement.
Starting point is 00:38:46 You have kids? We have two kids. Is their college done? We are. So there are four. My son is four and my daughter is one. And we do contribute to their college savings every month. We're projected, like, at a four-year state college, we're projecting a full, like, be able to pay for all of it for both of them right now.
Starting point is 00:39:06 You can stop that monthly if you use this money to lump in and do your 529s. You probably throw $10,000 each kid. You probably stop the monthly. Yeah, that's true. But, I mean, you could do that calculation with your SmartVestor Pro. So that's one option. And the other option is set it in a mutual fund for your house purchase later. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Starting point is 00:39:28 Yeah, it's kind of a baby step 3B, but a delayed 3B, you know? We're just parking it now. Most of the time when people save up for a house, they immediately go buy a house. But in your case, you're just setting this over there. We're going to chunk some money in there. That's okay. That's not a bad plan at all. I like it.
Starting point is 00:39:44 If you feel you want to do that. over there, we're going to chunk some money in there. That's okay. That's not a bad plan at all. I like it. If you feel you want to do that and say, you know, because we're not at this particular assignment, we're not going to buy a house. But next time, we might. You know, next time they move us, we might. Or looking at how quickly you're going to get out of the military, you know. Maybe your career. I don't know. But, I mean, if you're going to be out be out three years and that changes the whole thing, too.
Starting point is 00:40:06 So, yeah, I probably I like the mutual fund idea for the house. I like it a lot. Hey, thanks for your service, Andrew. We appreciate it. That puts us out of the day. Ramsey show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs and Kelly Daniel in the booth. Kelly is our associate producer and phone screener.
Starting point is 00:40:21 And James is, of course, the producer. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. And we'll be back. Hey guys, this is Blake Thompson, Chief Production Officer for The Dave Ramsey Show. Here's a tip. To keep from missing Dave's classic facial expressions to some of those calls, make sure you watch him live. Just visit DaveRamsey.com slash show each day from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern.

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