The Ramsey Show - App - Dealing With Social Obligations Around Money (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

🎵 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 amazing relationships. I am Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with my great friend and Ramsey personality, Jade Warshaw. And we are here to answer your questions again about your life and your money. It is a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. All right, we're gonna go to the phones at this hour. And we have, is it Deanne possibly in Dallas? Hey, welcome to the show.

Hi, thanks for taking the call absolutely how can we help so I'm I'm a new listener I just came across you guys recently and heard you giving some great advice and hope that I can get some as well um I I have a pretty significant student loan debt, about $230,000. What did you get your degree in? Business Administration. And it's a master's too. So it was two degrees, but still quite a hefty tag. And then I have basically no savings or anything so I'm just trying to understand how I can maybe chip away at this and get myself on track. I'm 49 so I'm like I don't know. Is it

just you or do you have a family married? I'm married. Okay. And does your husband have any debt or just this one student loan you guys have together? No, just this one student loan. Okay. Well, what do you guys earn? I earn about $170,000 in base, but I also have like an annual incentive of another 20%, so maybe 50 to 60. And then I do have like these like stock incentives that I can cash in once a year. What can you get? Sorry, what can you get if you cash in the stock incentives? It just depends on what the stock is trading at the time,

but probably around 20 to 30. What about your husband? He doesn't work right now. Okay. And why is that? Sorry, I'm hitting you with the questions, but I'm trying to get a clear scope of what's going on. Yeah. Just hasn't, but he's trying to start his own business. So I'm just basically a one-income family. Does he feel, how long has he not been working? About two years. What? What?

Is he feeling the weight of this debt? I do. I know you do. You're calling. It sounds like you guys have kind of a separate thinking when it comes to money and debt. It kind of sounds like that from the way you're talking. And I'm just going to be honest. I don't like that this guy hasn't been working for two years. I'm all for starting a business venture and going out on your own. But I do think that you have to be making a certain amount. You have to still be contributing financially while you do that. That's the

best way. So you're kind of bridging your way to it as opposed to just stopping. And who I mean, you got to make ten dollars before you make one hundred thousand. So it's like if he's not making anything, how long is it going to be until this business really generates income that's going to help you guys become debt free? You see what I i'm saying when he could go get a job tomorrow making fifty thousand dollars you know yeah because the truth here is is that you know with the extra bonuses that you were saying i mean you could make two hundred and thirty thousand dollars in a year so here's the here's what's wild is what you could think about if he went and worked and he made sixty thousand dollars that's it you guys could live on that you could have this paid off in 12 months in 12 and that's not even side

hustles that we can get into that's not even cutting lifestyle i mean yeah that would be cutting that's just him contributing yes and so what you have to realize the bigger picture here is that you can right if it's just you working your way out of debt, you could go and lower your salary and it would take you probably three years to pay it off on yours. And that's possible. That is doable. But what we want to always give you is a plan where the fastest, most effective way to get out of debt and the clear, obvious missing piece of this is that there's not another income yeah and again if he's home with the kids and that's your child care like if there's a little different yeah there

there's reasons for for people to have a one income household but there's also people that even have that situation that choose to go to work to get it paid off even if they want to be a stay-at-home parent but for you guys i mean that this is and so to me again the bigger problem is that you guys aren't on the same page. Because if y'all are on the same page, you could knock this out in a year versus three and a half years. And so I would really encourage you guys, if you stay on the line, I want to give you guys Financial Peace University. This is our seven or nine lesson course. And if you can communicate your level of stress and anxiety and fear that you're feeling or hearing that you know you called us so we know that it's there and and start to understand the why it's not this like well you're not doing that and you're not it's not a blame

game yeah it is a where you're at where am i at and this is what i'm feeling and my prayer is in somewhat of a marriage you know at any degree a spouse would look at a spouse and say my gosh I don't want you to feel that way 100 what can we do to do you know to work on that and if and if you can't come to the table because some people cross their arms like oh that's up to you then that's the then it becomes a marriage problem and it's not a money problem so you you start to see these layers of what's happening but I think it's really important for you to recognize that because you can just fix the money thing you can get out of debt in three years if you just sacrifice on but the good news is she's like even if he never

contributed right there you're going to be sitting in that average spot where you pay it off and you know that's right 12 to 24 months and it's going to be gone and behind you but i want something more for you yeah and there's something about you working together to get it gone because if you just say whatever i'm going to use my income he doesn't have to know about it i'm going to pay this off there's always going to be that thing between them that's like well i it's mine and it's yours yes this is the time where you really get to come together as a couple and i would hate for them to miss out on that yep so stay on the line we're going to get you that and and my my hope would be that you guys could walk through these lessons together watch them together start these conversations because again a plan can happen so here is say you can pay this off you have a great

salary you could reduce it not live on as much uh and tell him sorry but i got to because this is what we're doing here's our new set salary for the household and we're going to figure it out but if you guys can work on a team not only does it help the money situation go so much faster paying off debt, but it helps your marriage, which I think, you know, Jade, this is exactly what you wrote about in your quick read that's coming out, which is money's not a math problem. Hey, got it right here. And there it is. Yeah. So you can actually pre-order it right now, you guys. It is brand new. It comes out December 5th, which is coming up, which is so exciting.

So it's only $10. And if you pre-order, they actually get an exclusive Q&A with you. That's right. They get a Q&A, yes. Yeah, so you can do that. And I love this, you guys, because it's a quick read. And so for you all out there that are like, oh, my gosh, it's kind of intimidating to dive into all of this. And I don't know where to start.

This is honestly the perfect first step. Read it in two hours. Yes, you're gonna relate to it. It speaks exactly to the problem that so many people are having is that personal finance, it's 20% head knowledge. It's 80% behavior.

We are the ones that we have to control. And gosh, Jay does a beautiful job walking through that. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash store. Pre-order that quick read money's not a math problem because that's what we talk about all the time on this show because it's the truth it's a it's a we problem right it's a me problem it's what you believe it's what you believe absolutely so make sure to check that out again ramsey solutions.com store Welcome back to The Ramsey Show.

We are taking your calls. Again, it's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. Up next, we have Jack in Boston. Hey, Jack. Welcome to the show. Hey. Thank you guys for having me on. Absolutely.

Thanks for calling in. How can we help? So I am a recent college graduate. I'm 22. I just graduated this past May, and I started working this June. When I was originally making plans for this year as I'm entering the workforce, I had taken a job in the Boston area and still had a few of my college buddies. So there's three of us and we signed a lease and that's currently where I am. After signing the lease, I actually received a second job offer, in which case I work remotely. I ended up taking that offer and basically I'm calling to ask, you know, because I work remote, I spend about $1,200 a month in rent. You know, of course, there's utilities and a bunch of stuff just because the area is expensive.

How beneficial do you guys think it would be to move back in with my parents to help me clear some of my student loan and car payments? How much student loan debt is it and how much is your car? So the student loans are about 27. The car is about 22 and I make 72. And you make how much? 70? 72, yeah. 72, okay. If it were me, I think that you have a great income starting out I mean to make 72 starting out at 22 years old I think is excellent I don't think that your rent is especially high it's not like you're like oh I'm spending two thousand dollars a month um I personally would not move back with my parents the only question that I was what I thought you were going towards

is I have these roommates and it's super loud and I can't get any work done like I thought you were going to go down that pathway but it doesn't seem like that's the issue um I think that you can buckle down and pay off this debt um your $22,000 cars is I don't love that but it's within the threshold so I'm not mad how quickly have you done a budget? Do you know how much money you have left over after rent, after groceries, after gas that you could put towards debt? Yeah, sure. So, you know, each month after I make all my payments, I save around $800 to $1,000 already. Oh, good. That's good. Yeah, Jack. Okay. So this is always kind of a tough question because mathematically it's like

you know you would think our answer would be like absolutely whatever you can to reduce expenses and throw as much as the debt yada yada yada but what that doesn't factor in by just kind of like using that escape and using that plan is that there is something to be said about that jack signed up for the student loan and jack signed up for the car loan. And so Jack needs to figure out how to do this. And after you do it, there is something about this dignity as a young adult that you're like, oh, yeah, I had a problem and I solved it. Now, could part of that solution be you move home with your parents and there's a very strict plan that you're only going to be there for 12 months and whatever whatever whatever sure right it's not i'm not one of these people that's like never ever do that but it's not dire straight but i do lean towards

jade though there's a part of me jack that i'm like i think you're i think you're a grown man and i think that you can figure this out i think you could take a side hustle at night to bring in some more money. I just was doing an EveryDollar webinar yesterday and we talked about side hustles and there's so many people that were making anywhere from $800 to $2,000 a month doing a side hustle. So I think there's ways to earn extra income.

And again, if you had a really diligent plan and it was, again, something that you're like, there's a a time frame yeah i know what i'm doing and i'm gonna do it and be done and get out like you could but i don't know jack there's a part of me that i'm like i i think that you're like you have your freedom yeah and not moving back in with mom dad it just does something to an adult mind when and i always use this example it's kind of a stupid one but when you open up the refrigerator and there's no milk and you don't have bread and you're like, oh man,

I have to be an adult and I have responsibilities and I have to figure out how to make life work. And there is just that extra safety net when you move home naturally. Yeah. Mom's going to go get the milk. Yeah. That like, you know, you're going to be taken care of, which is fine, but I think it stunts a level of this personal responsibility and, and being an adult.

And if you start dating and like, I don't know, just all this stuff, just moving back home. Look, the dating. It's the dating for me, Rachel, because I would be thinking the same thing, Jack. Like if I met you and I'd be like, Jack's great. And then I'm like, wait, but we're going to your mom's house. There'd be just this little piece of me that I'd be like, oh man. So for that reason, this is like Shark Tank, for that reason alone, I'm out. But the other thing I wanted to ask you just about your money is, are you contributing to a 401k through your

work? I am. Yep. So my employer matches 4%. So I put 4% to 401k and then another 6% into a Roth IRA. Okay. So just a piece of advice, and this is the way we teach. Right now, you're giving away 10% of your income. And if it were me, I would pause that temporarily and get that money back in my hands so I can quickly pay off this debt. By the way, even if you did choose to go to your parents' house and live, I would still do that.

Because the whole point is, let's get this debt wiped up as quickly as possible. And then when your debt's gone, you'll have so much more money that you can be investing another 5% when the time comes to be investing 15%. And I love that way more for you. Do you happen to have any safe?

Do you ever get rid of them? And by the way, Jack, if you have any savings laying around, I would also throw that towards your debt. Because something tells me, Rachel, that he is a guy that might have a little bit of savings in in a little pile there's anything extra jack yeah just throw it on this debt and I think that you can figure I think you can do this I think you can get out without having to move back home I understand again the math side of it so if that's what you choose to do

it's not a completely wrong decision right but there is something in the holistic picture of who you are as a whole person that I think is there's something about just being on your own and figuring out that I think it's great all All right, up next, we have Gracie in Salt Lake City. Hey, Gracie, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help? I have a little question because my, well, okay, sorry, I'm kind of talking in circles here. So I'm wondering if I should get life insurance for my daughter. She's 10 months old. My mom got life insurance for me when I was a baby, which is awesome.

But my husband doesn't have any life insurance at all. And so he's kind of like, it doesn't matter. And I'm kind of like, well, but it would be nice. And I just want to hear your take on that. For sure. Okay, so a rule of thumb is that your insurance and your investments should always be separate. And usually when it comes to children getting life insurance,

there's a level of whole life in there. There's an investment vehicle within it. And it ends up being an entire financial product that is always, it's not a good product, essentially. Because what you want to think about with life insurance is that if someone is dependent upon your income, you want life insurance. So your husband needs life insurance, Gracie. You, even if you're a stay-at-home mom, need life insurance. But we recommend term life and go down that path.

So anything, like there's like gerber insurance like uh and again a lot of whole life yeah a lot of whole life policies will market to children and they're like oh yeah if you put this in and then it's going to grow to this and i mean it's it's it's this entire honestly it's the whole product is just crap because the investment inside is not great and your your baby doesn't need life insurance. Right. They're not dependent upon her. The whole purpose is if something, God forbid, was to happen to you or your husband, you want to make sure she's taken care of.

Because right now, you guys provide everything for her. So if your baby were to have life insurance, if, God forbid, something happened to the baby, then you guys would reap the money from it. And that doesn't make sense. It makes sense that if something were to happen to you or your husband there would be a ton of money there waiting for her that whoever her caretaker would be she would be just fine so it's kind of like flipping your mind on why do we take this out and what's it really for yes and again people will throw in the whole investment side but again if you open up a whole life policy and she goes and tries to and she cashes it out at 18 or something

and changes it up, what she could have had if you had just invested it in a mutual fund under like an UTMA account or you even put into a college fund for her, like a 529, would be leaps and bounds more money. You would gain way more of a rate of return

and interest on that versus the crappy investments that sit inside of life insurances. So it's a great question, Gracie. Again, she does not need life insurance. You and your husband need life insurance and term life. And we always recommend Zander Insurance. If you go to ramseysolutions.com, you can find them on our site. They're where we get our term life insurance, my husband and I, because they have great rates. They shop all different services. It's not just one provider that they look at.

And so life insurance, to all of you listening, if someone is dependent upon your income, you need life insurance. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services for over 40 years. Neighborly has an exclusive network of trained local service providers backed by the Neighborly Done Right Promise. So if it's not done right, Neighborly will make it right. Visit Neighborly.com slash Ramsey today to learn more. Love it. Today's question comes from Amy in Louisiana.

She says, how do you navigate social situations while trying to stick to a budget? I recently volunteered to help with a friend's baby shower and my husband and I agreed upon a certain number to spend on it. The girl whose shower it was connected me to another friend who wanted to help host who I had never met. In the planning conversation, I asked her what her budget was and told her the number I could help with. She said she didn't have a budget, but my contribution was fine. Long story short, the shower ended up being bigger and more expensive than I expected. It's way over my budget. And she asked if i could reimburse her to pretty uh if i can help reimburse

her to pretty close her half so to close up like close the gap there's a typo there this is awkward i feel like it tried to set expectations but here we are help oh geez wow look i almost lost it whilst reading obviously here's the thing um you told her from the beginning yeah rachel correct me if i'm wrong because this look this is what jade go go jade if i told you from the beginning i can spend 200 then i am spending 200 and if she who did not have a budget said that's great thank you you know whatever your contribution is that's fine if she already said fine then at that point if she chose to buy other things yep that's i am not reimbursing you matter of fact i'm gonna go like well why would you spend more like i would be asking her questions as to why she chose to spend more when yep she could have easily just matched my budget and it been

even 200 200 yes i know it was so amy i mean honestly you did such a you're so wise in it i'm like you knew going in yeah here's my budget talk to your husband about it you had a set amount you communicated that and the other person chose to do something different and that's not your problem it's sure that's not your problem you set expectations so honestly if it's a girl you've never met you probably will never see her again um so i wouldn't worry too much knowing myself i'm probably more i'm probably more of a people pleaser so i feel like i would even find the text thread hopefully like what and send the screenshot yeah and just say hey so sorry my husband I had we had you know put this money aside this is all we could do uh I mentioned that to you earlier here's you know here's a shot of our conversation

I'm so sorry um let me know if there's anything else I can do to help not money related or something but yeah I mean the silver lining is this is a person she's never met now if this is like if this is a friend friend then that is really awkward but i think but again i think you have to you have to stick to your guns and you know if you had not communicated an expectation and you show up and it's all then that is like oh man but on the front end so you guys everyone listening or watching right now, this is a great lesson that if you go into an event, a social event, which happens all the time,

whether it's wedding showers or weddings with a wedding gift, teacher presents, a lot of our classes will pool money together to get one teacher gift. And if there's any type of group situation and you have a set amount of money don't be don't feel any level of i feel bad that i have a set amount communicate it and say it out loud because it's going to give you peace it's going to give you control and the more practice

you have talking about money and social situations i think the easier it becomes it can't feel awkward at first but and i think probably one other thing and maybe who knows if she did it or not but like as as the planning commences just being a reminder remember I'm only going to be able to spend 200 like so she's suggesting oh it would be so cool if we did like these little balloon thingies okay but remember I can only spend 200 oh but like oh I found this great little caterer yes but remember I can only spend 200 like as long as you make that like the mantra that you're saying over and over then there's no room for anybody yeah it's so funny Jade I'm like you know these just social scenarios whether it's kid birthday parties

or again showers or I mean anything that has a level of um a what's it called like not like a group funding yeah but like the vibe like what's like like the aesthetics yes you want the aesthetics to be beautiful a 40th birthday party you know big celebrations all of that you know there is this balance of you want to celebrate people so if you're putting something on for someone a good friend you obviously you want to celebrate that person or if it's you throwing it for x y and z in your family that's right you want it to be nice like i get all of that otherwise you want to be beautiful you want it to be beautiful but also you guys it's just gotten out of control the expectations of all these events is crazy it's crazy so it's not normal

like just so you know that it's not normal to have food trucks at your two year old's birthday party. Bounce houses like it's just that's not normal, but it's become normal. So we have this expectation that this is what our life should look like to some degree. And it's not. I heard plenty of stories about like bachelorette parties. Oh, my God. Where it's getting married right now. I listen to girls that are getting married and they're in the bachelorette parties and the wedding showers and the weddings. And there's a trip. If there's a trip involved. Oh, gosh. Could you imagine getting married right now? I listen to girls that are getting married and they're in the bachelorette parties

and the wedding showers and the weddings. And there's a trip. If there's a trip involved. Oh yeah. There always is now. I was like, only the Kardashians did that. Like when I was getting married 15 years ago, I was like, people didn't go on these extravagant trips.

At least we didn't. You have to fork over some major cash to be in a bridal party these days. It's really, I wish we all could just like, all the women in America could lock arms and just make a pact that like, we won't do this to each other. We were all just together. Our big birthday party, everything like, it's okay. It's okay.

We're not, we're not, we're not doing this. Yeah, I'm not doing it. It's hard. So, so hard. But again, clearly verbalizing what you can do is wise. It's not awkward. It's actually very, very smart for you and your money. That's right. Good job, Amy. All right. Next, we have Joey in Manhattan. Hey, Joey, welcome to the show. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Absolutely. How can we help? Yeah, so I can explain a little bit of my situation. But essentially, I am 23 years old, I make about $60,000 a year. And I want to save up for a house. And I know that kind of like the traditional rule is to pay cash for it. But my parents struggled with debt, you know, as I was growing up. So I'm a really big saver. And for that reason, you know, I try to prioritize Roth IRA, you know, different stocks that I have. I also have life insurance, which I'm sure you both have some opinions on. But I guess to boil it down, my question is really, how much should I be saving to buy something?

Because I'm a little bit against renting, even though I know that that's totally OK if that's still allowed me to save. I mean, I love that you're thinking about all of this and you're trying to make smart choices with your money. I think I would applaud you on that. You know, you mentioned paying cash for a house. Yeah, if you have the patience and the funding to save up and pay the whole thing full out in cash, I think that's great. But if you don't want to do that, that's also fine. You know, I'd look for some situation where you're paying at least 20% down since you really were hoping to go the cash option at least 20% down I'd look for a 15-year fixed conventional

rate mortgage and I'm just if you don't mind I would just love to poke a few holes in how you're doing this because I think you might be able to do this in a more effective way do you mind all right yeah no go ahead so you mentioned stocks that you had. Yes. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and how much is there? Yeah. So I have about 8,000 kind of spread across regular stocks that I just invested on my own via like the Robinhood app. So different things like Apple, Facebook, Tesla, just like big kind of like famous stocks that I know kind of will do well over time. In addition to that, I do invest just like on the app called Acorns. I have my Roth IRA through them. So I have another 12,000 just kind of invested in

like one of their aggressive kind of sets. So it's just different stocks that they kind of pick for me and manage. Okay. What percentage do you put towards that? It's not a percentage I have. Well, I don know what off the top of my head. I do normally about a thousand a month, depending on where the rest is. My point in saying all this is, you might have a little bit more to put towards this than you think. I'd probably stop with the stocks. And if you wanted to get here sooner than later, I'd probably put some of that stock money towards saving for a house, especially if you already have three to six months saved. Anything that you save up past that is really going to

help you get that down payment quickly. So if it were me, if I had those six months saved, then I would probably liquidate those stocks, put it towards a down payment. And if there was any other cash laying around above three to six months, I'd use that to start building that savings for a down payment as well. Yeah. Any non-retirement Joey can go towards that. It's great. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I am Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with my friend and Ramsey personality, Jade Warshaw. And Thanksgiving is coming up, you guys. And I wrote a kid's book called I'm Glad for What I Have.

And so the idea of gratitude and contentment and all of that is so key. And again, it's kind of part of the holiday that we are in even this week. So if you have not had a chance to grab a copy for your little ones or the little ones in your life i'm glad for what i have uh learning learning contentments and learning spoiler alerts that god's love is the thing that fulfills you apparently i haven't said that enough and some of my amazon reviews were like it's religious they didn't tell us and i was like oh gosh sorry spoiler alert it's god that fills us and brings deep contentment.

But these little animals go through understanding that their stuff is not bad, but they start to believe if I can just have more and more and more, I'm gonna be happier and happier and happier, which we can fall into that mindset as adults too. And at the end of the day, we all know that it just doesn't fulfill us

the way we think it does. So I'm glad for what I have, my new children's book. you can check that out at ramseysolutions.com slash store. Love it. Up next, we have Ryan in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hey, Ryan, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you guys? Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Thanks for calling in. How can we help? So I have a few questions. I guess I have a pretty decent amount of money saved, and I was kind of wondering how to go about making it more of like a passive income and just seeing if there's anything better

I could be doing with my money than what I'm doing now. Yeah, that's a great question. Okay, so how much money do you have saved? About just a little over $150,000. Okay, and what's it in now? Mostly CDs. Okay. And do you have any debt, Ryan?

No. No debt. And do you have any other savings besides this? Any retirement? Well, that's money that I just have set aside that I don't touch at all. So I guess that would be like towards that, yeah. Okay, but you don't,

do you have like a Roth IRA or a 401k? Oh, yes, yes, yeah. Yeah, and I have a TSP also. Cool, okay. And how much money do you make a year? Now, not too much. I took a pay cut. I'd say like $50,000 now.

Okay. Okay. Perfect. And what's your living situation? Are you renting? Do you own a home? Where are you at with that? I'm in the military now, so I don't own anything now.

Just military housing? Yes. What branch are you in? The Army. Okay, great. Well, thank you for your service and sacrifice doing that. We greatly appreciate it. So, yeah, this is a good amount, right?

I'm very impressed that you saved $150,000. You have it in a cd and i think you're right i think you can put it somewhere yeah uh that can actually get you a little bit more make make more i'm just curious when you said passive income did you have something in mind like is there something that you were thinking of that you wanted to run by um i mean i've only looked at like property really but like i like other than that like nothing really um but i don't know like what the best thing to be doing what that is i can tell you what i might do yeah so i'm assuming you have no debt yeah no debt and other than like this is the only savings you have so what i would if this is what jade would do i would probably set aside what i think my expenses are for about six months

and i'd put that separate like in a high yield savings account and then if it were me how long do you plan on being in the military in the way that you're like hopping around um i guess it kind of depends on like how it goes um i probably my next goal would be setting aside enough money that when i'm done with the military or where i'm more stable where i could buy a home in cash okay so i'd probably invest it like you said five years i'd probably just throw it in an s&p 500 account and let it sit and in five six years when i'm ready for it chances are it will have grown and i would that's what they choose it for a for a big down payment down payment yeah because ryan i think

i think the first goal would be you know owning your owning a home uh is one of the big pieces of your financial picture and so we want you to be able to do that and then eventually own it outright. So what Jade is saying is right, that if you can just buy it with cash outright, your primary home, then obviously that's not gonna be passive income like your question, but it starts to get you towards a financial stability. Because if you just dream for a second and think, oh my gosh, if you put 50% or 75% or 100% down on your home, and even if you took out a small mortgage and you paid it off, then that same ability to save, Ryan, that you have now is still probably going to be there in who you are. That's a part of you.

You're a natural saver. You're looking for ways to make money. You're looking for ways, even asking about passive income. And then from there is where you can say okay I'm gonna put some away for retirement but also yeah maybe I do go and and I and I get and I get a property buy a property in cash and flip it and maybe resell it and you can kind of be in that game with cash or hold on to it and rent it out but all of those things are secondary to your primary residence. That would be the next big spot. But I'm with Jade. I mean, a Vanguard account, yeah, putting an index fund like an S&P 500, it's going to be better than a CD. You'll get a better rate of return on your money. So that's probably what I would do exactly what Jade said. I mean, I lean towards that.

And it's not as like sexy and flashy as passive income. Right. But is it really passive? But it's stability. Like you're setting yourself up for the future. And how, did you tell us how old you were? How old are you? I'm 27. 27.

Okay. So yeah, I mean, it's plenty of time to do all of this. And yeah, I mean, you could look up in 15 years and have some great cash to get into the real estate game and do it without risk with cash and all of that but i think at this place i think the next wise step um once all this settles and again the s&p 500 i mean if you get some growth you'll pay some taxes on but you could take it out and use it if you wanted to right but i would probably just let it sit there because you don't have a

lot of you know you you may not have a lot of expenses. You have no debt. There's no real reason for major passive income right now. That's right. Would you agree? Yeah, I agree. Yeah, but again, I like where your mind is at because I think that's more of a long-term play to be looking into that realm. But I think that it's going to be sooner for you, Ryan,

than some people listening because you've set yourself up really well. 100%. Yeah, I mean, no debt and $150,000. So well done, well done. Up next, we have Adam in Pittsburgh. Hey, Adam, welcome to the show. Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help? So my wife is employed by a company that grants stock to all employees. And she's been with that company for quite a while now.

And we've gained actually quite a bit of stock. And I was unsure what to do with that stock. And it has actually come to the point where we have enough to pay off the mortgage to our house. And we're curious if we should, if that was a worthwhile sale to pay down the mortgage, essentially. One, two,

three. Yes. Okay. Yeah, for sure, Adam. I mean, the company stock, you know, we always, i mean i i think it's a nod to

them that's a great thing but you're stuck into one stock and enron is always the name that comes to my head right and so there's always always going to be risk even if it's a company you work for and even if it's a great company you're still not diversified so we always do recommend not to put so much into company stock so if you guys have that much i would adam i would cash it out pay off your home oh it's gonna feel so great how much is it how much do you guys have left uh it's about 200 grand come on amazing adam do you guys have any other debt but it's a sub it's a sub 3% interest rate. And that's the only reason where I'm, I'm waffling on that decision because, you know, maybe that is a nice sum for, you know,

retirement one day, but I don't know if that outweighs, you know, not having that mortgage at this point in time, but yeah. That's right. I hear what you're saying, but I, yeah, no, I hear what you're saying, but I also think that you can get a better rate of return by you guys putting money away for your retirement and not dependent upon the employee stock. That's right. That's right. So I would put retirement in you and your wife's control in, you know, 401k or a Roth IRA that's more diversified in mutual funds and go that route, have your house paid off and you guys can throw so much money in retirement and have an incredible retirement. So well done, Adam. Well done. Thanks, Jay, for being a great co-host. Thanks to all guys in the booth for making this show happen. Thank you next time.