The Ramsey Show - App - Debt-Free and NEVER Going Back! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

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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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Tammy is in New Hampshire.

Merry Christmas to you, Tammy. Thank you. Merry Christmas to you as well. How can I help? My husband and I started your zero-based budget last month, so beginning November. So really this is our second month. And we need to know how to budget spending and money that we've already saved for things. Like we've got a new roof we're getting on our house this month and our property taxes

are due this month. And all but $200 of this money was saved before this month. And so my husband thinks that, well, we've already budgeted it in, and so not to worry about it. We don't need to put it on our budget. And I, being the nerd, thinks I need to have an income of money from savings and an expense right on our budget for whatever we're actually spending. And like I said, we just started this.

We want to do this right, and so I'm hoping you can answer this for us. Either one is fine. It just sounds like you went to accounting class and he didn't. No. You can't do debits without credits, right? Pretty much. Yeah, that's your brain. I just saw that.

I mean, I think the same way is when my brain works. But I was formerly trained in accounting and finance in academia. So that that locks your brain into that rut forever. And all he's saying is, well, just put the money in the account, write the check back out. And no big deal, you know. And really, it's the same thing. If you want to do an entry in and an entry out into the budget that's fine if it makes you feel better uh it's not it doesn't it's not it's not changing the structure of the budget it's

basically you know we're going to put ten thousand dollars for the roof in and i'm going to write a check for ten thousand dollars out okay do either one of these plans tend to change people's behavior be more like we're both spenders and so we're trying to get to be more to be more savers and we would putting it in the budget tend to make us be more apt to more conscientious yeah making it be a written entry will make you dial in better okay but it's it's uh you know what you because what you want to do is not is get is get in the habit of not doing anything with money that's not in the budget now in this case you have got the money already so you know uh but if you want to do as an entry in and an entry out that's that's technically okay and uh and it does help you with the idea of getting the muscle memory of the practice of, you know, we don't do anything that's not in the budget.

We don't do anything that's not in the budget. And so if we want to do it, we're going to enter it in and then take it back out. But it's a little different when it's something that's saved up for and you just write the check for that thing. So it's not the end of the world either way. So in terms of our plan, there's not a technical right or wrong answer on this. It's just a discussion about why you would do it one way and why you do it another. So it's not the end of the world. The bottom line is you have the money.

You're paying cash for the event. You're going to write the check. And by the way, for somebody that's not a saver, you've saved up a bunch of money. So well done. Good job. Elizabeth is with us in bunch of money. So well done. Good job. Elizabeth is with us in Tyler, Texas. Hi, Elizabeth. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? So I'm on Step 7. And I just wanted some advice or thoughts on prioritizing investing. So since I'm on step seven, I guess that's trying to invest more. It's the time, I guess, to possibly consider transferring money from traditional over to Roth and paying the taxes, things like that.

Exactly, exactly. And so right now I am still only putting in 15% into retirement, but I have some money set aside that I could do some other things with. And so my question is just kind of going forward is prioritizing maybe putting more into retirement up front versus rolling over what I have in a traditional over into a Roth. Okay. It's not a right or a wrong answer. I, you know, it's by the end of two years,

you're going to be to have done both anyway. I hope so. Yeah. I mean, if you're all over the Roth now and don't up your percentages, next year when you don't have the Roth issue, you'll up your percentages, right? Or vice versa, if you up your percentages now, next year you'll roll over the Roth. Yeah, I'm not sure if I can roll over 100% of it this year with what I've got ready to pay taxes on.

I could probably do 50% of it if I did it. But my point is, five years from today, this is no longer a discussion. You will have done all of it. And so you just work your way through. Neither of these things are dumb things. How old are you? I am 35 years old. Okay.

And how much is in the traditional that you want to convert to Roth that's going to create taxes? About $44,000. Okay. So you have about a $10,000 tax bill then, right? Right. Okay. And you don't have an extra $10,000 above your emergency fund yet? My emergency fund is definitely on the six-month slightly higher,

but if I don't dip into anything labeled that, then I have probably about $6,000 or $7,000 right now that I could throw at something. And your household income is? Quite 100% of that. I make about $80,000. Okay. So, I mean, you'll be there by the end of the year.

You can do all that in one year. You're $4,000 off. Yeah, I won't make, I'll barely make $4,000 this month. No, not this year, not this calendar year, but I mean, 12 months from today, you will have easily made enough to do the Roth. Okay.

So you might not do it this calendar year. Actually, you could do it this calendar year because your taxes aren't due until April. Right. Well, that's true, and I could save up the difference. Exactly. You can save $4,000 by April. Easy. Yeah.

If you don't mind, I have one other question I'd like to ask. Okay. So I have looked into also rolling over what to put in my 401K and the traditional side for my employer. And currently, my employer's plan does not allow it. So I asked them, well, what would it take to make it allow it? So they emailed the people who are handling that with the American Fund, and apparently it would be like $600 for them to redo the plan to allow this option. And it's a small company. My employer does not believe anyone else would ever be interested in even doing this. So my question is, after I've rolled over the traditional,

would it be worth me paying the $600 so that I could, in the future, roll everything over? How much is in there? In the traditional? Right now, I'm sorry, what? How much is in your traditional 401K? You know what? I don't know if I have those numbers up right now. Oh, roughly.

I don't remember. Roughly. Is it 1,000 or 20,000? Let's see. My guess is it's in the neighborhood of a couple thousand maybe at most right now. It's not going to make you enough to pay the $600 fee for it. I wouldn't pay it today. I'd just let it ride today and not worry about it.

Get your other stuff converted. Get yourself maxed out. And certainly be doing everything Roth going forward. And then you can go from there. Interesting. But it's not going to be worth $600 to you,

mathematically. It's time to take another look at your budget. That means scouring every expense and making sure you're not leaving any money on the table. One of the biggest expenses is your mortgage payment. I recommend a quick Churchill checkup. In just five minutes, our friends at Churchill Mortgage can tell you if you could save some cash each month. They've helped thousands upon thousands of my listeners keep more cash in their pockets through a smarter mortgage.

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This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Paul is with us in Kansas City. Merry Christmas, Paul. How are you? Hey, Merry Christmas, Dave.

I wanted to thank you for all that you do, for everything that you do. Thank you, sir. How are you? Hey, Merry Christmas, Dave. I wanted to thank you for all that you do, for everything that you do. Thank you, sir. How can I help? So I'm on baby steps four, five, and six. And specific to baby step four, I'm trying to build up to that 15%. So I have a household income of about $200,000 a year. And this year I actually maxed out early. And my company offers what's called a supplemental excess defined contribution plan. I've never heard you talk about that up in the air before. I've been listening since about May of this year, and I wanted to know if you thought that was a good way to kind of build up to that total 15% in total for retirement savings.

It'd be my last choice because you have so little control over it. The defined contribution plan is much more like a pension than a traditional 401k. So in the year 2019 coming up, you can put $19,000 in your 401k. And how old are you again? I'm 37. Okay. Okay, and how old are you again? I'm 37. Okay, and you can put $6,000 each if you're married into Roth IRAs, even if you have to do backdoor Roths, depending on exactly where your $200 hits. But at $200,000, 15% would be $30,000, so $19,000 and $12,000 is $31,000.

So you can get there without doing it. If you start making $300,000, then you may want to investigate the supplemental excess plan at that point, and you need to just learn the rules of it, because a defined benefit plan means that someone defined it, and you need to know what the definition is because they're somewhat customized. Right. Well, my big thing was, I mean, my company offers a 6% match, but like you said, I mean, they're setting the rules for it, and plus I can only take it out at certain periods. Exactly. And I just didn't know whether it was worth it.

Plus, once you're locked in, I'm locked in for the full year, and technically it's like a spillover. So once I hit the $19,000 limit, then my contribution remains the same. It just goes into this different non-qualified. I think it's a 409A plan. So really just trying to understand all of that. That's a nice thing that they have that for the high-income earners. It's not a bad thing. It all depends on what level of control and what, you know, what the money is going into and what the returns are. And you can learn about the plan.

And the less you like it, the less you would put into it, obviously. But if you find that it's pretty, you know, the taste in your mouth is pretty good after you learn about it and read about your particular plan, then I would want it to be the last thing you do. And so I think you're fine today with $19,000 into a 401K and two $6,000 Roths. I think you're going to be fine today with that, and that's if your spouse does not work. If your spouse has a 401K available, I would do that before I did this. It would be the last thing on my list, and only then would I do it if I had read through all the exact terms, and I liked them, of what it's going into and how much you've got control of it and so forth.

And I would want it to be the more minor part of your overall plan and your overall net worth. So, hey, good question, sir. You're killing it. Congratulations. Matthew is on the line in Massachusetts. Hey, Matthew, how are you? Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Steve. You're killing it. Congratulations. Matthew is on the line in Massachusetts. Hey, Matthew, how are you? Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Dave.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a career-related question for you. I'm a flight attendant working for an international airline that I'm afraid will not be here by next winter. I have the option of applying for a less desirable airline in my eyes, taking a pay cut or holding out for one of the three major airlines, which could take a while to get hired.

My fear is that I'll be here when the ship sinks. Okay. So we got a year to get ready, roughly, is what you're thinking. Yeah. And what do you think the probability is you're on with a major within the 12 months? I mean, I'm hoping. No, I mean probability. 80% chance or 10% chance?

Probably 60% to 80%. That's pretty good odds. Yeah, I mean, but there's only three majors, so. I got it, but I mean, that's, you're still, but you're looking at your percentages, and you're saying, you know, eight out of ten times by this time next year, I'm working for one of them. Right. That's pretty good odds.

And have you got any debt? Have you got any money? So I pressed pause on the baby steps. I probably will have two grand by January. What would you have by October? Well, if I pressed pause on the baby steps, I could have probably $20,000. Okay. What do you make?

I take home $40,000 a year. Okay. So you've got six more months after that then. Mm-hmm. Okay. So let me ask you this. If October of next year comes around and you've got $20,000 in the bank and you still haven't landed a major and you took a minor, what would you make? A less desirable with a pay cut one.

Probably 25, 20 to 25. Probably means you're changing careers then. No, this is really what I want to do. Not for $25,000, I don't. No, no, no, but I would make more at a major airline. That's one way of saying it. So if in October you hadn't gotten land at a major, if you took the 25, I think I'm going to do something else while I'm waiting on a major is my point.

Okay. Rather than take that kind of pay cut. A lot of stuff in your Boston market that you can make $40,000 doing while you're waiting on one of the majors to come through. So, yeah, I'm going to push pause because you're pretty sure these people are going down. I kind of think I know who you're talking about. And you're pretty sure they're going down, and you want to stay in this field of work. And so you build up your war chest,

and you start working on the majors if you hadn't already now, right? Okay. Yeah, I have. Yeah, and you work them really, really hard, because the sooner you land one of those, the sooner we're out of here, and the sooner we can take that whatever savings is built up and apply it to the debt and push go again, right, push play again. Right.

So that's probably what's going to happen is what we're saying, that between now and October, November of next year before the other one goes broke, you're probably going to land a job eight out of ten times. Yeah, I hope so. Thank you very much. I think that's what's going to happen. And if it doesn't and they go broke, you've got some savings and you move out

of the industry while you wait on one of the three one last question um there's not a lot of market for it but what does a private corporate uh attendant get paid um probably 80 plus but they want like fine dining experience and i i kind of want to stay with the airlines. Why? I guess, like, the travel benefits. The corporate flight attendant doesn't really get any travel benefits. For $40,000 a year extra? You could probably do some travel.

Right. It's not off the table. I mean, I would consider it. Yeah. You would want to do some tooling up, meaning you might work on your fine dining experience during this interim. I don't know how you do that while you're on the road, but it's just an idea. If you could get into waiting tables on the weekends, on the days you're home.

You're not on weekends, but, I mean, your days off, if you could work in a boston market there's some fine restaurants in boston and i put that put that tool in your belt which gives you yet another option to look at and makes you twice as much money now they're a fairly rare bird there's not a lot of private attendance but you know it's something to consider and um you know since you want to stay in the air and you want to stay in the industry and uh so interesting very interesting good call thanks for joining us open phones at 888-825-5225 you jump in we'll talk about your life and your money. Some of what we discuss here is money, but most of what we discuss here is life through the lens of your money, your celebrations,

your fears, your life. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You've heard me talk about ID theft for years and how it's only a matter of time before you become a victim. But I ran across some numbers that even surprised me and shows the real nightmare that people go through when they become a victim. Of the 16 million victims of identity theft last year, yes, 16 million, 26% of them had to borrow money from family or friends, 22% of them lost even more money by taking time off work, and 900,000 victims took out payday loans. This stuff is a freaking nightmare. That's why the only plan I have for my family and my entire team is through Zander Insurance. Zander takes over all the work to solve these problems and more, along with the

systems to reduce your risk and protect your money if your accounts get hacked. Visit zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It's the smartest, most affordable way to protect yourself. Thank you for joining us, America. Jacob and Allie are with us in Midland, Texas. Merry Christmas, guys. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Way to go. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

Thank you. Love it. How much have you two paid off? $80,000. Wow. How long did this take you? 16 months. Wow.

And your range of income during that time? We went from $80,000 to $120,000. Wow, what do you all do for a living? I'm a construction supervisor in the oil field. Okay. And I worked in the office for the construction. All right, cool. What kind of debt was the $80,000?

It was student loans and credit card bills. Okay. Did you have money saved up or did you sell something big? How did you do this? Well, two years ago, we were graduating from college, and we were getting married a month later, so we did premarital counseling, and money obviously came up. So we heard about you and realized that's the best plan for us,

and hit the ground running, and then it was back you cash flowed 80 grand in 16 months making 80 to 120 yeah yeah it went up pretty quickly when she started working after about a month or two in okay and and you just don't beans and rice then pretty much no life your first year of marriage i love it and you're debt free how does it feel feels great was it worth it was it worth it yes absolutely amazing ever again i love it very cool so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt issue this is an incredible number. Just sticking to it. Pretty much you're either all in or you're not in at all.

No ish with you two, huh? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, Dave. A lot of people our age coming out of college and everything, they either seem to be all in or, you know, they just haven't quite figured it out yet. So getting ahead of it as quick as possible was the key. Big deal.

It's a big deal. Tactically, what did you all do on a month-to-month basis? If we were to look over your shoulder, what were you doing that caused you to be able to pay the debt? Well, we get paid weekly, and so we gave ourselves five hundred dollars we just gave ourselves a budget every week yeah and just stuck to it at first we put a thousand dollars to debt every week and then we realized we can do more and then we can do more and then we can do more so we just kept going from there once it started once you started knocking some of them out, the wins started happening. You said, hey, we're going after this.

Yeah, pretty much. It turns up the intensity, doesn't it? Yeah. Well done, you guys. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? Parents and family, I'd have to say. Yeah. Okay.

So which parent? Her dad. i'd have to say yeah okay so which parent um her dad her dad was was a good motivator throughout the way and listens to the show and i know he's listening right now so that's pretty excited about that very cool well good i'm sure he's proud of you we are we're proud of you over here for sure congratulations you two very very well. And how old are you? 23 and 25. Wow. And you're 100% debt-free and never going back. Yep.

You're going to be so wealthy. It's going to be unbelievable. Yeah, you have lived like no one else. Now you're going to be able to live and give like no one else. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's number one best-selling book, Retire Inspired, for you. And, of course, after the first year, we will send you the new book, Everyday Millionaires,

because you're going to be one. If it's okay with you. Yep. We want you to be one. We want you to be a millionaire and outrageously generous, and you're probably going to be there in your early 30s, based on the numbers you put in front of me just now. Hopefully, yeah. You might be the first there in your early 30s based on the numbers you put in front of me just now hopefully yeah you might be the first millionaire in your families maybe maybe maybe not i don't know good for you guys well done jacob and ally midland texas

80 000 paid off in 16 months making 80 to 120 count it down Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! Woo-hoo! Way to go, you two. Well done.

23 to 25 years old. Boom! 80,000 bucks. Student loans and credit card debt boom making 120 between them you hear those numbers they did it in 16 months so you can do this yeah you i'm talking to you this is not a theory this is not an entertainment show this is a show where we bring real people on so that real people understand that real people can win in america and they do it every single day you can do this you can do this jacob and

ally just did look at those guys man what great young couple absolutely amazing you know sometimes the difference is just whether you think you can or you think you can't the old henry ford quote if you think you can or you think you can't you're right sometimes i mean i know stuff comes against you i know some of you have had illness i know some of you are victims of all kinds of different abuse and different things have happened to you. I know some of you are victims of racism or sexism, or I'm a victim of baldism. People discriminate against me because I don't have hair. I actually had a young guy come up to me this weekend, and he said, I hope when I'm your age I have as much energy as you do.

I almost hit him. That's ageism right there, or baldism or energyism or something. I don't know. That's ageism right there, or baldism, or energyism, or something. I don't know. Everybody's got something, though, I'll tell you that. There's a lot of reasons why you shouldn't make it. And you can adopt one of those as your pet. This is my little pet reason. Meet my little reason.

My little pet reason right here. Isn't he sweet? He keeps me from winning because i believe he's i believe him when he whispers in my ear my little pet reason tells me i can't win because people from my background have never won no one in my family has ever gone to college no one in my family has ever had a million dollars no one in my family is no one from where i grew up no one that's my color no one that's my sex no one from where I grew up. No one that's my color. No one that's my sex.

No one that has hair or doesn't have hair. No one like me has ever. It's your little pet reason. You got your little pet. It's a cute little reason. Cute little pet reason. You needed your little reason why you could be a victim instead of a victor, didn't you? You see, I think you ought to set your pet reason free.

I think you ought to set it free. Let it go latch on and be a parasite on someone else because it's a lie. Oh, I understand it's an obstacle. I understand it's a blocker.

I understand there's problems out there, but I also understand people just like you are winning. They're having the best marriages. They're having incredible kids. In spite of their low-pet reason, they're getting out of debt.

They're building wealth. They're getting out of debt. They're building wealth. They're actually communicating with their spouse and on the same page with their own spouse about money. What a novel freaking concept. I can't get my husband on board.

That's your little pet reason. It's a cute little pet reason. Everybody's got a dadgum excuse. Me too. I got an excuse. I just decided it wasn't going to define me. I don't know if y'all have noticed or not, but I speak with a Southern accent.

That's my reason. Because everyone knows that Southern people are all dumb. Everybody knows that, right? All you Yankees think that. Too many of you do. Stupid stereotypes. It's ridiculous. Isn't that interesting?

Everybody's got a little pet reason. You can sit right there and pet your little reason. Little pet reason. It's cute. You have your little reason why you can't win. You can win. You can do this stuff. You can do this stuff. You can do this stuff.

Is it easy? Well, I wouldn't know. If it was easy, we wouldn't call it winning. Of course it's not easy. It's just worth it. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Listen to this pandora has decided to broadcast podcasts now we knew this because we were one of the shows that they ran the beta test with so we knew it was coming obviously and they just picked a handful

of the top shows and ran a beta test to see if it would work. But they're going all in. Yeah, I love it. I love it. So a new place for you to find The Dave Ramsey Show. We are now on Pandora. As a matter of fact, the Ramsey Network is on Pandora. So all the podcasts, the Chris Hogan podcast, the Entree Leadership podcast, the Business Boutique podcast, and, of course, the Ken Coleman Show podcast, which is huge.

Yeah, it's booming. So it's important to get this show on as many radio stations as we can, as many streaming services as we can, because we simply want to help you. Well, Dave, that doesn't make sense. Absolutely makes sense. I found out something in business a long time ago. If you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money. Now, we have to be wise and thoughtful and look at our business models and get more successful

and more sophisticated as we go along. But overall, you can't go broke helping people. So you can find this content everywhere. Free. It's everywhere. So number five podcast on iTunes in the world. Believe it.

Wow. Spotify. Pandora. YouTube. in the world believe it wow spotify pandora youtube for real yeah yeah so we want you to win and so we're going to put this thing up as many places as many ways as we can because this information when you apply it to your life changes everything. Pandora, baby. Thanks, Pandora. I'm excited about that. That's a big deal. I may not be cool enough to be on Pandora, because Pandora's kind of cool.

It's kind of like a cool place. But, hey, I'm there. I just brought their cool value down, probably. But I probably brought a bunch of listeners in the process, so easy enough. So you can find all the different ways to watch or listen to this show. Just hit DaveRamsey.com and slash show. There's 604 radio stations.

So, you know, there's no reason for you to not be able to get this show. Mimi is with us in Pittsburgh. Merry Christmas, Mimi. Merry Christmas, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. My call is regarding do we put extra money to our rental property or to our primary residence? And I have some numbers here ready for you.

Okay, on baby step six, I assume. Yeah, so I am due with our first child in May, so we'll have college to save for in the future. But we're really doing great. for in the future. But we're really doing great. We're very blessed for having great jobs. What's your household income? So we make $360,000 a year. Wow! What do y'all do for a living?

Yeah. I'm a nurse anesthetist. Oh, there it is. And my husband is an insurance broker. There it is. Okay. Yeah, you're killing it. Way to go. Yeah, we're very blessed. Wonderful career. You've worked your butt off to get there. It's not an accident.

I sure did. Yeah. So way to go. So what do you owe on your home? So our primary residence, which we bought in August, we bought for $570,000. We owe $451,000. $451,000. What do you owe on the rental?

Yep. The rental is $171,000. $451,000. What do you owe on the rental? Yep. The rental is $176,000. All things being equal, I always pay off the house first because if I was going to lose something, I would want to lose the rental, not the house. All things are not equal here. The rental is half and half of your house. And so you can pay it off in probably two years or you can pay the house off in probably four years you know uh something like that give or take how how intense you want to be with it but something like that so i'm probably going to knock the rental out

just because it's substantially smaller and i can free up that extra rental income then to be able to hit the house that much harder oh and by the time that's done also probably your income is going to have gone up even more yeah i was wondering um if we pay off the rental what are the tax implications of paying off with that interest rate because i think this year this is the first time we're renting obviously because we bought our house in august but um we can itemize this year and i'm not sure if we pay it off we would be able to itemize it. I don't know what your thoughts are on that. Well, you can depreciate it, but you can't itemize the interest write-off. But I wouldn't stay in debt to keep an interest write-off anyway.

Right. Because the depreciation on the rental is exactly the same. The expensing of the rental expenses, taxes, insurance, repairs, all of that. You can still expense exactly the same way. And the rental property, I don't think you would have to itemize that. You might have to put it on a Schedule C. I don't know. Do you own it as individuals or do you have it in an LLC?

We own it as individuals. Okay. Talk to your tax person. You may pop it into an LLC. That might help you but neither way do we keep the the debt on it because of the write-off because when you write off ten thousand dollars worth of interest which you might be doing here depending on the interest rate um and you know that saves you in your case3,000 were on your taxes, about 30%.

And so maybe 35, you're probably in the 35, 37% bracket. But either way, it's still trading $3,000 or $4,000 for $10,000. You send the mortgage company $10,000, it saves you $3,000 or $4,000 on your taxes. It's not a good trade. You don't want to trade $10, 3 000 or 4 000 so we don't keep an entry we don't keep a mortgage because of the tax write-off of the interest rate the rest of the tax write-offs stay in place on a rental property that doesn't change that so hey good question and way to go mimi you're killing it all right amy is with us in springfield illinois hi amy how are you hi how are you

better than i deserve what's up um i've been wanting to call forever so there's a lot of things i want to ask you but i'm going to keep it short okay um i'm 20 years old um i'm on social security um i'm disabled i have asperger's and manic depression ADHD all that um right now annually I make nine thousand monthly I make 750 but that should raise cable. That's my part of the rent. Uh, phone bill is $208 because my mother is also under my contract, but she pays me what she owes monthly. Um, and then I basically owe $1,750 in student loans, but I should be able to pay it off $50 a month.

And I want to move. I don't want to rush, but I know I want to move out. And I don't know if I'll be able to afford it. Too small here since it's a one bedroom. And I have a sister whose room is built in the dining room and mine's built in the basement, which my stepdad did for us and you know i mean it's small and i'm stressed out myself being here so i just don't know what to do right um well i always encourage young people to get out on their own as quickly as they can, that mom and dad's place is a safety net.

It's not a hammock. Right. And with the things you're facing and your resulting low income, I think you're going to stay there in that safety net a little while from a financial standpoint. Right. And my boyfriend of five years, he and I are wanting to also move together, but my thing is we would have to wait a few months, obviously, because he right now is working out of town,

a little like an hour away from Springfield because he lives in a small town. And if he gets this other job, we would have to basically move where I live right now. And it's like he wants to get a car, which I understand. And if he doesn't really get the new job, it kind of worries me because I also want to go to a school here in town, and I can't even afford a car yet. And it's like, oh, my gosh, what do I do?

Slow down. Just take your time here. I don't want you to be there 10 years from now, but you're not going to be. You know, what I want you to do is do anything you can do reasonably to increase your income, because that's going to solve a lot of these problems, getting rid of the student loan debt and other stuff. And I will tell you from, well, you called me and asked my opinion on this situation. I would encourage you to not move in with your boyfriend until you're married. There's all kinds of data that says, and you're especially with the things you told me about him and you,

that are going to lead you guys towards all kinds of financial hard times. So if you're going to take the leap, let's take the leap. Let's be married, and both of you get to work, both of you get jobs, and both of you work your way together through your issues. Hey, it's Blake, Chief Production Officer for the show, and here's a little tip for 2018. Go download our revamped Dave Ramsey Show app from the App Store. We're always listening to your feedback and adding new features to make it even better.

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