The Ramsey Show - App - Debt Won’t Fix What Discipline Can

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

📈⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Jade Warshaw and Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: "How do we recover from 2 hurricanes and being sued by credit card companies?" "How do we handle debt now that our financial situation has changed?" "How can we travel outside of the country without a credit card?" "Should I use a $400k settlement to pay off a bankruptcy?" "How do I get my husband on board with the Baby Steps?" "My 15-year-old daughter is an influencer and has saved $100k for a car. How much should she spend?" "Should I pay off my house before retirement?" "Was buying a mobile home a mistake?" "My husband gave away all of our retirement money in a scam," "Should I pay off my debt before going back to school?" "My daughter is paying me back $50k. How do I make sure I'm responsible with this cash coming in?" "Can we pay for a honeymoon while on Baby Step 3?" "Am I a burden to my husband?" "Do I make enough money to move out on my own?" Next Steps: 🏡 ⁠Check out our Mortgage Calculator ⁠ ✔️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Help us make the show better. Please take this short survey.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠send us an email.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📱 ⁠Get episodes early in the free Ramsey Network app!⁠  📈 ⁠For help with investing, get connected with a SmartVestor Pro.⁠ 💵⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💗 ⁠Two Weekends. One Life-Changing Experience. Get away with your spouse in Nashville. ⁠ Connect with our Sponsors: Stop paying more and start shopping smarter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ALDI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get 10% off your first month of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ BetterHelp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Boost Mobile⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to switch today! Learn more about⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Christian Healthcare Ministries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get started today with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Churchill Mortgage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get 20% off when you join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DeleteMe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FAIRWINDS Credit Union⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for an exclusive account bundle! Find top Health Insurance Plans at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Health Trust Financial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Use code RAMSEY to save 20% at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mama Bear Legal Forms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ NetSuite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ today to learn more For more information, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SimpliSafe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Nokbox⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get started with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YRefy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or call 844-2-RAMSEY Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Zander Insurance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for your free instant quote today!  Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Ramsey Show Highlights⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🧠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Dr. John Delony Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🍸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smart Money Happy Hour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💡 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Rachel Cruze Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💰 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Kamel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🪑 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EntreLeadership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ramsey Solutions is a paid, non-client promoter of SmartVestor Pros. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy⁠⁠⁠⁠

From the Ramsey Network, it's the Ramsey Show, where we talk about your life, your money, and everything in between. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me, Rachel Cruz. If you want to get in on the show today, it's really simple to get involved. The number is 888255225 and we'll try our best to get you on the line. Well, let's get to our first caller. We've got John. He's in Sarasota, Florida. What's up, John? Hey, how are you? Doing good. How are you? I'm doing great. I'm just trying to figure out if bankruptcy is the right aspect for me

So a little bit of backstory is last year. We got hit with two hurricanes Helene and Milton We lost 50% of our business my wife and I's business Because of that for about two to three months And then two weeks later, we lost our house completely due to the fire from Hurricane Milton. And now we're like $19,000 worth of credit card debt.

And I have them suing me currently and I'm trying to figure out what makes the most sense. What did insurance pay for you? Did you not receive anything from the house? Did you not receive anything from those personal losses, business aside? So that's the good question. I'm still in the battle with FEMA at the current moment.

So still haven't really received all that much from them. Was it through FEMA or not your personal? Yeah. Just your home insurance? Yeah, so the home insurance didn't cover much because they're saying that there was a hurricane going on, even though the power line hit the house due to the storm. So they're kind of not really wanting to take ownership there.

So we really haven't gotten anything there. And then- So it's what was really at fault? Was it the hurricane or was it the power line? Is that the what's in question? That's yeah, that's basically what was in question as far as the the Insurance company, but it was due to the you know, it's due to the hurricane because that's what took down the tree basically Which took down the power line. Okay. What are you guys doing for work right now? Yes, so I'm a property manager and then my wife owns a salon business.

Okay, how much you guys bringing in a month after taxes? Yeah, absolutely. So I'm bringing in right around 4,500. Okay. And then she's bringing in right around 4,000. Also have two kids, little ones, so obviously they're, you know, I'm also paying for a nanny for them too. Sure. Okay. And where are you guys living right now?

So we were couch serving for a while. And then finally we were able to get into a rental. Okay, good. So we're all paying that. Yeah. And what are you paying for that rental? Because with your family. That's what's going to play a role. Yeah, absolutely. It's about two, five. Oh, that's not as bad as I thought it might be. I mean, that's high, but it's not as bad as I thought. Okay. So right now, the biggest thing that you're facing, I mean, obviously there's a lot tied up in what insurance or FEMA will or will not pay. In the meantime, you do have a place to lay your head and it's not a ridiculous. It's not a ridiculous amount of your, you know, month to month take home. So now we've just got the debt to deal with. You said 19,000 in credit

card debt. Not total 19,000, which I'm being sued for currently. What's the total, can you walk us through all of the debt that you have? Yeah, absolutely. So I have 20,000 in a business credit card that was used to start the business, 20,000 in personal credit card that was used a little bit to help the business but somewhat personal. And then another 19 obviously, which is basically right around 60. And then I also have student debt that I haven't really included there. So if we want to include the student debt would be a total of 90,000. Yeah, that's important because that bill is coming due to right for you. Absolutely. OK, so.

The good news is if and I'm not trying to make a joke, but the good news is this storm is passing like the hard part has happened. You've recovered somewhat where you're both working again. You've got a place to live. It's I mean, it's terrible what's happened. I mean, I can't express that enough. You guys have dealt with a lot of loss, a lot of change in a very short period of time. But the good news is everything's kind of starting to land and you guys, you know, it could, it could be a lot worse is what I'm saying. So I would really attack this the way I would tell anybody to with the debt snowball.

Yeah. Obviously, the amount that you're being sued for, it's not a lump sum, right? Is it broken into smaller pieces? So I called the attorney and they're basically saying they want everything up front and they're not really wanting to negotiate on anything because I've listened to Dave Ramsey a few times saying, hey, let's try to negotiate it. And they're not really wanting to negotiate on anything because I've listened to Dave Ramsey a few times saying, hey, let's try to negotiate it. And you tried. Well, it's usually when it goes into collections at that point. Is any

of it in collections? I have the other 40,000 in credit card debt that's in was going to be in collection or is in collections. Yeah. So I can negotiate that. Yeah. Let's do negotiate those. And yeah, the 19,000, I think you're beyond that point, it sounds like. So you might have to pony up the cash. So at this point, this this is the equation. I mean, it doesn't change. You've got to tighten up your budget.

I'm sure you have a budget, correct? Oh, yeah. OK. So, I mean, that's on bare bones. But then the other side of this is now that you do have a nanny for the kids, you and your wife have got to be working like crazy people. And it's almost the exact, it's the exact opposite of what you want to do right now. You've been through a lot. You probably want to rest. You probably feel like you owe it to yourself to just like take a breather, right?

But the truth is you've got this debt breathing down your neck. And at least until you can get out of this 19,000 and clear that and, you know, settle this other 40,000 for half, you know? And then you can kind of take a breather and then it's like, okay, now we're safe. And now we can start to tackle that student loan debt once you've taken care of those other crazy ones that are.

Yeah, and cut everything up, John, be done. Be done with the credit card game. I mean, seriously. I've already thrown everything away. Amazing. Okay, I'm so glad, I'm so glad because this is it. I'm like, it's just like another example to the world. Like this is the mess people get in.

You know what I mean? And John, you're pretty normal in that way. Like we could call it, this is the show we're on. This is how normal it is. The debt's not from the hurricane, it's not from the storm. It's you having to react to the lifestyle you had before and the risk that you had created

probably unbeknownst to you. Right, before all this even happened, yep, exactly. So yeah, John, yeah, it would not be, yeah, I would not say you're in a bankruptcy situation, but you guys have, gosh, a solid four years probably down this track of saying, we gotta start cleaning this up. And so again, any savings, any non-retirement that you have,

cash everything out, John, and put towards this if you guys have it. And be aware of your expenses even from a business perspective, you know, from like, I don't know, there's just something that, where can you cut to save since you, I think you are running your business from a property management standpoint,

where can you find some margin to throw at your personal finances here in the next year or two to kind of get a jumpstart as well? You know, Rachel, I feel lately, I've been hearing more calls about bankruptcy. Should I consider bankruptcy? I'm in this mess. Should I do bankruptcy? You know, I know you personally that I mean, that's where your story with Dave starts.

You know, I think of bankruptcy as you're losing control. Like you're going to have to sacrifice something. You're going to have to pay a certain amount of this debt. But when you're in bankruptcy, then the courts are deciding, right? Versus you've lost all control of your financial. Yeah. Your financial world. You don't get to make the decisions versus if you can just get on a plan, Ramsey plan, you can do a lot of the same things that bankruptcy would do, which is make you pay these things off, make you prioritize, but at least you have the control back. That's right.

It's not with some hands of some judge somewhere right doing it all, which we don't want. So that's great. It's a great point. This is... All right, let's head back to the phone lines. We've got Jay, who's in Detroit, Michigan. Jay, you're on the line. Hi there.

How are you doing today? We're doing good, how can we help? So my major question today is gonna be, should my husband and I go about renting out our house with the potential for not having the best tenants, especially because we would be asking a pretty high rent for what it is. Um, or if we should try to sell the house, which we,

we would end up bringing money to the table to sell the house. Um, and we don't have that money right now. So we would either have to take a loan out for it or I don't even know. So yeah, what are you trying to accomplish? Is this your primary home or a second home? It's our primary house. So we we just are so financially burdened. You know, we're 23 and 24 and we got this house and we kind of jumped the gun

and I took control of finances in terms of being like, no, we can handle it. We can we can do this. Yeah. What's your what's your income every month and how much is the mortgage? So our total income between like combined between the two of us is about a 4,400 of take home, but I Uber for a living. So I'll have to pay taxes at the end of the year. I'm going to research what I can write off of course and you know go about that way. But he is at a point where you know he is an apartment maintenance man and he gets a discount and he wants to go move into one of their apartments. So that's what we plan on doing. We just don't really know what to do with the apartment. How much is your mortgage payment a month?

The mortgage payment is $13.85. Okay. So what else is going on? Because that's not bad. So we, no, it is not bad, but we kind of bringing back a couple months. Around November, I took some time off of work. He thought he could handle it. I took about three weeks off.

I was in between jobs. I was trying to get a new job, but we also took a pretty big pay cut because I had quit that job where I was making $55,000 and I ended up landing a job. But then once I landed a job, December he decided to join the Marines and He did not end up going all the way through he got through some boot camp And he was supposed to get the basic allowance for housing which is where you know if you have a wife or children They'll send money home They did not send over his paperwork for that so that whole time while he was gone

I was just struggling to pay because I like just then found a job and it was a pay cut. So you guys got behind is that debt is that credit card debt? Yeah, we got really behind. Yeah, we we've got about $2,500 of credit card debt, which isn't a crazy amount. But then the second week of him being gone, both of our vehicles broke down. And one of them is still, we just haven't even fixed it. We're thinking about just junking it for like 500. But the other one we ended up repairing, but that was after he got back. So, so where are you now? Give us a picture of what's happened. Yeah, it's 2500 in credit card debt. What

else? What other debt do you guys have? So our car payment is $557 for the new vehicle that we got. Oh, so you got a new vehicle. How much did you spend on the new vehicle? We didn't put any money down, which is kind of also a- I understand, but what do you owe on it? We owe, where is it? I wrote it down. I want to see what's 32,994. Okay. Is there anything else that's large that we should know about briefly?

Insurance for all three vehicles is 537 because I uber my gas expenses for the month are about 1,100. So for bare minimum expenses, this is including food. So this has house car payment, or I'm sorry, yeah, house car payment, insurance, DTE, which is a rough DTE gas, gas, phone bills. Just your basic budget, what is it? So basic budget is 4,281. Okay. So you're to the wires, what you're saying. There's nothing left extra.

You don't feel like you have breathing room, no margin. A big piece of this is the car. So I mean, you do have three vehicles. Obviously one of them is not running right now. If you have them now, two of them aren't running this past week for, so what does it cost to get both of your older? Are they paid for by the way? The two that aren't running? Both the older cars. Yep. Both of the older cars.

Okay. What could you get for both of them? One's going to be a junker, you said. What could you sell the other one for? The other one, depending. They're the car shop across the street, so we plan on taking it over there. That one, it's a 2014 Honda Civic. The only problem is he's kind of trashed it. Just tell us what you think you could get for it if you sold them. For like pure driveability, maybe like 2,500 for the Civic and then the other one. But you could fix it for how much?

I don't know yet. We have to take it to the mechanic, but this is the second time that it's broke down in a year now. So here's the thing. Here's the thing. I'm going to give you a quick overview because you've you're meandering a lot, which makes me think that you want to make excuses. And maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like a lot of times when you're giving me all the all the all the it's like, let's just cut it and dry it and say what it really is. Okay. For the two vehicles, your homework getting off of here is find out what you can

sell them for private sale. Then find out what it would take to fix them. And if you do have an older vehicle, yeah, you might, it's older, so you might have to have repairs on it, but it doesn't mean that it's a bad car. It just means that you have to do maintenance and repair on it sometimes. And see how much you can sell the $32,000 car. Because I might be- The dealership said I would owe on that because I Uber, I already have, I got it five months

ago and I have $25,000 in mine. I don't care what the dealership said. I would look on Kelley Blue Book, look on Kelley Blue Book and you're going to always get a better deal when you go private sale, most always. From selling the car or buying the car because you can negotiate more with a private party if you're buying and you're going to get more bang for your buck when you're selling. So Kelly Blue Book it.

Don't listen to dealership. Yeah. And I tend to think, I don't know, but I'm looking at this and for where you guys are right now, I'm probably inclined for you to sell the 32,001 and fix the two that you already have that are paid for because we would have told you to do the same thing anyway.1 and fix the two that you already have that are paid for. Because we would have told you to do the same thing anyway. Sell the old one and get a junker. Well, you already have the two paid for junkers, so you're already there.

And I just want to encourage you, it sounds like you guys, I mean, you're early in your marriage. It sounds like you're trying to get on the same page and it's been a battle and it's been a struggle. I want you guys to sit down tonight and look at the facts as they are today. Don't go to the past, don't spend a lot of time talking about what we did before, but look at it today and say, here's where we are,

and talk more about the future. I want you guys to talk about where you wanna be at the end of the year, and then I want you to talk about where you wanna be at the end of next year and work backwards on a way to get there. Because I feel like a lot has happened that's kind of keeping you lost in the sauce. Yeah, and Jay, and you guys run the numbers

because I do wanna just tell you from a normal circumstances, your $1,200 mortgage is not the problem. No. So, because we always, we tell people, and we're conservative when it comes to the housing item and the budget of 25% of your income, and you're right, you're right on it.

Like you are exactly where we would say percentage wise to be. So from a percentage looking at your income, you're exactly where you should be. And, but let me say this with the caveat, you guys are young, you said we kind of like rushed into this purchase. And if the whole thing is overwhelming, Jay, and you guys continue to feel paralyzed by this,

and you're just like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, and you can make some money with some equity, I don't know what the term would be, and you're like, listen, we could get out of it, I'm gonna make this up, Jay. We can get out of this and we can make 15 grand in equity, and we're gonna go rent for two to three years, get our feet under us,

and then we're gonna make a different decision with housing. You guys can do that. But if you're, are you underwater on the house? Is that what you said at the very beginning of the call? Yeah, so we bought last year, you know, in a seller's market, and so we've already talked to our real estate agent, and I've thought about even doing private sale, but our house just hasn't

appreciated in value enough. Okay, so I would stay in it then. That we would be bringing money. Does it cost a lot to maintain? No, I mean, the house is pretty simple. We do have some repairs that we have to do, but. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, yeah, so Jay, if I were you guys, stay in the house.

I would not take the financial hit with losing money on a home. I wouldn't either. A car, I might. If you're gonna be underwater, five grand, go take a personal loan for five grand. Drive your two beaters, and I'd rather have $5,000 in car debt than $32,000.

So it's just a reminder, you guys, when your car breaks down, you don't have to go to the dealership and buy a $32,000 car, right? Even if you were going into debt for a car, which you shouldn't do, God forbid you go get $10,000. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you, Rachel. Man, oh man. So thank you guys. Think, think through this and cars are just like one of these things. We just go and buy and we don't think about it. But man, that's half of their annual income. More than half. Don't do that, Jay. Sell the car. If you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck and the feeling of not being able to get ahead, then you need to join one of our free every dollar trainings.

There are these new trainings that we do every week of the month and they're all hosted by one of the Ramsey personalities. Matter of fact, Rachel, you did one today. Just did one before the show. That's right. I did one yesterday. George is doing them. We're all into it and we show you how to stick to your budget. And here's the most important part. We show you in real time, how to find $9,000 of margin using every dollar

so that you can get ahead of debt and start building wealth. I know I just said a lot, but trust me, you can ask us anything during the Q&A live. And if you're interested in that, you can sign up for it right now for free at ramsysolutions.com slash webinar. Very, very good. All right, let's go to Eric.

He is local Nashville, Tennessee. Hey, Eric. Hey guys, thank you so much for having us. Yeah, you're welcome. Us, is there someone else on the line? Oh, my wife's nearby. Ah, hi Eric's wife. I love it.

Tell her we said hi. How can we help today? I will do. Say hi. Great. Quick, super quick question. So we are planning an international trip next year. We are committed to all of the things that you all teach, this includes not having credit

cards period. So we are going to do that. No credit cards, period. So we are gonna do that. No credit cards for that trip. Now the thing that our TripAdvisor person is giving us is they're coming back to us saying, hey, well, what happens if you go there with just a debit card and your debit card gets hacked? That's a particular fear they're throwing at us.

I'm just curious, mechanically what would y'all recommend? Again, we are not going with the credit card. So we're not even touching that but what what would y'all recommend if if the Fear they're throwing at us is what happens if it gets if it gets hacked. Well, I mean I can say with our kids We're bringing a couple. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, yeah. I mean, what we're solving for, I mean, the basis of what we're solving for is if something should happen, you need money. That's really what they're saying, right? Is if somebody steals all your money here,

you need to have money elsewhere in order to cover it in the meantime. And so that's all it is. So if you say, hey, I'm not using credit cards, I'm just gonna have a pile of money in my account and I know if something should happen with my debit card, and I'll get to this in a minute, let's just say something happens and it takes 24 hours for that money to come back and be replaced, then I have an emergency fund and I have some savings that I also can have access

to and that's all I need. Yeah, because what other accounts do you guys have besides your checking? Oh, what accounts do we have? Checking, do we have a savings? We have savings and. We have a couple of things. Okay, so like we have a high yield.

Yeah, we have a high yield savings account with Fairwinds and we have a Fairwinds debit card with that account. So I would have, you know, that's, you know, you would have one or two, three different accounts that you can use a different debit card for. Potentially. Yes, exactly. If you're, if you're worried about that, which I guess is fair. Yeah. And, but I would give your bank a heads up because we were, we ran into an issue, not, it was, it was in Florida. It wasn't even international and And the bank, it was this whole thing, and we hadn't told the bank, and so our car did. It took us like 45 minutes to get on the phone

with the bank and figure it all out, which was annoying. It's super annoying. But it's for your protection. They're like, hey, somebody's spending a lot of money in another area that's not typical for you. So yeah, they throw the flag on that. So I would contact your bank. And then, Eric, the other thing that. But so just I would contact your bank and then Eric, the other thing to look out for it depends on your bank and account. But

we do get ding sometimes with international fees. So like if you swipe it with certain merchants or whatever, you know, you I know when we travel with like to Mexico or something, we've like come back into the every dollar app and it's like $2.99. That's right. That's right. You know, I mean, like a fee randomly. Oh, yeah come back into the every dollar app and it's like two dollars and ninety-nine That's right. You know, I mean like a fee randomly. Oh, yeah, just be aware of that. That's the other thing think about yes They do they get you I think the other part of this question that he wasn't saying but I do think that a lot of people think Rachel is that

Debit cards don't have the same protections as a credit card So let's say you have fraud on your account the big fears that oh my gosh If you have fraud then a credit card The big fear is that, oh my gosh, if you have fraud, then a credit card company is gonna give you the money back instantly. But the truth is, a debit card company will give you, if it's a debit card, you'll get the money back instantly as well.

And you can check the fine print if you look at your Visa debit card. It does have the same protections. But you do need to report it, you know, within, I think it's 48 hours or 24 hours. You have to report it. And I, within, I think it's 48 hours or 24 hours, you have to report it. And I can tell you, I have never had a problem with that. It's always been, I call and I say,

hey, this looks like fraud. And they say, okay, and they'll give you the money back and ask questions later. So. Well, and honestly too, to your point about the protection, the way banks work today, I feel like, or at least our bank, they are way more on top of it than they were five years ago. I feel like I get texts a lot of like, say, why did this transaction? Sometimes

they're scams. So you got to make sure it's your actual bank. But our bank, I don't know, I feel like they do a really good job at it, but. They do. Very good question. All right. Another local call. We've got Annette in Nashville, Tennessee. What's up Annette, how can we help? Hi. Hello Annette, how can we help? Oh, I'm so sorry, didn't hear you say that. Oh, you're great, you're great.

My husband was injured at work and he received a $100,000 cash well settlement and it was through Workman's Comp and we had to take the company anyways. We had to file bankruptcy because they wouldn't pay Workman's Comp wouldn't pay so we did have to go to court and we weren't successful. Now my question to you is do we take that four hundred thousand and take it to the bankruptcy court and pay off as much as we can, take half and put the other half in the bank and start saving for our future?

What would your recommendation be? How much is left in the bankruptcy? I have $150,000. Left to pay? Yes. Okay. We have to pay the most back because we have 250,000 equity in our home. We, you know, bought it cheap and fixed it up and then it skyrocketed. And

so we're paying back everything. But right now we're paying 14 to 1500 a week. So everything that my husband makes goes straight to bankruptcy every week. Oh gosh. Yes, I would. I would catch up on this immediately. So yeah, I would throw it there. Cause you want all of this cleaned up in that to be able then to move forward and think about the future, like what you're saying.

When you try to do 18 different things, you're not gonna solve for peace doing that because you're still gonna have this bankruptcy looming. So as soon as you can get that in the rear view mirror as soon as possible, the better off this is going to be. So you take the full amount and put it on there. Yes, I would. Yeah, for sure. Are you working too, Annette? I am working, but at the time that he got injured, I had just opened my own business. So I'm at three years in my own business and I'm doing okay, but I don't, you know, only pay myself not a lot.

What's not a lot? 400 to 500 a week. So it's not, I make sure all my bills are paid and I'm building the business and it's coming along. But you know, What kind of business is it? Fitness, I open the fitness gym. Okay. Interesting.

Okay. I'm glad that the business is growing. I just wonder is there, you know, when it comes to these equations, I said this earlier today, it's good that you've got this chunk of money in, but it's almost like pretend that chunk of money hadn't come. What would you guys have been doing to pay off this $150? And you would have been getting busy out there. So would your husband. Well, I work four jobs. What would you guys have been doing to pay off this 150 and you would have been getting busy out there

So would your husband or jobs, right? I work four jobs right now I work I run this business, huh? And I take teach 25 classes a week and then I teach outside of this and I'm also a DJ as well And all of that brings in the 400 a week No, that's just from my business so So that's on top of all the other. So I'm still doing all those. What's the other stuff bringing? Well, you know, DJing is like here and there. So I would say that's about 5,000 a year.

And then the other brings in 400 a month, four to 600 a month the other classes. Okay. I just had other places. I just wonder if you can be putting your time somewhere where it's a little bit more valuable. Yeah. From a money perspective. A hundred, a hundred percent. Yeah. So I'd probably look at some priorities in that from the time management perspective of how many hours you're doing all of this.

That's a lot. Yeah. Where you could be, I don't know, working at Target. I don't know, like run some numbers just to be like, if I put in this amount of money, this amount of time versus what if I was making 30 hours, you know, $30 an hour somewhere else or I don't know. So just kind of run some numbers. Yep, exactly. That's a lot. You're doing a lot in that. And don't get me, don't hear us wrong. We love your dream of having a gym. You're in it now. It's just maybe there's a way to reallocate that time. Maybe you hire someone to teach some of the classes and give them a cut of it and figure it out like that so you have more of your time back. Well, if you're a listener to the Ramsey Show, we really appreciate you. We're glad you're here. Matter of fact, you're the reason

that we have jobs because without you there would be no show. So we're grateful appreciate you. We're glad you're here. Matter of fact, you're the reason that we have jobs because without you, there would be no show. So we're grateful to you. And if you like the show, the biggest thing we could ask you to do is just share it. And there's a lot of ways you could do that. Maybe there's a clip that you like to share and you could do that.

Maybe there's, you know, you slide into somebody's DMs and you put it in there. There used to be a playlist. Do we still have the Ramsey, the playlist that we can share? We do, it's still out there on YouTube. All right, so if you go on YouTube, there's the Ramsey 101 playlist that you can share.

And it's a great way to share it because it kind of curates the videos for you so that if somebody's kind of getting into the Ramsey verse for the first time, they're getting the information in the proper way. So keep sharing the show. It helps us out. All right, let's go to Edna Lexington, Kentucky. Hey, Edna, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for taking my call. You bet. How can we help today? Well, so I guess I need marriage advice and financial advice. So my husband and I have actually been together for over 10 years, advice and financial advice. So my husband and I have actually been together for over 10 years, but I finally married him last June,

not this past June, but a year ago. Good for you guys. That's great. Yeah. I'm still a chicken and I haven't combined finances, so I'm sure I get best at about that. But we just come from completely different worlds. I was raised Amish. So, you know, we had her, we raised her own meat, you grow your own vegetables. We had milk cows, all the things. And he grew up very much cereal, microwave dinners, going out to eat all that. So just financially, we're not in a grand sprilly.

And I know that should have been taken care of before we got married, but I have recently been trying to get him involved in those day-by-day programs and the baby steps. And even like, I bought him a edition of the total money makeover. And I don't even think he's opened it. I mentioned going through the, you know, peace university. And he's like, all right, so we're gonna spend money to save money and I was like, yeah So I today purchased the ever dollar premium and I sent him an invitation to it But I guess I just kind of after I said it I'm like, maybe I should get some advice on how to

Yeah, my number one question is the the way you guys explained your differences growing up makes total sense. It was like in a food category. I milked a cow. Yeah, I milked cows. You're like, I mickle cows, he goes to the store. So from a financial perspective, what are the big differences?

What are you bumping up against? He thinks if you can finance it, you can afford it. Okay. I think if you don't have cash, you can't afford it. Okay. Okay. So that's big. Which I do.

I will my house. I have no debt and he doesn't now. That was one thing that, you know, I was like, you're paying your truck off. We're getting out of this before we get married. So between us, we have no consumer debt. But when we met, he had a very little equity in his house, and owed money on his truck.

He told himself- Okay, that was 10 years ago. So what's he doing now, financially? We own a tire and service center together. And we've had a lot of life happen, but- No, and okay, so what's, what is he, so besides debt, is he in debt currently? No, he's out of debt, other than our house.

We, I own a house, and we just recently bought a farm. Okay. Is he suggesting you go into debt for something else right now? No, but like, he won't, like, I'm all about doubling up payments and let's you know get this you know we have he has no savings and he's 20 years older than me so he has no savings I am the only one that has savings. How much do

you have? And probably 35,000. Yeah I have. So here's the tough part. You said earlier in the call, I feel like I heard you say, obviously you've been together 10 years, married one, and you haven't combined finances yet. And I thought you were sounding like you didn't really want to combine finances. I do, but I'm scared to. But you're scared to, and yet we're having conversations as though we're combining finances. So it's almost like, I wonder if that's feeding into how you're talking about it versus it being more of, I want us to be together on the same page.

I want us to finally be one. We've been together for 10 years. I just wonder if it's a shift in how you're talking about it. Talk about the combination as a way to become one first instead of as a way to pay off debt, pay off the mortgage, save money, like that sort of a thing. Do you see what I'm saying? Yes. So talk about it from an intimacy standpoint first. I'm sorry, pardon me.

I was saying talk about it from an intimacy standpoint first, and then as that conversation continues to happen, then we can start to see the advantages from a numbers perspective. Yeah, for sure. Because I think possibly the problem thus far with the communication has been, to Jade's point, situational and with purchasing or I want to do situational and you know, with purchasing or I wanna do a budget and you're not signing into the app, I want you to read this book,

you're not reading this book. It's more about action, right, if that makes sense, versus starting more with you, Edna, of like, okay, why do I feel fearful? Why am I hesitant? What do I want? What do I want? What do I, like actually talking about more what's going on with you and bringing you to the table

and saying, hey, listen, I love you, obviously. We were together for 10 years. We are married now. And my hope and prayer, I don't know, I'm making this up. This may not be the case for you, is that I always saw the future with my husband that we would be one and that we could trust each other, we'd be on the same page, we'd be on the same team.

As we walk this road of life, like we are hand in hand and you're always gonna have your personality, I'm gonna have mine. So Edna, you may always be a little bit more nerdy and always be more conservative. He may be a little bit more of a spender, more of a free spirit, but the personality differences isn't changing the direction of where we're going.

And that's the safety I want in a husband. I want to know that we are united on these big topics of raising kids and money and spiritual, our spiritual lives. Like, I don't know, all of this, if we're on the same page, that gives me security, right? You're telling him this. But I fear that because you don't seem interested in a topic that I'm really nervous about, I don't feel like you're listening to me. Right? Like you make it more of

a marriage issue. It's coming out as money through the lane of money. But to your point, it's not a money issue. You guys are just missing each other completely, or he's just a jerk and doesn't really care what you think, Edna, which hopefully you didn't marry him. That's him. Yeah, so I think he, so yeah, so he cares for you, right? So I would go about it more from you. And this tip, John, John Delaney said this years ago,

and I just love it. He's like, whenever you go into any level of conflict, you never use the word you. You're doing this, you're not reading the book, you're not signing up for the app. It's all about you, Edna. You have to enter that the word you. You're doing this, you're not reading the book, you're not signing up for the app. It's all about you, Edna. You have to enter that conversation about you. And I would tell him before too,

I wouldn't make this a casual thing. I think you've kind of been casual about it, but I would say, hey, tonight, can we have a big conversation about money? Because I, and kind of prep him, but like, hey, I just have some things I want to share with you, and tell him it's about money.

So it's not so secretive. Every he's like, oh God, what are you going to tell me? You know, but, but actually have a very intentional sit down together. And I, and I just wonder if he's a good man, you know, if he starts to actually say, okay, gosh, she is really worried about this. And you know, he may not get on board that night a hundred

percent, but at least he can have a level of empathy to enter in with you in this and you guys can start this journey Together slowly, but you can start heading in the right direction where it's it's less about throwing a book at him You know and more about what's happening with you Edna. I agree What you said Rachel is exactly right? I think a lot of times and not just with Edna's case but in general we we we want something from our spouse and we start with these actions of like, it's almost like giving them hints of what we want them to do versus, like you said,

sitting down, having the conversation, that way it's all laid out on the table. And then from that point on, anything that we do, we can link it back to that conversation and say, we remember when we talked about this? Yep, yep. Now, now I can say, I found this FPU class or I found this book and you've got that conversation

to kind of link it back or tether it back to. So it's not just, cause a lot of times we, we could be in one mental space, our spouses in another, and they're just going on about their life. And next thing you know, you mentioned something about paying off the house and they're like, what? Yeah, she's like, I'm doubling up payments. And he's like, golly, Edna, wait, what's happening?

Yeah, where'd this come from? Yeah, right, right. So give him some of that grace too in it. But I think getting on the same page is gonna be your number one and then everything else. But the good thing is too, Edna, in your case, it's not like he's racking up all this credit card debt and spending all this,

spending stuff he doesn't have. It sounds like even from an action standpoint, he's in the middle. It's just getting on the same page mindset-wise and it's gonna be key for you guys. From the Ramsey Network, you're listening to The Ramsey Show. We're talking about your life and your money all day long. I've got Rachel Cruz here next to me. I'm Jade Warshaw. Let's get right into the phone lines where we've got

Wendy from Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, Wendy, how can we help today? Hi, Jade. Thanks so much for taking my call. We have a 15 year old daughter and she is a social media influencer. We've made her older siblings buy their own cars and they probably had six to seven thousand dollars to buy a car when it was time but obviously her situation is gonna be much different and we aren't necessarily in agreement as to my husband and I, as to how much money we should allow her to spend on her car. What is she earning? This is crazy.

It is crazy. Her manager says that in the next year she'll make a hundred thousand dollars. Currently she has a fully funded Roth IRA she has 32,000 in brokerage and she's averaging about eight to ten thousand dollars a month right now Wow, so what does she want to spend on a car? I'm going to get what she wants. She'd want to spend around fifty thousand dollars Okay, I can understand your To get what she wants, she'd want to spend around $50,000. Wow. Okay, I can understand your conundrum.

Is that, can I just ask, can I just ask honestly, is that more expensive than your car? Yes. Wow. This is something. Yeah. Okay. Oh my gosh. This is juicy.

This is a good call. And this is, this is, this is how I would feel as a mom. And I don't have a 15 year old. Let me just say that. I have a 10 year old. So I take this with a grain of salt. I always hate giving parenting advice when there's, I won't even say this is advice. This is like what just came up in me, Wendy, as a mom. We'll just be, we'll just be girlfriends just chatting. I like that. up in me Wendy as a mom. We'll just be girlfriends just chatting. I like that. What rose up in me is less about the dollar amount and more about what I am, what am I helping her as a mom see that is important in life. And she's in an industry, which I'm not mad about. I'll link a dresser to. I'm not mad at the influencing world. I'm really not. It's how about half

my clothes as I see someone. I'm like that's cute. You're also a lot older and you've had a lot more maturity to grow over time. It can be, it's like the, it can be a very vain, self, inward looking type industry in general. I'm not saying that's your daughter.

I'm just saying. The industry. The industry in general, right? Hollywood has an industry, influencers has an industry, like everything has pros and cons. So as a 15 year old, what I wanna facilitate in her is that our stuff cannot own us. And that's from a debt perspective,

but it's also from an identity contentment perspective. Our stuff is not going to make us who we are. And the moment we live in a world where our stuff starts to define us, and if you took all the stuff away, if you took the hair extensions and the eyelashes and the cars and the clothes, who am I? Who am I?

Take everything away, who am I? So like I would be pushing a message so hard Wendy to her of this is incredible, number one, what she's doing. Like her tenacity to go out and do stuff. And she, I mean, it's amazing. It's absolutely incredible. So I don't want to squash this entrepreneurial side of her, but there's just a lot of caution and flags

that this is going to be the first big purchase that she makes that could go take her down a road to say, how much does stuff influence who I am as a person? And to have the restraint to say, I want this $50,000 brand new car, but also I'm gonna understand that I am 16 years old. I'm gonna have a level of common sense with my life.

And I don't need a $50,000 car at 16. And it would show a lot of maturity and a lot of confidence as a mom to her. If she was like, you know what, mom, I get it. Like I won a $50,000 car. What does she want? Is it like a, I don't even know what that would be. A Jeep Wrangler, the Ford Lord.

Okay. It's that what if we went and bought a used Jeep, right, like going by a used version. Like what does that do to your identity? Does that make sense? Like I'm trying to kind of poke on the triggers of what I don't want to be magnified for her as an adult in her twenties.

So like, how do you make a purchase that that doesn't influence it? I think what you, Rachel, I think you're spot on on that. I also think there's part of it. And again, there's part of this that's hard to put into words. There's also part of it where it's just about building a maturity level. You said building a maturity level, but it's almost like her following, right? She didn't immediately start with a million followers. She had to work to build that up. And as you go through those stages, your character also builds to be able to hold it a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. Right.

And so I think the same can be true from a financial perspective, right? With large purchases, with large purchases, when you're gifted large amounts, there also has to be a part of your personality that can carry that, because here's the thing, she's gonna, if she does a $50,000 car, there's a lot that's gonna come with that. There's gonna be expectations from her friends, there's gonna be things that she feels like

now I have to be here, or I'm projecting this to the world, now I have to be here. It's almost like, it's almost, and again, I don't have kids this age, but it's almost like when I was in eighth grade and I wanted to start wearing makeup, I didn't have a bad reason for wanting to do that. I just wanted to improve the way I looked as an eighth grader.

But my mom saw ahead and was like, hey, you're just not there yet. You bringing makeup is gonna bring a different type of attention. It's gonna bring more, you know what I'm saying? But there's more that goes along with these things than meets the eye. So I'm with you on not doing a $50,000 car,

but I think it's fair for her to have more than a six or $7,000 car to reflect the work she's done. 100%, yeah. So maybe it looks more like, I don't know, what's reasonable for a 16 or 20. Yeah, what's a, yeah, 20 more like, I don't know, what's reasonable for a 16 or 20? Yeah, what's a yeah, 2025. I don't know. It's reasonable for a 16 year old that has the cash too, like which is incredible. And she's buying her own car. So like, I want to reward part of that in her. But I think for a teenage girl and that whole world and all of it, I'm like, I just want to,

where I can steer the motivation in a healthy way so that that is what's magnified as she gets older versus just being like, oh my gosh, you can afford, you know, like you can afford it, so just get it. And I, Wendy, to a degree, I have restraints on myself. I'm such a spender. I love clothes. I'm such a spender where I'm like,

I probably could go out and get more, but I'm like, for my own dignity and my own sake like and my own contentment I have to say no to myself sometimes even though I can Financially afford things sometimes that I'm like, I don't does that make sense? Like there's something there for her at 15 that I just want to protect I agree and I'm looking at our audience out here and I'm like Are we saying things that make points or Or are you like, no, you've missed it? Wait, should she get a $50,000 car at 16?

Is there any hands up? All right, okay, we got a good sample size. And it's mostly adults out there, by the way. What about like 25,000? I feel like, is that still too high? Oh, we're getting some down, oh, we're getting some lower. 20? 20?

All right, okay. So you guys think she should stick to the six, the seven to $10,000 range? Okay, this is like the price is right. We're getting mixed reviews. We're getting mixed reviews. They're like, this is 10,000. I'm gonna give her some money to spend.

I'd be okay with 20, 25, honestly. I would too, yeah. I would. Okay, and let me say this too, Wendy. It's gotta be in cash. And you said her manager said she could be making 100 hundred thousand, that's not money in the bank too. So it needs to be reasonable with what she has now. I don't know how much money she has right now

in that account. Sorry, Wendy we just monologued, I apologize. But it also reflects our teaching, which is even at a hundred thousand fifty, that would be too much at this point. She'd be right at the line. So even from a rule of thumb perspective, not just from a, I don't know, quote, kind of like morality. Yes. Good call. Thank you for the call, Wendy.

Thanks for listening and being with us on the show today. We're going to go straight to the phone lines where we have Shana in Portland Oregon. Hi Shana how can we help today? Hi Jason Rachel. Hello. Hi how are you guys? We're good. How can we help you? Awesome well I'm a single mom by choice I will soon to be an empty nestor as my son heads to college this fall so that focuses me on retirement and my question is can you help me with a goal on how much to pay on my house between now and retirement because it's my big focus area and piece to prepare to be ready. So how much do you have remaining on your mortgage?

My mortgage has 370,000 remaining. Okay. And what's your income? It's in the mid six figures. So... $150,000? $150,000? Ish, yeah. Okay. And like the big, what I'm getting to without asking a bunch of questions, what I'm getting to is figuring out your margin every month because that's really what's gonna speak to

how quickly you can do this. So are you currently putting away 15%, investing 15%? Yeah, I'm clearly on baby step six with a margin right now of about 11 to 1,200 a month. Okay, so what I would do if I were in your shoes is I would look on the calculator, like how quickly can I pay off my debt calculator? You can find that on ramsysolutions.com and basically say, okay, it's your choice, right? Because we always say that at this point,

it's all about intentionality. You don't necessarily have to be intense, but it just sounds like you want to know the exact numbers and know the game plan. So you can decide, OK, am I putting 600 extra or am I putting 800 extra? And how does that affect how quickly I get this done? And then it's really up to you how that looks like. And I mean, that can also be very seasonal. I know for Sam and I, there's some seasons where we're like, oh, we're going crazy and all the money's going to the mortgage. Then there's times where we're like, I'm just going on vacation.

Like, I don't I'm not hitting it like this today. And you get to make that choice. The point is that you're consistently paying more than just your, you know, your normal monthly amount. How old are you? I'm fifty five. Fifty five. When do you want to retire? Do you know?

Do you have an age? 60. At 60? 60. Okay. So five years, so that's not gonna, I mean, yeah, if you put, what is that? Six, yeah.

I'm just thinking if you put a thousand bucks extra a month, right? And being able to kind of extrapolate that and saying, okay, it's not gonna make probably a massive dent in 370 that's right how much do you have in retirement right now retirement about 1.5 targeting 2.5 by the time I hit 60. Okay, that's actually good to know. Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah, I guess my question is. Because you can use some of that. I mean, be aggressive with your income now,

but also while still funding at 15%. And then once you get to retirement, you can use some of this to pay it down. I mean, yeah, if you made it a point to pay off half between now and then and get it down to, I don't know, 150. And then you said, and I plan on by then taking 150 of the 2.5 million and finishing it off I think that'd be just fine. Absolutely and so I guess that would be my question is I because I can work the numbers

but it's that energy to put in extra work or take on a second job to pay down more. And so what would you guys do? Would you take the tax hit on the back end of those retirement funds if I do take it out to pay off half of the house? Well, you would wait till, because how many, what percentage of the 2.5 will be in a Roth versus traditional? Zero. It's all traditional.

Okay. That's, yeah, you're going to have to pay the tax burden on that then of course. Right. Well, yeah, so all that to say, Shawna, I think, let me say this, overall, looking at your numbers, you're going to be fine. Even if you took, you know, I don't know,

a hundred and I don't know, 100 and I don't know, by the time you get to retirement, 200 out. That's right. And paid off the house, but you had to pay taxes, all of it, your house is paid for, you're good. And you'll be fine into retirement, even with what's left. So either way you're fine. I think the question would be for you, what do you want?

Like, do you want to work an extra job to put towards the house so that you don't have to take out as much at retirement or what? Cause either do you wanna work an extra job to put towards the house so that you don't have to take out as much at retirement or what? Because either way, you're gonna be fine. I think that's more of a personal question of what do you wanna do with the next five years? I mean, you're gonna be an empty nester, you said.

And remember this too, your income should continue to go up. So hopefully you could put 1500 away with some margin in the next two years. So remember that too, as part of the equation, you'll be able to pay off more than what you think you will be today. And can you start with the Roth IRA instead of continuing to contribute to traditional funds? Can we start building over there instead of continuing this route?

Absolutely. And then it just creates a little net. It reduces cash flow upfront for the house. So that was kind of my back end. If you did an additional Roth IRAs, what you're saying? So if I paid into a Roth 401k. Yeah, instead of continuing to do your 15% into traditional funds, could you max out a Roth instead? And in addition to. Yeah, absolutely. So I can play with the Roth option as well. Yeah, I'm just saying going forward, so you have those funds.

So you're 15%. It's going to be, I mean, you will be able to max out a Roth and then some, and then the extra would then fall into, would trickle over into the traditional is what I'm saying. Yeah, and it will mess up some of your formula because it's gonna be after-tax dollars going in. So that's what you're saying. So yeah, so mess with that too. But I think again, I appreciate the detail in it all

because I think it's very fair, great question to ask because housing is the largest expense that we have. And if you could go into retirement with a paid off house, that's just incredible. But I think for you, make it a, or maybe it's a goal too, Shana, that you're like, okay, maybe I'm going to work a little bit more extra and I'm going to try to have half of this paid off going in, you know, have, you know, some, some level of aggression with it. Because I think that's fair, but also I would not feel like a failure if you go into retirement at 60 with $2.5 million and a $200,000 mortgage that you can pay off with it.

So I think you're gonna be great. Yeah, and just in case you were wondering, it's the mortgage payoff calculator. We can probably link to it in the show notes. So you can play around with that, or if you're listening and you've wondered the same question, you can play along with that calculator. All right. Let's take a couple of social questions, Rachel.

We haven't done one of those in a minute. Oh, Hannah from Facebook says, How long should adult children stay on their parents' cell phone and car insurance plans? Oh, man, we George Kam Campbell and I talked about this. And actually I think John Delaney was on an episode of Smart Money Happy Hour, I don't think it's released yet, but we did a whole recording and this got brought up.

And my mom heart went out, I don't know why, subscriptions drive me nuts. Like if people share Netflix accounts with their parents, like get your own Netflix account. But for some reason, the cell phone plan doesn't bother me. I don't know why. I wasn't expecting that. I don't know what I was expecting.

I wasn't expecting that. I don't know why, it just doesn't, I don't know, it just doesn't bother me. Because I think as a family plan, it's just, you just get a better rate. I don't know why, Jade, it's the number one thing. And I don't know why the cell phone does not bother me. That's so funny because-

I think I just think of Amelia, I don't know, and cell phone does not bother me. That's so funny because- I think I just think of Amelia, I don't know, and we have a whole family plan. And I don't know, I'm like, I just don't, like I'd get a rush to get her off. I would want her off my Netflix account before my cell phone and it makes no financial sense. I don't get it. I don't know, I don't know.

So when I met Sam and we were getting engaged, he was on his mom's like Verizon or whatever. And was that such a turn off? You were like- I drew a line in the sand. I was like, here's a couple of things that must happen today. How old was he?

How old was he? We've been 23, 23. Oh, can't see, see, see, he's still pretty young. Yeah, 23. And I was like, your mom is still, you're still in your mom's like, I'm so judgmental. But. So funny. So maybe. Which is fair. It's how it probably should be. Okay. Well, we have a few, we have a few young people in the booth saying that they're still. Yeah, you're still on it. Okay. No, listen, no judgment. No shade. Isn't it? Yeah. But again, every other, every other part of life,

I'm like, no, be on your own. But for some reason, the cell phone plan just doesn't cut me to my core. Like the others do. I mean, and the insurance. You can be on, right? Medical insurance, yeah. Till 26, is that right? With Obamacare and stuff, when all that went through?

So yeah, be on that till 26. That doesn't bother me either. What about car insurance? No, you gotta pay your own car insurance. Yeah, that's right, yeah. Usually you're doing that in high school. I feel like that's the thing. Parents pay the, if you have a debt on it, parents pay the note, you pay the insurance. The insurance, yeah, usually you're doing that like in high school. I feel like that's the yeah That's the thing parents pay them if you have a debt on it parents pay the note you pay the insurance. Yeah. Yeah, that feels good You are listening to the Ramsey show hey, thanks for hanging out with us

Let's see buying or selling your home is a big deal guys And we believe that and with all the clickbait headlines and conflicting data out there Let's see, buying or selling your home is a big deal guys, and we believe that. And with all the clickbait headlines and conflicting data out there, it really is hard to know what's actually happening in the housing market. So we're here to make the latest trends easy to understand.

Median home prices actually stayed steady last month at about $4,400, gosh, $441,000, there you go. The number of homes for sale hit one million for the second month in a row, and buyers have more competition and have more options and negotiating power while sellers face more competition. The average 15-year fixed rate also held steady

at 5.95% last month, and if you're debt-free and have a fully funded emergency fund and a solid down payment, now is a great time to buy or sell your home. To learn more about housing markets and trends and to get free tools to help you buy or sell with confidence, go to ramsysolutions.com slash market, or click the link in the show notes

if you're listening on podcast or YouTube. Alrighty, let's get to the phone lines. We've got Chandler in Dalton, Georgia. Hey, Chandler, how can we help today? Hey, I was wondering if I, I guess, took the right steps on purchasing my first home. Tell us about it. So I am 21 years old.

When I turned 19, I bought three acres of property. I've been kind of clear and inset in the side. And I recently just went out and bought a mobile home, which I know you all aren't too fond of, but considering the market and realistically the payments right now, I didn't know if there was a better option and I just wanted to be able to live comfortably.

And I just didn't wanna see, I didn't know if it would end up going under or not. Well, yeah, the mobile home is going to go down in value. But let's talk about the land that you have it on that you purchased how much land and what you pay for it. You know, three acres. It's three acres and I paid 35,000. Okay, and that was cash. Oh, wow. Good. Okay. And that was cash. Oh wow, good. Okay, and then the mobile home, what'd you spend on that? So it wound up being a $90,000 loan,

but I put 10 down so I only had to borrow 80. Okay, so you owe 80 on the mobile home. What's your ultimate goal? I mean, I'm guessing your ultimate goal is to save up and to be able to build a house on this land. Um, eventually, honestly, I'd like to find more property in the future. I'd really like to have around 10 acres. Um, currently, I guess I'm just trying to figure out, I don't this whole last thing is getting kind of strange and a little bit older. I get, um, I'd like

to be able to pay it off as soon as possible, but also be able to enjoy myself at the same time. Okay. So yeah, the part that you said earlier when you called was like, you know, you guys aren't huge fans of mobile homes. It's just, it's simply because they go down in value and it's hard to build wealth when you're tied to something that's constantly going down instead of up. So if you said to me, Jade, you know, my goal is to have the thing paid off, I just wanna live freely.

I might've said spend less on the mobile home and just, you know, pay for it in cash, but you're locked into 80,000. How quickly can you pay it off and be done with it? I'm honestly not sure. I'm expecting hopefully maybe in five to ten years. I know that's a wide range but I think that's way too long. How old are you Chandler? 21. You're 21. Okay and what do you earn? What's your yearly and monthly income? Right now it's 52,000 that's pre-tax and I bring home about 800 a week. So it'd be what?

816 32 Yeah, so my goal if you say your goal is to pay it off then that's my goal for you to pay it off now Mike Me if I were you I would have thought and it's not too late to do this But is there a way that I can get into something less expensive? so that I'm not gonna lose as much of my shirt on it? And then I can be putting aside money to save for, you know, a down payment on building something. Right.

That would be my ultimate goal. Okay. I just think that I'll definitely look to see, I guess I'm not really too set on moving per se because I honestly don't know what I want to do, but I agree with, you know, going down from 80. I can see where that's the, you know, depreciation of it. And as far as the future would go, because I mean, even then I could come out without losing money but I'm not sure I would even make any because I'm imagining you also have another vehicle right like the what you drive every day yes I have to uh-huh and

what do you have loans on those they're paid for okay but those are also going down right that that's going down those other two vehicles are also going down in value and eventually you'll have to replace those. So I'm just trying to get you into a situation where there's just more value in where you're putting your income. I love the goal of eventually having more acres, but I do think if I were you,

I'd wanna get into a stable living condition first before I start investing in more land with my cash. Right. Yeah. And I would be thinking through, okay, what can I start do, what can I do now to start just saving in general for the future? So do you have any savings at all? I have about 17,000.

Okay, that's great. You're doing really great for 21. Can I just say that? Like you, you know what I mean? I probably would have made like this specific decision on the housing, but overall, like you had 10,000 to put down, you have 17,000 saved. I mean, like you're really moving and going.

Are you investing at all into any level of retirement or into the market? No, at this exact moment, no. I just started a new job. Okay. Which is, I worked here before and then, but I started doing it when I was in high school, so it was on an internship and I really didn't pay well. So I left and then came back and there was a significant raise. Okay. That's great. It feels pretty set in stone. I'm feeling the 90 day grace.

So in turn when it's time to start investing in the 401k and whatnot, I'll be able to do the match. Okay, great. Yeah. So that's kind of your next, you said, just talking about all this adult stuff is a lot. So I'm just adding another to your plate though. But for real, I mean, I'm Chandler, the way you're moving, I don't want you to lose grounds from a future standpoint. Which again, we're not in any rush, you're 21, you're fine.

But the sooner you get a Roth open and a 401k, you start putting some money aside. Because Jade, I would treat this like a baby step six, or would you move it to baby step two? I think that I would move this to Baby Step 2 because it's going down in value. And you would pay it off before even? Yeah, I'd either pay it off or, like I said,

if you're looking, I don't know the mobile home market well, but if you start looking and say, man, I actually probably could have gotten something for 40 that gets the job done, I might try to make that sale and make that swap just so that you're again, Right. You're half the time.

In half the time. I was looking, I will say I was looking and like the base price on one that you could get into is probably around 50 to 60, but that didn't, I don't think that included closing costs or warranties. Okay, okay. But I made sure to get a good warranty on everything that I got online.

That way everything is covered if need be. And also I do a lot of side jobs, just trying to make as much as I can to get somewhere. Yeah, and listen, I'm always thinking ahead, I'm thinking about the future Mrs. Chandler, that'm always thinking ahead. I'm thinking about, you know, the future Mrs. Chandler that when you meet her, she might be like, I don't want to live in a mobile home. So I want you to be ready. You know, when that season comes, I've met her. I just haven't. I got to I'm trying to do it right. I'm trying to get her to, I want

her to be special. You know, I don't want to go to, I know it's all different to some, but it's like she keeps on me and she's like, go buy a hundred dollar ring, like go to the pawn shop. And I'm like, look, I understand, but I want it to be special for you. Then it's only going to happen once. Oh, there is a Mrs. Chan, okay. Okay, so this changes things a little bit.

Where does she want to live? She is a hundred percent on track for a mobile home. She's excited. OK, I told her. Listen, I you hit the nail on the head when you said everybody's different, have different preferences. If you're in this home, you guys are happy. She's happy.

Yeah, the biggest thing is let's get let's get out of it as quickly as possible into something that you're building. You may not end up paying it off I'm not saying that the goal is to pay it off But I am saying that the goal is to stay obviously current on it while you're saving for a down payment To build something that's secure on your land. That's what I would do Chandler. Thank you so much for the call. It's a good call It's great Are you staying on track with the baby steps?

That is the question and the baby steps is part of the Ramsey plan that we teach around here. And if you're wondering if you're on track, you can take the quiz to check your progress and receive a personalized plan just for you. Simply head to the show notes and click the link that's titled. Are you on track with the baby steps and complete that quiz today? Mary is in Salt Lake City, Utah. What's titled, Are You On Track With Baby Steps? And complete that quiz today. Mary is in Salt Lake City, Utah. What's up, Mary?

How can we help today? Well, about a year and a half ago, my husband got involved with some online investment deal, which turned out to be a scam. They just, he gave away all our retirement And then he borrowed another about $250,000 more to get out of it. So I wake up every day worried but

My question was about tax. I'm worried about next year's federal state taxes I'm worried about next year's federal state taxes. Are we going to start owing a lot of money? We were sort of going okay. We got two jobs each We paid off a lot of the debt we're working on it. We paid off about half of it I just keep worrying the other shoes gonna drop and I worry about Taxes we paid last year's taxes. We were able to pay our federal taxes, I think, and then we got a refund, a federal refund, which we used to pay our state taxes. But I'm just wondering, you know, how should we proceed from here? Gosh, Mary.

Oh, I'm so sorry. How old are you guys? Well, that's the problem. I'm 75, he's 72. I'm so sorry. Oh, Mary. Okay. So your worry is about taxes

is what you're saying first and foremost. Well, I'm thinking yeah, everything like we're doing okay, we're paying this stuff up, we got a reverse mortgage on the house, which gave us some money, you know, but that was another that was $250,000 now that is against our equity. Oh gosh. Okay. $250,000 now that is against our equity. Oh gosh. Okay. So the loss, the reti can you tell me how much was in the retirement that was lost? I hate to rehash it.

Well, that's the thing. I think there was about a little over 500,000. Okay. And that was not this year. That was the previous year. So you said you already paid the taxes on him liquidating that. Is that correct? I guess so. You know, the thing is every time I talk to him, I can't handle it, but he told me we were able to pay the 2024 taxes. Okay. So this started in April 2024. So we paid the 2024 taxes. This year you did that in January this year, right?

Yeah, we did that in January. So you should be off the hook for the largest amount if everything happened the way you said it did and that money was spent and used up in 2024 and 2022 maybe 2023. Do you have evidence of that Mary? Like I would want to see documentation here on out from him. I know he's saying that's a good thing Rachel but I'm like I just want to make sure that things are actually happening the way he says because because to pay taxes on that, I mean, that's a, that's a lot of cash. I mean, if you would liquidate at half a million dollars from your retirement, was that what he borrowed the money for to pay taxes?

No, no. He tried to get out of this thing, I think. And he, they kept saying, Oh, well, you need to pay these fees and you need to pay this tax. So he kept borrowing money and giving to them thinking it was getting them out of this scam. But in reality, he was just giving them more money. Are you working? Are you, is, is you or your husband working with the tax professional? No. Okay.

Today. And we're going to make sure Kelly's going to pick up. We're going to make sure you're're gonna get hooked up with one of our Ramsey Trusted Pros, we'll find a tax provider in your area that's gonna help you. And a financial coach on us, just to get an hour with to sort through all this, because depending on, to Jade's point, what he,

because he borrowed money for what? Like I know he liquidated the retirement. Why did he borrow 250,000? Because they told him the scammers. Oh, it went into more of the scam, the 250. Yeah, yeah, they kept saying, oh, well you gotta pay this, and you gotta pay this.

Who is it? I mean, is it a company? Is it a person, like a, is it a company? Is it a person? No. Like a financial advisor? Like who? No. Yeah, where do you find them?

It, it, okay, so my understanding is some guy he used to work with, back then, called him and said, hey, I've got this great thing going on do you want to get in on it and I'll have my girl call you which she did and he started investing now the investment went through a cryptocurrency so he had to give it to this account and it turned crypto and then it went now we reported this whole thing to the, I don't know, the FBI and the police and the justice department or something. But I think what happened is-

Because sometimes there can be lawsuits out of all of this. Like I wonder if there's any- I don't think we can find these people. He's done, okay. Yeah. Oh. I mean, we have the information,

we gave the information. The 250 Mary, was that, that when you said you, you guys, he borrowed 250, was that a personal loan or was that against the house? Was that the reverse mortgage? It was many things. He had 69,000 from a company, you know,

you know, to borrow, I don't know if I could say names of companies. The bad thing is he borrowed 88,000 in my, my son, um, got 80, gave him 88,000, which he turned in some of his, he's a big crypto guy. Um, he did a personal loan from somebody for 30. He went, he took personal loans. He ran a charge card. This was beyond the two fifties is beyond the reverse mortgage, the money you guys got out of the house.

Well, then when this all happened, we got a reverse mortgage to pay some of this off. Okay. Got it. Okay. Listen, you've got, this is way more than we can unravel in this few minutes. You've got, just promise me, promise me that when we give you this help that you're going to take it. And please, please, I just... The taxes is not what I would...

I mean, I understand that you would worry about those, but for you guys in your future, I'm like, there's bigger things happening. And I know the urgency for you is the taxes next year. But you'll get answers with the tax professionals, they look at all of it to make sure what was paid out of that specific, let that retirement account for me and then obviously that you guys are keeping up with

your, you know, paying state and federal which is what you're doing. And you're working, you've got money coming in, you've probably got social security coming in. How much is coming in every month for you, Mary? Well, our Social Security is about $5,000, a little over $5,000. And then our part-time jobs, you know, it's so hard to say. Maybe $1,000 a month between all of our part-time jobs.

It's a winter when the resorts start opening, we have a job there which pays well and so we'll make be making more money, but we are working as much as we can. I had a garage sale today. I just got $218 this morning. we can. I had a garage sale today. I just got $218 this morning. So all of that goes to paying charge cards bills. Listen, Mary, you are, you're a gangster. Like your, your attitude in all this is stellar. The fact that you're willing to go back to work, you're doing garage sales, you're doing a lot. I am proud of you. I'm sorry that this happened. We're going to make sure that you get everything you need in your corner so that you guys can keep fighting through this

It sounds like you do need a budget you need every dollar We're gonna make sure you have that the best version of it so that you can see Where every dime of this hard-earned money is gonna go because you're gonna need it. Yeah And guys listen, please listen if something sounds too good to be true, it is. And I know people always kind of rag that our advice is like so boring and it's just not new and into all the cool new things. This is why.

Yeah. This is why. Please, just like be boring, be boring. And if there's something that's like, oh my God, this is amazing. This is, there's a spirit of greed in that too. It should be a red flag. That's right. Okay. Slow and steady wins the race. You guys don't fall for this crap in the crypto world. They're everywhere everywhere everywhere.

And they prey on the elderly. This is it. This is literally it. So, Oh, so sad from the Ramsey network. You're listening to the Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me, Rachel Cruz, continuing to take calls about your life, your money, and like I said, everything in between. You can get involved in the show by dialing 888-825-5225 and our producer, Kelly, will pick up and try to get you on that line. Let's go straight to the phone lines where we have Olivia. She's in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hey, Olivia, what can we do today? Olivia, are you there? Are you there? I'm going to put her on hold. Oh, you're there. I'm here. Hey. Just in the nick of time. Yes. Hi, Olivia. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. My husband just finished BSN school in May. We didn't take out any additional debt for him to go to nursing school. Once he finishes orientation in December, his estimated gross income will be about $88,000 with the opportunity to make $100,000 if he picks up an extra shift every pay period, which would net us about like 70,000 after tithe and taxes. Cool.

Pets will get a $10,000 sign on bonus that comes in for installments over its first year of employment. He would like to go back to school in two years for a doctorate in nurse anesthesia, which is a three year program. It would increase his earning potential to 250,000. The cost of tuition is about 125,000 which you could get covered by going into the military or getting accepted into a rural medicine scholarship program. However, you're not allowed to work in years two and three of the program. We currently have 200,000 in student loan debt with varied interest rate. We have

4,300 in credit card debt with a 25% interest rate. We've been married for three and a half years. We're trying to start a family. We've been trying for about 11 months with one miscarriage at the seven month mark. And we have a 2007 Toyota, which is like has like one to two years left of life in it. We're wondering what to put our money towards first between saving up for baby, the car, needing a new 2S car and the debt. And then once we pay off the car and save up for once we save up for a new car, save up for the baby and pass that credit card debt, should we start saving for him to go to school since it would increase the size of our shovel significantly to 250k or should we pay off our student loan debt before sending him to school? What's the 200 student loan debt? Whose was that?

Half of it's my student loan debt and half of it is his. Okay, what do you do? Currently I work part-time as a nanny, I make about $900 a month, just a little extra on the side. What was the degree for? I did a grad degree in art therapy, but I did it out of state. I'm not I wasn't able to get that degree. What's art therapy? Jump through a bunch of hoops. What is that? Well, like what kind of job is in art therapy?

So I would be like a licensed therapist. I would be a licensed therapist. Are you a licensed? Did you get your license? Did you get the license with the hundred thousand dollar tuition? No. So you can get your license in some states, but the state that I'm currently in doesn't let me get licensed right away without having to pay like additional like a couple thousand dollars for additional classes here in my state and having to like do a bunch of testing and go through jump through a bunch of hoops. What does a person who does finally get that certification, what

kind of money do they earn? Um, I'm thinking, I can't remember. I think I'm just trying to decide, is it worth paying the couple of thousand for you to get your art therapy license so you can actually work in your field? Yeah, I could also like work as an, unlike not through a license, I could work in a community center and say like, I can do therapeutic art with your clients. I just can't be like a licensed therapist if I do that. Okay. Which that would be determined by the company. Okay. So getting my license here in Oklahoma, it would take me like five years to get there. And if he goes to nursing office, his school. So here's what I would do, Olivia. He's making 80, going to be making 100,

because I would definitely take that shift. You guys are in debt. If I were you, I'm applying for jobs and I'm going to be a receptionist at a dental place. I don't know, I'm just like, you're going to go and make it a goal to make $50,000 a year. You need to go do something, Olivia, really.

Because you guys have over $200,000 in debts and have a dream of other big things, which is amazing, that's gonna cost money. So we need money coming in. So he's gonna be working an extra shift. Can he pick up an extra, extra shift? I mean, nursing is like an amazing field to be in. Cause you guys are dual income, no kids,

you're in the dink phase. And so take advantage of it, Olivia. Start working your butts off because yes, I want all of this debt paid off before you guys get a second degree, okay? Even though it's gonna cause a shovel to be bigger, the shovel will be bigger, you know, when you guys start working extra

and you work in two jobs, right? I'm like, you can start making the shovel bigger now. And so that's what I would focus on. Save up 10 grand for a crappy car when the Honda goes out in two years. Create a sinking fund where you put, you know, 500, $600 a month away for a sinking fund. And then on the side, yeah, let's be trying for kids. And I'm gonna say when you get pregnant, that's my prayer for you, pause everything. You guys save

up cash when that happens. We call that stork mode and pile up a big part of cash. You guys still working, working, working, working, working, working, working. Baby comes, all right, everyone good. Okay, whatever's left in the savings, we're gonna throw at the debt. But my goal for you guys would be, gosh, I mean, if y'all could make, I mean, try to get this paid off.

I don't know, Jade, is this crazy to say? Two and a half years? Three years? I don't think so, because if she starts making 50, that means you're making 150, but if you live on a half, where are you guys? Yeah, you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yeah, you live on 75,000. That's average income, you know, median income.

So if you live on that, and so that means you're putting the other 75 towards your debt, you know, I get it, minus taxes. I think that you guys could do this. No, I don't think you're crazy. Two and a half years? Yeah, two and a half years. Make some crazy goals, Olivia.

Crazy goals. And then in two and a half years, then in two and a half years. Does it make sense for me to get a job, like a full-time job while we're trying for babies? Yes. I'm not going to tell them I'm not going to be there. Yes. Because you don't know what the future holds and you can still work for the eight of the nine months that you're pregnant

So, you know, there's there's a lot that can take place in nine months money wise with you at the full earning You're currently expecting are you? No, no, okay. Yeah. Yep. So I would now if you were expecting you would have to you know I would be forthcoming with an employer probably, you know in that, just as good courtesy. Yeah, okay. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever. It depends on who you work, you go to. All that to say, that's fair.

All that to say, all that to say, you can work and try and have the baby, and that's great. And then you got nine months of work, and we're both moms. We both expected it to happen. Listen, here at Ramsey, because I know what kind of company it is, I'm being forthcoming. That's fair.

But every corporation. That's right. That's true. That is true, Jade. That is true. And you don't legally have to say it. You don't have to say it. Yeah, so anyways,

but you're not pregnant right now. So be applying for jobs and go work your tails off, Olivia. Get this paid off and then continue to live on nothing, on nothing to save up 125 and take them through the program. And if you guys are in your early 30s doing that by the time all this is said and done, it's great.

It's great. You're living a great life. But yeah. Rachel. Rachel, you got a little spice today, Rachel. I'm here for this. Well, in that one, I think we can do, I think we can be a little snappier there. Thanks for calling, Olivia. You know, investing may seem complicated or confusing,

but it doesn't have to be. The Ramsey Investing and Retirement Hub is packed with interactive tools and resources that can help you get informed and not be intimidated. You can check it out at ramsysolutions.com slash retire or click the link in the description. If you're listening on YouTube or podcast, Lisa is in Cincinnati, Ohio. Lisa, how can we help today? Hi. Hi.

Um, thank you for taking my call. My husband and I are biggest step millionaires for probably about eight years now. Yes. Nice. The house has never been paid off. Actually, we sold a house and bought another one since in the meantime during this. But my question is, I loaned, well question is my, I loaned or we did, we loaned $50,000 to my daughter because she needed to, um,

do some upgrades on her house and she is now selling that house. So she's going to pay us back with the equity that she has in it. Um, my question is, should I, my husband has, we both have a list on what we want to do. That's 50,000 and it's what we want to do this 50,000 and it's things we want to buy, but should, or should I put the 50,000 towards our mortgage that the only debt that we have? Um, uh, there's a couple of things in this.

Um, how much you guys owe on the mortgage? 300,000. Okay. How much do you guys make a year? 300,000. Okay, how much do you guys make a year? We are both retired and we bring in about $7,000 a month. Okay. And how much is in retirement?

I have that. 890,000. 890,000. That's great. Good job, guys. I think you could, if you were both in agreement that that's what you want to do with this money, I wouldn't have, because it's almost like it's not like a windfall. Like it was money that was already yours and you kind of took it away to do this and now you're just getting it back again. So if you wanted to put the whole amount, you totally could. Is there anything else on your list that you would do with the money?

Well, my husband wants a side by side, which I think the total waste, but you know, that's what he wants. So I got to kind of please him too. How old are you guys? One thing I am 61 and he's 63. I am 61 and he's 63. Okay. I would like to at least put away $2,000 per grand kid for I want to just for future college or something, which I don't know where to put it. And that would be, you know, only 8,000 of it. And then like, I would like to take a river cruise for me and him just to have a big splurge of a good vacation for us both. Yeah, I would do that. How much is a side by side?

Um, it depends on what you get. Of course, it's the most expensive will probably be 25,000, but you can probably get one for about between 15 and 20 that I know I've looked at used ones and you don't know what you're buying with the usual. And if it's really going gonna work that long or anything. So I'm for a brand new one if that's what you want. I see. And I'm for a used one.

I'd be for a used side by side. I'd be for maybe you decide. I think if you both say, hey, we both want to put the 8,000 aside and 529 is for the grandkids, you know, we'll get with the parents and figure out what that is. I love that idea. And I like you guys deciding on maybe one really cool thing, whether it's the river cruise or the side by side deal. And then I like another portion of this going towards the house.

That way you're kind of you're giving, you're saving and you're spending, you're doing the three things that you would do with money. And you're doing it in a fair, what I think is a pretty fair ratio. I think, do you like side by side? Like are you into that whatsoever or are you like no? Yeah, I mean I could go with it, well kind of, I had an accident on one, so I don't like them a lot, but I could go with it.

But I just don't feel like, we have six acres but you really can't travel the whole six on a side by side. So I just feel like it's a waste, put a little bit of- Yeah. Okay. You know, I don't know how I would split this. My other thought would be, fixed on a side by side. So I just feel like it's a waste. Put a little bit of. Yeah. Okay. I don't know. I don't know how I would split this. My other thought would be, do you take one of those big purchases, the river cruise or the, um, side by side and you guys cashflow that.

Yeah. And say, it would be nice to have a bigger chunk on the mortgage. Yeah. And just to throw a good amount on it or like as early as possible, which would be now versus in like, you know, 10 years, or hopefully won't take you 10 years. But I don't know, there's a part of me that would cashflow one of the big purchases and you guys decide what to do with that. Yeah, I would not do the side by side and the river cruise.

I think you have to decide. Yeah. And then cashflow the other one. You can do them in these baby steps, both of them eventually, but I would just probably pump the brakes on one and you guys decide together. And the kids, yeah, you could do that for eight grand if you wanted for sure. Yeah, thanks for the call. That's a really good question. It's the one thing that we didn't talk about, which I probably should have mentioned, was the gifted 50,000. I wouldn't gift any money anymore, Lisa. I would, or the borrowed money, I should say.

I wouldn't borrow or lend money anymore from now on. Let's just do gifts. It sounds like this is going to end fine and end well, but in the future, I wouldn't do that. Thanks for the call. That's a good one. Let's go to Brian. He's in Phoenix, Arizona. Hey, Brian, how can we help today? Hey, how are you both doing? So glad you took my call. Oh, of course. Happy to help. What's going on? Yeah, cool. So basically we're in baby step three, just got there, paid off about a hundred grand in debt.

Amazing. And so thank you. So starting to build up that emergency fund, but, um, I, I got married or we got married about six months ago. Anybody. Thank you. Thank you. Didn't really tell anybody because we didn't, we weren't at the point to like have a wedding and stuff. So that's coming up. Okay. So we've got a wedding coming up and then of course, want to do a honeymoon as well.

And so my conundrum is can I pay for the wedding and the honeymoon, which is going to have, you know, some upfront costs to get things booked and whatnot while we're in the middle of saving for babies for our emergency fund. Oh yeah. That's a great question. Okay. How much do you guys have? Do you have any level of an emergency fund right now? Like any amount of money just for that, not for wedding or not for honeymoon? Yeah, I mean just a thousand. Like I've got 10 grand, but it's kind of

earmarked for the wedding and for sure some of the like the venue fees are coming up pretty quick in the next couple months just on the timing of when it's gonna happen. Yeah, for sure. Here's what I would say, Brian. I, yeah, cash filling the wedding and then, I mean, I would want to go somewhere, do some level of destination, but also only having $1,000 in the bank and like going to the Caribbean just makes me nervous.

I don't know, there's a part of me that I'm like, I would want maybe to get away to a degree. Yes. And then build up some of that emergency fund and then you guys take a one year anniversary trip or something. You know, like the destination doesn't have to be, I know we make it such a big deal as like a honeymoon and like, uh-huh. It's a thing and I get that and I think getting away together is great. I just don't think I would take a big extravagant trip without having money in the bank

saved. Yeah and there's two parts of this so and I might be saying this wrong. I got married 18 years ago so things have changed but um what if you it's almost like you know that you're going to get money from the honeymoon like from the wedding. What if you did a trip but it's just not like the day after the wedding right? Like because you know you're going to have money come in. I know a lot of people, when they do their registry, they have like the little honey fund. And so you can give your gift to the honeymoon fund. And then that money's there for you to then take the trip that you want to take, even if it's you planning it. Do you see what I'm saying?

How much do you guys make a year together? Yeah, I do. I do see what you're saying. And I actually have kind of a caveat to what you guys are saying, but I agree with that and it makes me nervous as well. I make 160. I'm the breadwinner. Oh, that's great. With the full income.

I make 160 a year. Okay. I've actually been like door dashing too recently just to get like an extra thousand bucks a month. Why doesn't she work? Here's some... She's in between right now. She was...

We were running like a dance studio, So we had like a dance business going, but it started kind of wearing us out and like late nights and stuff. And so, um, she's going to go back to doing hair. She has her cosmetology license. So she's getting that transfer over from the state. She moved in and so that we'll get that additional income. Now, here's another thing to add. I guess I maybe should have added it in the beginning. So I, at the rate I'm saving, I will, my plan's like forecasting this. I will have the emergency fund saved up for

by the time we have the wedding. It's just that right now I have to like, I have to put all this money out, right? I've got the 10 grand that I've got saved is gonna go out the door next month. And then I'm gonna have to book the plans. We're gonna do like a Mediterranean cruise in Europe have to book. Okay, I hear you. We're gonna do like a Mediterranean cruise

in Europe is the plan. Got it, got it. Amazing. Okay. It's great. Great. So yes, keep at it. Let's just cross our fingers. We don't lose a job. Yeah, that's right. I think you're good.

Yeah, if you're earmarking, it sounds like you have a plan. And so yes, you could be putting money towards the wedding and honeymoon while also simultaneously saving for the emergency fund. Emergency fund will be full by the time the wedding and honeymoon get here, so you're good to go. Okay, great plan.

The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Wirefy. When the payment on your defaulted private student loan is as much as some mortgages, ooh, I know how that feels. It is so hard to get ahead. That's why Wirefy can help refinancing to a low fixed rate loan that's built just for you. Find out more at wirefy.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey.

Remember, it may not be available in all states. Today's question comes from Sarah in New Jersey. I am $70,000 in debt. I used to work full-time and we lived off my income, except for $700 my husband gave me monthly for rent. My husband is extremely disciplined. He has a high paying job and has been saving for a down payment while I have been living paycheck to paycheck. Our finances are separated. Yeah, sounds like

it. And I was laid off last year and have been working part time to pay for childcare and my debt. I am always in the negative in my account and I can't keep up. We have our dream house in our grasps, in our grasp, but I don't know if we can make it work. I am using every dollar to cut expenses and has sold a bunch of stuff to pay down debt. I don't want my husband to lose his dream house because of me.

I really wanna know from an expert if we can make this work. I'm so sad by this. Yeah. You know? I know. Okay, so Sarah, I mean, can you make it work? I mean, you can, but it will take you on a road that continues to feel this way

of you being stressed out financially, him being disciplined and doing his own thing. And you guys are completely on two separate planets. Like even from a, it's not even like, oh, we both make the same. It's like socially he's here and you're here. Like classes, like you're in a different class. What do you do with that? I mean, yeah, Sarah, this is not a healthy outlook and habits around having a healthy marriage.

It's not. And so I don't know if there's something on your end that he's seeing that he doesn't trust. I can't, I don't know what his take is, but I think you guys need to sit down together and say, hey, if we have a dream, it's our dream house, is what you guys are saying. We have a dream to get this together. How can we most efficiently get this, what we want together?

And the most efficient way is to say, hey, all the chips are on the table and we're gonna figure this out together. But that would mean not buying a house right now because y'all have debt. So no, you can't get the dream house now. But if you continue your way, I guess he could with his salary do it, but I would not advise to keep doing what you've been doing because you guys are going to

keep getting what you've been getting, which just feels so so separate. I just can't imagine I mean, and this is this is I'm not intending to sound judgmental at all, but there's a lot missing from this that we'll never know because she didn't call in. But I can't imagine a world where let's just pretend, you know, Sam Warshaw was making a bunch more money

and I was not making. And- And you're living paycheck. I'm living the paycheck, and he's just watching it happen. Like, you know what I mean? He's watching me struggle, and he's just watching it happen. Like you do not even, he's watching me struggle and he's watching me stress out about this and him not responding to that.

And is he not paying for childcare either? Are you going not 50 50 people? Cause she's saying I have to pay for childcare. Yeah. Yeah. There's something about that for me that just out of marriage, respect and care and love level is just off.

Yes, that a husband would sit there and watch his wife. Yeah, struggle. Yeah, yeah. And again, maybe there's something on your end that you're not telling us, Sarah, saying why he's doing this, I don't know. That's a great, yeah, Jade, I'm with you on that. Yeah, it's so important to be on the same page.

Oh, goodness gracious. Let's go to Ian in Portland, Oregon. Ian, thank you for the call. How can we help today? Hi, I live kind of in a multi-generational situation. We have five acres and it's me, my sister and parents. And I was wondering, I recently started a new job making about $1,400 a week. Currently no debt, anything, cards paid off.

But in trying to figure out how to, I've had credit cards before, so didn't go well, so I don't use credit. Just trying to figure out where to go from here to get out on my own and to start building to be able to retire by 55 if I wanted to. Okay well let's take the first step of moving out of your parents. I think that's a great first step. So we would say that your rent or mortgage should be no more than 25% of your take-home pay per month. So you know we're looking at you for you know probably around what 1500 ish. Can you get an apartment in your area for

that? I could. Okay. I'm not not ready. I don't want to immediately move out because I don't need to. I'm more than welcome. It was shut up this way. So that I'd be able to live there until I'm ready to buy something. Okay, well, how old are you in? Currently 35 in 20s kind of messed things up. So but you don't think it's time? It's fine. Ian, Ian, Ian. Yes. You need to move out. You're a 35 year old man. I don't care if mommy says that you can stay as long as you want. You're 35. No, no that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying my personal, I want within the next six months to a year to be out. And I, we're saying why wouldn't you go? Like six weeks, like why don't you? Yeah, instantly. Yeah, go, go.

Because, and I see you're wanting, it sounds like, let me try to get in here. It sounds like you're wanting the perfect scenario of I leave when I'm able to buy a house. That's what it sounds like. And we're saying the conditions don't have to be perfectly favorable for you to leave. You could leave as soon as you find an apartment, which could really be in three or four weeks. Or three days, you know? Yeah.

True. And you should. It's good for you. Because let's, we're your buddies. Like we're your friend that you sit down and they tell you the gosh darn truth. All right, so we're gonna tell you. The truth and they tell you the gosh darn truth. All right. So we're going to tell you the truth is you should have done this a long, long time ago.

That's why we're pushing you to do it now. And there's nothing stopping you. We see no reason that you shouldn't do this immediately for you, not for us for you. Yeah, this is a dignity play here. And forget the money side. Like this is for you. Like this is, this is good for you to be out on your own. I mean, are you dating?

Not currently, cause you know. Yeah, we do know. So there's another reason, we want love for Ian. And Jade almost dumped Sam Warshaw cause his mom was paying for his cell phone, let alone living with him. So yeah, I would, yeah, Ian, let's get out. Let's get out, let's get an apartment.

The world is your oyster. Your parents are gonna be heartbroken because they've set this whole scenario up. It sounds like it's gonna be a big conversation, is it? Or are they gonna be great? Being like, are they gonna cheer you on or are they gonna cry? It would be definitely a difficult conversation, yes.

Yes, which is another reason why we need to fly. It's like a sticky web. The longer you stay in it, the harder it is to get out of it because everybody's pulling you back in. I'm gonna just say it too, Ian. I don't know, some relational co-dependence probably going on. 100, yeah. I mean, there's some stuff there.

So yes, as your two friends, if we were sitting down and talking to you in person, this is exactly what I'd say to you. I'd say, Ian, come on, man, you can do this. You can do this. You can do this. So yeah, I would get out 100% and start renting, save up for a down payment on a home.

And I know you said you have no debt, which is amazing. You're not using credit cards. It's so good, so good. Get some cash, you know, for to have an emergency fund. And I think kind of just, yeah, feel how that feels to pull up to your own parking spot out at the apartment. And I don't know, there's just something really great about that.

It's freedom. You get to see who you are in life. Yes, without zero dependent, there's not a safety net there. You got to stand on your own. And there's something about that that is so good. So good for people. And so if you want to move home for, not UEN, sorry, but America, if you want to move home for a season because there's something, like you graduated college and you need to move

home for a few months while you find your first, I don't know, there's something, like you graduated college and you need to move home for a few months while you find your first, I don't know, there's time, what, I'm not, I'm not a, I'm not black and white about that. But when we're 35, we are working. You need to fly and be free. I don't know why I cringed to quote Dave, but I'll quote him. Cause he says, an eagle that doesn't leave the nest

eventually becomes a turkey. And we don't want that for you, Ann. You're a good man. Ann, those dating apps are going to do wonders for you knowing that you're out on your own. Yes. Your Ramsey Show scripture and quote of the day, John 13 35 says this, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another that one thing. And then Dolly Parton love her said, find out who you are and do it on purpose. Oh, I love that. Love it. You know, she collaborated with Beyonce on a tune, no cowboy Carter. I don't think I knew that. Yeah, she did.

She did. did she play it at the concert yes yeah two tunes they're really good anyway I love Dolly moving on Thomas in Myrtle Beach South Carolina what's going on Thomas so I'm currently a student at college I got a state and I was just wondering the best way to like tackle these student loans when I graduate by the time I'm done there would be around 45,000 okay so you're current you're gonna continue to take the student loans all right yeah it's it's it's about the only way that I'm pretty sure for out of state they

required it for this school I have no idea but no student loans are never a requirement they're definitely a choice. I'm just wondering what year did you say you're in? I'm 30 or fourth year sorry. Oh you're already fourth year okay so it's kind of like the deeds been done. It's done. Okay so what's your major in and tell us what you've done research on on what you think you'll earn when you hit the market. So I'm doing cyber security and I have an internship lined up with this company that by the time I complete school, I'll work there for about 130. And I think the take home is like 92, 93. Good for you. Good. Pay it off in a year, Thomas. That's that. Work a little extra, live on 50 and pay it off.

Yeah, and decide by the way that you're not gonna go back into debt again. Use this as a learning experience. Rachel and I, if you had called us four years ago, we would have told you not to go into debt for school. You're here now, you can pay it off and- And Tom, sorry. No, no, no, go ahead.

What I was gonna say, and live like you're a college student, even when you're not in college. So this first year, making 130 grand out of college is amazing. You're gonna feel like you hit the freaking lottery. Don't feel that though. Feel nothing. Have no emotion towards the money.

Be numb inside, Thomas. Be numb inside and pay off the debt. Live still like you, live with roommates. I mean, like live like you are a college student for one year, get this cleaned up, and then holy crap, you're gonna make $130,000. That's right. With no debt, year two.

And you'll probably get a raise, you know what I mean? So just please, please sacrifice as early and as quickly as possible Don't drag this out don't buy a new car like don't do it. Yeah, cuz the live he sounds like a bro, too Thomas you hear him. I don't know. I feel like Thomas is good. I think you can get some like Yeah, live with your roommates Eat nothing but crappy fast food for you See I had jades organic Here's the year. I don't do that. Ah, see I had Jade's organic, healthy lifestyle.

Here's the thing though, Rachel's right. The tendency, I know, the tendency is gonna be, cause this is, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna get your payment and you're gonna go, oh, it's only a couple hundred bucks a month. That's no big deal, I can keep that around forever. Please, Rachel is 100% right, don't fall into the trap. Yep. Oh, good call. And 45,000. That's good. That's doable. You can do this. If it's

145. We talked about that. That would be a little bit of a longer journey. Pay it off quick, Thomas. All right. Speaking of Thomas, we now have Tom in New Jersey. What's going on, Tom? How can we help? Hey, guys. How you doing? Thanks for taking the call. You bet. Real quick question. Actually, two questions for you. So I am pretty much debt free. I have a few thousand dollars left on a credit card.

So I'm just about at the end of baby step two and then I'm moving on. I kind of found you guys a few weeks ago and before that was kind of wandering aimlessly just Oh, awesome. Well, good for you. You made progress in a few weeks ago and before that was kind of wandering aimlessly. Oh awesome. Well good for you. You made progress in a few weeks. I'm backing up a little bit of a bet. But two questions for you. So I got on the Every Budget app and uh, Every Dollar app, sorry. And um, I got into splitting everything up and mortgage payments uh, being a quarter of your income. My mortgage payment is just over $1,500 a month just a mortgage principal interest and then I

have my taxes bundled with it. So I started freaking out and I was like oh crap this is way over a quarter but are you guys including taxes escrowed in with the mortgage as part of your 25% or is that over? Taxes, fees, HOA, everything. How much do you make a month, Thomas? Okay. Take home is about $7,200 plus a little bit. Yeah, when I can get paid over time.

Now is that, are you doing any investing? Yes. So that was, that brings me to the second part of my question. I do have a loss IRA that's worth about fifty five right now that I have been putting into. And I also have I do blue collar work. I have a pension and an annuity which is somewhere

north of 200. So so it's kind of. You can add those back in. So any retirements add back into that 7,200. So would that bump you up to what? Probably close to 78,000? You don't have the 401k, do you? Well, it's your, what you take home, like you can take out, but don't include things like investing, or insurance.

Insurance. It's just minus your taxes, that's it. So your take home pay, and then tell us what your mortgage is with HOAs, fees, insurance, all of that in, what is that? All of that added in with all the fees, insurance, all of that in, what is that? All of that added in with all the fees, insurance is 25, 25, 40.

So you're a little, I mean, if your take home really is 8,000, you're a little over, but I think that it's survivable. Like it's, I mean, it's 500 bucks over. I think that for what you're earning, you can absorb it. And I threw out 8,000. You did originally say 7,200, but I'm adding back in insurance.

You said you're putting some money into investing. They're taking out money for a pension, like all of that. So I think, I don't know, that's a guesstimate, but you look at your actual numbers. And the thing is too, I would not make, yeah, I wouldn't, right now, I wouldn't change your situation by trying to move houses and all of it for 500 bucks, because also you're gonna probably get a raise.

You'll probably be making more here in the next two, three, four years, which will kind of equal it out, which is great. Yeah. So you're not, you're not too far off. Yeah. That's a good call. You guys have, you guys have one more second? Of course. When it does get up to past building emergency funds three, six months to baby step four, investing when I do have a pension and an IRA, and an annuity that is contributed into from the union, what would I do with investing that as a 15% goal? Add those into the 15%?

Partially. So I we would usually count the pension as half. So let's say the pension accounts for 10% of your 15% amount. Yeah, count it as five, like count it as half. Simply because you don't have the same amount of control over the investments, you might not, I mean, and because of that, the rate of return might not be as great. We really don't know. What about this annuity business? Do you have to do that or can you put that money elsewhere?

No, unfortunately it is all bundled into the package that comes in the union. It's already bartered for. So yeah, so I would count part of that too. Half of that as well, take 50% of that to the 15%. So basically I would be putting 5% into an additional investment. Yes, if that's what it calculates out to. Okay.

Yeah. Okay, good question. Good call. All right. Thanks, Tom. Appreciate that. Thanks for that. Thanks. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. My finger moved too quickly for your voice. Good question. Yeah. Well, and with the 25%, we say, again, it's, yeah, I mean, as hard and fast as you

can do it, but knowing that life is going to change. And if you're already in a housing situation and it's just right above that, your income ends up changing too, which changes the percentages. So just always remember that. But then, yeah, if it's eaten up 50, 60% of your income, you gotta get out, you're not gonna be able to survive. So there's some bigger changes, yeah, that would have to occur if that was the situation. There's also part of that where,

the rule of thumb is the rule of thumb, but it's like, if your income is a lot lower, you're gonna feel that 30% a lot more than the person who is earning more money. You know, so in his case, I think, yeah, it being above, he can make it work. We believe in you, Tom. All right. That does it for this Ramsey show.

Thanks for hanging out with us. We'll see you next time. No matter what you want to do with your money, you need a budget. Start budgeting for free today with the EveryDollar app, the easiest way to budget. Track your expenses and reach your goals faster. Go to EveryDollar.com today.