The Ramsey Show - App - Do I Need a Credit Card for International Travel? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony answer your questions and discuss: "Should I keep a credit card for traveling?" When to pay off the mortgage, from the blog: How to Pay Off Your Mortgage Early, "We are scared to spend our money" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting for the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual, real relationships. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. John, sometimes people wonder why I say we help people build actual, real relationships. And that's because you and i have made this in

unbelievable discovery that in the current century there are people that are starting to realize finally that facebook friends are not real friends they're not real friends it's not a real relationship the way you tell somebody that you love them is not an electronic thumbs up it's not not that's not how love is transferred these days can't click a like nope click like i like you you can it just it it's gonna leave you hollow we used to send these little notes up and down the aisle in elementary school oh yeah but those things yeah yeah and you'd be like you're dumb you're ugly well you like dave ooh yeah grody correct yeah but there was something tactile about it and you could see them it was actually You're ugly. Well, you like Dave. Ooh. Yeah. Grody. Grody. Remember that word?

There was something tactile about it, and you could see them open up. There was an actual human over there. Yeah. Not a digit. Yes. You weren't arguing with a bot. With the 01-110-0. Yeah, man.

Yeah. It's a different world. So it turns out that trolls are the mean people on the internet. When you meet them, them are highly disappointing individuals yeah they're really kind of sad little cowardly people that don't that in a real world would never be that brave they just and people who are mean on facebook and gossipy if you ever sat in a room with them would never have that kind of courage we call that digital courage so it turns out real actual relationships are something that we specialize around in here and it's kind of like

common sense and it's really marketable in america today so it's like a discovery your facebook friends will not help you change your tire at 2 a.m well and it's not one of them it's that dave it's that um you know the criticism criticism of Ramsey Solutions is, you know, you're just giving people common sense. That's where we are. That's where we are. A hundred percent. Unashamedly. I'm giving people like.

And I'll charge you for it since you haven't got any. Turn your phone off and talk to your children and I'll show you how to do that. Yes. If you don't know how to have a conversation, John will sell you a deck of cards to help you do that. yeah well if you don't know how to have a conversation john will sell you a deck of cards to help you do that i got you if you don't know how to tell your wife hey this is what i need i will help you out yeah saying it's a wild world man it's a wild world well it's um people are great it's it's but you know there is there is a there is a relationship revolution that's starting to occur where people are saying it's not okay to sit in a restaurant and both of you send texts across the table. There's people starting to understand that that's sick.

Dave, I saw some students that had, they took all their phones and they stacked them up in a pile. And the first person who grabbed them had to pay for the whole meal. And they are practicing. We realize we're addicts. We're going to practice just sitting at the table together. Yeah. I love it. I love it.

I love it. So for five years, I've been trying to learn how to play golf. And that's another story. We'll go. It's another type of problem and addiction. But anyway, aside from that uh one thing i've been practicing is i i have my phone on the golf course well i mean golf is a really ridiculously difficult complicated game for somebody like me that is limited in athletic

ability and so um add to it distractions of crap coming from the office on the iphone so i just i my new thing is for four hours i don't look at it okay how do you feel when you do that are you are you angsty or do you feel free you know for a little while i was it was like an addict it was like i was being taken off the pill right or taking off the the drug but now i kind of look forward to it yeah and there's this peace when you come because there's there's an agitation that goes with the constant screen check there's a 2500 times a day somebody checks the screen it's those numbers are typical people 2500 2500 times a day they check their scratch for grab it grab it it's like you know it's just like i just got dinged i got i just got liked i just got this i just got

unfollowed oh my god i'm rejected by somebody I didn't even like. Did your golf game improve? Considerable. Really? It's all about concentration. Anything that interrupts you. If you're thinking, I was playing with a pro, and his sports psychologist says, okay, after you hit every shot in the round, we're going to step to the side and grade.

A five is you were thinking about nothing but the golf ball. A one is you were thinking about buying a car when you get home okay right and so and he said and then we go back and we take the one to fives and he said guess where my best shots were well duh right where you were concentrating on the shot well guess how life and relationships work your marriage works the same right right guess what you follow so i follow a guy out of the neighborhood the other day my little hoa Well, guess how life and relationships work. Your marriage works the same, right? Right. Guess what? I followed a guy out of the neighborhood the other day, my little HOA. It's 6 o'clock in the morning, still dark.

He's swerving all over the place. I'm like, he's drunk at 6 o'clock in the morning. No. Just texting. It was a contractor setting up his subs while he was driving, and he's swerving. He's driving like he's drunk with a stupid phone. I'm like, okay, decide. Are you going to drive drive are you going to be on the phone you drunk you know get out of the way too by the way but yeah oh my gosh but that's it's hard to do that thing that phone thing and anything else right but here's the other side of it and you noticed

in short order i i get itchy without it and then I go four hours and suddenly there's a piece and my golf game is improving and now I kind of crave it and I can't wait to get out there because I don't have this thing. A few weeks ago my wife left town and it was just me and Josephine and Hank and Hank had something he was going to so it was just

me and Joe and I just told Sheila, I'm going to get off the rails. We're going to go eat every donut. We're going to go eat like a pancake breakfast at a restaurant. Like me and Joe. And I just told Sheila, I'm going to get off the rails. We're going to go eat every donut. We're going to go eat like a pancake breakfast at a restaurant. Like me and her are just. Pizza and chocolate cake 24-7. It was madness. Her blood sugar wasn't so great, but everything else.

Listen, since that weekend where I put my phone away and she had my undivided. Dad's going to be with you for breakfast for lunch for day i have a whole new relationship with my kid like she comes in hugs and when i wake up in the morning and it was it was literally day 48 hours it was 48 hours of i'm just gonna laser in on this little girl and uh to control delete our relationship it's amazing it's really amazing how quick it comes back around well that's the good news it'll heal back. Bad news is it doesn't if you don't put the screen down. You've got to put it down. You've got to put it down.

And screens aren't evil, but the overuse of them and substituting that for real connection and real relationship is evil. I'm starting to think you've said for 30 years that money is a byproduct of your marriage or relationship, like what you've got going on in your life. It's not the problem. It's the symbol. I'm starting to think uh screen time is too if if you're sitting there at a restaurant and both of you are staring on screens and you're on a date with your wife that's that is the the the smoke coming up from the fire of your relationship assuming you ever knew how to do a relationship that's right that's right but we have a segment of uh the demographic

that has never been without a phone in their hand. Right. And so they don't know how to break up except by text. I tell you what, man, I had a student come in that got his wife left him divorced via text. And Dave, listen, I said, what are you doing in my office? Why aren't you going home? And this is a direct quote. We have a Zoom conference set up for Friday. And I was like you

should probably just get out of my office good grief we have a zoom conference because she texted me this is your wife leaving uh why are you here we're so real relationships it's part of what we do here this is the Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Luke is with us in Cleveland, Ohio. Hi, Luke. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Good afternoon, gentlemen.

It's a pleasure to speak with you. You too. How can we help? Well, I'm either on baby step two or baby step seven, and I need a little clarification to figure out which one I'm on. Okay. So I have a credit card, which I don't want to have a credit card, but with where I'm at in my life, I'm fortunate enough that I can take a trip to Mexico or to the Caribbean about twice a year. And on all the debit cards I've found, they all have a 2% foreign transaction fee, and my credit card does not. So I do have the credit card, but I use it for the time when I'm at the trip, and then I pay it off the following month when the bill comes due.

You know, that's interesting. I got back from Mexico Sunday, and I have been there 10 days, and I didn't have a single charge you're talking about on my debit cards. Really? Yeah. Because I've called two times. They just asked me, do you want to run in pace you want to run in pesos or dollars when they run the little machine out to you right yeah no and it's always

in dollars and that's still apparently a two percent fee at my two credit unions and two i just booked a trip to to out of the country in the south too and they had the same i think you just need a better debit card a different bank but anyway you're even if you're i mean we we would tell you to get a different better debit card. A different bank. But anyway, even if you're, I mean, we would tell you to get a better debit card because we don't believe in credit cards at all. But even then, if you use a credit card and you paid it off, what's your problem? You're not in debt. That's not a baby step two thing.

Well, I mean, I guess there's a bill, but it's not really, I guess, a true debt. But also, I'll keep my credit score, which I don't really want. Yeah, that's a problem. And it's something that you talked about before. So I was just kind of confused on what I should do. Well, number one, here's the thing. The amount of pain that you were in before because of your stupid money decisions will dictate how drastically far you go with these things.

I went completely broke. So I don't walk anywhere near a bank except to make a deposit okay i can't stand those people even my banker who's a friend of mine i'm not sure i like no i'm kidding but uh but you know you know what i'm saying right and so uh it's just the whole thing and so there's no chance even if i wasn't the guy about no credit card, Dave Ramsey guy, I would have a credit card because of what I've been through. You, by listening to you, have not had that I've been that burned experience, so it's a little bit more, eh, whatever for you.

And I get that. That's not a criticism, but I'm just an observation. Is that fair? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, again, what we teach is based on this absolute, I'm never going to go near a debt instrument again because I'm never going in debt again. So that would dictate for someone doing that,

that they go and find a bank that doesn't have ridiculous fees on their internationals. And I'm really shocked your credit union does. I would talk to them about just removing that uh because credit unions are very very um customer oriented much more so than banks in general and they don't want to lose a baby step seven customer yeah but you but if you have a bill that comes in during the month like um your electric bill and you pay it you're not in debt if you had a credit card bill that came in and you paid it you're not in debt you're on baby step seven you're just on baby step seven and you still have a credit card which is the only thing i would obviously have just griped at you about but yeah but that's the you know but you're a baby step seven guys where you are to answer

your overall question and um but yeah i dude i'm in mexico three or four times a year. I like Mexico. And so I do have to watch the peso exchange shifting a little bit. It's gone from 0.2 to 0.18. And so it does affect things a little bit. You have to watch what you're doing. And sometimes they'll catch you with a conversion if you're not watching your math in some of these locations but that's a that's a vendor issue that's the uh the merchant that's not the credit card or the debit card so we use our debit cards uh frequently we use a lot of cash too mexicans much prefer cash by the way um for the same reasons a lot of americans do but even more so they don't want the government after them.

So that's the whole thing. They don't want the government knowing. They like being off the grid as much as we do, those of us that are rednecks. Okay, so we don't want to be on the grid either. We don't want anybody knowing where we are. So that's very interesting. Good question. Hannah's in Pittsburgh.

Hey, Hannah, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? I was just wondering if we should pay our mortgage or if we should wait until we have a little bit more saved as like a safety net. Okay, do you have any other debt? No. You're fairly new to this whole Ramsey stuff, aren't you?

Yes. Okay, so we teach a process called the baby steps and it's how to apply it's the next step the next thing and then the next thing and the next thing a clear path from where you are now to wealth first things get a thousand dollars second thing is be debt free but the house you've done those two right yes okay then the third step is to have a fully funded emergency fund. Grandma called it a rainy day fund. The proper amount is three to six months of household expenses. What's your household income? Well, I just quit my job, so now it's going to be about $100,000.

Okay. Are you going back to work? No. I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom for a while. Okay. How much is your house payment? About $650 a month. Wow. Good work, Hannah.

Wow. Okay. That's weird. That's wonderfully weird. Okay. And so, okay, so let's pretend that your monthly expenses, if everybody's income stopped, that you could live easily on $4,000 a month. I wouldn't be far from wrong, would I? No. Okay. Three times four is 12. Six times four is 24. So you should have an emergency fund of $12,000 to $24,000 before you start paying off your house. How much do you have in savings? Savings, we have about $95,000.

Okay, let's allocate $20,000 of that to your emergency fund. Now, everything else is going towards your mortgage. How much is your mortgage balance? About $92,000. Great. Okay. So you said you have $95,000 in savings? Yes. Okay. Well, the way we would teach it is you keep your emergency fund of three to six months we could call that 15 for fun that'd be putting 80 on the house and uh then you pay off the house what by christmas if you only had 15 owed right and then if you want to build up your emergency fund a little further you could that's what we would do around here because no house payment is going to make you even more brilliant than you already are and you're pretty stinking brilliant good grief i love

that that was like a slow flex and we have a ninety five thousand dollars and six hundred dollar house payment it's fantastic translation hannah you are well on your way before you ever met anybody called ramsey but we'll help you get you get there even faster so dave one of the one of the criticisms i get is let's just this situation how do you tell somebody like because mathematically that's it kind of went in the lottery the 650 house payment there's but there's the the umbrella the shadow that sits over you that says somebody else you owe money to right you owe money to somebody else how would you explain that to somebody that says no it's worth it to go ahead and do it it's worth it to go ahead and pay that thing off even

though your house payment is so low relative to what you're bringing home every month because several things happen in addition to the math being freed up. The first thing, number one, the math is freed up, and now you can invest and save and be generous with your entire income, and it will cause you to be wealthy faster. That's the basic thing, but it's only $600 we're freeing up here, so it's not like it's a ton, but it's there, and whatever else extra they were paying or putting into savings. So she's got this vague savings over here that hasn't got a real assignment yet it doesn't have a mission the second thing that happens is

um that people that don't have a single piece of debt you talk about this they relax in a place they didn't know was tight their relationships get better their employment changes for the better because they don't have to work there their uh the quality their health improves literally i mean the hypertension that we face in this culture yeah you know people with mortgages don't have as much high blood pressure hello wow just think about it people that don't have mortgages have peace financial peace two words that don't go together like airline service this is the ramsey show dr john deloney ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the

debt-free stage cory and amber are with us. Hey guys, how are you? Hey David and John. Good to have you guys. Where do y'all live? Raleigh, North Carolina. Oh fun, that's a great town. We love Raleigh-Durham. Good, good. So how much debt have you two paid off? $181,558.11. Wow. Give or take. Way to go. And how long did this take? years and five months all right love it and your range of income during that two years and five months we started at 95,000 and now we are a little over 200,000 nice double in two years so how'd you double your income in two years well starting about beginning of 2020 I didn't realize how much debt we actually were in it's primarily student loaned up Amber finally shared it with me, and I said,

I'm tired of all this money going out the door and not being able to keep it. So we got that gazelle intensity. I'm a mental health therapist, and so when March 2020 hit, unfortunately, COVID impacted a lot of people's mental health, and therefore... You were kind of in the plexiglass business right there, buddy.

Yeah, exactly. I'm just saying. Yeah, mental health and plexiglass, big deal during COVID, right? Right. Wow. Wow. You just took client after client after client after client yep oh man that's exhausting work it is that's like

walking through spider webs you had long hair when that started yeah i did i did it all disappeared wow that's a lot of therapy without without getting any and amber uh what do you do for living i'm a reseller and i have a small youtube channel oh cool what do you resell clothes and shoes and really anything and everything what do you do ebay or facebook marketplace ebay poshmark mercari facebook marketplace what's the most successful which platform it varies it changes depending on the season um the years but ebay and poshmark are pretty much the top two for me. I've met people that are buying clothes at garage sales for 10 cents and selling them for $3 on eBay, and they're making 10 grand a month.

I mean, I've met people doing that. I was afraid when COVID hit that my sales would decrease. No, they went up. They did because people didn't want to leave their homes, so online shopping and they're bored they're just sitting there dinging on buying stuff they're going to spend money then they feel ashamed so they call you they call me yeah talk about that got it figured out and they got to get back up there you guys got a racket all right so what got y'all started on this two and a half years ago i shared with cory how much debt we were

in when we first got married i pretty much handled all of the money and cory kind of was just on the back burner he just worked and just had his head down when i finally shared how much debt we were in and he realized how much debt we were like we have to do something and i found the seven baby steps and we're like this is it so as a mental health therapist, what was it like realizing, oh, we should probably communicate as a married couple? Yeah, imagine that. Not only aided me in my personal growth, but professionally as well, teaching clients to do the same thing.

So it's all about communication, intentionality, being on the same page. Yeah. That's very cool. Okay, so what was the 182 000 what kind of debt it was primarily student loans we did have a couple credit cards and furniture but um someone went to a private university okay for six years so yeah oh so when you shared it with him you told him right the one he already knew that he was deeply in debt okay the way y'all say that is so gentle i shared with him the debt no i told him how much you racked up yeah i had some as well but his was

the the larger chunk of it so yeah okay so he looked at and said oh yeah this is a thing so um talk to me for the sake of the audience about that dynamic because it's really important when we're kind of joking around and laughing over the top of the audience about that dynamic because it's really important when we're kind of joking around and laughing over the top of what is actual some actual pain um you were carrying a lot of stress yeah and uh by you i mean amber and um you kind of went i'm i don't know what happened you just like i'm at the end of my rope i can't carry this by myself anymore or i need some help and you're not paying attention or what was what was that dynamic like um it was it was pretty much I had to tell him because we had to change what we were doing we were we'd go on vacations but we'd always cash

flow it and then when I get home it's like we have all this debt left you couldn't manipulate it enough to make it work and then when I when I finally shared it with him because I didn't want to stress him out when I finally shared the numbers with him it was eye-opening you know over the years i've done this for 30 years talking to people in this situation whether it's the husband that was doing the bills and has to bring in the wife or the wife in your case um there's this weird thing that it's like i'm supposed to be taking care of this and i can't i can't do anymore i don't know how to fix this. I've got to have some help.

And it's like people feel sometimes, I don't know if you did, but sometimes people feel like you failed at your job, which was to take care of the money. And so there's almost a shame to bring it to the other person when it actually is their job to help you. But there's this weird thing. It's like, God, I can't do it. Did you sense that? Yes. Okay. It's hard, isn't it? Yes. to help you but there's this weird thing it's like oh god i i can't do it there's a let did

you sense that yes okay it's hard isn't it yes and then there's it's dave you just nailed it there's it's a it's a stress to shame loop-de-loop because then you handed him your stress and then you felt really shamed about all this debt you wrecked absolutely it's very challenging but self-compassion is a very important trait in this journey without it we wouldn't have been able to make it yeah that's good. And it made our marriage stronger as well. Yeah, that's a good one. Self-forgiveness.

Right. It goes with compassion. Yeah, like when I went bankrupt, it was completely my fault. Sharon, I mean, she didn't have any idea what was going on. We've owned houses she never saw, you know? I mean, it was completely my fault because I ran the thing in the ditch. And so it took a little while for me to get over going, you're an idiot was an idiot but it took me a little while to get over that just forgive myself and move on from that and go i'm just going to learn from this we're going to take all these lemons and make some lemonade yeah there's a real thing to what you guys have been through it's very powerful

thank you for being open about it and sharing it you're going to help some people today by having done that and you're victorious too by goodness 182 thousand dollars how's it feel to be free wonderful wonderful okay now now that you did it and you leaned in for two and two years and five months almost two and a half years there's a whole reformation that occurs during that time and not only in your relationship but just in the way your brain looks at money a transformation if you will what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is I would say don't focus on what you have to give up look at what you have to gain if we would have stayed living how we were living there's no way that we could be able to afford the future that

we want and have a house one day so that would that that's no way that we could be able to afford the future that we want and have a house one day. So that's what I would say. And be willing to sacrifice a bit. We'd work seven days a week, weekends. All our friends, hey, do you want to hang out? Love what you said one episode, Dave. No means yes, may later.

A lot of our friends really stuck to it, have some great support because of that. Yeah. And then we also really cut down on the grocery budget. And for two and a half years he had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch every single day so that's his tuna fish so that's how you get muscles like that wow yes it's a peanut butter and jelly protein system yeah that's how you get those muscles okay yeah that's for sure oh my god yeah it didn't it didn't kill him i can tell way to go peanut butter and jelly now?

That's the question. No. No. Okay. Can't do it. I ate tuna fish sandwiches when we were broke, and I smell tuna fish still to this day. My net worth goes down. I hate them.

I hate tuna fish. It's just because it was broke people food. For you, it's peanut butter and jelly. You get that smell. It's like, do you have a peanut allergy, sir? Yes, I do. I'm completely allergic to peanut butter and jelly now y'all are y'all are incredible yeah well done you guys thank you very well done very well done now that you're 100 free how's it feel amazing wonderful

cool proud of you very well done now who are these cheerleaders you brought with you these are my parents yeah okay they okay. They're awful proud. Just watching their body language while you're talking, they're just like, they're so proud. They were our biggest supporters. Yeah. When your grown kids actually have sense, it makes all of us parents proud. It really does. It's pretty, because we all have friends that their grown kids are idiots.

I mean, we do. And when they're not, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So, hey, we've got the Live and Give Bundle for you. It's the Baby Steps Millionaires book, which is your next step in this process. You'll be there before you know it. The Total Money Makeover book, which is what you've just done. Maybe you can give it to one of your friends that stood by you out there.

A Financial Peace University membership as well. And, again, the Live and Give Bundle. We're so proud of you guys. Thank you. You're a very neat couple. What you've been through is very obvious. It's on your your face it's on the way you're looking at each other it's on the words you're using you're very powerful very well done all right it's cory and amber raleigh north carolina 182 000 paid off in two years and five months making 95 to 200 lots of communication lots of hard work count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free

yeah oh you gotta love it man this is the ramsey show Dr. John Deloney Ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us open phones at 888-825-5225 if you're a new listener and we know there's a whole bunch of you out there that are and all some of this that we talk about is like tribal speak, the vernacular that we're using, the words we're using are new to you, like baby steps and dead snowballs and all that kind of stuff. If you want to kind of figure out where you are and start to plug into this whole thing, completely free, go to RamseySolutions.com, click on the Get Started button. RamseySolutions.com, click on the Get Started button, and that'll get you moving in the right direction,

get you where you're supposed to be. So our question of the day comes from Neighborly. It's sponsored by Neighborly, your hub for home services to repair, maintain, improve our home, researching dozens of providers is a thing of the past. Neighborly is all you need to remember a nationwide network of local home service pros of all kinds we love neighborly we're honored that they're sponsoring us molly made mr router mr electric to name just a few uh just really good stuff neighborly.com and you can get some help near you all right today's question comes from molly in oregon molly writes

my husband makes thirty thousand000 a month take home. Well done. And I'm fortunate enough to stay home with my daughter. We have zero debt. Our rent is currently 2,100 bucks a month and utilities are fairly cheap. We have visited Maui several times and are planning on making a move there.

The thing is, I feel like even though we have no debt and a paid off car and everything, we are still scared to go into debt on a house. We're waiting for a good deal and think we found something really nice around 900 grand. We're making a trip out to see the house at the end of this month and if that doesn't work out, we have a property we think we might buy been at a point in our life when we first got together where we struggled so much and i think we both just get scared of being there again yeah i mean that's that's story of my life yeah you've you've really helped me with that one dave um i think when your identity is survival and i say it sounds identity when your body's trying to survive all the time um um, that, that you just develop a scarcity mindset. This all goes away in any second. Um, and then we live in a world

that tells us it's all coming down. It's all coming down. It's all coming down. And so it's really easy. $30,000 a month is a ton of money. And, um, they still live like they're broke, right? They're still renting. Um, it's just this terror that's in there. And you taught me, Dave, that in my language, you got to practice your way out of this thing. And for me, the gift that you gave me was practicing using ratios and to stop looking at, like for a couple that went broke, $900,000 feels like a billion, right? Let's look at the ratios. Let's look at the costs. Let's look at the actual percentages of of things and that's given me a lot of peace and allowed me to practice a new way of doing life well it helps your use your uh intellect your your brain to make the decision on facts it's

bringing my brain back online yeah i'm using facts instead of feelings that's right because what happens is there's two there's two things that cause, two situations, and they usually go together, actually. Number one, if you've gone broke, like I have, or like she has in this situation, you have to heal from that. And the only way you heal from that, move from this I'm always going to be broke mentality to I'm never going to be there again mentality, is you have to practice and you have to do new things the second thing that happens is

when you start and you are making thirty thousand dollars a year and then you're making thirty thousand dollars a month what happens is the math grew faster than your emotional capacity to manage that i'm not saying you don't have the intellectual capacity to manage the money. I'm saying that, you know, I'll give you an example. Around here at Ramsey, okay, I mean, I grew up a normal kid, right? And I worked my butt off cutting grass and doing everything else, shoveling whatever had to be shoveled, all this kind of stuff, right? And what we spend on coffee at Ramsey with 1,100 employees,

I never made that much in a year. Right. And we spend it on coffee at ramsey with 1100 employees i i never made that much in a year right and we spent it on coffee oh my god you know i mean it's just like to get my emotional head around those numbers sometimes i have it's an intellectual exercise you know what we spend on copier paper in a building it's just like because of the scale right you know and it's like and we're not doing anything wrong it's nothing irresponsible the coffee's not ridiculous it's not starbucks i mean like starbucks and so uh but it's just it's not it's not inexpensive coffee it's not expensive it's just good coffee but you know it's not that it's just there's a lot of it right and so the same thing's true when you're buying a, you know, you've been driving a $5,000 or $8,000 car that breaks down and the tires are bare for the majority of your life to emotionally buy a $50,000 car, even if you're worth $10 million. Doesn't matter.

It's a difficult decision because you feel like weird. Yeah. Because your emotions are not used to sitting in that car. Your nose is not used to smelling that smell, the new car smell. It doesn't come up. Well, for us, so for Sheila and I, when we bought our house in Texas,

I had a great job. She had a great job. I could not believe that a human being would spend this much money on a house. Dave, I didn't sleep for two or three days. Couldn't breathe. When we bought it and we closed, we went in with the key, opened it up.

Sheila fell to the floor crying. She could never have believed that she could live in such opulence. And we sold the house and I made enough money to pay cash for like a $15,000 truck. So we made a little money on it. And we got 185 for it. And then we moved to Nashville.

And you can't buy somebody's you can't i mean here's the thing i had and uh i'll use the word sinfully i had lumped people who buy houses that cost this much cost this much money into those are those people where are these people and people like us i had divided the world up into us's and them's in an unfair way sometimes people do that on race sometimes on everything on education level on religion sometimes they do it based on the fact they've been broke or they grew up broke um a friend of mine grew up in the hood and he said getting out of the hood's easier than getting the hood out of you uh-huh yeah and that's the truth that's the thing and so the the what we're saying

is every one of us have had down times or broke times or made more money than we were made in our life and it is it is normal for your emotions to struggle to catch up so molly you're normal yes by the house yes the way you fix this is you you have to do what john says about trauma of any kind you have to say facts are your friends these fears are irrational and so if you have six hundred thousand dollars cash in your bank account and you want to buy a fifteen thousand dollar car it you know and you have a weird feeling it ain't the math bubba it's you acknowledge the feeling acknowledge it i have a little thing that i write them down i still write them Yeah. When they're obnoxious and they're dumb, I write them down and then we move on. Yeah. And because it takes the power away from it.

That's right. That's right. Stacey's in Fort Worth, Texas. Hi, Stacey. How are you? Hi, I'm fine. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm very honored to speak with you both. You too. What's up? So we have a daughter who's in college and then our younger, our twins, who will be going off to college in the fall. And we had a very lengthy, not your normal baby step to you. And it's left us with a house that needs repair on everything. And so my question for you is, would it financially make sense to just sort of get rid of the house as is, you know, sell it to one of those companies that just takes it off your hands?

No, they take it off your hands at wholesale. You need to call a good real estate agent and have them come in and say, there's 10 things you could do. Six of them are worth the money. The other four you need to let the other people do, whatever it is, okay? But if you'll spend the money on paint, on landscaping, on the recarpet, it's going to 2X your return when you get ready to sell the house,

and you're going to get the enjoyment of it. So you need to make a list of projects, the way you eat an elephant is a bite at a time that your real estate agent your future real estate agent gives you the priority on this is the most important one down to the least important one and work your way down those projects with cash and then some of them you don't need to do because they're not worth doing we'll let the next owner do it but it's a retail buyer not not a we-buy-houses buyer. So we-buy-houses buyer is a wholesale buyer, and you don't need to take that hit because you don't have the energy to fix this house.

Get the house fixed up. Get a real estate agent to guide you through it. Get multiple bids. Prioritize it. Work one project at a time. You don't have to do them all at once, and you don't go into debt to do this. So good question. You're on your way. You're on your way, Stacey. You're closer than you feel like. This is The

Ramsey Show. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today. Music