The Ramsey Show - App - Does My Income Bracket Change My Investing? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

Debt, Retirement, Relationships, Business, Career Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Welcome Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Ken Coleman. Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Ken is host of The Ken Coleman Show, which airs on SiriusXM as a podcast and over 75 radio stations across North America, answering your questions about your career, your job, finding work that matters and work that has meaning and plugging into it, moving ahead in the career that you've already got, all of those kinds of questions. The income side of the equation, where I always deal with the outgo side just about, so we're here to answer both sides of the equation and help you out.

The phone number, 888-825-5225. That number 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 starting off this hour sammy in atlanta hi sammy welcome to the ramsey show hey thanks thanks day thanks ken thanks for taking my call sure what's up hey um probably two years ago my wife and i got serious about paying off our $80,000 debt. We're down to $29,000. Four years ago, I left the public teaching to go to private. So I left $30,000 in a TRS fund and kind of forgot about it. So after four years, it doesn't gain anything, and I'm not contributing.

So I have to move it over. So my wife and I want to know if we can use that to get six months ahead and pay the $9,000 penalty and take that money and go ahead and be debt-free. Well, you can, but I wouldn't borrow money at 30% interest to pay off your debt. Correct. So I wouldn't. I mean, you know, if you call me up and said, hey, I have a bank that'll loan me the money. It cost me nine grand to borrow 30 so i can pay off this other debt

and i'm going to just prepay all the interest nine grand you wouldn't even ask me that question right and it's the same thing dude you're about to give the government 30 your money for no apparent reason other than you just want to be out of debt really bad which i really want you out of debt bad too but i don't want you out of debt 33 percent bad right it's just uh looking at being able to uh be six months ahead of the next step which would be more than the nine we would be losing but it still is a nine it if i suggested to you that you borrow money from a bank at 30 interest to pay off your debt and and you said i don't want to do that you borrow money from a bank at 30% interest to pay off your debt, and you said, I don't want to do that, and I said the answer was, oh, you're looking at six months, you're going to be out at six months sooner,

you would say, Ramsey, you've lost your dadgum mind. Right. But that was your comeback. Yeah, no, I already knew the answer before I actually called, but I decided to be this far along in the journey. Hey, man, I'm with the answer before I actually called. But I'm excited to be this far along in the journey. Hey, man, I'm with you. I want you out. So you're going to be out.

You're going to be out. It's just going to be six months slower. And I'll give you a prediction. It's going to be four months slower because you're over this. You're ready to be done. Now, take your old retirement and roll it to an IRA with a SmartVestor Pro. Don't pay any taxes on it and let it grow from this point without taxes. And you're going to love that you did that later.

That's a better move long term. Don't give the government a third of your money. It just doesn't make sense. And you can ask the question six different ways, and I'm still going to give you the same answer every time. That's the strange thing about me, Ken. Yeah, you kind of know what you believe, why you believe it. It's fairly consistent. Very consistent.

It's ridiculously boring. By the way, that's a general rule of thumb. That's the correct answer and a very specific answer to his question, but it's always a good rule of thumb to try to avoid giving the government any of your money. It's always a good place to start. Let's just start and assume they suck at handling money. Right. So any money you give to them falls under the heading of bad stewardship.

Right. God is not pleased with me when i send them money because they mishandle it yeah so and i'm not going to send it to anybody else that mishandles it either if i can help it so uh because it's my job is to handle it well yeah so yeah they're they suck at anything having to do with money. It's that simple. How many times do you hear the word government and efficiency in the same sentence unless there's an N in front of it, like inefficiency? Yeah, you just don't hear them in the same sentence. It doesn't come up.

Now, don't send them money. Keep the money for yourself. Yes. It's always better. It's always better. You're not being patriotic. It's just bad. It's always better. You're not being patriotic. It's just bad. It's just ugly.

Don't send them money. They're not good with it. Yeah. Clay's in Austin, Texas. Hey, Clay, how are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve.

What's up? My wife and I are thinking about downsizing into an RV, selling our house and downsizing into an RV. We did this before we had kids, and now we have kiddos. And we're kind of wondering if it's a good idea. I mean, I know the market's hot right now to sell our house, so we'll make some money on it and probably get out of debt. I haven't put complete pen to paper because I don't know what we're actually going to make on it. How many kids and how old are they? I've got two kids.

They're four and six. Okay. And your motivation for doing this is what? Getting out of debt. No. Don't do it. No? No.

Two reasons. Four and six in rv reason number three yeah rvs rvs go down those two reasons rv goes down in value no no we already have the rv oh it still goes down in value. Now you don't own any appreciating assets. You only own depreciating assets. Okay. Is the RV paid for? Yes.

What do you owe on it? Oh, no, I'm sorry. What's it worth? What's it worth? What's it worth? About $15,000. Okay, cool. All right.

And what's your household income? About $55,000, depending on cool. All right. And what's your household income? About $55,000, depending on overtime. Good for you. Okay. Well, much like our last caller, I love the motivation to be debt-free. I'm with you on that. I'm not willing to pay the price that you're willing to pay. I love my grandbabies.

The idea of being stuck with two of them in an RV for the rest of my life until they grow up is suicidal for me. I just couldn't do it. One of us would die. Yeah, what's your timeline? I'm not talking to do it for the rest of our life. I was talking about while we, I forgot to say, we're trying to move to a different city and do it that way okay for how long well how long are you gonna be in the rv uh we're expecting two years max maybe three yeah i you can do whatever you want to do you're a grown-up you called and asked me what i would do i personally could not

do that would not do that uh i don't think the financials are that great on what you're talking about i don't think it's like a big windfall and the lifestyle of it i just couldn't do i mean i've got friends that rv i got friends that have i can think of one right now he's got three kids and they rv it's an adventure they live everywhere and they do it on purpose but they're not doing it so they can get out of debt they're doing it because they love being on the road you know that kind of stuff but i would the ramses have done that when we were on our get out of debt. They're doing it because they love being on the road, you know, that kind of stuff. But I would the Ramseys have done that when we were on our get out of debt journey? The answer is it wouldn't be any Ramseys if we had done that. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries.

Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

According to the United States Census Bureau, nearly 1 in 10 people relocated last year, and that was in 2020. That means this year, there's a good chance you or someone you know is going to move. Feels like a thousand unknowns out there when you're moving. But you can't lose focus of one of the most important personal and financial factors in your move, and that's housing. I recommend getting a quality real estate agent like one of our endorsed local providers, our ELPs, in your corner to help you navigate this cray-cray market we're in. This market is nutty and uh uh you know most of the stuff i'm reading says it may have peaked in may uh and it's maybe june is going to be hot but

it's slowing down it's still going to be a hot market depending on where you live and what the situation is but it's a good time to sell and a crazy time to buy. And I'm not saying you can't buy, but it's nutty out there. It's not amateur hour, baby. You don't need somebody who sold three houses last year to help you with this deal. This is too freaking complicated to navigate this. So get a Ramsey-trusted agent. What you do is go to ramseysolutions.com slash agent. And you can get the people we trust here at Ramsey to help you with that.

Ramsey Trusted Agent, ramseysolutions.com slash agent. Mark is in Springfield, Illinois. Hey, Mark, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I've got a good situation to be in where family income is around $600,000.

And trying to figure out for baby step four, our retirement accounts don't equal up to 15%. Last year, what I had done was put some of it in an index fund to make up the rest of it. But I was trying to figure out if it would be more appropriate to just put the rest of it in an index fund to make up the rest of it but i was trying to figure out if it would be more appropriate to just put the rest of it straight onto the house instead of putting it into an index to try to equal 15 what a wonderful problem to have yeah what do you do for a living dude i'm a er doc and wife's still in residency. Oh, okay. All right.

So both of you are going to be MDs. Okay. Yeah. So it's not going to get anything but better, hopefully. Yeah, it took a bit of a hit last year with the COVID stuff, but it's still just fine. Yeah, yeah. But nothing, nothing, yeah. Wow. Okay.

Okay. How much do you owe on your home? It's down to around $100. We just kind of got a little starter home to begin with. Okay. Well, what I would do is, you know, you can play with this back and forth if you want. The point being that you should be at Baby Step 7 instantaneously, and then you should save and pay cash for your next home,

which keeps you at Baby Step 7. Would you agree with that? Yes. Yeah, that was actually what we were thinking for the index fund, was that was going to be... Yeah, how much is in the index fund? It's about $29 now. $24 of that was principal that we put in last year.

Yeah, I mean, I don't mind cleaning all of that out and other cash you can lay your hands on, just knocking the $100 out. And then what you need to do is you need to budget and say, I'm going to save, I'm going to invest systematically X percent, and the rest I'm going to pile up to pay cash for the move-up house. Once I've paid cash for that house, then there's nothing left to do but invest and be generous and enjoy some of it but

there's no way you're going to be able to consume what's going to end up being close to a million dollar income correct yeah no that is uh right what we're looking at for it and yeah yeah we'll see if she's doing full-time or not when she gets out because we're in a very good spot but yeah you're going to be able to do whatever you want to do but my point is you know you at baby step seven you just invest you know and so you can invest more than 15 percent less than 15 percent or whatever and so um you know you don't you're not like i've got a friend that makes uh a million six a year okay and we were looking at his stuff the other day he was asking me similar questions. And I said, well, number one, you're a baby step seven,

so the 15% doesn't apply anymore. It's invest. And so then you start saying, okay, what are my investment goals? Because your consumption goals, unless you're just a weird, you know, like you're some kind of rock star or something, you know, and you're just spending out your ears like dysfunctionally, you're not going to consume much of one million six, you know, and you're just spending out your ears like dysfunctionally, you're not going to consume much of $1.6 million, you know, or $1 million. You're going to consume some of it, but you're going to enjoy it,

but then you're going to be highly generous and highly investing. And that's the only three things you can do with it is consumption, enjoy it, and invest and be generous. So it doesn't matter if it's 8% because that's still eighty thousand dollars a year you know so you just lay lay out some percentages and say how how much how quickly do we want to have a ten million dollar net worth and having a million dollar income you ought to have ten million dollar net worth yeah this is a the 600 and a new development for us since I just got out of residency a couple years ago. But what I'm saying is I laid the baby steps out to extrapolate 25 years into the future for you.

And all I'm telling you to do is whatever percentages you put on consumption, investment, and generosity, just make sure they extrapolate with a million-dollar income out 10 years from now, and you've got $10 million net worth. Sounds good. And I don't care if that's 2.6% investment or 12.6% investment, but do it on purpose. That's the trick. The intentionality is the thing, Ken. Yeah, and that's why, like you said, when we get to Baby Step 7 now, that whole phrase,

living like no one else, I mean, you're investing so much. I mean, you've just got tremendous impact at that point with whatever you do with your money. That is within reason and very smart and very wise. And congratulations to them. What a wonderful. Well, you know what else I like? I want to call out, he pointed out, you know, he didn't do the normal doctor thing. They got a starter house.

They got a smaller house. And as a result, his wife is finishing residency and they only owe a hundred thousand on this first house they're going to knock that out with their income be able to pay cash for you know you're probably normal doctor house and so credit to them wouldn't have been shocked to hear his house was a million five no you wouldn't have it's very normal and so for a magic hundred thousand dollar income yeah fantastic income but uh boy i love the discipline there and uh what a path they're on that's fantastic yeah that that that's um that's the time that old md thing paid off right there

that's right that's right very good peter is with us peter is in raleigh north carolina and hey peter how are you hey i'm doing well how are you today better than i deserve what's up awesome um my question is very similar to the previous caller, not the 600,000 guy, but the other guy about the RV. My wife and I, we've been on the baby steps for about a year. We've been married two years, and we're looking to save extra money moving into an RV on their family farm. We're paying $1,100 in rent right now. We make about gross $75,000 a year, and we have a baby come December with $18,000 in student loans,

and we're just trying to figure out if that's a good idea or not. So the parents own the RV, and it's on their farm. Am I understanding that correctly? Yeah, they got about 100 acres and they kind of offered us to move in there because we really want to get the debt paid before the baby comes. So how long? What's the plan with the new baby to live in the RV on the farm? How long?

Maybe two years. Again, as Dave said to the previous caller, you can do whatever you want. It's not like this is a bad decision. It certainly has good financial opportunities. I'm assuming you're living rent-free. Is that a correct assumption? Yeah, we would just pay for utilities, whatever it costs. The RV is in North Carolina.

It is, yes, sir. Yeah, I mean, two years is a long time to live with a baby in an RV, even a little one, just one. I just think that's, I probably wouldn't do it, but, you know, how fast, what's the difference it's going to make? If you've played this out. One year. One year difference. That's what I said. One year, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, too, our thinking is she'll be closer to her family when the baby comes because I'm working about 60 hours a week right now with UPS. And so she will be closer to her family, and that's kind of a concern, too, because we're about 30 minutes away from them. I'm kind of gone a lot during the night. You cannot. We're out here until 9, 10 o'clock. You can do what you want to do.

Dave and Sharon Ramsey would not have done that. Again, I don't think it's bad. I don't think you're making a bad decision. It's a lifestyle decision. An RV in North Carolina in December is cold. It's hard to keep it warm. And I'm not living in there with a baby. in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt free stage jason and heather are with us hey guys welcome hey good to have you guys. Where do you guys live?

We live in Greenfield Center, New York, right near Saratoga Springs. Wow. A bit of a haul to Nashville. A little bit. Welcome. It's good to have you guys. All the way down south to do a debt-free screen. That's right. How much have you guys paid off?

$185,000, Dave. How long did that take? It took us 30 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $185,000 to $235,000. Cool. What do you guys do for a living?

I am a regional sales manager for a building materials manufacturer. I'm a health coach and a personal trainer. Ah, very cool. So building materials might have been interesting to sell this year it's been an interesting ride it's been crazy bars of gold are cheaper than two befores yep and vinyl siding and pvc trim for me yeah well same thing yeah oil-based oh my gosh it's just crazy i'm sure i'm sure the prices went nuts crazy yeah still are wow so what kind of debt was 185 000 uh we had a couch we had three cars we had five credit cards we had uh some personal loans some fitness equipment and uh somebody's college loans somebody somebody sitting off camera yeah

okay to be named later all right yeah we'll get we'll get into this a little bit. So you guys were normal. Very. Making a lot of money and spending even more. Absolutely. What was the wake-up call? So it dates back to the beginning of the marriage when I took over the finances. And I was always mainly the breadwinner. She stayed home with the girls for a long period of time. And I felt financially responsible for everything.

But we had credit cards. And when we ran out of money, groceries would go on the credit cards. And then, I don't know, probably about five or six years ago, somebody had given me the total money makeover and I read it. So I knew conceptually about the snowball. And then I was doing the finances one day at the beginning of the 30-month period. And I made the spreadsheet. I did it all. And then eight months went by, and I paid off about $2,000. So at that same time, I was training for a marathon.

I wanted to listen to maybe like a business or finance podcast i found you and i think i was running eight or nine miles that day and so i got to listen to a lot of debt-free screams and a lot of callers but then i literally got in the truck and i ran home and uh i told heather that the sky was falling and that we were in trouble. Yeah. Oh, wow. He came home. He was in panic mode. Wow. Yeah.

It wasn't from having run eight miles. No. And, you know, I didn't even realize how bad things were. I wasn't really paying attention, to be honest. So it was just like the information just smacked you. Yeah. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I felt... Overwhelmed.

I felt like a failure to myself, to my wife, to my kids. I remember that feeling. I remember it. And the weird thing is the numbers didn't change, just your attitude about them did. Yeah. During the eight-mile run, nothing was different. No. It's true.

It's just the way you looked at it. You just went, oh, this just sucks. I didn't realize how bad this sucks. Because you're a sales guy. What you were doing was probably what I've always done before I had that moment. And that was I've always tried to out-earn my stupidity. I thought I could just make a little more. That's all I did.

And I've always done side jobs, construction. And that kind of kicked in during the pandemic because nobody was traveling and everybody wanted a new deck. So I've got all the tools and I went out and did that. And at the same time, as you said, building materials were going crazy. The only thing is I had to do everything via Zoom from home. So it was a little bit of an adjustment. So you come home from that epiphany run. Yeah.

And Heather, what did you say? Well, I was in denial. And part of me was just thinking like, well, everybody has debt. It's not that bad. So I was scared. But I was also just kind of pretending it wasn't all that bad we'll get out of this yeah so did you sell anything or you just cash flow every bit of this we cash flowed a lot of it um she actually closed down her fitness studio and we sold off

some fitness equipment that we had loans on uh brought in about $14,000. But she closed the town in February right before the pandemic. So the timing could not have been better. Except that fitness equipment was very valuable during the pandemic. We wish we had held on to it a little bit longer. Yeah, that's true. We sold too soon. Good time to close the business. Bad time to sell the equipment.

But yeah. Absolutely. Not a bad time, but just later on people going crazy because you can't get it. Right. Right. Wow, you guys. What a cool journey. Yeah.

Yeah. I love asking this question. So, in this moment where he comes home, we have the discussion, there's a lot of fear there. You can still hear the emotion on you as you just recounted it. Yeah. And I'm just curious, was there a moment where this thing went from fear to oh we're making some progress what was that moment yeah that's actually when i came on board

because at first i was like okay this sounds like a really good idea but we're never going to be able to do this i didn't believe it until i started seeing the progress and i started seeing you know the first one get paid off and the the second one, I'm like, oh, this, this might work. And then I got, and then I got excited. Yeah. Taking full commission checks and throwing it at it was, you know, it got easier actually. Chunking it. As we saw the progress. And, you know, the pandemic actually helped us because we didn't do it, you know, we were just home. And so his commission checks, you all of our money our girls play basketball aau

basketball it's very expensive we took all that money and and put out the debt yeah just like that boom i love it well i you know personal finance is 80 behavior it's 20 head knowledge you're both fitness geeks obviously from uh you know eight mile runs fitness fitness studio. And so did you see a parallel between the discipline, the natural discipline that you teach and you both have? Not natural, but the decided discipline in the physical realm or physical fitness realm. Did you see the parallel back to the money piece? Absolutely. Yeah. We talk about it all the time.

Our meetings would, I could never get her to sit down and look at a spreadsheet. She would just glaze over and start staring off into space. So we started running every Friday morning together. That was our meeting. Yeah. Yeah. We have pictures of ourselves totally frozen running in 19 below weather. But that's where we had our dream conversations and our finance conversations.

And that's where she was in her element. Yeah. But that's where we- We had to keep keep talking about it and that's what made it you know real that's what made it work well and you know you're also uh you got a little adrenaline going there so it's not bad absolutely absolutely get those endorphins you're kind of hopeful as opposed to depressed that's right that's right very cool good for you guys what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Well, a couple things. I mean, I think just like losing weight, like what I teach people, you have to have a deep why.

Why are we doing this? You know what? We just want to save some money. I mean, it has to be much deeper than that. And our life has improved so much. My why? What was your why? So much. My why was... What was your else why? Our why was just for a better life, to not have that debt over our head and that stress, the stress it was putting on our marriage.

We are so much happier as a family now. For me, I mean, it was obviously the why with our kids changing our legacy. Our family tree is important. And I was always telling them when they got their job that they were going to, you know, they should save half of what they make and put it in the bank. And I wasn't living by those principles. So that's part of me feeling like a fraud. So, you know, the fact that we were able to reach over at the end and pay off almost $40,000 of college loans

between Parent Plus and Her Loans and we're cash flowing everything now is pretty college loans between Parent PLUS and her loans. And we're cash flowing everything now. It's pretty special. Yeah, there's a big one. I like that. We're celebrating on this trip as a family. Well, I'm so proud of you guys. Thank you.

Well done. You're an incredible couple. Very cool. Very cool. Brought the kiddos with you. What are their names and ages? So we have Caroline, and she is almost 20, and Lauren's birthday is in about a week. She'll be 16.

Okay. We've got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you and the Total Money Makeover for you to give away and help somebody. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Are you guys ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Woo! Woo! Yeah! There it is, baby. This is how it's done! Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop! This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host. Joe is with us in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Hi, Joe. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave and Ken, how are you doing? Great. How can we help? Good. I'm just calling because I'm in a little bit of a predicament, and I just wanted to see what your guys' suggestion was. So I have a full-time job, and I also do financial coaching on the side. And I've gotten to the point to where my coaching is actually making more money than my full-time job, which is great.

And I have a baby on the way with my family, and I'm just like in this point point where I'm dependent on both incomes in order to provide and, you know, make my goals happen and everything like that. And my full-time job, I like it, but I'm just not passionate about it. But I'm afraid of making that leap to where with me being dependent on both incomes, you know, I might not be able to make that happen. Might not, might not be able to make it provide. So what were you doing before you had the second income? How were you making it? Well, before the second income, um, I was renting and I, I had a really good low rent. Now we own a home, and I was also single at the time, too. So now I have one stepdaughter and one on the way, and it was feasible at that point.

What's your day job, and how much do you make? I make about $40 a year with the day job. And about $40 a year on the other? About $50. About $ year on the other? About $50. About $50 on the other. Okay. Yeah. So if you're dependent on this, then you've got to stay.

I mean, the reason you're afraid is because sometimes fear is telling us, hey, back away from the ledge, because if I fall over the ledge, it's going to be really bad. And so if you're truly dependent on this, I mean, $90K is really bad. And so if you're truly dependent on this, I mean, 90K is really good. And if your financial coaching has grown to this point from zero to 50K, then it stands to reason as committed as you are. And the fact that you've now proven this, it's going to continue to grow. So I would stay in the day job until we aren't dependent on it anymore. I mean, at its simplest, that's what the answer's got to be. And I'm glad you've called on this because I know you don't have any passion for the day job, but that's why I call it the day job. And, you know, people need to understand that there is no dream job without several day jobs. I don't hear of many stories other than your random reality show stories like that where you just immediately step into the dream job. So I'd stay in it and get

through this baby, keep rocking it, and then keep socking money away. Let's just play this thing out. And when you start to feel like, oh, I don't have any passion for the day job. I want to do this coaching thing. Well, what you need to do is have a real dose of gratitude. Boy, I'm grateful for this day job because it is the platform by which I have been able to stand on and I will eventually step off of into the dream job. So I don't think it's that much further away. If you are conservative, what do you think the projection looks like to step into this financial coaching full-time? Yeah, because you're going to increase your financial coaching income and you're going to decrease your lifestyle until the two meet. That's right.

Yeah, I would say, so once the baby comes, you know, before we were, before we knew that we were pregnant, we were bringing in an extra probably, you know, $1,500 to $2,500 a month extra, depending on the month. So I was in a really good position and I was thinking about making that leap. But now the baby's here, I'm like, well, I have to save for the baby. So now I'm kind of thinking like, okay, maybe once the baby does come, then I can make that jump. And in the meantime, you know, I got six months, so I can keep building that. Here's the thing. If you're having to make a jump, you don't do it.

You can make a step, but you don't need to make a jump. Okay. Listen, get in your budget. You're pretty a step, but you don't need to make a jump. Okay. Listen, get in your budget. You're pretty disciplined with your budget, yes or no? Yes. All right. So the budget's going to tell you when it's time. This is not a, I don't know, lick my finger, stick it in the wind, and see which way I go.

No. This is a budget answer. The budget will tell you when you can move from the day job to the dream job. Do not overthink this. And listen, when you start to feel impatient, get back to clarity on why I do the day job, what the day job has provided for me, how much longer I've got to go, and then you can stay with it. Yeah, you can say, you know, there's only three miles left in this 13.1 half marathon, and you can gut your way through the last three miles.

But if you just go, I've got to run for the rest of my life, then you're going to stop. So you need to see the end of it by increasing your income on the financial coaching and decreasing your lifestyle so that the two can cross and you can quit. And maybe, and I really think this is the case, the baby is going to be a lot less expensive than somehow you've got it in your head that a kid is. Sandy's in Kansas City. Hi, Sandy.

How are you? Hi. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. How can we help? My husband and I have a little bit of a discrepancy. We're both in our 70s. I'm retired. He is semi-retired. He works part-time. I have always, we have always paid, ever since we've been married,

we've always paid an extra $100 on our mortgage and a month just on the principal. And I found that it brings the mortgage down really, really rapidly. And my husband, because of our age, and we lost a lot of money in the markets, our financial advisor. We didn't get out in time. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa um whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa just stop right there you lost a lot of money because you didn't get out in time i didn't get out at all and i haven't lost a dime well we didn't get out in what was it 80 was it 85 1985 no no what was it when the market, 05, when the markets went bottom?

Yeah, 06 and 05, yeah. Yeah, we had a lot of them, and he invested with the financial powers. And you didn't leave it? No, we left it. It stayed there, but we just never came back. Well, yes, it has. Well, ours didn't honey the market is nine fold what it was in 19 in 2006 it is now we're not in it now we got out probably five years five or six

years after that crash because we lost half of everything we had and it scared us and he seemed to want to keep putting us in more risky stuff, and we got, maybe it was our fault. Maybe we, you know, we kind of panicked a little bit. But we took that money then, and we've got it in an annuity. Okay, so how much is that nest egg today? We've got $400,000. And how much do you owe on your mortgage?

We owe about $96,000. And how much do you owe on your mortgage? We owe about $96,000. Okay. And you're 70 years old? I'm 74, and my husband's 76. Okay. And do you have income in addition to the nest egg? Do you have, like, pension and Social Security? We're getting Social Security, and we're taking money out of my life insurance policy.

This is what it was set up for. We set it up to be able to draw money off of it, plus we also have an annuity that we're getting money off. So you have a whole life life insurance policy? Yes. Okay. Well, you've got so many things going on here that I don't know if I can address them all, but I'll give it a shot. Okay. Well, you've got so many things going on here that I don't know if I can address them all, but I'll give it a shot. Okay? Number one, I would have you sit down with a financial advisor like a SmartVestor Pro.

Click SmartVestor Pro at Ramsey and RamseySolutions.com and see if you can get some help because you're not going to get a radio answer in one minute that's going to do everything. I would get rid of the whole life policy. I would take the cash value out. I would invest that. I would look at these investments and see how they're invested because you've apparently panicked and have not gotten good advice or haven't followed it, and you've taken it on the chin on your investing.

If you have $400,000 and if you can live off of the Social Security income, and depending on what the cash value is in this rip-off whole life policy that you love right now, but when you understand the numbers on it, you're going to hate it. I'm going to pay off your house today out of some of this money. I'm going to scrape together some of this money, and I'm going to pay off your house today. And when you're debt-free and you have $300 or $400, depending on what this cash value is and depending on what these annuities are and other things and you put that in a pile you can live off of that income with no house payment at all

and so i disagree with both you and your husband i'd be out of debt as soon as you get all this organized and understand it as quickly as i could get it all cashed in and moved around i would be out of debt immediately house and everything and then that sets you in a whole different place of peace of mind for your retirement. And I think you'll be just fine. You will not be fine if you don't quit jumping in and out of the market, depending on what day you panic. producer for The Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section

or head to theramseyshow.com. Thanks for listening.