The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Compare Your Life to Someone Else’s (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined by my good friend and fellow Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, and we are here for you, America, to help you take the right next step with your life and your money. The number is 888-825-5225. You call us up and we will give you our opinion, and that's a guarantee. Blaine joins us first in Indianapolis. Blaine, how's it going? Good. How are you? Doing well. How can we help today?

Yeah. Thank you for taking my call. I am curious about debit cards that are store specific. And if you feel like they're okay, or if you'd group these into cards that you would give the plastic surgery. What a fun question for Rachel Cruz. This is right up our alley. I'm going to be honest. I was hoping and praying that it would be you too, because I'm like, well, maybe there's a little grace here. Your prayers were answered. We're

the nice ones. I know. I have the Target red card. I opened it almost 10 years ago, but I have the version that is specifically a debit card. There is no credit capabilities. I have the same thing. It comes exactly out of my checking. Oh, I am so relieved. Welcome to the club. Yeah, I have that too. Yes, it's great. It's a debit card. I'm just curious what the holiday is coming up. Yeah. So what's your, you're saying, is it okay to use? Like, do you have Rachel and I's blessing? Not necessarily is it okay, but we've been going through our wallets and we've just been trying to do like a cleanup and looking at everything. And I got my new target card in the mail and I have to update it. And I just sat there staring at it.

What's causing this? Are you, do you feel like you have a spending problem? Are you guys in debt? What's your financial situation? No, we are on baby steps four, five, and six. So we're both employed full time. We have a three and a half year old, a 12 week old. So we're in the stage of buying a lot of diapers, buying a lot of wipes.

I feel that. I'm out of that phase yeah we've done a lot of diaper shopping at target yeah so i mean and that's what and honestly that's where i bought my diapers and wipes playing with my target red card debit card uh because you would get the gift certificate you would get like the i don't know it would be like the five percent off each purchase then you get like gift cards if you spend a hundred you get twenty dollar gift card all of that which was great because then i would just roll that back into diapers and wipes because that's what i used it for so no i think it's great i think i think any level of spending that has convenience with it and what i mean by that is like the amazon app i mean the target red card i

guess i'd say more the target app would fall in this category. Apple Pay, like when we go and like order, I have the Papa John's apps when we order pizza. Rachel and her Papa John's, goodness gracious. I Apple Pay with it and it's great. So all of these are conveniences, which is fine, but you do end up, can tend to overspend more because there's just not that level of emotion that you're feeling. Because you almost feel it more when you're at Target swiping your Target debit card or your regular debit card. You at least have some action in it that you're feeling and knowing money's leaving your account. But when it's just like taps on your phone and stuff, that's where I think the subconscious overspending can really happen because there's just no friction and having to have the patience so so no blaine i think you're

totally fine if it's if it's a debit card you're not borrowing the money it's coming out of your checking account you're good to go and if you feel like you need to pull back on spending i think that's more of the question not necessarily the method of what you're doing it yes exactly if you find yourself going to target way more and buying things you normally probably wouldn't buy you're a normal woman you can get five percent we all do that at target been there so yes it sounds like you're a very reasonable logical person i appreciate the question though because i think oliver and i think too you know blaine i'm like i have to ask myself why am i spending the things i'm spending am i spending it to fill some kind of void, to have some level of excitement in life,

to want to feel cute in that outfit? Like whatever the thing is, like what's the reason I'm spending? And asking that question is a really honest one. And that's when I ask myself as a spender, I have to ask myself that a lot. Am I doing it just to kind of get the dopamine hit of like, oh, a funny Amazon purchase?

Blaine, I don't know if you've been through Financial Peace University. Have you? We have the full every dollar class. We've watched the first two, but we haven't actually participated in the class. Okay. So you already have it, though. I was going to gift it to you. We do.

All right. Yeah. So in, I believe, lesson five. Thank you, Doug. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Lesson five, it's all about why spending. And I cover five questions in there

as part of my smart spender plan. And those questions will help you regardless of where you're shopping and the method of purchase. But it really walks through some simple things. Am I buying this for the right reason is one of the big questions. That's the M for motive.

Affordability. Is this actually in my budget? Have I planned for this? Research. Is this the best option retailer in price? You might find you can get a better deal elsewhere, even outside of the 5% target red card discount. And then T for timing. Is now the time to buy it? Are there other priorities? Think about opportunity costs. So those kinds of questions, I feel like they will supersede and transcend

all of your spending decisions and help you just go in and build a habit asking simple questions before you purchase. Awesome. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you, Blaine. What a fun... Rachel, we needed that question. That was a great question. We needed a win this hour and that was it. That's the first call of the hour, George. I know. That's all I needed. Jacob is in New Orleans. Jacob, what's going on? Hey, guys. How's it going? Appreciate y'all having me. Sure. How can we help? Do you break up on us? I should sell my house. Okay.

That's my question, and I'll give you the details. Should you sell your house is the question. Yeah, my wife and I just celebrated our three-year anniversary yesterday. Aw, congratulations. Yeah, thank you, thank you. We have a son who is also three. He is autistic. Recently, we've discovered and you know, they say the earlier the better. So we're trying to do everything we can to, you know, give him the resources, the therapy, everything that

we can with him and insurance has been less than helpful on some of of those things so it's been a challenge um and as far as we have probably 280,000 in debt that's all consumer debt uh no uh hundred and seven or sorry 270 of it is our house oh so you have 10,000 in consumer debt. Correct. Okay. Correct. And probably, you could probably tack another two on there, just medical bills that we're paying on. And, man, this house, it's great. It's fantastic. We wanted to buy a house to get him more, I guess, concrete and consistency.

We were renting. I was paying $ fifteen hundred dollars a month to rent and i thought well at that price we might as well just buy something and gain a little bit of equity um so we we did so and the house that we bought you know we were looking and looking and looking and we found this one and it's a great house it's fantastic but it was at the very top end of our budget, and by the end of closing and everything, I mean, it's been wild. And down here in Louisiana, with homeowners insurance and required hurricane and flood. Yeah, so my house notes right now, after the first year, we went into an equity deficit. I don't know what the exact term is, but they basically, they upped the note to pay for the increase of insurance. We're up against the clock, Jacob. What's your mortgage payment and what's your take-home pay?

So I make $117 a year before taxes, and our mortgage payment is $2,650. That feels a little high. It may not be worth selling at this point, but what I would do is give it six months, see if you can decrease expenses, increase income before I go ahead and sell the house. But man, if it's stressing you guys out that much, it's no longer a blessing. It's a burden. And for those reasons, I'd probably be out on this thing. Sorry to hear what you're going through, man.

This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Rachel Cruz. This is your show, America. You can call us at 888-825-5225. I want to remind you guys, in honor of Veterans Day, we're giving away Financial Peace University to 10,000 veterans totally free now through Monday, November 13th. If you don't know, FPU is the proven fastest way to beat debt and build wealth. It's a nine lesson course and

it's helped nearly 10 million people. So if you're a veteran, you want to take FPU for free, it is on us. Just go to ramseysolutions.com slash veterans and fill out a simple form, and you guys can help us get the word out there. I know we all have a veteran we love in our life. Tell them to go to that link, ramseysolutions.com slash veterans. Our question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. Neighborly has local service providers who can repair, maintain, and improve your home. Their network of experts offers top quality work and customer service by trained, reliable service providers.

You can find the help you need at neighborly.com slash Ramsey. Today's question comes from Chris in Michigan. I know this may be a silly question to ask. However, if I hear your advice on this, I might feel much better. A couple of weeks ago, I went to the grocery store to get a few snacks and items for the week, and the total cost was $100 with coupons. Then on my social media, I started seeing reels and TikTok videos about how bad inflation is today compared to the 1980s and 90s. They say that $300,000 is the new $100,000 in buying power for homes or to be considered well off. Is what I am seeing just more than inflation fear porn? Or is everything getting worse out there?

And I'm just now noticing. What are your thoughts? Thank you and God bless. Okay. So Rachel, I've seen these videos. There's this real estate guy out there who makes all these videos comparing the 1950s and 60s and 70s and the prices then versus what it takes now and the incomes now and how much more impossible it feels. And all it is, is really

rallying people up to get clicks and views. And the data's skewed. I mean, even on that video, it has one of those like, context needed, click here. Like one of those warnings from Instagram that's like, this isn't totally factual. Oh, no way, okay. This was taken out of context from this data from 1950s that only took into account this and that.

Right, right. So I'm not sitting here to parse out this guy's data and debunk it. But is inflation really that bad? For some people. And if you follow the Ramsey plan and you've been on a budget and you've stayed out of debt,

inflation feels more like a pinch than a punch. And depending on where you are in your housing market and your lifestyle, and if you're in Canada, goodness gracious, our friends in Canada are going through it, Rachel, with their food prices alone. Right. But is it worse than it ever has been?

Maybe. Is it going to crush your life financially and there's no way to survive it? We need to shake our fists at the inflation gods until they do something about it? No. So I think it largely is kind of that inflation fear porn, as he said. And there's a lot we can do about it, which is comforting. But I also don't want to minimize the fact that it's hard. I mean, there's, yeah. And I think there's a reality to like the real estate side of it, right? I'm like, it's, yeah, houses are insane. Interest rates are insane, but it's also perspective. Because when you look back at certain times, even in the 80s, what interest rates were

on houses, it was like 16, 18%, right? For mortgages. And if it dropped to 12%, everyone crazy and so we're at you know that seven ish percent and from our perspective especially if you're a millennial and when you're if you went and bought a house you know your first house 10 12 years ago and you lived in the two percent world for so long that became normal and then all of a sudden when it jumps up it does feel like oh my gosh this is insane but it's been more insane in the past, right? So I think it's all perspective.

And yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, you look at tuition for college is insane. I mean, there's just things that, yeah, I think the math can prove it out, but it doesn't mean that it's impossible. It may mean that there's gonna be more patience and you have to be more on a plan, be more intentional because of all of it. One more reason to get out of debt too. Yeah. If you need margin, one of the things stealing from your margin is your debt. And so getting out of debt is a huge help if you're feeling the pinch of inflation. And I

would say this too, and I'm not a historical economist, George, I know you may think that, but I'm not. But I would say life is like, it is a roller coaster. It is up and down and there's going to be good times, there's going to be good times. There's going to be bad times. You know, you look at 08 and what the housing market was, it's the opposite. And you know what it is now in the sense of like how expensive houses are.

So things fluctuate in life. There's an election year coming up next year that always kind of changes the economy to a degree. People hold onto their money. They wait and see. I mean, things just, they shift all the time. So to be in this permanent mindset that this is how it's going to be forever and ever amen it's just not true so well and rachel you always say you know comparing your life to someone else's

is always gonna and just kind of drinking your own poison in a sense and so the same goes for comparing your life to the folks of the 1980s and the 70s and the 60s first of all do you understand the standard of life we now have? Y'all need to get a new iPhone every single year. They didn't even have a smartphone. Look at the cars they drove. I was going to say, they were usually a one-car family.

The square footage, average square footage of what a home was in the 80s versus now. There was no white cabinets. There were all these small dilapidated homes and dinky cars and no one cared. But now we have social media seat belts so remember those days george oh yeah walk around the van simpler times rachel's walking

around the van while it's going 90 miles down the interstate it's just it was a different world y'all in so many ways and so yeah to your point george if you just sit there and complain about it sure it hurts and you're like man that'd been nice to have bought a house five years ago sure but you didn't so you are where you are now so what are we going to do about it yeah there's a level of like this reality and if you just sit in this realm i can tell you what doesn't help the boomers doom scrolling instagram is not going to get you any closer to your financial goals so you can hit heart on his thing and leave a comment say oh my oh, my gosh, he's so right. Life is so hard. Or you can just get up and go to work and take the side job and get out of debt and do the hard stuff to get to where you want to go.

But I see both sides of this coin. Those platforms, George, as you know, continue to fill your feed with what you watch. That's right. So I opened mine up and it was all T-Swift coming out of a New York restaurant with all her friends because obviously that's what I've been looking at recently. So there she all was. So if you're doom scrolling to your point

and you have like these like You need to be swift scrolling. Yeah. Just change to something happier so at least you're not being continually fed this fear. So remember that too. Taylor Swift paparazzi videos. That's the positivity we need in today's world. Sometimes you just need to escape from reality.

Linda's up next in Olympia, Washington. How can we help, Linda? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. My husband and I went through the Financial Peace University several years ago, and we are debt-free. Awesome. Amazing. Awesome.

Amazing. Congrats. Thank you. And we are, we just, we have a million dollars now. Wow. Well done, Linda. Yeah. So, but my question is, we are both going to retire in about three years, and we have

some cash and we're trying to figure out where the best place would be to put the cash. We have about $308,000 that's just sitting in our bank. And 100,000 of that is earning about 4.07% interest. But the other 208,000,

we're thinking about putting towards maybe a rental property because we don't have any of those. But just wanted to get your advice on what might be the best place to put that. Sure. So you've got a million in your nest egg. What are those in? What accounts? So my husband has a work 401 slash Roth account that's got, let's see, $360,000 in that. And then our home is $364,000.

We have $380,000 in cash. And then I have a really small retirement count of like $3,200 from when I worked for a company before. Okay. Good for you guys. And you're going, hey, should I put it in real estate? Should I be investing this? What's your take, Rachel? Yeah, I mean, I think you guys at this point, I would continue to fund that 15% into your retirement as you guys are working for these three years. And you get paid for a house, right? Our house is paid for. Yeah, I think diversifying, yeah, and taking $200, and I'd pay cash for it.

But also know, Linda, when you get into real estate, it sounds all great and wonderful, and it is to a degree, but there's a lot of work involved. You're going to have to have renters. You're going to have to do background checks. You're going to have to fix stuff when things break. It's kind of a part-time job. So just know you take on a level of responsibility when you do that route. It's a great route because I like the idea of diversifying

into other things. But just know it's not just, oh, it's there and we sit there and it's fine. There's going to be some work involved when you have rentals. So just know that on the front end, but pay cash for it. Don't go into debt for it. Yeah. I'm just parking a high yield savings account for now. When you're ready to pull the trigger on real estate or invest it, go for it. You guys are doing great. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel joined by Rachel Cruz. If you missed it, we've got some fun stuff happening right now at ramseysolutions.com. Of course, we have the $12 sale, one of our favorite things we do every year, where you get a killer deal on some of our best-selling books and products and tools. And while you're at the store, you'll see the Ramsey Cash Giveaway. We're giving away

$500 every week, grand prize of $5,000. And on top of that, we've got some really fun new products in there, like Rachel Cruz's brand new kids book, I'm Glad For What I Have, beautifully illustrated, a wonderful message for both parents and kids alike. And Rachel's modeling it like Vanna White holding it up right now. It's so great. So proud of it, George. You should be. It's like my fourth child. It's so fun just to look at. It's just so pretty. It's a wonderfully illustrated book. We also have the 2024 Ramsey Goal Planner, a Rachel Cruz Wallet Navy, as well as my brand new book, the first one ever. It's called Breaking Free From Broke, The Ultimate Guide to More Money and Less Stress. You can check that all out at ramsaysolutions.com

slash store. All right, let's get to the phones. Cade is in Toledo. Cade, how's it going? Hey, guys. How are you doing? Doing well. How can we serve you today? Yeah, so I have just a quick question involving a budget. So my whole life, nobody's ever talked about money or budgeting or anything like that. It was always work and shove your money in a traditional savings account. And so my work construction and my pay fluctuates throughout the year. So there's some months where I'm bringing in a lot more money than like other months, like around the wintertime, whenever it kind of slows down. But I get paid on a weekly basis. So I was kind of just wanting to ask you guys

what your opinions are as far as a good weekly budgeting strategy. I love it. Well, you're here with the budgeting queen herself, Rachel Cruz. So you're in good hands, my friend. We're going to walk you through it. So great, Kate. Okay, so we call it like the mountaintops and the valleys throughout the year, knowing that you're in an industry that you're going to have great months and not so great months.

Can you predict those months? Is it seasonal? Like can you look out over a calendar and say, yep, I know these months will be high and these will be low? Or is it per project? Most of the time, yes. I would say 95% of the time, yes. Okay, perfect.

Okay, so what I would do, Kate, is I would look at the month and we teach you to budget on a monthly basis to look at a whole picture, even though your pay may be different. You get paid weekly. Is that what you said? Yes. Okay, perfect. Yep. So your paychecks will be coming in. So we'll do some paycheck planning. We'll talk about that in a second. But I would just estimate per month, hey, here's what I think I'm going to make in November. Here's what I think I'm going to make in December. And you do it every single month before the month begins.

Now, with the higher months, let's just pretend you do December next month and it's a high month. So you know, okay, here are my priorities, which is going to be giving. It's going to be some saving. Do you have any savings right now? Yes, I actually have a high yield savings account.

How much is in that? Well, I've got about two2,000 in there right now. $2,000, perfect. Okay, so you're done with Baby Step 1. Do you have any debt, any consumer debt? Yes, I'm paying on a car right now. Okay, how much is left on it? About $12,000.

$12,000, and how much do you make a year? I would say it's between about $90,000 and $120,000. Good for you. So we'll just go medium to $100,000. Yep. Okay, perfect. Okay, so what you're going to do on the budget is you're going to give first. I would skip saving because you have your emergency fund already done your thousand dollars then you're going to go what's called the four walls which is food shelter utilities transportation make sure those are covered then you're going to go to your next kind of necessity so that's going to be like insurance um for those of you listening this may not be uk'd but like child care may be one it's things that you're like we pretty much need we really do need these things it's not the exciting

frivolous luxurious yeah stuff. Yeah, yeah. That next kind of grouping is like, yeah, I really need this stuff paid. I would put your minimum, I put your car payment in that one, in that section. And then below that, Cade, you know, have like, oh yeah, you have a personal line item, maybe a miscellaneous line item,

a couple of other things just through life. A subscription or whatever you got going on. Yep, exactly. And so what you're going to do though is on the high months, like if December is a high month, I don't want you to spend all of that, right? You're going to put some of that away. And I would do a separate account than your emergency fund. I would open up even another high yield savings and park some of that money to the side. So that's going to be the fund that you're going to use when March hits and it's a really low month.

Well, through December, January, February that are high months, you've been putting some money aside to know that you can grab out of that account to make sure that all these things are covered. Your budget is covered month to month. So it's kind of this game you really do have to play and it's going to take a second to get used to. But it's really important. And then what you want to do too is make sure that when you get paid weekly, that all the bills coming in, you can cover with that paycheck, which may mean if a lot of your bills hit at the first of the month, you may want to call your utilities or subscriptions or whatever and say, hey, can I move this pay date to the middle of the month or later of the month so that these other paychecks hit so you're not overdrafting. But that's called

paycheck planning, which gets a little bit more detailed. But with EveryDollar Premium, our budgeting app, that's part of the budgeting app, EveryDollar, is this paycheck planning. So if you hold on the line, Cade, I'm going to get you a free subscription for that for a year because this app is really going to take kind of what I just said in a two-minute radio call to really give you the details and actually see these categories, figure it all out. But I would encourage you to Kade that it's not going to be great the first month, you're going to mess up, you're going to over budget in one category, you have to change some stuff throughout the month. The second month

gets a little bit better. But by the third month, it really will start working. And so there's some planning because of your industry and what you have, but it's still very possible. It's still very possible to budget. And I love this call because this is one of the basic foundational principles of personal finance that is so key that it allows you to really have control of your money and actually let your income work for you and do what you want it to do. Beautifully said. Kate, does that hit you right? control of your money and actually let your income work for you and do what you want it to do. Beautifully said. Kate, does that hit you right? Yes.

Thank you so much. That was perfect. That was everything I needed to hear. Great. And I want you to pay off that car debt. ASAP. Yes. So in that budget, Kate, you're not going to be going out to eat.

You're not going to do all that. You're going to get all of this paid off. This $12,000 car debt paid off as fast as you can and then save up an emergency fund so you have some goals that your budget is there to help you you're able to look at your budget and say okay i can cut this category i can cut this category i'm going to throw all this extra and you can actually watch it on the app as you start throwing more money at it watch that car debt go down and it's really motivating that's what gets exciting yeah you're in a great spot but But hold on the line, Cade. Emily's going to pick up and we'll give you EveryDollar Premium because it's a great tool. It's one, actually, I open up every day, genuinely. Oh, yeah. And Cade, this is a great time for you to call. On Friday, we're going to be walking through how to use that

feature in EveryDollar. So sign up at everydollar.com slash budgeting. I'm doing a free training where I show people how to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, how to find margin to attack the debt, to get the emergency fund, to invest for the future. And part of that, we show you what these premium features in EveryDollar do and how to use them. And paycheck planning is one of those. So please join me for that. And if you're listening out there and you want to join, there's plenty of virtual spots because it's virtual. So go to everydollar.com slash budgeting and we'll send you a link. You can even watch the replay if you miss it there.

But Rachel, what you just laid out is really just a prioritized spending plan for those that have regular income, are on commission pay, their contract work, whatever it is, they need a budget more than anyone. But a lot of them self, they opt out and go, Rachel, I have a regular income. So this budgeting thing, it doesn't work for me.

Yeah, the commission people, it always is's and it is a little bit more tough it'd be nice to know oh i'm gonna make x every single month every paycheck is gonna be the exact of course it's gonna be easier to plan but if you are commissioned again there's some fluctuation that's happening but it's still possible and i think budgeting it is it's one of those uh you know getting out of debt is a huge financial principle that changes your life. Investing in compound interest is a principle that you look at and a way to save your money that's so helpful. There's all these like, you know, pillars, if you will, to win financially. And budgeting is one of those, if not one of the biggest.

I mean, it's such a crucial part of it. And when you actually have control over your income and know where it's going, it goes further. It goes further. You get out of debt faster. You save faster. You actually know what's going on versus a paycheck hitting your account, spending some stuff and looking up and be like, gosh, I don't know. I don't know where my money is. Yeah. Well, you've always said budgeting is permission to spend. Yes. And so I have a whole chapter in my new book, Breaking Free from Broke, and the chapter is called Budgeting is Freedom. That is my thesis. And I show people how to gain that freedom because it's so true. People look at a budget like a straitjacket. I'm going, no, no, no, no. It's freedom. It's permission to spend on purpose with a plan so you actually hit your goals instead of just fingers crossed, eyes closed,

hope we get there. That's the power of a budget. And every dollar is the best tool out there. You can go check that out if you haven't already. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Rachel Cruz. Our scripture of the day comes from Proverbs 1-7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. And in a left turn here, Taylor Swift once said, I think fearless is having fears but jumping anyway. Beautifully said. What a queen. I feel like Rachel planned the Taylor Swift quote today.

I didn't. Y'all always give me great quotes that feel very... Inspiring and uplifting. Shout out to Dawn. Thanks, Dawn. Our friend Dawn Medley. Love it. What a jewel.

Well, hey, in other news, the Ramsey Show annual listener survey is now live. People have been clamoring for this, Rachel. They went, where is that survey? And it is here. We have heard your cries, America. They said that I want my opinion heard. It is so helpful. We do this once a year. And here's what we want to know. Your favorite parts of the show, what you like, what you don't like, what you want to hear more about, whatever it is, we want to know. Your favorite parts of the show, what you like, what you don't like, what you want to hear more about. Whatever it is,

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improve this show and make it better yeah and it's so helpful so please do it it is helpful for us the rachel's plea really hit that it added some punch to mine so thank you for that genuinely though we we do this show for you guys who are listening and watching. So we want to make sure we're giving you what you want or we're just sitting here for three hours just wasting everyone's time. That's fun. Well, hey, Stephanie joins us. She makes this show worth doing. She's in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Stephanie, what's going on? Hi, I have a question regarding an investment. So about two and a half years ago, we had sold our house and purchased a new house and had some additional

funds that my husband and I chose to put into an investment account with a financial advisor who is a fiduciary. And in the course of two years, the account has fluctuated quite a bit and profited none, but we still pay the 1% fee to the financial advisor. And I'm torn between pulling all of the money from that account and just putting it in an S&P 500 investment account where I don't have that, you know, that financial advising fee. And I wanted your advice. How much money are we talking? So it was $150,000. And then now it fluctuates between $130,000 and $140,000. It really has not gone to or surpassed $150,000. Okay, and what's it invested in?

Do you know what types of funds? Some of it is, I think there's a small lump sum in cash and then several accounts that are stocks. Single stocks or mutual funds? I think both. Okay, well, that could be one reason. Did you choose these or did the financial advisor say, hey, here's what I'm going to put you into, and you went, okay, sounds good? The financial advisor does. Well, I know you said it's a fiduciary, which I don't think it's one of our SmartVestor pros. We would recommend mutual funds if you're going to be investing in that or index funds

in an account like that. And so I can't tell you why the reasons are you haven't seen the return. Obviously, the market has been all over the place. We've seen it come back nicely, but, you know, it may take some time to recover from the year previous. And so I want you to invest with a long-term mindset. If you were trying to allow this money to grow in two years or else it's bust, that worries me from an investing standpoint. But it worries me from you taking that money and managing on your own because if the money doesn't grow next year, you're going to go,

I got to move it elsewhere. I got to move it elsewhere. And the key with investing is to ride that thing like a roller coaster until the bitter end so that you don't get hurt jumping off early. Yeah. Well, you guys use this money, Stephanie, for anything or is this in retirement? Like this isn't within your like 401k and Roth, right? This is beyond that? It's a brokerage account? Yes. Okay.

Yes, this is beyond that. And we also, so I have an investment account that I invest in every month and is in the mutual fund. And my husband also has another investment account that he manages, which is also in another mutual fund. It just seems like this broker managed funds, I think because we are in our early or mid 30s, that it is more aggressive and leaning on stock. because every time I look at the portfolio, it does change. Yeah. It, you know, whereas at least with the stability of the S and P 500 accounts that, you know, my husband and I managed, you know, it, I, we understand that there's a long-term gain that we expect to hopefully have. Yeah. Yeah.

There's another piece of this, which is financial advisors don't exist just to help you choose funds. There's so much more value they can add from estate planning and tax planning strategies, bigger picture financial decisions. And so I don't want you to ditch a financial advisor just because the funds they chose didn't tend extra money.

And it feels like you're comfortable managing some of this on your own, correct? Yes. Which is fine. The key is to be thinking long-term. Now, you mentioned you have a mortgage as well? We do, yes. What's left on that? We have about $400,000 on our mortgage, but we have like a 3%. I think we have about 3%. So that tells me you're not in a rush to pay it off. Correct. Correct. I would pay it off. Just saying. Are you guys already maxing out retirement? It sounds like

you have a great income. What's your household income? Yes. So I make $180,000 and then my husband makes about $120,000. Amazing. You make $300,000 a year. I'm guessing you're maxing out every tax advantage retirement account possible. Yes. So we both max out our retirement. We both make contributions to the investment account. You know, the one hanging fruit that we have is I have one car payment. Oh, Stephanie. Yeah, that was a question that they said you guys didn't have time for,

but that was another question of do we bite the bullet, take out money from the investment accounts and pay the car, or do you leave the money in the investment accounts? Do you have any money outside of investment accounts you could use first? We do. So we do have about 16 grand in savings and then like immediate, like just cash. And then we have another about 15 grand in, like I said, the investment accounts that I manage, and then we have $25,000 in the one that my husband manages. How much is left on the car?

$50,000? $1,000? I mean, I would probably have a dent into the car. Yeah, I would use some of this, honestly, just to get that completely paid off. And I would look, Stephanie, at aggressively paying off the car. Yeah, I would use some of this, honestly, just to get that completely paid off. And then I would look, Stephanie, at aggressively paying off the mortgage. I mean, your income is there and you guys are doing great, but you're going to be fine with retirement and all of them. You're doing exactly what you need to be doing and you guys have just extra margin. I would be

taking that extra margin instead of putting it into these brokerage accounts. I would be throwing it at the house and start getting that paid off quicker than what you guys are doing now. Okay. Is there any, so, I'm sorry. No, I was going to say that, yeah, that would be the goal. I mean, I would have that kind of goal because I feel like with you guys, you guys are in such a great position. You're young, you make amazing money. You're going to be multi-millionaires. We're just trying to give you a real simple, peaceful path to grow that money. You're going to be multimillionaires. We're just trying to give you a real simple, peaceful path to grow that money. No, I appreciate that. And I guess, do you find that year over year, any investment appreciation, like the paying off of the mortgage

in the car would be better than potential appreciation that would come from investments? Well, it's all hypothetical. You know, it's a, we don't know what the future holds. And even if my investment would have been 10%, but I paid down a 3%, it's beyond math at that point. It's emotional. And having a paid for house, having no debt to anyone while making 300 grand, who cares what the spread was going to be at that point, you're going to be investing so heavily so if i'm in your shoes let me lay out the game plan real quick you're in baby steps four five six of the ramsey plan invest 15 of your household income that's 45 grand let's max it out two

401ks pretty much right beyond that any money is going to go to knock out the house once the house is knocked out you're in baby step seven where you can start maxing out everything would you cash out a brokerage to pay off the car? If you don't have the money, I would cash out the brokerage. It doesn't sound like you're going to have much capital gains, if at all. So that would be my plan, Stephanie. Appreciate the call and letting us give you our two cents. Don't know if it was worth that much to you, but you got it.

That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to my co-host, Rachel Cruz, all the folks in the booth, and you, America. Thanks for listening. We'll be back before you know it. In the meantime, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously.