The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Do Things That Delay Your Dreams (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 20, 2019

Chris Hogan, Debt, Budgeting, Home Buying, Savings   Tools to get you started:  Take TDRS listener survey to win a $100 Amazon gift card, click here: http://bit.ly/2krRePv Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Chris Hogan, filling in for Dave, and I am excited to be here. I'm wide awake and riled up, so if you've got a question I want you to call me. I'd love to talk with you. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. And you can call us and tell us what's on your mind, what your question is. And if you prefer, you can find us on social media.

You can look us up at Ramsey's Show and send your question in, or you can send it to me on my social media. I'm at ChrisHogan360. So we're excited to talk with you. I've got a lot of people. The lobby looks fantastic. We've got a lot of good-looking folks out there hanging out, and we're excited to talk with you. So we're going to get to the phone line. First up, I've got Jackie in South Carolina.

Jackie, how are you? I'm doing good. How are you? Oh, I'm focused and not finished, young lady. What's on your mind? So I made a budget and I'm wondering if I could pay my student loans off quicker than the five years that I'm projecting right now. Oh, okay. First of all, I like that you have a goal and you've got a timeframe. So tell me a few things, Jackie. How old are you? I'm 23. 23 years old. And how much do you have in student loan debt? $69,000.

Okay. $69,000, and you've projected that you're going to attack this and pay it off in five years? Yes, sir. Okay. Why do you want to pay off your student loan debt? I don't want to make the same mistakes my parents did, and I want to be able to go on vacation still and not have to worry about any other debts piling up once I'm having fun and the vacation's over.

All right. I like this. I like the way you're thinking. What other debts do you owe? It's just the student loans. It's the big one. I have like $100 for a credit card, but I'm already paying that. I'm waiting for the process. Okay. And where did you learn about paying off debt? Just my parents not enjoying it, so I just want to not do what they're doing. All right. I like this. So you have graduated.

Are you working full-time? Yes, sir. Okay. Just call me Chris. You say, sir, I look for my daddy. And so how much do you, what's your income each year? So I'm just starting out as an architectural designer, so I'm only making about $30,000 a year right now. Okay. But as I progress, it should be about

$100,000. All right. Good. And are you living on your own or do you have roommates? I have one roommate. Okay. Very good. So right now, in order to attack this debt in five years, how much are you planning to send on these student loan debts each month? I'm thinking divided between two. So if I could put $1,000 a month total, so $500 for each of them, I think that would probably be the most doable. Okay. And so right now you've got a roommate, so you don't have a car payment, right?

No, sir. I mean, no, Chris. All right. There you go. See, I like you. All right. All right. And so this $100 credit card that you have, Jackie, you know what I want you to do?

I want you to pay it off, and I want you to find the biggest pair of scissors you got in your house, and I want you to shut it down. Okay? You got it. Listen to me. I did some stupid years ago. And just having it sitting in your wallet, it'll call to you sometimes. It will.

It'll say, Jackie, I'm here. Jackie, go get those shoes. And just get it out of your life, okay? Get it out of your life. And I'll tell you this. Not only the $1,000, but I think as your income grows, you're going to go faster than that. And I think you have in that mindset of in five years, I think you can pay this off probably in two and a half, to be honest with you. But I love the mindset you have, but you have to do a couple of things.

Number one, you got to be serious about your decision. And I like that you are, and you've got to stay focused. There's so much stuff out there trying to get our attention. There's so many ways. Five minutes on a car lot, you can leave with a car payment. Okay, so you have to be intentional about what you're chasing down, and I firmly believe, young lady, that you can attack this debt and get it out of your life. I'd say in two and a half years. So you're intense, you're focused, but I want you to make sure you stay the course. Jackie,

it'll change the trajectory of your life for you to get that student loan debt out of your life and then look up and now you've got a thousand extra dollars staying with you, allowing you to save up for an emergency fund and start to invest. So that's the route that I would go. I would not hesitate and I would not flinch. I've got Rebecca on the line calling in from Washington. Rebecca, how are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Oh Rebecca on the line calling in from Washington. Rebecca, how are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Oh, I'm focused and not finished, young lady. What's on your mind?

Hey, I'm just wondering. I've heard from other financial advisors that if you have more than six months' worth of an emergency fund, that you're wasting your money and it would be better to risk somewhere else. I was just curious your thoughts on that. Okay. Well, I mean, first and foremost, the goal of having an emergency fund your thoughts on that. Okay. Well, I mean, the first and foremost, the goal of having an emergency fund, it's insurance. Okay. So it's sitting there. So if life happens, if you have a car breakdown, loss of job, illness, whatever it is, you've got that money there that you don't have to panic. You don't have to reach out and grab a credit card

or anything else. You have money. So I tell people to have three to six months. That's what we teach. Now, the reason we talk about that, Rebecca, is three months is if someone's got a stable job, they're a school teacher, engineer, accountant, something like that, then three months is good. But if you have someone, if you were married and you were married to someone or someone that was commissioned or self-employed, now your income's a little bit more volatile and you'd want to have six months. But again, I don't see a need to have more than six months there. Some people will err on that side and go to eight or nine months.

I'm not going to get mad at them over that. But you don't want to have two to three years' worth of that kind of money just sitting around in a savings account. So, Rebecca, tell me this. What baby step are you on? So we don't have any debt and we have a year's worth of income saved up. And so we're about to go on to the next, we don't have any, we are renting. So the next step would be buying a house, but my husband's active military. So we don't want to buy a house until we end up somewhere where we're interested in buying. So we already put 15% of our income into our 401k. We have an emergency fund. We're saving

up for future cars. And I'm just wondering if we should more be putting our money into mutual funds and maybe take some out of our emergency fund for mutual funds or kind of what we should be doing. Okay. Well, how much longer is your husband going to be in the military? I'm hoping for at least another enlistment, so at least four or five more years. But he could get out if he finds another job, but then he would stay in the reserve. So he'd still be getting a lot of the benefits of the military, like the health care and stuff. Okay, gotcha. So you all are not living on base, but you're renting? Well, we do live on base, but you rent when you live on base. Okay. so here's another idea if you guys have uh extra in your emergency fund you could reallocate some of that only keep six

months in the money market account for your emergency fund and use the other amount to use as your home down payment okay okay because we call that baby step 3b now you might have another enlistment of four to five years but as you you guys, if you're investing 15%, okay, and you guys, do you have kids yet? No, we're expecting one in December. Oh, congratulations. Yeah, thank you. Yes. Do you know what you're going to have?

Yeah, a girl. Okay, a girl. Okay, well, I was going to tell you Chris is a good name. You'd go with Christiana or something. Yeah, we can do that. But congratulations. Proud of you guys. Thank you.

But I love the path that you're on. I love that you guys are thinking ahead. That makes me happy. And I want to thank you all for your service as well. That's a big deal. The men and women of our military are heroes. Not athletes. Not musicians.

These are people that are doing something that stands for something. That's our freedom. That's not an accident something that stands for something. That's our freedom. That's not an accident. And I like that. That makes me happy. You're listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. Let's talk about low interest rates, baby. I know right now that Churchill Mortgage can get qualified buyers into a 15-year conventional loan for well under 4% with no discount points or no hidden fees.

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Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Welcome back. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Chris Hogan, Ramsey Personality, filling in for Dave this hour and excited to be with you. And I want to hear from you. If you've got a question on your mind, something you've always wondered about from a financial aspect, call us. The number to call is 888-825-5225.

Again, that's 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. Or find us on social at Ramsey Show or at ChrisHogan360. Send in your question, and we want to hear from you. Now, speaking of wanting to hear from you, we've got a Ramsey Tribe survey. That means we want to hear from you. And so we value your input as listeners to The Dave Ramsey Show. It helps us to understand exactly what's important to you and what's on your mind so we can deliver the right kinds of content and teaching. And last week we launched a brand new survey and we would

love your feedback. So check it out at Dave Ramsey dot com slash survey. It's only going to take you a couple of minutes and there's a one hundred100 Amazon gift card up for grabs as well. Or we can get tech savvy here, and you can text the word SURVEY to 33789 or visit DaveRamsey.com slash SURVEY. Again, if you want to take it on your phone, just text SURVEY to 33789 or visit DaveRamsey.com slash SURVEY. It's always good to hear from you and understand more of what it is that you want and more of what you're looking for. All right, so I'm going to get back to the phones. I've got Larry on the line in Maryland.

Larry, how are you, sir? Yes, hello. I'm doing fine. How are you today? Oh, I'm focused and not finished, my friend. What's on your mind? Good. Well, I'm getting ready to buy a house for $450,000. Okay. I'm 63

and I'm debt free. Okay. And I'm wondering, I have investments and I have real estate that I own, and I'm wondering whether I should pay cash for my investments or get a mortgage, especially since the interest that my investments pay pays more than the cost of the interest on the mortgage that I would get. Okay. So Larry, let me make sure I understand. Are you saying you would sell a rental property or liquidate some investments to buy the home? Is that what you're asking? That's right. Yes. Okay. So tell me this, What's your net worth right now? It's 2.5 million. Okay. And of that 2.5, how much of it is real estate?

Two thirds. Okay. All right. And so is that rental property, is this something that is rented out right now currently? No, it's not. Okay. I would have to take care of that okay so there's a little bit of a rent but it's it's it'll rent it'll be okay i understand uh are you renting right now no i own i own a home i own a couple different properties okay all right free and clear my mortgage is over that is fantastic so how long ago did you get debt free? Well, about probably three years ago, but I could have done it far before that, but I didn't because the interest on my investments was paying more than the interest that I was paying on the mortgage. Yeah. I just let it ride yeah well and at some point what you did was

is you you woke up and you realize it's not just about the math or the entrance it's also about risk um yeah and you are an everyday millionaire my friend and this is not an accident you worked your way there and you were focused so i would say you're 63 years young i would definitely sell a property or two and buy a home for cash and keep that mortgage out of your life. You get too many people are trying to rationalize holding on to the mortgage. They tell me, Hogan, you don't understand. It's a tax write-off. I go, no, I do understand. And it's all about fully itemizing and walking through that process. But at the end of the day, interest that you pay is a penalty. Interest that you earn is a reward, period. That's a PhD in economics for you right there. I'm going to say

it again. Interest that you pay is a penalty. So if you've got it on a credit card, a car loan, a student loan, you're paying a penalty for using someone else's money. But if you earn it in your investments, in your money market account, now you're being rewarded. Well, guess what? I don't want to be penalized. I don't. I want to be rewarded in my life. And so I'm not going to cost justify or try to rationalize any debt. You've got an opportunity to do a home with cash. Do it. And it's going to require sacrifice. And guess what? Once you buy the house, if you don't like not having a payment on it, if you just miss a payment that much, then go out and get your mortgage. Yeah, go do it. I don't think you're going to miss it.

I think you're going to like the way the grass feels on your feet. I think you're going to like not having to check your mail that often because you've got some freedom and the giving that you can do. My goodness, you could change a single mom's life with $1,000. That mortgage payment you would have been paying, you could find some charities and go donate it to. Go get some backpacks for some kids go buy some bicycles do some things watch what happens i think your heart will be full and you'll feel good and glad that you did what you did thank you for your call my friend uh next up i've got steve and alabama

steve how are you great hi chris how are'm good, my friend. What's on your mind? So I'm a recent graduate of engineering, and I have $40,000 in student debt. So, you know, I figure about in a year of saving up, I can put it towards the student debt and probably few friends to create a startup, a startup company that could obviously generate a lot of revenue and a lot of income. So I've been saving up, but I haven't put it towards the student debt yet because we might have to dip into it to propel this startup. Okay. First of all, how old are you, young man uh 23 years old 23 years old that's fantastic where did you learn about money uh between dave ramsey really it's dave ramsey and just influential people around me that's good that's good uh and so you saved this money so you you've got student loan debt but you've been saving. So you know the value of saving. And this business, this startup with your friends, how many friends is it going to involve? We have four friends right now.

Okay. And is everybody putting up some money for this or are you the bank? We're all putting up money. Okay. How much are you guys putting up? Right now, we're just putting up however much we need to. Pretty much as we go, we're just putting in and just divvying it out. Steve, I'm going to tell you something. I want you to hear me with this. I know it sounds like this business is an opportunity, and it very well may be. But we have to deal in knowns and unknowns, right? I know it sounds like this business is an opportunity, and it very well may be.

But we have to deal in knowns and unknowns, right? And what you know right now is that you've got $40,000 in student loan debt. And regardless of what this business does, that debt's not going anywhere. And so what I would say if I were you in looking at this is my mindset would be I'm going to control the controllables, which means I would much rather you really get focused and attack this debt and then save up to start a business. Because what makes me nervous now, I'm going to tell you partnerships, the hair on my head stood up. Okay, I only got one. It's a long one, though. I curl it every once in a while. But partnerships can be dangerous because you could have somebody that gets flaky, somebody that doesn't do their part, and then you have issues. Now, I'm not judging your friends, and I'm not telling you that's what's going to happen in your business.

I'm saying it could. So I like you operating from a place of being empowered. You attacking this $40,000 in debt and then looking at the business opportunities. I think it's going to put you on more of a firm foundation. And so we teach people, attack the debt, get it out of your life. Then you get a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Then you start to invest. And I think that, to me, is the plan.

Now, with your friends, as you guys are brainstorming on this business idea, I'm going to tell you right now, you need to do a real business plan. You really need to dig into this and really kind of poke some holes into this. Are you all excited about just working together or do you have a product or service that is actually going to help people in need? And you got to identify who's your competition, right? And how much can not only can the business make money, how much can it make and how soon can it make it?

If you got four people, you can see that the profits are going to be sliced up and it's going to be a different ballgame. So I would encourage you guys to slow down. Matter of fact, James, I want to send him Entree Leadership, Dave's book on how we built our company from him being on a car table in his living room to us to almost now 900 people. So I'm all for business, but I'm also for being debt-free and being focused. And so look at it. Do your homework, my friend, and go slow. But get yourself out of debt and give yourself some freedom. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Business leaders, if you're not using LinkedIn jobs, you're missing out.

Our Ramsey Solutions Company page on LinkedIn has over 100,000 followers. That's 100,000 potential like-minded people our team communicates our current openings to. We also post our jobs on LinkedIn because we know the best candidates already have jobs. And LinkedIn makes it easy by doing the legwork for you. It's no wonder a hire is made every eight seconds on LinkedIn and over 600 million members visit LinkedIn to make connections, learn and grow as professionals and discover new job opportunities. Get started today with LinkedIn jobs and get $50 off your first job post. Visit linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. You are listening to the Dave Ramsey Show.

And no, Dave doesn't have a cold. I'm Chris Hogan filling in. I'm excited to be with you and love taking your questions. You all are doing a fantastic job today. So just keep them coming. If you've got a question about money that you want to talk about, I want you to call me. That number to call is 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. Or if you want to find us on social, it's at Ramsey Show or at Chris Hogan 360. And I want to take a question from Jenny from Facebook. And she says, I'm a family nurse practitioner with $300,000 in student loan debt.

She says, my job pays me $100,000 a year. If I work at a government clinic, they will pay $50,000 of debt for every two years worked. These clinics don't pay more than $70,000 to $80,000 a year. Do you think it's worth it to switch jobs? Okay, Jenny, you got a real question here. And student loan debt, obviously, that's a massive amount of student loan debt. If they're going to pay off at this clinic, so you'd have to take a reduced income to go from $100,000 down to $70,000, and you're saying they will pay $50,000 of debt for every two years worked. So you're essentially looking at almost close to 10 to 12 years to be able to get that done. And so here's my thought on that. These government programs about student loan forgiveness and they're going to erase all this debt for you, if X, Y, and Z, it makes me nervous because they can change their guidelines and regulations and rules at any time.

So I don't think there's a reason for you to take less money in order just to get the debt paid off. I mean, think about it. If you're $70,000 and it's going to take 12 years in order to get the student loan debt forgiven, after 12 years of working at $70,000, considering if you don't get a raise, that's $840,000 a year, $840,000 total. But if you work your $100,000 job for 12 years, you're at $1.2 million. So I would say this. Stay at the job that you're at, making $100,000, but get serious about attacking and paying off the debt. This is where you downgrade lifestyle.

This is where you don't look to buy a home yet. You look to get yourself out of debt. And so you make sacrifices and you chop at this debt and you can do it. I talked to a couple on the Chris Hogan show just three weeks ago, and they had close to 360,000 in student loan debt between the two of them. But guess what? It took them four years, but they paid it off and they downgraded everything. I mean, they downgraded, got very intentional and essentially started to shift and live off one income while devoting the other income toward the debt. And so I want you to get it out of your life. And here's the reality. You can do this faster than 12 years. I told you

this couple did it in four. So I know you can do it. Now, I'm not diminishing the size of this debt. This is a big, large amount of student loan debt. So it's going to take a big, large amount of effort in order to get yourself free. But you can do it. I want you to hear me. You can. And so, no, I would not put your life on pause and hoping that this program is going to come save the day. And we're hearing a lot of that right now in the political world. It's become this emotional hot button of talking about student loan forgiveness. And the politicians have jumped on this with both hands. And I mean from both sides of the aisle to fan this message of false hope as if this

is something that's really going to happen. They've been talking about it for eight to 10 years now. And if you're out there and you've been sitting on pause, waiting on the White House or somebody out in DC to free you from the bondage of student loan debt, I'm sorry to tell you, but you better start breathing and stop holding your breath. You have to do that. You have to make that decision for yourself. Nobody there is going to fix anything. I'm going to tell you right now. And so I just want you to hear me and get real and make a decision for you and your financial future. Okay.

All right. I got a little riled up right there. All right. I feel better now. Let's go to the phones. All right. On the line, I've got Morgan in Texas. Morgan, how are you?

I'm doing well, Chris. How are you? Oh, I'm focused and not finished. What's on your mind? So kind of along the lines of student debt, my husband and I have been preparing for me to go to law school for quite some time. Okay. And it was I could go next year and take out a student loan, which I don't want to do because we're almost out of Baby Step 2. Or I could wait two more years and potentially bankroll my whole law school. So that is the

plan that we're leaning towards now. But I wanted to get your opinion on after I'm saving all of this money, because it's going to be close to $100,000 to $120,000, would you just put that in a regular savings account or would you put that in a money market fund? Is there any way to help it grow so maybe I don't need as much as I feel like I do? Okay. Well, first and foremost, I am, wait a minute. Now, you said you're leaning between taking out a student loan. My eyes started twitching. I know. Cash flowing in. Which one are you going to do? Well, when I put the pen to paper, it feels a lot better to go in and say, okay, for our future, we know that I'm not going to come out with $160,000 in loans with interest. I can pay for it as I go.

So that's what we're leaning towards. I like this idea. And that's what I want to do. Yeah. I don't want you just to lean toward that. I want you to stand on that. Like, I want that to become the only option because you're right. It is going to take a little bit longer but i like it but the back half of your question is if you're

saving that kind of money what do you do with it well morgan here's the deal number one this money is not an investment right right because you've got it earmarked for law school okay so we're not looking to invest this money what we're trying to do is get it to, we're parking it somewhere. It's got an intended purpose. A lot like if you guys were saving for a home and you were saving up a down payment. And so as I tell people, if you're going to use the money in three years or less, then you just want to put it in a money market account. You can talk to the different institutions out there. They'll have varying rates. A lot of times they'll offer an introductory rate that can be for three to six months.

You're not going to see massive growth in that, but you're going to see something much better than you would from a traditional savings account. I would not invest it for the simple fact that with investing, there can be times where things, it's like a roller coaster. Morgan, have you ever ridden a roller coaster? Yes. Do you like to sit up front, in the middle, or in the back? I'd prefer to see what's ahead of me.

Yeah, I like the front. Oh, you want to be in the very front? Yes. Okay, that was dangerous right there. I'm not riding with you. But here's the reality. The thing is, is investing is like a roller coaster. There are going to be ups and downs.

But here's what I found. When you've got a plan and I'm investing in something that I know and how it works, it's almost like that seatbelt. And I know regardless of ups and downs, I know it's going to be okay. And so I don't want to risk this money by investing it when you know you're going to need it in two years. So I like the mindset. I like where you all are. I love don't just lean toward not getting student loan debts. I want you to run from it. Be very intentional. And yeah, it'll take a little

bit longer. But like you said, once you get out of law school and you start working, the income is yours. So you don't you don't have to start paying back massive chunks of student loan debt. So I like that. And this really brings up a good point. We've got to learn to have this mentality that I want to think ahead. I want to understand, am I doing things right now that put me in a better financial position, or am I doing things that are delaying me from getting to my dreams? Because I'm going to tell you, those little swipes in the store, at the mall, or anywhere else with a credit card, you're actually delaying yourself from getting to your destination. Don't do that.

There's enough life out there happening that can slow us down and trip us up. Let's not be our own enemy. Let's be an ally to ourselves. And that means we align our actions with our goals and allow us to get to where it is that we want to go. It's a game changer. Okay, I had talked to you all earlier, uh, and I had someone ask me a question about home buying and buying a home is a big, big deal. And I've got a friend of mine that's right now considering upgrading in home. And I asked him why, right? Uh, they're, they're empty

nesters. There's just two of them, right? And they've got about a 3000 square foot home and they're looking to upgrade to a 5,000 square foot home. And I said, why? And he said, well, we have pets. And I go, I mean, what kind of pet? Is it a rhino? I mean, what are you, a hippopotamus? What do you have?

He goes, oh, we've got a few dogs, and, you know, it would be nice to have this and nice to have that. And I realized, oh, my goodness, if we're not careful, we can work so hard to get ourselves out of debt only to rationalize going backward because we get confused between want and need. And so I don't want you to trip up out there. I want you to think about things clearly. How are you going to feel two years after you make that decision? Did you put yourself closer to the goal or further away? You got to slow down and think. You got to think, people. We've got dreams.

We've got things to do. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. At the Dave Ramsey Show, we really value your input. It helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals. We just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the

survey at DaveRamsey.com slash survey or text survey to 33789. Hello everyone. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Chris Hogan filling in for Dave this hour, and we are having a blast. I know you all are out there. You've got questions about money, and so I want to hear from you. What you have to do is call us. Pick up the phone and dial 1-888-825-5225. Again, that's 1-888-825-5, 2, 2, 5.

And you'll get a chance to speak to Amanda Rogers, the phone screener, and she'll be able to guide you and hopefully get you in to me so we can talk about your question on air. And if you prefer, you can find us on social media at Ramsey show or me at Chris Hogan 360. All right, I'm going to get back to the phones. I've got Donna on the line in Pennsylvania. Donna, how are you? I'm great, Chris. How are you? Oh, I'm focused and not finished. the phones. I've got Donna on the line in Pennsylvania. Donna, how are you? I'm great, Chris.

How are you? Oh, I'm focused and not finished. How can I help you today? Okay, so my husband and I are planning on downsizing. Oh. We have, we're excited. It's too big for us. We just want a different living space.

We might have a buyer for our home. Good. Without using a realtor okay um we found a place that is building it's a patio home we're um thinking about it um but we would need to take out a home equity line of credit to pay um when we would go to contract, like 5% of the sales price. And then we would probably have a $50,000 or $60,000 mortgage that we would need to pay off before my husband retires. We have a million dollars in investments.

That does not include our house. No other debt. My husband is 60, planning on retiring maybe three, four years. And that's kind of our story. We're coordinators. And just I felt compelled to call today to see what you would say. Yes. Well, thank you very, very much.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for coordinating Financial Peace University. It's always good to have people that are willing to help others. Now, tell me, okay, why would you have to take out a HELOC? Because we have cash and investments, but our SmartVestor Pro advised us not to take money out of there in order to do this contract price before our house would sell. Oh, okay.

Got you. All right. So you guys are looking to sell. So the current home that you're in, how much is it worth? We're thinking like we had two agents come in and do an assessment, and they said anywhere from $320,000 to $340,000. Okay. And what do you owe on it?

We owe $31,000. Oh,000. Okay. And what do you owe on it? We owe $31,000. Oh, wow. So you guys got this thing almost paid off. Yep. Okay. So if you sell it for $320,000 and you only owe $31,000 on it, why would you have a $50,000 to $60,000

mortgage? How much house are you all buying on this other one? It's probably about $354,000. All right. What's the square footage of this thing you're buying? It's about 1,500 square feet. It's one level living in a community that has clubhouse pool. And our house right now is about 2,200 square feet, four bedroom, two story, three and a half bath. Okay.

And as you guys, you don't have any debt right now? No. Okay. None. Just our mortgage. Right. Right. Just the mortgage.

You have your emergency fund, correct? We do, yes. Okay. And what's your household income right now? I would guess about $150,000. Okay. And your husband's work and health is good? Yes.

Okay. And you guys get in this thing, and you're planning to have it paid off by when? Probably three years, three, four years by the time he would retire. Yeah. Or sooner, obviously. Right. And you both are working? Yes.

Okay. I mean, and looking at that, I mean, run of numbers, you guys obviously have been very focused. The only way I'm doing this, Donna, is if this is the house. You follow me? Okay. You know, that you guys can see yourself in this for 10 years or more. And if that's the case, then, you know, I don't see a problem with it. You obviously have been allergic to debt and been very intentional in how you pay down what you have.

The main thing would be is being very focused and very intentional that you do get this debt attacked before anybody starts talking about retiring. I want you guys moving into your retirement dreams with no debt. See, that's the thing that can't come with me. That's not a travel mate. I want to be focused. And for you out there that are listening, if you have been thinking about getting serious about retirement or planning for retirement, I want to encourage you to go over to my website, ChrisHogan360.com.

I've got an RIQ tool, the Retire Inspired Quotient. It's a free tool on my website that allows you to begin to think about, what do I want to do in retirement? Like, do you want to travel? Do you want to spend time with family? Do you want to start a business? But then more importantly, what is that going to take? How much do you need?

See, too often times we've got people that are putting money into 401Ks and 403Bs, and we have no idea that that's the money you're going to be living on later. So we've got to have a mission tied to this thing so we can be intentional and know exactly what's going on. All right, I'm back on the line. I've got Karsten in California. How are you? I'm doing well, Chris. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm doing well, Chris. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm focused and not finished. What's on your mind? So essentially, I have kind of a

two-part question for you today. The first half of my question, essentially, my company offers me 10% of my annual salary, and they take that 10% and they fuel it towards my 401k. Okay. Now the question is, is that the same thing as a company match? I'm not contributing anything to my 401k right now. So it's not necessarily a match because they will be giving what I give them, but it is 10% of my annual salary. Would that be the same thing as a match?

It depends. No no it's certainly not a match because they're not seeing you as you said dollar for dollar the key is is with this do you have control in how it's invested i'll have control once i start funding my 401k but currently no because i'm not contributing anything they're just giving me 10 okay they're earmarking and setting aside. Okay. What's the second half of your question? The second half of my question is I'm on step four right now,

and I'm going to start funneling money into my 401k. Okay. Would you recommend me putting up to 10%? Because I also want to save for a down payment on a home, which I haven't started yet. So would you recommend putting, you know, the 15% into my 401k while simultaneously saving for a home? Or would you recommend maybe lowering my investment into my 401k and put more towards saving for a home?

Because, you know, it's like, do I, do I put only 10% towards my 401k and then I have more money for a home? Right. Or should I, you know, do 50% for a 401k while simultaneously having a little bit less to save for a down payment? However, I'm still funding my 401k because I'm 24 right now. Right. So is it smart to start now and maybe have a little less for the down payment? Tell me this.

What's your household income right now? So right now, I make about $30,000 right now. $30,000? $30,000, correct. Okay. And you live in California? I do. Okay.

And so how much do you think houses are in California? Well, I mean, it all depends. Just ballpark. Grab a price for me. What do you think? For what I want to pay, probably about half a million. Okay. I mean, obviously, they can go up to five million.

It ranges wildly. Absolutely. And so my point with that is, time frame to be able to save up for the down payment, it's going to require some time and obviously some sacrifice. So what I want, Carson, is for you to get compound interest working on your side. So I would grab up whatever this plan is your company has right now that they're putting 10% aside for you. I would grab that documentation and go sit down with a SmartVestor Pro and really be able to walk through and look at exactly what it is and how it's structured. I want you, as you get out of debt, to build up a fully funded

emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, and I want you investing 15%. You see, I don't care what the company is doing. If you focus on 15% of your income each year and you're going to be fine, the mindset, it's going to take time to be able to save up and buy a home in California right now at your income level. So there's a couple couple things you got to look at a how do i boost my income if i'm serious about buying a home faster than i need to take on an extra job right you're gonna have to get moving like the goals but you have to get clear it's going to require some sacrifice but that's what like anything else in life well listen i want to thank all the callers for calling in thank you all the social media questions thank you i want to thank all the callers for calling in. Thank you all. The social media questions, thank you.

I want to thank James Childs, the producer, Amanda Rogers, the phone screener, and thank all of you for listening. This has been The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.