The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Let FOMO Guide Your Investing Strategy (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

George Kamel & Kristina Ellis answer your questions and discuss: When should I pay off my HELOC? Why you shouldn't let FOMO inform your investing strategy (and avoid investing in art), The aftermath of co-signing on a loan, Investing vs. paying off debt. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality. Joined this hour by my colleague, Christina Ellis, and we are here for you, America, taking your calls about life and money. 888-825-5225. Let's get to the phones. Elizabeth is in Toronto, Canada. All right, Elizabeth, how are you doing? Hi, George. Hi, Christina. I enjoy watching the both of you. Great dynamics on YouTube.

Oh, thank you. What an honor to talk with you. How can we help today? Thank you. So I'm calling because I have my question is around, should I pay off my HELOC or should I pay off down my mortgage? And the reason being is that my mortgage is $119,000. I'm paying 7%. It came due in December 1st of last year, and I decided not to renew it until I figured out what I'm going to do with it. So right now I'm paying $2,033. That includes mortgage insurance.

Whereas the HELOC, it's $77,500. I have the money to pay off the HELOC, except that if I paid off, it's locked in. It's a variable rate locked in over five years, already done a year and a half into that. And I'm thinking if I had to break it, it's going to cost me, to pay it off, it's going to cost me about $1,500, a little over $1,500.

So I'm thinking if I put, I know as I say, consumer's debt, get rid of it, particularly the HELOC, but I'm thinking if I, and I'm paying right now, um, $772 per month on the HELOC. Um, I doubled the payment for to, um, deal with the inflation. But with the, sorry, the mortgage, what I'm thinking, I'm paying $2,033.

And if I were to pay down $77,000 on that $119,000, obviously it would be less. And I'll free up some more money faster to pay down the mortgage this year and then I could focus on throwing all of the extra money as well as the money once I pay off the mortgage towards the HELOC. So how much money do you have? How much money do you have saved up right now? I have $77,000.

It could be a little more. Okay. So the only downside to paying off this HELOC is this $1,500 penalty stupid tax. Yes. I'm taking that deal. Really? Yeah. Okay.

Because it frees up. All right. You're freeing up almost $800 a month, number one, and that would come before the mortgage as far as payoff anyways. What's your income? I make $115,000. Awesome. Great income.

And does that $77,000, does that include your emergency fund, or is there a separate fund for that? No, it's separate. Okay, great. So you already have the emergency fund? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I'm clear on this.

I'm using the emergency fund and an old car that I have and keep replenishing it. Do you have any other debt other than this HELOC and the mortgage? No. Okay. So think about this plan. You pay off the HELOC today. You still have your emergency fund intact. Now we can attack that $119,000 mortgage with your $115,000 income.

How quickly do you think you could pay off the mortgage? Within a few years? Well, I gave myself to pay, be debt-free in two years. I love this plan. And so getting rid of this HELOC is going to help you get there. And that's something you can do pretty much today, right? You have $77,000 saved. That's amazing.

That's going to feel so good. I'm super excited about you being free from this thing today. Does that include the $1,500 stupid tax? No, that's extra. Okay. So do you need to have that before you can pay this off in full? Yes. I can get that. Let's pull from your savings to get rid of this today. I have a part-time job on the side. Okay, great. And you've got extra money in the bank outside of the 77,

you mentioned, right? Just not a whole lot, but something, not a whole lot. Okay. How much is in your emergency fund? My emergency fund, I only have a thousand. Oh, okay. So it's not the fully funded emergency fund. No. Okay. You mean for six months? Yes. So that would be your next goal. No. We're not going to be ready to start attacking the mortgage. We need to pay off this HELOC. Then we're going to be fully funding that emergency fund with three to six months of expenses. Then we can begin investing 15%. Are you doing any investing right now? No, I'm not doing any investing and I'm getting close to retirement. I'm a single woman close to retirement.

Well, no better time like the present. How old are you? I'm getting close to retirement. I'm a single woman close to retirement. Well, no better time like the present. How old are you? I'm 64. Okay. How long do you want to work for before retirement? Well, I'm thinking another two years, but I'm going to work until I, there's nothing wrong with me. I'm going to work until I pay off my debt and then I'll retire. Well, then that puts a little bit of fire under me to get rid of this debt as quickly as possible, especially with that great income. Now, when you retire, what money will you live off of?

See, that's the thing, right? I had some issues. So I have no savings. I have a home that's worth 1.5 million. That's a good problem to have. Other than that, I have a pension. I have a home that's worth $1.5 million. That's a good problem to have. Other than that, I have a pension that I will be getting, and I think it's like a $40,000 pension. And in addition to that, I'll be getting some government, like the government pension plan and old age security. Is it kind of like Canada's version of Social Security? I guess so, yes. Okay. Well, let's start doing some math going, how much can I live off of,

you know, if I need to go from 115 down to 50 with no mortgage payment, can I do that? So start crunching these numbers and get a real solid game plan for what the next five years of your life looks like. And I'm just curious what that house long term, a $1.5 million house, do you plan to stay there through retirement? Or is it a possibility to sell that? Well, you know, two years ago, just before COVID, I was planning to sell it. But then now with everything, I am thinking I'm still playing with it. So in the next two, three years, two years or so, I'm not going to sell it. But at some point, I have to make a decision what I want to do with it.

Well, the next two to three years, you're going to pay it off and then your options are wide open. Exactly. So this is a good safety net. My income when I retire would be about $5,000 net. Yeah. Well, if you wanted to sell that and downsize and use a chunk of that to invest to create some extra retirement income, that's an option as well. So be thinking about all that. And we're wishing you the best. It sounds like you're so close to complete debt freedom by retirement. That is an awesome goal to have. What a pleasure it was to talk to you. Thanks so much for the call. More of your calls coming up, America,

888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. Teksting av Nicolai Winther welcome back to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined by christina ellis this hour open phones at 888-825-5225 well christ, Christina, we talk a lot on the show about building wealth, and there's a lot of ways to do it, and most of them are not great. And this was an interesting article from Money Wise that I wanted to get your take on. Here's the headline. Investing in art is a great hedge against inflation, and you don't need millions to buy in. Head tilt. So it goes on to say the current state of the economy has dealt with some heavy hits for the everyday investor. It goes on to talk about inflation. And then it goes on to talk about these alternative investments. So these

are assets that are not stocks. They can help hedge against inflation, protect your wealth from downside risk and potentially enhance portfolio returns. Ooh, sounds so fancy. Yeah, that's a very fun word. And there's a startup called Masterworks that is trying to kind of disrupt this industry, which art is a $1.7 trillion asset class, according to Deloitte, which is pretty wild. And they say contemporary art has outperformed the S&P 500 by 131% for the past 26 years, and it has nearly zero correlation to stocks, according to Citi. That's an interesting stat. I don't know. I mean, it feels a little bit biased. This whole article feels like it was paid for by Masterworks. So I don't know how much I can trust it, but it's an interesting

concept, this idea. And I think what Masterworks is doing is much like, you know, you buying a stock, a little share of a company, you can own like a share of the Mona Lisa. Whoa. So you get a little tiny piece of the Mona Lisa and the idea is art appreciates over time as it gets older, ages like a fine wine, and you end up making money from that investment. Well, George, I'm super curious how you feel about this, because I know how much you love crypto and all the- Love crypto, love art. Fun new forms of investing. Yeah, I'm not a fan. I'm just going to say it right now. This feels super risky, even though they're saying it has very little risk. I would much rather invest into

things that I understand. I would rather invest in my 401k and mutual funds versus alternative investments. What do you think is so attractive about all these like different, unique kind of funky ways of investing? Like why do you, especially Gen Z is so drawn to this? I think they don't see the value and they're trying to like go to the future where the trends are and the technology, which is why crypto became so popular because everyone's talking about the blockchain

and the world's going to exist on a blockchain, Christina. And so you want to be where the blockchain is. Don't miss out. And that's why NFTs are going to be great. Oh, wait, NFTs crashed to zero. Okay. And so I think a lot of it is we don't want to and that's why nfts are going to be great oh wait nfts crashed to zero okay and so i think a lot of it is we don't want to do the things our parents did because we saw how they lived their life and the 401k is is not exciting and there's so many people coming at them now to get their money to get them into other investments crypto art with masterworks

there's all kinds of options these days. And there's so much noise out there. It can be hard to choose the right investment opportunity. Right. Well, and a lot of them can seem really attractive. Like I read this and it's like, oh, wow, it outperformed the S&P 500. Like that's interesting. And, you know, it can be enticing.

But on the flip side of that i see that and i go i don't know art i don't know that i would pick the right one i would probably pick the one that's a dud like uh doesn't do well so it's just it is hard to navigate some of this right now because it's not like they're saying hey invest in this thing that's going to crash in five years like when crypto was at its hottest it's like it's only going to the moon. Like it's going to be the next thing. And it's hard to discern, you know, what's real and what's not. Absolutely. We always say around here, invest in things with a proven track record that you understand. Yep. And art, I'm just not in that world. I'm not an art collector. And what I do like about this, and there's other things about, you know, there's all kinds of DIY investing apps.

What I do like about all this is we have democratized investing. Now, anyone can do it. But here's the problem. Anyone can do it, which means any old person can start to make some terrible decisions. We just took a call yesterday on the show. A guy got excited about the GameStop situation, an AMC, and he did all these put options trading, and he lost $130,000, and he's got a wife and three kids. Oh.

And now he's at rock bottom. Oh. But he saw other people do it and make money, and therefore I'm going to do it and make money, and it just doesn't work like that. And so I'd rather get rich slow than attempt to get rich quick. And not that this feels that way. I mean, if you're investing in art, this is a more of a long term investment. You really studied art. But for the great majority of people, it's probably not the right thing. I don't think this is one of those.

I'm going to go sign up for an account and just throw 10 grand in there for fun. See what happens. Oh my gosh. If you could light that money on fire on the kitchen table and not miss it, go for it. Good for you. I'm not at that point yet.

Right? I remember reading some like forum article at one point about Bitcoin. And there was somebody who posted that they put all of their savings in bitcoin because everybody said it always goes up and now it went to zero and even the bitcoin guys were like dude that was stupid it's like oh man it just hurts my heart yikes stay safe out there people all right todd joins us up next in Toledo, Ohio. Todd, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you guys for having me. Sorry if I sound nervous at all. This is my first call

with you guys. Hey, we're freaking out with you, man. We're going to do great. We're in this together. Thank you. Well, I am a 20-year-old kid, and my mom is going through a foreclosure, and it's forced me and my brother to take out a loan, and I'm wondering if there's anything that I should do that I may have not thought of. Oh, Todd, I'm so sorry. How did she end up in foreclosure? Well, during the pandemic, we were kind of in a rough spot and we we were forced to basically get a loan for our house because we qualified for it and

she ended up using the house as collateral and she made a late payment on the loan and she thought it'd be fine, you know, just pay like the late fee or whatever. But they were like, no, there's no late fee. We're going to take your house unless you can pay back this loan. And the loan was for basically two years of house payment. And, uh, so now we owe about 35 KK to $40K on it. Who's we? Me, my brother, and my mom. So you're already on this loan? Yes.

I had to take it out just because it's due to be paid off this Friday. What's due to be paid off? The $35,000 loan? Yes. Or what? Or you lose the house? Yes, basically. How much is the house worth?

I believe it's worth $260,000. And so you said during the pandemic, you had to take out the loan and you had the opportunity to. Was that to afford your house payments? Or what kind of led to taking out the loan? It was basically, my mom wanted to defer her money. It sounded like a good deal to my mom. I personally wouldn't take out any loan, but she thought it was a good deal and took out the loan. And now we're just kind of in this situation. So on Friday, is the entire loan due or do you, you said they won't take a loan? I don't know what kind of shady

loan you guys signed up for, but this is a nightmare, Todd. And you keep saying that we were forced. I've never heard of someone forcing you to take out a loan. Okay. It wasn't like a loan shark kind of thing. It was through, am I allowed to say the name? Sure. It was throughulu Loan Care. And then it was some agency that my mom's been using forever. I don't know. Todd, Todd. Well, you're growing up fast for 20 because this is an adult decision you made to co-sign on this debt.

And it sounds like you guys are going to lose this house and we're going to need to find some place to rent. I would get in touch with a real estate attorney to figure out what your rights are, if there's a way to save this thing. But, you know, on a quick call, it's hard to dig into all these details. But, man, this is just a lesson to never, never cosign debt and to read the fine print. I'm so sorry you guys are going through this, Todd. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Just before the break, we were talking to Todd in Toledo, and here's the situation. Mom missed a mortgage payment, and him and his brother co-signed a loan along with her. And the house is about to be foreclosed on in a few days unless they can pay this loan. Todd, we didn't want to leave you hanging there. So let's get back to your situation here.

So as I understand it, you guys are taking a personal loan out to cover this $35,000, $40,000 loan in order to save the house? Correct. Okay. And is that done? Yes. I took out an $8,000 loan and I also have $6,000 in personal savings. And my brother had to take out $11,000 and he had... Did he have some money in savings? $14,000 and personal savings, yes. And that covers the amount that you guys needed? Yes.

To cover this loan care loan? Mm-hmm, yes. And your mom, did she not qualify for something to cover it? Why is it you guys responsible for it? That's exactly right. Her credit score is shot, and she can't really get any more money other than what's from her income. So what's the actual mortgage amount?

What do you mean? Because you have the $35,000, $40,000k loan is there another mortgage as well on this house uh yes i don't know how much left is on it but we've had this house for at least 15 years or so i'm assuming it's more than half paid off okay and can your mom afford the payment? What is her income? She can't afford the payment. Her income is about $60,000 a year. Okay. And what is this mortgage payment she needs to make every month? I believe it's about $1,500. Okay. And you both are living there, you and your brother? Yes.

All right. So your question now becomes, hey, we're going to be able to keep the house. It's not going to get foreclosed on. We're going to pay this loan off in time to avoid foreclosure, correct? Mm-hmm. Which now leaves you guys with, leaves you personally with an $8,000 loan and no savings. Yep. And it leaves your brother with an $11,000 loan and no savings.

And then you still have... Oh, I guess they pay off that loan. And that then just leaves you with whatever mortgage was originally on the house, which is in your mom's name. Yes. Okay. So you're asking what is the plan going forward for us to pay this off? Mm-hmm.

All right. We can do that now. So what is your income? I make about $33,000 a year. Okay. My brother makes the same. Your brother makes the same? Mm-hmm.

Okay. Well, your A1 is to get a $1,000 starter emergency fund. Both of you, separately, $1,000 in the bank. Beyond that, we're going to be tackling these loans. Do you guys have any other debt? No. That's good news. And I assume mom has nothing in the bank? Not really, other than low liquidity stocks.

Okay, so is she able to sell those off? Not in time for this, because it needs to be all one big payment by Friday. But you guys already have that money, you're saying? Mm-hmm. Okay. So I would go ahead and make sure this loan is cleared in time. Have you contacted the lender to let them know the situation? Yes. Okay. What's that discussion been like when you're on the phone with them? Basically, what they said is I could probably be able to pay it off within the year because me and my brother made sure that we got a loan with no prepayment penalty. So we're just going to like, as far as our plan goes, we're just going to try and apply as much money as we can this year to get them out of our hair. You're talking about those personal loans

you guys took out for 8K and 11K? Yes. Okay. What about the $35,000, $40,000 loan that you're paying off to keep the house? The loan basically was set up in a way to defer our house payments to the loan. So during the time, we're just kind of paying off the house in that sense. But when you call this lender up, about the $35,000 to $40,000, what's the conversation like? Have they threatened you? Have they said you have to pay this by Friday? Tell me about that conversation. Oh, no.

Yeah, where in the fine print was it, hey, if you miss a payment, it's due in full within a week? It was my mom who talked to them and they, they just kind of like, uh, they were just like, oh yeah, sorry. We, you know, you didn't make the payment. So your house is in foreclosure kind of thing. They really didn't like give any heads up on that whole spectrum of, you know, that side of the loan. Okay, this may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm kind of frustrated with your mom right now. Oh, no.

No, it's not unpopular. You're 18 years old, and she brought you into this situation. She is clearly not handling her money well, and she is dragging her sons into this. My heart just hurts for you. And I feel frustrated. And right now, I'm not going to trust your mom's follow through on this financial situation. Your name is on that loan. How do we know this isn't going to happen again? Basically, her plan is to either sell the house. What I want to do with the house is I want to fix it up and then

make long-term money off of it by renting it. And I think that would be better, but I don't know what you guys would say on that matter. But here's the thing, before we leave that, I'm calling that lender myself. If I'm in your shoes, like you said your mom called them, I want you to pick up the phone and you to call them. Because right now, if you and your brother take out those loans, you're essentially transferring the debt away from your mother. Like your mom is on that for 35K loan. She's not going to be on this 8K and 11K, right?

That's putting that debt all in your name. She gets out of that $35,000 scot-free, right? And she gets to keep living how she's been living like i'm not letting her off the hook that easy like i'm calling that is that is your loan you call and you see if this is really true that this whole friday thing is true if everything is due and you have to take out a loan like i want the details myself firsthand i would pick up that phone and if it is true that they're like you gotta got to pay it by Friday, then I'd say, okay, we're going to negotiate. They don't want to really go through foreclosure. So then talk to them and say, I mean, maybe they do because they'd be getting a steal

on that. But I would still talk to them and say, I've got this much money. Will you take 20? Before you put all your savings into it, see, see if you can negotiate, like take ownership of this situation. It is your life and your money. And it's so sad that at your age, you're having to deal with this. That just frustrates me to no end. But I want to empower you to take responsibility for this and actually follow through on all aspects of this. Okay, thank you. If I'm in your shoes, you're saying, mom, this is too much. You've put us in a terrible financial situation. You've put us in debt for your home and we're selling this thing and you're going to go rent somewhere that you can afford so that you don't get foreclosed on again. And it may be time for you and the brother to move out and get your own place

together. Would that work? Agreed. Yeah. Because this is just a toxic situation. And my word is she keeps taking advantage of you guys financially. Yeah. And I think it's so important too. I'm all about honoring parents and respecting and all of that. And I know you probably do want a relationship going forward.

And if that's the case, I'm also going to say, hey, mom, we're going to sit down and take Financial Peace University. Like what you're doing with your life, how you're managing your money, the fact that you're in such a mess, like that's not okay. We need to sit down together and clean up this mess. Like it's not just going to be on me and my brother to deal with this. You got to sit down with us. Like we're going to get good with money, but so are you. Like I really want you to do this with us gotcha okay like i'm not i would say i'm pretty good with money personally because um as far as a role model because you've had to grow up fast yeah i yeah it was like my mom was like

showing me everything not to do and i was like okay i'm not gonna do this i'm not gonna do that well part of being good with money todd is not co-signing other people's debt. And you put yourself in a precarious situation, and you've got a great heart. Clearly, you want to save the house and keep mom in there. But, man, this is a big, stupid tax we're paying, and we're going to say never again. We're going to change our family tree. Let's get them Financial Peace University for free. Hang on the line. Austin will pick up and get you that to get started. This is The Ramsey Show.

Our scripture of the day comes from Luke 12, 15. And he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Maya Angelou said, we need much less than we think we need. She was on to something there. Live on less than you make. Love it. Well, folks, most of you are glad to be rid of 2022 because it was tough to keep gas in

the car and food in the fridge. And for so many out there, money is still so tight and you might be wondering if this year is going to be any different. Well, you don't have to live through another year of stress and worry. And that's why we're putting on a free live stream event called Building Wealth in 2023 happening this week, January 12th, this Thursday, 7 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Eastern Time, because we want to show you that you can still make progress on your goals. You can build wealth. You can have peace with money, even in this crazy economy. At the event, you're going to hear from Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, myself, Dr. John Deloney, and Ken Coleman. We're going to talk about how to

set goals, how to create margin, give you some peace about what's happening out there in the economy and the stock market so that you can build wealth this year with confidence. We're going to have some fun. There's some fun surprises. And the good news is even if the economy still feels out of control by the end of the year, you don't have to. Register for this free live stream. Tell your friends about it. ramsaysolutions.com slash wealth. You can tune in from anywhere in the world. That's ramsSolutions.com slash wealth. Frank joins us up next in Charlotte, North Carolina. Frank, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. And thank you for taking the time. I'll try and keep it brief. I know a lot of people are trying to talk to you guys. My wife and I got married in about

2021. And we together made about $260,000 together. My job had an annuity and a pension. Hers had a 401k, and she contributed to a Roth that wasn't part of her job. And then early last year, I had a really bad work accident, and I'd been out of work since. Sorry, Frank. Are you okay? I'm still recovering. I had four surgeries this past 10 months.

I don't, you know, I'm almost positive I won't be going back into my industry. What kind of work were you doing? Construction. Man, that must have been a terrible accident. So sorry. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, so we have, I mean,

together we have about 205,000 savings. Um, you know, we were doing that non-retirement. Yes. It's not a retirement. Okay. But my, my, everything was through my job, my annuity, my pension, you know, my pensions now not really in the play as far as not finishing out the career. So with where I'm at now, I know we have, with where we're at now, I just don't know what I should do with my savings based on where we're at. How old are you guys? We're in our 30s. And she's still working?

Yes. So she makes about $110,000 now. Our bills are about $5,000 a month. The only things we have in the house and one of our cars, we have a loan on. Okay. What's left on the car loan? It's about $25,000. And I think the car's worth like $35,000. So I have about $25,000 left on the car. She brings in about $5,000 a month and our bills right now are about $5,000 a month. So her take-home pay is $60,000, but she's making $110,000? Yeah, right around there.

I mean, those are rough numbers, but it's pretty close to the ballpark. Wow. And do you all own a home? Yes. Okay. So RA1 is getting you guys in a solid financial position. Obviously, you have all the savings. What's left on the mortgage? About 360. Oof. I assume most of your expenses in that 5K is that mortgage payment. Yeah, the mortgage, I mean, the one car is $500 a month, which if we paid that out of the savings, you know, that brings it down to $4,500 a month, putting an extra $500 in a pocket.

Yeah, I would pay off that car today if you want to keep it, if you like the car. Now, if you hate the car, sure, you can go sell it and get something cheaper with cash. But as a part of your world, it's not that much. And so you can keep it. I would just pay it off today if you want to do that. Where did this 200 in savings come from? Was that just, I mean, what was the plan for that money? Why has it just been sitting in savings? We were toying around with the idea of buying a second home, buying a rental home, buying a business. We would go back and forth. We both worked a lot, so there was not a lot of time to discuss things and settle down.

So I kind of just sat there for the last 18 months or so. Well, actually, not even 18 months. It was last year I got hurt, and that'll pull that toe cut out the window. So it was only about, you know, nine or 10 months before I'm talking about it before everything changed. Well, I would let this be a reset moment for you guys where we say, you know what? We don't want more risk in our life. We don't want more mortgages and more payments. We want less payments. So if something like this ever happened again, one of us couldn't work, we're going to be okay. And so I would be focusing on getting rid of that house payment, paying off the mortgage, and being completely debt-free, investing for the future. And then

later on down the line, we can talk about paying cash for investment property. Right. So that's how I would walk this out. My also A1 is to get you doing some kind of work that you can do. Have you looked into another career? As of now, it's all kind of up in the air. I don't know what I'm going to be capable of doing as far as work. All I've done is manual labor jobs.

This one, the last one, was paying well, and it was a great job. Are you able to drive? Are you able to physically do anything? At the moment, no. Okay. Well, maybe... I just had another surgery recently, so I'm not doing anything right now. Well, as you heal up, it may be prudent to look into some jobs you could do even from home, on a computer, something to give you some purpose during the day once you're healed up. Obviously, your brain's working great, and that's a huge blessing. Yeah, I'm so stuck with, you know, I pay off this car, you know, and we're sitting,

we have $180,000 left. Even if I keep $60,000 of it just to pay the bills for the next year, next two years with our salary, you know, there's 140, 160 just sitting there. Like, is that something that should be doing something? Is that something that should, should I buy art? You know, like what it was. Dear Lord, no, no. Frank, I want this money working for you. Now's not the time to get fancy. This is not a pile of fun money where we're going to go gamble away. This is money I want you guys to use to secure your future. And so that means we're paying down the mortgage because once we have no mortgage payment, that really sets us up

to where even if you could never work again, she would be able to cover all the bills with extra margin. Okay. Yeah. So we're putting away, you know, some of that money for a fully funded emergency fund, three to six months of expenses. And is she still investing toward retirement? Yes. Okay, great. So keep doing that. And then from there, do you all have kids? No kids. Okay. Okay.

So your next goal would be to pay down that mortgage with her income right now and eventually with your income. Right. And once we do that, then we're at baby step seven, which is where we build wealth and give. That is when we can save up more cash and get investment property. And heck, if you want to invest in some art, Frank, down the line, once the house is paid off, you can do that. It's never been a thing of mine. I just heard you saying that a minute ago. Good, good, good, good. Well, Frank, I'm so sorry to hear about your situation, man.

I mean, I can't imagine the emotional toll it's taken on top of the financial one. So we're going to send you a copy of Dr. John Deloney's book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. And I think it will help you figure out how to grieve this crazy situation that you've went through and move forward and heal. Thank you. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks for the call.

Man, Christina, that's a... We ended with a heavy call yesterday, and that's another heavy one where someone experienced something traumatic and their world just flips upside down. And the lesson I get from this on the financial side is this plan works in good times and in bad times. And when you don't owe anyone anything, including a house payment, and you have a pile of cash in the bank, it changes the way you make decisions. You can move forward with patience, with clarity, with wisdom, instead of being scattered going, how are we going to cover next? We got to pay the bills. We got to cover the mortgage. We got to pay all of our payments. So it just changes the way you make decisions. Yeah, that's huge. Because the situation, it was twofold. There's the financial side of things, and then there's the grief and

the loss and the pain from, you know, the accident. So being able to focus in on the financial conversation with $200,000 in the bank. It changes things when you got a pile of money, that's for sure. Well, that puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to my co-host, Christina Ellis, all the guys in the booth, Austin, Ben, James, Zach, Andrew, and you, America. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Do you love a good day, Brandt?

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