The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Saddle Your Kids With Your Own Mess (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Kristina Ellis discuss: What to do with savings, Selling a home to your kids, What comes next after saving up a full emergency fund, Student loan forgiveness updates, What to do with rental property mortgages, Affording a car after an accident, Choosing between multiple job offers. 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 Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Merry Christmas, America. We're glad you're with us.

Christina Ellis, number one best-selling author, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and about your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and about your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is going to be Elena in Austin, Texas. Hi, Elena. How are you? Hello.

Hi. Merry Christmas. Hi. This is Gloria. Say again. Gloria. My name is Gloria. Oh, hi, Gloria. I guess I Gloria. My name is Gloria. Oh, hi, Gloria.

I guess I pushed the wrong button. Let's try something else. Let me try here. For Elena. Is that Elena? Hi, Elena. Yes. Hello.

I screwed up. I hit the wrong button. Okay, what's up? I'm doing good. How about yourself? Better now. How can I help? Yes, I have a quick question.

I currently have about $60,000 in my savings account, and I'm not too sure what to do next. I definitely want to make my money grow. So, you know, there's like a slow process where you could do like a savings certificate, but I want to see if there's any other options that will definitely help me get more money built up or such. Well done. Where'd you get the $60,000? So I've been saving since before college, but it has increasingly went up with my full-time job that I recently got and other side hustles that I've been doing that just has helped me accumulate that amount. Elena, that's amazing. Way to go. Do you have any debt? No, not at the moment. I'm curious, how did you pay for college?

With college, I had a ton of scholarly scholarships um i also had private scholarships um and then i would pay school if i had any money that i had to owe from the school i did have a part-time job at the time where i would just use that money to pay it off while also saving you're amazing way to Way to go. That's just incredible. I love that. Just out of curiosity for myself, where did you get that mindset? How did you learn so early on that you wanted to save aggressively, that you wanted your savings account to look like that? Well, it all started when I first got my job. I was paid cash. So having that money in my hands and being able to like see how much it goes down with buying something from the store just taught me that I wanted to have my hands full with money

not emptied by just purchasing random stuff and so the first thing that I saved up for that was pretty big was a car and I was able to learn that you can get most of what whatever you want you just have to look hard enough that's how i was able to find my first car for three thousand dollars and from there that helped a ton since i didn't have to do monthly payments or anything so what do you do for a living so right now i'm a data scientist at a uh or a car dealership yeah what do you make about 84 000 good for you okay so here's the thing that we teach the shortest distance between where you are and being wealthy is a series of steps maybe step one is save a thousand dollars you've done that two is to be debt free other than your home You've done that. Two is to be debt-free other than your home.

You've done that. Three is to have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. So we would earmark some of your $60,000 for your emergency fund. We could call that $15,000 pretty comfortably as an example, okay, which would still leave you $65,000. What are we going to do with that we're going to move on to baby step four and or start you earmark this for saving towards a home either one you thinking about buying a home anytime soon uh i wouldn't say a home just yet um i do have a partner and we're thinking of buying a property so that we can um make uh i guess rent it out with

other homes like uh mobile homes and such yeah i would not do that i would not do that don't buy real estate with partners if you want to buy some real estate you buy the real estate but you don't need a partner to do that. Okay. You're going to involve yourself in a mess that you're going to end up untangling later, the only ship that won't sail is a partnership. So I assume that you mean that kind of business partner. Is that what you meant? No, an actual relationship partner.

Okay. Well, if you're not married to someone, don't buy a house with them okay that's what i'm saying because you're setting yourself up again for all kinds of problems uh if this doesn't go if this relationship doesn't go forward so if you're married there's a methodology called divorce that takes the property and splits it up there's not when you're not and so don't do that now as far as then then what we would just move on to is you're just's not when you're not. And so don't do that. Now, as far as then, then what we would just move on to is you're just an investor. Okay. You're either going to buy real estate with this other 65,000 and, or you're going to start putting money into your, uh, into your retirement plan, into good growth stock mutual funds. We recommend that you put 15% of

your income every year at baby step four into a good growth stock mutual funds into a retirement plan. And that's, uh, if you've got a 401k at work, you get the match first. If it's a Roth 401k, you can stay there. Otherwise after the match, you would need to move on and do Roth IRAs. Uh, and the mutual funds are growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. You're looking for mutual funds with long track records, 10-, 20-, 30-year track records, and you need to learn about those as you're putting money into that.

Sit down with one of our SmartVestor pros. They'll help you do that. The SmartVestor pros don't work for us, but they're people that teach the same stuff that we teach, and they'll help you with picking out the mutual funds, teach you that they're investment brokers. You can find them at ramseysolutions.com and click on SmartVestor Pro. So yeah, that's the process we would use to lead you there. Hang on, we're going to send you a copy of the Total Money Makeover book, which outlines that for you in great detail. So, Christina, she had done so many things right, but she could undo every bit of it with one wrong move, and that's buying a house with someone you're not married to

or buying an investment property with someone you're not married to, and that will get you into a mess. Yeah, we've seen that several times. And I think that's kind of a dangerous spot whenever you don't have a proven plan. It's easy to start to get to that wealth building spot and see all the TikTok crazes and see all the different quick ways to make money. And it's like, you can get really lost in that.

But Eleni, you have done such an amazing job thus far. I love that you've been so aggressive with your savings. Follow the plan. It's not the most flashy, you know, TikTok crazy plan, but it's proven it has worked for millions of people. I think we ought to put the plan on TikTok. I think it'd be good. Let's do it. Yeah. I told the guys to get us a TikTok account and let's get it on there. I'm ready for it. So there you go. This is The Ramsey Show. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី christine ellis ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us open phones at 888-825-5225 well here at ramsey solutions we go all out to celebrate christmas we love it

ho ho ho merry christmas right hey that's why we're giving you a surprise three-day year-end sale on brand new products in the ramsey store that's three days of crazy low prices on our most popular items right now financial peace university gift voucher 69.99 one of the best prices ever on fpu right there dr john deloney's best-selling book on your past change your future 12.99 ramsey sweatshirts and hoodies all audio books are just five dollars and that includes a total money makeover audio book you could listen to it as you go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house, five bucks,

not bad. Don't forget 2023. It'll be here in a minute. And if you want to grow financially, spiritually, relationally, pick up the 2023 Ramsey gold planner, only 35 99,

the lowest price it's ever been. Can't believe those aren't sold out. That's weird. Okay. So, so I hate this stuff sold out. That's weird. Okay. So, hey, this stuff is going like crazy. Questions for human cards. Our three-day sale ends at 1159 p.m. Central Time, Thursday. Don't drag your feet.

Go to RamseySolutions.com slash store. Check out the deals. They are there for sure. All right. Gloria is now with us in New York City. Hi, Gloria. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, and thank you.

How can we help? Okay, my question is, I have a house, and I recently retired. I'm 61 years old. I worked for the Board of Ed for 27 years, and I still owe a mortgage on my house because it was only me um it's only me on the deed and um the mortgage is 164 000 still and then 927 dollars and um i have two boys that live with me right now um one was in the military he came back home and the other one works for sanitation here in new york. But my question is, should I sell my home to my children or should I put them on a deed so that I can take the equity out of it? Because I can't, I have like 400, uh, 100 something thousand dollars in equity but because of my income they say that i can't like i don't know take out the equity

because i don't i don't earn enough money and right now i went from fifty six thousand dollars to twenty four thousand dollars a year why did you go from 56 to 24 at 60 years old because because i was working um and i used to, my check used to be $56,000. I'm not a teacher. I'm an assistant teacher. So my income from my TRS is the teacher's retirement. It's $2,000 a month. When did you make $56,000?

What were you doing then? When I was working, because I was working. Why aren't you working i got i because i retired okay but you have no money you're you're saying you're 60 years you said you're 60 years old right i know but what happened was when i get when i was working in school and then when i got um i got covered last year in august and then when I got um I got COVID last year in August and then when I came back um to work I guess I was still feeling the effects of the COVID I don't know but um I just started for my retirement and I left but I just want to know because um since my children are working should I sell them the house or should I put them just on the deed? Gloria are you wanting to use

that $400,000 in equity to live on, or what's that equity for? The home equity, because I wanted to take it to buy a house in Florida. Well, just sell your house. Why do you have to sell it to your kids? Just sell it and take $400,000 and go to Florida. But wouldn't it be better to, I'm i'm sorry i know you're the expert on this but i'm just thinking about my children since i live in new york city already and they're your children are grown they can make their own way you're broke i know you're broke you can't

take care of everybody else you're broke they're like grown-up humans okay and so you need to take this equity and go to Florida. You don't have the money to give your children a house. You won't have any place to live if you do. But if I put them on the deed. It doesn't matter. Putting them on the deed is not a magical formula. It doesn't do anything.

Like if you keep in the house? No, I do not want your children to go $600,000 in debt so that you can put $400,000 in your pocket and go to Florida. No, I don't think your sanitation worker son can afford this house. No, well, they're both working, so. And I don't want to saddle them with your problems. No, this is a really clean thing they need to start talking about getting some housing because mom's about to move to florida so sell them the house no no they can't afford the house gloria and you don't need to

saddle them with a mess you need to just sell your. They need to go get them a place to live and be grown-up boys, men and stuff. And you need to be in Florida and stuff with $400,000 and a paid-for house. And, by the way, you're only 60 years old. You probably need to be doing something since you don't have any money. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I'm worried about you. I'm older than you, and I'm not retired. You're okay. You can do it. 60 year olds can still work well, Dave. Apparently. I've been here since early this morning.

Well, Gloria, you already have kind of a sticky situation with your retirement and getting COVID last year and trying to navigate all of that. I would not bring your family into this. That's just going to complicate not only the financial aspect, but the emotional aspect of dealing with your sons and them taking on a lot of your burdens. I would definitely keep those two separate. Sell your house, like Dave said, and then figure out what you're going to do with retirement. Because I mean, you're 61. I know that that may feel a little bit older, but you could potentially have another 40 years. Like, you've got time.

And so we need to come up with a long-term strategy while you still are physically able. And you've got a lot of great time ahead. I mean, we're counting on Dave for another 30 years, though. You got a while. You can count on Dave going to Cabo at some point. Come on, Dave. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that's what you need to do, honey. You're trying to get this house to do too many things. It's not capable of doing but one thing. And it takes care of you. That's all it's capable of. It can't take care of you and your

kids, have a place to live there, and you get money out of it. You're trying to make one thing work too hard. Just sell it, let them get them a life and you go to florida and start your new career that's what i would do if i woke up in your shoes brandon is in spokane washington hey brandon welcome to the ramsey show hey thanks for having me sure what's up um so me and the wife where i'm 23 right now. We just got finished up with baby step three, so we got our six-month emergency fund. We don't have any kids or anything. We're just trying to figure out where do we go from here? Do we start saving for a house? I know we are kind of enjoying some money right now.

I'm just curious if we stay gazelle in tents and save up all we can for a down payment or what do we do? Is that your next goal to buy a house? I believe so. We're hoping, yeah, we hope to have a kiddo here sometime in the future and just trying to, I don't know, want to prepare ourselves for the future. So. Well, that's great. Well, we would call that baby step 3B, where you save up your down payment for your house. We don't want you to stay there forever. But I mean, if that is a goal

and you're wanting to bring the baby home into a house that you own, then yeah, go ahead and start saving in that. And then, of course, after that, you know, you're in baby steps four through six, where you're going to start saving for retirement, your kid's college fund, and then paying off that house i have a feeling you already knew that i kind of did yeah i um like after baby step three would be baby step four you knew that yes yeah um we're just you know enjoying a little bit of the money. That's twice you've said that. So you're spending everything now? Not quite. Again, we got $18,000 put away into our six-month emergency fund.

That's your emergency fund. And now if you want a house, you're going to have to quit enjoying so much. Yeah. New goal, new goal. Be intentional. Don't just kind of wander off into stupid land again you just you just visited there and um you don't want to live there that's why you walked your way out don't go

back so stay very intentional very focused keep on the game plan yes you can enjoy your money a little bit we don't have to go down to beans and rice rice and beans you're past that now but you do need to be intentional and And I have no money past my emergency fund three years from now because I've been enjoying my money is not a plan. This is the Ramsey Show. Are you sick of planned obsolescence? You know, when companies make products crappy so you have to buy more of their crappy products? Well, me too. And it's why I love companies like Grip6.

Grip6 is all about quality products meant to last forever. That's why their comfortable, bulk-free belts, slimline wallets, and lightweight wool socks all come with a lifetime warranty and simple returns and exchanges. So check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code RAMSEY. Christina Ellis Ramsey personality number one best-selling author is my co-host today her book confessions of a scholarship winner because she's a winner. Big deal. A big deal because she got $500,000 in scholarships. So she's one of our resident experts on student loan mess, student going to college debt-free, not falling into the epic trap of student loans.

And so as we all know, well, most of us know, by now President Biden has been attempting to forgive $10,000 worth of student loan debt, 20 if you're a Pell Grant recipient, and so far has not been able to pull off that idea in two years. The latest version is that the whole idea of him being able to forgive debt was not legal, and so it was taken to court. And so it's in court, and it's been kicked all the way up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear it in February, and it comes out today that will be February 28th. Of course, our judicial system always picking the last possible day to do anything.

So they're going to put it off as far as they possibly can. Slower than Christmas. Oh, wait a minute. Christmas is already here. Yeah, okay. That came up fast. So a number of conservative-backed lawsuits arose seeking to block the relief, and two of them have temporarily succeeded thus far.

One lawsuit filed by six Republican-led states argued that that relief would hurt their state's tax revenues and that of Missouri-based student loan company. The other lawsuit was filed by two student loan borrowers who sued because they did not qualify for the full $20,000 of relief. Okay. sued because they did not qualify for the full twenty thousand dollars of relief okay and uh two lower courts that received each of those cases ruled the biden's loan forgiveness plan should remain on pause until the supreme court makes a final decision on the legality of the relief and now it has gone to a supreme court course, and the Supreme Court today comes out and says we will be taking on both lawsuits that challenged on February the 28th. You know, I don't know what taking on means.

Does that mean they're going to rule on that day or they're going to start the process of hearings on that day? That was going to be my question because my first thought is woohoo thank you finally we have an official date but i feel like i've said that over and over again where i'm like okay we have a date we have a date for when the pause ends we have a date when people will know exactly what to do next and then we don't have dates that are somebody's foot is sore from kicking the can so much right yeah you think so it's like is the 28th the date you think that they're going to rule on it or is it just going to officially start they're taking it this is yahoo for you but i mean nation's highest court announced it will be taking

on both lawsuits the challenge we knew that i just saw another article that says they were they'll hear oral arguments that day they're okay so they're going to begin the process that day so gosh six or eight more months maybe if we're lucky or you're lucky or you're not lucky here's the thing um we told you when this first came up that before it came up that it was going to come up uh we told you what was going to happen um and we've we've predicted every step of the way on this and all along the way have been telling you to pay your student loans exactly just because the government is kicking the can down the road does not mean your life should be put on hold right You need to clear your life, get victory over this area of your life, and move on with your life.

You sit around, wait on the government to fix your life. Your life's always going to suck. So you can't do that. You've got to lean into this, and you've got to say, this is my deal. I signed up for these loans. I'm going to pay them now. Right. And it's just going to be much better for you if you've got the loans um i'll feel dumb if the government comes no you won't you'll feel proud that you actually honored your obligation that's not dumb yeah i've seen so many

people on my instagram dms just cheering that they paid it off even with the the carrot dangling of forgiveness they're still proud of themselves for having paid off those loans. So it's like, if you do not like that anxiety, if you don't like that feeling of being at the whim of the government and the student loan forgiveness, pay off your loans. Like, just get it done. You don't have to stay in this space of unknown. A perpetual I promise you someday by a politician, by a court system. It's going to be forever. It's going to be forever. Don't wait on forever.

Don't, don't. Please don't wait anymore. Pay it off now. Eric's in Houston, Texas. Hey, Eric, what's up? Hi, Dave. I just started listening to you not too long ago i have a friend that uh that did your program and you know is out of debt i have a question my wife and i were um we're

she she believes in having no debt so we're going into this um but i've already you know calculated how much you know you know uh credit card loan debt I have. Here's the thing. We have five properties, right? Three of them are rented out. One of them is where we live. And another one, I'm going to start renting it out because, you know, it was kind of like out in the country weekend, but we don't get out there. So I'm either going to put it up for Airbnb or rent it out to someone that lives out in that area.

Once, when I've added all my debt, I have two mortgages, right? Two loans for, five properties, but two loans to pay two of these properties. Do I treat those two loans as, uh, as part of a snowball, you know, do I lump them in with that? Or I mean, how would I, how would I tackle that? Your personal residence is paid for? Yes. Okay. How much non-mortgage debt do you have? Uh, 20,000, 21. Cool. What's your household income? Um, so my wife just started working again, i make 80 um but my wife makes uh she's transitioning to a position that hopefully will get her you know 50 60s but right now i mean i'm treating it as if she's bringing in 35 a year so i would say what well you don't have to treat it

anyway it's just what she is making or isn't making so yeah right now she you make 80 and it sounds like she's going to make 60 you're at 140 you're going to pay off 20 very quickly if you freaking behave and lean into it and uh now your other two properties your home is paid for but your other two properties what's the balance on those debts so uh i actually got a home equity loan on the property i live in it was paid for and then i got so your home is not paid for so the one i live in right now yeah that's your home yeah yes it's not paid for no it has a loan on it yes okay how much uh 160 okay cool and what's the other debt the other mortgage uh 143 cool all right what we would do is put those both in baby step six okay and address those as you get there and i would pay off your house first then i would pay off the rental okay what did you

say is the 21 000 in debt credit cards uh it's credit cards uh and i've got about 13 in the bank that I'm going to put 12 into. Okay. And then when I do my taxes, I always get money back because I deduct more. I don't know if that's a smart thing to do. No, it's not. You're loaning the government money all year with no interest, and they give it back to you, and you act like Santa Claus lives in D.C.? Yes, yes.

So go ahead and set your withholding up properly where you don't get a refund, and you don't have to pay, but you try to aim it as close to your actual proper amount to be withheld because a refund is simply a loan, interest-free loan to the government oh i was going to ask how long he'd been married because he said something very interesting he said his wife is about no debt and i'm curious has he decided that he's about no debt because that's a very interesting distinction that his wife doesn't believe in debt does he i mean because this that's quite a few different loans and mortgages and debts to pay off. Well, it sounded like he had decided to get out of debt, and then she got on board.

Maybe I misunderstood. Well, I hope. That would be my question, is just making sure y'all are on the same page. This is the guy who went and got a home equity loan to buy a rental property. Put his home at risk again. So, yeah. But, yeah, just drop that all over, all your real estate stuff over into Baby Step 6 and get it paid off there. The great news is you make good money.

And if you'll lean into this, you can be 100% debt-free houses and everything in just a few years. You'll be amazed. This is The Ramsey Show. ស្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប� Christina Ellis, Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today. Jay is with us in Boise, Idaho. Merry Christmas, Jay. How are you? Oh, I'm well. How are you? Better than we deserve what's up hey so earlier this month there were we were rear-ended in a car accident and thankfully no major hospitalizations or injuries but the car is most likely to be totaled um we're now on day 19 waiting for insurance to let us know

wow but my question my question for you is, we bought the car in 2020 before, it's our BB before Dave's days, and we owe aid on it. It's worth, if they total it, I believe it's worth between $14,000 to $15,000. So we're thankful for that in the market. Um, but we're going to need to replace it. And I just want to know the wisest way to do this. Uh, we do not have the cash to pay for a car and we, we, we just need advice. Um, well it, it, um, you've been through a pretty traumatic thing getting hit that hard. It's a big deal. Um, and it kind of makes you think, Oh, I need to do this or that. Uh, you're obviously trying to get out of debt, correct? Correct. We are, we, uh, we had our, um, our anger moment was, was in October and that's when we got intense. And so we're, we're brand new on this. We have our,

we're, we're in baby step two we have our thousand dollar emergency fund how much debt do you have other than the car 30 on what uh it's all consumer it's credit and then the eight for the car is included in that i'm sorry you said aside from the car. So about 20, a little over 20,000 in its credit cards. Okay. All right, cool. Well done. Yeah, what's the process look like with insurance right now? So you said that you've been waiting 19 days. What's their correspondence been like? Like, are they in the process of evaluating?

Well, yes, they are. I'm working with the at fault insurance and um they are i don't talk to them unless i call them and um i think i've talked to her twice but she the ball is rolling she said they're waiting on um uh uh estimates um from their uh their person. And I actually missed a phone call from, I think it was from her while I was on hold for you. So I think they're at the process where they're ready to tell me it's totaled or they're going to fix it. We're in a rental car that they're providing. And the day they total it, we have four days. I am not in a hurry. This is not, we are not in panic mode. We have family, we have friends. We do not have to go buy a car. What's your other car? Within those, my vehicle is a four passenger. It's a Ford Focus or five passenger. We have,

we have seven in our family though. So as far as being able to um uh borrow a car we could do that in the short term no i wouldn't do it well if you had to for a little bit but until you find a deal okay um this is going to sound bizarre so i'm going to go ahead and say that out loud but it is also exactly what i have done and what i would do if i were in your shoes. The goal here is not short-term comfort. The goal here is live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. So I'm going to use this situation as an opportunity to pay cash for a car with the equity that you get out of this car.

So it sounds like they're going to give you $7,000 or $8,000. I'm going to go buy a $7, dollar car okay and that got rid of your car note so you just paid off a bunch of debt and the the only way you can do this and fight through the emotions of what i'm suggesting is to really tell yourself the truth, and the truth is this is temporary. Yeah. Not that long. Okay, so what's your household income? 75.

So how quick do you pay off the remaining 20, do you think? Our every dollar estimate looks like it's going to be 23 months. That's too long with what you make. I was thinking about 10 months. So I think we need to cramp down on the budget and maybe pick up some extra income from somewhere, maybe even look for something else to sell. But I want you out of debt. So you're buying a better car as an upgrade with cash by this time next year is what I'm thinking.

Well, I want to encourage you that $14,000 to $15,000, if that car gets totaled and you get that amount, you can still get a decent car for $15,000. No, no, it's not. He owes $8,000. Right. And if he gets $16,000, that's going to be $8,000 in his pocket. If he gets $15,000, it's going to be eight in his pocket if he gets 15 it's going to be seven in his pocket so you can still get a pretty good car for seven that's what i want to do yeah literally before this year i'd never bought a car over ten thousand dollars and i've been driving just fine guys for a long time for a long time simply because i'm

but the point is you're moving it's hard emotionally to move with little kids down from a $15,000 car to a $7,000 car, a $14,000 car down to a $7,000 car. But if you remind yourself over and over and your family that this is for a year. It's temporary. This is an adventure. It's a one-year thing or a 14-month thing or an eight-month thing, whatever it is, when you can lean in on this and get it done fast, then you can move up in car with cash. And so I can drive a junker for a period of time.

Well, and that's part of the motivation, too, is, you know, to get it to go from 23 months down to 10 is remember that it's just a season. And the more aggressive you are, the quicker that season passes. Josiah's in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hey, Josiah, what's up? Hey, David and Christina, good to talk to you guys. You too. How can we help? So I have two job offers for emergency department physician jobs finishing residency here in Oklahoma. So my question is, job one is an independent contractor, be all self-withholding that you do on yourself. And then job two is a contracted position that would come with benefits. Now, I'm in a unique situation.

I'm in the Army Reserve, and so I get a lot of my benefits and health insurance through that. But I'm kind of wondering of what questions I should be asking or what I should look into of kind of is one better than the other. And obviously, if they were... They're both self-employed positions, are they not? So, one is more self-employed. It's still with a contract, but it's kind of a 1099 position where the other one's going to be a W-2. So, yeah.

Oh, it is a W-2. So, you're actually an employee on the other one. Okay. Correct. Yeah. So, is the money, it is a W-2. So you're actually an employee on the other one. Okay. Correct, yeah. So is the money the similar? No, so that's the kind of caveat between them. So job one, that's the independent contractor.

Everything's hourly in this kind of field, and so it's like $2.25 an hour, whereas the other one with the benefits is $200 an hour. And so that's why I'm kind of, is there a, is there kind of a threshold that you get to where one is better than the other? Well, you don't need the benefits. Correct. I don't need the benefits. It was mostly for kind of the 401k and being able to have that, you know, 401k versus an IRA, if I can put more into that, you know, vehicle than the other. Well, you can still save for retirement, even if you're not a W-2 employee. Yeah, but if he's not W-2, he can't do 401K is what he's saying.

Right. He's limited to $8,000. So instead of 19 going into your 401K. We can do a self-employed 401K, right? Yeah, you could. That's true. You could do a SEP and you can get just as much in there. So the other question is which of these two places would you rather work if everything was equal?

So I actually am leaning more towards the lower-paying one. The reason for that is it's due to the I can do 24-hour shifts there versus 12-hour shifts just because of the patient the patient load um that comes into they're both in kind of rural places um and so it kind of i feel like i can knock out a whole bunch more hours you know and be away from the family kind of less days of the month than working you know 12 hour shifts where it's still kind of a full day's work i'm probably choosing the lifestyle over all the other issues you brought to the table first. Okay. Because both of them are great money. Both of them you're going to be living your dream in terms of this is what you've been working for all this time.

And I'm not going to let a 401k dictate or a lack of a 401k dictate a bad lifestyle situation. So I'd rather pick my family because they're very, very close. So I'm going to go with that one if I'm you, the one that you feel like is going to give you the best quality of life. So good question, sir. We appreciate you joining us. Thanks for being here. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books.

Have you been inspired to make a change with your money? Want to know where to start? Take our three-minute money quiz to get a plan you can follow. Go to RamseySolutions.com and search for Get Started to get a plan for your money.