The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Screw Up Your Life With an AirBNB (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss:  "I have $179K in ParentPLUS loans,"  "How much should we spend on a house?" "Should we get into AirBNBs at our age?" from the blog: How to Make Extra Money Using Airbnb, The Babylon Bee joins to talk about the value of making fun of yourself, "I can't get caught up on my bills" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Here's an EveryDollar deal just for our listeners: get a 14-day free trial PLUS $15 off your first year of premium. Click the link below and start budgeting today! www.everydollar.com/TRS Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 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 we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose. Our Ramsey career expert, host of the Ken Coleman Show, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Julie is in San Francisco. Hi, Julie. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Okay.

So I bought a home in February of 2022 in Nevada, and I'm actually renting it right now, and it's making double my mortgage payment, which is great. But I also have Parent PLUS loans that total $178,000. My daughter graduated in 2021. She's doing well, but she's getting her master's now, which is totally under her name. But I've got these Parent PLUS loans in my name. How is she paying for her master's?

Yeah, she is. Oh, she's paying for it. She's doing that. She's paying for the master's, but I've got the undergrad loans. And then, of course, she's got her own student loans within the undergrad program. Yeah. So your question is, do you sell your rental property to clear $178,000 debt? Yes. Yeah.

What's your household income? So mine alone, so I live with my fiancee mine alone is a hundred thousand when are you getting married we don't know yet we're trying to clear all this stuff okay what does what does he make um he makes about 120, 120 plus with the bonuses and stuff. Actually, can I tell you what I used to make? And this is part of another part two question. I used to make 145. So when I moved in with him, I took that pay cut.

So I kind of, we both want to move closer to the city, to the bay, and that will allow me to get a better paying job and get back to where I was before. You took a pay cut because you changed locations. Say that again? You took a pay cut because you changed locations. Correct. Okay. Yep.

I'm like two hours away from the bay, so pay is a lot. So let's pretend for a second. You do not own a house in our pretend world for a second in nevada okay you have 178 000 in parent plus loans and i put 200 000 in cash in the middle of your kitchen table you have two. You can buy a rental property in Nevada, or you can pay off the Parent PLUS loan. I know what you're going to say. I didn't say anything. I asked you a question.

It's a leading question, but I asked you a question. Well. It's kind of obvious, but I asked you a question. Well. It's kind of obvious, isn't it? I know. Yeah. Sell the house. When you decided to pay for your daughter's education with borrowed money, you decided to get rid of this house.

Now you're actually having to admit it. That's what we tossed and turned about last night. Yeah. It's gone. And you got your life back. For real? And you got your life back. For real.

Really? Yeah, you're focusing on the house being gone and that it seems like such a great investment because it's paying you double. You're not focusing on the fact that those loans are gone. That's what you should be celebrating. you're feeling sad about losing the house you should be happy that you can get out of the debt does that make sense and the next time someone presents an idea to you to go 178 thousand dollars in debt just smile and say no even if it's one of your kids especially if it's one of your kids right especially if it's one of your kids.

Right, yeah, even more so. There we go. Eric is with us in Frankfurt, Germany. Hi, Eric. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave and Ken. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

How are you all today? Better than we deserve. What's up? Love to hear it. So me and my wife, my wife is active duty military, and we have been living in Germany for the past two years. And we will be here for another three years until she retires. We just had our first child in May after a long journey with IVF and are currently 100 percent debt free.

Wonderful. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. So our plan when she retires is to move to Dallas, and we're trying to figure out how much money we should be looking to spend on a house when she does retire. Well, jump on Google and figure out what the median house price in Dallas is. But the median house price nationally right now is a touch under $400K. Okay. And that's median, not average. Average will be slightly lower than that.

But in other words, half the houses sell for more than that, half the houses sell for less. That's median. Average will be less. But, you know, $300,000 to $400,000 is an average home in a typical city in America. But certainly there's neighborhoods in Dallas you can't touch for that, and there's plenty of neighborhoods that are less than that. So, you know, it depends on the neighborhood. There's three things to determine price of real estate,

location, location, and location. But, yeah, so I think you start doing some research on the area you're going to be moving to, and that helps you set some goals. Absolutely. Maybe I should rephrase my question a little bit. So we currently have $200,000 saved. Good. And by the time she retires, I'm kind of projecting us to have about half a million to about $550,000 saved.

Good. Would you see anything wrong with us if we were to pay cash for a house if we were to spend that full amount you called dave ramsey and ask him if it was okay to pay cash i know from germany i'm on the edge of my seat dave what's the answer the answer i can't wait of course you pay cash yeah that's exactly what i would do and the reason i would is because now with no house payment and this fabulous ability to manage money and save money you guys are going to be able to pile up an incredible nest egg incredible wealth and be a blessing to your kids your family your future family your change your family tree and many

families around you because you're going to be very wealthy. You guys are incredible. Thank you for serving your country. Congratulations on the new baby. Stack cash. Come back to U.S. after retirement and in a couple of years and pay cash for a nice house and then become very outrageously wealthy and outrageously generous you guys are amazing way to go yeah incredible stuff now here's what i want to ask you uh what is it that's behind that question he knows fundamentally what you're going to say but what's the fear fundamentally it's it's yeah everybody knows what i'm gonna say right i'm really not known for anything else right um but there's a fear like is he saying he just won just wanted Bill to tell his buddies. Buddies are saying I'm an idiot.

Ah, okay. Dave Ramsey said pay cash. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to make sure. Still, after 30 years of saying it over and over and over again, he still says pay cash. Yeah. Yeah, that's it.

That's the thing. This is The Ramsey show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We could use your help. You want to help us? We would appreciate it since you pay so much to listen to the show. And here's what it's going to cost you. You need to jump on and however you are viewing the show, subscribe or follow or whatever it means,

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Thank you. Kathy is in North Carolina. Hi, Kathy. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hello. Thank you, Dave, for taking my call. My pleasure. It's really great to get to talk to you.

You too. Yes, and Ken. I think that's who you said, Ken. Yes, it's me. I i'm here kathy today for you what's going on okay so my husband and i retired we're age 65 and 68 we live in a mortgage-free home that's valued at just under 500 000 and we're debt-free our yearly income is about a hundred thousand with retirement so security social security um pension and we have a seventeen hundred dollar a month rental property that that is included in the hundred thousand your phone broke up wait a minute stop stop stop your

phone broke up you have a seventeen hundred dollar a month rental property it's paid for, too? Yes. Okay. Good. Now I can hear you again. He has about $500,000 in third savings that's invested conservatively and his pension and our social security. That's what makes up the $100,000. Okay. Great. We live in North Carolina

just off a very popular place called Top Thrill Island and people flock here throughout most of the year. And I've been wondering if it would be smart to invest in an Airbnb rental and the one I'm looking at is about $280,000.

And you're going to take out enough of his thrift savings to buy it? No, no. We'll borrow against our house. No, you won't. No. No. An equity line or anything like that would be smart.

You have a very good life. Don't go screw that up with an Airbnb. No. I knew you were going to say that. There it is. If you want to buy an Airbnb, if you want to buy a rental for an Airbnb, take enough out of his thrift to do it. Pay cash for it.

Okay. How long have you had this other rental? Oh, goodness gracious. We've had it about 20 years. Okay. How long have you had this other renter? Oh, goodness gracious. We've had it about 20 years. Okay. Can you tell me some tenant horror stories? You know what? We have been so blessed.

I've only had one of those. Okay, good. Out of all these years. Keep in mind, when you have an Airbnb, you have a new tenant every four days. Yes, yes, yes. We're talking hassle factor. You're right. We're talking hassle factor.

We're talking risk factor, damage, police being called, neighbors griping at you, all kinds of stuff that you hadn't even thought about. And we're talking about you're going to make a whole lot more money than you would have just rented that house. But you are getting ready to start a new small business. That's what renting an Airbnb is. Yeah, I understand that.

Yeah, and so this is not like, I'm going to just go to the mailbox and collect a bunch of checks because Airbnb is a big deal. No, it's not. It's's a lot of work and they're going to tear up your property and you're going to put it back and then they're going to pay for it and then you're going to be yeah it's it's a lot of work it's like it's very similar to run the hotel i mean my husband is going to be so glad when I tell him this. Well, I wouldn't do it. He said it's a good idea. Yeah, if I were in your shoes, you sound like you have a very simple, fun, clean life that's very secure.

I wouldn't put this beehive in the middle of it if it was me. But if you want to go make some money, you can make some money with this. But you know that you're dealing with hassle, and the only way you want to do it is to pay cash. Just something to share with Kathy and other people that may be getting bit by the Airbnb bug, and you think it's a sure thing. You may be late to the party. Yeah, you are, because we're seeing some new revenue data here. All the rooms, which kind of checks listings and revenue, you are because we're seeing some new revenue data here. All the rooms, which

kind of checks listings and revenue, we've seen significant drops this year compared to 2022. Places like Austin, Sevierville, Tennessee, which is to our east, you're seeing 47% drop. San Antonio, Texas, 43% drop. Nashville, 39 percent drop denver 38 new orleans seattle washington there's more and more cities here and so the point is is there's a glut right now of people who got into these as investments much like you're thinking about kathy nashville's down nashville's down the bachelorette party didn't keep it going phoenix arizona's down because people don't want to burst into flames apparently uh Austin Texas one of the hottest cities in the flames have you heard about the chamber of commerce well I mean I'm telling

you it's so hot out there right now people are reading about this but anyway here's the point you're talking about major markets throughout the country where there is more supply than there's demand you can get caught really quickly and there's starting to be a backlash both politically like people are calling zoning on it and they're saying some some cities have passed it's just illegal period uh and so i'm not sure that's constitutional but a lot of zoning stuff's questionable so they pull off all kinds of crap in the name of protecting other people but it's called civilization i think but um but. But they regulate our butts off. But the, yeah, so it's, you know, the bottom line is the Airbnb market is soft,

and there's a lot more work involved and a lot more risk involved than people ascribe to it. If you properly address the market and say, given that it's soft, the article Ken's reading, given the high level of work and hassle and the risk of damage and the risk of the whole thing and pay cash for it, if you embrace every bit of that and still want to do it, I'm on your team. Go do it because you'll make a lot more money. I'll give you another one. Okay. If you want to make more money on residential real estate, buy cheap houses in bad ends of town. Low-income rentals give a much higher ROI, rate of return,

rent to value than high-income rentals do in the rich end of town. Rich end of town, you don't really make that much money on a rental. It doesn't do us good. But guess what? You've got a higher hassle factor. Right. You're dealing with people tearing up stuff. You're dealing with them running drugs or prostitution out of your house.

You're dealing with all this other crap, potentially. I used to have a whole bunch of those properties. That's how I know. But, I mean, I had one house that I paid $11,000 for. Now, this was a long time ago. But I paid $11,000 for it, and the rent i got on it per month was fifteen hundred wow now you can't touch that right that's tough but i'm telling you man i had to collect my rent on the doorstep every friday afternoon or they would snort it or drink it over the weekend you know i mean it was

like so it's a different you're just dealing with a different thing so if you want to engage in hassle to make more money you can engage in hassle to make more money and that's airbnb right yeah uh but but if you don't if you want something has a she's got her life is so dialed in yes so sweet yeah everything's sitting there paid for and she's collecting this rent and had very little hassle for 20 years. Only one bad story. Don't screw that up. This is a Sesame Street moment. One of these things is not like the other. You know, it doesn't fit in this equation.

She's fun, though. Apparently her husband is going to be very happy with that advice. Well, maybe. I don't know. Kathy was like, I don't know. I'm going to call Dave and see what he thinks. Let's see how this works out. But there we go. Fun, fun, fun. I don't know. Kathy was like, I don't know. I'm going to call Dave and see what he thinks. Let's see how this works out. But there we go.

Fun, fun, fun. Good stuff. Good stuff. So, guys, the real estate market is shifting, and so is the stock market. If you haven't noticed, and most of you haven't, because 100% of the time the stock market's down, they do a lot of news reports on it. 100% of the time it's up they almost never mention it in the last 12 months the s&p 500 12 months from today 12 months ago is up 16.4 percent if you were invested in a very basic mutual fund for the last 12 months you would have made 16

on your money anybody else tell you that nope they. They don't report this. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them

stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Well, about eight years ago, I looked up on Twitter, back when I looked at Twitter, and there were some guys on there poking fun at all kinds of people.

And then the next thing I knew, they were making fun of me, and they're funny as crud. And some of my favorite follows on social media, b the babylon b kyle mann one of the founders of the babylon b along with his friend adam uh who's gone on to do other things now but they started this thing over in california and uh a satirical look at church for one thing and church making fun of us church people by church people because you're a pastor's kid or no you are a pastor yeah you're a pastor at one point my dad's a rocket scientist oh well there's that wow for real yeah no it's not a joke you know not everything i say is right right well i'm just checking i didn't know if you're pulling all right so all right kyle man is the editor-in-chief of the b the babylon b uh around here all the ramsey folk are big fans of the b and uh we recommend you guys

check it out if you want to have a good snicker a good laugh a couple times a day and you ought to get something positive out of social media so there's a way you can do it so welcome Kyle good to have you we're big fans man good to be here thanks thanks for having me so fake news you can trust all right did Trump steal that from you or did you steal it from Trump that's ours man it's copyrighted yeah we made the t-shirt so we own the phrase but fake news he stole from you fake well no we stole fake news okay that's what i thought yeah but you're we owe him no royalties on it but fake news you can trust that's us yeah that's all because you can't trust all the fake news but you can trust this one

great great play great satire i mean you got a sense of humor i love i mean sarcasm is my uh my love language so i love the whole thing and you guys have come at me a bunch of times and i've loved every bit of it it's we always get good response uh uh because you're not too hard on me but uh but you get a good use you want us to be no no i appreciate it i'm trying not to make you mad yeah i don't i don't want i don't need anybody else picking on me out there. But satire is tough. I mean, is it harder to create satire when real-life things are so over the top? I mean, it's so weird out there that it's like reality is satire.

Yeah. G.K. Chesterton wrote 100 years ago that he thought satire would be impossible because the real news was so absurd. He wrote that in, 1911. And you picture how crazy the news has gotten from 1911 until 2023. You know, you just, you open up the news and you can't tell if it's a real news headline or the Babylon Bee headlines. Sometimes I can't tell, and I'm writing the headlines. You know, that's how difficult it is. Yeah. We, I mean, when I was a kid, the local newspaper, you might not agree with their politics, but it was least objective. The CBS Nightly News with Walter Cronkite was at least objective. But if I look at CNN's website, Fox's website, look at the local newspaper here in Nashville,

it more resembles the National Enquirer when I was a kid than it did. I mean, even their look, tone look tone feel their fonts and everything it's it's just so salacious so bizarre as aliens you know that was always reserved for that was reserved for the national inquirer in the line when you're buying groceries you know yeah but it has all shifted that way to where you know it you guys probably get confused for real stuff sometimes don't you oh absolutely yeah we've been fact-checked dozens of times our jokes get fact-checked by snopes usa today of course all different kinds of outlets fact-check our jokes because people think they're real what's the most famous case of a story being taken very seriously well snopes fact-checked one of our articles that was uh cnn purchases industrial washing machine to spin the news somebody actually checked all that and that got fact checked and our facebook page got

demonetized deplatformed you know all of that stuff because of that article because it was fact checked and they said oh you guys are sharing fake news yeah it's a joke because cnn yeah cnn really didn't do that. Who knew? As far as we know. As far as we know. Is there anything off limits for you guys? What's that editorial process like?

I even hate to say editorial, but there is a version of that. Well, we won't be too mean to Dave Ramsey. That's our number one. We like that. That's our number one rule. Use him for clicks and laughs, but-huh no using for clicks and laughs but that's just clicks and laughs all friendly stuff but uh no i mean i don't think there's any topic that's off limits for the satirist and honestly that's why you know a lot of left-leaning

comedy these days isn't funny anymore because they have so many no-fly zones things that they won't make fun of that it doesn't surprise you anymore yeah you know imagine if they were to make fun of their own worldview you know things, things in their own worldview, it would be shocking because they don't do that. You know, so I think you do need to be able to make fun of yourself. You do need to be able to make fun of things in the culture. I mean, I just think the main guideline that we use is that if we're making fun of a serious topic, like we're trying to call attention to a really, you know, heavy topic like abortion or something along those lines, then our jokes are going to be that much more serious. You know, we don't want to make people think that we're making light of those

things sure right so that's kind of one of the one of the guidelines that we use yeah so but you are an equal opportunity offender i mean you go after just about everybody in one way or another i mean you make fun of fox or cnn you yeah right or left issues or uh you know uh you know conservatives do this or or uh you know lefties do this or whatever. I mean, you get on everybody. It's fun. Yeah. Well, and you have to.

I think to be a good satirist, you have to first be able to laugh at yourself. You have to be able to make fun of your own. And that's what made the Babylon Bee get so popular so fast because we were writing the jokes about the worship leaders who wear the V-necks and all that. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And our friend Dave Ramsey here. Those kind of kind of jokes showed people like hey they're not afraid to make fun of themselves and that kind of gives you the right to then go after the other side a

little bit too all right so i gotta know this if you look to the recent past or maybe a hundred years ago as a satirist who would you have loved to been in the public scene now where you could have taken a crack at them whether that be in the faith-based world politics sports what comes to mind when i ask you that yeah so we launched we launched like right at the end of the obama administration you know and so we were kind of like during the trump clinton year so we did kind of launch it in the perfect time when it was like you could make a lot of good fun of trump if you had a good sense of humor about him and you can make a lot of fun of Hillary obviously too. So we launched it kind of that perfect time but yeah the last the last hundred years I mean it would have been great to be around in the 80s with Reagan.

I mean the Clinton years you got people had so much fun with on SNL but that's back when SNL used to make fun of both sides and you know they would. Back when SNL was funny. Back when the late night people would make fun of both sides, you know, George W. Bush obviously was great for humor just with his mannerisms. Oh, yeah. So we kind of missed out on a lot of that. But at the time, there were comedians covering it, you know, there was the SNL and the late nights that were actually doing that stuff. You know, I remember

him telling a story when I was interviewing him about strategery. Yeah. He thought, he actually thought, he said, I thought I did say that. And he was talking to the writer at Saturday Night Live, Lauren, whatever, or the preacher. And Lauren said, no, George, I said that. I said you said that, but you never really said that. And he owned it.

He thought, he said, I thought I said it. It was the funniest thing ever. And so, yeah, but that, you got to be able to laugh at yourself in the process. You got to be able to enjoy that ride. No question about it so um how do you determine uh you guys put content on almost all the major platforms uh from podcasts to posts on facebook posts i guess you're are you banned from facebook no okay not banned from facebook okay all right but are you banned from anything right now um we got banned from tiktok which is know, a good thing in some ways.

Yeah. Because then you don't have to be on TikTok. Yeah. But I think we got let back on. So I don't know if we're actually banned from anything right now. What got you banned from TikTok? You can't joke about anything on TikTok. You know, we'll do jokes about the tamest joke you can imagine.

And they'll say, you know, community standards. Politically sensitive. Politically sensitive. You know what's crazy about that is they won't let you make fun of anything but they'll let kids go on and say stupid crap about time blindness and how she's mad at her boss this is the latest rage time oh this will make dave's head explode i'll have to tell him during the commercial break he can't handle it on the air it's too much but they'll let kids rage yeah but you can't make a joke. Yeah.

Well, that's part of the danger of social media and algorithms. Who's controlling the algorithm and controlling what we see? We already know that with TikTok, you know, they change the algorithm based on who you are. If you're in America, if you're in China, the algorithm is different based on what they want to produce in the culture. So how do you guys with all those different platforms determine which piece of content worked um i mean there's some there are some social media platforms where uh a certain joke will hit a little little bit better like for a long time twitter was kind of the political space where politics jokes did well yeah you're a big hit on facebook and instagram for us you know i love it that's good okay good

so yeah it just depends on the audience and where they are. Well, we're just here to serve, I'm saying. Dave, you're huge on the gram. You're huge on the gram, as the kids say. That's it. Huge on the B, baby. That's it. That's what I'm saying. Babylon B, Kyle Mann, thanks for stopping by, brother.

We love your work. It's a lot of fun. You guys, if you haven't followed it, jump in and follow. You'll get a laugh, and you might get offended, and that'll be good for you, too. Just laugh your way through it. You've got the babylon b check it out this is the ramsey show ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host today thank Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Janet is in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Janet. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Ken and Dave. It's a pleasure.

Ours too. How can we help? Yeah, so I'm calling today just to see how we, as we, me and my husband, can get ahead of our bills. It seems like every single month we pay our bills three weeks after the due date, and then a week later they're due again. So we've tried budgeting and just trying to get ahead, and we just can't seem to get that curve. So we're just calling to see what tips and tricks you could provide for us. What's your household income?

It's about $75,000 gross. Okay. And how much debt do you have not counting your house? $39,000. On what? On student loans of $24,000, $5,000 in credit cards, and $9,000 or $10 ten thousand on an rv travel trailer on a trailer okay and you make 75k a year that's right in between the both of us okay all right um

all right so where do you think your money is going? Well, I know that it was going into a lot of eating out. I actually just got my husband on board about two months ago to do like the baby steps. I've been doing it probably by myself for like a whole year ever since. And it seems like actually we've been on this momentum of just being behind for like the last year. And we're just sick of it. I'm tired of handling it. So I have him stepping in on the finances as well as just really, you know, being careful where our money is going. And so, you know, I've tried for the last two months,

we've just been, you know, paying every single week because we get paid every week. So that's kind of helpful. Okay, so if I sat down with you and your husband with a yellow pad at the kitchen table, and I said, okay, this is what you have coming in this week. Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going. This is what you have coming in the next week. Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going.

Let's map out. You should have enough with the numbers you gave me. We should. Yeah, we should. But you're not doing that right there it is okay so you need you need to sit down and you can jump on every dollar but the number one the first thing is the two of you have to do this together not turn it over to him because he because he can do it and you can't do it that's not true okay both of you together need to do this because what's going to have to

happen is you're going to have to decide not to do a bunch of stuff you're doing now that does that doesn't matter as much as getting in control matters right i want to get in control more than i want to go out to eat i want to get in i want to get out of debt and have a life more than i want to go on vacation uh i want to get in control more than i like this travel trailer i want to get in control more than and i'm sick and tired of living stress to stress to stress to stress to stress with no hope feeling like a rat in a freaking wheel and when the both of you when both of you are saying that and then you put numbers to that and you say okay this week on friday we get a check for x the following Friday, we get a check for X.

The following Thursday, we get a check for Y. The following Saturday, we get a check for Z. And you write that down and you plan out every one of those dollars and where every one of them are going because the water bill is due on the second week. The house payment is due on the first week. The student loan payment is due in the third week. And we're going to figure out what's coming out. We're going to take this much for food, this much going to take this much for food this much for food this much for food in the four different weeks and we're going to allocate every one of those bills to a certain week

and some of them across weeks so that we have enough money to take care of them and every dollar has an assignment on paper on purpose purpose, before the month begins. We agree on it and spit, shake, and pinky swear. And then we don't do anything else with money except what we freaking wrote down. Right. And it seems like we've been doing that for the last two months, but we can't catch that curve. We can't get out of it.

So you write it all down and you don't have enough? No, we do have enough, but it seems like it's gone every single week. Now, if you wrote it down to have enough, and then you did something else other than what you wrote down. Well, I guess where we're struggling is just like every time we do try to, we get our bill every single, you know, whatever, a month. We pay it once a week, but we have so many little ones, it seems like we just don't know where to prioritize them.

They're not all written down. Yeah, we need to prioritize them better. Every one of them on paper, on purpose, in a certain week. This is a week one bill. This is a week four bill. This is a week two bill this is a week four bill this is a week two bill different bills have different weeks and they all go within the income of that week and then when the check comes in the check is already spent so you can't do anything except what you wrote down

you are not managing to the budget you're writing it out as a hypothetical and then going doing what you used to do right and you're not focusing on it but listen i'll tell you how you've got it that'll get you ahead just what i told you yeah if you you won't write down not getting ahead you'll get ahead as soon as you do that you've got room in this budget yeah you're disorganized and chaotic yeah and when you give every single if i paid you a hundred thousand dollars a year to pay these bills exactly on time and you had no emotional tie to them whatsoever and you would look at this family that this distant family over in boise idaho and tell them to quit going to freaking restaurants i don't care how tired you are no whining aloud

you're going to pay the freaking bill on time. If I told you to do that, you could do it for someone else. Right. It's because it's not right. It's sixth grade math. You can do this. So you have got to get very detailed, very intentional, and then live the detail. Don't write it all down and then go do what you used to do

and so well i just i i didn't feel like cooking tonight i don't give a crap go home and get some leftovers out of the dadgum refrigerator that's how you do it you can i mean we all have that you just got to talk to your whiny self and say no whiny self i've done that myself i mean sharon i've done it to each other we know what it feels like but you have to go i want control more than i feel tired tonight you know and that's the biggest thing that's the phrase that comes out of everybody's mouth by the way before they go out to eat or before they hit the fast food and get dog food at taco Bell, you know, or whatever. And so it's just, it's horrible. It's horrible value.

It's horrible nutrition, and it's out of control spending. And so it's just, yeah, so you got to write it down and get on every dollar, download the app. And I'll tell you what, I'll give you the upgrade. I'll give you the premium every dollar where it ties to your bank. And we'll get you started on that, Janet, because what you all desperately need is a detailed budget. And here's how you do a budget, folks. You give every single penny a name.

Every bill has a week allocated. In every dollar, it's called paycheck planning. And you plan out each paycheck for the month and you and your spouse both look at it every dollar is assigned to saving to giving or to a bill period every single dollar there is no missile there is no well 50 of my budget is non-allocated bullcrap allocate every dime in every dollar on the paycheck planning every dollar has a name before the month begins august is coming where's your august money going to be it's going to freaking disappear if you don't tell it what to do it will leave and go to people's houses who tell it what to do. And then you'll say stuff like the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Yes,

they do, because the rich tell their money what to do. That's how this works. And so you got to get on top of this stuff and lean into it. Every dollar has an assignment. You stick to it. You agree on it with your spouse and you do not spend a dime unless it's on that page, on that EveryDollar app. If it's not on there, and it comes up, and it's a surprise, and you forgot it, you got to take something else off, because if you put something on there, and you're already spent it all, now you're in overdraft, and now it doesn't work, and I can't seem to get caught up.

Well, you're not getting caught up because you're not living your plan. Do the plan. Live the plan. Write the plan. living your plan. Do the plan, live the plan. Write the plan, live the plan. Do the plan, live the plan. Live the plan. And it's your plan, by the way. You decide where it's going to go. But I'm telling you what I'm doing.

I'm not going out to eat. I'm not going on vacation. I'm selling a stupid travel trailer. Everything else is for sale. So much the kids think they're next. We're going to take extra jobs and we're getting control because I'm tired of being stressed out. That's what I'm doing. If I'm in your shoes and I did it, by the way, this is the Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to ramsesolutions.com

and click on the get started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.