The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Shop Your Way to Feeling Better! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Chris Hogan, and hosting along with me this hour is Anthony O'Neill, and we are excited to be with you. Anthony is also a Ramsey personality, and he has a best-selling book, a debt-free degree that's helping people to understand the step-by-step guide to getting your kid through college without student loans. I am the host of The Chris Hogan Show and have a couple of books myself, Retire Inspired, as well as Everyday Millionaires. So we are excited to have a conversation with you.

We want to talk with you. So we first need you to call us. And so the number to call is 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. Or find us on social at Ramsey Show. You can find Anthony at Anthony O'Neill. And you can find me at Chris Hogan 360. Ayo, how are you today?

Man, I'm doing good, man. How was your weekend? It was good. It was good to be able to hang out and just be still. Yeah, man. My family was in town and just played around with them and my dog and just had a good time. That's a good thing. Well, listen, I know you all are out there and you've got questions, right?

We're at this time of the year where, hey, we're about to hit the final part of the year. People, kids are back to school. Well, at home and school or maybe in school or at home. We don't know. But either way, bottom line is September. It's also the second new year. It is. So people start to wake up, start to get a little bit more engaged, start to get serious.

So we're here. So we're going to go to Des Moines. We've got Jamie on the line. Jamie, how can Anthony and I help you? Hi, guys. Wow, I'm really nervous. So are you guys. I'm excited to be able to call in today.

Well, don't be nervous at all. We are only here to help. All right. So big question here. My husband and I just finished baby step two last week um so we are officially debt free great job four degrees between the two of us so we're excited yeah how much did you pay off um 81 000 in about 14 months 81 000 in a year in two months yes sir i like that all right how can we help you got me excited already $81,000 in a year and two months? Yes, sir.

I like that. All right. How can we help? You got me excited already. So I am planning to apply to pathology assistant school. It's essentially a physician's assistant, but I want to work with a pathologist. So it's the same kind of 22-month program. And so we will be having to leave Northwest Iowa. There's only a handful of programs in the nation that are accredited.

So knowing that we're going to be, hopefully, I mean, if I get into school, making a move, you know, our monthly expenses are going to go up quite a bit. Right now, our monthly expenses are right around $600 for everything, and the rest of it was able to go towards debt. How do you suggest approaching Baby Step 3? Do we save the three to six months of expenses in this very cheap setting that we're in now, or do we go ahead and kind of plan on getting into a school and save up three to six months of, you know, a little bit higher cost. But let me ask you this question, Jamie, first, before we answer that question. You said earlier that you all have four degrees between the two of you. So how many degrees do

you have? I have two bachelor's degrees, a master's and my husband has a bachelor's. OK, so let me ask you this question and I'm not trying to knock you. I'm just, I just want to ask this. You have three degrees. Is there any particular reason why you just can't hold off on school for a little bit? Go ahead and get this three to six months,

get you and your family in a good, solid situation and then go back to school because it sounds like you're, you're educated well enough to get a solid job. Uh, actually go into a solid career, you know, build a foundation and then down the road go back because it seems like you're doing a lot here. Are you feeling me here? No. Yeah, I for sure. It was very easy to double major in college.

So I went ahead and did the double major. I actually acquired I had a GA spot. so I had my master's paid for. Okay. So I was working as a certified athletic trainer and was able to pay for my master's, my position. Okay. And then the master – the PA degree that I want to go get, I've got it from listening to Ken Coleman.

You know, it's the intersection of what I'm really good at and what I love to do. And if I do wait a whole lot longer, some of the prerequisite classes that I have already taken that I need to get into a PA school will go ahead and expire. So I would have to take classes again. But we're in a situation, we feel very confident that we're going to be able to, even if we get three to six months worth of expenses saved up, we feel very confident, you know, working three to be able to, even if we get three to six months worth of expenses saved up, we feel very confident working three to four jobs each that we'll be able to cash flow PA school.

I'm only applying to certain programs that are on the cheaper end of the spectrum. So the goal is to get this PA, this master's, completely debt-free and not have to take out two forms again. So here's my thing, Chris and Jamie. If you feel confident that you and your husband can do both at the same time, I am cool with it. I am not a fan of you going to school and not having your three to six months because your three to six months is important. I would rather you have your three to six months and go back to school. And so if you can do both of them at the same time, that's fine.

And I have no problem with that. Yeah, Jamie, I agree. I think you got to have that in place. You know, this this covid situation has taught us a lot about the importance of having some cushion. And, you know, I love you in pursuit. You guys are definitely severely educated people. But now it's a matter of, you know, really digging in.

And if you are going to go into that program, that you are absolutely sure that once you're done with that program, that's the field you're working in, right? We're not daydreaming of another thing to try to pursue because at some point we've got to have the education pay off for the investment. So definitely get the three to six months in place. Like you said, and I love, I hear the sacrifice in your voice that you're willing to have. You're saying taking on three to four jobs if we have to, which I think is a good thing and having that mindset of being hyper-intentional and very, very focused.

So I appreciate you calling in. All right, let's get over here to Andrew in San Antonio. Andrew, how are you? I'm doing great, Chris. How about you? Oh, I'm focused and not finished, my friend. How can we help you? Hey, yeah.

So first of all, I'm honored to speak with you. I actually got the pleasure of meeting you in Sacramento a couple years ago on your Everyday Millionaire book tour. I took your book home and read it and have been focused ever since. Well, I appreciate that, my friend. Glad to hear it. What's on your mind? My question is about the Social Security payroll tax deferrals. I found out yesterday that starting on my next paycheck for now until the end of the year, that's going to automatically come out of my chair.

Yes. I check Social Security, and there's no way to opt out of it. That's what I'm being told. I'm just wondering what the best way to handle that is. Is that just to park that in a savings account? It's almost like a hill and valley type thing like Dave talks about. Andrew, listen to me. You are dead on.

You see, with this not being something that's optional, you can't opt out. You can't elect out. It's just something that the president is saying is going to help to be able to help the employer as well as the people. So listen, take a look at an old paid stub. Look at how much was being taken out. Sit that over in your savings account. If it ends up being forgiven, then so be it. However, if they end up coming after you with a tax bill, you've at least

set aside that money where you can go, it's not even going to be a problem. That's exactly what I would do, my friend. And keep your ear to the ground. And if something changes, we'll make sure we're talking about it here. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking about grip six belts i don't know about you but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern minimalist belt made of high quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own these belts in different styles. And talk about affordability, Grip 6 belts come with a lifetime guarantee.

And that means if you no longer like or fit the style of your belt, you can replace them for free. Plus, I like the way these guys do business. Grip 6 is determined to help build and modernize American manufacturing. To learn more and get this month's Dave Ramsey special, visit GRIP6.com. That's GRIP6.com. Hello everyone, you are listening to the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Chris Hogan and hosting along Hello, everyone. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Chris Hogan, and hosting along with me is Anthony O'Neill. And we took a call right before the break, and I kind of did the speed answer because we were up against it.

And we were talking about the payroll tax deferment. And just want to kind of clarify this because it was on Saturday, I believe, that the president signed an executive order kind of deferring the payroll taxes as a way to give an increase to people. Now, a couple of stipulations here. It's for people that make less than $4,000 every two weeks. So you have to make under $10000. You make over 104,000, it's not applying to you. Just FYI. And so this is a deferment of these, a suspension of it, not necessarily forgiveness. And just so we're clear, in order for these to be forgiven, the president himself cannot do that. Congress would have to vote on that and they would have to then agree to forgive it. So my advice to the caller was go back, look at an old paycheck stub, kind of look to see what that 6.2% kind of looks like for you, and then start to set that aside

out of your check into just your savings account or your money market account. That way, if they do come back and in January of 2021, now start to say, hey, you owe us X, Y, and Z, you're not having a surprise. You've got that money set aside. So again, this is the payroll tax suspension delay, however you want to call it, how that applies. Again, it only applies if you make under $104,000 a year. So just fyi and people do not hear chris hogan very clearly set it aside do not think and do not even believe that they are going to forgive it all right because we already know how the government rolls they say this they say that then something else happens so here's the thing set the money aside Put it in a separate bank account that you can't even see.

Then if they do, then you have it sitting there. You have a large lump sum. But if they do require it, then, hey, you're in a good place. But I know a lot of people have been saying, man, I think they're going to wash it out. They're going to forgive it. Let's go spend it. No. No, don't get that comfortable.

Yes. Yeah, keep your eyes open stay aware all right we're gonna get to the phones we got amy on the line calling us out of georgia amy how can we help you hello amy amy did i want to talk to us let's try it again amy you there okay well amy didn't want to talk to us she didn didn't like us. That's fine. We'll go to theblondes.com. Amy, are you there? Hey, sorry I was on mute. Oh, it's not a problem.

How can we help you today? Okay, I made a very stupid car mistake. Uh-oh. And I entered into a lease three years ago, three and a half years ago, and I was married at the time and didn't know everything, all the ins and outs of the lease. Long story short, fast forward three years after trying to get out of it a couple times, I am over my mileage and over $9,000 worth. So I can't sit down and cry.

I know I have to stand up and do something about it. That's right. So I think my options are you have to tell me where I'm wrong and lead me in the right direction, either buy it out, borrow the loss. That would be option one would be buy it out. Number two would be to go borrow $9,000 or $10,000, pay it, and then get into a cheaper car or three the dealership is uh one is looking at putting me in one of their smaller newer cars um and rolling over the the wall yeah it'll be the same payment yeah yeah and you're as you talk through the options you're absolutely right so tell this, what's the card that you leased? It is a Infiniti QX60. Okay. And how old,

what year was it? It's a 2017. Okay, 60. And so what's your dollar amount that you owe them because of the mileage? $9,000 for the mileage. So $9,000. Okay. All right. So talk to me here. What's your household income? By myself, I bring in 72, not 72 and a half, 73.

Okay. And for five more years, I'll get $1,300 in child support. Okay. How many kids do you have? I have one, and she's 19. Okay. And for five more years, I'll get $1,300 in child support. Okay. How many kids do you have? I have one, and she's 19. Okay. All right. And what other debts do you have, Amy?

My home. I own my home. Well, I have a mortgage on it. I pay $850 a month. Okay. What's the balance on what you owe? I owe $145,000 on my home, and I could sell it today for about $215,000. Okay. What else do you owe? I owe $145,000 on my home and I could sell it today for about $215,000. Okay. What else do you owe on?

I have two credit cards and I pay $330 a month on that and then my car and that's it. Okay. The credit cards, how much do you owe on the biggest credit card? The biggest credit card is $7,000, and I owe $500 on the other one. Okay.

All right. All right. I'm trying to get a feel for where you are from a debt standpoint. And as I look at this, I don't like the rollover, okay? I don't want them taking that dollar amount, the $9,000 that you owe, and putting that on top of something else. that's going to create a headache okay so that's that's kind of like the three card monte you remember that card game where they move it and try to find the the hidden card i don't like that the other option is do you have nine thousand dollars

sitting anywhere i do but it's for my child's school. It's not for me. We're paying out of pocket for her school. Okay. We're not in scholarship. So that would make me feel like I'm stealing from her. Okay. No, I understand.

I understand. I just think the biggest thing is you taking a look at, you know, go talk to our credit union and try to see if you can get a short-term loan to be able to attack and pay that off. I did. Okay. What did they say?

I did, and I actually talked to them this morning, and they would loan me 3% to buy the car, or they would call it a personal loan for the $10,000, which would be 10%. I didn't quite understand that, but that's the only one I've checked with. Oh, right. And what's the balance you owe on the vehicle? Do you know? $30,000. So that would be the purchase price?

Yes. Yeah, so it would be the $30,000, the purchase price, plus the $9,000 overage, correct? No. If I bought it out, if I choose to buy it out personally, then the 9000 is white dolls. The only place that the 9000 would come in is if I were to turn the vehicle in and leave it free, leave it, or if I wanted to, if I decided to go with the other option with rolling it onto another car. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So you're essentially looking at a vehicle that's that's around 21 000 right that's

right um boy oh boy i tell you i i mean i and go ahead um we do my daughter has a car it's paid for in full so but i have to have access to a vehicle for my work. I have to have a reliable car. And I don't mind driving an older car, but I'm, you know. Yeah, I mean, here's, yeah, but here's the mindset. Here's what we don't want to do. We don't want to take, we don't want to go into $21,000 worth of debt just for you to have a vehicle, right? It's a matter of having something that runs. So it's math, right? Do you want to have a $21,000 problem or a $9,000 problem? I'm

going to go the $9,000 problem route. And so utilizing that with the credit union and talking to them, turning that vehicle in, get it out of your life. And then now what you have is a savings issue to be able to save up and get another car. I don't like the rollover. It just compounds the problem. Yeah, I agree with you, Hogan. I'm with you. Like, how do we figure out to get that $9,000, $10,000 covered and get that over and then get out of it? Now, here's the thing she may have to consider is using some of that money to go buy a cash car.

Because once she pays off that, turns the car and pays off the extra mileage, she has to have a vehicle. So, I mean, with her having some money in her child's savings account for college, you know, I get it. You don't want to feel like you're stealing from your daughter. But at the same time, you're not stealing. It's your money. Yeah, that's right.

So, you know, go buy you a nice, reliable cash car and let's figure out how do we go ahead and pay cash for your daughter's college as well. But, you know, I appreciate you calling in, Amy, because a lot of times we can become so stressed that we grab the first option, and we're not looking for the first option. We want to find the best solution overall, and that's a shift in mindset. Talk to the credit union about that shorter-term loan. Pay this thing off. Turn in this vehicle.

Get it out of your life, and you live and you learn. No leases. We're not doing that. You're going to save up cash get it out of your life, and you live and you learn. No leases. We're not doing that. You're going to save up cash, buy a car for cash, and upgrade over time. Got to slow down, think clearly, and do it the right way. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hello, everyone. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Chris Hogan, and hosting along with me this hour is Anthony O'Neill.

And, Anthony, it's time for us to do the Blinds.com situation. Yeah, let's check it out, man. So, Blinds.com 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they'll remake your blinds for free. And trust me, you guys, they do because they did mine for free. You get free samples, free shipping shipping and with the new promos they run every month you'll save even more use promo code ramsey to get the best deal rules and restrictions do apply okay so today's question comes from brianna in oregon she asks uh my husband just retired this month at age 63 i'm 60 and have not worked the last two years. We are debt-free. We have $25,000

in savings and cash. Our advisor is saying to use our savings first for living expenses before taking money out of the 401k because it's tax-free. Half of our 401k is in a Roth, so when we do take it out, we'll do the traditional IRA first. Neither of us are taking social security until full retirement age. We're just very nervous about draining our savings and want to make sure we're doing the right thing. Well, Brianna, here's the deal. You don't mention, but you say your savings. And if this money, this $25,000 is your emergency fund, then absolutely not. You're not going to use that. You're going to leave that there because that's cushioned between you and life happening. Now,

if this $25,000 is extra just cash, not your emergency fund, but just money that's sitting there, then absolutely you would use it. So let me clarify. If this $25,000 is your emergency fund, no, you're going to keep that there and always have that amount in place, cushioned between you and life happening. And so that's the reality. And so regardless of what your financial person is telling you, you know that emergency fund of having three to six months of expenses is absolutely certain. And, Anthony, I'm going to tell you, this year, dealing with this pandemic,

people are understanding emergency fund on a whole new level, a whole new level. Listen, listen here. We money people and I'm even a whole new level as well. Yeah. You know, I mean, I personally even up my emergency fund a little bit just just to create some cushion because I want to be prepared just in case something else comes down down the road but um that's one thing Hogan I'm really teaching young people is to really listen uh my grandma always said this there's a matter it's not about if it's just a matter of when it's going to rain yeah the rain is coming yeah no and we saw this wasn't rain it was a storm yeah it was and so listen if you're out there and you're going, you know what? I am serious about this. I know the money situation is serious. I know I'm going to hear things in a whole other way. I'm going to tell you something.

This is the time to have clarity. And it's so easy to fall back into old patterns. So you want to make sure that you're intentional. Now, I know with this, with people being at home, you know, you got people. Some people were saving a lot more money than ever, and you got some other people that were spending more than ever because the one click,

and you got boxes just showing up at the house. They just pop up like little leprechauns. No, they don't just pop up. It's because you were clicking and clicking and clicking, and things were showing up. So don't try to shop your way to feeling better. That's called tuning out.

And so don't trade off the stress of the pandemic situation for the financial irritation of not being intentional with how you're spending your money. So stay clear, my friends, and stay focused. Hogan, let me ask you a question. You know, in this generation now where everyone's saying, okay, I need to get prepared for emergencies. I'm starting to see a lot

of these, you know, family savings and savings because people are trying to make some extra money to save, but they're investing into things. Do you believe that we should avoid shortcuts and stick to what we teach just far as in the save

from your job three to six months and invest into that. Don't try and make money from these pyramid schemes. Oh, yeah. No, not at all. I mean, I think those things tend to lead to more headache and heartache than anything else. I'm down with people having a side hustle. Absolutely. But if the side hustle has you have to spend $2,500 in supplies before you can start to make some money, well, that's a math problem.

You don't need to be point of sale and distribution. You've got to learn how to count and see stuff with that because you've got to look at it and you got to understand. And, you know, the reality is as a side hustle is something that allows you to bring in extra money. It shouldn't cost you a whole lot of extra money. And that's the reality. All right, we're going to get to the phones. We got Kat on the line. She's calling in about student loans. Kat, how can Anthony help you?

Hello. So I started attempting to pay off debt maybe when COVID started happening. I wanted to ask a question. Since there's a 0% interest rate on student loans until December 31st, do you think I should try to tackle my student loan debt, which is overall about $68,000, or should I continue with the debt snowball and pay off credit cards that I have? Real quickly, Kat, go ahead and line up your debt for me. So what's the smallest amount, not payment amount, but what's your smallest debt that you have right now? How much is that? So the smallest amount is $622.34, and that's my first student loan.

Okay, that's your first student loan. Do you have any credit cards, cars, anything like that? Or is pretty much all of your debt student loans? Most of it is student loans. I have one credit card that I still have to pay off. It's $1,365. Okay. Okay, cool.

So here's what I want you to do. You're going to stick to the debt snowball, all right? And so go ahead and line up all your debt from smallest to largest. It sounds like you have your student loans broken down to different kind of categories as far as in amounts. So if your lowest debt amount right now is 600 and something dollars, pay that one off first. Remember, we're not fighting a math problem here, Cap. We want to get you momentum. We want to get you excitement. We want you to see your future. And so when you start seeing those things, you start hurrying up, hurrying up, hurrying up.

You start getting excited. You start feeling that momentum. And then that's when you really, really see your future closing in for the best. So don't try and take advantage of it. I want you to take advantage of it. But what I'm saying is take advantage of it at the right time. You feel me? Right. Right. So go ahead and pay your smallest one all the way up to your largest.

Okay. Gotcha. Okay, gotcha. All right. Yeah, the mindset around that, especially with things being in deferment, which essentially means, you know, they've given a grace period, right? And, you know, a lot of people get confused inside of that, and they think, okay, well, I just won't focus on it. And what I've been telling people, and I'm curious of what you've been telling them, is that, A, if your job is stable and your hours are stable, then continue to pay as you have been.

If your hours have been cut back or something has been reduced, then you can make an adjustment temporarily until things get back to normal. And so, you know, realistically, if nothing has changed for you, then stay focused and keep attacking. I mean, absolutely, Hogan. I've been teaching the same thing. The key thing I'm teaching people is to focus on the things you can control and don't worry about the things you can't control. One of the things you can control is the income that you have coming in or the income or income you have coming in. So we still have a regular job. If you still have solid hours, if your job is still guaranteed, then yes, go ahead and start

attacking your debt. Now, during this season, with you having no interest, if your student loans are the only things that you have, oh man, take advantage of this opportunity. But, if you're in

student loan debt, and you're in credit card debt, and you're in car loan debt, you should still get excited so that way you can kind of rush to the student loans. But do not lose track of the path and of the plan that it's been proven. I agree. I agree. And too often times people will try to overthink it. Listen to me. Don't mess with this recipe.

Yeah. Okay. This is mess with this recipe. Yeah. Okay? This is the baby steps recipe. Like my grandmother told me, I tried to make her chili once and I tried to add some stuff. Chili. Boy, boy, I thought that little woman

was getting ready to grab me. She said, boy, don't you mess with that recipe. Listen to me, people. Don't mess with the baby steps recipe. You know what it'll cook. You know the end result. Just put in the ingredients. And you know what it's called?

Effort, hard work, focus, and sacrifice. You put them four know, the end result, just put in the ingredients. So you know what it's called? Effort, hard work, focus, and sacrifice. You put them four in with the baby steps. Oh, you about to come up with something special. This is the Dave Ramsey show. Thank you. Hello, everyone.

I'm Chris Hogan, and hosting along with me this hour is Anthony O'Neill. And somebody told me in the lobby, they told me they could listen to me read the phone book. And that just sounds god-awful. I mean, we have to be able to do something better than that i i have i have my own show it's the chris hogan show you have an opportunity to jump on there we are a caller driven show um you can subscribe on youtube and um all the all the places uh the show we have the show we also have the youtube side where there's video because i tend to be a little animated and move just a little bit. But I'm also joined by Anthony O'Neill, number one national bestselling author and teen and millennial expert.

And you have, Anthony, definitely been on the wagon of teaching young people about the threat of student loan debt. But you also have something new that's available. Tell the people. Man, I'm a real punk, Hogan. You know why? Because every single day I'm telling young people and I'm teaching young people, specifically that 14 through 18 year old, how to go to college 100% debt free. A lot of young people think that they have to take out student loans and they have to go to their dream school. And here's the truth. You can go to your dream school. But what I'm teaching young people is, hey, you can go to your dream school. And here's the truth. You can go to your dream school. But what I'm teaching young people is, hey, you can go to your dream school and you can go there debt free. And the key

ingredient to your dream school is one you can graduate from. You already know it, you guys, debt free. And so just recently I released this thing called Foundations and College Prep, partnered with our education solutions department here. And for $29.9999 discounted from $89.99 that's $60 off our young people can actually get this college prep online and they can actually walk through the process I mean it's fun videos educational videos I'll walk them through how to go to their dream school how to apply for the SAT to ACT how to go after scholarships and what are the key ingredients to have a successful life in a college experience all right so where do they how to go after scholarships, and what are the key ingredients to have a successful life in a college experience. All right.

So where do they need to go again? They can go to anthonyneal.com forward slash store, anthonyneal.com slash store, and they can click on Foundations in College Prep. Fantastic. Obviously, we know there are a lot of people out there, 1.7 trillion, impacting almost 54 million people with student loan debt. We know if we can help other people avoid it, that is a win and is always a positive thing.

All right, we're going to get to the phones. I want you to call us, 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. Kelly's standing by. She's ready to take the call. We just need to hear from you. All right, we got Kurt on the line calling us from Minneapolis. Kurt, how are you? 225 kelly standing by she's ready to take the call uh we just need to hear from you all right we got kurt on the line calling us from minneapolis kurt how are you i'm doing well how are you oh i'm

focused and not finished my friend what's on your mind yeah okay i've got a i've got an issue uh that i kind of built myself about regarding investment in stock all right i worked for that i worked for that really really big health insurance company based in Minneapolis for 14 years, and I was buying through the stock purchase plan about 3%. So I've left the company now, and I have about $150,000 depending on the price and market value of that stock. I have a cost basis of only $15,000. Okay. So I've got a realized gain of about $140,000. Yep.

If I take that money out, and maybe this is just math, I've got a 22% tax. I'm estimating about $30,000 in tax on that. Okay. With the rest of the gains, I can pay off my existing mortgage of 120 000 oh kurt hold on my one hair on my head just stood up keep talking buddy you got my attention okay so the the current pi on my mortgage is 1192 dollars now that rate, if I do not refinance, I can recover those taxes with just

that P and I in about 26 months and then start throwing more of it back into an account where I can actually control where the money goes. The other thing is I've started a refinance. We just got it started. It's supposed to take 90 days. There I will get a good interest rate, I will get a P&I of about $830, and my plan had been on that refinance to plow about an additional $1,500 per month into that mortgage and pay it off in about 50 months. Okay. So you, you have started the refi, um, and, but now you've walked through and talked through an opportunity and a way to be able to pay it off. To pay it off right now. I'll take the $30,000 tax yet. Right. Recoup that in 25 months. Absolutely. Then what are you paying in your mortgage payment right now? Well, the PNI is $1,192.

Okay. So you take that instead of paying it to the bank, pay that back to yourself. For the $30,000, right? That's exactly. Oh, dude, listen, I'm doing this all day, every day. Like you've vested, you're vested in all of the company stock? Well, yes. Yes, I am. And some of this stuff, you know what it's trading for now. Some of this stuff I bought at $20. I know.

I know. I know. But here's the key, Kurt. This is the crux. You're standing right now in the middle of sanity. You've looked at this and you say, wait a minute. I can sell this. I can then, this thing that I had invested in, I can sell this non-retirement type stock, pay off my home, go from home buying to home ownership.

And then you got that other little side of you, the little investing one that just popped out and said, hold on a minute. Don't sell it. It's going to get bigger. No, it ain't. I want you to flick that little one off. Okay? Because that was the nerd Hogan that said the same thing to me years ago. Hashtag AOL.

Okay, I still twitch every once in a while when I think about it. Pay off that home, okay? Pay it off. Then you take that mortgage payment you were paying, and you start to pay yourself back. There's no reason to go forward with this refi. There's no reason to try to rationalize the mindset of paying extra. Own this home home my friend pay this thing off get it done don't overthink okay you're a smart man you were throwing out numbers like an accountant and this is not a situation to overthink no it's not i mean you said it you said it best okay i have nothing else to say i'm i'm i'm paying

paying off my house today. Yeah. I mean, seriously. And again, you can reach out to your tax ELP and start to look and understand all the basis and all the things that you'll factor. But my goodness, understanding. Here's what I know for sure. There is a 0% foreclosure rate on paid off homes. 0%.

That means there's nobody coming to get it there's nobody harassing you and you're not thinking about then other a oh this is the other one i hear i'm gonna hold on to the mortgage because i get the tax deduction no no get rid of the risk in your life i'm gonna tell you go out there and start to feel that grass it feels different after you pay it off so that mindset door feels different yeah so you you go this route my friend don't overthink it and yeah the here's the thing then the company stock may go up five dollars it may drop ten dollars the thing is is you know exactly where you stand right now move forward don't delay don't overthink this one and i'm gonna tell you

something once kurt you pay off the house if you don't like it i't overthink this one. And I'm going to tell you something. Once, Kurt, you pay off the house, if you don't like it, I want you to call me. And then you can come back in and you can go get another mortgage on it. Okay? I'm going to promise you this. I don't think you're going to have a situation. I don't think you're going to regret it at all. I really and truly don't. You've got a great opportunity to really reach out and do something different. Speaking of stuff different, I want to tell people, you know, we've heard one thing this year is that people need people. And we're hardwired for community. And if you've been struggling with money, you need cheerleaders in your life who will

support and motivate you. And there's no better way to get that encouragement than by joining a virtual Financial Peace University class. You'll learn the proven plan that we've helped people walk through all online. So most importantly, you're going to get connected with people that can give you the encouragement that you need. Now that Financial Peace University

is a part of Ramsey Plus, which means you get our number one money course, plus the premium features of our budgeting app, EveryDollar, and our new Baby Steps tracker app. And as of today, you can start a free trial of everything in Ramsey Plus, including the class. Guys, you don't have to figure out your money problems alone.

Gals, you don't either. Get plugged into a virtual Financial Peace University class and get the support you need. To join a class and start your free trial of Ramsey Plus, text JOIN to 33789. Again, text the word JOIN to 33789. You got a great opportunity to really get plugged in. And again, it's a free trial right now. So there's no reason to delay, no reason to hesitate. Ayo, it's time to take action. It really is, man. Well, listen,

we want to thank everybody. We want to thank all the callers for taking the time to call in. We want to thank you for taking the time to tune in. A.O., we did a great job. Yeah, man. Thank you so much for letting me join you this hour. We have had a blast with you. We look forward to hanging out with you again soon. This has been The Dave Ramsey Show.

This is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. You can listen to Dave, Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan, or the rest of the Ramsey Network anywhere with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Catch all of our full shows, browse by topic, or send clips to your friends. Head to the App Store and download the Ramsey Network app today.