The Ramsey Show - App - Drop the Excuses and Embrace the Suck! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create and build actual amazing relationships. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw. This is George Camel, and we're taking your calls for the next hour about your life and your money. So give us call the number is triple eight eight two five five two two five and we'll do our best to help you so george without further ado let's go straight to the phone lines and talk to sarah who's in greenville south carolina hey sarah what's going

on hi um i'm trying to determine if we are going to have to go on uh wick which is the children's government help um i've cut everything i can possibly cut from our budget um but our grocery bill even though i buy only what we need um is just with inflation, we're just having to dip into our savings and it's getting a little low. Okay. Tell me more. What's in your savings? Oh, go ahead. I was just calling to see if there's any other suggestions. Probably. Let's dig deeper. So you said you're digging into your savings. So how much do you have in your savings? At this point, we're down to $5,000. Okay. So we've got $5,000 saved. Do you have a debt? I'm guessing yes. We have our house and one car. Okay. What do you owe on the one car? Um, 11,000. Okay.

11,000 on that car. And is it your only car or do you have two vehicles? We have two. The other one's paid off. Okay, great. What's your annual income? Uh, 36 before taxes. Okay.

Oh, well, there's our problem. Annual income 36. There's two of you. Who's working and who's not? My husband works full time. I stay home with our two sons. Okay. How old are the two sons? Two and two months. Okay. So there's no daycare. It's you're the daycare.

Yes. Okay. Two and two months. Okay. And are you doing anything to bring in additional, I mean, obviously you're contributing big time to the household. Are you doing anything financially? We've looked at some options, but I am not a born salesperson. Sure. So selling from my house is not really a good option. What about like customer service? Something you could do in the evening on the phone? They haven't, I've kind of looked at it briefly, but I haven't really delved into it too much.

I've never done anything like that with my, um, yeah, I've never done that. So, and just to get cleared, I'm just, I'm asking lots of questions cause I want to see this situation. Your husband, does he work like crazy hours or is he kind of like nine to five? At the moment, he works from seven to three thirty. And then we're also a military family. So he's gone with that as well. OK. And how often is he gone? At least once a month. For how long? A weekend. OK. If he has to do more training, then it could be up to a month for how long um a weekend okay if he has to do more training then it could be up to a month okay i'm just trying to get a picture of the situation my first thought is like okay you guys income is super low and when i see a super low income my first thought is how can we

get it higher so is he capped off in any way i mean he's he's in the military is he able to go out and do more work? I see a place for you to do more work based off the schedule and kind of what you laid out. But I'm also wondering about your husband. Right now, he's trying to get a promotion to a different position within the company he works for. If he does that, then we'll be set. If he doesn't get it, then we just can't sustain this. What does set mean?

I'm just trying to figure out. He would go from 36 to about 90. 90? Okay, yeah, that's a good, that's a nice job. That's quite the promotion. Yes. Okay. It's a different job entirely, but it's within the same department. But we won't really know anything if he's going to get that job until either March or April.

What I feel is that you guys are kind of waiting. What I feel is that... We're kind of waiting. We're trying to figure out what to do, but I'm also trying to figure out how to not have no money and get to a point. If he doesn't get the job, I don't want to be just completely strapped. I hear, I hear, I see based on what you laid out, a house that's on fire. Like it's the flames are, they're kissing, kissing the roof. Like it's, it's on there. But when I asked about the urgency of earning income, I didn't sense the urgency. It's kind of like, oh, I looked in something, but I'm not a salesperson. And he has this, but that.

And in a situation like this, if I'm being truly honest, Sarah, like you guys don't have the ability to sit on your hands whatsoever. Like when you're in this situation, it's like any job's a good job. Any job's a good job until I get the job, right? And I think that's what you're going to have to embrace is you're in a situation where you're not earning enough to, when I say you're, I mean you and your husband collectively are not earning enough to support your family. Thank goodness you've got this $5,000 there. But like you said, to your point, you're going to keep burning through that if we don't today decide I'm gonna get a job like i'm gonna get a job until i get the job and for you that's why i'm asking i'm like okay he's not working if he's

home at 3 30 boy he's going right back right back out and go back out or you're going out somebody's going to work he's coming back home and then he's doing military stuff that's unpaid okay then you're going to work no when the kids go to sleep is he getting paid overtime no so he's making 36 grand working over 40 hours a week well that no when he gets home he's doing military stuff and that's... Listen, something about this has to shake loose. Something about this has to shake loose because... What's left on this car loan?

Eleven. I think this car can go. Do you guys need two cars right now? Yes, because when he's gone, I would be without transportation. To like a doctor's appointment, grocery store? Can you go out once he's home? Well, like when he's gone, you know, because as I said... Can we sell it and downgrade to a 5,000 car?

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Sorry, I'm getting frustrated. Here's where we're at. Whatever you look for, you'll find. All right, Sarah. And right now, I don't think you want to find the solution. I think you want to go on WIC. And I think you want that to be the solution. And it doesn't matter what George or I says. For you, what we're hearing back right now is no that won't work and I can't do that because of this and nope can't do that listen then stay in debt right what's your if you don't want to take any of the advice then the option is I stay in debt and I go on wick you have to look at both sides of this equation or you can embrace doing something

very unconventional for you, very different, very outside your norm, very outside your comfort zone. And then you get to where you truly want to go, which is out of a stressful place with money, out of borrowing from your savings every single month in order to make ends meet. But you have to be willing to accept the solution. George and I can give solutions till we're blue in the face. But if you don't want to actually accept them and embrace the suck and actually go out and do it, then go on WIC.

Choice is yours. Maybe time to embrace the suck. Or sell the house and rent. Or sell the car. Or go make more money. If she had called in and we said, well, Sarah, there's nothing we can do for you, she would have been pissed at us. But instead we gave you a long laundry list of choices. You don't want to take them. Listen, we can only do so much. This is The Ramsey Show.

All right, this is The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw, George Camel. To my right, we're your hosts today. If you want to get on the phone lines, you have a question that's burning in your soul, you can ask that question. The number is 888-255-225. And you'll go to the phone screener, the wonderful Austin, who will make sure that you can come on here and not talk crazy. And so that's how that works. We trust him with our whole life, Jay. We truly do.

We trust Austin big time. He does a great, great job. All the guys in the booth today, they're all guys doing an excellent job keeping things up and running. And it's funny because, you know, when calls come through, George, we can see a little, just like a little. A one-line summary snippet. Yeah, kind of what they're going to be talking about. And our last call, you know, it was a young lady who they were just dealing with the frustrations of a income that's too low,

a core income that's too low, it's not sustainable. And they had the hope of a raise on the horizon, but what is kind of far on the horizon. And so of course they're worried, like, what do we do? Maybe we have to go on WIC. And so George, you and I kind of laid out what I think were wonderful suggestions to not have that be the case.

And what I want to say about that is, you know, obviously if you call this show, we're going to give you advice. You're never going to call this show and us go, oh, well, there's nothing you can do. We're never going to say that to you. We're never going to say your situation is hopeless. We're never going to tell you

there's nothing that you can do. And well, just depend on the government. You're never ever going to get that answer from us. So don't be surprised when what we tell you to do sounds a lot like work. It's gonna sound a lot like you getting out of your comfort zone. It's gonna sound a lot like you embracing

a different philosophy, possibly surrounding your life and your money. And listen, get excited about that because the option is staying the way you were. And so it leads me, George, to an observation that i've made and you can see if sometimes you fall into this camp if you're listening but you know sometimes people would rather be right than happy oh well i always want to this is what i secretly want to ask the

caller are you looking for confirmation or do you actually want help she wants to be right that there's i shouldn't say this some help she wants to be right that there's i shouldn't say this some callers want to be right that there's no way out there's nothing to do i get then be happy and embrace the fact that we're giving you an answer that's going to lead you to peacefulness more happiness less stress like but you if you'd rather be right that there's no way out then be right well it's like that that friend who likes to vent and complain to you and i think the healthy thing to ask that friend before they start on one of their rants is go do you want me to just listen or do you want solutions and if you just want to listen you

vent that's fine yeah well yeah okay we can waste some time but if you're looking for solutions i'll give them to you if you're actually wanting that yeah so i think that happens with callers a lot and when i know they're not going to take the advice jade here's when they i call it getting wailed because they go well and i go oh whatever whatever's on the other side of that well is going to be a justification an excuse of why they can't and what happened what riled you up is that we just kept hitting wall after wall after wall and i'm like these are things that you and i have both done it's not even hypothetical When we didn't have enough money, we just went and got more jobs. That's right. And I think something, you know, we can kind of hear it in your calls. I love the book. It's called Never Split the Difference by Chris Foss. And it's about negotiating. But he

talks about this concept that takes place when you're negotiating with somebody where they move from just saying, yes, yes, I know. Yes, I know too. That's right. And what happens is a lot of times you guys, we have folks call on the show and they're kind of used to our, our principles and, and maybe somewhere in their head, they're like, yeah, that's right. I probably should live on, you know, yes, I should live on less than I make, or yeah, I should budget or, you know, yeah, there might be a way for me to do better in this situation. But when you're, you mentally move to the point of that is right, not just me agreeing and going, yes, yes, yes, yes.

But when you go, that's right. I do need to get a job. That's right. I can make a better use of my time. That's right. I am being a little bit lazy. That is right. That's when you start to see that mental shift.

And that's huge because you're accepting that this is the right way to go forward. And it's an accurate depiction of what's going on as opposed to you just going, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's basically, well, it's basically the same thing, George. Well, a lot of people, Jade, on these calls, they'll paint themselves into a corner and they'll go, well, I have two crappy options. It's either I withdraw from my 401k or I stay in debt forever or I move the debt around. I'm going, there's options C and D and E

and F, but they have a limited vocabulary. They only know the two letters of the alphabet. There's A and B. And so we can't see it like that. There's so many more options out there, but you got to be willing. You got to be willing to amputate the Tahoe, as Dave has said, for 30 years and sell the car and get the second job and maybe move to a cheaper area or downgrade in house or sell the house or maybe you go to work and put the kids in daycare because you can make more money doing that listen if it's not ideal it's almost like you know you go you go to the doctor for your checkup right and they're like listen your triglycerides are high your cholesterol is high if you don't change your diet you're putting yourself at risk for a heart attack or stroke.

And in the moment, you're like and they're telling you all these things that you can do to lower your cholesterol, to lower your, you know, to make yourself a healthier person. But in your mind, you're going, oh, man, if I have to give up bread, meat or man, if I have to like pull back on the salt intake and you're looking at all the negatives and how it's going to feel in a moment if you have to make those adjustments and most of us we just go away and go in the in the moment in the doctor's office we're going yeah yeah i know you know i need to i need to do this but it's not until we hit that like that moment you have that health scare you have that moment that you're like oh my gosh he was right like that's right i do need to make these changes and so it's almost like george sometimes people really do um have to hit that rock bottom moment or like we've called we call it here that i've had a moment that it's like listen the uj just calls me back when you're

ready yeah call me back when you're really ready to change when you hit rock bottom oh so good george good stuff and and let me just say because i i just want to say this if we ever um take some time and really come back and talk about a situation or we we you know we we had to give her a little bit of tough love there we love you guys like we we truly care about you i'm never gonna you know deliver the paddle just out of fun. It's truly, I want you to get this. Like, I don't want her to go on WIC. I want her to get control of her money and be able to look back on this moment and go like, that was the catalyst.

That was the moment that changed everything. And I want her to come back here and be on the debt-free stage. Like, all of us just simply want the best for you. We want you to have a stress-free life with your money. We want you to be able to live and give like no one else we want you to be able to experience the same peace that we experienced from walking through the baby steps and changing our whole perspective and how we view money we want you to experience that so that's what the show is all about don't ever get it twisted and think well they're just being mean or they're just yelling at her it's never that and i hope that you

can see that um in our heart in the way that comes across all right that's it katie in kansas city missouri we're coming for you what's going on katie hi thanks for taking my call um so my husband and i um have followed your steps and we are debt free we have um about a million dollars saved. Yeah. We are renting right now because we moved to a different state. And when we moved, there was nothing that we could find that we wanted to buy at the time. And so we're renting right now. We have the opportunity to build a house on my mom's property.

She actually gave us a portion of her property, and it's $500,000 is what we would spend on building the house. We have five children. It's a 2,800-square-foot house. What's your question? Just because we're up against the clock, I want to make sure we get you help. We're just wondering if this is a good financial choice for us. We're worried about how it's going to affect our retirement. Why would it affect your retirement? To take 500k from the million to do the house? Yeah. How old are you guys? 42. Oh, no, you can't touch retirement.

Is it in a brokerage or is it in 401ks? No, so half of it, so 500,000 of it is in retirement. Is it in a brokerage or is it in 401ks? So half of it, so $500,000 of it is in retirement. The other $500,000 is just in high interest savings and some mutual funds and stuff that we can, that's liquid. Was that earmarked for this house? Well, kind of because we sold our last house before we moved. And so we have that into an account that is just earning interest right now. Listen, if the money is liquid, it's not terrible. It's not a terrible idea at all. Most people's wealth is sparse between their investment accounts and their personal residence. And you've got plenty of time to build up more retirement investing.

I would pay cash for this place. I would too. And then just... Yeah, that's what we're planning to pay cash. We're just wondering if it's going to... Go to an investment calculator. Pop in $500,000 that you have now plus

all of the future amount you're going to invest for the next 20 years from 42 to 62. I think you guys are going to be just fine, especially with no house payment. Ding, ding. $500,000 house in cash? That's something to be amazing. $500,000 house in cash. Woo! That's something to be excited about.

This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by George Campbell, host of the YouTube show, The George Campbell Show, and also author of the new book, Breaking Free from Broke. An honor to host next to you, George. It's an honor to be with you as well, Jade. Awesome. So let's go to the phone lines where we've got Leslie from Atlanta, GA.

What's going on, Leslie? Hi. Well, I wanted to say hi, but I'm sorry. I'm a housewife with two kids, and my husband works and makes about $1,500 if he works Saturdays. I also have a mortgage, another mortgage that I rent out to my dad and to other renters. Okay. And I make about $2,900 in that house, but the mortgage in that house is $1,300.

And I just want to, we also have a car loan that is $375 monthly. Well, how much is the whole car? How much do you owe on the entire vehicle? Like what's the full balance? Um, 20 or 19,000. Okay. Keep going. And that was, that was about it. What's your question? So how can I help my husband save or how can we invest in a Roth IRA? I just want to help him out. Okay.

Let me go back right quick because I think I missed the very first thing you said. When you said $1,500, what was that? My husband, that's what he makes weekly. Per week. Okay. I'm talking $6,000 a month. What was that? My husband, that's what he makes weekly. Oh, weekly. Okay. Okay. And then you've got a primary residence, which is where you live, and then you've got a rental that you're renting out,

and then you've got the car note, right? Do you have two mortgages? Yes, sir. Okay. So let's just get some particulars here. The rental, what do you owe on that? Like what's the whole enchilada? $95,000 for that other house and the house that I'm staying at right now is $60,000 to pay for the mortgage. Okay, that's all you owe on it. And then you've just got the car. So what

I hear, and I don't know if you meant this this but it sounds like you and your husband kind of do your money separately yes a little bit okay and it sounds like you're saying how can I help him save so can you tell me what his debt is just for the sake of the conversation like tell me about his financial snapshot he has no debt at all. So then help me understand why you feel like you're helping him save as opposed to, I want us to save and have more savings as a family. Because my debt is, well, his debt is the house. My debt is the other house and the car. And I just want to get rid of all the payments. But I need to like, I need help or guidance to how to how to pay it off like fast.

Yeah. OK. Or if I should even do that. The first I think the first thing here is I really I mean, how long have you guys been married? We've been married for three years. OK, three years. Now's the time for you guys to be like, all right, We've been married for three years. Okay, three years. Now's the time for you guys to be like, all right, we've been married for three years. Who knows how long you were together before that?

It's time to combine this thing. You have kids? Yes, sir. We have two kids. So you combine DNA but not bank accounts? Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. It sounds crazy because it's kind of crazy.

Is it a trust thing? thing like why did you guys keep them separate no it's just we haven't really talked about joining them together and also um but why is that because you talked about having kids i think i know why i think it's like i feel like you feel guilt about the fact that you have, and I'm just using your words. These are not my words. I think you feel guilt over the fact that you have car debt and you have this rental debt, but maybe because you're not bringing in cash money that you feel like,

okay, maybe if I frame it up in a way of I'm helping him, does that make sense? That's kind of what I'm hearing here. That's how I feel in a way, because it is a lot of money that I need to put into other things. It is, but it's not that listen, it's debt, but it's not like you didn't call in here being like, I've got a hundred thousand dollars and I've got all, you know,

this long laundry list of debts. Okay. Yes. You've got a $19,000 car. Yeah. We probably need to pay that off. But what I really want... Yes, I'm thinking of... Sorry. No, that's okay. What I really want is... What we're getting to on this call is really not the $19,000 of debt. That's a problem, and you can get that paid off. But what will really make this easier is you both have to feel comfortable to be who you are in the marriage, and who you are as somebody who came in with debt, who he is as somebody who came in with mortgage debt, who he is as somebody who makes $6,000, which is a great contribution to the home, and who you are as somebody who's a stay-at-home mom

with two kids who makes a great contribution to the home. Do I think that you could benefit maybe from going out and getting some extra work and bringing in some money? Absolutely, but not to claim a place of equality in the marriage or a place to where now you're doing your part, not in that sort of way. So I do think that you and your husband probably need to have some conversations of, you know, what would he say if you said, listen, I feel a lot of guilt over the fact that I have this debt. And I kind of feel like we're, you know, we have two separate goals. Like you have your money. I have my money.

What could it look like for us to combine? What do you think he would say if you said that? He's really supportive. It's just me. Like I kind of don't want to put that pressure on him. I feel like it would be a big pressure. How are you paying for the car right now? With the rent money from the other house. So where does his money go? How are you paying for the car right now?

So where does his money go? So if you got rid of this rental, you would have $0 of income and you wouldn't be able to pay your car note? And what would happen if the money that he's bringing into the household paid the car note? Or paid the car off what would happen um we actually talked about just like um going month a month and paying paying it off for just two years okay we'll finish paying it off in two years i think all of your plans suck right now because you guys are not aligned with your financial goals. I feel the same way. He makes great money.

You guys have money in savings? Yes, sir. How much? I don't know how much he has, but I have just about $2,000. That's a problem, Leslie. That's a huge problem. That's a big problem. That you have no transparency and accountability in this marriage.

I would have a come to Jesus meeting tonight and go, I need to know exactly what's happening with our finances because it's our finances, because we decided to get married. We decided to have kids and I haven't done a good job paying attention. You own it. Don't come accusatory. Just say, I have not done a good job and I own that. And I want to do better. I want us to get on a plan together. I want us to pay off my car loan. I want us to pay off our mortgage loan. I want us to pay off our mortgage. You got to change the pronouns here if you're ever going to make progress, because you called in saying, I want him to retire sooner, right? That's a goal. That's a shared goal

that hopefully you both have. The only way to do that is if you work together and you combine finances and you attack these goals together with intensity. Yeah, because I look at this and I go, oh, man, like you guys, your situation financially, it's not it's far from the worst I've ever seen. Let me just put it like that. I look at these just the numbers and I go, oh, wow. If they wanted to, she could probably sell this rental and whatever that brings. They could probably pay off their primary home mortgage and pay off their car. And you might have enough in savings to pay off your car today. You have no idea yeah the thing is that um it's just kind of my mom kind of gets in the way and she's like that that house has

nothing to do with your husband like don't oh so she's saying keep your side, keep your side thing, keep your side thing as a, as a fallback. It's something that's there. That's the complete wrong way to enter into a marriage, which is I'm going to keep this piece on the side just in case. That lets me know that where I sit, if you enter into something like that, it's telling me one or two things. It's either telling me they've given you a reason to create that fallback. Like they've shown you something that's made you feel like I need to make sure I got mine on the side just in case,

or you're carrying previous baggage into it that's causing you to react in that way. Neither which is good. I would suggest that you guys sit down with a good marriage counselor because I think that this is this is not a money problem like this is not a numbers problem this is you feeling secure in your marriage you feeling like you can trust your husband him feeling like he can trust you and you feeling like you have a vote which you do yeah you do oh I want this sorted out please listen better help is great I use them. My husband uses them. You guys find a marriage counselor and get this sorted out. This is The Ramsey Show.

You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Our scripture and quote of the day, 2 Corinthians 4-7 says this, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. Jordan Peterson said, work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see if it happens. Ooh, that's perfect. That's the baby steps. I like that. Work as hard as you can at at least one thing and see what happens. Love that, Jordan. All right. Very, very good.

All right, George, I say we hit these phone lines with a vengeance. Let's go to Solis in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. What's going on? Yes. Hello, everybody. Thank you for taking my call. I am new to Ramsey listening to your podcast. I enjoy them very much.

I have now become obsessed with trying to pay off my primary mortgage. Cool. I'm obsessed now. And so my question is with regards to my investing. My little backstory, I'm 56 years old. Okay. I'm single. I do very, you know, my income gross-wise

between my business and an investment property that I do like short-term rentals is up to about $300,000. That's gross. Okay. I'm 1099, so I have to pay my own taxes and I pay into my insurances and I pay into my retirement and things like that. I'm now finally out of credit card debt. I have no debt. My car is paid off. I have two mortgages, of course, my investment property, which the income that I get

more than pays off for everything required in that property. What's the mortgage on it? $186,000. Cool. And then I just built my forever dream home. And my mortgage balance is about $437,000. Okay. On your primary. I don't want to be in my 70s still paying a mortgage. Right.

How much are you investing right now? I'm investing maybe about 10% of my gross salary all right how much do you have in your nest egg and investment retirement accounts total it's over 500 000 uh right now um and you're putting about 30 000 in roughly a year annually yes sir okay hey are you um are you living on a budget? What's that? Aha! And there lies the problem. Because I'm looking at you.

I'm like, okay, this is a boss, babe. She's doing her thing, making $300,000 a year. She bought her dream house for $437,000. You got $500,000 in retirement. There's certain things that you're really, really doing right. But if you say to me, listen, I'm 56 and I want this house paid off, I'm looking, okay, I'm like, you're on a $300,000 income. What would it look like if you lived on 150?

Well, you know, 300, I think is what I did in 2023. So I didn't always do that, but this is what I'm doing, and it's probably going to go up every year because my income will go up. Of course. But you're paying almost $100,000 in taxes a year as well? Not exactly that, because

thankfully I have some good business expenses and I write things off from the property and all that stuff. I'm just wondering where all of your net income is going. Yeah, I'd like to know that too. I think you're doing really well on the investing side and saving side, but I think you're spending a whole lot of money too. I do too. Well, I will agree with you.

I am having a good time. I'm not going to lie about that. I mean, I do whole lot of money, too. I do, too. Well, I will agree with you. I am having a good time. I'm not going to lie about that. I mean, I do a lot of traveling. I play golf twice a week. I mean, I'm having a good time. Good. Yeah, and you should have a good time. But I also want to know that your other goals are taken care of first.

And so you're talking about investing. Are you wanting to pay off the house faster by doing something differently? Well, so this was my thought process and this is why I'm calling. So this was probably the most in 2023. I was floored when I opened up my statement for my property management company as to what the gross income was on the property for 2023. So I'm very happy about that. So I'm just wondering, I was thinking of just every time the property management company makes a deposit into my account from a rental, I just want to plug it and pay the principal on my primary mortgage. Okay. And what's wrong with that?

Well, then I was also thinking, should I just, in addition to that, hold off on my retirement? No, I think you need to up your retirement. You make enough money that you're technically in what we call baby steps four, five and six. Baby step four is you're investing 15% of your income, your gross income every month. And then five doesn't apply to you. But six is you're paying off your home. And so you should be able to do both of those simultaneously. And because you have such a nice income, you should be able to do them both very well simultaneously. Like you can do your 15% and put a very nice, decent chunk towards paying off this home mortgage.

There's no reason that you should retire with either of these mortgages if you really put the pedal to the metal. And I mean, depending on how intense you are about this, because when you called in, you said, listen, I'm obsessed with paying off my primary mortgage. Are you obsessed to the point of selling your rental? That was a thought. That was a thought because I figured, let me take the income from the rental and at least pay half of it down. Because I probably have over $200,000 worth of equity in the investment property. And so my thinking was, let me just try to pay as much of this down for the next couple of years and then maybe sell my investment property

and take the equity and just pay off the rest. Why not? What's wrong with that? What's wrong with you taking? And I think you should do again. This is not an excuse for not doing a budget. I still want you to do a budget and see real numbers because just saying, listen, I'm going to take this check and pay that off.

That's great. But you might find in the budget that you have more money to put with it. And it not really affect your lifestyle all that much and make some headway faster. You know, baby step six is all about being very intentional. You don't have to be like scaled back on, you know, barely living. But you might do a budget and go, okay, listen, there's some money that's getting piddled away. And I would rather use it in this way to pay off the mortgage. You might find that.

And so taking those rent checks and maybe a little bit more money and adding it with it. And maybe you give yourself a two to three year timeline and say, I'm going to pay this down for the next two to three years. And then at that point, I'm going to sell this and use the equity and have a completely paid for primary mortgage. And then as you continue to age, you might decide that you want to stack up some more cash and buy another rental completely in cash. You got options, girlfriend. So I would not pause investing. I just did the math for you.

From 56 to 62, if you did nothing, you just left the 500 grand sitting there in good mutual funds, you'd have about 900,000 at 62 with a 10% return. But if you invest 15%, it'll be closer to 1.3 million. If you just diligently put away 15% every year into retirement accounts and investment accounts. Okay. Cause right now I have a, I have a traditional and I have a Roth and I guess with the wealthy, because of my income, I can't really contribute too much.

To the IRA? After tax to that, yes, sir. Yeah, the Roth IRA does have income limits, but you can do a backdoor Roth. So I would connect with a SmartVestor Pro at RamseySolutions.com. They can help you set that up. You're basically funding the traditional IRA with after-tax money and then converting it over. Yeah, because that was my concern because, you know, that that's 500 000 is pre-tax sure well i wouldn't go convert it all to roth that's not wise either that's too much that's too much um because i would say like taxes and stuff like that right yeah no i'm not trying to

i'm not trying i just want to make sure that 10 years from now you can actually retire so you don't once you're not making 300, I want your investments to make you $300,000. That's a good retirement. I will say this is probably a banner year. 2023 is a banner year for me. And so I see it's just going to continue, you know, God willing, for the next couple of years. So while I am here, while I am in this situation. While you're making this money, you need to keep living like you're making $100,000.

And that's how you're going to make this money work for you. Invest 15%, knock out the mortgages. That's the game plan. I would put that on a four-year plan. By the time you're 60, this thing has got a bow on it. At the birthday party. Y'all are celebrating. Get the friends together.

I know. That's right. Paid off home mortgage. We gave you the way to get there. It's up to you to walk it out. Ooh, George, I enjoyed hosting the show with you. Hey, don't forget, we're going to be taking your questions

in this Every Dollar Q&A coming up 5 p.m. Central time. On the Ramsey Show YouTube channel. Don't miss it. That's right. We'll see you there. This is the Ramsey Show. Take care.