The Ramsey Show - App - Finding Freedom in Practicing Contentment (Hour 3)
Episode Date: September 24, 2018The show about you...
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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show,
where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.
I am Dave Ramsey, your host.
Thanks for joining us.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
That's 888-825-5225.
Brandon starts us off this hour in Memphis, Tennessee.
Hi, Brandon. How are you?
Hey, I'm good. Yourself?
Better than I deserve. What's up?
So, I'm in my mid-20s, and I have this vision of creating a foundation for helping people buy their first home.
And I'm just wondering how, A, you would start maybe budgeting that or planning for that financially.
Okay. Are you planning to fund it? Is that your dream or vision?
Or are you planning to have donations funded? Well, I'd like to first make sure it would work as a program
and then maybe seek outside funding if it was successful
to maybe grow it through outside funds.
Okay. Well, very cool.
Well, I mean, ultimately the only way to fund a personal foundation
is personally, and that
means you've got to make the money, right?
Yes, sir. And so, like,
a lot of multi-millionaires
and billionaires that I know have personal
foundations. The Ramsey family has their own
foundation, and we fund
it. We do not take outside
donations, and then we make
the decisions.
My oldest daughter is the director of the foundation, and that's her full-time job is to vet the ministries that we're giving to.
We don't give to very many, but we give liberally to those that we do.
And so she goes through and vets those.
But it's funded from, well, from my income is where it's funded from and my assets.
And later on, though, it'll be generationally, the next generation will fund it with their income.
But it's not set up, nor was the vision for it to be funded with outside donations. And, again, I know several billionaires personally that actually my daughter's friends with their operators
that direct their foundations.
And, again, it's one of the ways they control their charitable giving and do it in a way that's wise
rather than just willy-nilly out of their back pocket, so to speak.
But all of that to say, at 20 years old, the way you fund it is you go make a lot of money
and you put money in there, right?
No kidding, duh.
But then the other possibility is to create something that has a proven track record with
some amount of money or some process and then form the nonprofit or the foundation around
that and have other people donate to it.
You can go that direction.
Is that logical?
It's only two ways I know to do it anyway.
I just wanted to make sure the program would work.
That's why I said, I guess, me start it off, you know,
because I don't want anything to fall on, you know, definitely helping people.
Well, I can assure you of one thing.
It won't work the way you think it's going to.
I've never started anything in business that the way I thought it was going to work is exactly the way it turned out.
It always, you always turn the ship.
You always course correct.
Oh, we're a little off to the right.
Oh, now we're a little off the left.
Oh, and sometimes you're like way off and we've got to make a hard turn, right?
So you'll get in there and you will learn stuff about what you
think you're trying to do and about the way people react to it that cause you to change it so uh the
only way that that happens is just experience and what my guys call proof texting meaning you put it
in or social testing you put in the marketplace and actually observe how it behaves and then we
adjust and then we adjust and then we adjust and then we adjust, and then we adjust, and then we adjust, and then we adjust.
Even something as massively successful as Financial Peace University is on its, I don't know,
100th version, all the different things we've changed over the years.
I don't know how many different prices we've had.
It used to be $569, and now it's all the way down to $129, and that kind of stuff. So it used to be 26 weeks.
Now it's a one-year membership with nine weeks of courses.
So there's all these different things that change, but it's still the same core principle.
It's how we go about what we're trying to accomplish that changes, not what we're trying to accomplish.
And so in your case, you're trying to help people with housing.
And how you go about that, the program that you think is going to work won't work.
It's just you don't know what's not going to work, so you try it.
And then you get, oh, I've got a bruise on that side of my leg.
I'm not going to put my leg over there again.
Oh, I've got a bruise on this side of my face.
I'm not going to put my face over there again.
And, you know, you get these bumps and bruises along the way, and you course correct, and you find the right way.
In other words, it's going to take you some
time and i don't know how to test that theory out unless you got someone to participate with you and
they wanted to work with you financially in order to help test the theory out and that might be an
existing foundation that did that rebecca is with us in austin texas hi rebecca how are you
oh hi dave i'm super excited to be speaking
with you. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Well, my husband and I
are set to finish up Baby Steps 2 and 3 in the next probably seven or eight months, and we're
starting to think about homeownership. Great. But the issue, yeah, I mean, it's exciting, but
you know, we're not sure how long we want to stay in Austin or where we're going to end up eventually.
And so our kind of question is, does it make sense to keep renting and invest in good mutual funds with the idea that we'll eventually just pay for a house in cash once we figure out where we're going?
Or should we buy something, you know, even though there's a possibility of us moving in probably two to three years.
Okay.
Well, I guess I would weigh out the probability, not the possibility.
You know, there's nothing wrong with just saying, I'm going to save up and pay cash
for a house.
It's very unusual, but so is being wealthy.
The 100% down plan is a very unusual plan.
I love the plan.
It's the only one I use.
But it's hard to get everybody to do that.
So you wouldn't be outside of the things I teach to do that, to say we're just going to save up and pay.
But that would just be because I don't want to be in debt, not because I'm afraid to buy a house.
Now, then the other question is you say, okay, we might be moving in three years.
Why might you be moving?
Well, we know that we don't want to stay in Austin in the long term.
We're here for my husband's new job, and it's a startup company, so the exit time is probably going to be three to four years,
depending on how quickly they can scale the business.
But we don't know.
Exit meaning they're going to start it up and take it public or sell it?
Yes, it's going to be sold most likely.
And then he'll bail?
Exactly.
Okay.
And supposedly the timeline on that is three to four years?
Yeah, I mean, give or take a little.
Who knows what actually happens, but that's the rough estimate that we're working with.
Okay, and at that, you would leave Austin?
Potentially.
We want to move to Florida, which is where my family's at.
Okay.
All right.
I probably would rent because I don't think you're going to even be there as long as you're staying.
Yeah.
I think if he came home today and said, I took a job in Florida, we're moving, you would
jump for joy.
Yes. We'd be gone, for sure.
Yeah, you're ready to leave.
The only thing that's got you there is this one thing, is the back end of this sellout on this startup.
That's the only thing.
That's the only thing that's waving in the air.
And as soon as that carrot gets a little gray and is not a pretty shiny carrot, you're gone.
Or as soon as it concludes its business and you take your liquidity event and you head
out to Florida, one of the two.
I don't think you're going to stay there three or four years, so I'd rent.
But if I thought there was a high probability you were going to be there four years, I'd
probably tell you to buy it.
But I don't think you're even going to be there two.
That's my opinion just listening to you.
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Eric is with us in Phoenix, Arizona.
Hi, Eric.
How are you?
Very good, Mr. Ramsey.
It's a pleasure to speak with you.
You too.
What's up?
Oh, not too much.
Actually, I am recently debt-free, so I've completed baby step one and two.
So now I'm off to step three.
But my question is, I've got a rental property, and so I've got a first and a second on that property.
And just recently I was at the bank, and it was brought up to me that I could actually combine both the first and the second into one single loan.
And I didn't know whether it was a good idea to do that or not.
It is if you come out with an interest rate or terms advantage as a result.
Are either one of these variable rate mortgages?
The second is a variable rate.
Yes, and it's currently at 4.99%.
Okay.
And then the first is currently at 3.6%.
And I only owe just shy of $38,000 on the first.
The second, unfortunately, it's twice that amount. So another $70,000.
Correct. Okay. And so we've got like $100,000.
And does either one of these have a call or a balloon, the second?
Probably does. No. It doesn't? No, it does not. Fully amortized.
What did they offer you?
It's 4.75% 10-year loan.
So the payment on those two loans combined would be roughly $1,400 a month.
What is it now?
Well, the first is $560 a month, and the second is at almost $900.
So it would be roughly the same.
Very close, yeah, within a few dollars one way or the other.
It sounds like they're going down a little bit in payment.
I mean, you can run the numbers out as an aggregate.
It sounds like it's about a break even on the interest rate, though.
Correct.
And so you're going up on your $40,000 or your $38,000 and down on your $70,000 by a quarter.
Not much, but there's no huge advantage to doing this.
If you break even on the interest rate, I don't know why you do it.
If they want to give you a little better rate, I might do it, but that rate sounds high.
Correct. It's rate sounds high. Correct.
It's 4.75.
I mean, I'd actually have to do something else.
I think I would do it because it gets rid of the variable five.
Correct.
I would do it to get rid of it.
They're not charging you closing costs, right?
I think they would be, yes.
There would be some minimal costs, which would probably be added on to the loan itself.
These are both bank loans now?
One of them is through HomePoint.
The other one is through Bank of America.
And who's offering you this?
Bank of America.
Keep shopping.
Keep shopping.
Yeah, Bank of America can't be trusted with anything.
Talk to a local regional bank and see what they'll offer you.
What's this property worth?
According to Bank of America, it's at $265,000.
Okay, so it's kind of a no-brainer loan.
Like they've got a three-to-one equity position here, right?
I mean, you're a 30% loan to value.
It's kind of falling off a log to figure out this is probably okay.
And they're charging $475,000.
You should be able to get $4,000 to four and a half with no closing costs.
That's what I'd be looking for.
Four to four and a half, no closing costs.
I just made that up.
Okay.
Okay, I have no basis for that whatsoever, except that I have no Bank of America,
and if they're offering $475, I know you can beat it.
Okay.
And so shop your local.
You got a credit union?
You remember of a credit union?
Yes, actually, with the american lease and we do bank through uh desert financial call them and see if they
want to make a loan tell me you got a 250 260 000 property that 100 000 loan no closing costs
and and what would be the interest rate and put it on about a seven-year. I think you can pay it off faster than 10.
Okay.
Don't you?
I think so.
It's because my current process I've been paying, although this is, again,
my rental property, but the amount is so low,
I was really hoping to get this thing paid off probably within the next two to three years max.
Yeah, so you definitely don't want to pay closing costs.
Correct.
And really, again, you're not, what are we talking about here?
We're talking about a 1% savings on $100,000.
You know, this is $1,000.
It's not going to change your life.
Okay, so don't go to a lot of trouble to do this.
But if you can real easily get a $100,000 loan, basically, at around $4,000
and no closing costs, yeah, it helps a little.
Make sure there's no prepayment penalty because you're not going to keep it that long.
Put it on seven years and pay it off in two.
Very well.
Get after it, man.
That's a good plan.
I like talking it through with you.
Thanks.
Virginia's in Chapel Hill.
Hey, Virginia, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Thank you so much.
It's good to be here.
How can I help? I will turn 62 in December,
and I need to decide whether to take my Social Security now
or pay off my house, which is the only debt I have left,
or wait until full retirement age and take it then.
I don't need the money now for income, but I am concerned that I may need it later.
Okay.
Well, obviously, if you start taking it now, it's going to be less later.
Correct.
By about $500.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so mathematically, the way to calculate it is this.
If you collected all the Social Security between now and, say, 66 or 67, okay,
and you put it in a pile, and you took that amount of money,
and you invested it, would it create the difference?
You see what I'm saying?
So let's do a little bit of math.
What do you think?
Have you gotten a quote from them on what it will be if you took it now?
About $1,500.
Okay.
So it's about $18,000 a year, and we're talking about from 62 to 67, right?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So that's five years.
So 18, and that's five times 90,,000, okay? And $500 a month is $6,000 a year, so you would need to make 6% on your money.
So if you are willing to take the money, never touch it as an example for purposes of deciding, okay?
But as an example, if you took the money and put it all into a growth stock mutual fund,
you'd have roughly
$100,000 in there by the time you get to 67, maybe a little more than that with the growth.
And then if it made more than 6%, you would have come out ahead while you're alive. You definitely
come out $100,000 ahead when you're dead. Because when you die, Social Security dies with you. And
when you die and you have $100,000 in your mutual funds, it goes to your heirs.
So it almost always works out mathematically to take it early.
In your case, you're going to use it to pay off your house,
which is going to do something else.
That's going to increase your wealth overall,
or your need for an income overall is going to be reduced, right?
Yes.
I'm taking it now.
See how I did that and and using it to pay
off the house as opposed to this you can do that but you can't spend it you can either invest it
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761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee, Brent and Stephanie.
Is it Stephanie? Did I do that right?
Stephanie.
Stephanie.
Stephanie.
Stephanie.
Okay.
It's not Stephanie.
It's Stephanie.
That's right.
I'll get this right.
That probably happens to you a lot.
I'm sorry.
All the time.
Welcome, guys.
Where do you all live?
We're in St. Charles, Missouri.
Oh, nice. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. and all the way here to do your debt free screen yes
love it and how much have you guys paid off we paid off a hundred and one thousand dollars
love it how long did this take 13 months whoa and your range of income during that time we made
160 000 that year okay wow so what kind of debt was the $101,000?
That was the house.
You paid off your house?
Yes.
I'm looking at weird people.
I love it.
Way to go.
Thank you.
So did you just cash flow this?
You just lived on nothing?
Yeah, pretty much.
In one year, you paid off $100,000 making $160,000.
Yeah, we did a major downsize.
Okay.
We decided to sell our house and downsize about half.
So we went from a 300,000 mortgage to 100,000.
And of course, with that came selling lots of furniture and clothes and you name it.
We were kind of on a minimalist journey.
Gotcha.
And so everything we sold, we put towards the house.
Oh, wow.
I was making tiny payments every week just so I wouldn't be tempted to spend it. I got you. It went towards the house. Oh, wow. I was making tiny payments every week just so I wouldn't be tempted to spend it.
I got you.
It went towards the house.
Wow.
So you really did this thing.
Yeah.
Amazing.
So what's this house worth?
$200,000.
Very fun.
Very fun.
Making $160,000.
So that is a minimalist journey.
Yeah.
So the guys dropped by the other day.
Are you big minimalist fans?
We are, yes.
We were there.
They dropped by the other day.
They are genuinely great guys.
Yeah.
They were all over this place.
They were on different podcasts and Rachel's TV show and everything else and everyone around here, all the production team and everybody.
They just made instant friends with all of us.
They're great guys.
Really fun.
So that's awesome.
And now Rachel's on a minimalist kick.
Well, a Rachel version. But, yeah. fun so that's awesome and now rachel's on a minimalist kick well yeah rachel version but yeah
yeah they're giving away or are decluttering uh like the number of items per day or the date it
is or whatever the day of the month it is so but she's doing it so that's good it's good yeah it's
big so what did did um the contentment aspect of the minimalist journey, how did that play into you getting out of this debt?
Obviously, it caused you to move down in-house or allowed you.
It didn't cause you.
It allowed you, really, didn't it?
Yeah.
I mean, it's been amazing.
I think it's been freeing.
I tell everybody, like, as I get rid of stuff, like just clothes in our closet or extra dishes that we have it's freeing to not have that
stuff around and now we don't have the space for it um so it's just i don't know it's been great
yeah and that's i wasn't on board at first with the the whole minimalist thing yeah i like to
hold on to things and uh really the last i don't know six months or so it's really you know taken
hold and like she said we don't have we don't have places to put things so we don't purchase them because we don't need them and therefore we don't have anywhere to put them
either so it really kind of plays hand in hand honestly i was telling ryan when i was a kid my
parents in the real estate business and uh when the guys were here and when we would move there
was a box well you know you label the boxes when you move and we literally labeled a box
seldom used kitchen items.
That tells you right there they need to go.
That right there says they need to go.
Totally.
And for sure, we've got clothes like that.
I mean, if you keep that long enough, is it going to come back in style?
It's unbelievable.
Wow.
Amazing.
So congratulations, you guys.
Thank you.
How old are you two?
I'm 33. 34. And a paid for guys. Thank you. How old are you two? I'm 33.
34.
And a paid-for house!
Yes, exactly.
Man, that's got to feel great, doesn't it?
It's awesome.
Yeah, when you take your shoes off and walk out in the backyard, it feels completely different.
Yeah, totally.
It's one of the things we eliminated, actually, is we don't really have a backyard.
So we can go and do trips and things like that now and not worry about anything.
Don't have to about the yard work
anymore the slave to the old lawnmower yeah yeah it's a big deal it changes everything well
congratulations you guys thank you so i you you combine this get out of debt thing with this
minimalist journey which doubles your chance to have a number of people saying you're crazy right
oh definitely you get a double hit yeah yeah you get two two different sets of people saying you're crazy, right? Oh, definitely. You get a double hit. Yeah. You get two different sets of people thinking you've lost your mind.
Did you have cheerleaders, though?
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
We have super supportive family and friends back home.
Who's your biggest cheerleader?
Oh, goodness.
Probably our moms.
It's jumping up and down that your house is paid for.
I know my mom's watching and hers is, too.
Yeah.
Definitely the moms.
The moms.
Definitely, yeah.
The moms like the paid-for house.
At 33 years old, it's very impressive.
I mean, most people live their whole lives with a mortgage.
Not you two.
No.
Because you use this great income, a plan, and a move down.
Yeah.
So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?
For me, it was the budget and then having that goal in mind.
We're big planners, big goal people, and knowing we have that dream, as Chris Hogan talks about, the dream in HD,
we have a reason to get there.
Because we could bore you with the entire story, but it's about an eight-year journey that really took off in that last 13 to 15 months,
and that's when we got a goal.
And the budget for me was was
huge you gotta have something to aim out yes otherwise you're gonna hit nothing absolutely
every time yeah that's very very important what about you stephenie oh i think it's it's definitely
the budget um and you know i hear rachel cruz talk a lot about it gives you freedom and it
does give you freedom like when we came here we budget budgeted to come to Nashville, and so we've eaten at nice places, and we've stayed at nice places,
and it's been okay.
It hasn't been restrictive at all, but it's because we know what we have to spend.
I think it all comes back.
Well, you don't have a house payment here.
This trip's a little different.
We can stay at a nice place.
We're living like no one else now.
That's right.
We paid our price to win.
Absolutely.
And you guys will be able
to build amazing amounts
of wealth with this income
and with no payments
in the world.
You're going to really be set.
Very, very cool.
So you brought the kiddos with you.
What are their names and ages?
Evan and Ella.
Evan is seven
and Ella is five.
All right.
Very cool.
And how are they
on this whole journey?
Oh, they're great.
They're excited.
They actually call you Dan Ramsey.
Okay.
So when we listen to you on the radio, they're, oh, it's Dan Ramsey.
And so they're excited to be here.
That's my son's name, so there you go.
Oh, there we go.
They know what's going on, so they've been along this journey with us.
That's perfect.
Very cool.
Well, congratulations, you guys.
We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspire. That is the next chapter in your story
to
be completely, not only completely
debt free, but now be millionaires.
I think I'm going to go home and clean out my garage after talking to you.
Yeah, you should. It'll go good.
You guys catch the bug.
33 years old
with a paid for house and
everything. Man, I'm so impressed.
Way to go, you guys. Thank you. Alright, it's Brent and Stephanie, Evany and Man, I'm so impressed. Way to go, you guys.
Thank you.
All right, it's Brent and Stephanie, Evany and Evan, I'm sorry, and Ella from St. Charles, Missouri.
Paid-for house and everything.
$101,000 paid off in 13 months, making $160,000.
Count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Okay, you ready, guys?
All right.
Three, two, one.
We're deaf free!
Love it!
Oh, my goodness.
Wow.
There has been this great intersection between the guys doing the minimalist movement.
If you haven't seen it, their documentary is on Netflix,
and they've got best-selling books and so forth out.
And they were in town here doing some events.
Rachel participated with them in the events and went down and answered questions.
But there's been this big intersection between just simplifying the stuff in our lives
and this whole get control of your money,
because there's an element of everything
we teach here that has to do with contentment and minimalism is a type of contentment i'm not
ready to do it yet i've got a big collection of two or three things and um not even gonna have
those guys over for dinner i don't see in all my all those things i need they think i need to get
rid of but they're not judgmental that way they would enjoy enjoy it. But anyway, I am a very content person, but I'm also a very ambitious person simultaneously.
And those things are not mutually exclusive.
They don't even run on the same spectrum, for that matter.
But contentment, contentment will, the ability to release stuff and hold stuff with an open hand,
godliness with contentment, the Bible says, is a great gain.
And so that definitely falls into the minimalist movement, without a doubt.
And there's a portion of my heart that completely aligns with that and with what we teach.
And so we're big fans of those guys and recommend their materials.
Anytime you get a chance to visit with them or watch them, you'll enjoy being around them.
They're great guys.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 18.10,
The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
The righteous run into it and are safe.
Eleanor Roosevelt said,
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience
in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
You are then able to say to yourself,
I lived through this horror.
I can take the next thing that comes along.
Jenny is with us in Houston, Texas.
Hi, Jenny.
Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Hey, Dave.
That scripture you just read is very, very fitting.
Okay, cool.
How can I help?
So my husband and I are really just needing to know our next steps. We recently were, our daughter was diagnosed with a terminally ill,
she was terminally ill, and so she passed away an hour after she was born,
and this was just seven weeks ago.
Oh, my goodness.
We live, yeah, so we moved in with my in-laws
and are just looking for, you know, how soon do we need to buy our next house?
How much should we spend? Those types of questions.
Okay. What did the move have to do with the loss of your daughter? I don't know the connection.
Yeah. So when I was pregnant with her early in the pregnancy is when we found out something wasn't right.
And so we didn't know if this would be something that she could live with but be severely disabled.
And so we didn't know what kind of medical bills we'd be looking at or if we would need
the help of our in-laws to take care of our four-year-old son and be back and forth to
the hospital.
So we sold our house just for flexibility for that.
Okay.
In preparation of the oncoming storm.
That makes sense.
Right, yes, sir.
And I assume you got money from the sale of your house.
We did.
So we have about $105,000 in cash, and we don't have any debt.
And this was seven weeks ago, you said?
Yes, sir.
How old are you?
Very fresh. How old are you? Very fresh.
How old are you?
27.
Okay.
I'm so sorry.
Well, other than just dealing with the raw emotion that any normal human would be dealing with in your situation,
and I'm dealing with just listening to you with grandbabies myself.
Other than dealing with that, mathematically or financially,
I don't know why you wouldn't turn the page and just buy a home
and start the next chapter of this journey that you're on called your life, right?
And that's not to be disrespectful to your daughter that passed,
but it is the next chapter, and that is our reality that we sit in.
And so, I mean, certainly some number of months or years from now,
you won't be living with your in-laws.
You will have a life and a house, right?
Right, and I guess my question would just be like,
we don't know how much we want to spend, and I want to make sure we're not jumping into something, making an emotional decision.
Yeah, I would agree with that. And it's tough that we use around here are don't buy more house than you can put
on a 15-year fixed.
That is a fourth of your take-home pay.
So what's your monthly take-home pay?
About $5,500.
Okay.
All right.
And so that tells us we're in the $1,200, $1,500 range on your monthly take-home,
I mean on your house payment on a 15-year fixed with $100,000 down.
Right.
And you're debt-free, I assume.
We are.
And so we would save some of that for our three to six months.
Right.
Okay.
So maybe, I don't know, $70,000, $80,000 down, whatever, right?
Right.
But with that much down, what mortgage amount, the current mortgage rates,
which are running about, you know, four and a half on a 15-year, roughly,
you know, what does that spit out to be a $1,500, $1,200 house payment?
And, you know, that gives you some guidelines, and you're not going to be in trouble with that.
You're not going to be, quote, unwise.
Now, you know, the emotional part is just out doing anything that you do.
Trying to, quote, normalize your life with this much grief, it just takes a little while, right?
For sure.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It's just a process. And so, you know, what you might do is kind of anytime I'm facing something I don't understand or is new to me,
I try to read something about it.
That's helpful.
And so what popped into my head, and you probably have already done it,
but I'm just trying to think, if I was in your shoes, and I can't even imagine being in your shoes, but I would read the stages of grief, and I would kind of give myself a little bit of guideline and say, okay, I'm going to be in denial this period of time.
I'm going to be angry this period of time.
And so by Christmas, I'm going to be ready to look for a house.
Or by Thanksgiving, I'm going to be ready to look for a house.
Or by Halloween, I'm going to be ready to look for a house.
Or now I'm ready because I've already kind of gone through that or whatever.
You know, it's not to say you're ever going to be completely over this. You probably won't
your whole life. It'll be part of your life, you know. It's part of your story
now and you don't want to forget. That wouldn't be right.
But there is a healing to where you can breathe
better one day than you breathe another day.
Does that make sense?
Absolutely.
So, I mean, I would get where I can breathe good before I start buying a house.
Okay.
That's what I was thinking.
Yeah, and I don't know if it's seven.
I don't think it's a year.
That doesn't make sense to me.
I wouldn't want to live with my mother for a year.
You probably don't.
You're probably ready just to close that chapter and move to the next chapter.
So it would also be okay to rent for six months and just heal.
That would be an okay thing.
It just creates a double move.
Where's your furniture?
So we sold most of it.
We have a tiny storage unit.
I'm a garage sale bargain hunter type person.
So most everything we sold was stuff that I got at garage sales.
And honestly, we made money on it after living on it for three years.
So we kept the furniture that we bought new. What are you feeling like?
What's your husband and you? Between your husband and you, the two of you,
when do you feel like you ought to buy? When do you feel like your head's going to be clear enough to do that?
We kind of talked about the new year enough to do that? We kind of talked
about the new year. Like you said, we kind of talked about
starting to look in January.
Okay. Well, that'd be
alright. Between now and then, we can save probably
another $20,000, $25,000.
I'm not worried about that part. I'm worried
about your broken heart.
Yeah. That's all I'm worried about. I want to just give
your broken heart time to heal a little.
And January sounds good. That feels wise. That's all I'm worried about. I want to just give you a broken heart time to heal a little. And January sounds good.
That feels wise.
Everything's cool living where you're living.
There's no toxic environment, no weirdness there with all this that's going on. Oh, not at all.
Right.
So it's a nurturing environment for this time of your life.
And it's been extremely helpful because we do have a four-year-old.
So the live-in help has been.
Everything's helpful when you have a four-year-old. So the live-in help has been. Everything's helpful when you have a four-year-old.
That's the truth.
We've got five grandkids under four.
When they're all together, one of them is in meltdown at all times.
So, yeah, everything's helpful.
That's the truth.
Well, that's okay.
Yeah, you got some good backstop.
You got Grandma there to help and Grandpa there to help.
And give yourself a little time.
And in the first of the year, we're going to kick into gear again.
And that's when we'll turn the page the rest of the way.
And then we'll just have some time to have Thanksgiving, giving thanks, and have Christmas.
And to have some celebrations.
I like that.
I'm with you.
Okay.
That feels good.
I like that.
And not that you need my permission.
You don't.
And then when you do it, do a 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay,
regardless of whatever your down payment is, okay?
Thank you.
Hey, thanks for the call.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
I can't even imagine.
Wow.
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