The Ramsey Show - App - Gazelle Intensity Isn't For Forever (Enjoy Your Life!) (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Девочка-пай 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 amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw. This is your show, America. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. You can't text us. You can't tweet us. You can't X us.

You can't TikTok us. You got to call the number with your handy dandy phone. It still makes calls, I found out. It does. Still do it. It's not just an internet. Although I'll be honest, I don't like when I get calls now. Unless it's from my mom or my wife or grandma, I don't pick up.

Yeah, don't call me. And definitely don't call me and definitely don't call me and then text me call me after you've called me wow i don't all right i didn't know jade felt that way but now we know 888-825-5225 malaysia kicks us off in san antonio what's going on malaysia hi guys um so my husband and I are about over a hundred thousand dollars in debt and we have a baby on the way and all kinds of debt just kind of overwhelmed and don't know where to start. What kind of debt do you have can you list it out for us? So about 40,000 in credit cards, 20,000 student loans, which haven't kicked in yet because I'm

still currently in school. Okay. So I haven't started paying on those yet. When do you graduate? Next 2025. Okay. Keep going. And then he has a truck. We're both small business owners, so he has a truck that he uses. He does general contracting. That's $35,000 he just got six months ago. And then we have a Mazda that we're about to finish paying off. That's $2,000 left on that. I have a Jeep that's $25,000. And then with his business, he kind of fell behind in paying the taxes. So from 2022, he owes the IRS about $5,000. And then this past year,

he is going to have to pay taxes, you know, at the end of the year, because he didn't pay throughout the year. And then with the insurance, we made too much to qualify for Medicaid, so we have to pay for health insurance. And then the max out-of-pocket for the delivery is going to end up costing us about $9,000. Okay, that's your max out-of-pocket. Okay, good. So we got well over $100,000. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead, George.

I'm getting rid of every car on this list. Okay, that's what I'm looking at. Except for that one that you got $2,000 paid off. I don't believe that he needs a $35,000 truck to do general contractor work. No way. Do you agree or disagree, Malaysia? I do agree. He was actually using the Mazda prior, so that's why we ended up getting the Jeep,

is because the Mazda is kind of trashed out at this point yeah it has a lot of miles on it he like ran it into the ground and then he's like okay i need to i need to get actual work truck okay but he didn't need to spend 35 000 let's be honest about that and he didn't need to go 35 000 into debt yeah so some of this we can clean, some of it we have to crawl out of. What did you spend $40,000 on with the credit cards? That was accrued over years. Just like a bunch of different things. I used to have an RV and I ended up putting a down payment on the credit cards. And then I sold the RV, but then I still came off the credit cards.

And then when we got engaged, we bought the ring with credit cards. Girl! Just a bunch of stuff. I know. Can we both agree that your life is stressful and that you guys work too hard to live this insanity? Yes, absolutely. What are you earning? What are the two of you earning? Tell me yours and tell me

his, please. So, my business, I just started maybe less than a year, like maybe six to eight months ago. So I'm trying to still figure out the numbers. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's an excuse. What have you been earning on average when you take all the average months together and

average them out? What would you say that you earned? What are you paying yourself? Um, maybe like000 a month. Okay. And what about your husband? His varies as well. It's just, it's hard to say because you didn't say it.

No, it's not. What did he make last month? So it's been slow because it's like winter time still but we're start it's starting to warm up and pick up a little bit more um neither of you should be running a business if you don't know how much you made last month last month he made about five thousand okay here's what i think is going on um and i'm just going to call a spade a spade i'm glad you called we want to help you but when i ask somebody how much their business made and they go, ah, it's because in that moment you're realizing I'm this is this is part time or this is a hobby because you're realizing in that moment that although you're

passionate about it, it's not making enough to sustain your household. And I think with your business, as much as you love it and as much as it's a passion right now, you're making twenty four thousand dollars a year before taxes. And so it's it's not a business yet it's something that you're good at and it's something you love but as long as you're making two thousand bucks a month you got to have a full-time job on top of that this right now this is the side hustle and you've got to add another job what are you going to school for um so it's like multidisciplinary studies, which is focusing in business, communication, and health. And what's that going to do for you as far as your career? Well, because I have my business, and I feel like it's a good backing towards me being in business myself.

Like I've been learning a lot more, taking, taking the classes that I have been taking and then the communication behind it because I'm like, you know, the person running everything I'm learning about. But why was now the time to go get, go into student loan debt to get this degree? I had started that prior. I've been like doing that along the way and I'm just kind of like, I want to finish and get my degree because I, because I went to, um, I get my associates and I was like, well, I just want to finish and get my degree because I because I went to um I get my associates and I was like well I just want to finish and get my bachelor's so what's the plan you told me you graduate in 2025 what's the plan to pay for school

from now until then for the next year just like I don't know just kind of yeah you do That's what got us here. Hey, I got to call this out. You got to stop saying you don't know because you do know you just don't want to say. You know that you were planning on taking out student loans the same way that you knew that your pay wasn't enough to qualify as a full time job in the same way that you know that your husband's pay is not enough to qualify as a full time job. Don't say you don't know because we can't solve the problem unless we are willing to look at it and go this is the problem say it out loud and then you know the problem right now is debt and not only debt but you guys have not decided to stop going into debt yet because you still decided I'm going to take on debt to go you know to finish my education so let's just be honest about it we're not mad at you we just want to be honest because we can't help you unless we're honest and the same thing with your income you you. We just want to be honest because we can't help you unless we're honest.

And the same thing with your income. You guys have got to bring in more money because here's the thing. If you choose to keep borrowing money, that income better be on it because who's going to make the payments? Right? So what we want is to get you to a point where you're not borrowing money,

you're paying off your existing debt, and you're using your income that is increasing over time in order to do that. When does the baby do? Okay. September. Okay. Right now we're in stork mode. We got to save up cash because you guys have none of it and we need to make sure that we can cash flow all these medical expenses so we don't go further into debt. In the meantime, I'm looking into selling all these cars and getting whatever we can get with cash to get us by until then. I want this baby to grow up in a debt-free home that is not filled with chaos.

And I don't know that I can say that right now because it feels like your life is going to be chaos unless we make some drastic changes. Yeah. And start paying your taxes. Quarterly estimated payments to the IRS. There's no need for this to be a surprise every single April that we're going to be $5,000 in debt to the IRS. We don't want that. Thanks for the call $5,000 in debt to the IRS. We

don't want that. Thanks for the call, Malaysia. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw. Let's face it, guys, taxes are confusing and they're no fun. And if you buy into some of the tax service ads out there, you'll believe you'll never get a grasp on taxes and you shouldn't even try. Or maybe even worse, they suck you into offers that won't help you win with money. But we think you deserve the truth around here. So here's today's tax tip. Are you ready? A tax refund is not a bonus. It's not? Sorry to burst your tax bubble there, Jade. It's a refund, meaning it was your money all along and you earned that money. You just happened to loan it to Uncle Sam interest-free because of your generosity.

Wow. So if you get a big tax refund, sure, you can have some fun with it and spend it and go on a vacation and buy stuff you don't need. Or you could, I don't know, make sure that you advance your financial journey. There you go. And apply it to your next baby step. That's the smart thing to do. So here's what you need to do. Adjust your paycheck withholdings if you keep getting these big refunds so this doesn't happen again. You want to get as close to zero. So people that are like, I owed $7. I'm like, that's a win. Let's

celebrate. Yeah. I got a refund of $4. That's great. That's a win. Let's celebrate. That means you're doing it right. So if you haven't already filed, make sure you work with a service you can trust. If you've got a complicated tax situation, get a Ramsey Trusted Tax Pro on your side. And if you're comfortable filing on your own with the software out there, check out Ramsey Smart Tax. It's not like the other guys, Jade. It's low upfront pricing, no hidden fees, no agendas. We're not going to bait and switch you at the end because you had an extra form. Right. It's exactly what we say it's going to do.

And it's exactly how much you think you were going to pay. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash tax, and we can help you figure out what situation is best for you. That's ramseysolutions.com slash tax. It's a lot of money on the table for some people. You getting your taxes done yet? Yeah, everything's turned in and just waiting to hear, you know, that magic number.

Did we make it? Did we do it? That's right. Think about it though. Think about the tax returns you've gotten in the past and divide it by 12. And essentially that's the money

that you would receive back into your monthly flow, which is... So if you get a six grand refund, that just means you need 500 bucks back in your life every month that the government hung on to. That's a raise. Especially when everyone's feeling like money's tight. I'm like, but you're cheering about your refund. That just means you need 500 bucks back in your life every month that the government hung on to. That's a raise. Especially when everyone's feeling like money's tight.

I'm like, but you're cheering about your refund. I don't think people realize that it's their money all along. I think they think it's the government giving them some gift. It reminds me of that old commercial. It's my money and I want it now. Yeah. Good job, George. Is that J.G. Wentworth?

J.G. Wentworth. I love it. I think they're still around. Good for them. Good job, George. J.G.? All right. Matthew's up next in Raleigh, North Carolina. Matthew, how can we help you today? Yeah, I'm Matthew Davis. A pleasure to talk to y'all online. So I'm 43 years old. I've been working in law enforcement for the last 20 years. My wife, I'm married and have a wife and two kids. I have a 12-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old daughter.

I'm completely debt-free and have been for the last six months, including my house. That's awesome. Wow. So my question is, with pension plans, I got about eight and a half years to I can fully retire. And my pension will be at least $5,500 a month. At my current pace right now, it'll probably be higher than that. But so how does that factor in to my retirement, like my 401k, because I'm currently saving, um, substantial amount of money because basically after I paid off all my debt, I just kicked it into overdrive with savings and everything.

What's your nest egg? Um, so currently I have, my wife has 200 and 401k i have 135 in my 401k okay um roth ra we have she has000 in just savings accounts. Okay. So is the question, you said in eight years, you'll be able to retire from law enforcement. So that puts you at 51? Yeah, it should be 51, 52. And what's the plan after that, when you stop law enforcement? To go get another job.

Okay. So something that I don't have to work nights and weekends and that'll be more on my schedule. But, you know, I plan to keep working until I'm at least 60, 60, between 60 and 65. What's your household used to earning? um my wife currently makes about 93 i'm my base is 94 um i work a substantial amount of extra duty um our last year we made 247 000 okay awesome and what's that translate to monthly I don't know that number. So it varies because some months I work more off-duty than other months. What's a round number? Like 15 grand a month ends up in your bank account or what? Yeah, that sounds about right. Okay. So we got a good financial snapshot here. So what's your overarching question? So my overarching question is like, I feel like I have to keep working 80 hours a week in order to keep living the lifestyle that we're living. And it's not just like to keep saving at the rate. And I don't know if the

saving at the same rate that I'm saving at currently is completely necessary with the pension plan that I do have, or if I'm just kind of working extra just to build a nest egg and I'm losing out on time with my family a little bit. I would crunch the numbers using, you know, we have an investment calculator on our website and go, all right, I got, we have this much in our 401ks and IRAs. If we contribute this much per month, even at a very conservative average return of, let's say, 8%, how much would we have by 51 or 65 or whenever you plan to keep working? And that will help you get a full picture of pension plus this amount on investments. If we pulled this percentage off each year, we could live off of this. But it sounds like you guys have a pretty hefty lifestyle, even with your hefty income. How far are you from paying

your home off? You said it's paid off? Yeah, my house is paid off. So I'm wondering where all this 15 grand is going every month. Basically into savings. Like we're putting, like I'm putting 23,000 a year into my 401k. My wife's putting $19,000 in her 401k. Okay. We're maxing out our Roth. And then $247,000 sounds like a lot, but when you have taxes that come out of that, you know, so there's a lot of taxes that come involved. That's true. Our monthly expanding is about $2,500 a month just in bills.

Like as far as cell phones, groceries, power, taxes, insurance, stuff like that. Have you looked? Can you tell me what percentage of your income is going every month towards investing? My guess is about 20-something percent. It's about 28% to 30%. Okay, here's the thing. We would call that, you're on baby step seven. And at baby step seven,

you're allowed to jump up your retirement to whatever percentage rate you see fit, whatever feels right. And if you're feeling like, oh my gosh, like we're up against it, like we're not living life. I've got to make 80 hours and work 80 hours a week in order to make this thing happen. That's a sign to pull back

like you've done an excellent job you have no debt your home is paid for you know you've got great benefits from your work I think that maybe in your mind it's like we're playing catch up and we've got to go go go go go but you have the ability to pull your foot off the pedal on this a little bit yeah that's my problem it's like I don't know when to pull the foot off the pedal on this a little bit. Yeah, that's my problem. It's like, I don't know when to pull the foot off the pedal because I know it's like they say you need to have like 10 times into your retirement accounts or whatever else. But with the way it factors with my pension, I don't know how that works out. Well, I mean, you have your pension plus you'll have your nest eggs when that time comes, because here's the thing. You're not stopping working at 51 you're just not going to be in law enforcement

when you're 51 so you're still going to have an income that's still money that you have the ability to put 15 plus percentage of away in retirement and you know a good rule of thumb i think that you should work with an investment professional but a good rule of thumb george is if you can live off the interest that your nest egg is generating, plus your pension, plus your social security, obviously you could account for inflation at some point in there, but that's a good place to start. So if you retire and by the time you retire, you've got $700,000, you've been making a 10% rate of return. You have to ask yourself, okay, that's $70,000 a year plus my pension, plus my wife's, if she has anything, and then plus your social security. So that's just

a very broad way to look at it, but work with an investment professional and get yourself some peace of mind. That's the key. Okay, that sounds great. Don't freak out about it, man. You're on the right track. It may be time to dial back a little bit and enjoy the fruits of your labor. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw, and we've got a special guest on the debt-free stage. Jaden joins us from Frederick, Maryland.

How are you, Jaden? I'm so good. I'm so excited to be here. Yay! Thanks for making the trip. Yeah, it's quite a trip. I'm excited. And you're here because you're debt-free and we're celebrating.

I am, yes. It's been a few months. So luckily I've had a little bit of an experience with it, but yeah, it feels so good. It's still fresh. It's still fresh. It is still fresh. We can hear it in your voice. You're still excited.

I know, I'm so excited. It's crazy to be here. On the other side of it, you look for so long and you just wait, you work really hard and yeah, it's here. And you made it through. It's very difficult to get on the debt-free stage. We get thousands of applications a year and we only take the best. So you are the best apparently. I wasn't at first. The reason why I'm here is pretty intense. Yeah. I made it the second time. Yeah. Well, how much have you paid off? I paid off just under $132,000. Wow.

All student loans. Let's go. Thank you. That's amazing. How long did that take? Just under 15 months. Whoa. Wow.

Okay. What was your range of income during that time? I started at $41,500, which was crazy. And almost all of them were private student loans through Sally Mae. So I looked at um the amount that i was going to be paying and i was like oh my gosh there's no way i can do it um called the people who i knew were good with money they had been through financial peace and yeah then eventually sorry i'm going through the whole story already but wow so you started at 41 from 41 yes

112 000 that's an approximate yeah wow what'd you study? I have a bachelor's degree in international relations and Spanish and a minor in history. So liberal arts. I'm working on studying for my LSAT to go to law school for free. So that is cool. Yes. And what are you doing now for work? I'm a legal assistant. I do paralegal work.

Okay. So you're in the legal field. That's exciting. Good field. And you paid off all of those loans in 15 months. Are the numbers adding up for me? Okay, so there is one small detail. So I was living with my uncle and my aunt

who had previously went through financial peace. And they actually gifted me $19,500 to pay off my federal loans, which was amazing. Yeah, they were more than helpful. I can't even express how thankful I am. That's awesome. And the rest was just hustle and grind. How'd you do it? Yeah, I served. I went to work during the day. I work for an intellectual property firm. So it's a lot of overtime if you get in applications that are urgent. And then so I was able to boost my income that way. And then I just worked like crazy serving. I worked six days a week at a

restaurant and I doubled on weekends. So it was a lot. So you're saying that if you work extra, you can get out of debt? Yeah, that's the key, believe it or not. That and a little self-discipline. Man, tell everybody because a lot of people think it's impossible to pay off student loans, $132,000 at that. I know, I know. I looked at it whenever I first started. So I was watching the shows for a bit once I had talked to my uncle, Todd, and my aunt Liz. And yeah, I just, I don't, I couldn't find anyone who was in the same boat as me who had so many private student loans. My monthly minimums were almost $2,000. I know about that. I know about that girl. I know it's nice to hear your story. Yeah. It was, it was really intense and single paying it off by myself and you know um i actually graduated a year early so all my friends were still in school which was

great i mean it's cool to go visit them and stuff but at the same time i was working all the time so i'm seeing them live their lives i'm an adult now yes i know it hit really hard so how old are you i'm 23 so 23 years old you utilize the resources at your disposal, your aunt and uncle. They're like, hey, we're here for you. You get two jobs. Two jobs. Working overtime. Wow.

Yeah. To push it to six figures. And that helped you knock this out quickly. Yeah. You were intense. So what got you on this Ramsey plan? So I was at school again. Yeah. I was just, I was so stressed.

I was shaking literally because I was so scared of that number. $2,000 a month. How was I going to afford rent and groceries and that? And then I'm saving for a lot, you know, like it's just impossible. So I called them. I knew that they had done a plan. I didn't really know any of the details. I've heard Dave's name before, but that was about it.

Yeah. Yeah. And I knew they were good with money. Gave them a call. I said, hey, this is the situation I'm in. And they were good with money gave them a call i said hey this is the situation i'm in and they were so helpful i love it yeah day one they we pretty much broke it down i moved from pittsburgh to uh yeah to maryland frederick and i just worked that was pretty much it they were like you got this girl so they just showed you the ramsey plan and you were like all right

fine i'll do this yeah yeah you're smart they're good. They're good with money. I'll trust them. Yeah. So the question we get, I know the question I get all the time is how do you stay motivated? And so I'm sure so many people want to know how, Jaden, did you stay motivated? Like you said, all your friends are out here living, living their best life.

Like, what did you do? I think the main thing was just the two of them. My friends, honestly, were really helpful too. Even though they were living their lives, they said, they were like, girl, you you are amazing you should totally do this they weren't doing it which is totally fine everyone moves at their own pace um but yeah they were so everyone was so nice and helpful and honestly I think a lot of it is just self-discipline like you really just have to I think when you see those numbers and you're terrified and that's your only option

that's exactly what it is it's your only option I don's exactly what it is. It's your only option. I don't know. I would have literally just, you can't even bankrupt student loans. So there's nothing else I could do. And then you see the numbers working for you and you see the progress. Yes. You get excited. There's light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an oncoming train. Right. That's exciting. Yes. Initially I thought, whenever I was going to undergrad, I had always thought, I was like, this will be fine. I'm going to go straight through to law school. I'm going to come out. Attorneys make good money. I'll be fine. A, not all attorneys make a ton of money. B, life didn't happen as planned per usual. You know, this should have been expected, but it wasn't. So you said you had to make some sacrifices. What were some of the biggest no's you had to make on this journey as a young girl who's like I want to live my life in YOLO too yeah so my friends went on spring break trips it sounds so

silly saying it out loud it's not though because it's life yeah it really is they were going on trips to Nashville and to the beach and my family was taking trips together and every single even if we went on a family trip and it was covered, it was still, that's money that's being taken away from paying towards the loans because you're not working during that time. So, and I would say other than that,

I think it was really challenging just not seeing, I saw my aunt and uncle a lot, which was great, but you're not seeing your family, like my household family a lot, which. Wow, and you survived to tell the tale. Yeah, I sure did. Here I am. And now you'll be the one who's like, guys, want to go on this trip?

And they're like, we're broke. Well, now they'll be coming to you to figure out how to pay off their debt. Some of them already have been asking me about it. So it's been great. Yeah, it's been amazing. You're going to inspire a lot of people, including millions listening,

who are like, I'm a young single girl with student loans. I could be like Jaden. Yeah, you can totally do this. You just have to work really hard. That's awesome. It will be over. Yeah, it will be over before you know it.

Did you have some cheerleaders along this journey my aunt and my uncle were really my biggest cheerleaders amazing they were seriously i could not have been more blessed but um my friends my family i people say that they have a lot of naysayers people calling you crazy i luckily did not run into that at all that's awesome yes yeah so it was amazing it was great you're you're different there are there are grown people who make more money than you do, who they keep their loans around forever. They start out low when they work themselves up to $132K and you just said, not me. Not me. Oh, love it. Thank you. Thank you. It's really good. 23, making six figures, bright future ahead of you. We're so proud of you can you tell us quick how

do you go to law school for free because that's your plan yeah you pre-decided this is what's going to happen well yeah so initially that wasn't the plan luckily after going through everything absolutely um so i'm studying for my lsat right now and if you get a high enough score on your lsat basically it's about that there's other softer factors as well they have to take into account but um yeah just schools just throw the full ride at you because they want the person who's a brilliant prodigy. I wouldn't say they throw it at you. But yeah, yeah, you definitely you can get into law school.

I think you're I feel like you're the type of person who will just do it because you're so focused. You're so determined. It's what got you out of debt. And it's what's going to get you through law school debt free. Yeah, you just have to be. I love it. Very impressive.

So very impressive. Well, we've got every dollar premium for you a whole year, and we're going to give you another one to gift to someone else to get their journey started because we know getting a plan for every one of those dollars is the key. Spend less, make more, throw it at the debt, do what you got to do, and bada-bing, bada-boom, you'll become debt-free like Jaden. All right, the moment we've been waiting for.

It's Jaden from Frederick, Maryland. $132,000 in student loans paid off in 15 months, making 41 all the way up to 112 with the side hustles and serving six days a week. Doubles on the weekends. Count it down, Jaden. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free.

Yeah. Love that debt-free vibrato in there. One, I'm dead free! Woo! Yeah! Love that dead free vibrato in there. Yeah, she had a little tone going on. Jaden, Jaden, you need to get on the road. I think that she is amazing. I mean, she's one of those people you just have a little pep in your step after hanging out with her. She attracts people who want to grow in life. Yeah.

And she didn't have any naysayers because she doesn't surround herself with naysayers. That's right. She's got the right people around her. You got to do the same thing, America. Get the right inputs. Get the right people around you. Stay focused. Do whatever it takes.

Whether you're 21 or 61, this plan works every time you work it. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day comes from Psalms 37, 3 and 4. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Reba McIntyre said, be different, stand out and work your butt off. I like that. Oh, Reba. Oh,ba little reba worked out for her listen she never ages how does that happen i know we just saw a photo with uh zach in the booth had a photo he ran into reba somewhere she looks just like she did 20 years ago i don't know how that happens oh she's a survivor we know that all right let's get to the phone lines. Maxwell joins us all the way in Australia.

Let's do this thing. What's going on, Maxwell? Good morning, guys. How are you? Hi, Jade, and hi, George. Hey, thank you so much for calling. We needed an accent today, and this one's brilliant. G'day.

I've never heard another Aussie online, so I thought let's be the first. Yeah, people, we don't get a ton of calls from Australia. We get a lot of Canadians, but I prefer you. I want your advice because today is a really good day for crypto, and I also have a bit of gold. Okay. I have about $4,500 in crypto today, and I have about $4,000 Australian in gold,

which comes out to about 1.4 ounces. I am in a little bit of debt. I am paying off my debt. I do make about $75,000 a year, but I just want to know what should I do with the gold? Should I maintain it until 2030, keep it in my bank and then trade it in? Or what do you guys suggest with all my assets? I do have a bit of a retirement fund, but not much. Why did you get the gold in the first place? What was the goal of that? I inherited it, actually.

Oh, very cool. Okay, so this is from family? Yeah, yeah. Okay. From my pop. How much debt do you have? Roughly $2,500, which I am paying off. I'm working to pay it off very quickly.

Yeah. So that shouldn't be, I mean, that's like a paycheck for you, isn't it? Well, I wouldn't say that. I've given myself a deadline, which I'm adhering to. Like, I've set myself a timeline, so it's like the 30th of April. It has to all be paid off by. Okay, so end of April. What kind of debt is it? Yep.

So I've got about $1,100 on a credit card and have another debt to my employer who bought me a work PC, and I'm just paying him back out of my paychecks. But I haven't actually deducted anything yet. So I still owe them roughly $1,500, but I'm expecting to pay them back by tax time. Okay. So the question is, should you sell the gold, the Bitcoin to get out of debt faster? Well, the Bitcoin,

I don't want to touch for now, but for the gold, do you guys think I should be selling it to get out of debt or should I keep it to 2030? No, I don't know why 2030. I would just sell it now.

Sell as much as you need to to get out of debt and you also don't have an emergency fund, it sounds like. No, not really, unfortunately. So I'd sell all of the gold. To be honest, Maxwell,

even if you didn't have the debt, the advice would be the same. Yeah. Well, yeah. Because I know Dave's not a big fan of the gold. Well, it doesn't really make sense in any plan except for some sort of apocalyptic paranoia where gold becomes a bartering system. And, you know, we've heard it's a hedge against inflation. And when times get scary in the economy, gold will go up in value. But again, in scary times, no one's going out to buy gold to live their life.

They've got to turn that into money. So true. So I don't know. It's not that I'm anti-gold. It's fine if you want to own some for fun, but I wouldn't use it as part of my investing plan. You're better off investing in the stock market. Is there an equivalent with your job?

Here we have the 401k. Do you have an equivalent of that in Australia that's kind of associated with your employer that goes into your retirement? No, but since listening to the show, I've Googled it. And as an Australian, I can invest in that. But I've heard Dave been talking about mutual funds. So potentially if i do sell the gold pay off the debt i can just chip into a

mutual fund because the return rate looks better than the stocks that i'm looking at i'm looking at like apple exactly yeah what you're doing with a mutual fund is you're just buying a basket of stocks which will help you diversify and avoid being too risky having one stock. If that company goes down or up in value, all of that's too volatile. So if I were you, I'm selling all the gold, I'm getting rid of all the debt, and I'm going to stockpile an emergency fund with all my future paychecks. If you're gung-ho on keeping the crypto, I can't talk you off that ledge, then you can hang on to it.

But build that emergency fund as fast as possible, three to six months of your expenses. So do you know how much money it would be to run your household for one month? I pay so much rent where I live. I pay like a thousand dollars every two weeks just on my rent. So I need to kind of figure out a game plan because I'm not in a stable, like if I was to lose my job today, my emergency fund, like I'd probably be a bit screwed. Are you single? That's why I need kind of a bit of, yes, thank God. Okay. I mean, you could look into getting a roommate to help offset these costs right now if rent is crazy over there. It's a studio.

I live like 600 meters from the Harbour Bridge, so the studio is like super expensive. But, you know, I'm definitely touching base with what i need to do to stay afloat i'm looking at maybe a different job different like maybe starting a business but is it necessary for you to live in such a high rent area if you move further away could you find rent that's you know 1200 bucks the thing is sydney is crazy it's crazy and i really do love the freedom of having my own apartment. Unfortunately, it is so expensive,

but I'm looking at jobs that might take me back out to the Northern territory where you don't have to pay rent. You just earn like a hundred and a hundred plus K a year. And all, you know, you're pretty much just taken care of and you have to just work, work, work,

but you still make absolute bank. So I'm looking at probably doing that. Yeah. Mining industry. In many ways, I think that there's a lot of differences between where you live versus where we live, obviously. But the baby steps, I think, remain the same for you. And the idea of keeping $1,000 set aside by the time you get this debt paid off. And then, like George said, working to save up that three to six months of expenses.

In your case, I'd probably veer towards six months because you're the only one bringing in income. And then after that, if you can find a way to invest 15% of your income into mutual funds, like what you talked about, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth and international is what we say here. And that's what I would do. And I think for you, the same way, if someone from the States called in and said, hey, I'm paying $2,000 in rent and it's too expensive, we would tell them, look someplace less expensive, consider a roommate, find other ways to bring in more income. So in many ways, you know, the equation is exactly the same, even though some of their particulars may be a little different. Yeah. Even keeping your household expenses to,

you know, 25% of your take-home pay going towards the rent, that's going to help you not get too, you know, sideways where you go, oh my gosh, no wonder I can't save for the future and do all these things. 50% of my take-home pay is going to rent. And so that's where I go. I know you want the beauty of having a place to yourself. You want the beauty of living close to the city. You want the beauty of this and that. But at some point, we have to make some sacrifices in a different direction if we want, you know, we can't have it all. You can't have the cake and eat it too. And so I think you've got to sit down and decide what's really important to you. And luckily, you don't have much debt and this thing is going to be gone within a month or two, but it's the next, you know, five years we have to look at to go, is this sustainable? That's why i've come on board with the baby steps because it's so easy to to kind of be mean to yourself and push yourself yeah if you just slow down like like you said jay i i do want to get this debt and then i do want to um put that thousand dollars away and then i do want to have that six months back up because that stability having i've now since

gaining crypto i've gained so much financial understanding but also since watching the ramsey show like you guys have helped a lot so thank you i kind of feel like okay stop being mean and just slow down get the job done you know what i mean that's right that's right a lot of people just need to stop they got to stop doing 17 things at once and just focus on one thing at a time, get their ducks in a row, build a foundation. So even with you, I'm not mad if you want to put more money into crypto, but I would wait until you've already put 15% into your retirement plan. Then with any fun money beyond that, go ahead and put it in crypto.

And I hope it works out for you. So I think you're on a good path. And regardless of where you are in the world, I love that these steps are so simple. Yeah. They just work. It's get out of debt, stay out of debt. You know, you have a fund for the emergencies for the future and save for retirement. And usually I might get a little bent out of shape for somebody that has gold and crypto.

But with that accent, I know he's so charming. He's too dang charming. He got me. Oh, that was fun. I love that these baby steps work everywhere. That's great. It's amazing how it works. This has been The Ramsey Show.

I'm George Camel. That's Jade Warshaw. Thank you to all the folks in the booth that kept the show afloat, despite ourselves and you, America. Thank you for listening. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously.