The Ramsey Show - App - Get Off TikTok for Business Advice!

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel discuss: What to do with an old 401(k), What to do when you have trouble sticking to the budget, Should I open a business to earn "passive" income? Should you sell the car? What you should do with old savings bonds. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the 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'm Dave Ramsey, your host, George Camel. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about your life and your money, we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jennifer is with us in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Hi, George. Pleasure to speak with both of you. You too. What's up? Hi. So I have an IRA that was from a past job I rolled over into its own account. So my question is, should I move that money into my 401k where I'm currently investing and putting my 15% or leave it in that separate IRA account? I would just leave it in that IRA account.

Okay. Okay. Even though no money is going into it? Correct. But it is sitting there in good mutual funds, correct? Yes, it is. Okay. If it's in good mutual funds, I would just leave it alone.

You've got more control of it there i know we never recommend you move uh old ira money into new our old 401k money into new 401ks instead put it out in an individual retirement account you can pick the same mutual funds if you want or better ones and you've got better access and better control uh and it'll it will grow at exactly the same rate or a better rate than it would if you moved it inside the 401k george is exactly right joel is with us in cleveland ohio hey joel what's up hey what's going on dave so i'm kind of a new uh listener um so i wanted to give you a call so i'm getting married in three weeks. Congratulations. Thank you very, very much. My fiance and I have been living together for the last year. We've tried different budgets.

We've tried different ways, different websites. Nothing seems to quite work. We kind of end up just a race to zero. We've got a combined income of about $100,000. I've got about $5,000 in credit card debt. She's got about $3,000 in credit card debt. We've got $4,000 in savings. I've got about $20,000 in mutual funds. Okay. Car debt? Any car debt? No. No car debt. Student loans? So she's got about $20,000 in student loans.

Okay. All right. Cool. But I do not. Well, typically there's two things that cause people to not be able to stick to a budget. One is that they're using a wrong technique, which we can help you with two is they're not really committed to the idea in other words if you write it down on paper and have no intention of actually doing what you wrote down then guess what you're not going to do what you wrote down

yeah since combining you know combine you know combine like a, I just feel like we've had less control, in, you should only have more there versus less. But we recommend a zero-based budget. And I don't know if you've checked out EveryDollar. It doesn't sound like you have. That's our budgeting tool. And I will gift that to you guys as a wedding present, including Ramsey Plus. You'll have access to all the videos inside of Financial Peace. But once you start your EveryDollar budget, it's super easy.

We want to list out all of your income, and then we're going to list out all of your expenses. For that particular month. And when you subtract the expenses from the income, it should equal zero, meaning you have assigned every single dollar a job. We don't want any of your dollars unemployed. And once you do that, and then by the way, you have to stick to it and actually track it and go, how much money do we have for food when we go grocery shopping? Then we're going to stick to that budget, and that's how you're going to get that control. But I can write down a workout plan every week, Dave, and if I never work out, I'll never get in shape. So you assign every dollar a mission, every dollar a name.

That's why we call the app EveryDollar. Both of you look at that before the month begins. It's unique to each month because every month's different okay okay and then once you've assigned every dollar both of you look at it both of you make changes until every dollar has a name no extra slush money laying around every dollar is assigned all the income you have coming in net that month to work with is assigned to something then it's it's it's assigned to something both of you agree with the assignments you agree with the mission and then you pinky swear and spit shake this becomes a freaking contract that says if we're

not going to spend more than x number of dollars on restaurants then by god stay home don't go to the restaurant you're contracting with each other. We're not going to spend more than this on clothes this month. I don't care if the purse is on sale. We have agreed. Extra trip to Target. We agreed that this is what we were going to spend. Don't lie to me.

That's what you're saying to each other you're contracting you have to make it a very serious relational commitment that's why both of you need a vote in the formation of the thing because otherwise you're bossing her around or she's bossing you around becomes a weapon but instead you're as a couple saying our goals are x and the best way to achieve our goals is this list of expenditures this month and we're not going to do something other than that unless something really nasty bad happens and then we have to come back together and together decide on how we're going to change our budget before we do it you don't come home from target you don't come home from the grocery store you don't come home from happy hour and go well honey look what i did that's not cute that's childish and that's the thing where i'm talking

about you committing to sticking to the plan but laying out the technique that the technique is every dollar has an assignment as george said that's called a zero base budget the two of you coming together and agreeing that this is what we're going to do that's the technique now typically we always say joel you said you're new to this stuff we always tell folks typically a married couple one of you is more of a nerd that's into the details and one of you is more of a free spirit that's less into the details and isn't going to think this is fun and the nerd thinks doing a budget is like great fun correct okay i'm the nerd more free spirited yeah that would be normal that the nerd calls and asks this question okay how do we do a budget free spirits don't ask this question she's

at target right now yes so there we go that's we figured it out yeah she's getting her nails done right now so uh but you know in my house i'm the nerd my wife's the free spirit and so the same as at your house joel so what we had to do is this nerds need free spirits in their life so they have a life free spirits need nerds in their life so they don't retire and have to eat alpo. Correct. So you need each other. If two people just alike get married, one is unnecessary. So we need each other. You need to be working off each other's strengths.

Both of you have a vote. This is a coming together of a value system. It's not you bossing her around, her bossing you around. You're not the boss of me. Welcome to marriage. And this might take two to three months to get dialed in, so don't give up. If the first one you go,

oh, we couldn't do it, let's give up. We can't do a budget. Stick to it. And Kelly will pick up, we'll gift you guys a year of Ramsey Plus, which includes every dollar,

our premium budgeting tool. Let us know how it goes. And go all the way through the Financial Peace class. It's included in that. We just gave you a great expensive wedding gift. In an uncertain world, being a good steward of your money is more important than ever.

While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider. How many of you are stressed out about your retirement savings these days? Should you be really freaking out? Probably not.

But we all got a little drama queen inside of us, right? Yeah, me too. And that's why you got to have somebody in your corner to help you with your investing. Not to do it for you, but to help talk you off the ledge when things are going down a little bit. Someone to walk with you, talk with you, teach you, and that way you don't jump in and out of the market at exactly the wrong times, which is actually what your emotion will have you do. Your emotions will get greedy and cause you to buy when market's up.

And it'll cause you to sell when the market's down and this is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing so instead you should be investing and just staying in there hang in there hang in there it's why we recommend a smart investor pro they're investing professionals that we've carefully vetted and they work with you one-on-one to make a retirement plan you can stick with go to ramsey solutions.com slash smart investor to find a list of smartVestor pros in your area. And one of them will sit down with you and help with your retirement plan, guide you

through the ups and downs. RamseySolutions.com slash SmartVestor. Lionel is with us in Midland, Texas. Hi, Lionel. How are you? Good, good. How about you, Ramsey Show? Better than we deserve, sir.

How can we help? Good, good. How about you, Renzo? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help? Awesome, awesome. I had a financial question. I'm 31 years old, and I was considering opening my own business. I'm thinking about a laundromat. I just wanted to ask you all to see if it was the right timing for something like that. Why a laundromat? Because it's a passive income.

Um, uh, I know the beginning of the, of the business, I'm sure first couple of years, I'm going to have to be really, uh, it's going to take up my, the majority of my time, but after a little while, you know, I, I want to, uh, live a free life, you know, for, for, uh, you know i i want to uh live a free life you know for for uh nothing you know i don't want to be too tied up yeah uh you're not you're gonna hate this because you've been lied to it's not a passive income uh the stupid washing machines break and somebody has to fix them somebody's got to go down there and get the quarters. Somebody's got to manage the change machine. Somebody's got to make sure the place isn't being thieved all the time. Correct.

So it is actually running a business. It's not a passive income. A passive income is you sit and money comes into your mailbox. This is not a passive income. Yes, sir. So if you want to work at it, you can probably make some money. The laundromats, they make good money. Do you have the money to buy one and set it all up?

I'm thinking of I'm not going to use my personal money. I would want to ask for loans and do it with that. I have projected i crunched some numbers down and it would take uh roughly about 200 000 uh to start one from uh from scratch okay well i i can tell you what i would do i wouldn't do it and here's what here's why 80 of the small businesses fail in the first five years in north america according according to the Small Business Administration. The ones that fail, 80% of them, say the number one reason for their failure is cash flow problems. Now, let me define where cash flow problems come from.

From having counseled small business people now for about two decades, cash flow problems are not paying your taxes properly and getting behind with the IRS, not paying your sales taxes properly and getting behind with the State Department of Revenue, and having to pay payments on $200,000 worth of washing machines with quarters. That's going to kill you. You've increased the risk of failure a hundredfold when you start talking about borrowing $200,000 to open a laundromat.

And the numbers that you've crunched, I can tell you from having run businesses for 30 years, the numbers that I crunch are normally wrong. On a brand-new venture, we don't know what we don't know. And your estimates aren't going to be that close. And the rule of thumb is this. It's going to take twice as long as you think cost twice as much as you think and it's going to and you're not the exception these are the three rules and so uh no i would never go two hundred thousand dollars in debt to open a laundromat in any economy ever because your your risk bankruptcy is very, very high.

Please don't do this. Please save your money. Start a business of some kind for cash out of your garage. Start small. Make some profit. Reinvest. Make some more profit. Reinvest.

Grow your business gradually. But no, you should not go $200,000 in debt and think this laundromat's going to run itself. You've made two sets of assumptions hereromat's going to run itself. You've made two sets of assumptions here that are both going to cause you to walk into a nightmare. I'm begging you not to do this. I think I know where this is coming from, Dave, because I've seen these videos on TikTok, and there are all these entrepreneurial types saying, hey, you should start a vending machine business and a laundromat business, and here's how easy the money is. Oh, my God, that old stuff has popped back up.

It's popped back up, Dave. But it's on TikTok, so it's cool.iktok so it's cool exactly it's cool to be stupid yes and so i think that i think lino's got a good heart i love that he has an entrepreneurial spirit but he has been lied to from the videos he's seen about how easy it is to make this money and some of the most heartbreaking stuff has been around forever i know man i saw that same stuff i was 20 years old 40 years ago let me tell you what happened to me 40 years ago. I almost bought. I was going to pay cash, but I almost bought.

You couldn't die. A car wash. No. No. I almost bought 100 of those air compressors that you put at the market and put a quarter in to get. You pay for air. Oh, at the gas station. When they very first came out.

I was there when they very first came out. And I almost bought 100 of them and put them out. And I got sidetracked doing real estate deals and left that to the side. But this was the same crap. Yeah. It was all get-rich-quick stuff. Passive income. You've got to be an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs are where all the money is and all this stuff. Instead of what a real entrepreneur does, which actually invents something or actually grow a business but yeah and i really just never could quite get past the humor of paying for air and that's the reason i didn't do it um and yet i have put a quarter in one of those things and aired up a tire time or two but um like someone became a millionaire off your quarter like four times in my life i did that probably but yeah it's uh but yeah vending machines let me ask you let me just tell you i know people who own vending machine routes that actually do it they don't have a tiktok account i can promise you that uh it's freaking hard work yeah and a lot of those machines produce almost zip and then you

got to move them and find another location for them and then you got to move them again and then people kick them in and tear them up and man it's just it's nothing is as easy as it sounds and certainly nothing is as easy as it sounds with stupid butt tiktok but then no one's going to buy my online course as to how you can start this passive income business with your laundromat it's not passive at all when someone says passive income and you have to work at it by definition it's not passive george oh my god some of the most heartbreaking calls we get are the ones where they started a business they took out a whole bunch of money in loans and then the business failed and now they have the heartbreak on top of the business not failing they now still owe two hundred thousand dollars paying payments on your failure that'll piss you

off twice a day. Yeah. It's heartbreaking. So don't do this. Move at the speed of cash. Check out all of our resources that the Entrez leadership team has. Get off of TikTok for your business advice. Lord Jesus. Unbelievable.

I mean, this is cats chasing lasers. I'm glad you didn't have TikTok when you were younger, Dave, because you would have started about a thousand businesses. I would have fallen for every one of those things. I almost bought the air machines. I really did do that. I'm that dumb. I am that dumb. You could have been an air machine mogul by now, but instead you're running this little business.

Wow. Missed opportunity. There you go. That's what happens. Changing lives one pump at a time. When you don't, when you don't. One quarter, one flat tire at a time. That's right.

Won't pump you up. man wow oh well let me tell you meeting the people that come to our entree leadership events that's inspiring i i knew i mean i know there's a get rich thing happening out there right now a vibe happening especially among your 20 somethings and you guys you guys think it's like the first time that this stuff has come up. That's what's so funny. They're like vending machines at the new thing. All the old trends come back around. With fashion, with business, it's all coming back, Dave.

If you thought it died, let me tell you. So apparently the catchphrase for Get Rich Quick is passive income. That's it. Ding, ding. I'll buy your online course. You just tell me it's passive. I've redefined the term improperly to mean easy money. You can make easy money.

You don't have to work for a living. That's right. That's the new American dream. That's what TikTokers mean by passive income. I am learning so much today. I'm here to educate and inspire. No, people. The real definition of passive income is an actual investment that just sends you a check.

And you don't have to go down to get the quarters out of the air pump. Oh, my God. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Sarah is with us in Maryland. Sarah, it says on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Hi. Thank you so much, Dave.

Yes. Way to go. How much did you pay off? I paid off $43,000. Good for you. How much did you pay off? I paid off $43,000. Good for you. And how long did that take? About a year and five months. All right.

Way to go. And your range of income during that time? Well, I started out at zero. I had to make my first payment out of my very meager savings, and then I started my job later that month at $87,000, and now I make $92,000. Cool. What do you do for a living? I work for the government.

I'm a cyber planner. Ooh, nice. And your debt, the $43,000, what was it? That was all student loans, Dave. So you came out of school, and a year and a half later, jumped on it, and it's done. Is that the story? Yeah. Way to go.

What made you decide to jump on it so hard i didn't want to turn out like my parents and you know 55 still paying on their student loans i i just wanted something different for myself yeah and what made you think you could actually do this uh a really big part of it is thanks to my boyfriend and his parents uh they followed your plan to get out of their debt and they taught me everything they knew and i was like hey i think i can do this that's cool i'm impressed way to go boyfriend and parents excellent job how old are you i'm 25 okay so you're not waiting on the government to forgive your student loans huh i thought about it and i was like you know what no way let me like, I want to sleep at night. Let me just get this done with.

Done. You're close enough to D.C. to know it's never going to happen. That's what it is. That, too. There we go. There's the real answer. You're amazing. I love it.

Well, congratulations, Sarah. I'm proud of you. Thank you so much. How's it feel? It is incredible. You know, like a huge weight off my shoulders 10 000 of that 43 was all interest that accumulated and to just not have that anymore it just it's crazy it's so great that's so fun good for you good for you you gotta also kind of feel like accomplished like confident

it's i don't know i like to stay humble but i really have to hype myself up sometimes to see like you know i i did this yeah i actually did this there's a dignity to it yeah i i didn't think i really could but i i was determined and that determination carried me well this is your chance to brag right here on this call, and we're proud of you. We're here to brag on you. We think you're amazing. Way to go, 25-year-old, paid off your debt. You didn't have to have somebody do it for you.

You threw your shoulders back and knocked it out. Way to go, kiddo. Pop, pop. I love it. Excellent. What kind of sacrifices did you make along this journey, Sarah? Well, I certainly learned a lot about delayed gratification. I, you know, I had to push certain things off to the next month. I didn't always buy the newest

video game or I didn't always go to the movies with my friends. I put about a full paycheck and a little bit more every month to my student loans. And, you know, I could have been wasting that on like a new car or a better apartment. Yeah, you come, I could have been wasting that on, like, a new car or a better apartment. Yeah, you come out of college with a great income. You think, well, now's my chance to really show everyone all my success. Yeah, exactly. That is what a lot of people did. But, you know, I just kept it, like, really down low.

I liked what I have, and I stuck with it. So I'm guessing your boyfriend and his parents were cheering you on. What other cheerleaders did you have? Well, my sister, definitely. But other than my sister, it was pretty much just my boyfriend and his parents. They were there every step of the way, and I would send them the screenshot for my payment so that they could tell me how proud they were,

and I could feel good about it. Good for you. Well done. Hee-hee! good about it. Good for you. Well done. Hee-hee! I love it! Excellent, excellent job. Okay, now that you've done it, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Determination and sharing rent.

Absolutely. If you have an apartment by yourself and you have a spare room, you're wasting money. You know, just get someone else in that spare room share your apartment how did you screen your roommate to make sure crazy didn't come in there well my roommate's my boyfriend so there's that that's one method of screening exactly right you know hopefully he not crazy. We waited a couple years. I got the full. Made sure he's good. And he's a Ramsey kid, too.

There you go. No, he's a Financial Peace kid. He doesn't even have a credit score. He has no credit card, no credit score. Wow. Good. Good for you. Way to go, Sarah.

Excellent job. We got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you, a best-selling book, and that's the next chapter in your story. Also, we're going to send you a one-year membership to Financial Peace University in every dollar in Ramsey Plus. And on top of that, we're going to send you a copy of the Total Money Makeover to give away. And you've already lived a lot of this and uh your boyfriend certainly knows a

bunch of it but you guys can enjoy the going through the class together hopefully as you're married and and uh move on to the next phases of your life congratulations we're very proud of you all right sarah in maryland paid off 43 000 in one year and five months making zero to 87 to 92 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one that's how it's done right there wow she wasn't gonna wait on no one to pay off her debt and live her life she said she wants to sleep at night if i thought they would listen to them i would send 2 000 of those debt-free screams from 25 year olds that we've done to washington so they would know that the debt that student loans don't have to be forgiven if we're telling people

that they can never get out instead tell them they can get out quit stealing their hope with politics then we'd be okay but instead we have to go oh you're pitiful you can't make it without me i'm in the government how else are they going to get their vote how yeah how else am i going to get your vote if i don't buy it so and and i have to run you know but she's got dignity yeah i mean she has the power she's unstoppable controlling her life not waiting on someone else to control her life that's so cool megan is with us megan is in minneapolis hi megan how are you uh hi thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So I just started a business this year.

I have a part-time job right now in that same industry on the side. I'm on baby steps four, five, and seven, and I'm wondering now that I'm done with my school, is it a horrible idea for me to quit this part-time job to make more room for my kids this summer or should I focus on building my business or make more room to build my business or should I keep my job until I get more clients for my business? Are you married? I am. Yep. What does your husband make? So he makes about 35 a year. Okay and what do you make at your job? So my part-time job, I make $1,300 a month. I haven't done my calculation. And what do you make on your business?

$1,100 a month. Okay. So you're going to cut your income by 25% when you do this, unless you increase your business size, right? Yes, yes. Okay. And the only reason why I ask, or that I'm kind of, I would really like to cut this off, is because,

so for the past couple of years, I've been doing full-time work, full-time school. You know, I had my daughter, I didn't take a semester off, you know, to have her, things like this. And I think I'm officially, I'm just kind of maybe hustled out a little bit right now at the moment. How many hours a week are you working? So, I mean, right now I'm working about like 45, 50 hours a week. So, I mean, honestly, not like super overworking it, I mean, if I will be honest.

It's more so my business is more kind of like a night weekend, and my part-time job is more like in the day. I just don't, the 50 hours a week to make $28,000 isn't worth it, even between your part-time job and the side hustle. I'd get both of these things up. Really? Yeah, you might consider a different career, one where you can make some money. If you can't get your business going. That's not enough to live off of.

But I'd get your business rolling, what I would do. If you like the business, I'd get it up and running, and get it running where you can make some good money on it at 40 hours a week. And get the husband's income up. Normal working hours. And, you know, I think that's it. I think George is on to something here.

And if you can't do that, then you probably ought to look at a different career. Because you're not really making much money. That's what it comes down to. You wouldn't be so dadgum tired if you're making $130,000 instead of $30,000. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Ephesians 6.11, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Lou Holtz said,

if what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today. I like that. You got to love Coach Lou. He's the best. Coach Lou's spoken for us a couple times at Entree Leadership, and he's always a standing ovation, always gets the highest speaker marks, and he is the highest quality of human being.

So much integrity. Absolutely amazing man. Absolutely fun to hang out with and just a great guy. So we love Coach Lou around here. All right, Miranda is with us. Miranda is in Raleigh, North Carolina. How are you, Miranda? I'm good.

How about you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Okay, my husband and I are on baby step number two, and we have two debts left to pay off. One is a credit card of $7,700, and then we have a car that we owe $23,000 on. And my question was, do we need to think about selling the car and getting a cheaper one? What's the car worth if you sold it today?

It's a Honda Accord. I looked it up on Kelly's e blue book and i think it's about 27 okay we just called it last year all right so you clear that debt and have 4 000 left over could you get a beater car for now for four four to grand until this debt's cleaned up and then upgrade i mean i guess we could the other car that we do have, one other car that my husband drives, is a 2012. And, I mean, I guess we could. What's your household income? After tax, it's $80,000.

Okay. The rule of thumb that we use, Miranda, is two things, okay? If you like the car, which it sounds like you do, if you can be 100% debt-free, except your home, in two years, car and everything, and the total of all of your vehicle's value is less than half your annual income, that way you don't have too much tied up in things that are going down in value then you can keep the car or you should financially it makes sense to keep the car is the best way of saying it but if you have let's say that you make eighty thousand dollars a year and you got seventy thousand dollars tied up in cars you got too much going down in value right yes okay no our other car is only worth seven thousand i know i know but I'm just saying as an example.

Or let's say that you owed a lot more debt than this, and the $23,000 debt being gone would make a huge difference. Let's say you had another $40,000 in student loan debt. Well, you might need to get rid of the car so that you can get rid of the student loan debt, right? But in your case, I think if you like the car, and you guys will fight to be 100 loan debt right but in your case i think if you like the car and you guys will fight to be a hundred percent debt free in under two years you would meet both of the general financial mathematical guidelines that we have to keep the car okay okay and i think we would be willing to do that we We just started your program in January, and we paid off almost $15,000 in debt in those few months.

Well, if you stay on that track, you would be debt-free in one more year. Yeah, exactly. You're talking $3,000 a month. Yeah. If you keep going $15,000, that's $2,500 a month, $15,000 is six months, whatever, $2,000, $3,000 a month, you'll knock this out in about a year. And if you do that, then it makes sense if you like the car to keep the car. But as George is pointing out, if you get rid of the car,

you'd be dead free in 20 minutes here. But then you're going to turn around probably and save up and buy another car within a year because you don't want to have that $4,000 car for long. That's a get-buy car. That's not a car we keep. So I'm probably keeping it if I'm in your shoes, based on what you're telling me. That make sense?

Yeah, absolutely. Alan is with us. Alan is in Riverside, California. How are you, Alan? I'm doing well, and yourself? Better than I deserve. How can we help? So thank you for taking my call, Dave and George.

So I am 24 years old. I'm getting married on Saturday. Yay! Yeah, thank you. Thank you. So just jumping to the point, my grandma told me that she's been saving bonds for me since I was essentially born. And she, so she had them all locked away.

So she showed me them very, you know, in a big, in a big envelope every single month since I was born until now. We went online to like the treasury website, whatever that we call the bank to see how much it's worth. And so far it's about 14,000 for all the saving bonds that she accumulated over the years. How sweet. My question is since some of them have not matured enough, because I was like doing the research, because honestly, I don't really know much about these.

Like, just about a week ago, I found out, learned about these. So my question is, should I leave them in? No. Until, like, all of them are mature? No. Should I take them out? Should I? Okay.

Cash them out. Okay. That's the mathematical answer. Then the proper financial answer is apply them to wherever you and your new wife are on the baby steps where are you guys yes um we okay so um we have no debt and we already have our emergency fund so we're saving up for our three to six months of living expenses great that's what this will go towards. Okay. Should we just put all towards there? Should we save some for our house? No. You should follow the baby steps. How much is

three to six months of expenses for you guys? Do you know yet? Right now, we have a house that we're renting and it's $1,700 a month, and that's literally it. Well, there's stuff like food, electricity, gas, insurance, other stuff. And so it's going to be literally like $3,500 a month, and so you need an emergency fund of $15,000. And if you have nothing saved, then that's fine. You use this money and you have your emergency fund voila if not then you need to um and if you already have more than that then you've got some towards your down payment on the house right yeah and so after that emergency fund is done that's

where you start looking at your next goal and i'd take a pause keep renting as a newlywed couple get to know your new spouse and then you can start going all right do we want to start saving up that down payment in our area to where we want to live uh do we have our incomes we have jobs that are in place and then you can start investing 15 and you're on your way man at 20 24 years old that's a good place to be and if you tell your grandmother that you use this money towards a down payment on a house or towards uh having a rainy day fund she'll be proud in either case and that will be the truth grandma said it's gonna rain yeah you gotta have a rainy day fund, she'll be proud in either case, and that will be the truth. Grandma said it's going to rain. Yeah.

You've got to have a rainy day fund. That's awesome. That's where Grandma got that. God bless Grandma. Yeah. So you're right on track doing that. But, yeah, you just follow right up those baby steps that we teach, Alan, and it doesn't change because it was a gift.

The only thing you want to do is you always, when someone's giving you a gift, especially your grandma, you want to do something, or even an inheritance, you want to do something that honors the person that gave it to you and that they would be proud that you did that with it. And usually if you're doing smart things like investing or paying off debt or buying a house or something like that, you know, grandpa, grandma, are generally going to be very proud of that kind of thing. Yeah, it's not frivolous.

And I'd love to give you guys a wedding gift. It's this Saturday. That's fun. So Kelly's going to pick up. We'll give you guys Ramsey Plus, which includes Financial Peace University, Every Dollar Plus. Go through these with your now fiance, soon to be wife. And man, it's going to change the game for your marriage. Give you guys language to talk about money.

Give you guys some goals that you can set together. And I'm telling you, that's one of the best things you can do as you for your marriage. Give you guys language to talk about money. Give you guys some goals that you can set together. And I'm telling you, that's one of the best things you can do as you start this marriage. Yeah. So make sure to jump in. When you get back from the honeymoon, you guys get settled in. Jump into the Financial Peace videos online there, and we're going to give you all of that as our gift. And it'll get you guys started together, and it will walk you right up the same baby steps we were just using here right now. so it's a good point dave don't watch it on the honeymoon that's that's not fun well do something more exciting i would claim financial peace university is an amazing course

romantic it is not okay that's a good point just saying okay so it's not has nothing to do with that so that's good. Enjoy yourselves. Hope the wedding goes well. Congrats. There you go. So hang on, Kelly. We'll pick up. We'll get you signed up for it.

Those nine lessons will change your life, son, if you'll go through them. It's good stuff. Change mine. Very good stuff. All right, George, good hours today. Well done. Thank you. James and Ben and Kelly and Zach in the booth, thank you for all your hard work.

I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We will be back with you. James and Ben and Kelly and Zach in the booth, thank you for all your hard work. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We will be back with you. Before you know it, in the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube. Ramsey Show.