The Ramsey Show - App - He Has Marriage Problems Disguised As Money Problems

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

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Normal is broken. It's weird, so we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, thrilled to me alongside Jade Warshaw, who is just launched. the pre-sell of her latest book. Oh, we'll talk more about that, and it comes up just about on every phone call, so good stuff there. You ready to go, my friend? Indeed. All right, she's fired up. Let's go to Marcus in Orlando, Florida. Marcus, how can we help today? Hey, guys. How are you guys doing? Doing well, sir. What's going on?

Well, I'm in a situation where I used, you know, those credit cards that have the promotional rate of 0% for 18 months to 24 months. So I did that. I did that about 18 months ago. And it's almost that time where those high interest are going to kick in again. Yeah. And I have about, I don't know if I did my math. But I think I have around $40,000 or $50,000 in total debt.

But in the credit cards that have the 0%. promotional period right now is only only holds about uh i think it's 12 000 okay so 12 000 is on the the really bad card yeah okay so does it's on the zero percent right now but it's about to expire the promotional rate and i have like a 10 000 on a uh a personal loan that's like around 14 percent interest and then I have other you know like the car I sell all 16,000 but and then I have like a medical debt that I put on a care credit which is like 22 percent so I know I can't transfer at all but I was my question is is it smart to you know try to do like a big personal loans I can consolidate majority

or all of this, that, or should I try to leverage the zero percent promotional and just keep getting newer credit cards and keep repeating the cycle every year and a half? Yeah. In theory, mathematically, I could see why you would say that because you're thinking, hey, I'm going to move it to a place where there's zero interest. But you've already told us that your behavior would not support that decision, right? because you got a 0% and you had a certain amount of time

to pay it down before it shifts and you didn't do that. Right. Yeah, I couldn't do it because reason, I don't just my teamwork with my life is not the best. Listen, there's always going to be a reason. There's always going to be something that pops up.

I can tell you that right now. That's why I don't think this is good for you. I think for you, feeling that pain is a good thing because you're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, which is listing these out smallest to largest. By the way, how much was the medical debt? Was that like five? How much is that?

The medical debt is a total of about remaining 14 plus another $4,000. It's about $18,000 is what's left. Okay. Okay, yeah, 50. So, yeah, you're going to have to list these out, smallest to largest that's how we do it and just tactically you're putting minimum payments on everything and the reason you're doing that is because you don't want anything to go into default you don't want one 800 pay me calling you but then all the extra money you're going to put towards

the smallest so tell us about what your income is and so we can figure out what your margin is yes i've been trying to do that but i've been struggling to even get the $1,000 emergency fund but I'm hoping that by end of next month, I should have that already. What's causing you to struggle with that? Oh, it's just kind of like that bad communication with my wife. Yeah, but what does that look like? When you say bad communication, what is it? You say we're saving $1,000.

She says H-no and goes out and spends the money anyway. What's happening? So I tell her, my goal is for us to say, a thousand emergency run before starting to attack these credit cards and and she'd be like okay but then as we're going about our lives through the month and we run short on money I tell her like we can't you know be spending and then something happens like I don't know like yeah so Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus Marcus. Jumping in real quick.

I'm not going to get in the way of you leading him. Ken, I need you to go on and get in there. Well, I got to speak to something. This is about the second or third time in the call you said, we have a communication issue. You don't have a communication issue. You have a plan issue. You guys don't have a plan. In other words, when you say to your wife, hey, babe, I'd like us to get to Baby Step 1 and save $1,000, she goes, okay, great.

But there's no plan by which we're going to do it. there's no change of behavior in order to meet the plan. There's no plan. So I just want to quickly jump in and say, you've got to change your language because this is not semantics. This is actually what's frustrating you and maybe frustrating her is that we've got some want to, but we don't have any how to. So I hand the ball back to my colleague, but that's the problem. So you need to listen about how one goes about creating a plan and executing on the plan.

It's not a communication issue. Stop saying that. I agree. I think it's more of a, like Ken said, it's a plan issue and are you an agreement on how we're going to do this? Do you guys have a budget? It doesn't sound like it if you're running out of money. That's what I'm trying to, what I was trying to say. It's just that, so the plan that I had was, okay, here's his budget of how much we're allowed to spend.

So that's why I say this communication issue because when I say, okay, this is our budget. Let me tell you why. Let me tell you why. I'm going to tell you why. It's because the same way that you're grown and you wouldn't like if somebody came to you and said, here's what you're going to do, you wouldn't like that very much, would you? That's, there's your problem. Because somewhere in that, your wife is going, I'm sorry, what? Right? You're bringing, you're bringing her the plan. You're telling her what we can spend. You're telling her that we're saving $1,000. You're telling her, this is how we're going to do it. But I haven't heard where there's, the two of you working together to decide together,

here's what we think we need to do, here's how we're going to do it, here's what, did you see what I'm saying? So I think that's where the breakdown is. If you're feeling it as a communication issue, it's not a communication issue, it's a teamwork issue,

because you have counted out your teammate and said, I'm just going to run with a ball, and nobody wants to play like that. So that's, I think that's what you've got to get to the bottom of. You still haven't told me what your income is every month. Doesn't know. Oh, so it's about $6,000 monthly.

Okay. That's my take-home pay. About? We've got to remove that word. It's a little bit more like $60,000, I mean $6,000 and like $60. Okay. And that's from both you and your wife. Does she work outside the home?

Her monthly income is about, sorry, it's $1,600 or something. $1,600. Okay, yeah. You guys need to sit down tonight. That's your homework. I don't think you really do have a budget. Maybe you wrote something down once, but I don't think you. have an every dollar budget so we're going to get you hooked up with that and the conversation is you take her out take her out on the town and you start talking about the things that are important

to you a vision start with a vision start with a why and see if you guys can connect on that here's the three can i jump in hit it you got to say where that's the vision vision is where we're going purpose is why we're going there and mission is how we get there together there it is three things couples. Where? Why? How? Figure it out. Get on the same page or you're never going to win this game. Okay, can I get real with a lot of you right now, watching and listening, and you're trying this stuff out. You're trying. Like, the baby steps make sense. You get it. But the reality is something's off. And it's not the math, like you're working the budget, but life is throwing curveballs at you. And not only is life throwing curveballs at you, it just gets you down.

It's discouraging because you make a little bit of progress, Jade, and then all of a sudden you feel like you went backwards. You go, wait a second. I didn't go out and get a credit card. I didn't go buy a car. We can get some loan. Okay. I know there's a lot of people that are going, okay, Ken, you got me.

All right. Now, here's a deal. You haven't failed. But you've got to realize that this money and game and the way we, you know, you know, teach it, you can win, but it's not all math. What am I talking about? In other words, there's real life emotions. You are a human being who's trying really hard to be disciplined, and this is really hard to dig out of this stuff. Absolutely. And Jade knows this. I mean, our debt-free journey nowhere near the length and the amount that Jade and Sam paid off.

And that's why I'm excited, by the way, about our new book. It's titled What No One Tells You, about money. Well, what is it, Jay, that's a really fun title. Okay, you hooked me. Nobody tells, what are we not telling people? Nobody tells you that the things that we're asking you to do, which is make changes with your money, it's very emotional. It's not easy. It's emotional to listen to this podcast and now you've got to go home and get your spouse in the same place that you're on and it's conversation and argument and talk after talk. That is an emotional process, right? It's emotional when we say, hey, you've got a ton of debt. You know what you're not going to be doing, going to a restaurant, getting your nails done,

buying anything new? Like that, that hurts our feelings. That makes us sad. It's tough when somebody calls in and we say, I'm sorry, your mortgage is too big a piece of your income. You might have to consider selling. Oh my gosh, the disappointment, the guilt, the shame, half of what we're facing Ken is emotions. And that's why this book is only about that. That's right. By the way, the very first Ramsey book, somebody's been with us a while and going to why this money book, I'll tell you. Very simply. No other Ramsey Money book has ever taken on with an honest, in-depth look at the emotional side of money so that you know what you're going to face.

For those of you who are facing it, she's going to hit it right there on the bull's eye, and you go, oh, I'm not alone. I'm not crazy. And more importantly, I can get my emotions in check and win with money. So that's why we think this book is so powerful. What no one tells you about money is now available to pre-order. Okay? And you can get it now for the best price, $24.99.

and you're also going to get over $100 in free bonus items including the enhanced audiobook. Do you sing in this at all? No, but I will say this. That's a shame. I'll be honest. I will say this. A little disappointed. Well, I'll say this. All of the chapters or all of the sections are song titles. So it's kind of a little game there. This is exciting.

But more so than that, even if you're like, hey, I don't really, Jade, care about the content of the book. If you just want T on me and Sam, it is, the whole book is story driven. This is true. So you're going to get story after crazy story. Although there needs to be a, there needs to be a bonus. Ramsey episode for me and Stacey to talk about what we learned about you and Sam at a dinner with you. These are two of the most interesting people who've ever met. You're like, that's all I can say. But back to the book, you get so many things including the enhanced audiobook, early access to the e-book.

You get an exclusive video, your financial checkup with Jade Warshaw, and also a three-week online book club, access to that with live Q&A. You can get the book and all of the goodies I just went through at ramsysolutions.com slash store ramsysolutions.com slash store and if you are listening you got to see this book cover. I talked about this the other day. Guns out folks. Jade has been hitting the gym and the shoulders are in full effect here. I mean unbelievable to the to the point that I feel like I have to have my next book cover. I got to wear a sleeveless shirt and really rock the triceps. The point was to intimidate you into getting your money. I'm already in the gym. I'm already in No, but nobody's noticing.

They're just like, wow, look at her arms. I'm just getting that out of the way, folks. She looks fantastic on the cover, but a lot of fun. It's a great book. Go get it now at ramsysolutions.com slash store. Jackson joins us now in Greenville, South Carolina. Jackson, how can we help today? Hey, I'm calling today just with a few questions as far as I'm 20 years old,

and I've gotten to a bunch of debt. And I'm having a fun. You know, when I was younger, I didn't have a lot of things. I wanted it now going up and getting some money in my pocket. I've been buying a couple of things where I wanted. I'm currently $52,000 roughly. Now, is the 52 all with these toys? Well, one of them is my truck.

Okay. So that's, you know, my way to get to work. How much do you owe on the truck? It's roughly $13,000 on the truck. What's it worth? I don't know exactly what the truck's worth. There's a few cosmetic things I need to fix on it. I'm just using it over the years and, you know, tolling things and doing other stuff with it.

But I'm sure I could probably get close to that out of it. What's your monthly payment on that? It's $390 a month. Okay. Well, I'm just pulling the facts here so Jade and I can weigh in. What other debt do you have? So that's 13 for a truck. What other debt?

List them out. So the big one here is my side-by-side. It's $31,000 roughly in debt. 31 on the side-by-side. Oh, boy. Yes, sir. and then around 8.5,000 on a boat. A boat?

Man, you are, do you have a woman in your life? No, sir. I'm single from 20 years old. Yeah, baby. That's what I thought. 20-year-old single dude who's got all this income, he thinks, and he goes out and buys a side-by-side and a boat. I mean, you don't have that much time.

Where do you live? Do you have a house to hold all this in a garage at the very least? We've built a house behind my parents on our property. Who's we? Yeah, who's we? So me and my father built this house. We built it about two years ago, three years ago, and we built it behind their house on their property. And I stay here and I help out with a lot of stuff that they need.

So are you paying any kind of rent at all? Yes, sir. I pay around $3 to $400 a month on rent. Okay. But you don't own it. You don't own that. No. Your dad owns it, yeah.

Well, it will be mine eventually. I mean, we built it. It's not, like, we don't have to pay for it. Are you an only child? No, sir. I'm the youngest of three. So is your dad... It was either that. It was either the only child or the youngest. This is all starting to check out for me. Got it. So let me start with the idea that your current situation, it's going to be temporary.

Like you living in this little offshoot of your parents' house, and $300 a rent. Well, it should be temporary. I agree. I wonder if it will be. Because the minute he meets a fly young lady, a pretty young thing, he's going to be thinking, okay, you know, I want to get married one day. I'm going to move off of this site. So I just want to put that picture in your head that where you're at now is not going to be it forever. So how can we set you up to go towards the future? Fair enough? Yeah. So we have limited time with you. Another reason I called.

What's your question? What's the core question? so my question is and going kind of in what she says i want to get out of debt but i don't want to get rid of anything um because and the reason i want to go out that is like she said if i marry a young lady that wants to you know eventually go ahead jade how does he get out of it without selling his toys well i mean you've got two choices what's your income um so i make roughly 60,000 a year that's without working overtime and usually i work a good bit of overtime so here's the problem Usually, I might find a way and say, hey, if you could, you know, work extra and pay all this stuff off, like, keep it. But in your case, you have too much money tied up in things with motors.

And those things tend to go down in value, as you're probably already seeing. You're right side up in your truck so far, but you can probably see your side by side going down. You might even see that your boat's going down. You make 60 and you got $52,000 of debt. That's way too much. So if I were you, I'd probably hang on to the truck since you only owe 13 on it. and the rest of it I'd say bye bye bye bye oh very nice I don't even know what a side by side is I don't either but I know it's something that you drive on I'm going to look it up on the

on the prairie and on land so there you okay oh it's a fan oh a golf cart okay that's different okay so you definitely don't need an off-road golf cart no I mean you must let me put it like this you must sell the side by side that's got to go to today. What's it worth? So right now as it sits, it's probably worth around 25 to 26,000. Yeah, got to sell that today. And what I would do, you do have some time, save up the difference so that you can break even on it and sell it. And then, yeah, I'd probably keep the truck. I don't think you're going to get anything much cheaper than that and you're even on it.

I think I'm okay with that. But you've got to get rid of the boat. You're 20 years old. You don't need a boat. Rent a boat. That's tough, Jade. I might let him pay off the boat, get rid of the side-by-side. Come on, man. Well, he's definitely got to get rid of the side-by-side. Who needs an off-road golf cart? All right, Joshua is up in Denver, Colorado. Joshua, how can we help today?

How are you? I'm doing very well. Thank you so much for taking my call. I was in a really, really bad car accident at the end of June. I worked for Lockheed Martin, so luckily I get to at least be on disability, but we're running out of money massively fast, and I'm just horrified that I'm going to let my family down and that I'm going to just make problems for us

that we're not going to be able to overcome. Okay. And I'm not really sure what to do. All right. Well, we're going to walk this thing through with you, okay? First of all, so sorry that you've gone through this. How are you doing physically? Well, I was not breathing, unconscious, and bleeding out when they put me on the flight for life.

They told my mother and my fiancé that I would be lucky if I was a vegetable. And then I also had some other pretty serious complications a couple months later home's died twice in the last five months. Oh, my gosh. So how are you now? I have a surgery tomorrow. My left arm doesn't really work. I definitely got some unfortunately significant brain damage from it.

Okay. Wow, Josh. But, like, I can't be anything but grateful. Like, the Lord has done more than enough to save me, and I'm in debt that I could never repay to him. Awesome. So I guess I'm doing okay. Okay.

Okay, so have you, did you get married, or are you still planning to marry the fiancé? I actually had set up a camping trip for both of our families so I could ask her father to actually marry her officially right before the crash, and then the crash happened. So I'm trying to figure out how to ask her father to marry her, but yeah, I absolutely intend to marry this one. She's absolutely the best thing that's ever happened to me. Okay. All right, and then, because the reason I asked that question, you said you're worried about letting your family down. But as it stands right now, the only person you're responsible for is you,

correct? I also have my daughter. She's not my biological daughter, but I have full custody of her, and she is my daughter. She's my baby girl. Totally get it. How old is she? She is about to turn 15. Okay. And do you two live together? Do you own a home, or are you renting? my mother actually owns the home that we are renting currently okay that's that's really good news right now and then how long is there a limit on your disability payments from Lockheed Martin or from insurance whatever your situation I don't really know how that works I'm on short-term disability my doctor was saying I need to transfer it long term because he doesn't expect me to recover for a while because there's a lot.

And so what income, what do you have right now? We're going to start walking through some numbers. What income are you receiving right now? They have intermittently provided me like $615 per week, but they denied my claim while I was in the ICU and I was in a coma, so I couldn't really do much about it. No. And it really set a lot of things back.

So, like they didn't do any back pay on it or anything. There was a big hole in finances. I'm pretty much out of money. I think I have $1,000 less. It's not even $1,000. When you say they denied it, was that when you were first trying to collect it? They denied it, and now they're paying it out?

Or have they stopped paying it out now? So they have to, like, or every month they are going and reasserting that I'm still messed up. Yes, so it's currently going back through that whole process, so they're going to reach out to my litany of doctors at this point. Uh-huh. So you're currently receiving nothing? Is that what you're saying? You're currently receiving nothing?

Say it again? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Okay. And I'm guessing you have no savings, no nothing. Not anymore. Okay. I was going to say earlier that possibly there was an elimination period that maybe that's

why in the beginning they were denying you, waiting for that period to go by before they started making these payouts out. I think the only thing, how long has it been since the rec you said June or July? It was June 30th, so it's been almost five months exactly. Hmm, yeah. But they, if they were paying you at first, and then they've, every month you said they stop and make sure that you're still fit for eligibility, basically. And who is they? Is it the insurance that you had through Lockheed Martin? It's Sedgwick.

Okay, but it's through. It's Sedgwick and New York Life, and I have to verify, or not verify, but do everything through both companies. Do you have anybody at Lockheed Martin, that's essentially your advocate in HR that's helping with this? Kind of. it's really hard because the HR lady that I

have been in contact with she can't really do much it all goes through Sedgwick to be kind of power list and what's that process is it just you submitting a letter from your doctors what is it that they're asking for that you're not able to provide

they have to reach out to all my different doctors and surgeons and verify all of the different portions of the claim, I guess. I don't really understand what they're doing, but yeah. Do you have someone like your mom, a friend who's also helping you with this and being a bulldog on insurance? Not really. My mom is helping me as much as she can, and my fiancé is helping me as much as she can,

but we're all kind of illiterate on this stuff, so it's not very helpful. And here's the problem. Neither one of us are insurance experts. And so the only way we can guide you today on this insurance stuff is tell you what we would do. And if I was in your shoes, I've got a fiancé who loves me. I've got a mom who loves me. And it's like they may be illiterate, but let's become as literate as possible. But let's go find an advocate. Let's go find somebody at the insurance company who is either going to become a champion for you or they learn pretty quickly. I'm going to hear from these people 17 times a day because unfortunately we are in a and if this doesn't piss you folks off about our health care insurance I'm holding myself back

because I wish I could get every Republican and every Democrat in Congress in this studio right now to listen to this young man because this is the biggest bunch of crap that I have ever heard in my entire life for him to be going through this jade and having to do this and call us and he's coming in and out of comas

and they want him to turn it paperwork. Yeah, and we got to go verify with doctors all the time. This is just what's wrong with, by the way, I'm just going to say this while I'm on it. We want to know why people get angry in this country and do dumb things. This is why. And I'm just going to leave that there. This is ridiculous. The only other thing I can think of is that your short-term disability was only for maybe six months or so, and that part is up and you have to transition it. That's the only thing I'm thinking might be happening, which is why they might be asking. asking for a whole new set of evidence that you're still...

Yeah. But this is a full-time job. Unfortunately, this is a full-time job. Well, maybe I spoke with it. Sedgwick last said that short-term disability through them will go for up to 12 months. Oh, really? Okay. Well, then they need to pay. They need to pay on time.

Yeah, it could have, if it, it might be six to 12 months, right? And so at the six-month period, they might be saying, okay, we're re-evaluating. I really think, to Ken's point, things like this are a full-time job. And it's something that when you call, you record the conversation, you take notes on the conversation, you get the ladies number. So every time you call, you're talking to the same lady. Do you see what I'm saying? You don't have the ability to do that right now. So your fiancé is going to have to step up big time and help you with this and advocate for you because like you said, I mean, you're dealing with brain damage. You're dealing with a surgery tomorrow. It's going to be hard for you. Now let's talk about your four walls because that's the most important thing. Luckily, you're renting from your mom. let her know what's going on and no one's going to take your place from you, right? So you've got security there. Utilities, food, and transportation. It doesn't sound like you're going anywhere unless somebody's driving you.

So I think that you're okay. It sounds like you're surrounded by people who love and care about you. And you're going to have to lean on them during this time. You're not able to go out and work like you once were and you're up against some real challenges. And in this case, sometimes people are the only thing that are there to help you in times like this. Let's go to Detroit next, where Kim is waiting on us. Kim, how can we help today? Hi.

I am expecting a six baby soon. Whoa. Wait a minute. Did you say sixth, as in the number six? That's the one. Kim. Wow. You are a hero.

I know, that's my wonder woman. What's going to be the age range? We have an almost 12-year-old down to a one-year-old. Oh, my, my. Holy moly. Would you like me to get on the phone with your husband and tell him to leave you alone? I mean, if you want to find, that'd be lovely. Tell him to rewind the show today.

Hey, pal, leave her alone. She needs a break. In his defense, he was fearing up to get a vasectomy, and we just didn't get that far. You love each other. What can you say? Have we made that appointment, though? Is that on the books? Oh, I wish. I wish. I don't know

what he's doing. So. Kim, you're a good one. You are a good lady. All right, I'm sorry. I'm having a little fun here. I always represent the American people. I say what they're thinking. Okay, how can we help today? Right. So two of my biggest concerns right now is the fact that we lease a car through my husband's work, and we only have the

one car, and it is a seven-seater, so not going to fit six kids. My other issue is the fact that we're essentially in a two-bedroom house and running out of space very quickly. You think? You're in a two-bedroom house? Yeah, well, so his husband, she works from home, and so he uses one of the pseudo-bedrooms as an office. So my thought is we can plunk him as quickly as possible into the basement, where we anticipate getting at least two bedrooms put up and in his office built down there. But there's a lot of work that has to get done to the basement before, like, rooms and things can be added down there. How many square foot feet is this place? It's only 1,400. It's not a lot. It's manageable.

Do we have, okay, hold on, slow down. Do we have the money to be able to make these two? Okay, so we have, I thought that was the case. So here's the deal. There is no expansion of the house for him. he's going to a place called a coffee shop what kind of work does he do and what does he earn so he he makes about 75 a year

and the problem is like sometimes he's on the phones and stuff like that so like he has to be in like a quiet secluded area there's all kinds of sidewalk what kind of work is it there's the back alley

for Volkswagen so oh what service it's like a customer service for Volkswagen okay um how long has you been doing that uh for about six or so years now okay and do you do any work other than working from the home do you do anything outside to get a check how could she so i don't think so i'm just asking i fill as much space as i can um when i when my husband's not working i'm walking dogs i'm grooming dogs we we do boarding at the house just to add some extra income you do boarding at the house where there's no bedrooms for the children to sleep.

I have a great idea. I have a great idea for you guys to make more money. You guys need to be on the phone with some reality show producer because I feel like, I feel like your life is a reality show waiting to happen. Oh, man. I always told my husband we would make a really great sitcom. I know you would. Six kids and 60 dogs.

I'm exhausted already, just talking to you. Okay, well, I like your hustle spirit. I like the fact that you're like, hey, I'm going to get money doing what I can. I love pets. Yeah. So invite them over. what do you i mean on a good month what do you make from your side hustling um so from grooming i do about 2,000 uh with uh boarding i do about a thousand walks are harder for me just because it's more

of me out of the house so um usually it's like maybe a couple hundred bucks a month or something like that you're pregnant with your six i'm tired yes stop walking the dogs okay so what is the core question you called with today because now we have a pretty good idea what's going on I'm trying to systematically, I feel like the car is going to be the biggest thing as far as what we need to do first. But, I mean, I've looked at places that could offer us a car that's going to fit everyone and they're looking at like, I mean, if we put no money down, we're up to like $700 car payment a month. Right now we pay $275 for this lease. And I'm like, I don't know how to find a car that's going to fit everyone with like zero money. I mean, we're on baby step two right now.

So I don't know. What other debt do you have? Um, it's about 30,000 in consumer. So, um, there's like 8,000 on one card that my husband has that went to collections. We have another 5,000 that went to collections that he has. And what was this money spent on? Is this just you guys surviving? No. It was that my husband spent it on. On what? On garbage. Okay. Yeah, because I like, hold on. I want to pause for a second here. Okay. You guys are making enough money. yeah yeah between his 75 and let's call it your 24 that you guys don't need to be spending money on credit cards it's not like you need that money to live you guys are just being ridiculously careless yeah and truthfully you don't I mean Ken is right you're doing all right but you don't have a lot of margin for error here I just kind of calculated so what's he bringing home like 4,800 a month yeah give her a take okay and yours is too so you're 6800 a month

which doesn't sound bad but But there's eight of you guys. So that goes fast. What do you pay for mortgage? 1450. Okay, that's fine. And do you have like an actual budget? Could you tell me today like here's the margin at the end of every month that we have?

We have like a about $2,000 margin after all of like the necessities. Great, great. So the key to this is you're going to have to save up to get something because You already know that debt's the problem, right? So you can't turn around and go into debt on another vehicle. How often are all of you piling in the car to all go to the same place? So because I'm predominantly a stay-at-home mom, I'm the chauffeur. So like the kids are with me a good chunk of the day except the older two who are in school.

But because it's also our only car, if we go see family, if we go do anything, we're taking everybody. Well, guess what we're not doing? we're not going to see anybody we aren't going to go do anything until we get this thing right sized yeah i think so everybody's coming to you my goodness i think you got a good case to make i think so too now this lease when is it up i mean it's up any minute um so like we could return it today and they'd be happy with us but the only problem is so right now we're paying 275 a month on the car okay which is all fine and well that includes insurance tags every year all of it. And they're not no longer making the car that we have with the three row seats. So we can't

get that same deal. If we return it and get another car, we'd be looking at paying closer to 450 on the next lease. Understood. How, how, how, because here's, the biggest problem is this. And I know it's easy to focus on like the, the micro problems, like the lease. The biggest problem is you've had $2,000 of margin for the last five, six years that he's been working on Volkswagen, but you don't have any money saved. So I can tell you what happened with that. Well, door dash. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

It doesn't matter at this point. That is the point is that that money has gone to things that are not paying off debt, not saving up for the future. So today, this is the thing that's on fire. You guys have got to save up, start saving that money. And in the meantime, if you can extend this car, if that's possible, I would say do it because you've got to have something to drive. And you don't have any money.

So that would be my first thing is, See what you can save up. What can $8,000 get you? What can $7,000 get you? And you're going to have a beater for a while after you get out of this lease because that's what you can afford. Yeah. Does your husband, is he mechanical by any chance? minorly yeah yeah I get it me too I can barely put gas in a car um but here's I'm gonna get creative if I'm you right you know what I'm doing what I'm finding somebody in their local community their church who's like really good at working on chevies or forts and they live in the Detroit area okay and I'm gonna go find me an old suburban you know something in the early 2000 no seriously that's got that's got enough enough seats yeah and we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna get a

five thousand dollars of bourbon and find a good mechanic who and to rip us off who will give us a deal. My point is you have to get creative and innovative when you are in this situation. And people will feel for us. You go, hey, we've been dumb. We've got some debt we're paying off. We got a six kid on the way. Husband's going to go get snipped soon. We're solving that problem. We need, we need this. And we share the problem. And we go to the local community, whatever is. And we say, help us. Yeah. If you have a good church home, let them put the word out. You don't just like make excuses and go, well, we got to go to I know this. And I know you're not. But I got to tell you, I'd have hubs watch this back on

YouTube. And I'm not knocking you, my friend, but you got to step up. You must. You're the one that went out and did this on credit cards. Now, you need to go out and not sleep and work and pay this off. Go get yourself a car. My goodness. Step up. You got six kids. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair. Wins Credit Union Studio alongside the incomparable, the fabulous Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman, so excited that you're with us, the phone number for you to jump in. It's AAA 825-2-2-25-2-25-2-2-5-2-5. Shakira is joining us now in Washington, D.C., Shakira, how can we help?

Hi, how are you both? We're having a blast today. What's going on with you? so me and my husband we recently got married back in June this year and we both had a little bit of credit card that like have that has been accumulated we I recently read the total money makeover and it's been something that we've been speaking about doing we already have our $1,000 saved up and we've kind of figured out we're doing the snowball right now with all of our all of my husband's debts and all together just my husband's we have around 39,000 in debt but the next thing that's not including our our cars so the next thing that we want to tackle as we do the snowball is looking

at our cars he currently owes around 17,000 on his car and I owe about 6,000 on my car car payments is all for the both of us it's about $1,000 and so we're just at like a crossroads as far as what we want to do moving forward if it's get just sell our cars get some money to pay off the debt and then just kind of get rid of all of our debt within like the next hopefully two years and or if we should just um because he I had I had mentioned to him to um just turn in the cars get what we can and then buy something that doesn't include a payment but he kind of doesn't want to let go of his car it's something that he has dreamed of having for a very long time. When you say turn in the cars, what do you mean by that? Do you mean just take whatever the

dealer will give you for them? Or are you talking about trying to like repo these? No, no, no. Take whatever the dealer will give it to give us for them and then buy another car without a payment. So what if you just, if you're willing to sell the cars, why not private sale them so that you can get more from the sale? Yeah. And do it right. That's, that's something that we've, we've kind of, we've kind of mentioned, but where he's at is, where he doesn't want to get rid of it, is he has brought up the point of refinancing his car. No, no, no, no. Okay, let's back up, let's back up, okay.

First of all, if you read Total Money Makeover, you may have not seen it. It's totally okay. But I want you to start talking about your debt, not his debt, my debt. You guys just got married. I know it's new. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. this is now we. This is not his debt. So I just want to mention that. It's very important that you guys

are unified on this. It's our debt. Now, just a point of clarification, I got the money on the cars. You got 6K left on your car. He's got 17K on his. But you said, I thought that in addition to the cars, we have 39,000. You said his. I'm now saying we. I thought she said 1.39. No, no. How much is it? No. So all of our debt combined is around 39. Oh, okay. That includes the cars. That women, I'm sorry? That includes the cars.

Without the cars. That's just credit credit. So I was right. So, so, hey, this is shocking. You got one male talking, two females, and I'm the only one that's clear on the numbers. This is, write this down, America. This is shocking. I'm trying to follow the path. I got you. So we've got 39,000 in addition to 6,000 car, 17,000 car. Is that true or false? True. All right. I knew it. All right. Now, what is the 39? I need you to break it down for us. Credit cards. I know, but I still want to hear the numbers. So walk us through it, smallest, the largest.

Yes, sir. So we have a personal loan that has $10,000 on it. We have another card that has $12,000, another that has $11, another that has $11, another that has a thousand and then the rest are just kind of 800 500 400 okay and what is your combined income please um my husband makes around 57,000 and I am going to be getting a new job soon um because in my current role I don't make enough at all I make around around I want to say 12,000 a year okay what is that that's not even a job yes it's almost it's it's it's full time but it's part time uh pay why are you do you are the sweetest person i've ever met in my entire life why would you do that to yourself when there's full time jobs with full time pay that you could get well she is

working on that so that's good yes what will you make you have any idea she said she's about to get a new job we need to quickly move through this what do you think you're going to make do you have an actual job on the horizon um i've been applying and But while I do that, I sometimes do a little teaching on the side with, like, subbing and things like that, and that can earn me about a paycheck of about, like, $1,000. Do you have any kids? No, sir. Okay, can I just share something with you, Shakira?

You need to be working. You need to quit this full-time job that has part-time pay. That's about the most ludicrous thing I've heard all week. And I'm a real fan of yours, so I'm not picking on you. But I hope you hear how really silly that sounds. So you need to go get you a full-time job somewhere. I don't care if it's at Target or Walmart or wherever, and you need to be working another job because we have two potential incomes, no kids, and we can knock this debt out.

Okay, this is all possible. Okay, so we got at first, let's get our income up, and then, Jade, I'm handing it to you to talk about what we're doing on budgeting, the snowball, take it away. What do they do next? Well, I am wondering about the $17,000 car. What's it worth? it's worth around I want to say 23,000 my husband said it's a it's a 22 4th Bronco and that's his baby so no it's not his baby it's actually a piece of crap have you seen the

test ratings on this it really is I got to go back to the it's his baby because there's actual real people at home who are struggling financially y'all you should be his baby do you see what I'm saying make sure he listens to this call this call he needs to you right now he needs to sell it because there's $5,000 in equity there that you guys need today. Do you see what I'm saying? And not to mention, what's the payment on that? It's around, I want to say, like $6.690. Oh, come on.

So now we just found, let's round it up for fun, now we just found $8,000 plus dollars in a raise. So he could essentially, if he was really, if he's really down to get this cleaned up, he could essentially take that $5,000, $6,000 from selling this car. You guys could quickly save up another thousand or so with it. He's driving a $7,000 beater, and now you've just repocketed almost $700 a month. What about that? And you're paying off those three small credit cards in three months, minimum, just with that payment. But now that you're working harder than you've ever worked before, you're busier than a one-arm wallpaper hanger.

That's how busy you are. That's busy. That poor guy trying to hang wallpaper with one arm. That's a lot of work. He's focused. So, like, this is, you guys can knock this out. I'd keep your $6,000 car because that's reachable pretty quick. Yep.

And you pay that off. So he's got a $5,000 car and you've got a $6,000 car that we're going to pay off. This is all doable, but you guys got to get super serious. Sacrifice. Sacrifice is the name of the game. You're not getting out of this without sacrifice. There's no getting around it. That is part and parcel to this whole debt-free deal.

You can't get around it. There's no easy button. Yeah, but no more. Shakira, a full-time job on part-time pay? What are we talking about here? You've got to respect your time more than that. Oh, my gosh. Hey, folks, if the show is helping you out,

we'd love for you to help us out. There's no better promotion in the world than real people. who say, hey, I'm listening. I'm watching this. So a share, a like, and subscribe on whatever platform that you're enjoying the show. We would appreciate it so very much. Thank you. Brittany is up next in Portland, Oregon. Brittany, how can we help today? Hi there. So I have been working at a company for about five years now, and as part of my compensation, I receive equity grants every year with a four-year vesting schedule. And I have basically just been letting those shares vest, and then they move into my brokerage

where I've just been holding on to them. Unfortunately, over the last few years, the stock has essentially tanked. It's down 60% from its all-time high, which occurred in November of 2021. And as a long-term investor, I don't need the money, but I've been slowly watching the value of that position decline and decline. and I feel like I'm at a point now where I'm wondering, you know, should I cut my losses and sell out of what's vested and move that money into, you know, either a broader index fund or should I try to see it through? Right now, the total value of the position is around

$150,000, which is about a third of my overall brokerage account. Yeah. And the total, the average loss on that is about 30%. So it's painful. It's emotional. And I can't make an unemotional decision about it. So you guys can give me some unemotional advice. Yeah. So first question I have is I thought I heard you say you're a long-term investor. And so this is all gravy for you, this company stock. You're doing your own investing.

And so you know you're going to be fine long-term. Correct? Did I hear that? Yeah. That's my hope. That's the goal. Yes. Then the next question that I would have, and I'm answering this as if I were you. So I have no emotion in this.

So I'm going to, okay, what would I do? All right. So what would I do is I would say, what do I know? know, and let's not look at opinion pieces in the media, but to the best of our ability, let's look at what the company is saying, let's look at what we can learn from insiders in the building. There's a reason why that stock has gone down, true or false? True, yeah.

Might be a few big reasons. Do you know what the reasons are? I have some suspicions. I have some solid leads and solid hunches. Which are? You know, we moved away from our core competency, started investing in things. outside of our main space. We've had a CEO transition. New CEO has been in place for about a year. And what, okay, pause, pause, pause, pause. So what has new CEO said about it? Because the board

brought him in to fix this problem primarily. I know that without knowing what this company is or what they do. I know that. So what is he saying publicly? What is the board saying? Because you can go look this stuff up. That's public information. So what are they saying? Yeah. You know, we have a turnaround plan in place. It means the expectation is we're going to continue to see softness, both on top line and bottom line for at least another year. But the expectation is that by fall of 2026, our new products should be in market, and there's a lot of optimism around that new product. I think the biggest question continues to be around tariffs.

We're incredibly susceptible to tariffs. Exactly. Exactly. All of this smells very good to me. I don't have any suspicion about this at all. I think this is a hold position. for you. I disagree. I think I disagree. Tell us why. I'm actually intrigued to hear why you would disagree with that. Very sensible position. I'm, I have two sides of it. So it's possible that

so this is, I mean, this is not your money. It's not like you're investing in this stock. This is stock that they're giving to you. How quickly after it, I mean, how quickly can you move it over to something else? How quickly could you move it to an index fund once you've received it? How long does it take for it to vest? So it's a four-year vest. schedule 25% per year. And then, like I said, I have 150K that's fully vested, just kind of sitting in the stock. I can move out of that as quickly as tomorrow. I mean, if you wanted to sit on what's currently there, it wouldn't bother me. But moving forward, what I would do is the moment it vests, I'd move it to an index fund. Or I'd move it elsewhere because I don't

want money invested in single stocks, especially in a company that's very soft right now. I, just would never tell somebody to invest their money there. Therefore, I also wouldn't advise somebody to necessarily. But she's not investing her money. I understand it, but it's the same principle. I wouldn't necessarily advise somebody to leave their money there. Now, that's why I said, if you want to keep the 150 there for now and see if it regains, but going forward, I would move. Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. Do you see what I'm saying? So I, yeah, I was just talking about the, what I was addressing. I'm not increasing my loss is going forward. That's fair. And I don't disagree with Jade on that. What I was addressing is what you called about, I thought,

to say, what do I do with this current stock that has lost all this value? And if it were me in your situation, I agree with what Jade's saying in the future. But I'd say on this particular thing, I'd give the CEO a chance. Let's see if a year from now, they can get some of that back. And then you can move it. That's all I'm saying. And that's a unique situation. This is such a unique call. In that situation, I'd probably wait and see if the company can turn things around for that reason. But I also wouldn't have the first problem if you said, I'm out. I was going to say, if I were in your shoes, I don't think there's any problem with you doing what Ken said or doing what I suggested. If I were in your shoes, I would probably move it

because I'd be like, I just don't want it in single stocks. And I've already taken a loss. I've already taken a hit. I'd rather this be diversified. That's just what I would do. In order for you to stomach it is why I said what I said, which is, hey, leave what's there. But going forward, make sure you quickly move, you know, as soon as it best. I'm just trying to, this is an emotional thinking, you know, I was just trying to work through the emotional side of it. That's all. And that's why, again, the only reason I said what I said is because her emotion is where it is. And so it's like, you're not relying on that money. Yeah. This is what I would call found money. And I'd go, if you're emotional about it,

ride the roller coaster a little bit longer, see if they get it back up. And that's so funny, because I'm the exact office and I'm like, it's not your money. So there's really no reason to be emotional. I just move it and go, whatever. I have 150,000. $1,000, how do I want to invest this? That's the way I think of it. You're playing with house money. It's house money. So I'm a little bit more aggressive with house. Oh, so we're betting. Yes, she is in this case. She is. She's going, if she holds and doesn't move it, she is betting that the CEO and the new leadership and the analysis could end up playing out. I wouldn't take that bet. I wouldn't take it. And that's your prerogative. It is. She got two pieces of advice. I know.

You got two pieces of advice, Brittany. What are you going to do, Brittany? You tell us. Oh, man. Well, I think the good news. I think the good news. is that it doesn't sound like there's a wrong decision here. You know, there's not clear something that I'm doing wrong. And so, you know, as an employee of the company, I think I'm going to try to be a little loyal, have faith, have optimism, and I'm going to hold. I do believe in the company. I do believe we're in a rebound.

We always have in the past. Just don't have the opportunity off the audience in the lobby. Just don't forget going forward that it's a single stock. Just don't forget that going forward. All right. Now, just for fun, we got probably 30, 40 people in the lobby. Lobby, raise your hands. if you would go ahead and get out of the stock and cash out.

Raise your hand. My guy, right there. One guy. One guy. One guy. Now, let's see how this one goes. If you would hold a little bit and wait at least a year, the Ken position, raise your hand. Oh, it's overwhelming.

Listen, I got to tell you. Y'all are betters. You guys are risky business. It's rare that I'm right. And so I'm going to soak in this one. Laugh it up, Ken. I tell you what, I've been married 27 years after a three teenagers. I'm never right. You know what I mean, people? Thank you very much. There's one guy that's giving

me a polite golf clap. No, but in all seriousness, I think, Brittany, you're very wise. You're not doing anything wrong. No, it's not her money. It's not your money, so you decide what you want to do with it. But I like that. It's a really interesting call. And in that situation, with a public company, the proof is in the pudding. And here's what I know about public companies. If this guy doesn't get it right? The next guy. They're going to get somebody. There will be a next guy who gets it right and so that's where my mindset is and so I'm thinking long-term play in this unique situation but I loved your advice too I it's hard not to take advantage of that and by the way to fully come back to your your point of view going forward as she gets new stuff

I I love that idea of going moving it over thank you thank you very much and now I'll take it from here and I'll take it so I would do that as well I want to stipulate that yeah I just was so stuck in my other position. None of it was wrong. No, no, no, none of them. So a very interesting stuff, and what a benefit to people who have that option. I know. Stock options are very nice.

Hello. I got a friend who shall remain nameless who just recently left a massive company. Oh, yeah? And he cashed out, and boy, oh boy. Cha-ching. Oh, boy. He had a good day, folks. I had a good day just hearing about it, and I didn't get anything from it.

That's a good friend right there. The afterglow of his stock cash-in was so nice that I even felt good. After-glow. There you go. After-glow. Anna is up next in Lexington, Kentucky. Anna, how can we help? Hello, hello.

All right. Me and my husband, we got ourselves in a pickle. We're spinning fast, young and dumb, you know. But that's okay. That's okay. Gary Deans, right? Yes. So essentially, we have about, I'll just see the numbers, actually.

It's about $106,000 in debt that's outside of our mortgage, and that's totaling up to about like $3,700 a month. But our house is for sale, and we'd be left over with about, I believe, about $12,000 or $13,000 left over if we sell our house at this price. kind of like knock it all over the way and then keep on doing what we're doing about like strapping down and paying off our debt um so yeah we just want to hear your thoughts on that and like where are you going to go after you sell your house yeah so we really feel the lord calling us back to knoxville um that's where we were before and we bought this house like we weren't fearful about it at all it's beautiful it's gorgeous right but um it's really isolating and we work from home we have two beautiful boys we have a nanny that comes in and um yeah we just

feel like we should be back in Knoxville for a ministry since. So you're not selling the house. But you didn't answer my question. You're selling the house in Lexington because you're called back to Knoxville. Where are you going to live and how are we going to pay for that? Oh, rent. Rent. So we're going to rent.

Yeah, we can't buy the, we can't buy the housing in cash or anything and we don't want to get in that same situation. So we'd be looking at about $2,500 a month for rent. we make, when we're in Tennessee, because of the income tax, we'll make about 10,500 a month. Okay, so very good income. And is that just his income or both of you? I wish maybe one day. No, that's both of ours. So he makes about a hundred or a hundred thousand a little. Are you still there? Oh, we lost.

I don't know like we should be backing out. Okay, Anna, are you in a storm shelter? Are you driving? We're losing you. No. Oh, you're losing me? Yeah, it sounded like you went in the janitor's closet. Okay, so your question is what to do with the... I'll tell you what. I tell you what. We're going to put Anna on hold. Yeah, we'll come back to her. We can get a better connection there. Let's go to Luke in Philadelphia. Luke, how can we help? Hey, guys, how's it going?

Good. How are you, sir? What's going on? I'm doing good. So I'm going to be receiving an inheritance from my grandfather next month. It's going to be around $85,000. I'm very blessed with that. My question is, being a Ramsey fan, I know that Dave always says to pay out the debt. So I was planning on paying off my student loans. They're about $55,000, $56,000.

but I was talking to my friends in a bar, so this is where all bad ideas start. I like where this is going, though. But he gave me his good advice. He was saying that I should invest it, I think, in like a low secure. I'm trying to, I don't really know the stock stuff, but he was saying to invest it into a, like, a low security stock investment plan. So like the government, I guess, I think it's the government's fine at like four and a half percent. And I use Y-Refi for my student loans, so they're down to 2.5% interest rate. So I'm trying to, like, I'm kind of leaning towards that because, you know,

keeping the inheritance for as long as I can is very appealing. Wait a second. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah. So if I hear you right, you're kind of leaning toward your buddy's advice in the bar that you can't even say to us in a coherent way. Well, because he didn't hear it in a coherent way. That's what I'm saying.

It was six years. Yeah. So you're going to... It was only six in the evening. So it wasn't it weren't that belligerent yet. But, I mean, I hope you hear yourself. Whether you were inebriated when you heard it or not, you couldn't repeat it to us in a very coherent way.

And that doesn't really matter. My point is you've got to see the irony in calling this show to ask us if you should take your buddy's advice that you can't recall overpaying off the debt. I'm going to see the balance of my time and hand it to the lady and see what she says. because I know what she's going to say. Well, Luke, yes, you know, everybody knows what I'm going to say, but I want to frame it to where it's you making the choice and not me, because it doesn't, it's got to be you making the choice.

So you have to ask yourself, what do you value? Do you value and how do you see yourself managing money? Because if you're a person who says, you know what, that's not good. I don't like the way I feel when I'm in debt. I don't like being slave to the lender. I'd like to have better sleep at night. I don't like this thing, you know, over the shadow, over my life all the time. If you value getting away from that, then you're going to say there'll

be other time to invest. This is my chance to break free. But if you say, you know what, I don't really have a problem with debt. I don't mind borrowing money. It doesn't really bug me. It's fine for me to leverage somebody else's money to get what I want. Like if you're that person, then you might say, well, yeah, I'm just going to take this money and invest it. If you ask us, we're going to tell you all day every day that debt is not the way. It's stealing from you. it's stealing your monthly payment even at 2.2.2.5% interest. It's stealing your piece. It's stealing your future. We're going to tell you that. But if you don't value that,

then it doesn't matter what I say. You're still going to get off the call and do what your buddy, six drinks in, told you to do. You see what I'm saying? I know what you're saying, yeah. The way he will, I mean, I need to hear this from you in a bar and six drinks deep. Then I can really believe in it. Maybe so. Listen, I can pour yourself a tall one while we tell you this. I don't know if that helps.

Let's think of it like this. Okay, so you've got 85. You could essentially do both. You could pay off the $56,000. Just think for a minute, Luke, how great that would feel for that to be out of your life. Because how old are you? I'm 26. 26.

They're gone forever. Now you've got the rest of your working life, another 26 to 30 years to not only keep the other 10 or so that's left, right? The other 15 that's left. You can go ahead and invest that, let it sit, do what your buddy said. well don't do what they said invested in mutual funds and then you have the next 30 years to invest 15% of your income and build wealth you're going to be a multi multi millionaire okay so why not do both right why not clear out the debt and be a multi multi multi millionaire i'll drink to that this is why i call because i was like you know luke you're leaning towards your friend in a bar

and how much do they have how much money do they have they make they do better than me but yeah. Ask him to show you proof. Listen, I don't mind that you're getting advice from your buddy in a bar, but it better be good advice. I want to know that they're killing it. So my goodness. Yeah, pretty straightforward answer for us. And I think what you nailed is what I don't think people think about until they start to listen to us or watch us and they hear it say it the same thing over again, and I'm going to bring it back to you. You having written a book what no one tells us.

you about money and that is the psychology yes nobody looks at that on a TikTok or Instagram well it's an emotional thing when you talk about building wealth especially when you have this opportunity in your hand that he's got 85,000 dollars in his hand that he didn't work for somebody just dropped it and it's like oh my gosh this is my moment and here we are saying put it on your debt that is like buzzkill right it feels terrible that's why I framed it up on his values because here's the truth the truth is it the worst thing in the world he could have done to take that 85 and just drop it in an index fund, come on, there's a lot dumber things he could have done.

That's not a bad move when you think about it. He's still doing something, you know, smart. He's investing it. But when we're talking about good, better, and best, the best move is to clear out your debt, pay off, you know, pay that out, get that done. It's not chasing you. It's not haunting you.

And people don't consider the emotional side of that to finally have peace. When people let their student loans stick around forever, Ken, the amount of guilt associated with that is, It's crazy because you're like, man, here I am with these student loans. He's going to get married one day. Maybe he already is, and his wife's going to have to be married into that. Then he's going to have kids one day. His kids are going to have to, you know, feel the stress of that.

So the quicker you're able to deal with this, the better. Because here's the dirty little secret, Jade. You know this and I know this. Most people don't want to admit this. Many people like this, Luke, if they don't do this and take care of this, they're going to wake up in their mid-50s with student loan. And then do the math one day of how much interest they've been paying. Now you're talking about severe stomach pain.

It's pain. And ain't no medicine to take care of that. So I love the advice. That's just one of the things she takes on in the fabulous new book. You can pre-order it today for the absolute best price of $24.99. Get over $100 worth of goodies. It's called what no one tells you about money until Jade Warshaw came along. Ramsey Solutions.com slash stores where you can get it now before it hits bookstores everywhere.

Jade, you know this, but I've got to tell a lot of these folks at the all new every dollar is here, and it's more than what we have been telling you it is, and what it was. That's right. That's a great budgeting app, but I sat with the team today, and you ready for this? Tell me. It was so fun. I was going through a full demo of it.

You know what this is? This is everything, every dollar is everything you would get if you called this show, but a whole lot more. Let me explain. Yes. They are going to interact with you. This app interacts with you, finds out where you are, and then you know that you can actually get a free 10-minute coaching call. I've been trying to tell people. And the most you're going to get if you call this show is eight minutes. Right.

And it's truly probably not eight after I've yammer on for a minute. It's probably seven. And I was blown away that it's free right now, and it's not going to be free because I'm going to tell you once Dave figures it out, it's not going to be free. You think so? But it's a free 10-minute call. That's if you even need it. But I kid you not. People go, is every dollar just a budget? No, it's not just a budget.

It is literally like calling this show. You get real digital advice that you're going to answer these questions. You're going to get real legitimately awesome, specific coaching. And then you can get a coach if you want a real life coach. That's right. This is unbelievable. So they're going to help you find a minimum of a three. thousand dollars right out of the gate i'm looking at this data today so that's what it is jade what

do you add to this you've been on this game for a bit every dollar is exactly what you need but let me let me let me take it a step further the dynamic duo that you need you need every dollar because that's going to do the coaching it's going to do all the practical stuff make you stay on the baby steps numbers but then you need to pick up this book that goes with it because that's going to be your book yes you get the practical side of the numbers and then you get the emotional side with this this is what you need with your every dollar. I'm just saying. I see what she did there. It's a pairing. It's like wine and cheese. Because

every dollar is going to tell you what to do and how to do it. And then Jade's book is going to come alongside and go, hey, when you're in the middle of this, here's how you keep doing all this. Here's how you're going to fit. Keep your motions in check. Do them both. I love that. It's very good. Start every dollar for free today in the App Store or Google

Play. And since she mentioned it, you can pre-order Jade's new book, what no one tells you about money. Same place. Ramsey Solutions dot com slash store and there you go the one two punch and i would do what she says it's not good when you don't take it from me pat is up in kansas city pat how can we help today um i am uh completely out of debt uh this month paid off my home wow congratulations yeah how much is the house worth um well i i'm not sure i i think on zillow

it shows it at like $5.50. Oh, it's probably worth more. But I don't know how real that is. Well, you know, find out from a good realtor. But congratulations. You're in that neighborhood. You're in that neighborhood. That's awesome to be in that half a million dollar range.

Good on you. Yeah. So now I've got about another nine to ten years of working. Okay. And I have a business. And so I need to start, because I've been self-employed pretty much my whole adult live. I've invested in businesses and lost and built back up and lost and built back up. Now, I can finally put money away for retirement. And so far, I've got about $185 in stocks and some

smaller Roth IRAs. I really want to be wise about from this point on. What's the business? It's a mechanical company, heating, air conditioning, plumbing. Do you plan to sell it? I don't know. I don't really have a plan, an exit plan. I kind of thought that I would just manage it and, you know, get some income. And then just shut it, and then just shut it down. Or sell it. I don't have a plan right now. Well, that's why I'm asking you these. That's part of your retirement. Yeah, my friend, like in your case, that needs to be a big part of the plan, given that you don't have much in retirement money put away, but you have. paid off your house, which puts you in a great situation.

So you're actually not as bad as shape as you think, but this is probably one of your best opportunities. Let's just, let me walk through some numbers with you, if you don't mind. What is, what is your, what do you anticipate? Well, let's do the two thoughts, two questions. What was your gross revenues last year, 2024 in your business? Last year was a 1.2 million. Okay, great. And what are you anticipating that it will be in 2025? it'll be about one seven one eight okay and uh how much how much are you netting um honestly honestly i'm not sure i'm not much of a business what do you pay yourself is it just i say myself one right i have a partner who does not take a uh who bought into the business

about in 2020, which I did that because I always needed a good, I always wanted to have a business person, because I'm a technician. That's what I got. Right. And I've grown the business. It's almost 20 years old. I've grown it and lost it and growing it, you know. Sure. But what do you pay yourself? I pay myself 175. 175. And after you pay yourself, does anything remain in the business is just kind of retained earnings every year? Yes. What's left over? Um, Maybe $100,000. Okay, good job. You know, I had to get myself out of debt in the business, too.

So I've paid off a lot of debt to my business. So you don't employ anybody? No, I have 12 employees. That's what I thought. Okay, because on $1.2 million, I'm going, well, where's the rest of that money going? And so, okay, so you don't have a firm grasp on your numbers, which is okay today. It's not okay tomorrow. So whoever's running the books, whether it's your business partner or your, you're,

or you're, I don't know if you have a CPA doing your books, you need to get yourself in the numbers. And you don't need to awshucks. I'm just a technician anymore. It's, no, this is part of my retirement. And so I want to see where we are. And what we can do here as it relates to investing money. Where is the business itself? What is its potential growth path over the next, let's call it 10 years? Because that's the number you gave us. You've got a goal of 10 years. so where can that business be in 10 years and let's talk to that business partner and I'm sure that partner is probably fine exiting when you exit, if not sooner. So let's get a real plan in place and because all of a sudden, you know, it's reasonable to believe that this business

could be, you could exit for three to five million dollars with some really good work done over the next. I don't think that's a crazy number. I don't think that's crazy giving what you're saying as long as you keep trending the way you've said. And I'm speaking in general terms here, if we continue to grow the company, no debt. Especially, I was going to say, especially that there's no debt on the business. That's great. So that's a pretty nice chunk. How much does your owner, I mean, excuse me, how much does your partner have in the company?

How much equity? Well, he's 49. I'm 51. How much money did he put in for 49? And he put, he put in 300,000. Now, when he did that, you know, I've grown since, I mean, I've had it up to about 2.6 million and come back down. But since 2020, it was like 600,000 and 21, 750. 22, when he bought in in 22, we did about 800,000, then 23 a million. So we've been going

up every year. Good. Yeah, I think you're fine to answer your initial question where you're like, hey, I've got 10 years to stay for retirement. Ken pointed out you've got this wonderful asset in the business. Yeah, you guys need to decide a 10-year plan of what that's going to be with your partner, obviously, it sounds like you've got majority vote on whatever that is. Do you have a very good tax? Do you have a good tax pro? I think so. I mean, that's where I'm at. You need a smart vester pro. If you don't have a smart vester pro, you need to click on that link on our website and go interview some people and get somebody and sit with them.

I'm talking like next week interview. I always recommend interview at least two or three smart vester pros. Go with the one that you feel does the best job. explaining things to where you understand what you need to do and why you should do it, the one that you got the best chemistry with. This is a relationship. And let's look at our long term. What do they say you need to be doing? What's the most you can do personally and through the business?

Have them look at the whole thing. I'd also get a tax pro. And let's look at your tax situation and let's maximize everything we can because we're aiming with a 10-year bullseye on making and keeping as much money as possible. That's why I'm recommending the tax pro as well. Even if you only invest from the employee side, you as the employee, right? Just the 15% like we recommend, you're still going to be at a million bucks. Yeah.

If you're just investing 15% of your $175,000 income. That's right. So that's the good news. So you're in good shape, plus a chance to exit. So lock and load, man, focus. Let's crush the next 10 years personally and professionally. And I think you're going to find that you're in plenty good shape. Thanks for the call.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show and the Fair Winds Credit Union Studio alongside Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman, AAA 825-225 is the phone number. If you want to jump in, let's go to Vincent, who's waiting in Las Vegas. Vincent, how can we help today? Hello, how are you guys today? We're well. How are you? I'm better than I deserve, as Dave would say. I've heard that a time or two. What's going on?

My question is that I live a very simple life, and now it's gotten to the point where I'm struggling to really get full effort and attention in work and other aspects of life when I feel at this point pretty confident in the amount of money I have in my savings and emergency fund, and I more or less already have everything I want in life. Oh, what are you? I'm 22. That's some accomplishment. This begs a few questions. All right, how much cash do you have? About 80,000. And how much in savings or retirement?

Because I think you mentioned savings or some type of investments. What do you have? Yeah, so between the 80,000 is between cash checking account, Charles Schwab account, which is ETFs and gold. How much is the, break it down. How much is the ETFs and how much is the gold? Gold, I think, is about 3,000. And then the ETS is, I think, about $20,000.

And then in high-yield CDs, I have about $40,000, I believe. Okay. And then in checking, I have about $20,000. And the checking, would you just call that like a rainy day fund? Yeah, that's just where my paychecks go, and that's where I make most of my daily expenses. Okay, what are your monthly expenses? Just give me a number. So my income is about six to seven thousand a month. And then after after taxes and my basic

expenses, I probably have about three thousand left from three to four thousand. Okay. That's great. It's great, but it's nowhere near the guy who presented at the start of the call going, I've got everything I need. I'm 22 and I'm just having a hard time being motivated because I don't see the rest of the math that would add up to that. Well, I, I, I, I, I, think I might get it a little bit. I'm not saying I agree. I just think I understand where he's coming from. At 22, you're doing awesome. So I can understand you thinking that. Like, man, what's, I don't have any, you don't have any debt, right? Like, I don't have any debt. I got 80,000 in assets. Do you, do you own your own place or do you rent? Tell us about that. I rent a studio apartment and it's

significantly below market value due to friends and family rate from a connection I made that. Okay, but I'm, okay, I'm, I'm so confused, honestly. I'm really confused by your response. Well, I didn't get to finish. My point was, if you're measuring stick is for a 22-year-old, then I think, yeah, I think you're doing great for a 22-year-old. No, but that's not how he presented.

You said you were having a hard time being motivated. I understand. I'm getting to it. I'm saying, like, I see where you're saying, but you have now you have to look up and look out because for a 22 year old that's great but you're going to age and there's going to be other things that are going to pop up so that's why I asked you about where you rent or where you live and you said you're a renter so already that's telling me okay well that means that at some point you're going to want to be able to buy and so that's already a huge financial goal that you can set your sights on then you said okay well

here's my income right now at 22 I think that's a wonderful income but soon you're going to you know what I'm saying there you have to you're looking at where you are today and that's why you're feeling like I feel like I got it in the bag but if you look up and out you're going to say okay there is more for me to reach towards do you see what I'm saying I do see what you're saying and that's often the advice that I get from some people I talk with or professionals I've talked with and why don't you believe them really because I don't really have any desire to like buy a house someday there's no reason to buy a house if I'm just going to unit by myself. I just need one bedroom, you know?

You don't want the security of having a fixed, that biggest asset or that biggest line item on your budget? You don't want that to be fixed? Not really, because there's, you know, other expenses and repairs and taxes that come with it. Sure, but you've got all the money in the world to pay for it. It sounds like, it's not like that would break you. I mean, yeah, but to me, I don't really see a difference between having that or just having it between, you know, high-yield CDs and stocks and gold, you know? Can I ask you why, why then you care about the high yield, the CDs, the stocks, and the gold? What's the motivation behind that?

I wouldn't say I care about it. I would more say that I have excess income at the end of each month, sometimes more due to a bonus from work or something. And I put that into something that is going to give me some return, but it's also very liquid if you know, one day I wake up and decide I want to do something, I guess. Okay. What's at the root of your question? I don't think we're addressing or that you got it out. I'm not sure. What is the reason for calling today? I guess the reason for calling is that I already have a roof over my head and food on my table and clothes on my body. And I don't turn on my car and wish I drove a nicer car or go to sleep at night and wish I had a bigger bedroom.

or eat food after work and wish I could have, you know, eat a nicer meal, because I already could do all of those things and I don't. I just put it towards saving. I understand that's leading to something. So that or so, what is the point? The point is that I don't know, I guess, where to spend money where I enjoy it because I feel like wherever money I've spent, including taking international vacations or buying nicer clothes or jewelry or whatever,

don't, or even spending it on gifts for other people. I feel almost all the time that my life is basically the same as if I was just doing the absolute basics. You're completely indifferent to all those things is what you're saying. I get what you're saying. I just don't know what you're asking. And so I don't, I'm just curious. You called us. Are you making more of a statement? Are you here to make more of a declaration of? What's the question? Is there a question? I guess the question is, I guess how can I change my mindset to the point where I'm giving half effort in my job that I do and, you know, for example, all right, so that's a whole different brushing my teeth, but I don't know how to accelerate that to give 100% effort because I feel

even after talking to many proficient. Okay, okay, let me jump in. Okay, what I'm hearing is a guy who's describing work and what comes from the work as only a paycheck and I don't really care about all the stuff I can give for the paycheck. And I talk a lot about this. I've talked a lot about this for years. And I think what's missing is this is not about working to make money for you. I get it. I appreciate that point of view. It's very pure. I love it. But you're asking the question, Ken, I think you're saying I'm not very motivated and what about that? Now, here's where this comes in. You've got to be doing work to make a contribution that you care about. So I would start looking into what are the results that I ultimately want to put into this world. You're going to have to

keep bringing in an income. You're not in that kind of shape and you didn't say you weren't. But But you're only 22, and there's a lot of work left for you just to take care of yourself and do basic investing. But I understand you're going, I'm not working to have stuff. Then you need to start to shift your mindset to, I need to work to make a difference. In other words, what is the contribution I want to make in the world of work? And that's going to provide motivation for you. So I'll give you three questions that you need to answer over the days ahead.

Here they are. Who are the people that I want to help? Be specific. What problem or desire do those people have? And then third, what are the solutions to that problem or desire that I get most fired up about? Here's what you're going to find. Multiple opportunities to go to work and do something that matters deeply to you, and then it's not about the money. The last thing I would say for somebody like you is find a way to give a lot away.

And then say, oh, if I'm making money to give money away, there's great purpose there. Okay, everybody, and I mean everybody, needs insurance. However, it can be very hard to find pros who aren't just looking to make a buck off of you, sell you something you don't need, or a junk policy. And that's why Ramsey Trusted is where it is, and it's such a lighthouse to so many people. And our insurance, the Ramsey Trusted Insurance program, vets pros for you. So these are people that are out there in the marketplace. And Ramsey vets them to make sure you're not dealing with sleazy business people.

And they've been interviewed and coached to make sure that they're market experts who have your best interest at heart. And if they don't do that, we kick them out of the program. And so that's why we call it Ramsey Trusted. You can go to Ramsey Solutions.com slash coverage to find the type of insurance you're looking for or connect with a Ramsey trusted agent. And keep in mind, this is not just a one-way street. In other words, we're not looking to just be making sure we have the right coverage. We want to make sure we don't have too much coverage and thus can save you money.

And if you're listening on YouTube or podcast, you can click the link in the show notes to get connected over there. Grand Rapids is where we're going now. Mary is joining us there. Mary, how can we help? Hi. Hey, thanks for taking my call. Sure. So I'm 64 years old.

I'm still working. Well, I retired once, but I went back. I'm a school teacher. single old parent. I have two sons. My older son is 30. And he's, well, he's doing okay, but he drives a junky old car, and I get worried about him in it. He's kind of struggling financially. And my question is, should I give him my car and me get a new one? And, you know, I'm getting older. When do I stop helping my kids? Did he ask you to help? Or are you just observing this and you're assuming he needs your help yeah he did not ask he he's a good guy he

doesn't ask but i you know so it's me thinking i think i can afford it car should i and i hear i've heard dave say it's good to help your kids you know when you can i don't know i just why is he struggling financially well he went to college had a couple jobs didn't like him and now he's decided he wants to be an EMT. So he's doing schooling to be an EMT and just kind of working. Got some character. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah, oh, he's a worker.

In fact, he's got some money saved maybe, you know, in a Roth IRA, and he's responsible. But I just hate seeing him in that junkie car. When you say junkie car, what is that? Because maybe what's junkie to you is just a cash car that he likes to drive? because he doesn't care about cars and car payments. Oh, that's for sure. He's kind of a, you know, very frugal, I guess. Oh, good.

And he has no debt? No debt. Well, what's the car? Answer her question. Do you know what it is? It's a 2007 Honda fit. Okay. You know what?

I'll be honest with you, Mary. I think that he has different values than you do possibly. And if you tell me that this guy is debt-free, he's got some money saved in a Roth IRA, he's studying to be an EMT, and he has an older car with no payments, I'm hooping and hollering for him. I'm like, way to go. Good job. So no. No. Yeah, I wouldn't. Now, now, let me flip it real quick. Let's say, I don't know your financial situation, Mary. Let's pretend that, I mean, you did say you're still working. Let's say you've got a couple million bucks. You've got your teacher. pension, you're going to retire, no problem. And you were thinking of getting a new car. And that is the case. Okay. And you were thinking of getting a new car anyway that you're paying cash for and you're like, hey, what do you drive currently? What would be the car that you're giving him? It's a 2013 Toyota. And no payments, right? No, it's paid for it. I have no debt. Yeah. My children have no debt because that's how we roll. So if you wanted to offer it to him,

say, hey, I'm getting a new car. Would you like to have this? I'd love to give it to you as a gift. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But if you couch it in, you need this car. I mean, like, if the spirit around it is you're struggling, you need this gift. Please, for the love of God, take this car. That might not feel great. But if you really are just looking to be generous and you want to offer it to him, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I love this line of questioning. That makes sense. I like how you're digging, partner. But now I'm gonna dig it i thought i heard you say multiple kids is that true two sons yeah two boys is this kid the one we're talking about 30 old is he the youngest no he's the older one okay i'm just gonna tell you

as a as a as a father of multiple kids you know where i'm going here do one you got to do the other i just think there's weird i think there's i'm not no i'm not that guy i'm not one that says you have to do for one that you do for the other i'm not i'm not i'm not a i'm not a a hard line on that, but I'm acknowledging here and I'm bringing it up for sake of conversation because you've met the financial test. Jay did a fabulous job checking on all that. And my initial answer was no because he didn't ask for it and he's finding his way. But now I'm going to question the psychology here. If you do this and then the younger son, I just think you have to think about that. I'm not even going to say what you should do because I think,

you're a wise woman. I'm just going to bring that up. And I'm not going to say that you got to do for the youngest, what you do for the oldest. And I love your mom heart. I totally feel all of this. That's why I'm bringing that part up. I'm not even going to say what the position is. Well, then let's ask, what do you think would happen with the youngest son if you gave the oldest son your 2013 paid for a car? Well, I was trying to be brief, so there's even more to So I've given both my kids, they've been given all their cars. And just so, you know, I mean, I'm a widow. My husband died 10 years ago.

And I'm proud of both my sons. They both went to college and, you know, graduated. They're hard workers. They know debt. So my one son has, the younger son has my newer old car, right? And the older son has the older hooty. Oh, okay. So this is just part of the routine.

Well, then I change it. I wish, okay, well, Mary, you're so sweet. Do it. We didn't know all this. I appreciate you wanting to be brief, but this is the background that we need. And I think with all this, I'm changing my entire position and go, Mary, you can give them the car today if you want to. Yeah. And then in seven years when you buy a new car, you'll give the old one to the other side. I feel like these boys are, these boys are blessed. Yeah. And you're a good mom. You're a great mom. My goodness, Mary. Well, say, well, thank you. I mean, I just, I worry, I worry about him. And my day says, I really. take what he says to heart that when the kids need help, they can need help when they're younger.

And I think, well, well, is that like this, giving them a card? I mean, I guess it would I do think there's a statute of limitations and I don't know what it is. Yeah. I do think it's like, I'm not sure I'm giving them another one after 30. I mean, this is, you've been very generous, but I don't know that I keep this up the rest of your life. Maybe, but if they're responsible, I can totally see, like as a parent, I could totally see. I don't know. being done with something and being like, well, maybe I'll just give it over, you know. I don't know. Some point I want to go, mom, you're the best.

I should probably pay for my next car cash like an adult. But there's nothing wrong here. No, there's nothing wrong here. There's nothing wrong here. You said none of them are knuckleheads, none of them are, you know, entitled. That's all we were trying to sniff out. I just hope my kids aren't listening to this show because I'd tell you who's not getting a car for me. Who?

I'm getting them there initial. Oh, okay. You feel? Okay. I thought you were going to say something. your brain. Can I stick your brain one more? Real quick. We got about a minute. Go ahead. Okay. So, so thank

God my husband left us well off. And I've got a pretty good net worth being north of a couple million. Good. And I'm like one of these people, too. I've just worked my whole life. I'm having a hard time buying a new car, feeling like, oh my God, when can you afford to buy a different car? I'm so cheap. You can afford to have your net worth?

Yeah, you can afford to buy one today, and I probably wouldn't spend more than, you know, if it makes you feel better, no more than half of what your teacher's salary is a year. That's what I'm saying. Your teacher salary is basically whatever Mary wants to do. You're so set. You know what I would do if I were you, Mary? You're so good. Get yourself a fun car. Get something nice.

Red. Like something fun. Like, what's fun for you? Even if it's an old classic. A Toyota Prius, wouldn't that be fun? Our question of the day is brought to you by Y-R-R-F-I. If your private student loans are in default, it can feel like the end of the road, but Y-R-R-R-R-E-F-I helps you find a way forward with a low-fixed-rate payment plan that fits your life. Go to Y-refi.com-R-E-F-Y. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y. Not available in all states.

That's right. Today's question comes from Mary. Another Mary. We've had three Marys today. Is that right? One in the lobby, one on the line, and now one in the words. Isn't there a song, Mary Mary or something? I was thinking, Miss Mary, Mac, Mac, Mac, all dressed in black. All right, anyway, today's question, or why refite question of the day, comes from Mary in North Carolina. She says, I'm struggling with a question about the stereotypical golden handcuffs. My job pays well, but to be honest, I'm not motivated to be there anymore, Ken.

I struggle with a lack of purpose, Ken. I'm about four years away from retirement. And because of your advice, I do have a six to eight month emergency fund. I do have over one million in retirement funds. And I do have a paid off home. Way to go, Mary. Do I push through the last few years to keep stockpiling money? Or should I look, Ken, for another job that will certainly pay less, but enjoy more? I would go with look for another job that you enjoy more, but that's not assume. Let's not only look at something that pays less. In other words, it sounds like she has an idea here. And so before she locks in on the, well, I'm going to enjoy it a whole lot more, but it's going to pay a whole lot less. Let's just see, can we have good pay and good enjoyment? Let's at least exhaust all options. And you know, listen, I've always taken this position. And Dave doesn't like it sometimes. He'll always go, well, if you can find just as much money. And look, the data, the data bears itself out. You know, money is not what drives meaning.

And in this case, if you can't find something that pays similar, I would be fine with her doing this. I absolutely would because of the stage of life that she's in. She's fine financially. She didn't say she's going to stop working. So, yeah, I think that when someone presents like this. I'm never, ever, ever going to choose money over meaning. I want to pull that thread more because obviously she's, I mean, she's set, right? She's got the paid off home. She's got the nice retirement. She's got everything six months of emergency, all that. At what point can one make that transition in your mind of, yeah, I'm making a ton of money, but it's just not, it's not hitting right for me, Ken, you know, at what point can that person kind of do what you said and

seek out the meaning, even if the money doesn't. Yeah, high level. The answer is what we teach when you have financial peace. In other words, when you live like no one else later, you can live and give like no one else. One of the things we don't talk a lot about on the show, probably enough, and I'll say this, indict myself on this, no one else. But live like no one else is the ability to walk away from a job like this that Mary has and take a job that pays like I agree, but still have plenty of margin in her life. And she's now choosing to work for contribution. Yeah.

And I think that's the answer. When you have enough peace, or we could call it margin, when you have enough peace and space in your life to make a decision like that, and it is overwhelmingly good for your soul because you have enough. That you can do that. And, you know, again, and I'll tie this into the big picture on money. The fourth largest group of net worth millionaires in a Ramsey study, the 10,000 plus millionaires, that was behind Dave's book, Baby Steps Millionaires, or teachers.

So these teachers aren't making a ton of money, but they're making enough money based on the lifestyle that they have chosen to live. And they're doing the right things with the margin they do have. in Mary's case, I'm all for it. And so the answer is when you have peace, you can dial back, you can downshift. Yeah. I think that's, that's hard for people to. It is until you work a job like Mary does. And she goes, I honestly, four more years of this. Yeah. Four more years when I don't need to, when I don't want to. I'll draw a really, okay, I'm glad you brought this up. Last thing on this, we'll move on. I want to draw the most extreme example of this I can. For those of you

are going, I don't know, Ken, that sounds a little, a little fluffy. It's not fluffy. One of the forms of torture we've seen throughout history is meaningless work. And we saw this in World War II, where in prison camps, prisoners would move one pile of rocks from one side of the prison yard to the other. And if you're not familiar with that concept, read Victor Frankl's work in search of meaning. And the idea here is, is that that was a form of torture to do work that absolutely had no redemptive value. It's hard, painful, and that is to break down the soul, not the mind. And the most tortuous thing you can do to somebody is to remove their meaning. So I'm not trying to be dramatic here. I'm just simply saying that that's why I teach what I teach. If

anybody's ever wonder why is Ken talking about purpose and doing what you're wired to do? Because I do believe that we are souls and we have spirits and the spirit leaves the body when it doesn't do what Ephesians 210 says, which is that we are created for good works. And so that would be my last statement on that. Man, I like when I say something that gets this King Coleman out because this this guy right here he's got he's got a lot to say well i think you wonder why someone feels you know meaningless and depressed at work it's because they're doing something that they got no enjoyment now there is a i mean i hear the listener right now where it's like well but you guys would tell a stay-at-home mom who wants to stay home that maybe it's a good idea for her to work

while she's in debt right like there's a line where we're saying to kind of bite the bullet um a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain so there is there is a time and there is a short time period where it can be worth that sacrifice because you know it's not indefinite, right? Well, let me just step into your example. A stay-at-home mom working part-time to help pay off debt is about as meaningful and purposeful work there is. And that's why we do it. That doesn't mean she's called to do part-time job. Sure. She's called to be a stay-at-home mom. And there are viral clips on Instagram of me on this show saying loud and clear, there's not a greater calling in the world than a stay-at-home mom.

I am all for that, and that is as important as a job as there is on the planet. Now, let me also say, because shockingly, that'll go viral. People go, way to go. Ken, thank you. And then working women will come in there and attack me. My mom was a working mother. My wife, Stacey, worked for half of our kids' lives. I'm four working women outside the home, too. so let's just everybody relax but to your point the greater point is why am I working right and if you are only working to pay off debt that's purpose yeah we listen to debt free screams all the time but there's a deeper purpose behind that they're not they're not just working to pay off debt they're working because they see a vision well but yeah but the pay off debt

to then live like no else but my point is is that you need that there is purpose in a short term goal and work. But there's also great purpose in going, hey, I don't have to work anymore, but I want to make a contribution. And there's two types, there's two results from work, okay? One is provision to take care of me, to take care of my family, to take care of my loved ones, take care of my responsibilities, whatever those are, the bills. And then there's contribution. And in our world, we don't teach the contribution. We teach provision, provision, provision. In a Christian worldview, which I unashamedly hold, I don't think you can be a whole person. I don't think you can have a truly purposeful, meaningful sense of self if you don't do some type of work, even in retirement.

I feel that. I agree. I'm okay. Everybody going, by the way, if I want to retire and walk away, Ken, is that okay? Sure. I, for one, am not going to do that. But you're going to do something. You're going to volunteer.

You're going to help out with the grandkids. I'm going to do something. Girl Scouts, you're going to do something. Well, the Girl Scouts will keep me away, and I appreciate that. I'm not talking about you. I know. I couldn't resist. You left it right there for me. But yeah, I think that we are made to work, and that doesn't mean made to break our backs when we're 85. But I do think make a contribution as long as you can. That's a pretty meaningful life. So great question there, Mary. Really fun stuff.

Really good. You took me down the rabbit. I did. I threw you the pitch and you. But a worthy, a worthy, a worthy, conversation for all of you to say, hey, what do I want my life to look like after I've lived like no one else? Our scripture of the day comes from Psalm 1166. Teach me knowledge and good judgment for I trust your commands. And our quote today, Simon Sinek, experts are the ones who,

think they know everything. Geniuses are the ones who know they don't. Classic Simon. Little wordplay. I like that. Simon can spin anything and sound brilliant. Yeah. He can't.

He flips all these phrases. I love Simon. Brian is up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Just fun. What famous show was headquartered in Scranton? I was already playing the theme song in my mind, but I was like, this is so like. The office? Yeah.

Fantastic. Poor people are Scranton. They can't get past it. let's go to Brian Brian how can we help we love not being able to get past do you so it's not like an eye-rolling thing when idiots like me bring it up no you love it we love it actually my

my daughter learned the theme song on the piano for my birthday and played it for me and I cried that's really sweet Brian thank you for sharing that that's so fun well we're here for you today how can we help all right so uh my wife and I have had a couple large expenses come up this year that we've dipped into the emergency fund for a sewer line backing up, a refrigerator died. So as we've been replenishing our emergency fund, I just feel like it's taking quite a long time. And we haven't been, like we haven't gone back to like the baby

step three type intensity, like no vacations, no eating out. Like we've kind of continued our baby step four, five, and six life. And I just wondered if, that's okay that we that we didn't revert back to like bare bones scorched earth i think it depends on what's left in the emergency fund are you at like the three you were at the six month point and now you're at the three month point or are you like down to like the one month point we uh after the two major expenses which were earlier this year um we went down to probably like two months and we're you know we're replenishing it for sure it's it's back up there but we've always kind of ridden, been comfortable with a three-month emergency fund, just because I've

been so, I'm always eager to, you know, be investing and, you know, saving up for the next kid's car, our car, you know, something like that. So, yeah, how far away are you? Of our marriage, we've been comfortable with three months. How far away are you? You said you were down to two months, so you only got a month to replenish? Yeah, well, I'll, I'll, I'll, put it this way. Our emergency fund, we let ride at about $11,000. It went down to three or four, I'd say. And we're back

up to close to nine. Can you not do this in one month, next month? Can you just not pop $2,000 in their next month? We might be able to, but like other things have come up, non-emergency things that have

kind of taken away from replenishing it quicker. Like what? Regular car repairs. Yeah. Like whenever a vehicle goes into the shop, it seems to be, you know, hundreds more than we expect. And we pay it. We pay it with cash and move on. What do you make? What's your monthly income between you and your wife? Let's see. I'm drawn a blank. It's 90,000 a year before taxes. Okay. I want you to get this saved up sooner than later. For two reasons. One, you only had three months to begin with. So let's hurry. and get that stacked back up. Two, is do you both work, or is it just you? She has a couple side gigs that maybe bring in $500 a month on a good month. So then, yeah, that's...

She homeschools our kids, so it's mainly me working outside the home. Yeah, I want you to, I do, I want you to, going back to your initial question of, can we go a little bit slower at our 5, 6, 7, 4, 56 pace, or do we need to go with intensity? because you're the only one working, bringing in a livable wage, and because it was only three months to begin with, I would get intense on this and get it stacked up because every moment that you don't, you are in a position of vulnerability. Yeah. Final answer. I agree with Jane, and I'll just give you a personal answer. When I have to touch the emergency fund, it irritates me to the nth degree.

And Stacey Coleman will tell you, it is, it is. it's it's gazelle yeah it's like and i'm you know i mean it's are is that are you ladies point yes as soon as we touch it the next month i'm trying to get it back instantly i just there's a certain thing i got so in love with that concept when we first heard it of the emergency fund that um there's a it just it feels great having that there and i'm talking like even if it's like and i try to never touch it that's the other thing we are always I'll manipulate the monthly spending to try to not. You would think the emergency fund wasn't there.

That's how much I like the emergency fund. We have an emergency fund for the emergency fund. The emergency fund is in a whole different high yield. Oh, ours too. No one ever, it's like a vault, Scrooge McDoug vault. Mine takes 24 hours to get it. That's right. It ain't easy to get it.

Yeah. You know, and so. You got a chisel to get to it. And by the way, I'm not saying you shouldn't use it, but I'm at a stage of life where when we have the emergency, we're mostly taking care of that. But I'm telling you, I don't like to touch the emergency. So my answer is always going to be, you better get Gazelle to fill it back up.

That's about sleep. I agree. I agree. I sleep better knowing that that mercy fund is. If we had to tap into three quarters of our emergency fund for emergencies, I would be a wreck today. I promise you. I'd be in my kids' room selling stuff. They wouldn't know what was going on, you know.

I could be like, hey, we have a full emergency here. What's the emergency? The emergency fund needs to be replenished. Yeah, we're all going to work. Everybody in this house is getting a job. I mean, it's a little extreme, but it pays off. Well, it's crazy to think, you know, well, I can't, I'm launching into stories. Never mind.

Yeah, I took too much time on that one. But that's how I am. Let's go to Amy in Phoenix. Amy, how can we help? Hey there, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. What's up?

It's almost along the same line here. So I am a solo parent, and I'm a sandwich generation. I have a nine-year-old and then my retired mother who lives with me, and everyone depends upon me for their lives. I'm very careful with insurance. I always have life insurance, and I actually just got a million-dollar term with Xander. Great. I am canceling my universal whole life that really hasn't been doing much for me. and I also have a whole-life policy I took out on my daughter

because I was using that as like an investment but I also have learned it's not an investment but I thought okay hey it just goes towards her education right I've decided that right now I think what is going to help our family out more is that I make sure everyone's provided for because education can be sorted out down the line and we would be going to community colleges is we live in a really good area

where we could drive to community college and have great education. So my emergency savings, okay, so I'm zero debt. I'm 50. I have $20,000 in my emergency fund. I am making more money now than I have ever in my life. How much?

And I have, this year I'm at $1.22. Way to go, mama. And 2026, I should net 190, you guys. Fantastic. Okay, we got about one minute, so get to your question. Yeah. So should I get the refunds I'm getting back from the whole life is going to be around $13,000? Okay.

Should I fund my emergency fund to get it up to the $50,000 that it should be at? Should I use that towards the down payment of a house that we're not in yet? Or should I just max out my Roth IRA for 2025 and $2026 using that? money. The 50,000, is that three months or six months of expenses? That's six months. That's six months. Knowing that you want to buy a house, I'd be okay with you doing three months and then hitting the ground running on the down payment. I'd be okay with that. And then once you get the house, if you want to stack it up to six, I'm okay with that. Okay. That's where I was at where I don't know, I just know that if anything happens to me, these people have to be provided for. You've done it.

It takes a while for insurance to kick in. It could be delayed up to two to three months before they pay out. I've seen this happen with my father, we've had a lot of death in our family. That's true, but you'll also have $50,000 sitting there, which will be something in the interim. You've done a great job. I'm with Jade. I think she gave you the right advice. Move forward on it.

You've done a great job. Thank you for the call. Remember, folks, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Thank you. Thank you.