The Ramsey Show - App - How Are You Going To Change Your Life This Year? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, host of the George Campbell Popular YouTube show and co-host of the super popular Smart Money Happy Hour is my co-host today. We're back live and at it as you folks are. Hey, have you got the cobwebs blown out from the eggnog yet? Are you back at it?

Are you ready to rock and roll? Is it game on? Is there a reset? Is there a cycle that needs to be broken? My buddy Jocko's got everybody resetting and we're breaking the cycle so whatever it is you got to do there's got to be a thing and you got to do something different you got to set these new year's resolutions in process make a habit happen and uh one of the things that we want you to make a habit of is making sure you go ahead and order george's book it comes out next week next week That's crazy. Yeah, so you can just for a

couple more days get all of the pre-sale elements with it, and it's called Breaking Free from Broke, the ultimate guide for more money and less stress, and it's a very millennial cover, but it's not just for millennials. That's right. 25 to 55, anywhere in there, or a little younger, a little older. 15 to 55. There we there, or a little younger or a little older. 15 to 55. There we go. Well, a lot of people are saying, hey, what is the book I can give to my teen that they'll actually listen to?

Yeah, there it is. This is it. But I hope this is the year people break free from broke, Dave. There's too many people out there, and it's not about income. We're having people call in and make 200 grand. Oh, no. Income's everywhere. And they're drowning in payments.

A lot of people would make a lot of money and spend it all. It's like they think they're in Congress or something. I think America's going to unplug from the matrix this year because they're drowning in payments. A lot of people would make a lot of money and spend it all. So this is the year. Like they think they're in Congress or something. I think America is going to unplug from the matrix this year because they're sick of this toxic money culture of debt and payments. And they're stressed out about what's going to happen in the economy. And I just want to hold a financial mirror up and go, you're going to solve this. It's not up to anyone else.

That's it. That's how it's done. So the book comes out next week. If you order the $20 book today you get about $100 worth of goodies with it including a couple months of every dollar oh that comes with it anyway that's right whether you buy before or after three months of every dollar premium the audio book which is going to be enhanced with some cool production the audio book it's going to be the best audio book we've ever done i love the extra production on it yeah um we got a live

event happening the launch week that you'll get access to as well as a video talk i did called show me the money all if you pre-order yeah so about a hundred dollars worth of stuff if you pre-order right now breaking free from broke so we'll start the year with a commercial but we'll keep going so the deal is that um and i want to i'm actually going to carry this over in the next segment because i just looked up and saw how much time i spent yakking about nothing but the uh um sorry about that guys i that was one of my new year's resolutions to not do that stop yakking it's not no i can't stop yakking it's like quiet out here if you do that but the the um um setting and keeping goals because the thing we have figured

out that is unique at ramsey that the rest of the financial world still struggles with, basically, is that personal finance is 80% behavior. It's 20% head knowledge. You really fix the person in your mirror or you're just screwed. I mean, you're just not going to. If you keep doing what you've been doing, you're going to keep getting what you've been getting and continuing to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the definition of insanity and so it is time to break free from the cycle and that's why we're doing this live stream called that as well but the but i want to talk about that in this next segment a minute and but let's set that up a second because I don't think any of you want to miss this next segment. It's really dialing into from a business perspective, treating your life like it's a business.

How am I going to set my revenue goals, my expense goals, and my profit goals? You know, that's what you do for business. You set a budget. And how am I going to do that in my personal situation? Because everybody's a little bit introspective this time of year. You know, I got an email from a friend of mine who's doing dry January. So everybody's going to try to do something to be a little better version of themselves, right? And I think you should anyway.

Yeah, I mean, we have a lot of areas. Finance is what we focus on. But now with Dr. John Deloney here, we're covering mental health goals and relationship goals. And Ken Coleman's got work goals. If you want to up your career. And so it's expanded. And you've talked about how you don't want a flat tire in any area of life as well, where you're great with your finances, but your marriage is on the brink. You've got to excel in all the areas yeah or you're a great parent but you're broke all the time you know that's that ends up by definition eventually not being a great parent you know by definition and so but if you work all the time and you never see your kids you got a pile of money then you you know you're again you're out of balance and people talk about life balance but um i don't want to talk about it in that sense because sometimes that's code for i want to do i just want to go over here and not do anything it can be a justification um i want to i want to kick back and call that life balance no i want you to kick in i want you to get it i want you to get after it and whatever the area is that

you need to attack i want you to do it you know wholesale and wide open so you know basically i'm not talking about dreaming uh you know dreaming is. Having a dream is a good thing. Being a dreamer has a negative connotation to it. No one wants their kid to marry a dreamer. Yeah. Hey, Dad, I'm getting engaged, and he's a dreamer. Oh, crap, they're going to live in the basement. That's code for unemployed.

That's code for I don't do much. So you don't want to be a dreamer. But having vision is a good thing. Having a dream is a good thing but just only the the negative connotation is a dreamer means without action and so you want to step into action and 41 of americans make new year's goals or resolutions only eight percent end up keeping them i don't i can't believe it's that high only eight percent i would have guessed lower than that but we're going to talk about in this next segment exactly how to lay out for any area of your life how to lay out a goal and how to make

it work and how to stick to it for the rest of this year so if you've kind of had a oh i laid out or maybe you're really game on well i'm going to give you a little bit a little fine tuning for that next time next segment here and we're going to lay it out in a way that you're not going to be confused at all about what it takes to win in any given area. And bottom line is it takes your mirror, that person, they have to step up. Well, you teach this in Entree Leadership a lot, but I love the business analogy going, hey, what if we treated our personal life like it was a business, like there was really something on the line? Because a lot of times when it's just us, Dave, we can let ourselves down all day long, but you can't do that in business.

And I think we need to have that level of gravity when it comes to our goals this year. Yeah, I'm going to get around to investing someday, but not treat it like it matters. Well, you ought to treat it like it really matters because it does i mean retiring and eating alpo is not a plan you know retiring and having the the you know the dad blame government you're living on social insecurity after working your whole life you're gonna let the government which is well known for its ability to handle money take care of you that's a dumb plan that's a definition of mediocrity minus about six degrees so you don't want to do that but that's what's going to happen if you're on coast mode you can coast through this society and have a relatively decent lifestyle high stress but relatively decent lifestyle

instead i would rather just turn on the turn up the heat and let's go get it let's go do something decent lifestyle, high stress, but relatively decent lifestyle. Instead, I would rather just turn up the heat and let's go get it. Let's go do something different. And all that leads to more peace, more confidence, less stress. That's what this is all about. So stay tuned. It's going to be good. Stay tuned for the magic formula. Nothing magic about it. Dave's laying

out the secrets for it. Can you believe the show is free? There are no secrets and there is no magic. I just hate to tell you all that. Grandma's old common sense. That'll work. Those of you that want to lose weight, here, I'll help you with it. Eat less. Whoa. You and Jenny Craig, Dave. You saved your money for a diet book.

You and Jenny Craig got something going on. You saved the money on a diet book. You can use it for one of ours. This is The ramsey show george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today welcome to the ramsey show folks we're glad you're here this is a show that actually helps you want to win at your life uh we started years ago talking about your money we still talk about a lot, but we talk about every area of your life. We were talking before the break there about dreams. Dreams with work clothes on are called goals.

And you better put some work clothes on if you want to get something done. It's funny to me that every time I'm lucky, it's usually around the time I'm wearing work clothes. My luck tends to happen the more I work. It's just this honest correlation. You know, I get more luck the more I work. And that's pretty simple the way this is. So dreams that put their work clothes on are called goals. Now, a lot of people talk about setting goals.

But let me tell you, if you don't set the goal correctly, you have zero chance almost of hitting it. And it has to have, really, there are five components of a properly set goal. And if you dodge any of them, you lower your probability of hitting it almost to zero. The first three, for sure. If you don't do the first three, you're just done. There's almost no chance you're going to hit it. So I want to lose weight. I want to make more money.

I want to have a better career. I want to graduate from college. I want to whatever. So the first two things a goal has to be is if you say, I want to lose weight, you're not going to. That's not enough. That's a dream. It's fuzzy.

The first two things a goal has to be specific, and it has to be measurable. So losing weight is a measurable event. Earning more money is a measurable event. I want to get out of debt. That's a measurable event. Now we've got to get very, very specific how much. And by when. That's another piece of the puzzle here. The third one is time limit. Yeah. When you have those three together, it's magic because now it's reality.

Yeah. Well, when you put those three together, math automatically happens. So, you know, let's just use the weight example. A lot of people talking about that this time of year. I want to lose weight. You won't. Okay. It's measurable, but it just use the weight example. A lot of people talking about that this time of year. I want to lose weight. You won't. Okay. It's measurable, but it's not specific. Okay. How much do you want to lose?

Oh, 30 pounds. Okay. Now, we're measurable and specific. Now, then the question is, do you want to lose 30 pounds over 10 years? And how many times do you want to lose 30 pounds? That's an important piece of the puzzle. Yeah. So, you know, I want to earn more money.

Great. How much? I want to earn more money. Great. How much? I want to earn $100,000 this year. Okay. How soon do you want to do it? Now, when you put a time limit on it and you know what the amount is, automatically your brain starts doing sixth grade math. How much per month?

Long division, right? So if I want to lose 30 pounds, when? I want to do it over three months. I say instantly everyone said that's 10 pounds a month instantly you're going some of you are even going further and saying that's two and a half pounds a week and then you start automatically saying what has to be true that's not true now and so i'm going to raise my water intake lower the bread and sugar intake and um increase my uh aerobic activity to 30 minutes a day.

These are magical things that you do if you're losing weight, right? If I want to earn more money, okay, well, you're on commission. Do you need to make more sales, right? And so how many more calls do you need to make to make the sales? I had a guy tell me one time, he said, I'm going to earn 100. He's working for us. He said, I'm going to earn $100,000 this year. And I said, no, you're not. He said, what do you mean?

You're not going to pay me? And I said, no, you're not. He said, what do you mean? You're not going to pay me? And I said, no. I read the sales reports. You don't make enough calls to make enough sales on average with our average order value on that call to make $100,000. And so how many, you know, $100,000 is $8,333 a month. That's $2,100 a week. What are you going to do to earn $2,100 a week?

And then you figure that out. Then, and what's it take to do that? And you're willing to do those steps. Boom, you've done the long division. You've done the math, right? I'm going to pay off, you know, a lot of times people call in and they go, well, you know, I've got $75,000 in debt. Okay.

Well, what do you make? Well, I make $60,000. Okay. If you pay off $25,000 a year, that's three years. So instantly we're doing, we're setting goals with you when you call in here for you, but also inspiring you by showing you that, you know, if you did roll up your sleeves, earn a little bit more money and lived on less than you make, you could pay off $25,000 a year. That's $2,000 a month.

You do that for three years, you paid off $75,000. You start to do the math and then the math gives you hope because you can really do 30 pounds in in three months that's not an unreasonable loss for most people now you shouldn't do that you would disappear i would float away into the ether if i did that just one of my legs would be smaller but you know that's all but the uh but you know other people are? So everybody's got a different thing. But 30 pounds is doable. 30 pounds is doable. So you have to make the goal reasonable, but you want it to be a little bit scary.

I think if it's too easy. Let me tell you what. If you don't write it down, that's the fourth one, it makes it hard to do, too. Once you write it out, there's something that happens. The Bible says, write the vision and make it plain. It says it in Habakkuk, one of the The Bible says, write the vision and make it plain. It says it in Habakkuk, one of the Old Testament books. Write the vision and make it plain. So when you write down, I am going to lose 30 pounds, 10 pounds a month,

30 pounds in 90 days, 10 pounds a month, 2 1⁄2 pounds a week. Then you step up on the scales, and you're up a pound. You've got a baseline. You go, all right, now I've got 3 1⁄2 pounds. I'm screwed. You know, I've really got to get out of the cookies here. I you just you start to make the adjustments of what you've got to do put up the christmas cookies there's enough already i'm talking to myself now but the personal but the uh but i mean i'm gonna look i'm gonna pay off this debt if i'm gonna pay off two thousand dollars a month and you look up and you've only

paid off a thousand well you're off goal and when you write out your debt snowball, when you write out your budget, which is your monthly goals for money, then you've got it in writing. If you want to earn more, put it in writing and then start talking about what you're going to do to cause that to happen. Because something has to be different for you to be different. Hello? If you want to be out of debt and you're in debt, something has to be different. So you want to be out of debt in your end debt something has to be different so what's going to be different well i'm selling some crap i mean we're amputating the tahoe here uh that that boat that's been sitting out there in the yard that we act like we use and we don't use it's gone i mean you know yes i have a nine thousand dollar riding lawnmower i'm an idiot so i'm selling it yes okay i mean you're an idiot if you have nine thousand dollar riding lawnmower i'm an idiot so i'm selling it yes okay i mean you're an idiot if you have

nine thousand dollar riding lawnmower and and you owe nine thousand dollars on it now if you if you're a billionaire and you have a nine thousand dollar running and you paid cash and you pay cash that's okay that's an idiotic but thing to do people do that so sacrifices must be made well something has to change and generally it, change always feels like a sacrifice. It may not be as sacrificial as you think. It may be you just look up and you go, oh, there's $50,000 in my savings account. I owe $35,000 on this stupid butt student loan. And apparently Joe Biden is not coming to the rescue.

Hello, are you just now waking up to that? And so, I mean, he can't even find my name. But yeah, so, oh, my gosh, are you just now waking up to that? And so, I mean, he can't even find, but anyway. But yeah, so, oh my gosh, are you just now waking? So if the change could simply be you're going to reduce your savings account by $35,000. Ready, set, go. Boom. You're done. And it's still going to hurt a little bit.

Tap out. Done. Just like that. And the last one is the goals have to be your goal. That's the unexpected one in the mix here. Well, other people let people set goals for them. My mama always wanted me to be a dentist. I'm not going to you.

My parents told me I should stop wasting money on rent and buy a house. Yeah. It's a terrible reason to buy a house. Yeah, and yet they didn't fund any of this suggestion. Nope. You know? They don't pay your bills. My friend said I should always have a car payment.

Yeah, but he ain't paying it. So, hello. You know, people are are always people always got opinions about everybody else's stuff and you know my dad always wanted me to be a preacher i'm not going to your church unless you're talking about god your dad god the father but other than that i don't you know for people whose earthly father called them into the ministries, they don't make good pastors, hell no. And so, you know, I always, you know, but you need to say, so my wife wants me to lose 30 pounds. Is that a trick question? No, it's not a trick question.

It won't work until I want to lose 30 pounds. I could want to do it to please her, but that's really horrible. That's wussified right there. I mean, my wife wants me to earn more money. No, that won't work. My mama always wanted me to. I don't care what your mama wants. It's time to be a grown-up.

If you're 25, your problems are now your problems. You can't blame them on your parents anymore. You're like an adult walking around in like a large body and stuff, and you need to freaking act like it. So you can't. The days of blaming mama and daddy are done so that expired exactly now seven areas we recommend you set goals for certainly financial goals intellectual goals you're going to read a book this year how many non-fiction books you're going to read this year there's a direct correlation between your income and the level of non-fiction

books you read read a book family goals how you're going to break that out spiritual goals prayer time bible reading going to church physical goals we talked about losing weight exercising run a marathon career goals social goals you should set goals in these areas and they should be specific they should be measurable they should be in writing and they need to be your goals not you living someone else's life. Otherwise, it doesn't work. This is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.

Alyssa is with us in Naples, Florida. Hi, Alyssa. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi. Hey, what's up? Hi, Alyssa. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Hey, what's up? Oh, not much. Just taking a break in my workday. Okay. How can we help?

So I just got remarried in October, and my husband and I, you know, after the wedding, really sat down and took a good look at our combined finances. Good. And we definitely made a lot of debt choices independently and now coming together, planning on, you know, having a kid. I already have a nine-year-old daughter. And trying to get those, you know, figured out so that we're not constantly worried about savings and being able to retire. Sounds like you need to do all the things that all of us need to do. Yeah, definitely. Feed babies, retire, get out of debt, save money, right? Right. Part of the thing that's a little bit frustrating is, you know,

between our combined finances, we're bringing in about $11,500 a month and still feel like we can't, you know, we've only got about $3,000 in our savings and not able to really contribute to retirement or anything like that. So trying to figure out. How much debt do you have? So student debt, we've got about $140,000. Who's the lawyer? I'm the mental health therapist.

Ah, okay. So I've got about 90. He has about 40, and that was, you know, from his parents pushing him to go to college. So he has debt with no real... What other debt have you got? Nothing really to show for it. Car payments. How much? About $50 show for it. Car payments. How much?

About $60,000 total on our cars. You owe $60,000 on your cars. Okay. Mm-hmm. And then we've got a mortgage that's got about $240,000. Mm-hmm. Okay. That's as far as debt goes.

Mm-hmm. Hmm. Okay. okay that's as far as debt goes okay so Alyssa looking at these numbers let's ignore the mortgage for now and focus on the consumer debt you've got about 190 or so in consumer debt and you guys are bringing home what 130 140 grand and so this becomes a great math equation where we go, how much margin can we create every month to throw at that smallest debt? That's all we're focused on. No saving, no investing. We're not eating out. We've got to make some sacrifices here. How quickly could you pay off? Could you throw three, four, $5,000 a month at the smallest debt what's holding you back i think for me it's the fear with my daughter um making sure that we have enough because with me with me being self-employed and him doing construction and things like that i get worried about catastrophic expenses you know

what i'm worried about you make 130 000 a year and you're freaking broke that's what I'm worried about? You make $130,000 a year and you're freaking broke. That's what I'm worried about. I think you need to be worried about that. You're driving cars you can't afford and you have a lifestyle that's absolutely asinine. Mm-hmm. And that's nothing to do with a nine-year-old. What does she need that's thousands of dollars a month worth? When you say I need to take care of her. It's more just in case yeah you know

there's no but you're not doing anything about it you got three thousand dollars so that's a complete red herring that's absolutely you're not you're doing nothing about that except creating anxiety right yeah so it's time it's time for a penchant for action, some urgency here, and say, okay, the more dramatic we change our life, the more dramatically we change our life, the more sacrificially we change our life, the faster this is going to turn around and we're going to have a pile of cash and we'll be out of debt. Yeah. The more you just goof around with it, because here's the deal. You guys have no idea where this money goes. Right. And so we're going to get you on a detailed written budget.

So here's the thing. What kind of mental health professional, what kind of work do you do? So I do counseling, like therapy, depression, anxiety, stuff like that. Okay. All right. And so what you do is there's some parallels to what we do. So you can be physician heal thyself, okay? Right.

Because here's the thing. You are an objective observer to someone's misbehavior. Right. And you look at that and go, hey, you ought to try this because the way you've been doing it, not working. You know, this yelling and screaming at your wife, not working. You know, this zero activity sitting in a dark room, adding to your depression.

So you need sunlight and vitamin D and activity. So you need to go out and exercise and be in sunlight. Helps with depression. Am I wrong? No, not wrong. Okay. So you send somebody because you're in a, but they're sitting in the dark room. They don't see it.

So what I want to do here is I just want you to say, okay, if I hired you, you're a smart person. If I hired you, even though you're not a financial professional, because the stuff we're dealing with here is sixth grade math, if I hired you to look at this and say you come in objectively and you look at this family they make 130 140 thousand dollars a year they have three thousand dollars to their name they have sixty thousand dollars in car debt and they have student loans have been hanging around so long they think they're

a pet they feel stuck you could objectively look in from the outside like you do every day and look at this the way george and i are looking at right now going uh these people need to tighten things up they need to sell a car or two uh they're not going on vacation because they're broke because they're and if they're sick and tired of being sick and tired you'll change your process and if you because you if you look at this objectively from the outside i can see in a three minute radio conversation with you i i can see 40 or 50 000 a year here that you could throw at this, and you'd be out of debt in no time.

But it's going to mean you're driving different cars, you're not going on vacation, you're not eating out. And it's not going to be comfortable for a while until you set some new grooves in your brain. Yeah. So we definitely already decided on completely cutting out vacations okay um we had like huge conversations you know with family of like oh you know even like big family crews and just saying sorry we can't do it um you're going to learn to say no a whole lot yeah you're going to say no so

you can say yes the way we say it is live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else so if i were prescribing to you from the outside looking in the way i'm asking you to do for yourself i could look at these numbers and say these people have a really tough two and a half years ahead of them so that they have an awesome life the rest of their life yeah and it's worth it and it works because it is just math it's just sixth grade math but it has to do with controlling my the the angry little boy or little girl that lives inside of each of us and making that little person who throws a fit on the cereal aisle and wants fruity pebbles no no because that little kid he rises up i want a new car i deserve i mean i have a i have a master's degree i deserve a good car no you don't you're freaking bro you deserve freedom not this

life of stress and the math does give me hope in the situation oh yeah make 11.5 the beautiful story about your the beautiful part about your story is alissa you um you have the income and the parallel would be if you were sitting with a patient who is um master's degreed in something you they have the intellect to adjust their mental behaviors to adjust their mental health with behavior shifts that you with directions you can give them they have the capacity and you didn't call me up make it thirty thousand dollars with these numbers thank god you call me up making a hundred and thirty thousand dollars with these numbers yeah so you can do this and the correlation is very simple the deeper you cut the more sacrificial and weird you are and it's going to feel very strange for the first 90 days um and then it'll

get to be a normal rhythm but the deeper you cut cut, the faster you're out. By the way, that works for all of you. The deeper you cut, the faster you're out. And I'm a rip the Band-Aid off guy. Yeah. This pull it off one hair at a time thing. No, thank you. That's a lot of pain. That's why you like to amputate the Tahoe.

Just do the big stuff. Knock it out. It's a stupid car. You'll get another one later. I'll get another stupid car. There's more Tahoe's. I got a lot of stupid cars now. And, you know, but I didn't used to. I mean, it's a stupid car. It'll get another one later. I'll get another stupid car. There's more Tahoe's. I got a lot of stupid cars now. And, you know, but I didn't used to.

I mean, it's a stupid car. It's a stupid house. You know, it's just stuff. And you can get you some more stuff, but you can't get your life back. This is the Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today luke is in tuscaloosa alabama where they are crying this morning hey luke welcome to the uh ramsey show not too many tears to clean up this morning on my end how's everything going

better than i deserve oh my goodness. Tell me how we can help today. Yes, sir. I'm just looking to get a plan together on possibly buying a house. Not necessarily in a set time frame. Dating a girl currently that kind of has her stopwatch clicking on me and I don't want to go through the whole renting process if I don't have to. So I was just kind of wanting to get y'all's opinion on that. So you've got a girlfriend.

She's wanting you to propose. You're wanting to buy a house. There's a lot going on here. And you're wondering when is the time to buy a house? Yes, sir. How old are you? I'm 24. When will you get married?

Probably in the next year and a half or so. You got any money? I currently have about $53,000 sitting. I know you all are going to get upset with me, but in a second account. I'm not upset with you. I'm happy. You're 24 years old. You got $50,000. You're a stud, man. Way to go. with me but uh in a second account i'm not upset with you i'm happy you're 24 years old got 50

grand that's fair that's that's your stud man i thought you're gonna say but i have a hundred thousand in debt you got any debt oh no sir currently uh living with the parents and i've been blessed that they have given me that opportunity that's incredible well i would just stack up as much cash as you can and until this wedding and we'll cash flow it and then we'll talk about buying a house but i wouldn't do it before you guys are married no i wouldn't she's gonna want a different house than you the one you picked out oh that is 100 for certain okay yeah so um ideal is you guys pile up as much cash as you can and somewhere around a year after the wedding you're purchasing

okay that's ideal the reason that's ideal is it gives you enough time of being married folk to make a better decision together because you'll make a better decision after you've been married a year than you will one after you've been married one week okay and you know because you will have learned to work together on other things as well during that year that first year of marriage is very interesting so um you know you just take that time get to know her she gets to know you and the way we always joke about it is we say it takes about a year to know how far away from your mother-in-law to buy but you know that's about that's about the measure so um but that you know there's some truth

in that joke that's why it's funny but the uh uh but yeah that's that's what we look at and and but that means you're going to be like uh 26 years old which is okay with me it also means you're probably gonna have a hundred thousand dollars yes sir which is okay with me love it does she have any debt uh not that i'm aware of um she comes from a pretty well-off family that doesn't mean a thing oh i know it doesn't mean a thing but from what i've heard and seen it doesn't look like she does okay okay that just might delay it if she did but it sounds like you guys are both going to get married completely debt-free with a pile of money in the bank, which is the best-case scenario.

Before you start talking about putting a ring on this finger as an engagement, you need to know everything about her financial life, and she needs to know everything about yours. Yes, sir. Now, one follow-up question. What do you suggest I do? Because, obviously, $53,000 sitting in the bank is not doing me any good. I mean, it's doing me a lot of good just sitting there, but I feel like I could use it elsewhere, you know, finance or some kind of account with a financial manager of some sort.

I don't think I'd get fancy. You might do a high-yield savings account, which might pay you in this current world, what, 3% or 4%, something like that, instead of a half a percent if the bank – I don't know know what the bank's paying you but talk to that bank about a high yield savings account if they don't have one shop around and find one what are those paying that you're yeah i'm i got one that's about five percent right now but you can easily find one that are in the four range yeah four and five is but i really don't i'm not going to try to get rich on this money i just don't want to lose it and i want to i want to be wise with it which is

what you're asking yeah i don't want you to pay a half a percent or something silly sitting and checking but you got like a two-year time horizon you'll want to go investing in the market and all of a sudden your account dipped 20 because of a bad year yeah you're not going to buy a house because of the amount of money this account makes you're going to buy a house because of how wise you are putting money into this account the savings rate for sure that's where that's where this money's coming from johnson rock hill south carolina hey john welcome to the ramsey show hey there thank you so much for having me better than how great man how can we help all right so my question is i'm on baby step number two just kind of started uh

following y'all stuff and i'm super stoked about it um my wife and i are teachers and we are set to have some loans forgiven not through the public service loan program because i have learned through y'all that that is not a good route to go but um our state south carolina will forgive loans um for teaching in high areas of need um wife is special ed teacher and i teach out of school with like uh low income students yeah at what rate do they forgive it so they actually don't forgive it they pay it yes yes uh um so my mine can be uh they will forgive up to five thousand after five years of teaching five thousand dollars after five years of teaching. $5,000 after five years? Yes.

That's nothing. Okay. What's the other one? So they will forgive $17,500 of my wife's after five years. Okay. So that's $5,000 a year. No, no, it's not. Five years, you said.

Neither one of these is worth screwing with. Y'all need to just get out of debt. Just go ahead. Because the total we have 64 000 yeah but 22 5 of that is you're waiting five years on 22 000 now i don't i want you to have a life yeah and you won't be locked in some of these some of these things forgive like ten thousand dollars a year and none of the ones you're doing do that so that's why i was asking how it worked but um no that's not that's not generous enough for me to be wanting to stay in debt and also to have the golden handcuffs you may decide to change the direction of your

teaching career and you don't want a lousy thousand dollars a year motivating you on that right um so follow up with that i'll be to the point i only have one year left until i could get that five thousand well that makes a difference okay yeah i'll take it then if it's one year i thought we were starting ready set go today what about your wife what about your wife how long to the 17 five yes sir she has uh three years left um so that is a little more touch and go. I'm probably okay with both of those now that you changed my time horizon. Would you guys stay in those careers in those areas if this wasn't on the table? One year he will, so take the five grand. But her three years.

I will. The question is with her, special ed is just a very difficult field. Very strange. And her support is not where it needs to be. And we have a one-year-old and one on the way. So her ability to stay in the field, we're not really sure with that. So I'm leaning towards like, hey, should we just pay it off? I'm with that.

I'm with that. Here's the other thing you could do. And this is what I was going to recommend at the close of the call is go ahead and set a separate savings account up with that amount of money in it. To where you have paid it off, it's in your debt snowball, but you're holding the money, and then the day she decides, I want to be with my babies instead of the strain of this job, boom, you pull the trigger, write the check, and it's done. Okay, that's very smart. Okay.

That takes the pressure off of her to stay in the job past when she should with little babies. But your five is going to be here in 20 minutes. I mean, you don't even have to – if you want to set that aside, too, until the five hits, you can, but it just gives you an extra bump towards your baby step three emergency fund then. Because you still got, what, 40 grand left even after both would be forgiven? Pretty much.

Unfortunately, we both have masters in teaching, and so yeah. What's your household income? Household income is teaching salaries is $105, and then I work in the summer, so it's about $115 altogether. Good for you. Okay, good. Very cool. Well, I mean, you're going to be okay. You're going to be fine.

It's just a matter of kind of analyzing the, you know, where the squeeze meets the juice, right? Yes, sir. So always, even if there's a forgiveness program we go along with, we say set the money aside in savings, which takes away the golden handcuffs. That's the big thing you want to do there. So good question, man. Good question.

You sound like you're a good dad, a good husband. Proud of you. Keep it up. Happy New Year. This is The Ramsey Show. I'll see you next time.