The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Increase My Income? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your life, specifically with your money, your relationships, and your work. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. That's 888-825-5225 is the phone number. That's 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. The incomparable, the fantastic, fabulous Jade Warshaw joins me this hour. Always fun. Partner

when we're hanging out together. Partner. Now, a little bit later in the hour, I might reveal, I'll just reveal just a little bit. You have a big milestone coming up, but I don't know whether or not. Don't tell them,. I'll just, you can decide if you want to tell them. Okay. I think you've already decided. I think I just got the message. So I'll hold on to that, but it's exciting. We're getting a dog. All right. We'll see. We'll see if I can get her to tell you, but she's awesome. Love hanging out with Jade and she's going to take your money questions. I'll chime in. I'll take any work-related questions. Let's get that bigger shovel going.

How do I make more money? And Jade will chime in on those as well. So let's go, America. 888-825-5225. Kimberly starts us off this hour in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kimberly, how can we help? Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call.

You bet. I moved down here about a year ago. I'm a full-time student, adult student. I'm also a full-time server. And I moved down here a year ago from Jersey because my mom had gotten sick and I couldn't take care of her on my own. And my sister agreed to help out if I moved down here. I was originally planning on going to grad school and continue on in order to get a job with my degree, but that's no longer an option because now I'm caring for my mom.

So the only experience I have is serving in restaurant throughout that I worked my way through college. And that's not paying the bills. And that's not paying the bills enough for to support myself, as well as my mom. And my sister said that she can't handle it. So she says she's leaving at the end of the lease and I'm going to be on my own. And I graduate this spring and I have no idea what job I can get. What are you graduating with? What degree? Philosophy and religion. And which direction were you going? Because you just said that I was planning to do this and now I can't. So where was that going to play out? What was the goal? Well, I was interested in, I did really well at school and I was approached by the government for foreign service officer

and policy and peacemaking, which really interested me. I always wanted to be the president or a philosopher growing up. But before that, my plans was to go into a professor, university professor, which requires a master's and a doctorate now. Okay, but I think you've limited yourself, and that's what I want to do. I want to talk about what all you can do. So you are going to finish this degree in May, is that correct?

Yes. So you got the bachelor's. What are you making as a waitress? What are you serving? How much Is that correct? Yes. So you got the bachelor's. What are you making as a waitress? What are you serving? How much are you making? Nothing. Well, it's not nothing. Where are you working and how much are you making? We got to walk through this. You got to give me some numbers so we can get somewhere. I'm probably bringing home around $700 a week. Okay. And you're just working at a chain restaurant? What's going on? It's a fine dining steakhouse. Oh, good. Okay. So you're getting some good tips. It's just you're

limited in what you can do there is what you're telling us. Right. All right. So here's the deal. You've got a college degree, and I don't care if it's in philosophy or biology, doesn't matter. With that bachelor's degree, you have the option to teach. Now, you may not be able to teach on the higher ed level, but you can teach, yes or no? Yes, and I looked at, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I cut you off, but here's what I wanted to say. You can teach, and you can teach a lot of different topics, and it actually gets you on that path. It may not be the destination that you are aiming at, but teaching is at least that love, that idea that you had initially. So what's keeping you from pursuing that? Because there are teachers that are dropping out all the time.

School systems need teachers. You're going to have a degree and you're going to make more money. So what's keeping you from doing that? Well, I was looking at that path. I was looking at that path, and for Catholic school teaching, high school Catholic school teaching, I don't need to be certified by the state to do that, so I started contacting the diocese here in Charlotte and got some information interviews about what that would entail. So that is a possible path that I am pursuing. What is the financial outlook, though? What's the pay range? Not just limiting ourselves to the Catholic schools. What's that look like for you? Right. Well, the Catholic schools is actually a higher pay range than the public schools. So what would that range be? Between 60 and 80 to start. Great. So I want to bring Jade in really quick here. Jade,

I'd like to know, Kimberly, what the shortfall is going to be. If sis is backing out, so she's not helping with rent, presumably, what is the shortfall that you have to be able to take care of your student loan payment plus all of your living expenses. Can you walk Jade through that? Yeah, tell me more about your financials. Obviously, we know you're making around $2,800 a month. What's the total rent or lease payment that you'll be taking on? So I wouldn't be able to stay at the house.

It would be, it's $2,300 for the house. Oh, okay. So have you started actively looking for other places? Yes. So when I moved down here, it cost me $5,000 to move down here. So that put me into more debt, obviously. Okay. So, okay. And that's on a credit card? Yes. Okay. Keep going. Keep running out the story. So my total debt right now, I have about $10,000 in debt on credit card.

Okay, $10,000 on credit cards. My student loans are going to kick in, and I have, well, they probably won't kick in for another eight or nine months. That's right. But it'll be about $22,000 in total. Okay. Anything else? Cars? And then I have $5,000 left on my car.

Okay, good. Okay. When you're looking out there for apartments, what do you think you can get and can you get another roommate? Can you get something cheaper with a roommate? That would be my thing one. I'm not looking for the $2,300 apartment.

I'm looking for the $1,800 apartment, if possible. Something I can share with somebody that is reliable and dependable. Because what I'm hoping for the $1,800 apartment, if possible. Something I can share with somebody that is reliable and dependable. Because what I'm hoping to get you to is an apartment that you could afford on your own in case the roommate moves out, but you've got a roommate there as a safety net so that you can save some money. So that's what we're looking for. And listening to what you said to Ken, I just kind of want to know what the timeline is on this Catholic school thing, because that's your problem is an income problem. That's the true issue here. And, you know, it might take several months for this Catholic school thing to shake out, but if there's anything that you can add to what you're doing now

to solve this income problem that's short-term, then do it. That's right. Kimberly, I want to add to that. You can, and we're going to give you every dollar. Jade, let's give her something here in about 10 seconds, but Kimberly, listen. With that degree and a 3.7 unemployment rate in the United States, and Charlotte is a very good market, you are just using that degree to do whatever you need to do to get a foot into this debt, kick it out, and then we make the progress. But I would be teaching. I'd be going the direction you want to go, but you've got to make more money.

Jade, what can we give her? Let's give her every dollar. Matter of fact, let's set her up with Financial Peace University, that whole Ramsey Plus bundle so she can have everything she needs. Kimberly, follow the steps. You've got this. You can do this. This is The Ramsey Show. Alright, who needs some help out there?

You're just going, I'm not where I want to be. I'm not where I want to be with my money. I'm not where I want to be in my relationships. I'm not where I want to be in my relationships. I'm not where I want to be in my professional journey. If that's you, no shame in your game, number one. And number two, we'd love to help. We being Jade Warshaw, my colleague, co-host, and friend. And I'm Ken Coleman.

We're Ramsey Personalities. And we're here for you. This is a listener of your show that we are here for you we take your questions 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 let's go to Detroit now Kendall is there Kendall how can we help hi nice to talk with you today you too what's going on um so I just graduated medical school about a half a year ago. Hey, cool. Congrats.

Thank you. So I'm about three and a half years left. Obviously, residency salary is about $60,000. I have about $220,000 in student debt, but no other debt in my life. So my plan is, like, you know, I can't pay off my debt while I'm a resident. I don't make enough. But when I graduate, I was going to live off of, like like $40,000, pay off my debt in two years. But my question is, I don't have like any money saved for retirement.

And I'll be 33 when I start making six figures. So should I prioritize paying off my debt or should I start saving more for retirement? Well, Jade's going to help you on that. But I'm just real curious. What do you think that starting salary is? And what do you think the range is maybe in the first couple years? $270,000 to $300,000, most likely. Jade, you can do something with that, can't you, coach? Listen, I'm excited for you. Thank you. I'm very excited, too. You should be. I'm excited for you. You've got this big milestone coming up. You've got three and a half years left of med school. So that's cool. So luckily you came out of this with only $20,000 of student loans. because I was like, how in the world did you do that? All right. So you've got 220 of student loans, nothing else, right?

Yes, nothing else. Okay. And we've got a couple more years of 60,000 salary, 60 to 80 or just 60? Yeah, like 60 to 70 probably. Okay. Yeah, I'm with you. They're not going to become due until after you graduate. Right. And then you've got, well, are they going to be, does it, does your residency count for that or is it separate? So they're on, I'm on an income based repayment plan and also the safe plan. So like typically they gain a thousand dollars a month of interest but the those two plans allow me to pay 233 and the government pays the rest of the interest so they're not going to grow in residency and I only

have to pay 233 a month but when I graduated that'll change okay okay got it um you know I would try to pay as much as you can with the salary that you have. I mean, that's all that you can do. But what I really want to address is the fact that you said that you're only 33 years old and you'll be 33 when it's time to retire or when it's time to start saving for retirement and you don't want to be behind. And whenever I hear that, I kind of just want to let people know like I've been there. And, you know, when my husband and I were paying off our student loan debt, which was about 280,000, you know, we didn't finish that until we were around your age, 33, pregnant with my son, and we hadn't started investing at all. And I kind of want you to understand that you're going to be okay. So let's just pretend, I love doing the investment

calculator. So let's just play around here. How old are you? Can I ask? Yeah, I'm 29 right now. Oh my goodness. You're 29. So let's just say, I'm going to plug this in. We have a really cool investment calculator and I'm just going to say, let's pretend you're 29 years old. Now let's pretend that you plan to retire at age 62. Let's just say that. Um, and you have zero in retirement now, right? And let's just say that um and you have zero in retirement now right and let's just say because you're let's say because you're saving for a home you're not investing the whole 15 that we would advise when the time comes so let's say you're investing 10 so 2700 a month fair are you tracking with me yep okay so we're doing 2700 i plugging that in. And let's just be very conservative and say an 8% annualized rate of return. Let's calculate that and see what that'll be. So when the time comes, you'll have over $5 million. Oh, okay.

$5 million. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, I think you're going to be all right. I think you're going to be just fine. So that's what I want you to leave here with is, all right, I've got time. I'm working, you know, I'm doing the MD thing. I'm paying as much as I can.

Once I hit this salary, I'll be able to knock out whatever remains. I'll save up three to six months of expenses in baby step three. And by then, like I said, you might be wanting to save for a down payment too. And that's baby step 3B. And that comes before you start investing.

So you've got time and you might start to do baby step 3B and baby step four, which is investing 15% at the same time. Whatever you choose there, you're going to be fine. $5 million, that makes me sleep a lot better at night, Kendall. And by the way, Kendall, those numbers are going to be way bigger than that. She was just going real conservative here. That's if you never make any more money.

You're going to pay off your debt. You still have your starting salary. What, two years? You pay off your debt. Then you got your emergency fund after that. You save for a house. Let's just say you don't start investing until 36. Again, not an issue because

of the amount of money that your 15% represents. And the compound interest is insane. Okay. So you don't have to worry about that. That's the point. That's the whole thing that you called about. You're not too late. You aren't going to be destitute. You're going to be very, very wealthy. Is it just you kindle right now it's just me i'm still i'm still uh figuring that out yeah yeah so that's a great point jade yeah it doesn't take into account a double income oh by the way you know what else it doesn't take into account all the money you're going to make on a house because you're going to put a really big chunk down and you're going to pay it off and so you're going to have a

paper house when you retire as well. I got to tell you, Kendall, I'd be shocked if you don't do what we tell you to do if you're not in the $10 million range by the time you're 65. Be shocked. That's incredible. And I'm not making that up, am I? I'm not making that up. I'm not making that up.

Security, yeah. I don't think that's a stretch. No, I don't think that's a stretch. You know, so you've got this. You got it? Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate it that's a stretch. No, I don't think that's a stretch. You know, so you've got this. You got it? Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate it. Follow the plan.

Hey, do you have any of our products? You got any books or anything that you kind of lean on? I don't. My sister went through your program, and she normally just, like, talks to me about all of this kind of stuff. I want to give you something, Jade. Let's give her something to kind of cement this so that she can see the process. For sure, Total Money Makeover. Yeah, Total Money Makeover. And hey, I want you to head to everydollar.com slash jade, and I want you to pick up EveryDollar Premium, and it'll give you $15 off. And what I

love about EveryDollar Premium is you can kind of, the same way that I plugged in your numbers and gave you that snapshot of what your investing future could look like, we've got a financial roadmap planner on there that you can plug in all sorts of numbers to figure out where you want to be and where you're going to meet certain milestones. So you can plug in numbers to figure out how long it would take you to save three to six months of expenses or how long it would take you to save up for a home, those sorts of things. So we'll make sure you have that.

And I think she's all set. Kendall, you're a rock star. Okay, Jade, we got about a minute here. We got new people coming in all the time. So I think it's really good to revisit what is a really sensible question. Yes. And that is, I've got all this debt and if it takes me six years or five years or four years to pay it off, I'm so far behind the eight ball in investing. Why do we teach that the way we do that we clear debt first before we invest? Explain that to newcomers who might still be going, ah, really? I mean, there's a lot of reasons, a lot of good reasons. The first reason is your income is your biggest wealth building tool. Like that's a Dave Ramsey classic

quote right there. You need your income available in order to be able to invest it. And for most of us, we're living paycheck to paycheck. Like we don't have any money left at the end of the month, but after we've paid our bills, our car note, we've got groceries, we paid the kids daycare. Most of us don't feel like we have that breathing room because we have so many debts and bills. So the first step is to clear that out.

So you get your money back in your budget and then you save up three to six months because if you don't save first and you start investing right away, if an emergency comes, you start pulling from your retirement or you start using credit cards and you go back into debt. So you pay off the debt, you build up the savings and then and only then we start investing. And that's the way it works. If you start doing it out of order, you start messing yourself up, Ken. And you just proved it. Once you start that investing, compound interest becomes your best power. And so it can work. You're not too late. Trust the process. It works. We're so glad you've joined us. She's Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me. We're here for you, America. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Feeling stuck? Got some fear? Got some doubt around money or your work or relationships? We're here for you. That's what we love to do is coach you up,

help you see a clear path forward so that you can move forward confidently. 888-825-5225. Let's go to the Big Apple, New York, New York. I'm heading there tomorrow night. Jack, how can we help? Hey, guys. How are you doing? Good.

What's going on? Hey, yeah. So I am actually pretty happy with the kind of career that I have, but I'm hitting an income ceiling pretty seriously this past year, and I'm a little bit lost on how to move forward and raise that. You know, I kind of delved into you guys' whole program. Like last week, I kind of binged, and I actually paid off all my credit card debt last week i kind of binged and um i actually paid off um all my credit card debt

last week nice it wasn't it wasn't that much it was just 6k but i had some savings so i just wouldn't have to did it it's fantastic how'd that feel it was great it was amazing and it's just like yeah now i'm just kind of you know know, I put that $1,000 aside as well. Great. Good. So I'm just, yeah, I'm just kind of trying to figure out how to get the income up. Because, you know, the big apple ain't cheap. No, it's not. It is not. I like to visit.

I would not live there. And I feel you on that. Okay, let's dig into this. So what profession are you in and what is your income? I'm in the interior decorating and design business. And then I'm also an oil painter as well. So I get a little bit of my income from selling paintings too. That's awesome. What's your income?

This year I made 85K. Okay. And what's your living situation? An apartment? Yeah I live in an apartment alone. Where? You're not on Manhattan. I was going to say it's not Midtown. I am in Manhattan. I got very lucky. I'm rent stabilized. Oh wow. Oh good for you. Lucky ducky. What is your rent? It's 1900. Wow. That's pretty good. I mean I'm actually shocked Jack. I'm really shocked. I've been here a while so that's because the kind of feels you get when you stick around. That's awesome. Good for you.

All right, so I'm not as familiar with the field, but I don't have to be, so I need to dig in here. And when you say you've hit that lid, I think that's a great way of describing that. Is that because of qualification or is it because of association? And what I mean by that is the company you're in right now, there's just not a lot of opportunity for growth, if any at all. Explain to me what's the lid. Yeah. So there are kind of two branches of where I get my income in the interior design business. I'm in the union as a decorator. So that's a 60 an hour,

you know, set wage or set hourly. I'm sorry. Um, and then I also garner freelance work on my own, which I actually charge much more for, but it's much more inconsistent. And I'm, I have like three or four, maybe five clients a year that I do interiors for mostly like restaurants in the city so based on your time do those gigs pay a whole lot better I know you can charge way better way better all right so and we know that you said at the start of the call that you love the industry so you want to be in there I love it yeah well let me tell you something the union and and don't take this as a political statement. I'm not making a political statement. But in this case, the union situation for you is the lid. You're just not

going to get a bump in pay unless the union fights and then that goes up. And so what you've got to do here is, I hate to oversimplify this, Jack, but this is about good old-fashioned connections and hustle and get the word out because you've proven you've done it on some level, right? Now we've just got to say, this is the play. It's almost like getting a blank sheet of paper and you get alone, you get quiet and you go, what do I have to do to double and triple and list for heck of a quadruple the amount of what you're calling freelance work. That's the exercise. And I'm going to tell you what it's going to come down to. You going back to those restaurants that you did work for and say, hey, would you be willing to

make a referral for me? Do you know anybody? Have you had a conversation that I could do some work for? You are every square second of the day when you're not engaged in work, you're going, who do I need to connect with this week? Who do I need to connect with next week? That's not what I'm doing right now. Yeah, I think you're focused on the wrong lid, to Ken's point. I think you're thinking about my hourly wage, but you're part of this union. But I'm looking at this, I'm going, oh oh my gosh this is limitless like as long as you know how to do the thing and people have used you out there in the in the wild on your own that's right that is invaluable my goal would be i want to get away from this union job and i want to be starting my own thing and i want my new problem to be i have

so many people coming to me i only have 24 hours in the day. I need to start hiring some folks. Like, that's really where we're going. I guess my mindset lately is just when I'm trying to kind of save my butt with the, you know, more steady union pay, like as just a steady income. Well, but Jack, let me tell you what I would do if I were you, okay? We're going to get real real, okay?

I would keep the union gig and you need to relax. You got your steady. You don't have to stop stop it today you don't need to worry about steady you've got the steady so now you have to say okay so so so you're in Manhattan um are there a couple of restaurants or social places coffee shops or whatever that you frequent give me a little bit of latitude a tons gotcha and are there wealthy people that also frequent these joints? Okay. All right.

And Jack, do you have a winning personality? Yes. Yes, you do. I was going to say yes. I vote yes. So Jack, I'm starting to talk to people. And do you know what the easiest way to get someone to ask you about what you do? Has anybody ever told you this, Jack?

What do you think the answer is? I have no idea. It's great. You know what you do? You start talking to somebody and you go, what do you do? Has anybody ever told you this, Jack? What do you think the answer is? I have no idea. It's great. You know what you do? You start talking to somebody and you go, what do you do? And you'd be super interested in them. Jade, what do you do? And Jade starts talking about me and I need to be so passionately enthusiastic about what Jade's telling me that at some point, if she's not a sick human being and she's not, and she's going to say to me, Ken, what do you do? And then I go, I'm an interior decorator. I work for the union, but I got to tell you, I've just really enjoyed.

I did this restaurant over there on 47th and blah, blah, blah. Well, you know, my friend is looking for somebody to redo his restaurant because he just started. Yeah, or some sweet old lady who's got eight strands of pearls around her neck in Manhattan goes, I'd like to redo my bathroom or whatever. And all of a sudden, Jack, we got deals. I know, that's right. You understand what I'm saying? So Jack.

I do. This is about you connecting. And the more you connect and you share and you show your work, you ought to create a Facebook page by the end of tonight because it's free. You ought to get an Instagram account up tonight because it's free. Do you have all that, Jack? Yeah, I do have a website and Instagram for my decorating business. Guess what? It's one click of a button to share with somebody, hey, listen, if you'd like to redo your townhome, I'd like to come by sometime next week. Let's take a look. I'll give you a couple of quotes, no cost, no pressure. And then the sweet old lady goes and then she does it and then she

goes jack i gotta tell you about ethel and next thing you know you've got all these big you know blue blood upper echelon new yorkers paying you premium rate jack no that's listen jack slide into my dms because i want to see what type of work you do because you never know somebody wow that's the first time that's happened i've never heard jack she may be getting something she may have a project for you i know people that know people is all i'm saying so i might just slide it on in there everybody needs a bathroom redone everybody promise you right now jack all right now we've had some fun with this, but I'm actually as serious as a heart attack. That is the strategy for you. That is the bridge from where you are today to where you want to be financially. And here's how this works, Jack.

You do what Jade and I were just telling you to do. There's going to come a day where you replace all of that union income with the side hustle income. And that's when you say, bye-bye union. And you start doing the project that you want to do. And you now go from 80 to 160 to 320. That's right. I mean, dude, if I'm an interior decorator, the place I want to be is the Big Apple. Start spreading the news. That's right. Jack is designing today. That's right. Come on, Jack. I want to.

There it is. You left me hanging, kid. Oh, sorry. Well, I was getting nervous. It was starting to go up a little bit. I hadn't warmed up. Jack, you got it? Yeah, I got it.

Thanks, guys. Get busy. Hang on the line. I'm going to give you my number one bestselling book called The Proximity Principle, which says this. If I'm around the right people, Jade, and I'm in the right places, opportunity finds me. It's that simple, Jack. And oh, by the way, hang on. Jade wants a 20% discount on her new sunroom. We'll see how that goes. This is The Ramsey Show.

The Ramsey Show continues The Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me. We are here for you, America, taking your money questions, your work-related questions. 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Let's stay local. National Tennessee is where Yong joins us.

How can we help? Hey, quick question. So I'm in a 401k currently. Local, National Tennessee is where Yong joins us. How can we help? Hey, quick question. So I'm in a 401k currently, and it's set to aggressive. It's in a cookie cutter fund. And I was wondering if I should just leave it alone and let it kind of do its thing, or if I should just actively manage it myself. So the 401k is through your job and it kind of has, I'm guessing like three knobs you can choose for it?

Right. So it has like conservative, moderate, and then aggressive. Or you can... And I am 25, so... Or you have the option, is it within the same 401k that you can choose the actual funds? Yes. So I can actually go in there and it won't give me every single fund in the stock market,

but I can actively kind of manage it myself. Yeah, I mean... I was wondering what else you guys were thinking. I would choose the funds. I would go in and I would try to find one that's, you know, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth and international. And I would split my contribution equally over those four types so that you kind of have your money divided out.

And then from there on, I'd, you know, set it and forget it. Okay. And I think that's going to be a little better than to just choose aggressive, you know, because you don't really know. You can't really look and see what the to just choose aggressive, you know, because you don't really know. You can't really look and see what the funds are and how you know what's what's part of that mix. Right. So it actually will list out kind of what's in there. So it has a lot of the things that you stated for. But it's also in like the total stock market growth and then, um, stable, and then it has

international funds, but I also, so I manage, um, about 45,000 of in my own portfolio, uh, that I managed myself. Oh yeah. And then I have a little over 30,000, um, in the, uh, the 401k And then I have about 55 and change in cash. Okay. Yeah. If I'm you, I'm not going to turn that aggressive knob. I'm going to pick the funds myself across that mix of four. And my question to you is, what percentage are you investing right now? So right now, per the budgeting method that I'm using, I have 30% invested. I have 7% of that going toward my 401k.

Okay. Because my company matches. Just up to that match. Okay. And then you're not going over to a roth ira after that because that's what i would suggest i'd invest in the 401k up to the match and then i'd go over and if i still had money i would max out a roth ira and if i still had money then i'd go back to the 401k and i'd max that out and if i still had money if I had an HSA I'd probably go to that next

and if I still had money then I'd go in and probably go go into a brokerage assuming you're single that is so I am married and I think I can't do like the way that it's set up is really weird so it's a 401k but within it it takes out after taxes so it's like a roth but it's a 401k yeah you can have a roth 401k okay because they weren't explaining it very well and i was like so so in that case in that case since you do have a roth 401k i would max that out first completely you've got the match it's roth that's amazing so max out that roth 401k first then you know you and your wife are both is her situation the same or is hers just a traditional match traditional 401k so she's a teacher um so okay i believe it comes

out automatic yes so it's very automatic okay with. So let me say this in a way that's not confusing. Do you know with your wife's, is it, how much are they pulling out of her paycheck each time? What percentage? They're pulling 5%, I believe, if I did the calculations correctly. Okay. So you're investing far more than we would say.

I'm assuming, I'm just going to assume that you haven't paid off your house yet or have you? I have not. And so we would say in your situation with you and your wife We would say the five percent that she has you can kind of just treat that as as gravy or you could you could treat it As half the amount so maybe 2.5 percent Like, you know, don't treat it as the whole amount because you don't get to really choose what it's invested in And so we want to invest as much of our money as we can and things that we're choosing So for that I would say the first the first route you're going with you guys's entire 15 is you were maxing out that roth 401k that's the best investment that you vehicle that you guys have got i wouldn't invest anything above the five percent into her 403b or whatever it is

i would then next go to both of you maxing out our roth ira both of you. And then after that, if there's money, I probably, you know, her 403B might be fine, but I might still go to another investment vehicle depending on what that's invested in, what you've seen the rate of return is on that 403B. Okay. And if you've seen that it's good or normal, you know, then you can max that out. But yeah, that's what I would do in your situation. Okay, perfect. We're using the 50-30-20 method and we kind of do it separately. And then we have the way that our accounts are set up. I'll just take the 30% from her after the traditional 401k and all that from her side.

And then I'll use all that and kind of break down my um my budget and for both of us really i mean the fact is and i'm not mad at it we have different ideologies as far as maybe how to budget how to combine the finances but hopefully you know you'll you have a you know you'll respect my view on the the investing and maybe you'll consider it i'm not going to try to like shift your whole bedrock here in this conversation because I don't think that you're here for that. I love, I've watched y'all show a lot and I respect and love all y'all's opinions. Okay, good. I kind of formed what I've been doing.

Yeah. So. Listen, I'm not mad at it. Yeah, absolutely. You're on a good path. He's trying to get, he's getting, gathering information and doing what he thinks is best for his family. I like it. He sounds like a guy who really understands it, but it makes me nervous.

And I want you to address this. And I said nervous metaphorically that he's managing his own retirement account, 401k. Yeah, so let's talk about that. It makes me a little nervous let's talk about that you know i i spoke to dave recently somewhat recently about that because we did a a rapid fire on baby steps four five and six right four four is investing 15 five is investing or setting aside for kids college and of course six is paying off the house and so i said to dave i said listen you know most people they have their 401k and and similar to what uh young said you can either kind of choose the one of three knobs like

conservative mediocre and then aggressive or you can go in and choose the funds and i said to dave i said do you really need um a professional to help you just pick out your 401k and he was like not necessarily but if you're going beyond that, which all of us will and should, then you do want to work with that professional because you don't want to just go out, you know, to just open up Charles Schwab and just be out there on your own and I'm going to pick a fund. What do you know? You know, that's like me being like, you know what? I think I have a cavity. Let me go in here and see what I can do. Right, right, right. I think you make a great point. And what we teach folks is that you need to understand it. So when we talk about

a SmartVestor Pro, and we mentioned them on the website, and they are professionals that, again, they're independent, they're on their own, but we recommend these folks because they believe in the process that we teach. The reason that matters is I sat down, we have our annual meeting. Stacey and I just did it last week. And I'm co-hosting this show, I've done this for years. And I still have good questions that I need answers to, and they're simple sometimes. And I need to understand every move we're making, but I need guidance to figure out what move to make. And then I understand it to the point where I always make the decision. Stacey and I both go, all right, hey, John, explain this to me. Or what about this?

I get all the explanation when I understand it. Now I'm in total control of making the decision. And that's why the expert, the real pro comes into play here. They know about stuff we don't know about. They have better strategies. They have experience, and that's why we like to do that. But, Yong, I mean, listen, you're not in bad shape at all.

Thank you for the call. Very thoughtful stuff. Great hour. Jade Warshaw, always fun partner to hang with you. Thanks to James Childs and the crew for keeping us on the air, and thank you, America, for watching. This is The Ramsey Show Bye.