The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Move Out of My Parents’ House?

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Kristina Ellis discuss: How to move out of your parents' house, How to decide whether or not to stay home with the kids, How to deal with a house fire, When to pay off a rental, Kn...owing when to downsize Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Number one best-selling author, Christina Ellis, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about building wealth, doing work that you love, and creating real, amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. 888-825-5225 is the number.
Starting point is 00:01:01 Tim is with us in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hi, Tim. Welcome to the Ramsey St. Paul, Minnesota. Hi, Tim. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How's it going? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So I'm debt-free.
Starting point is 00:01:15 I've been debt-free for almost two years. I'm 22 years old. I have a full-time job. I still live with my parents, so I really don't pay anything to them for rent or anything. I just pay for my car and my phone insurance. And I'd like to get out of the house just with the market. It kind of seems unreasonable to buy right now, and rent is outrageously expensive.
Starting point is 00:01:37 So I guess I'm just looking for some guidance on what I should do. Okay. How much do you earn? I make about $27 an hour, roughly about $50,000 a year, I think is what it comes out to. Good for you. What do you do? What's that? What do you do?
Starting point is 00:02:01 I'm a public service worker. I work for FDM in public works. Okay, cool. All right, fine. My first thought is, you know, having been 22 years old and struggled to get out and figure out how to make ends meet when you first move out is roommates. I mean, you can rent by itself if you're trying to get a one-bedroom apartment. That's super expensive. But if you're willing to split it with somebody else, you can really reduce cost. How do you feel about that? Would you be willing to live with other people?
Starting point is 00:02:35 Yeah. Yeah, and I definitely have, you know, I have friends that are just not in the same position, just aren't ready to front money to move out. And so I guess, I mean, that's an option that I have looked into. It just hasn't been one that's at the top of my list, I guess. Well, you make a good income. And I mean, you probably could actually afford an apartment if that's what you really want. But if you don't have friends that you know, like in your immediate circle that need roommates, I mean, I know for me, I often lived off campus in the summers, and I had times where I had to ask a friend of a friend or just kind of coordinate with other people and maybe not live with all my best friends, but I got to live with people who were decent enough and made ends meet for me.
Starting point is 00:03:10 Yeah, and they paid the bill, and so that's helpful. So, Tim, the way I always look at these things is on the short term, there's no problem here. But this is a bad long-term plan, just living in your parents' house, right? Right, exactly. And so at some point, we have to launch. Now, what does that look like? And rather than just looking at what it costs today is where do I want to be if I'm 22? Where do I want to be when I'm 30?
Starting point is 00:03:43 What do I want my life to look like? And what is the best route to get me there? My personal experience as a dad is that you will have things develop in you when you have to buy your own gallon of milk and you have to fold your own gallon of milk and you have to uh fold your own socks and stuff and i'm not saying you're lazy but i'm just saying that when it when it when there's no milk unless you go to the store and get it when there's no electricity unless you keep it on something happens in your personal development that is good for you um do i want you to go bankrupt because of that no i
Starting point is 00:04:26 don't but uh when my oldest came home from college we told her she could stay for a little while until she could get situated get her get settled into the new job and gather up some roommates and so she stayed with us about three months and honestly that kid is an easy kid like you she wasn't a bother she could have still be there wouldn't bother us you know but it wasn't good for her long term and so we said you know about three months you need to get you need to get out and i watched her personality shift a little when she moved out i watched her square her shoulders and throw them back a little bit she walked a little taller she had a little different level of dignity and um you know easier to get a date when you don't live with mom
Starting point is 00:05:10 and all that kind of stuff and so you know uh all these things start to develop uh and so i i'm going to recommend as papa dave not financial dave that you go ahead and start looking really aggressively about getting out and it has nothing to do with math it has everything to do with your emotional psychological manhood development and i'm not panicking about it i'm not calling you a pansy i'm not any of that i'm just saying you know it's long term by christmas if i were in your shoes i would be out on my own now uh that also i think I think, now back to financial, Dave, I think what I would do is, A, I'm with Christina on the roommate thing. The other thing I would do is I'm going to shop around
Starting point is 00:05:52 because I think you're a sharp young guy, and if you could find a garage apartment over the top of a garage out back at some rich old lady's house, and she would just love having Tim there because tim makes her safer because tim maybe mows the grass or cleans the gutters i don't know uh you might get the deal of the century on that if you can find it now it's a bit of a needle in a haystack but it's worth looking around for and you know talking to the pastor over at your church and going hey where's the rich old lady with the garage apartment i need to talk to her you you know, our rich, sweet, elderly lady.
Starting point is 00:06:26 But whatever you want to call her. I don't know, but, I mean, she's going to like Tim showing up, don't you think? Oh, yeah. I think that's a great in-between, too, because there's still kind of that homey comfort where it sounds like he's having a little bit of a tough time, you know, making that transition. So it's like that's a good little thing. I've watched young married couples at 22 do that exact same thing,
Starting point is 00:06:43 and they get that rental. And it's not the resort apartment complex with 17 pools and bracket ball courts and skylights and jacuzzis, right? It's not got all that stuff. But who gives a crap? You're getting started, man. You're 22. And so that's how I would do it. I would start figuring out a way to pull this
Starting point is 00:07:06 off there's nothing on fire you're not a bad person it's not a rush i'm not saying your parents did something wrong you did something wrong but you called and asked and i'm not gonna sit around wait on rent to get reasonable because it ain't going to well that's a great question that's great that he's calling and he has that fire in him. He's starting to feel that, maybe I don't want to be in the parents' house anymore. It's a good start. Some people leave home because they get thrown out. I mean, it's like violent and toxic, and it's not good. And so the good news is that Tim actually has wonderful parents and a wonderful relationship with them,
Starting point is 00:07:41 so he doesn't have that pressure. Because sometimes we get the call like, I've got to out of here you know and so it's crazy over here that kind of stuff and he didn't have that thank goodness and my kids didn't have a lot of that just me but um but but you know i mean so but but roommates are kind of a standard part of kicking out there sometimes sometimes renting something that's not fancy enough that your friends are impressed with. Your rental? By the way, that might be a sign. If your friends are impressed with your rental, maybe you got the wrong rental.
Starting point is 00:08:16 Just an idea. Because it is a rental. Yeah. That's just something to think about, too. If your mom thinks it's awesome, you might have the wrong one, you know? Now, there you go. Something to think about, Tim. But, again, I admire you and I appreciate you calling,
Starting point is 00:08:33 and I think you'll be a wonderful roommate or a wonderful help to the rich old lady in the garage apartment out back. This is The Ramsey Show. over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a non-profit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Here at Ramsey, we love to have fun. And one of the fun things we do is we give away cash.
Starting point is 00:09:51 So you guessed it. We're super excited to tell our listeners we're giving away $500 every week in May and a grand prize of $3,000 at the end of the month in our Ramsey Cash Giveaway. Think about what you could do with $3,000. Hello. Pay off debt. Pay off with $3,000. Hello. Pay off debt. Pay off your kid's tuition fund. Yeah. You start that side hustle.
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Starting point is 00:11:09 Ann's with us in Houston. Hi, Ann. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, my husband and I were in our mid-20s and expecting our first baby this year.
Starting point is 00:11:21 Yay! Thanks. We have no debt outside our mortgage and we're scheduled to pay that off in about four years. And it's our dream that I can stay home with the kids and I want to homeschool them. But once our house is paid off, we can, we can come to live on my husband's single income, but we have to wait for that point. And currently my paycheck goes fully to principal on the mortgage. And now my question is, would it be beneficial for me to continue working for a period of time after we pay off the mortgage just to, like, bank that paycheck, save it for an extra rainy day, a four-door car for my husband?
Starting point is 00:11:52 I don't know. But I want to do what's best for my family, and it kind of still seems hard to give up that income. And I'd love to hear your thoughts. there's not a wrong answer to this. It's what you want to do. You're adequately analyzing the tradeoff. The tradeoff is I want to be at home full time with the babies, or I can go over here and make some money. If you add an element to that and say,
Starting point is 00:12:24 not only can I go make some money, but I really like my job, I really like what I do, then there's certainly nothing wrong with you being a working mother because it's what you want to do. It's part of who you are. It doesn't mean you're a bad mom. It just means you're a working mom. But if you say, hey, we're willing to uh not have the
Starting point is 00:12:47 income and you know i don't have to have in this season of my life uh the career psychological income the career jazz uh i don't like it i'd rather just quit and i don't want to be there and i want to be home with the babes, then that's a cool thing, too. That's what Sharon chose to do. Okay. She went from full-time mom all the way into full-time grandmother. So there you go. And Christina sitting here with me is a working professional lady
Starting point is 00:13:20 and loves what she does. So neither one is wrong. Which one feels right to you ann uh i really want to homeschool our kids i know that that wouldn't be for you know probably until the kids be like five or six closer to them so that one feels the best yeah but you're going to be four years to get the house paid off you said. Yes, that is true. So there you are. That sounds similar timing to me. Yeah, I guess that does line up.
Starting point is 00:13:52 But, I mean, it's okay if you want to. And, of course, a middle ground is to figure out what do you do for a living? I work in HR. Okay, figure out if there's somer functions you can do on a contract basis from home while the five-year-old's napping okay you know you might make you might make half or three quarters of what you make now working 25 hours a week and be no strain on motherhood you know yeah that's true that's good advice and good to hear your opinion it seems like something kind of scary to give up but well here's the thing if you quit today
Starting point is 00:14:30 and it takes six years to pay off your house that's not a bad choice okay and i will go ahead and warn you, this is your first one, going back to work. And the first one goes to daycare. Oh, that's a hard day. Yes, that's true. That's true. Thank you, Dave. Sure. Hey, you're going to do great.
Starting point is 00:14:55 You're going to be a great mom. You're going to be a great provider, the two of you are. But just go ahead and go. It's okay to say, no, I'm not trading money for time with my kid. If I want time with my kid, I'll just drop the money and leave it on the table. Done. Mic drop. I'm out.
Starting point is 00:15:09 But it's okay to say, hey, I enjoy this, and I enjoy hitting some of these financial goals, and we're going to do some version of this, and, you know, that's good, too. Yeah. I mean, and I think it'd be a different conversation if they were in Baby Step 2. There was a lot of debt. There were some challenges. We might, you know, talk a little bit more about timelines and be a little bit more strategic, but it sounds like y'all can't afford it. So it kind of comes down to more, what's the
Starting point is 00:15:32 priority? What do y'all want to do? Obviously you could pay off your house a little bit quicker in the direction, you know, if you keep working or you could take a little bit longer and be home with your kids. I think it's just in this this situation it's more about what feels right to you and what your family feels peace with you know one of the things that people um deal with this is it really doesn't matter what you do you get a version of mom guilt true story i i get a version of mom guilt because i'm working i get a version of mom guilt if i'm not working and not bringing in the bacon you know and so there's always there's some version of that and somehow we guys got a pass on that one i got zero guilt i don't know it's just not fair but i i've just you know rachel's dealt with it christy when she was here dealt with it i'm sure you have some i mean there's just
Starting point is 00:16:20 because society just puts it on you. They want you to be everything, and when you just choose to be one or the other, society doesn't know quite what to do with you, and so you kind of have to just go, well, I really wasn't taking a poll. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely challenging, but for my family, we've decided, my husband is a stay-at-home dad,
Starting point is 00:16:40 and that's definitely helped with some of the mom guilt, and it's helped me be able to raise the kids in the way that we want to. It's not the perfect solution for everyone, but for for our family that's the choices that we've made of course we could reach our financial goals quicker if we were both working um but you know for us raising our kids and being able to potentially homeschool one day that's a priority to us so we've made those choices and we've made those sacrifices it's not right for everyone but it's right for us well and his his public service allowed him to retire. Yep, after 17 years.
Starting point is 00:17:07 So that's a different part of the equation, too. So that's pretty cool. I mean, you've got a lot of options out there. You can go a lot of different directions. So fun stuff. All right, good stuff. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for jumping in, America.
Starting point is 00:17:21 We're glad you are here. John in New Jersey says, When is the best time to buy life insurance if we're in debt? Now, if I did 10 times my salary, I need a policy for $800,000. Good. Should I get that right away? Yes. Regardless of how much debt I'm in? Yes.
Starting point is 00:17:38 Because it doesn't cost that much, John. $800,000, you're probably in your 20s or 30s, and it's just the cost of a pizza. That premium is not going to make or break your financial thing. Get on zanderinsurance.com and get term life insurance 10 to 12 times your income immediately, because some of the saddest stories I've ever seen are people in their 20s or 30s who left a spouse and a kid or two behind and died. It was an awful situation. Yeah, that's painful. Yeah, it's such peace of mind. It's a simple thing to do, but yet if it's ever needed, what it can do for your family is just absolutely life-changing.
Starting point is 00:18:19 Now, we've had, you know, folks in Financial Peace University and financial counseling, or sometimes just listeners to the show, you know, report back and, you know, this guy, 28 years old, something happens to him and his, you know report back and you know this guy 28 years old something happens to him and his you know here sits his wife with you know five or six hundred thousand dollars or here sits his wife with nothing and these are two very different stories all for the cost of a pizza so no it's not a it's not really an option you have health insurance period period figure it out you get car insurance period you figure it out you have life insurance and a will period you figure it out we work it in work it through hang on baby this is the ride it's called the great. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Christina Ellis Ramsey, personality number one, best-selling author, is my co-host today. Mark and Carla are with us from Montana.
Starting point is 00:20:06 And it says on my screen, you guys are debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. Well done. How much did you pay off? $178,000. All right. How long did this take?
Starting point is 00:20:20 11 years. Okay, that works. And your range of income during that time? About $125,000. 11 years okay that works and your range of income during that time about 125 125 000 sorry that's yeah you just got a considerable raise there mark i love it all right how long y'all been married 34 years okay cool what do you do for a living i'm a physical therapist and mark is a high school teacher awesome we raised four children there you go so i'm guessing 11 years 178 000 you paid off your house we did just last uh just a few months ago talking to weird people i love it way to go you guys what's this house worth you know in this market probably
Starting point is 00:21:08 400 plus thousand dollars i imagine i would imagine congratulations guys that's fun so what you're in your 50s yeah yeah both 54 yeah i'm just on a side note dave i want to thank you for um you know your foundation and personal finance curriculum. I actually teach that. I have for the last 10 years, and it's now a required class at our high school. Oh, thank you, and thank you to the high school, and thank you on behalf of all those students. Way to go, man.
Starting point is 00:21:36 I appreciate that. We're really blessed. We've gotten that into 48% of the high schools, which means 52% still need to teach it. But you guys, thank you so much. Very, very cool. Way to go! All right, what inspired this story 11 years ago?
Starting point is 00:21:55 Well, I think, you know, we did the Larry Burkett class, you know, when we first were married and found it very difficult to maintain our discipline levels on that, but certainly introduced to it. And, you know, when you have four kids all within about nine years, and, you know, you've got to start planning for college and things, that we had to get our finances right. It took us a little while to get going, but once we got consistent, we got it done. We weren't very good at doing the rice and beans idea,
Starting point is 00:22:23 so we had a little bit of fun along the way with our four kids. So I'd say that's why it took us this long. So now that they're gone and out of the house, we kind of went crazy and finished paying off our debt. Love it. Love it. That is so awesome. What would you say is the key to getting out of debt? I'm really having a plan. You know, we had a picture on the back of our bedroom wall, you know,
Starting point is 00:22:47 with, okay, here's our overall debt in all these areas, and use the debt snowball, to be perfectly honest. You know, the babysit plan works. Sometimes it takes a little longer than others just because you've got to be consistent and disciplined at it. But having a plan, it's always about having a system, and it really works. And sticking to the plan, making those choices of not always the fun choice, but sometimes the better choice in the long run to be where we're at now,
Starting point is 00:23:14 because it is a huge difference. What did your kids think about this during this journey? Because, I mean, obviously you teach foundations, which is incredible, but a lot of parents, they're not having conversations about money with their kids. So what was that like? Really true. Yeah, actually, I had my, our youngest two actually took the class from me when they were still in high school. The other two, I wasn't teaching the class at that time. But it actually caused us to do some different things with raising them as well, you know, just in terms of having, you know, give 10%,
Starting point is 00:23:43 save 10%, spend 80 kind of idea, give them some envelopes, because we weren't doing things right with our kids in that regard too. So that was really a valuable time with them, having taught the class and also applying it ourselves. You just can't teach what you're not doing yourself. Well, now also just standing up in front of that class with those teenagers out there, you're going,
Starting point is 00:24:03 hey, paid for house, shut up. this right here works boys and girls this works boys and girls you're looking at a high school teacher with paid for house so just tell me tell me tell me it can't be done you know so it can be done yeah and uh so uh how much is in your all's retirement accounts well that's the problem we uh we we weren't very good at that part of it because we were so busy getting four kids through college and just getting out of debt, getting our house paid off. So I'm going to retire here in about four weeks with a pension. And I wish I'd have done a lot of the things that you taught. In fact, I tell my students that very often. I'm really good at teaching this class because I've made every mistake humanly possible, and I wish I would have done exactly what I'm
Starting point is 00:24:48 teaching you to do and what Dave tells you to do. So we got some other plans and some entrepreneurship ideas, and we're just going to go get uncomfortable and see what happens. Good for you. Very cool. So what kind of business are you going to open? Well, I've got, you know, Carter's still got a little bit of PT work to do, and I'm starting to give presentations to school districts, honestly, and how to show teachers how to invest in their personal development and personal finances, honestly. Good, good.
Starting point is 00:25:19 I've got a passion for the personal development part of things, and so I want to share that with other teachers, and so they can share that with their students and get them inspired about their future as well. Because I think there's a lot of kids with anxiety and depression, things like that. You can do very well with some CREs. That'll be great, man.
Starting point is 00:25:34 Very cool. I love it, man. Way to go, you guys. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Excellent. Excellent job. Well done. How's it feel to not have a payment in the world?
Starting point is 00:25:46 It's awesome. It's awesome. You know, we can finally start making different choices. You know, feel like we have so much more ability to live by our values, to donate both our time and our money where we want to, rather than just being stuck paying off bills every day yeah way to go you guys good work all right we've got a copy of baby steps millionaires for you that is the next chapter in your story i want to hear about you coming up going on and being millionaires now you're on your way also send you a copy of total money makeover for you to give away and stir up a holy ruckus with somebody so good stuff stuff, guys. Well done, well done. All right, it's Mark and Carly in Montana.
Starting point is 00:26:32 $178,000 paid off, house and everything, in their 50s, did that in 11 years, making $100.25. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're Dead Dream! Yeah!
Starting point is 00:26:53 I love it. Way to go, you guys. Jessica is in St. Louis. Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call today. Sure.
Starting point is 00:27:07 What's up? So my husband and I recently had a house fire in our mobile home about two weeks ago. Oh, no. Is everybody okay? Yeah. Shaking up. Dealing with insurance. We have two little girls, a 15-month-old and a 5-month-old.
Starting point is 00:27:25 So that's been fun. Um, currently the in-laws, and then we're going to be moving to a temporary, um, apartment that insurance is paying for on a month to month basis at the moment. Um, we still have not heard back about like how much they're going to give for the damages. It's a lot of smoke damage and some fire damage in the kitchen it'll take a while yeah so we're actually trying to decide because our mobile home is paid off if we should um actually use whatever money insurance gives us and just sell the mobile home and then buy a house yes okay because we have about 16 grand in the bank currently um and then um we have about 28 000 in school debt still that we have to pay off
Starting point is 00:28:16 yeah i'm gonna buy a house as soon as possible here here's the i mean as soon as it works out we're not in a hurry everything's okay thank goodness everybody's fine you got a place to live insurance is coming through and all that but the way i answer that question so fast is not what's happening today but what makes you better off 10 years from now repairing or buying a mobile home or buying a house ding ding buying a house mobile homes go down in value right yeah that's what i was telling my husband but he's worried about the monthly payment on a mortgage when we don't have one currently so yeah well that you may want to wait a little while you may want to rent a little while and save up a good better down payment with the payoff of the mobile home and the contents
Starting point is 00:29:00 take your time in settling that take your time and settling make lots of lists of things they owe you for they will want to rush and settle with you don't get in too big a hurry Christina Ellis Ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225 Josh is with us in West Palm Beach hi Josh how are you I'm well thanks Dave how are you better than I deserve how can I help question about step order, and thank you for taking the call. My wife and I bought a foreclosure to fix up and planned once we moved in to sell our old home. We've had an increase in income, and my question is, would it be unwise to keep the old home, rent it out, and focus on paying everything down pretty quickly? I don't know that that's a baby step question.
Starting point is 00:30:29 It's just a matter of how much you want in baby step six, because the baby step six is going to have a rental and a home mortgage in it, right? Right. Okay. And then how quickly can you clear both as opposed to selling it and comparing it out the other way? So the way I think about these things is, and it seems to be a theme today, is, okay, 10 years from now, which one am I going to be glad I did? Working to get both of these paid off and ending up with a paid-for rental in the process?
Starting point is 00:31:01 Or am I going to actually end up building more wealth by getting my home paid off almost instantaneously by the sale of the other one and then using this great new income to pound the house the personal residence then with no payments anywhere how fast can i build wealth versus limping through these other two and that's just that that's the way i would analyze it does that make sense it does let me give you the numbers here and see if that helps. Okay. If I pause steps four and five, I can have the condo and the house paid off in three and a half years. If I don't pause steps four and five, it'll take me about five and a half, maybe six years to get everything paid off.
Starting point is 00:31:42 No, I'm not pausing four and five under any circumstances. Okay. The only option I've got, option one is sell the old house, use the equity to clear your personal residency faster. Right. And by getting rid of that payment and the other. Option two is keep them both, and you've got a five-and-a-half-year plan. How old are you?
Starting point is 00:32:03 Forty. Okay. you got a five and a half year plan how old are you 40 okay and and uh if you sold the other house you would pay off your personal residence in what one and a half to two probably right yes throwing that equity at it being done with the payment and i have i have the same personal thing and christina you know this um i have the same personal dichotomy that you have if i'm in your shoes because i i love being debt free and i love rental real estate i do not love rental real estate enough to go borrow to buy it correct but because once you once i getfree, brother, you'll never go back. I believe you.
Starting point is 00:32:49 Because it's fun, you know. But I always give people a thing. Okay, if you're sitting here, you know, if you want to say instead of one and a half to two, I'm going to go five and a half to six while doing baby steps four and five in either case. And I either end up in one and a half to two of the paid-for house and a great income. What's your income? $250,000. I started a business a year and a half ago,
Starting point is 00:33:13 and it just has done well. I think there's probably a significant upside, but I'm basing this on the $250,000 we have now. Well, I think you're in a really great spot either way you go. Thankfully, this is an equation where both directions are pretty awesome. If it were me, though, I would want to be debt-free as soon as possible. Like Dave said, that feeling of being completely debt-free, that's just amazing. So I personally would rather have a paid-for house and then start saving up to invest in rentals than the other way around.
Starting point is 00:33:41 But, I mean, I think you're looking at two really good options right here. Let me throw out a thought. This just popped into my head. If you got rid of the rental and your house is paid for, there's two things that are going to happen that you haven't thought about, and I just did late in the conversation here. I didn't think about them up front. Number one, you can focus more on the business,
Starting point is 00:34:06 which is you're absolutely killing it at, because you're not distracted with rentals. Right. Number two, this is not quantifiable, but it's 30 years of observation. When people have zero debt that own their own business, they make different business decisions that lead towards greater prosperity than if they've got debt hanging over their head. Even though this is not big debt, it's really small debt compared to your income, and it's hanging in the background.
Starting point is 00:34:37 But when there's no dull backache, you can just run faster i mean you've not got a debilitating back problem that needs surgery but you've got a dull backache called two mortgages right and when you get rid of that the you you're gonna your freedom your creative freedom to to do your business your business is going to go even faster because of focus and because you got rid of that. So I'm probably going to go ahead and be debt-free today if I'm you as soon as I possibly can, selling that house because of those things. I want you to have total focus on the business because you're killing it. I don't even know what the business is, but you're doing great.
Starting point is 00:35:20 And I can see that going to $500,000 faster if you don't have a rental and you have zero concern. You just got a little different swagger when you got no payments, you know. And so I could just look at people in business situation and just go, no, not doing that. What? You're kidding. No, not doing that. Because I don't have any payments you know it just it's a weird thing but it changes your negotiating posture it changes your decision making flow
Starting point is 00:35:51 your critical thinking on it's different and it's not quantifiable but i think i probably have made more money because i was debt free and i didn't have that hanging over my head so i'm going to recommend that but alexander we're going to both admit christine and i are both telling you neither one of these are in the stupid column you know you're it's okay to go either direction we're just discussing you know smart and smarter you know you know but that's all we're discussing here so it's a fine way to go either way as long as you continue to do four and five while you're doing which whatever it is you do so the four and five aren't aren't they're not going to give you a problem your income is going to solve any problems they give you because you're just killing it so that's pretty cool that's just pretty stinking cool well done very very well done open phones at 888-825-5225 janelle's in
Starting point is 00:36:42 oklahoma city hi jan Hi, how are you doing? Better than we deserve. What's up? So my husband and I have a question. We built a house in 2019, and we got a little excited when we built it, built a home, and signed a 30-year mortgage. We are debt-free. Besides that, we have a fully funded retirement and everything.
Starting point is 00:37:06 We're just trying to decide now if we should downsize and get to a 15-year mortgage. How much is your payment? So with escrow and everything, we're at $2,400 a month. What's your take-home pay? $190. No, you should keep your house that you love. But you should pay it off as soon as you can. You make $190,000 a year.
Starting point is 00:37:41 I know, but my thing is if I can, I'm at like a 2.25 interest rate too so i'm super low okay so just stay where we're at though and then just nail down right now i think we have about 4 30 on it all right let's stop a second okay you are the nerd and the cheapskate at your house like I am. You are exactly right. And your husband is the visionary dreamer who built this beautiful home. Well, I did partake in that part. Oh, I'm not saying you made the decision without you,
Starting point is 00:38:20 but I'm saying he probably gets, you probably have more internal conflict about the price of the house the 30-year mortgage and he's just like i like the house yes yes and i'm the one that i'm like well we could sell it and we could go buy a two hundred thousand dollar home we could have it paid off and you could sell it and live in a tent and invest it all in mutual funds but it's not a good idea that's what i would do i know i know i've read your mail one of the one of the things we have to learn to do with money is enjoy it okay enjoy your home and get it paid off as soon as you possibly can. You make a lot of money.
Starting point is 00:39:08 You should enjoy that house and get it paid off as soon as you can. You're not in the stupid zone here. You're okay. This is The Ramsey Show. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.

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