The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Retire Early? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony answer your questions and discuss:   The comfort crisis in America, Thinking through early retirement, from the blog: What Is the F.I.R.E. Movement? Paying off the house vs. saving for retirement, Selling a rental property while paying off debt. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Dr. John Deloney, number one bestselling author and Ramsey personality is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about your life and your money, it is a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Thank you for jumping in, America. We are glad you are here.

So, John, we were talking before we got on the air, and I think it's worth just carrying that conversation forward a little bit. There seems to be a movement or a stirring, and I don't think it's coordinated. I think it's just observation by several people who are good critical thinkers. There's an observation by people like Michael Easter, who wrote the book Comfort Crisis, by some of our friends over at The Daily Wire, by people like Mike Rowe, our friend Mike Rowe.

There seems to be a separation in our culture right now and a recognition of this like never before between the people who are willing to work and sacrifice and have mental or physical calluses calluses on your mind because you push through you persevere through something stressful on your hands literally because you're doing like real work um versus quiet quitting versus i'm gonna work from home which means i don't work much i'm not really working from home uh there's pretty much two categories of people all the data is starting to show us people that work from home there are those that work way too much

like become workaholics at home they don't quit they get up from dinner abandon their kids go back to their screen and keep working all night and then there are those that work like two hours a day and call that a full-time job and play with their children in the middle of the floor while they're supposed to be working but there's this group of people that are uh bent on mediocrity. They're bent on doing as little as possible. They are bent on just getting by. They are bent on trying to, quote, cheat the system and someone else take care of them. And then there's this group of people that are kind of, I guess, old school, that are working, that have work ethic, that are leaning in,

and they can be of any age group. It is not a generational thing. I saw somebody today railing on Gen Z. It's not Gen Z because I'm meeting boomers that are doing these exact same crap one way or the other. But in a culture where an unusually large percentage has decided to do little or nothing, if you're willing to do a lot, you're going to stand out. Oh, man.

You got a chance for success like never before in our world. Right. I go all the way back to, I actually, and maybe I'm crazy, or I'm overly optimistic, my wife says sometimes. I think we got here with good intentions. Back in the, I mean, you remember back in the 70s and 80s there are some studies done that showed man these folks who are are ceos and leaders they've got good self-esteem and so what we need to give these kids in elementary school is we just need to tell them how great they are all the time so they have good self-esteem and what we missed and then we

the participation trophy was born that's right everybody's going to feel good about themselves and then they'll all become like that and what we missed is no they became like that because they failed a lot and they got hit in the mouth a lot and they kept persevering and they had people around them that walked alongside them similarly man we have everyone i just put a thing on instagram everyone wants to win the super bowl but nobody wants to get tackled by a 350 pound man that's yeah and that's that's tom brady got hit a whole bunch yeah right it's like like and his lineman got hit way more it's like getting hit by a kia i mean really i mean it's just but but but i want to win the super bowl but i don't i don't want any dirt under my

fingernails and i don't want to hear my joints creak i think it's old bobby knight quote everyone everyone wants to be win the championship nobody wants to practice real hard right you don't put that time in and i think we have a culture of folks who miss they don't have a picture of what that gap looks like and now i actually think it sounds old school but i'm seeing it in the medical science and in the mental health science it's a new wave of people coming in saying oh our bodies can't exist without stress and tension it can't exist without having something to push up against. You don't go to the gym and lift a ribbon. You've got to put weight on that bar.

Otherwise, your body never grows. You don't get stronger. And so I think we have to teach a whole generation of people, here's how to get back up. You know what part of it is, too? I mean, you used to get dopamine hits from stress and from leaning into something. Oh, dude. Lifting, pushing. Now you get dopamine hit from this magic wand in your hand. Oh, dude, yes. from stress and from leaning into something oh dude lifting the anticipation now it's now you

get dopamine hit from everywhere from well this magic wand in your hand oh dude yes you got a magic wand in your hand that gives you dopamine hits all day long that aren't from but there's no real stress associated with it and so there's this atrophying of character right that has occurred and i used to tell my students when martin was marching across the bridge dr king the assumption was you're gonna get killed doing this and we're going anyway that's different than the the thumb warriors i call them like like launching their grenades via social media like there's this lack of hey dude if you're gonna get in the arena you're gonna get hurt and that's that's part of the whole game not you can't sit on the outside of the arena and pretend you participated right you got to get in there and that means you're going to get knocked

down but and if there is no toughness there is no perseverance if there is no calluses there is no perseverance and if there is no perseverance there is no success and then the self-esteem not not the self-esteem and then and what you can't do dave you can't lie to your body you can tell yourself you're the toughest lie to your body you can tell yourself you're the toughest guy in that room you can tell yourself i could do it i could do it your body knows we're not ready for this and it's fluffy there's a there's a gap right it's like oh i could do that your body's telling you i don't think we can man i don't think we can don't do that don't do it and so man get some true real experiences underneath your belt. Yeah. So when in doubt, bust up into something.

Yes. When in doubt, overdo it. Yes. When in doubt, activity, not passive. Right. Right, right. We have a culture that's overthinking everything. Get out and start doing, man.

Get out and start doing and fail. And quit trying to figure out the macroeconomic Marxist angle on something. Yes, go get a job, dude. Yeah, just go work what's that line your grandma had i loved there's a great place to go when you're broke to work you know i mean that's just that but that's that's old school right there and here's the thing it's also new school because really there is no success without it right there is no success in your marriage unless you're intentional and you work

at it doesn't sound very romantic every day but you got to you know when i got married i didn't you know i didn't know beans i've read like a hundred marriage books i think you know i started raising kids i didn't know what i was doing i started reading parenting books you know there's without doing it on purpose without some lifting without some stress without some push which always involves a callus is developing um there is no success so there's no strength there's no growth looking for uh the amazon prime for your life take the hard path you can push a button and crap shows up on your porch take the hard path okay that's not how life really works. If you've been trained by this magic wand in your hand to not lean into the strenuous activities,

take that thing and drop your heel down on it and crush it and go lean into some strenuous activities. This is where the best parts of life come from. Ooh, that's a good start for the show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. I'm Dave Ramsey. That's Dr. John Deloney. This is The ramsey show dr john deloney ramsey personality Thank you for joining us, America. This is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host.

Jake is with us in New York. Hi, Jake. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, how's it going, Mr. Ramsey? Better than I deserve, sir. What's up? So I'm 23 years old, and I'm wondering what I'm doing right now will help me set my retirement up, you know, at either 40 years old or if I'm lucky enough, early. Why do you want to retire at 40?

I'm kind of seeing my father who, you know, working every day and, you know, kind of breaking his gut. I was wondering if I could retire from my main job and focus on my own business, I would much rather do that. Well, let's do that before 40. Yes, absolutely. Why don't you just do that, like, soon? I mean, like, by the time you're 26, still at 40.

You don't have to be retired to run your own business. Matter of fact, you can't be retired and run your own business. The definition of running your own business is you're running the business, so you're not retired. And running is the key word there. By retired, you don't mean retired. You mean quit the job you hate and do the one you love. That's what you meant, right?

In the short sense, yeah. I mean, you weren't going to, like, go fishing six days a week. No. At mean, you weren't going to, like, go fishing six days a week. No. At 40. That wasn't what you were talking about. You were talking about do something you love instead of a job you hate, which is what your dad did.

So do a job you hate for a little while, make as much money as you can with a plan to open your business in the next four to five years, and then run a business your whole life. I had enough money to quit working by the time I was 40, but I didn't. I work more because I love what I do. I love running this business. I love getting to do this show.

I love the things I get to do. And if I don't love them, I change them because I own it. So, you know, that's the game you want to get in is where you're just leaning into your strengths and you're having fun most days some days i get tired and grouchy too but um no but um you've never seen that shut up john but the uh um yeah you see what i'm saying jake i mean so it sounds like you do you do a job right now just for money and you don't want to have to do that for the rest of your life. Correct. So I have my main job, and then I run my other job on the side,

which I've been running it for the last about a year. Yeah. So do that for a while, and let's get the business that you want to get up, get it up and running in the next three to four years, and let that be your plan instead of I'm going to pile up so much money and I'm going to work at something I hate for 20 freaking years. No, I don't want to do that. And no, I'm not going to tell you to do that. I would tell you instead, let's just, you know, make something you love lucrative enough to live on and grow it. And Jake, this may not be you, man,

but I hear the sentiment more and more. I used to hear it from my students and I'm hearing it more and more and more. The idea of retirement used to be, I want to have enough so that when I quit working, I can, like, I've got enough to live on, right? And then that became, I want to have all these wild adventures. The definition of retirement keeps moving forward. And now I'm hearing it with young people. I want to get to a spot where I can do nothing. And I will tell you, there is no quicker way for your body to shut down, your relationships to fall apart. You will hate your life if you do nothing. That's not a goal. That's not an objective to get to that place. So I like, Dave, create a life that you want to live, man. Create a life that you want to be involved with.

I had a guy on my show call yesterday. It was heartbreaking. It was tough. Amazing guy who quit drinking and is sober for X number of weeks now. And here's what he said. He said, I work out every day now and I'm running out of ways to kill time. And he was asking me for some other things he could do to help kill time. And I said, dude, your life isn't something you want to kill. It's something to live, right? And so this idea that I'm just going to get to this place when I'm 40, then I can just do nothing. That's a miserable goal, man. It's a miserable goal. Yeah. Having enough money to be independent.

Ah, that's a good word. I like that. Fin word financially independent and have some autonomy is a good thing but uh the goal is not to uh you know sit on the back porch and drink all afternoon i mean it's not you know this is not what are you going to do so i had a friend of mine sold his uh business he had grown since he started really young and he sold his business for multiplied millions of dollars when he was 32 and um he you know kind of had that goal like i won't do nothing he said i always want he said i'm just going to play golf and fish and so he went fishing all the time and he played golf all the time and he said i got so fat and my wife didn't like me and i didn't like me and i didn't even like golf or fishing anymore and it was two of my favorite things in

the world and i hated them because it's all i did all day long it was like if you eat enough lobster it tastes like soap right it's not good anymore though your favorite food eat it every day you'll hate it eventually and so you know what he did is he went back in business and lost his weight and is the happiest he's ever been in his life. He has something to do every day. He's got a purpose. He's got an adventure in life. You know, honestly, bass and Tilos Pro V1s are not, this is not an adventure,

except on a limited basis. I mean, it's not, it's just not. You know, now maybe you're a fishing guide. Okay. Yeah. But short of that, the idea that I'm going to retire and be a person of leisure, you know, this is what we think of when we think of dysfunctional, zoned out, often drugged up, trust fund babies are people of leisure with their seersucker suits

sitting on the deck chair of the titanic you know and that that's the problem so that's not what jake's trying to do but this is you and i continuing our conversation from the first segment here and uh so it just you know that there's something to be said of there's a dignity that comes from impacting things and moving things around good good question Jake thank you for joining us Georgie's with us Georgie is in Phoenix hi Georgie how are you I'm great how are you guys better than I deserve what's up of course you? I'm great. How are you guys? Better than I deserve. What's up? Of course you are. I want to find out where I should be throwing my money. I'm currently putting more than 15%

towards my retirement. And my reason for that is I'm just starting late in saving for retirement. Or should I be putting that at my house, like you always say, and get it paid off sooner? How old are you? I am 64. Okay. And how much do you owe on your home? About $146,000.

How much cash do you have in non-retirement? In non-retirement, $42,000. What do you have in retirement? $38,000. $42,000. What do you have in retirement? $38,000. $38,000. Yeah. All right. And what do you make?

About $60,000. Okay. So our goal should be two-pronged. By the time you're 76 years from now, I want the house paid for, and I want a big nest egg, right? We need both of those either one of them not done is going to leave you is going to leave you vulnerable and so the best way i know how to do that is 15 towards retirement and chunk everything else you can get on the house and work as much as you can work if you can pick up any

extra income even throw it at the house you'll get this house done then we've got even more money because we don't have a house payment anymore to chunk at retirement. And the last couple of years, you could really build up retirement fast. But if we said, okay, four years to pay off the house is $40,000 a year. Yeah. And that puts you at 68. True. Okay.

So that's going to involve more work. That's going to involve more income than you have coming in okay got it and so if you that that's the kind of thing i'd love to see for you it's not like you're going to die if you don't do that i don't i don't want you to misunderstand it's not like oh god you're in pretty good shape you're heading in the right direction you're not out of control but if but you know if you can have zero debt including your home going into your golden years it stabilizes everything because your largest uh line item in your budget is housing and when it's all paid off your largest line item is no longer your largest line item ding ding so it stabilizes everything that's where i want you to go

good question georgie thank you for joining us this is the ramsey show item. Ding, ding. So it stabilizes everything. That's where I want you to go. Good question, Georgie. Thank you for joining us. This is The Ramsey Show. Teksting av Nicolai Winther dr john deloney ramsey personality is my co-host today hey Hey, guys, if you enjoy this show, you can help us. We would appreciate it, since you don't pay anything for it. Dude, leave us a five-star review. That helps move the needle on the listenership, helps people find us and all that kind of stuff. One stars are of no value. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all, okay? Or say it about another show.

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Help us. Help us. Help us. Help us. I'll also say this, Dave. And these are words that I never thought would come out of my mouth. Uh-oh. You should follow me and Dave on social media.

Me and Dave are TikTok Sensations. We are Instagram. I'm big on TikTok. Instagram Sensations. So follow us there, too. Yeah, I'm a big deal on TikTok. So just check it out. I have no idea, but that's what they tell me.

So who knew? A boomer on TikTok. So there you go. All right, let's go to Mary in Trenton, New Jersey. Hi, Mary. How are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Dr. John. It's an honor to be talking to you. Hi, Mary. How are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Dr. John. It's an honor to be talking to you.

You too. What's up? So, I actually, I live in Michigan, but Trenton comes into the equation. So, I live in Michigan. My husband and I are in Baby Step 2 right now. Found you guys back in August, and I've been helping you get through a lot of

housework, so I appreciate it. I'm always plugged in to your podcast. Thank you. Um, we, we own a rental property from when we lived in New Jersey. Um, it's near Trenton and, um, we've been rental property owners or whoever you want to call it for about 18 years. So that makes this, the upcoming change a little bit more like emotional for us. We're done. I know what you would say about having an out-of-state rental property. We're tired of it. It pays the mortgage, but we're just tired of dealing with it. And we do have baby step two and three to take care of. If we do sell the property, which is the plan right now, it will take care of baby step two. It will take care of baby step three, take care of capital gains, taxes, fees, and all of that, and leave us with probably like $10,000 left over to invest. So I guess my first question is, is that the right thing to do? And my other question is, because I think I know the answer to the first question,

is how do I feel more comfortable with this idea? And like after all of that money cycles through baby step two and three, and then being left with so little in the end, it just feels kind of like anticlimactic and disappointing. Well, yes, you've got to do it. There no question um that it's the right thing to do because the way if you pan back and look at these things the way to make the decision and the way to feel better about it is go okay 10 years from today i've got two options keep this thing and whittle my way through this or dump this thing which i really don't even like anymore and make major strides forward so 10 years from today who would you know which mary wants to look back on this

mary and be happy with her you know uh so that's going to tell you to sell it isn't it yeah yeah and that's also simultaneously how you feel better about it i think is okay this is a season. It's okay to say out loud I'm emotionally invested in this, and I'm abandoning a former dream that wasn't as dreamy as I thought it was going to be called landlording. I thought it was going to be dreamy. Eighteen years in, it's not much of a dream. It's a semi-nightmare, and I'm kind of glad to be out of it. But I kind of am

admitting that i was you know i was on the wrong boat for a while and i'm having to change boats and saying that out loud stings a little bit right yeah yeah but all the while you know the grown-up part of you saying this is wisdom yeah um like we always looked at it as like oh it'll be an investment for the future and um and the future's here sure we're well i guess like here you are here you are 18 years later living in the future it paid off i know all right i know hey mary have you ever have you ever not owed anybody anything no have you ever had like an air conditioner break or a roof leak and you started laughing no so you're talking to two guys who are on the other side of that who both of us have paced around the house unable to breathe because our wives were asleep and we

didn't know how we're going to pay our bills i didn't know how to tell my wife that we are our net worth was in the negative by hundreds of thousands of dollars i didn't know how to say those words and now i can tell you on the other end when our air conditioner busted and we started dying laughing not because we're rich or we got money but we had an emergency fund and no debt and we didn't owe anybody any money and so we started laughing not because we're happy to spend 10 grand but because of course it happens right around christmas or whatever the thing was okay so it's not me being flippant it's me being saying what i can tell you on the other side of where you are peace is worth every everything you will go through selling this house yeah i think I think more than anything, you're just grieving the thing that, oh, I thought this thing was going to be the answer to all my problems.

And now all these 18 years later dealing with it, it's not. It just helps a little. And so it just, you know, it was a disappointment. Yeah. You got to grieve it, man. It's not what you thought it was going to be. I thought I it man it's not it's not it's not what you thought it was going to be i thought i'd have 30 houses at eight in 18 years right yeah i got one and i don't like it and it's not even fun yeah so yeah it's time to do it be the grown-up

hold your breath hold your nose get your work done eat your broccoli and uh then you'll be healthy and strong josh is in green bay w Hey, Josh, what's up? Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than we deserve. How can we help? So I just had a question about college versus career. So I had a career beforehand, and then me and my wife decided this last year that I'd go ahead and go back to college for an engineering degree.

I'm just kind of second-guessing it because it's just we went from such a much larger income down to a single income, and I'm just kind of wondering if maybe I should just go back to working full-time at my previous career or if I should continue with college. How long is your career going to be, how long are you going to make less money? It'll be for the full four years while I'm in college. And then on the back end, how much more money are you going to make? Hopefully around like $20,000 more or so. I don't think it's going to be very significant.

When you started this process, you knew every bit of this. Yeah. What changed? I think it's just... I'll tell you, engineering's hard. Right? That too. And there's a bunch of 20-year-old knuckleheads in there

that don't know what they're like, and they're complaining about stuff, and you're like, you have no idea about the real world, and it's a drag, and you don't like homework homework and you want to play with your kids and do whatever it just it sucks right and so you want to quit well i feel like that's part of it and part of it's just like i i kind of have money as a big um security blanket for me because you knew that before you started to have a lot of it around so you knew that before you started this that doesn't change so other than engineering is hard what changed um i think i just want to have more money saved up in the long run i suppose

and i thought i'd be a little more comfortable with it than i am like now but in two different times when i chose to go back for a not just to spend money on a nonsense degree but with an intentionality for a career on the other side of it it's worked out exponentially for me that's all i can tell you my personal experience i've done it twice so um what does your wife make uh she makes 75 000 year. What did you used to make? I used to make $70,000. And what do you make now? Nothing. I don't make anything.

You're not working? No. Why? It was just kind of challenging with all the homework and extra stuff on the side. Oh, come on. I got two PhDs with a full-time job, brother. No sympathy here. Get a job, too.

Get a job, too. Come on. Go work. You can do it. Kids work in college-time job, brother. No sympathy here. Get a job, too. Come on. Go work. You can do it. Kids work in college all the time, dude. Don't quit now, man. You're like a grown-up and stuff. You can still work while you're in college. Be easier for you because you're more mature. I got homework.

No, get a job, man. And finish your dadgum degree. Plow through. You got this. It's worth it this is the ramsey show We'll be right back. Wow, credit card debt is at an all-time high in history. More credit card debt than any time in history right now. With debt payments and inflation stealing more and more of your paycheck, a lot of people feel like they're drowning and they're scared to death. They don't have enough to take care of your paycheck. A lot of people feel like they're drowning and they're scared to death. They don't have enough to take care of your family.

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RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. Thanks for joining us, America. Eugene, Oregon. Tyler's up. Hey, Tyler, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. How are you guys doing? Better than we deserve.

What's up? Okay, so I'm an electrical contractor, and I have a commercial property. We live in the back portion of it, but I'm upgrading the front for storefront, and I need to build an accessory building because I'm branching out to a lighting store, and I need storage, but I want to pay off my loan ASAP. And I don't know which way I should expand the business and try and bring more money or just pay it off and then do it in a year or two. Actually, probably next year, pay the loan off or do it this year that's really the question yeah so one year swing yeah okay um so you pay your loan off your loan on what

the property okay so the commercial building has a loan. Yes. And you have a stack of money, and that stack of money will either pay that loan off or build the storage. And if you pay the loan off, then you can build the storage next year. Yes. Do that. Pay the loan off now. No-brainer.

Oh, okay, okay. You want to know why? Sure, yes, I would. Don't do it because I said do it. Do it because you know why, okay? Okay. No risk. When you're running a business and you have little to no risk because you don't have a mortgage anymore,

you make different decisions. You're more bold. You're more bold. You're more creative. You're more turned loose into the business. I am much more bold with our business decisions because I don't have any stinking payments anywhere in my life. And none of those decisions are going to be the end of me financially and so i can reach over there and drop some coin on something and hope it works and and do everything i was smart and wise and try to make it work but if it doesn't work it's not the end of

me does that make sense that makes that makes perfect sense and so And so what you can't really put into numbers is this entrepreneurial freedom and boldness and creativity that happens when you don't have any debt anymore. Because stuff is going to come at us. I mean, we've got inflation coming at us. We've got pandemic quarantines coming at us. We've got balloons coming at us. us we got balloons coming at us we got we got stuff coming at us everywhere falling off yes yeah we got stuff we got stuff we got stuff coming at us everywhere and so you know you're you just have all these these threats these existential threats you don't know where they're coming and you don't know when they're coming what

what what what's the next thing gonna be i? I guarantee you, if you had polled a million Americans, a giant balloon floating across the sky would not have entered anyone's next threat. Not a single person's mind. Not one. Not even the conspiracy theories, conspiracy theories. Rachel could not have cooked up a balloon. Rachel Cruz, the queen of conspiracy theories, would not have entered into the balloon world.

You never know. There's always an existential threat. And if not, just watch the news they'll give you one and so you know the the thing is uh and the truth is there's outside variables coming at you all the time in business and there they are they do somebody opens up a shop right across the street or they do create risk and so and all of a sudden you're going, I'm really glad. Early payments. And that means I can go to this and I can counterpunch this way and I can fight this one to the death. And I can choose to walk away from that other one. And you got all kinds of stuff here.

It just, and it changes the way you walk. Changes your body language. It's hard for me to describe, but I've been working with small business leaders for 25 years teaching people this, and I see it all the time. I see their world expand and grow when they get rid of the weight that they didn't even know was there. And my guess is you probably build a different shop a year from now. You don't have any payments. Let me tell you this for sure. If you build anything with debt or you build it with cash,

you will build different. That's right. A hundred percent. Cause that cash is like real money. And that debt is like, it's somebody else's money. It's like monopoly money. You do not emotionally pay attention with borrowed money. Like you do when it's your freaking's money it's like monopoly money you do not emotionally pay attention with borrowed money like you do when it's your freaking money that's right even like even if you guys just buying a car out there just for your house right it's not a business decision

we're gonna go buy a car and uh when you when you when you pay cash you're like we're studying this puppy i'm looking i'm gonna read over the article on it and uh you know i don't know the green ones don't have good resale you know and This one's got it for $48 cheaper. I'm going to go to that car. Yeah. And when you're like, you know, you're borrowing money to do it, you're like, yeah, I'll just sign right here. I'm out of here.

I've got to go to Chick-fil-A. I'm out of here, you know. Connie's with us. Connie is in Phoenix. Hi, Connie. How are you? Doing great today, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Appreciate it. Sure. What's up? I was in a vehicle accident on January 2nd. Hit and run. Vehicle was totaled. I find myself without

a vehicle. Yeah, nothing. Time won't heal. Wow. I'm sorry. Some stitches in the eyes. Whoa. That's a real wreck. Some neck pain, but nothing that time won't heal i'll be fine wow i'm sorry that's scary as crap but uh yeah a little bit but now i have to buy a new vehicle obviously insurance isn't going to give me near what the vehicle is worth no they are i just the vehicle is worth exactly what they're going to give you that's what the policy says uh we can maybe my idea what the vehicle's worth no your idea vehicle worth i'm gonna talk about that the market value of the vehicle they are legally bound to give you the money for it

right and which means you can go buy another vehicle exactly like you had for that amount of money and i guess that's where the question is, and I need help not to do something emotionally wrong. You want to upgrade from the wreck. Well, I just don't know if we need a truck anymore, and yes, my son just bought a new Cadillac CTS, and then I'm looking at the version of the CTS-V, not a new one, a used one, but I don't know if that's too much money to spend on a car,

even if I have the money. Do you have the money? I would be close. Depending on what they give me, the settlement on the truck's not done yet rule number one is if you don't have the money if you don't have the money end of discussion you don't buy it it's a stupid car so you either got the money or you don't buy the car number one number two is is it too much car a good rule of thumb is cars and things with wheels and motors of any kind go down in value always. And so things with wheels and motors that you have in your possession, in your name,

should not total up more than half your annual income. Otherwise, you have too much invested in things that go down in value. So what's the Cadillac cost? 67. Okay. What do you make? household income uh add another 22 so 157 157 what's mama's car worth uh well mama doesn't have a car there's a 7 1970 Camaro sitting in the garage three quarters of the way restored.

Your wife doesn't drive a car? No. We got by with the truck. The truck was our only running vehicle. I have a company car that we can use. Okay, so the Camaro is worth what? In its present state, probably $15,000. Okay.

So you can afford the $67,000 if you got the cash. But if you don't have the cash, you can't do it. No upgrades due to Rex that put you into debt. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. And don't say things like, it's going to make me make an emotional decision. You're going to choose that. That's a choice.

Don't make that choice. Yeah, you've already said it out loud, so it's no longer emotional. Now it's intellectual. That's right. Dave Byrne. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Dr. John Deloney.

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