The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Start Paying Off My Debt? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 26, 2023

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality and career and jobs expert, number one best-selling author, host of The Ken Coleman Show, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. So, Ken, my PR team just sent me this.

You're going to love this one. Okay. Car HP, written by a guy named nathan dyer um expensive cars from finance personality dave ramsey's car collection oh so you're gonna love the cars i own that i don't own um uh not a single one of them on here not a single one of them on here i own never seen those before. Never seen these cars. This guy just makes up lies.

This is literally made up. I've seen your cars. Yeah. This is so funny. I would like for you to have a few of those. Oh, a yellow Corvette here. Okay. There's a 1934 DeSoto.

That's my favorite. I would take that. I'd love to see you and Miss Sharon roll around in the DeSoto coupe. Yeah. Here's a Mustang. Oh, that's cool. A 1966 convertible Mustang. I would take that. I'd love to see you and Miss Sharon roll around in the DeSoto coupe. That would be fun, yeah. Yeah, here's a Mustang. Oh, that's cool. A 1966 convertible Mustang. I'd like that one. God, man, I wish I had that car.

Yeah. Yeah. I wish I was as cool as he thinks I am. Of course. 1948 Chrysler Town and Country convertible with the wood paneling sides. The wood panels. Don't have that car either. You and Sharon would drive that to the polo match.

1959 Jaguar XK. Now that car either. You and Sharon would drive that to the polo match. 1959 Jaguar XK. Now, that is sweet. That screams Dave Ramsey. Only he doesn't have it. You don't. No, don't have it. You know, you'd think he'd actually get one of them that I own. Right.

And you have a killer classic. I've got some nice cars, but none of them made his list. Wow. So so you know but you know abraham lincoln said everything on the internet's true he did so that tells you what's going on yes man i i i am i i am much worse than i am in person if you read on the internet and i'm much cooler on this guy's site than is that a real is that a real site that's a real site yeah yeah it's got a car hp and it's got you know famous people supposedly with their famous cars and there's my little picture and the whole thing and you don't

even look happy he didn't even pick a happy picture which if you own those cars you'd be pretty have a perpetual scowl okay so it's fairly easy to catch my scowl. That is completely made up. I can't even believe I'm looking at that. That is complete. That's so fun. Gosh, if I wasn't me, I'd want to be me. There it is. There it is.

I should have somebody write up an article of all the fake cars I own. That'd be great. I could really impress my parents. Yeah, people. I mean. And all my high school friends. Hey, look at all these fake cars I own. I'm going. I could really impress my parents. Yeah. People, I mean, and all my high school friends, Hey, look at all these fake cars I own. I'm going to get calls from insurance people now. I know you are wanting to ensure this portfolio of vehicles that I do not own. This

is so great. That's, that's really great. Dude. If you would work as hard telling the truth and working as you do it, lying, you could actually make a living. It's really true. The creativity there. Yeah. I mean, you spent all, he spent a lot of time i mean he probably knows how to actually build a website and stuff but instead spends his time being a fraud if i was going to come up with fake cars you owned i would have thrown in a souped up el camino for me because i'm a redneck that's what i mean a nod to the car that tried to be a truck and couldn't yes yeah you didn't even like try to go back to your to your roots oh man at least he didn't even like try to go back to your to your roots oh man at least he didn't accuse you of owning an electric vehicle there's not a single

ball good call at least he didn't accuse you of owning an electric at least you don't own an electric car that would have been the complete fraud if any of them were electric you're right oh my gosh great call out there good call j, James. Yeah. Open phones at 888-825-2255. Be careful what you read, folks. I just wish I was as cool as old Nathan Dyer says I am. Stephen is in Athens, Georgia. Hi, Stephen. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

How are you doing today, Dave? Great, man. How can we help? Trying to figure out this situation that me and my wife have got ourselves into on how we're going to get out of this hole that we've created. Okay. So, little back story. Recently sold a home in Southern California.

We made great money over there, about $200,000 on a whim. We just picked everything up and moved up to Athens, Georgia. In that, took quitting jobs that were well-paid and moving to where we're not paid as well anymore for the work that's up here. And bought a home immediately over FaceTime. I would never recommend that again. But yeah, moved into the the home and when you look up impulsive in the dictionary your pictures there yeah about about 42 days from visiting a friend to house being sold and being here quitting jobs that we've had for 15 plus years okay all right so california refugees in a, Georgia. All right.

Bought a home, and instantly that home needed a ton of money put into it that we were not expecting. FaceTime just didn't show that. Okay. No, sir, nor did inspections. Okay. So dug ourself into some credit card debt and obviously the home and then cars that now we no longer, I guess, can say afford that we were able to afford in California. Yeah, you couldn't afford them because you didn't pay for them. Okay. Well, you're correct. So what do you owe on your cars?

Altogether about $72,000. Okay. And break that down for me car number one uh car number one i think i owe about 50 000 on okay car number two is 22 uh number two if it's 72 then oh you have three cars okay i correct three cars uh one of them's about 20 000 and then the other one's just about paid off okay all right and uh what do you what is your household income now now that you got new jobs about 110 000 okay and how much is your new house payment uh 2100 and how much car how much debt have you run up other than the cars? About $27,000 in credit cards. Okay.

To do the repairs on the home or just because you bought stuff? Because we bought stuff and to do repairs on the home. Some of the money that we used, we tried to use most of the money that we had left over after selling a home and purchasing a home, tried to keep a good nest egg, and that didn't work out. A lot of that money, liquid cash, had to go into the home right away. So you got no money left? No money in savings, no, sir.

Okay, all right. Well, you can't afford a $50,000 car. You need to sell it. Okay. Period. Even if it was paid for. Understood. You make $110,000,

you don't need a $50,000 car when you make $110,000. Pretty simple. Okay? It's out of range. Now, unless you're going to see your income coming up dramatically in the next 12 months, you need to get rid of that car. You probably need to get rid of the $20,000 car, too, and just get you a couple of beaters to drive until you get this mess cleaned up.

So what happens is we have to cut stuff until we get the budget back in balance because you're not in Congress. Right? And so, you know, you've got a $110,000 top line, and we've got to make the bottom numbers fit inside of that with a working budget. And that's going to mean selling at least one of those cars and getting a beater, get you a $5,000 car. And that's the moves I would make.

And, you know, we'll help you with the process. Hang on. I'll put you guys into Financial Peace University. It's our class to show you how to get right side up and how to become a millionaire later. But one of the things we're going to teach is quit being so damn blame impulsive. This is The Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. George is in Sarasota, Florida. Hi, George. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hello, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? So, moved with my family to Florida two years ago. Left my business in Washington State. And it's been there in Tacoma, Washington for about five years. And in the last couple of years, trying to, um, you know, work remotely, managing the business, it was a struggle. Uh, we bought a piece of property here. We're planning to build and, uh, you know, a month ago, the business burned down basically

completely. And now I'm trying to figure out what to do next. Uh, as far as, um, maybe, you know, we saved up about $120,000 plus the land is worth about a hundred. And we are thinking either to start something new, like the business that I was doing there, which is auto wrecking on the smaller scale, or for me to just get a job, be more stable, sell the land, and buy a house, which is what my wife wants us to do. And we have three little kids, five, three, and eight months old.

I assume you had good insurance. I had no insurance. Business was struggling, and yeah. So you just lost it. It was expensive for me to pay. I lost it, yeah, pretty much. Some stuff survived. I would say like 90% was lost.

So what's the land worth? Because you owned the real estate, right? I did not own the real estate. My landlord had the insurance for the building. But the land I purchased here, we were planning to build on, is worth about $100,000. And we have $120,000 in savings. And you're renting. Yes.

Okay. savings and you're renting yes okay what would you do right now if you could just snap your fingers with the skill set you have knowing your industry that would pay you the most what would that be um there are a couple options i have um maybe gone into consulting for a company, auto company, or I honestly worked for myself my whole life, 36. And I don't know. So do you have trade skills? I do have trade skills. What are those? I used to work in a body shop as a tech, as repairing cars, and I can get back into that.

What was the actual business? You said it was auto-wrecking? Yes. What's that mean? That's recycling. A junkyard. It's like a junkyard, yes. Okay, yeah.

But I was doing more of like an indoor auto raking, which was parting cars out, selling used auto parts. Okay, so you would buy a totaled car, part it out, sell off the scrap, and sell off the parts. Correct. Indoors. And when you were in Tacoma and you all lived there and the business was flourishing, what did you make?

What was your best year profit? Taxable profit. About 150. Okay. All right. What does it take to set that up? So you lost, up there you lost tools and some inventory in the fire what's it take to what's it take to set what's it take to set the business up

and get it running not counting the land in the building um it would take uh some tools some equipment uh yeah like 50 grand 40 grand like probably around there yeah yeah okay what i would do if i were in your shoes is i would take some side gig hustles hustling grind to make a living and i would go rent an a warehouse somewhere not and i would sell your land now if you sell the land you got 220,000 bucks right correct okay and we take 50 out of that and now now i've got 170 to put down on a house okay okay and um i'm going to start the business in a rental property, not an owned piece of real estate. This time I'm going to put insurance on it.

And you know how to make $150,000 a year parking out cars on the inside. Inside of a warehouse, right? Yes. And you can turn a profit within 90 days of doing that, can't you? Yeah. Yeah. I figured you could. Because that's a quick-turn business. You have the access to the supply of the totaled vehicles,

and do you have a distribution for the parts to part them out? You know how to get them sold right quick? Because you weren't doing that on a local basis. You're doing that on a national basis. National and international, yeah. We're selling. Yeah, the parting out is a it's an internet function right yes correct yeah okay this is not like some good old boy

in sarasota wanders in and buys a transmission from you you're parting this sucker out you're sending a every little piece all over the dadgum world out of this thing and you know exactly you know that you know the cars and you're your gut without even asking that have parts that are in high demand, so you know what to buy. That's correct. Yeah, because the parts on that particular vehicle will sell. The parts on the other vehicle won't sell, so I don't screw with it, right? That's 100%.

Yeah. This is his skills. It is. The issue that I want to address real quick is the relationship issue. Your wife wants you to get what she's calling a stable job. That means a salary. And so you've got to think through that. What is her concern?

What's her big concern? Because I agree with Dave. You can absolutely do that. I would be working in some trades, and I'd ease into it a little bit based on what's happened, but I want to know what she's so worried about. She's worried about me being home and having less stress because I had to leave. Well, we decided to leave to Florida and I had to work from home. Why did you move to Florida? It was just something we wanted to do. Bull crap.

Why did you move to Florida? Okay, so there is a little bit of politics. It's closer to my wife's family and better for our kids. There you go. Okay, that's fair. That's a good answer. Yeah. All right.

Now, yes, so I'm with Ken. You know, you can do the parting out on the side at first until you get it up and running, but you can make more doing this than you can any trade job or any side hustle. Agreed? Yes. This is the way you make your family the most money, is reopen this business and run it. But don't get in the real estate business.

Be in the part business. Rent the dadgum warehouse from somebody. Let them deal with the real estate like you did before. This time carry insurance on your stuff, for God's sakes. But other than that, yeah. And so you can drop $50K there. You can set $170K aside for a house. start talking about when we're going to buy the house. Actually, the truth is that you may want to rent for two years and establish a really good income as a self-employed person to qualify for a decent mortgage out of this particular business.

But you're not, you know, you got to get that business really rocking for two years to be able to use that money to qualify for the mortgage because you're going to have two years of self-employed income to prove it out. Otherwise, you're going to be making 60 or 80 doing a trade, and that's the base of the house you're going to buy. So if I'm you guys, if I can get my wife on board, I'm going to say, let's get a rental and have a two-year plan. I'm going to work my tail end off. We're going to get this house, get this business up and running. And then I'm going to quit the side job and run the business full-time. I'm going to come home at five o'clock and I'm going to, I'm going to hire staff and people working for me. So I don't have to be gone all the time. And we run a business during a normal business hours and we grow it. And we're

going to make 250, uh, because we're going to staff up and we're going to run you know hire some marketing people some tech people as well as some people to do the actual wrench turning and let's get this thing up and going in three years from now you ought to be making serious money that's that and buy a house with 170 down or 150 down keep 20 as your emergency fund but yeah you're you know considering you had no insurance and considering you didn't have a good plan before you've got a lot of good options he really does in great financial shape minus the insurance issue yeah exactly and if you'd have the insurance you'd been another 50 ahead or whatever it is or more yeah that's that's lesson learned lesson. This is The Ramsey Show.

Thanks for joining us, America. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Hey, Nicole and Perry are with us on the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Hey, guys, how are you? Good. Doing good. Good.

Welcome, welcome. Good to have you. So where do you live? Amherst, Massachusetts. Ah, cool. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. And how much debt have you guys paid off?

$305,000. Okay. And this took how long? Three years. Exactly three years. All right. Excellent. Excellent.

So if I've got my notes right, you're coming to join us. Yes. You're coming to join the Ramsey team. Yes. Just happened. Wow. Congratulations. What are you going to be doing?

I'm a product manager on the coaching team. Ah, very good. Wow. Congratulations. What are you going to be doing? I'm a product manager on the coaching team. Oh, very good. Yeah. Excellent. Okay. All I see the team is out there. They're very excited. Good team spirit.

They're excited to have you. So what that means is we're not going to ask your income. Yeah. Okay. So $305,000, what kind of debt was this? Everything. From business debt to car debt, credit cards, family loans, house improvement loans. Yeah, everything. Everything.

So tell me, you're normal. Yeah. Very. How long y'all been married? We just hit five years. Yeah. Okay. So two years into marriage, normal sucks.

Yeah. And how'd you get connected to us and then end up working here too crazy story so i came across you like a decade ago um i think i just found a book uh but didn't really like just listen didn't really tried my best to follow it but met him and um once we met and got married we were just like living the life um and then covid hit and he had his own business and lost the business during covid so that's when we were like we lost almost everything um and that was when we're like hey maybe we should follow this and that's kind of how we got on the the plan was when we lost everything because everything was going fine.

We were normal up until then. The income disappeared. And all of a sudden, what you thought was smart turns out to be stress tested. Yes. And didn't look smart anymore. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we always were banking on the business being able to continue and to be able to pay the lifestyle. And then the business went from making about $60,000, $65,000 a month to zero because of the lockdowns.

And so all of a sudden the lifestyle caught up to us and we realized it wasn't sustainable. We couldn't do anything. We almost went bankrupt. What are you doing now, Perry? I'm a marketing and email specialist. Okay, all right. So you can just

transfer that when you guys move to nashville that ain't trouble yep okay and get back to making some bank again hopefully yeah good was that your business that no i was i actually owned a gym so i actually had a personal training studio in philadelphia oh that's a good way to get completely shut down during covid yeah so it's not the best business yeah philadelphia shut everything down well and those little covids they don't like people that work out it's true they were yeah they get those covids are mad at people that work out oh wow guys i'm sorry sorry you went through that but i'm so happy you found the light at the end of the tunnel yeah yeah and when we actually scheduled

the the step free scream she hadn't applied yet it wasn't even on the radar we kind of just put it out there to kind of get full circle and then we were looking at hosting fpu classes and so i was on the website perusing just you know looking at all different things you have and then i was like let me look at the careers just for fun and then saw a role um and i actually just wanted to do a coffee chat to learn like, what is it that you're looking for in a product manager? So then I can tailor my resume to like be what you're looking for.

Or if there's anything I'm missing, I can go out and then get that experience and then try when I'm ready. So a coffee chat ended up to interviews and then it was like, you're coming down. Let's, you know, see if we can speed it up.

And then, yeah. You stepped into the tractor beam. Yeah. And it's been a great experience. you're coming down let's you know see if we can speed it up and then yeah we uh you just stepped into the tractor beam yeah and it's been a great experience so we're really excited i love it way to go very cool well welcome aboard welcome to nashville and congratulations all right now you've been through hell and back what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is i think like constant communication we like we listened to the podcast every single day for a couple hours a day and would constantly dream of what things would be like once we pay everything off. And, um, you know, we, we, when he lost his income, we were only on my income.

And so we basically were like, we got to live, everything's got to be within my income. So then when he did get a job um all his income is what helped us pay it off within three years because we could live on one income yeah you situated got your lifestyle way down yeah and we've sacrificed a lot like it's not like we were living the life still it was we sacrificed a lot gave up a lot. And it was a tough three years, but worth it in the end. Yeah, I think intentionality was huge. You know, just being able to speak about everything and have a plan and know this is a season

that might be a long season, but it would end sooner than later if we just kept to the plan. And so I think at one time I had seven jobs that I was doing. I was doing anything that someone would pay me to do i mean almost anything anything moral and legal yes yes and and so we just stuck to the plan and we you know always communicated and even in the hard times we tried to you know

understand where we were in that journey and visualize where we were going and we finished way you know way sooner than we thought we would it sounds like period you were working a whole lot that's a big sacrifice but nicole when you were talking about a lot you extended that that vowel sound uh i'm curious what were some of the toughest sacrifices that you guys made so one of our big debts was we did van life for a little bit so we bought a sprinter van a four by four mercedes sprinter um and flipped that so we had to that was that what is what kick-started it we were like we have to sell it like and that was like a big sacrifice was like a gut punch it

was like oh look we're living this amazing life and then um to then be like it's gone and we made that sacrifice to sell it so that was a big chunk that helped us a lot um and then yeah we didn't eat out we didn't do anything there were um times i got invited to my friend's bachelorette and i was like i'm really sorry i i can't afford it and i have such amazing friends they were like come it's okay we'll we'll cover you like we want you there so like that was amazing as well but humbling yeah but we had to say no and I think we've become the annoying people that say no to everything and we're cheap and whatever but um I think at one point it sunk into when things were starting to turn around and when we were in the van you know you have cheap utensils and cheap you know things to cook and we literally never even bought a new spatula we were using

this broken plastic spatula that couldn't pick things up and we went to target one day and bought a spatula and we did it we made it our drinking glasses were when we would get spaghetti sauce we would rinse it out and that would be our drinking glasses so when people came over we're like sorry we don't have glasses. And we had people being like, come on guys, you can buy plates. Cause we only had like four and he had dropped a few

and they were like, come on. I tend to break things. I've been there. I get in trouble for that one. Perry, the sacrifice was Perry dropping plates. And people were like,

you can afford that. Like you can get plates. And we're like, yeah, we could, but then it's like, but then we could get this as well and this as well.

So we're just like, we're, we're sacrificed a lot um and even for our son we have a we have a baby boy it was you know he would go to take in we only had like three or four outfits and we're like sorry we got to do laundry like we don't have anything like we that we sacrifice a lot in that sense as well that's awesome he'll never know he will never know you know dave there's a whole lot of no's there that are going to lead them to a pretty big yes here in just a moment. And I think that's a great lesson. You guys are awesome. Congratulations. We're honored to have you on the team and honored to have you as family members here and absolutely incredible.

We've got the Baby Steps Millionaires book for you, the Total Money Makeover book, and financial peace university uh membership as well you'll have all those things when you're here anyway but you can give them away and your son's age and name uh levi and he's 14 months oh he is cute he's a baby commercial looking for a place to happen and i'll point out he's got a very clean outfit by the way freshly laundered freshly laundered outfit yes nicole perry and levi from well formerly from amherst massachusetts now from franklin tennessee 305 000 paid off in three years count it down let's hear a debt-free scream ready three two one we're dead free Wow. That's the way to start a new job.

It really is. It's quite a start. Very good stuff. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Our question of the day is sponsored by Neighborly, your hub for home services. If you're moving, you have a long list of to-dos, but Neighborly has local pros like Housemaster, Five Star Painting, Window Genie, and Junk King to check items off that list. Visit Neighborly.com and schedule a home service expert near you.

Today's question comes from Alex in Oklahoma. I recently changed jobs for a pay increase to get us through Baby Step 2. It's the same role at a new company. My previous employer said that they could not make me a counteroffer, but last week I heard from a coworker at that company that they may reach out to me to see if I would come back. They may try to match a new salary or maybe even increase it. I was wondering if this is a risky move.

I'm concerned that I might be a target if there are layoffs since I jumped ship. I enjoyed working with my old team but left for the large pay increase, almost 50%. Is this concern rational? And if so, what can I do to lessen the risk? Well, there's a whole lot of mays and maybes, and I heard this, you know, it came from a co-worker. So until the old company contacts you back, Alex, this is all speculation. Let's start there.

But if they were to contact you and you had this, I think it's a legit concern because, you know, if someone left me, if I was the owner of a company and someone left me, I would be worried that they would leave me again. And that's a reasonable worry. You left for a big pay increase. But I would just bring it up to them if this happens. There's a whole lot of maybes in this. And so if they call you back, they want you back, you can explain, hey, I left. I needed the money.

I was paying off debt. That's a very reasonable explanation. And in the interview process, just say, hey, have I created some concern for you? Do you think I'm loyal? Like I'd bring it up in the interview and look them eyeball to eyeball and allow them to address it, you know, address the elephant in the room. And if they go, there's no elephant, then you're fine. But I wouldn't worry about it unless, you know, they say that they've got concerns about you leaving them again. I'm interested to know your thoughts on that because, you know, people leave.

We're a large company. You know, any company has people move in and move out. What's your take on that? If they wouldn't match the salary before you left, the fact that they're coming back now and doing it makes me not want to work for them. So I wouldn't go back. And we have a rule at Ramsey.

Our rule is we almost never rehire because in the times that we have rehired in our world, we're not in a high turnover world. We're in a low turnover world i got a friend that's in the restaurant business he rehires all the time but they have 125 turnover a year so they rehire people they don't you know they work seven different places and they cycle back around it's uh but that's a different world this is a low turnover world i'm in and what we found over 30 years of running ramsey is that the reason that someone left the

first time will be the same reason they leave the second time and so yeah I agree I think that's you know so we don't rehire except in very rare circumstances um so 99% of the time it's no I think I have two people out of a thousand that are on their second round here at this moment if i remember right i can name one of them and i there's another one in the back of my head somewhere but um and we actually call that guy unicorn yeah he is because he's pretty rare he really is he's a fabulous team member that's right so uh but his nickname around here is that for that very reason because it's unusual for us to rehire um and uh so anyway that but also i would reverse that in your case and say for the very reason that they didn't take care of you before you left is the reason you don't want to return you know they didn't step up they you had to wait

until you're gone and then they're like well i guess i don't you're right. You're the first one back out the door. When you get back over there, you're in a tenuous setting. I wouldn't go back. I think you made your decision. You moved on. You got a 50% pay raise. I'd stay. Stay where you are.

And just say, thanks, guys. I appreciate it. That's nice. I wish we'd had this discussion before, but we didn't, and I'm not cool. If they make the offer on the spot then that's different yeah a lot of speculation in this too and i think he needs to be focused on the now where he is and let's move forward yeah and quick you make a good point you know quit jumping around on every penny that somebody throws at you that's 50 it's not a penny but if they're going to just

match what you did and you're going to go back you know no yeah i mean if they want to give you 50 of what you got now we'll have to talk about it i guess but you know but if all you're doing is it's not you'll be careful yeah because we know that following the great resignation was the great regret that's correct millions of people uh went to another job and they went oh this isn't what i thought it was going to be or what i was told there's a lot of that going on yeah yeah they told me i could you know i work for zoom Went to another job and they went, oh, this isn't what I thought it was going to be or what I was told. There's a lot of that going on. Yeah.

Yeah. They told me I could, you know, I work for Zoom and I could work from home. And then Zoom says, oh, even Zoom is coming back to work in the office. That's the great irony. That's the greatest irony in the history of the world. But, yeah. So a lot of fun. A lot of fun.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Katrina is in Boston, Mass. Hey, Katrina, what's up? Hi, Dave. Hi, Ken. Thanks for taking my call. I am a new listener to your show, and I am just kicking myself for not listening earlier. I feel like I've never really learned to adult when it comes to my finances, so I have a lot to learn.

I am a 45-year-old single mom by choice. That means I decided to have my children on my own using a sperm donor. And I say that so you know I'm totally financially responsible for my two kids. They just turned one and three. They're little babies. And I'm really feeling anxious about our financial future and I'm just a little bit paralyzed about what my next step should be. I have a chunk of money in savings and I don't know if I should pay off my mortgage. What's a chunk? I have about $250,000 in savings.

That's a good chunk. Yeah, that's a good chunk. They each have about $8,000 in savings. That's a good chunk. Yeah, that's a good chunk. They each have about $8,000 in their accounts as well. Okay. And how much do you make a year? About $145,000. Okay. And what debts other than your mortgage do you have?

None, just my mortgage. I just got a payoff quote on it because I have a feeling you're going to tell me to pay off. What's the payoff on it? It's $97, $98. It's not much, but here's my complications. I bought my house a few years ago from my father. I bought it for $150 and it's a great deal. At the time, it was probably worth $350. Now, I think it's about worth $650. But it's falling apart. And it also came with two little rental units. So the whole thing together is probably sell for around $650. And everything is kind of old and falling apart. I'm constantly putting money in to fix things, never mind trying to get ahead on some of the repairs that I know

will need to come soon. The other complication I have is that I have a very long commute to work. I'm a high school teacher, high school vice principal, and I spend between three and four hours a day commuting right now. So my kids are in, I know, my kids are in daycare. It's fine. I spend an absolute fortune to, you know, pay people to take care of my kids for me. So I know at some point in the next few years, I'm either going to have to get a new job, which I don't want to do, or buy a new home that's closer to work. I just don't know what to do with my money and how to set myself up for success in five years.

Where did the $250,000 come from? Just my savings. You're frugal. You know. Amazing. I guess. Yeah. guess yeah yeah i mean you lived on 250 000 less than you made over a period of some years that's impressive well i'm 45 it's impressive and i never you're not 85 you just i mean this is amazing you did great receive the compliment you rock katrina you do house. I would sell your house today.

Yeah, and move closer to the district. And pay cash. Oh, okay. I can't sell the house because it's a family house that we are very attached to. Who's we? Me and my parents. I'm not attached to it. It's a house.

It allowed me to have the kids that I would not have been able to have when i was renting an apartment in boston you know so it served its purpose and it's a house you sell it even with the rental unit i would sell it the chances of me commuting three hours a day is precisely zero for more than 10 days that's gonna kill you it's gonna suck the life you have you're more obligated to this house and you are spending time with your children oh i know but i know i hear you it's a stupid house oh my gosh it's too short to commute if you gave your children a gift that at first was a blessing and later became a curse because they didn't want you to feel bad, you didn't give them a gift. And you wouldn't do that to your kids, and your dad didn't do that to you.

Sell the house. It's a house. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Go to ramsaysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramsaysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.