The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Stay on Track During the Baby Steps? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

Rachel Cruze & Dr. John Delony discuss: Financially preparing to blend families, Staying on track during the baby steps, How to roll over a 401(k), How to move on financially after a divorce. �� 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

I'm out. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where we're here to have a conversation about your life and your money. I am Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, on this hour with Dr. John Deloney. And it's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. Your intro is so gentle for a Ramsey show. Is it? Yes. Does it feel like calm and soothing?

Well, Dave's like, live from America. From America's headquarters. Rachel's like, hey, everybody. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey. Light that Virginia Slim. Grab a wine cooler. A piece of fruit. Renzi Solutions.

We'll talk about your life. Have a seat. And your money. We're going to talk about some things. Pull up a chair. It's good. It's just gentle. Pull up a chair.

Open your mind and your heart. My cortisol is running low to quite low. All right. David. David is up next. There's a little spike in the drink. We showed you, David. Let's do this.

David from Denver. Hey, welcome to the show, David. Hi, guys. You know what? Through the spirit of actually gentleness, I kind of appreciate that. Oh, David, I'm so glad that you are the call we picked up for this. Did you hear that, John? He appreciates it.

I told you, I love it. He appreciates it. We talk a lot about a lot of stressful stuff on the show, John. A little gentleness doesn't hurt anyone. I love it. All right, David, how can we help? So I was in a relationship, I was in a marriage for 10 years and then my wife left and it's kind of crazy in my in my grief I rushed into another relationship um my new girlfriend is pregnant um and we're trying to figure out the best way to merge families now um I was on my way to getting out of debt. I was paying off and I was doing a lot of things now, but now with the

choice of joining the families and everything that's going on, I just want to know what's best to prepare because she lives in New York and I actually live here in Denver, Colorado. How's that?

Okay. What do y'all think? Are y'all going to get married, or are you like, no, not that, but we're going to have the kid? Yeah, I do. No, I do want to, like... Okay, hold on real quick, David. David, you're using a lot of cryptic language

and kind of bouncing around. Like, everybody's grown up here. Just, like, shoot it straight. Like, you live in this town, you live using a lot of cryptic language and kind of bouncing around. Everybody's grown up here. Just shoot it straight. You live in this town. You live in this town. Your girlfriend's pregnant, and now y'all are thinking about what? What comes next?

Yeah, we're going to merge our family. What does that mean? What does that mean? You merge companies. What are you doing with your families? Y'all getting married? Yeah, we want to get married and be a family, just one family. Okay.

So is she coming to Denver? Are you going to go to New York? I really want her to come to Denver. My daughter, I have a daughter daughter too so she's here and um but she has her her doubts um she lives uh she she wants me to come in new york the cost of living is lower in new york um but i find that um even though the cost of living is higher here in Colorado, they pay more, you know, to compensate for the inflation. So I'm the only one working. She does not work. She does have savings saved up, and I'm actually in debt trying to get out.

Everything okay back there? David? David? Okay. everything okay back there david david okay uh are you there yeah i'm here i apologize about that yeah i'm here you're good you're good no worries no worries okay so what's so what what do you need help for us you're calling the ramsay show what do you are you are you what do you need? So I just want to best, I want maybe some insight on how to best prepare for joining a family. Brother, y'all aren't even close to that. You're not even near that right now.

Y'all haven't even agreed to be in the same community together in the same state together on the same hemat side of the country together okay how do you combine families that I mean at least we got to get the same zip code and so if I'm you I'm getting on a plane and I'm going to go fly

down and sit in a room and have a very grown up adult conversation with somebody that I just created a life with. And we're going to talk about what's next. We're not going to talk about savings accounts yet. We're not going to talk about what's next. Who's going to change their life? Everybody's life's different now.

Everybody's life's different. Is she going to move to Colorado with you? I don't care about the cost of living and how much inflation. Is she going to move with you so that you can be by your daughter? Because your daughter's not going to leave Colorado. Or are you going to pack up and leave your current daughter to go be with your new child? Right? So you see what I'm saying?

Like we have to have some very basic nuts and bolts grown-up conversations. And then we're going to get into – I've heard nothing that she's even remotely ready to marry you or merge families with you. Well, she is. She is. And I'm sorry I left that out. Okay. Yeah, mainly she is, and the plan is to live here. I just have some doubts because the cost of living is cheaper over there.

But I believe, you know, in terms of resources that God will provide or whatever. But ultimately the plan is to move her down here. Does she have other kids, David? Is she going to be leaving kids there, or will she? She will not be leaving kids. They're going to come with her? Their kids are not involved. Okay, and how many kids does she have?

I'm just curious. She has, currently she has three, and then we're going to have a four. A four, okay. So then it'll be five of us total. Yes, and so since you have a daughter there, I could care less what inflation is. I'm going to live in the same, as close to my daughter as I possibly can.

I have a six-year-old. There is no amount of inflation that's going to take me away from my daughter. Okay. So let's consider that problem solved geographically. Okay. And now it's about you figuring out what kind of money is it going to take for you to earn

to take care of this family. When it comes to the relationship side, you and your girlfriend, who's soon to be your new wife, are going to have to create something entirely new. You're not blending this family with this one. Y'all are making something totally new. There's going to be pieces of those other families that go with you.

Those three kids' dads still has a vote in their life, more than likely. Your ex-wife or the mother of your other child has a voice into your life. So there's going to be other people speaking into your new world, but y'all are creating something totally new. And so look at it as an opportunity to completely clear the deck and build something beautiful and new. Okay?

The more you try to, well, this is the, and bring baggage from it, the more you're going to, you're going to, I'm trying to think of the right way to say this. No, you, well, you've said it before to me

in kind of a different way of like, after 9-11 when the towers, they didn't take the same metal and tried to rebuild the same towers. That's right. They got rid of everything and bought something and built something new. So you're building a whole new, and that has to be your mindset, which I think is great points. We're doing something totally new. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Thanks for the call, David. Good luck with everything. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey guys, George Camel here, and I'm so excited to tell you about the newest product from Ramsey. It's called Gazelleelle and it's a digital banking experience that will help you spend and save the Ramsey way with banking services provided by Pathword NA. You'll get a single spending account with no monthly fees and it's FDIC insured through Pathword NA. We're offering early access to our beta customers so you can help us make it the best experience it can be. Just go to ramseysolutions.com slash gazelle to sign up for the waitlist today. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show.

I am Rachel Cruz hosting today with Dr. John Deloney. All right, up next is Rachel from Kansas City. Hey, Rachel, love your name. Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel and Dr. John. How are you guys? We're doing great. Sure would have been better if you were named John, but go ahead.

Just kidding. Go ahead. That was my parents' second choice. That's right. Awesome. How can we help? Well, I was hoping you guys could help me learn some tools to stay motivated and on track when completing the baby step. I'm in baby step number two.

I haven't gotten very far. I've only paid off a couple of small debts. I have my $1,000 emergency fund. But it seems like every time I save up a little bit of money to pay or to start paying off another debt, I somehow convince myself that I need something. So I go out, I spend my money and then I come home and I'm completely ashamed of myself, scold myself a little bit. And then I move on and say, I'll do better next time. And then next time comes, I just do it all over again. Um, and my, I have three little girls at home. My oldest is about to turn 15 this month and

it got me thinking like, oh my gosh, she's going to be driving a new year. I really need to get my crap together because I need to set a better example for them. And just hoping that you guys can help me get on track and stay on track. So I was doing a practicum for my, one of the cool things about going back to school when I was, as an old guy is I had to do a practicum again. I had to be an intern again. And I was doing my internship with this guy named Dr. Michael Gomez, a brilliant child psychologist. And we were working with traumatized kids. And he was about 10, maybe 15 years younger than me. He's just so fond. And we were walking out of a room one day when

we were working with a little child who was saying some really abhorrent things, like some really rough things about women. And I happened to have a little boy at the time. And I would ask questions that were cloaked psychology questions. Really, I was just asking like this brilliant person, how can I be a better dad, right? And so we were walking from one room to another. And I said, well, what do you tell a little boy so that he'll respect women when he grows up and he he was on to me really fast and dr gomez said this and it has stuck with me forever he said i don't know you can tell him whatever you want to but if you want him to respect women just know he's watching everything you do so if you want him to respect women um treat your wife right and then he just walked into the next room and i was was like, oh, no.

And then he popped back out a minute later. And he's like, and make sure you take care of the waitress. And tip, I mean, he just started rattling all these things off. And so here's what I'm telling you. Quote, unquote, getting your crap together. Or I need to start setting a good example. You've got 15 years that your daughter has absorbed you. All of it.

How you respond to challenges, what you do when you get frustrated. It sounds like you spend when you're feeling less than or when you're feeling frustrated or whatever. Yeah. What we need to do now is have a direct, hard conversation with your 15-year-old that says, I've modeled X. And from this point forward, I'm going to start doing different. I just had one of these with my son. I'm just kind of a chaotic hurricane of a mess

when it comes to just throwing stuff around, and I sat down with him and said, I've modeled for you what poor organizational skills look like, and I'm making a change, and you're going to be uncomfortable during this change because it's going to disrupt the way we do life, but I've let you down as your dad. We just had this conversation a few weeks ago. And then you've got to make some really tactical

shifts in how you respond and do your life. Okay. Is that fair? That is fair. I was going through my, playing through it and thinking like, what is he going to say? What are they going to say to me? And that did not pop up. I am glad that you surprised me. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think there's something to Rachel about having that, which I love that John said that

because she's 15. She, I mean, she's 15, so she's 15, but she's also 15. Like she, she has her head on her. Yeah. She knows what's going on. And there's a level of humility too, as a parent to sit down and just kind of say out loud, like, man, I hate that I did that. And I hate that this is, you know, X, Y and Z, that I know that this is this is my knee jerk behavior. And this is what you've seen in your life.

And I want to do better. Having a parent with that level of humility, there's something that could even change in y'all's relationship, Rachel, with you and your daughter. Like there's just something beautiful that can happen because you kind of open that door to be like, I'm human too. I'm human too. And I mess up. And presenting that to her is amazing. And then what John said in another call a few segments ago, and then actually doing the action, changing your environment, putting yourself in other situations where you're not taking the money, you know, tactically and going and shopping with it, it versus paying off the debt. All of that can get fixed,

but that foundation will just shift in your head of knowing that more is caught than taught. She is going to be watching you. All of your kids are going to be watching you, and you can say whatever you want, but those actions, it's huge. That's it. Why do you spend?

I really feel like my emotions drive my spending. So, like, when I'm happy, I guess I want to continue the good time, right, and be happier. And then when I'm upset or mad or stressed out, I feel like shopping might make me happy. Going to spend money, I think, is very emotionally driven. So what are some things you could do today that would put some hurdles between you, your emotional self, and your acting self? In counseling, we call it the gap between stimulus and response.

I feel this need to keep this thing going, but I know that I got to get up at 6 a.m. and go to work tomorrow. I'm going to have to pay this thing going, but I know that I got to get up at 6 a.m. and go to work tomorrow. I'm going to have to pay this credit card bill in 28 days. What are some things you could do right now? And you're going to help millions of people by just rattling off one or two that you could put in between you,

your feeling, and that action. Maybe I could, I set a rule for myself saying if I feel like No rules. No rules. Too easy. Cancel Amazon Prime today for 30 days.

Okay. Take your debit card out of your wallet. Okay. Take it out. Oh, those are good. Just don't carry it with you. Unless you're going

to a grocery store and then you're coming home. Make it to where I will have to go ask somebody to borrow money in a bar to keep this thing going. Or I'm going to have to reach across the pedal tavern and ask whoever if I can borrow some money. Whatever it is you're doing, put some obstacles in front of you. And then bring your daughters along with you. Create a budget and every week sit down with your daughters. Is dad around?

I'm remarried, so there's a dad that lives in the home. Okay. So make it a family affair. We're all in on this, and you're going to have 15-year-olds that can't wait to point out mom's flaws. And so she's going to be like, do we have enough? Is this in the budget? Is this in the budget? Is this in the budget? So you're going to bring everybody along,

but what you're doing is you're creating a hurdle of accountability. You're going to have a lot of eyes. You're going to invite a lot of eyes to be watching your actions. Take some steps. I've got to reach out and call. I've done this.

I gave my wife my debit card for a season because I was out of control. And I had to call my wife as though she was my mommy because I had to learn to do things differently. Right? And the long-term play was much more important than my little precious ego and my little

precious feelings and emotions in those moments. Is that fair? Okay. That's fair. I'm glad you guys brought the humility piece into it. I think that's a huge problem for me as well. I feel like I always, I just want my kids to think that, you know, they have everything that they need.

Mommy will get them whatever they want. Yeah. And I guess having that conversation with them and being like, well, that's just not the way it works. Yeah. And Rachel, one of the best definitions of humility I've heard is that humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it's thinking of yourself less. So you've been thinking less of yourself when you've messed up and you're beating yourself up. So humility is not, I'm this terrible. I screwed up. I mean,

there's a level of just accountability of, yeah, here is what really has happened factually in my life and the choices I've made. And I have to deal with those. But true humility is thinking less of yourself. And that's what you're doing. you're wanting to get out of debt you're wanting to create a better life for your girls you told us that on the call and so demonstrating that humility that your life it is less about me and it is more about serving my family and this is what this that's going to be the motivation that i'm taking as i'm making these new changes so hang in the line rachel uh we are going to give you financial peace university and we're going to give you every dollar app for a year we are going to give you Financial Peace University. And we're going to give you every dollar app for a year. We're going to give you the whole shebang for you to start with your kids.

And you're going to work. You're going to let them watch the videos with you. Y'all got to go through this thing together. And you are going to teach them what humility looks like. And that's going to be a gift that's going to be a legacy changer. It's great. Great call, Rachel. Thanks for the question. is the ramsey show Thank you. so let me ask you a question when you think of a millionaire what kind of job do you picture is it like this high-powered executive position like a a VP or a CEO? Well, here's the thing. Only 15% of millionaires actually have jobs like that. The reality is the top five careers for millionaires in America are engineer, accountant, teacher, manager, and attorney. That's just one of the surprising things that my team found out when we conducted the largest study of millionaires

ever done. And they talked to tens of thousands of millionaires to find out who they are and how they achieve that goal. And our study made it clear that to become a millionaire, you've got to invest wisely. And a big part of that is actually getting good investing advice. So you want to work with an investing pro who you can trust and who will walk with you to teach you the options that are right for you. And my team recommends trustworthy, vetted investing pros from all over the country. We call them SmartVestor pros. So to get in touch with a SmartVestor pro in your area, go to RamseySolutions.com slash SmartVestorpro and start building wealth today. That's ramseysolutions.com slash smartvestor. All right, up next we have Garrett in Green Bay.

Hey, Garrett, welcome to the show. Hey. Hey, Garrett, how can I help? I just wanted to say, John, I really loved your book. Read through it in like two days. Thank you. Thank you. But my question today is I had a 401k at my last employer and I got let go.

And that ended up just becoming a rollover IRA. So I'm trying to figure out if I should move it into like a Roth or if I should pull that money out to pay off my debts. It's about $3,000. Okay. Yeah, I would not pull it out because you'll be hit with a lot of penalties

and taxes there. Yeah, I would just roll it over to a traditional IRA and sit down with a, we just talked about SmartVestor Pros right before this call, or an investing professional that you trust, and sit down and do that. But that's, yeah, I would roll it over to a traditional IRA. Okay.

The only reason I was asking is because I could be debt-free then by next month. Yeah. How much debt do you have? Well, we, I had, we had about $60,000, and we're down to like the last $5,000. Oh, awesome. Congratulations. Don't do it. No, it's not worth it.

I know it's so tempting. I know it's so tempting. Just don't. All right. Because then our estimated date is January then. Or for the next 60 days days go berserker style. Go get Uber at night and when you get off

of Ubering go work the late shift at McDonald's for 15-20 bucks an hour. Go berserker for 60 days and get this done. Oh my wife would not like that. You know what she would really like though is you to stop being ding dong be debt free. Yes. See. Told you. John Byr burned that's what he's saying my house my kids will go oh dad burned mom burned gotcha so go just say for 60

days honey i'm tired of this i'm gonna get it done we're so close to the end we're just gonna sprint to the end and look at your house find five things to sell on facebook marketplace bring in an extra couple hundred. Just be done, man. Just be done. You got it, Garrett. I feel it. I feel it. You in? I'll put him on hold. Sorry, Garrett.

We're going to have a moment there, but way to go, Rachel. Alright, up next we have Dawn in Chicago. Hey, Dawn. Welcome to the show. Hi, Dr. Dawn and Rachel. Thank you so much for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help? Okay. Yeah. First, I want to thank you both. I wouldn't be in the financial situation I am now without your program. So thank you for all you do. Oh, thank you, Dawn. Well, you did it. You did the work. So congratulations. Thank you. Okay. Well, unfortunately, I am going through a divorce and my divorce will be final

later this month. And my house or our house is actually selling later this month as well. So it's a crazy time right now. So what I'm trying to figure out is my next step. I work remotely, so I can basically go anywhere. So I'm trying to make a wise decision on what my next step will be as far as my living situation. So I have like four different options that I've kind of been looking into, and I'll give you just a brief description of my financial situation as well. I make around $105,000 a year. And after we split everything in half, I'll have about $216,000, well, about $315,000 in cash. And I'll have about $250,000 between like a 401k and a Roth and no debt. So that's a little bit of an idea of my financial situation.

And 48. Oh, geez. Can I just say I'm sorry? I of my financial situation. I'm 48. Oh, geez. Can I just say I'm sorry? I hate this for you. What a mess. Yeah. What a mess. Yeah.

Do you have kids, Dawn? Thank you so much. I have one, actually. This is my second divorce, unfortunately, but she's from my previous marriage, and she's in college. Okay. So just one, and she's in college. Okay.

So that's the financial situation. What's your living options and stuff that you were... Okay. So I have some different options. So first of all, I was looking into rent. And as we know, rent's very expensive right now. So my family has been very gracious. My sister and my parents both have offered for me to live there even temporarily, even

if it's for a month or two, just to kind of get on my feet and think clearly and figure out where I want to go. Another option I have is I have the potential to be a sorority house director at the university where my daughter attends. And in that position, it's a paid position. And from what I understand, it pays about $2,000 a month. And I would be able to continue my remote position from there. And I get free lodging, free utilities, the food, they have a chef, so food is covered as well. And I've kind of felt like there've been different things that have happened that made me feel like God is pointing me in that direction. But after being in a very controlled marriage, I'm not sure if that's

the wisest move. So Dawn, let me hop in here because we're going to run up against the clock here. First, don't buy a house. Give yourself a minimum of six months, preferably a year. Okay? Okay. You are 48. You're clearly brilliant and good at what you do.

You're making great money. And another grenade went off. Right? And you're out of your home. You're out of your partnership. You're out of your marriage. You're out of all this stuff. Let some of that smoke clear, okay?

The second thing is I actually did what you just said. My wife and I and a two-year-old moved into a residence hall with 170 college men and women. And it was bananas and it was chaos and we paid off six figures of debt doing it. And so what I tell you is it was, ended up changing our lives in so many ways because we ended up living smaller where our houses were getting increasingly bigger and then this showed us we could live much smaller just changed a lot about our marriage for the better okay so if you can handle it and hang man go live a wild adventure okay can i jump in go for it because here's the thing though don you have no debt you have you have three hundred thousand

dollars in cash and what i'm saying is it's a place, there's no lease, it's a place just to sit. Unless you want to deal with the story. Now, if you're sacrificing to get out of a financial hole, and there's a reason, that makes total sense to me. But she said she feels like she's getting called to this, which I always want to check that. Do you feel like this is an adventure?

But in my head, I'm like, listen, or you just go find a great one-bedroom and it's quiet. I don't know. I don't know. Well, see, that's my dilemma. I mean, I feel like... What do you want to do, Dawn?

Neither one is right or wrong. I'd be near my daughter. Hold on, hold on. Yeah, I'd be near my daughter. Here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to go run to the nearest person and I don't want your daughter to be responsible for your healing. No. Oh, I totally agree with that.

And so I would steer less from having a purpose and more towards healing and figuring out what comes next. If this is an adventure for you, and it's just like you're the kind of person that's going to go live in a sorority, my wife and I were the kind of people that would go live in a residence hall. That's just who we are. We're just a little bit crazy. And so if you're a person who is going to go live an adventure,

go get it. If you were doing this, you could be by your daughter and that's starting to make me feel uncomfortable a little bit. I'd rather see you pay an overpriced one bedroom apartment for six months because you've got the money to do it and then heal and then figure out what comes next. That's great.

Thanks for the call, Don. Good luck. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day is 1 Timothy 6, 6-7. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out. John Pudden. That's pretty good. I like you being in awe as you're reading it.

It was good. No way. That's a great way of saying it, though. Things turn out best for the people who make the best of how things turn out. Coach Wooden. You should have said that. He's the best. Is he a coach?

I don't even know who he is. The greatest coach of all time. Is he? Sorry, John. Yes. All right, hey, you know those moments when you're sitting right next to somebody, but you feel a thousand miles apart? I'm not talking to you, Rachel, but it does feel that way.

Some of you are feeling that way right now. Listen, we've got to put our phones down. We've substituted deep and meaningful conversations for binge-watching Netflix together and scrolling social media. substituted deep and meaningful conversations for binge watching Netflix together and scrolling social media. You deserve better relationships and that means having better conversations and we have to acknowledge we don't have the skills anymore to do that. That's why I created questions for humans. They're conversation starters that will help you disconnect from your screens and actually connect and have fun with the people you care about. We launched the first edition of these cards a few months back, and the first run sold

out, the second run sold out, the third run sold out, and they've been flying off the shelves ever since, and people have been asking for more topics, so we took the hint, and now we have new conversation cards. We've added Girls' Night, Guys' Night, Dating, Parents and Teens. You should have seen the people in the room working on the Girls Night cards. Those are right. That's so funny. Workplace additions to the lineup.

And all of them will get you spending time laughing together, learning things unexpected. People have said they're crying together, building deeper and stronger relationships. So pick up one, two, or all of the new questions for humans, conversation starters, and start having fun. And you can find them at ramsaysolutions.com. So Courtney, Dexter House, and I, we were doing something, and a few of them were there for the girls' night. So one of the questions was, how long could you survive in the wild? Like, if you were just out there, how long could you survive?

So Courtney was like, oh, I can't remember what she said. Seven hours. And I was like, no. I was like, I can go four days. So I was on the air with Dave, and we were talking about questions for humans. So I told him that story, and I was like, how long do you think you'd survive, Dave? He's like, until I died. And I was like, oh, my gosh.

He's like, I wouldn't stop living. I would just keep living. I was like, yeah, but if you could have a buzzer and tap out. He's like, well, I wouldn't. I would just keep living. I was like, you're no fun. So don't play with Dave Ramsey. But listen, I've traveled with you all over

the country. I could survive. No chance you could make four days. Yes, I could. In the wilderness? Yes! Listen, I was in rural Missouri this week and I have bug bites in places I didn't know you could get bug bites. You could not last four days. I couldn't last in the snow.

So don't put me like in Alaska. Okay, at the right temperature. Put me at the beach. At the right temperature, near a mall, you could do four days. Near a mall? Am I 16 years old? 15 years old?

Put me near an Amazon fulfillment center and then we can talk. And let me have four bars on my cell phone. Let me have... And a mini fridge. Then I'm good. And let me have four bars on my cell phone. Let me have... And a mini fridge. Then I'm good. And a Samadhi. I really think...

I really... I could do four days. We can figure it out. How long would you survive? You... Yeah. I'd probably just figure it out. You're like,

then I'm just going to survive all day. I'm just going to do what I do. I could last 36 hours and I'd get sad. I'd just keep living out there. I'd complain a lot. It'd be fine. Yeah, I think I could last 36 hours and I'd get sad and I'd just keep living out there. I'd complain a lot. It'd be fine. Yeah, I think I could do it. I can't do rain.

There's a couple of Here's the deal. I'm officially calling that bluff. We'll talk offline about a dollar amount. I don't want to. I know, but now you've

put it in the universe. I want to see it. This is like what? Yeah. And then my other question for you was when's like the questions for conspiracy

theory humans? Oh, we've got a few coming i think y'all should do like a really crazy box of questions oh we've got friendship enders if you're with a group of people that you're like you know it's like asking about trump and in covid it's it's like ways to make sure that nobody ever invites you back. Hey, listen, we've got you. I would love it. I think that's fun. It would be so great. I can take people on all, whoever you are. We're going to have a conspiracy theory deck. We're going to have one that's just only about really hot topic religious issues.

Yeah, it's going to be fantastic. I think you should. I'd buy it. I think it's great. Okay. All right. To the phones. Diana from San Francisco.

Hey, Diana. Welcome to the show. Hey. Thank you. Thank you for having me, Rachel. Absolutely. How can we help? I haven't really, I don't have much savings, and I'm 65.

Okay. I do have a pension coming to me in about a month, but I need to know should I put it in my employer-based 401K, start an IRA, or a Roth. It's $208,000. It will be the money that I will actually put down on a house and retire on. I plan on working five more years. Okay. And you said that this is going to be money you're going to put down for a house.

Are you looking to move? What's your current living situation? I probably won't stay in California. The house I'm in is a local California house. It runs about $600,000. So I think that's a little bit expensive for a home. I'll probably move to Arizona and try to buy something closer to $300,000. I do support a disabled child. I have a $500,000 life insurance and trust for her should I pass on.

I don't essentially have any bills, but rent, utilities, and food. I've been putting 600 a month into my employer-based 401k, which is matched. And then... What's in that account right now? Diana? What's in your 401? Well, because I just got this. I lost two jobs during the COVID crisis and I've only been at this employer for about eight months now. There's 5,000 in it. Okay. And Diane,

do you have any debt? No. No. No debt in any savings or just this pension that's coming to you? Do you have anything to your name besides that 401k, the $5,000? No. Okay. Okay, so Diana, what I honestly would suggest you do is sit down with an investment professional because whenever it comes to this kind of stuff, I just want to make sure that you have what you need to save in the next five years because you said you're going to be working for five more years. And with this pension, though, and being able to, because you're getting it going to be working for five more years um and with this

pension though and being able to because you're getting it in a lump sum is that correct right okay that's correct yeah which is great because then you can use that for your advantage but to look to see okay what is the best way to to save for your age on taxes to get the um even the most growth because yes you're 65 but you still could you still could have 30 more years to live. So some people would want to put you in something that is less aggressive. But, I mean, looking – and, again, a smart investor or an investment professional that you trust can sit down and really map all of this out because looking to see what's the best, again,

for your age and how much to live off it after five years to support you and your child, ideally living off that growth of what's coming. And they'll be able to map out all of that for you to really sit down and look at the details of it. But yeah, my knee jerk is just to make sure that you're putting it in something that you're gonna be able to live off of that growth

once you fully retire completely in five years and making sure that you do have a good down payment because I don't want you going into retirement with a huge mortgage either. So I want you to be able to weigh all of those options and to look to see, okay, what's the best place for this money? I also, Diana, Austin, are we able to do like a session with a financial coach go ahead and put her in one um yes so diana we're gonna really no i'm gonna put you in one i want you to hang on the line and we're gonna give you a free uh with one of our financial coaches

um here's the thing you let you laid out a few things that i don't see just eyeballing it, the numbers are going to work out. Okay. Being able to go buy a house that's a $300,000 house and you're going to pull... Well, I don't necessarily have to buy it, but I'd like to put a large portion down on it. Right. But if you've got $208,000 to your name

and you're going to put down a big chunk of money towards a house, the math is going to be tough for you is what I'm saying. So I want you to put down a big chunk of money towards a house, the math is going to be tough for you is what I'm saying. So I want you to sit down with one of our coaches and work through your spending plan over the next five months. And your income plan for the next five months. Yeah, but Diane, I appreciate your call. And hang on the line here.

And all your intentionality. Yep. And what you're doing. So thank you so, so much. All right. Great hour, John. Great, great hosting with you. And thanks to Kelly, James, Ben, Zach, Andrew, and Austin. This is The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show,

visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescream.