The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Stop Using Credit Cards? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

Ken Coleman & George Kamel discuss: How to save for unexpected expenses, What to invest in as a 15-year-old, Saving for a cross country move, Getting on the same page as your spouse, Switching jobs, What to do after paying off debt, How can I stop using credit cards.   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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your financial life, your professional life, and in your relational life. I'm Ken Coleman, George Campbell. Joining me this hour. As we take your calls, America, you might just be one phone call away from that nudge you've needed to go the direction you believe you're supposed to go. Maybe you're going to get breakthrough, but I can tell you this, George and I have a blast serving you in the capacity of just that sounding board, that

advisor, that coach. And so George will help you with your money questions. I'm on deck today to help you. If you want to get a bigger shovel in the form of maybe pivoting into a different field or maybe just a promotion where you are to get out of debt faster, start that side hustle, George and I combined today to talk about those issues. So you ready to go? Yes, Ken. You look tan and happy this afternoon.

Well, I appreciate that. I just walked off the golf course. Thank goodness for the showers at the old club and zipped right in here to help America. It's been a good Friday already. So, let's go. Jason starts us off in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

Jason, how can we help? Yes, I'm currently on baby steps four, five, and six, and I want to pay off my house as quickly as possible, but at the same time I realize I need to put away money for things like five years, I need a roof, HVAC, replace some car, things like that. I'm just not quite sure how to go about it properly. Okay, so you've got some extra money that you want to throw towards the house,

but you also have some big upcoming expenses years from now. So you're going, how do I plan for this? That's a great question. Are you doing a monthly budget currently? Yes, I am. Okay. So in your monthly budget, what I want you to do is have line items for sinking funds. And so all that means is every single month, you're going to put away 50 bucks into this fund. At the end of the year, you've got 600 bucks. After three years, it's 1800. And so you funds and so this all that means is every single month you're going to put away 50 bucks into this fund at the end of the year you've got 600 bucks after three years it's 1800 and so you build that based on what you think the repair will be and when you will need to do it okay so do you have any idea i know it's hard to guess when are you know you're going to need to replace a roof but

you said you've got about a five-year time horizon? Yeah. My house was built with the cheaper type of products and the house is 17 years old. So I'd say it has five to seven years left. Okay. So if you guess the roof's going to be 10 grand, we're going to divide that by five. That's two grand a year. And now we know exactly how much to put in our monthly budget to hit that goal. Okay. But I love your thinking because what most people do is they go, well, it's an emergency, but truthfully, an emergency needs to be urgent, necessary, and unexpected. And you know, this roof is in poor condition, so we know we're going to have to replace it. So I would be about the business of paying off that house early and have those sinking fund line items in your every dollar budget so that you're ready when the time comes. Yeah, great advice. Jason, appreciate

the call. Thank you. Great question. George, you're Mr. Insurance Guy. You got an Instagram. I don't know that's a good personal brand, but I appreciate that. Well, you have an Instagram reel that's quite popular about all the types of crazy insurance, but are you aware, and I'm bringing this up, it's relevant to Jason. I know you're going, but are you aware and i'm bringing this up it's relevant to jason i know you're going where are you going with this uh but uh you if you have hail damage um that has happened to your roof uh within a certain amount of time you have you could uh your insurance could end up paying for the roof replacement even if you have other issues are you aware of this yeah you gotta read a to read the fine print. You got to have a good roofer and you got to know your policy. Exactly. And a good roofer

who knows what they're doing can be your advocate to help you get most of that paid for. So it's just something to think about. Yeah. And you'll need to have good proof. And so it's wise to do it as soon as it happens. As soon as it happens. Get a roofer over there. Well, there's like a statute of limitations. There's about a length of, but look at your policy, but it's something to look into. I feel a little scared stepping into your area. No, not at all. It's a great call out. And a lot of people aren't aware of what does my insurance cover? I haven't looked at my policy and truth be told, looking through one of those insurance policies, I mean, it is dreadful. I'd rather watch paint dry, but we just did a campaign called confidence in your coverage.

It's completely free and you can get it at ramsaysolutions.com slash confidence. And I walk you through over five days, five real short, fun videos, everything you need to know about insurance, and make sure you get a checkup because a lot of people are, number one, underinsured, and number two, overpaying. Oh, yeah. So it's a great way to get a raise. ramsaysolutions.com slash confidence. There it is, ramsaysolutions.com slash confidence. There it is. RamseySolutions.com slash confidence.

It really is fun. George and the team did a great job with that. And it's actually really helpful. I try really hard, as you know. You do well. James is up next in Chicago, Illinois. James, how can we help? Thank you so much for having me on. I just wanted to ask, I'm a junior in high school and I'm going into my junior year and I've saved up a bit of money from various jobs I've worked and gifts I've received. And I want to be a good steward of it and want to invest some of it. And if you were me and had a thousand dollars to invest somewhere, where would you suggest doing it? James, first of all, I want to say that you are like a 60-year-old man trapped inside a 15-year-old body. How are you so mature, so young?

Do you have some great parents? Thank you. Yeah, my parents have really helped me out with investing advice and learning how to manage my money. And I really have them to thank for it, and also my grandpa. That is awesome. Well, to your question, you got $1,000. Where should you invest it? Number one, I want you to invest it in James because you're 15,

you got a lot of life ahead of you, your education goals, you're going to need to save up and buy a car. There's a lot of life expenses to where I don't want you to have no liquid cash because it's all tied up in investments. But to answer your question truthfully, you could open a Roth IRA, custodial Roth IRA, and if you have earned income, and you can put that money in there and invest that in good growth stock mutual funds inside of that. Perfect. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, James, for the call. 15 years old. That's amazing. Yeah. And very mature, very professional.

Yeah. And a junior. Yeah, that was another question. I guess that's fairly normal. 15, 16, 17 years. No, George. Yeah, usually 16-ish is where you are. Because you've got a kid who's about that age. I have a 16-year-old junior, so he's a little bit ahead of the game. It feels like in every area of his life. Well, clearly James is. This guy is going to graduate next year.

That's who I was talking about. Yeah. Your son, who knows? That's a whole other story. Oh, that's fantastic. He's a good kid. Hey, every time you hear someone do their debt-free scream on this show, it's because they at some point said, enough. I'm not going to live

like this anymore. I've had it. And when you get mad like that and do what they did, your life will change too. Right now, inflation and your stupid credit cards are killing you. You've started to believe you're not in control of your money. Wrong. You are in control, but you have to decide to control what you can control, and that's you, your behavior. You've got the power to change your future, and Financial Peace University will show you how. This course will teach you the proven step-by-step plan that's helped nearly 10 million people beat debt, master budgeting, and build wealth, and you can do it too. Stop letting debt and money stress control your life. Say enough and decide to take back control. Start Financial Peace

University at ramseysolutions.com slash enough. ramseysolutions.com slash enough. I like that. I like the enough. You know what I mean? It's got a lot of emotion to it, which is how people are feeling. Yeah, and I think that's true. Hey, I will say this. Just some positive news. July jobs report came out, and we added 500,000 plus jobs. So the sky is not falling. Let's go, America.

I have to say that despite all the negative news and everybody trying to scare you to death, this is a baby recession. I don't think this is a big, bad, you know, bully recession. So everybody relax. Economy's still adding jobs despite high inflation. So it's going to be okay. Hang in there. All right. Speaking of it's going to be okay, it's going to be fantastic because coming up, more of your calls, America. He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. And this is The Ramsey show. helping you win in life in your money in your work in your in your relationships this is the ramsey show i'm kid coleman geel, my colleague and fellow Ramsey personality, joins me as we team up to help you on this fine day. So if you are feeling stuck, you got a toxic

boss or toxic team, or you feel like you're in a dead-end job and you're like, I'm in the baby steps, can I move? The answer is yes. And I can help with that today. And then of course, George is here helping answer your money calls. So let's get to it. Edwin joins us in the Big Apple, George, New York City, New York. Edwin, how can we help? Hey, what's up guys? Thanks for taking my call. You can hear me okay? Yes, sir. Cool. Cool. So my question is, I think I'm ready to move out. I'm 22. Should I build an emergency fund before moving to another state? I want to move to another state as a whole.

Do you have a job lined up there? No, I don't. Do you know where you're going to live? Yeah, I want to go to South Carolina, somewhere in South Carolina or Florida. No snow, no cold. Okay, and you're going to rent an apartment somewhere over there? Yeah, I'm looking at about like $800 a month is what I could afford. Okay, what's your take-home pay? On the minimum, $40,000 for my full-time job. If I do my part-time or get any part-time, I think I could do about $50,000. Okay, so before George gets through the money stuff,

are you planning to save up enough to then get on the ground in South Carolina and then look for a job? Is that the idea? Well, that's my question. I've never got out of my parents' house. Should I just, because I've listened to a few Ramsey videos before about moving out. Should I just get out there and get my rent and worry about the emergency fund later? Or should I lock down? I don't want you to worry at all about anything. That would be my plan, and that means having a job lined up and having money in the bank.

I'd have a place to go, and I'm talking about a professional place to go in South Carolina. I'd get a job. Gotcha. And there's no need. And here, I mean, look, could you, and George can weigh in here, and he's going to tell you how, and he's a genius on this stuff. Thank you.

But could you save up enough money and get to South Carolina and then find, yeah, but it's just not necessary. It's going to add stress to it. Yeah, there's no need for an interruption in income. This is one of the strongest job economies we've ever seen. Again, I just mentioned this, Edwin, if you didn't hear me. The July jobs report, we created another 500,000 jobs. So we still have somewhere between the latest numbers, 10.6 and 11.3 million jobs out there. So it's still a wonderful market.

And here's the deal. You can find something down there, take several trips. I'd be saving up money to make some trips down there, make some connections, decide where I'm going to work, then where I'm going to live, and then not have any interruption in income. George? Yeah. Edwin, what's driving the urgency? It feels like you're kind of done living with the parents, and it feels like there's something behind that. Yeah.

So for 22 years, I've mainly lived with my mom and grandma and my step-grandpa. He's not really in the picture. So I've lived with two ladies mainly my whole life. My grandma's getting a little old now, and my mom is kind of putting pressure on me. Like, I've got to be successful and take care of her for my mom. And then my mom also puts pressure, like, well, I've got to take care of her when I'm also successful. So it's just a lot. I feel like I'm striving compared to my parents.

So are you saying if you moved to South Carolina, you'd have obligation to take care of grandma? I'd have less obligation because my mom also lives in the house with us. So she's an adult, but at the same time. I'd want you running to something instead of away from something. And so that's where I'm trying to dig at here to make sure that we're going for the right reason and not just because, man, I don't want this pressure from mom anymore. I'm getting out. I want you to move out and be on your own. You got, what do you do for work?

Making 40, 50 grand a year. I'm a CNC machinist right now okay have you looked to see if there's jobs like that in south carolina oh there's plenty oh yeah okay so let's talk about the mom issue is she financially stable or does she have no retirement what's her financial outlook nah she's not stable um she lived with my grandma for basically all adult life. I think I make more than her right now. She works for Honeywell, which is pretty good, but I make more than her. And she just told me, like, why should I give more money to the man?

And why should I put in more than 40 hours a week? And I'm like, if you want something in life, a certain thing, you're going to have to, you know, what is it, sacrifice and put in some more hours and you know take more taxes off i don't know but i'm guessing considering she's the one who powdered your butt she doesn't want to hear it from you absolutely absolutely i talked about rough iras and you know paying off your student debt mom you're 45 and she doesn't want to hear none of it so well i gotta tell you i think edwin you moving out is a good move i don't think you need to feel this burden no matter what mom says to take care of her i think in some ways you getting out on your own and uh becoming a uh you know baby steps millionaire uh showing her what you've done

she's still really young and uh you know she can turn things around but instead of you telling her i think you've got to model this for her and i do think the move is good uh but but our advice is go find something in south carolina and so there's no interruption in income and you're off and running yeah if you got no debt and a fully funded emergency fund and a job lined up this is going to be a fun move and you're going to look forward to something instead of get there and be stressing out. Yeah. Thanks for the call. Edwin Salvador joins us next in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Salvador, how can we help? Hey, Ken and George, thank you guys for taking my call. I really appreciate it. You bet. What's happening today? So me and my wife have been doing the baby steps. We've been about two months in.

We've already paid $4,500 in credit card debt, so we're officially free from that. Great. And we have a little bit of a fun argument here. We got two pieces of debt left besides our house. We got the car debt and the student loan payment debt. How much is the car? The student loan is $4,000. What is it?

The car is $12,600. Okay. And the student loan is $4,000. And my question is, we have enough money to pay off the student loan today if we want to. We could pay that off, just go online, make a payment and we're done. And that's what she's wanting to do. But I'm wanting to put as much money towards that $12,000 payment. Uh, because we, you know, that student loans are on pause right now. Um, I don't believe we're going to get a student loan forgiveness, but just knowing that I don't have to pay that for a month right now, I'm wondering which one we should go to next. So that's what I'm calling. Well, it's a great question. And

I think your wife is right on this one. And if you're following our plan, and in our plan, we don't take into account what's happening with the White House and what are they going to do or not going to do? And is it pause? And is it 0% interest? All we look at is the smallest balance. What is the next smallest debt we can knock out today to feel the progress, to stay motivated, to become completely debt-free? And so when you look at it with that kind of tunnel vision, you go, all right, the student loan's gone today and we're off to the races with the credit card. How much do you guys have in savings? So we do have the emergency fund, $1,000 emergency fund, and we have a little over $3,000 into that in our savings. So a little over $4,000. If we wanted to pay the student loan off,

I'm actually selling a lot of stuff on eBay to make money. So it's doable to pay that student loan off immediately. Well, don't do that if it's going to pay that student loan off immediately. Well, don't do that if it's going to mean dipping into that starter emergency fund because this is not an emergency. Now, once you have that eBay money in your bank account, then we can pay that student loan off in full. Is that one loan that's $4,000? Yes, and that's all me.

So we're talking maybe a week or two from now. You've got actual $4,000 sitting in your account outside of the starter emergency fund. Clean up that student loan debt, and we can get rid of that car debt soon after that. What's your household income? Yeah, my wife's a stay-at-home mom. We have a two-year-old, and I'm making $50,000. So at the start, we were only making $40,000, and I got a kick in the butt from Dave Ramsey and all that. So I got a promotion, and now we're making $50,000, and I got a kick in the butt from Dave Ramsey and all that,

so I got a promotion, and now we're making $50,000. There we go. Well, you'll clean up that car loan in no time, man. Keep selling stuff on eBay. Get side hustles. Let's get rid of this thing in the next year and be completely debt-free and on our way to building wealth. Did you hear that? George Salvador got himself a promotion.

He took control, Ken. He got himself a promotion. Bigger paycheck. Bigger promotion. Bigger paycheck. Bigger shovel. Bigger shovel. Hey, who can I help today get a better job with a better paycheck? Come on. Let's go. Alright. Give us a call. 888-825-5225. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. The Ramsey Show continues

to take your phone calls to give you hope-filled, practical steps to win in your money, your work, and your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me this hour as we take your calls. Phoenix, Arizona is where we go next. Joe joins us there. Joe, how can we help? Hi, thanks for the call. How are you doing? We're doing fantastic. How can we help? So let me give you a very quick financial snapshot.

I make $85,000 a year. My wife makes about $10,000, but she just started her new business, so that's only growing up from there. I'm working at Company A. I like my job, but I also hate debt at the same time, and we're looking to buy a house at the moment. So I have this potential opportunity at Company B, and I really seem to like this new job as well. And it puts us in a place in a market where it's actually possible for us to eventually buy a house completely debt-free. So my question is, should I take the plunge, go for this new job, or should I just stick around in company A?

Sure. Are they in the same industry or are they completely different industries? Same industry. Same industry. And how similar is the work at this new opportunity at company B? Is it totally different or is it similar to what you do now it's similar but it's it also aligns more with what i actually want to do in my career ding ding ding that was my next question and you answered it for me joe

so that's a really good sign how much more money will you be making initially? About 15% more. 15% more. And how confident are you that you will grow beyond the 15% in the next, let's call it year, two, three years? Pretty confident because company B is a lot smaller than company A, but they are really good in what they do or in their business area. Have they offered you the job? Almost. So they want to invite me to the location for a tour and stuff at this point, and then they want to make me an offer. Well, if they make you an offer and you have found out beyond everything you just told me that it's also a

really good culture, you want to do your homework, talk to people who work there, do some homework online, what do their customers say about them? You know, you want to do your homework just to get an idea of what kind of people are they? How do they treat their people? And if it looks like a healthy organization, it feels like a no-brainer, and yet you called to say, what should I do? Do you have any concerns that we haven't heard? Well, so the thing is I've only been at Company A for about a year now, and I just feel conflicted within myself. Like I'm probably going to make my managers and my bosses mad if I leave.

You're right. I've heard this call many times before, George, on the Ken Coleman show. Don't want to upset anyone. I get it. I'm a people pleaser, Ken, so I have that feeling of, I don't want anyone mad at me. That's what it is. So it comes across in the form of guilt, right, Joe? Yeah, that's correct.

Yeah, but here's the deal. You're not doing anything unethical if you were to leave company a true or false yeah it's not unethical it's not illegal or anything oh you answered my next question i like joe he gets ahead of me and uh one step ahead i like this joe yeah joe there's nothing for you to have any guilt about do you understand so joe uh so george nailed this it always presents as guilt but what it really is is a fear of what someone's going to think about you and a fear of what someone's going to say about you when you leave. And that's normal. And the truth is you can leave in a lot of ways, and a lot of people do it poorly,

and there's a chunk of people who do it really well and respectfully, and they leave on good terms, quote-unquote. Well, and that's a very good point george but joe even if you leave well there's some people that just will be uh nasty and there's nothing you can do to control that i take it as a compliment because that means they miss me oh they're gonna miss me yeah oh i like that yeah i i think joe this is a no-brainer they've all been really good to me so that's yeah but me feel all the more conflicted. Yeah, but here's the deal. Are you going to regret if you pass this up? I could, maybe. One of the

things is that my wife and I are definitely wanting to move out of Phoenix ever since we got here. So does Company B allow you to move out of Phoenix? That's correct. Joe, you're making a heck of a case, man. It checks off all the boxes. I don't know why. Listen, you should not be conflicted anymore.

You will resent, listen, you will resent this company, and you will resent yourself if you don't do this. Okay? Okay, understood. All right, man. Listen, rip the Band-Aid off. Only after they offer you the job and you've got to sign a contract, then resign and leave well and keep your head up and keep looking forward.

Appreciate the call, Joe. Jesse's up in Columbia, Missouri. Jesse, how can we help? Hey, Ken. Hey, George. Hey, how you doing? Doing great, man. I'm just nervous.

Well, don't be nervous. I talked to Austin. I can't even believe well now austin's a big world famous he's he's a cool dude you ought to see the hat this guy's wearing today but george and i no need to be nervous talking to us i mean we're just a couple of chuckleheads i'm five six on a good day i'm not that's in his platform shoes what's up okay so so i am i'm 21 years old. Um, I make, uh,

may I make over a hundred K right now. I've been very, been very diligent. My, you know, since out of high school, I went, I wasn't going to go to school,

but it just wasn't my route. At a boy. It worked out for you at a boy. Oh, what are you doing now? All glory to God. All glory. Um,

uh, I do a foundation repair. I'm a foreman for a company here in Columbia. Heck yeah. Okay. All right. What's your question? Okay.

So my real question is, right now, I've got my emergency fund. I'm out of debt. I mean, my life's in good shape right now completely. But really, I would say the next step would be, of course, buying a house eventually. I rent at the next step would be, of course, buying a house eventually. I rent at the moment with my girlfriend. But anyhow, from there, I'm just nervous. You're doing great.

You're doing great. What's your question on what to do? Really, it's more so just that I don't want – I have so much money saving up right now. I'm kind of just wondering if there's a better way instead of just having it all sitting in my check and savings account, if there was maybe if I should start investing. I mean, I have a Roth and everything there, but more or less, if I should start investing some of that money, if I could, if it would grow better there and then pull it out later when I'm ready to. Yeah. What's your time horizon? How long, how far away is this house purchase? Maybe five years. Why five years? You make $100K with no debt.

I'm just kind of in a comfortable place right now, truthfully. You just told me your stated goal was, I want to buy a house. What? That's not my main goal, I guess. Really, I think my main goal is just to become a millionaire, but... Well, you'll get there naturally, and a home purchase can be a part of that. I'm just wondering why five years and not two or three years. Well, yeah, three to five. How much money do you have right now? So I've got about $35,000 in the bank.

And that's outside of your emergency fund? Not connected? No, that,000 in the bank. And that's outside of your emergency fund? Not connected? No, that's included in my emergency. So how much money can you save up per year adding to that account? $30,000, $40,000, $50,000? Yes. Okay. So now let's set a goal to say, hey, the house that I'm looking at, a reasonable house for a guy at 21 years old, I'm going to get a condo, a townhome, a two, three-bedroom home in Columbia, Missouri.

That's, I don't know, what are they running over there? $250,000, $300,000? I don't know the price points. Yeah, yeah. Anywhere between there. Three up. Okay. Now, you could do this with cash. And I think if you wanted to wait five years, you could do that. There's not a need to do that because you could go ahead and do this with a great strong down payment of, you know, 50 to a hundred grand in the next year or two. And then that house will appreciate and you'll have a very reasonable mortgage payment. That's no more than a quarter of your take-home pay on a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. And that puts you in a really strong financial position to pay it off early and become a millionaire, which you told me you wanted to be earlier. Yes, sir.

That's been the goal. That's what's got me here today. You're on the path, man. You keep at it, but this five-year goal, I think you can do better. You're a sharp young man. No need to shout at him, George. I'm kidding. With that, though, George, should I just keep putting my money into the checking and savings

thing? I would put it in a high-yield savings account online. You'll get about 1.5% right now, and that's just fine. Because I think it's not going to be five years, in which case I'd tell you to invest it. But this looks more like a one- or two-year deal to me, Ken. Yeah, well, boy, if you keep pushing, it probably will be. My goodness, man. Listen, I'm ready to run through a wall, Ken.

So much pressure on this young man to buy something, George. He's just crushing it. I'm proud of him. No, you're doing—that was wonderful, man. Listen, I'm ready to run through a little, Ken. So much pressure on this young man to buy something, George. He's just crushing it. I'm proud of him. No, you're doing – that was wonderful, George. Thank you. Folks, this is why we call him the George Campbell. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman.

George Campbell joins me this hour. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. We're helping you win financially. We'll help you win professionally, help you win relationally. George and I teaming up today on money and work calls. Your greatest wealth building tool is your? Income.

Thank you, George, for paying attention. That's why we're a dream team, Ken. That's right. So we're talking about work and money. So if you want to upgrade the gig, get out of a toxic, dead-end situation, I'll help you with that today. And George is here, of course, to answer your money questions. Let's go to Maggie, who joins us in Chicago, Illinois.

Maggie, how can we help? Hi, guys. Thanks so much for taking my call. You bet. I'm really glad it's you instead of Dave today because I had a credit card question. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. I've never heard a caller say that before.

This is fantastic. It's the opposite, Dave. I want to revel in this for just one moment. Okay, that's enough. Dave, are you listening? Okay. Yeah. Well, okay, so here's my question.

I know credit cards are bad. I totally get the philosophy behind it. I a hundred percent get that, but all of our main fixed bills come out the first half of the month. So when we get paid twice a month, if we pay everything the way we're supposed to, we really don't have money left for our day to day stuff, our groceries, the kids' stuff that pops up, all that, until we would get paid the second half of the month. So what ends up happening is we just kind of put everything on the credit card, do our fixed bills out of the first paycheck, and then credit card and, you know, a couple other things out of the second paycheck.

So it works, but I know that I could be saving more money if I wasn't pulling out the plastic, if I had cash for everything. I just can't come up with enough cash to make that work. Does that make sense? It does, but this is just a budgeting issue. Yeah. And you need a little buffer in the checking account, and then we need to start budgeting for those bills.

We know when they're coming in. And you can actually call a lot of these companies and set a certain date of the month when you want to pay those bills. I also wonder, Maggie, before you respond to George on that, is this also an income issue? No, I mean, we're fine. We're debt-free. We're working on paying off the house early. I just think it's kind of set up in a way. And I mean, I've always done, I do the bills, so I've always just kind of done the credit card and then just paid that off instead of, and, and I do take cash out. I should say that too. Um, like the first of the months when we get paid, that's going to be the mortgage and, um, you know, the insurance that

we put aside and, um, those kinds of things. And then I do take out like, I take out cash for groceries. I take out cash for, um, you know, some cash. But I feel like I always, there's always something that I'm putting on the credit card anyway, whether it's, you know, the kids, my kids are in sports. So it's like, oh, well, you know, we just lost my football gloves at practice. Okay, we got to run out to Dixon and get more batting gloves or, you know, football gloves. Or, you know, there's always something that I end up not having enough. So it sounds like there's things outside of the budget that catch you off guard. It is.

It's not bills. It is. Because you said there are certain bills. And see, what I do is I have, yeah, and I have a bunch of, like, thinking funds, so then I will just transfer, like, we have a kid's account. So, you know, we put the money in the kid's account, and then if I have to buy those gloves,

then I'll transfer money over. But I just feel like as well as I think we're doing with money, I feel like I still have that problem where if I didn't have the credit card as kind of a catch-all that we would be stuck in certain times of the month. Well, it sounds like this credit card has become a crutch and a safety blanket. Yeah. So I think if we cut that bad boy up and we have a little bit of buffer in our checking account and we start to get this budget dialed in, we figure out when the bills are coming in

and we use our previous income to pay for future expenses, that would solve all of these problems, right? Yeah. So how does that work? Because we kind of do the zero. My husband always wants to put a little extra in the checking account for that reason. But then I feel like if there's extra in there, then we're going to go through it when we should be at a zero base. Well, you need some check. Zero base doesn't mean you have $0 in your checking account. It means that you've assigned every dollar a job as far as your income goes. So you definitely need to have a buffer in your checking account. Maybe that's $500. Maybe it's $1,000 buffer in there. But again, that's on you of self-discipline to go, we're not going to touch it. $1,000 buffer in there. But again, that's on you of self-discipline to go, we're not going to touch it.

$1,000 is basically zero. That's our starting point. And I think that will help you alleviate some of these credit card habits to go spending. And make sure Junior doesn't lose his glove. Well, you can't do that, George. I mean, come on. Yeah.

13-year-old boy, I'm over it. Thank you. She's done with it. You guys want them for the next five years i feel your pain it's on him to pay for that yeah well there you go george like she can't control it you know he's got a much better life lose one glove shame on me lose two shame on you yeah well maggie george has no kids okay he doesn't understand the pain that you and i are dealing with i understand personal responsibility, Ken. Oh, do you?

Do you? Do you? We'll see how you understand that when your kid loses everything. Anyways, Maggie, I think this is part budgeting issue, and it's part a scheduling issue, figuring out when the bills are coming in. So if you know those bills are catching you off guard, let's schedule them and say, hey, electric company, I want to pay on the 15th instead of the 4th. And you can set all those dates. My husband, we went from a 1st and 15th

to his company switched to every other week, which has totally been throwing a wrench in the works because to try and, you know, we have our money that goes out, you know, into savings at a certain time every month. And that's become an issue because if he gets paid one day later, it's like, oh, now I got to go back and change. Well, you guys are debt free, so why not have one month full of expenses ready to go in the checking account? That way you're not stressing about if you're going to have enough. And so that can be a budgeting strategy that helps a lot of folks to be a whole month ahead so you're not wondering if you're going to have enough. But again, the better strategy is to do a rock solid budget, use your previous income from that check is going to pay the future expenses.

And I don't want the audience to miss what George said, because it's really true. It's a simple little hack. Most companies will work with you. If you just call them up and go, hey, I'm going to put this on auto pay. They love that. So you've already got them at that point. So here's my debit card. Let's auto pay. But instead of hitting me on the fourth of the month or the third, I'd like you to hit me on the 20th or the 18th if I get paid. They'll work with you on that. Stacey and I have had to do that multiple times because the way we get paid here as well, it's just kind of like, hey, and it's fine. They'll work with you. And that way you get things a little bit more uniformed and laid out that way. So that's a great hack.

And a lot of them let you do it on your own online. So look into that. If not, give them a call, email them, whatever you got to do. You strike me as a guy who has everything auto-paid. 100%. Like you get a text all the time going, Mr. Campbell, you've just paid your electric bill. Yes. Now it's twofold. I put it on auto-pay, but I don't just let it go and not know what my bills are. So I get the email. Yeah, of course. I put everything on paperless because you know me. I'm a millennial.

I don't want a paper. What do I do with this paper? You really have a bad attitude towards paper. Even the papers on the desk stresses me out. So I get the email so I know what the bill is so that I don't get it. You hear that, George? I can't stand it, Ken. That's the best of the paper.

All of America wants you to stop doing that. I don't know. I think the people in the lobby are laughing. They like the sound of the paper crinkling. It's a win. We got to mention putting things on autopilot or on autopay doesn't mean we're not paying attention. I think that's right.

Good point. So we have to know, hey- What's your system? The bill was twice as much this month. You don't want that to sneak up on you. So do you get an email every time? That's what I was saying. Do you get an email or text?

That's what I was assuming you get. Exactly. So the electric bill, I get the email at the end of the month saying, hey, here's what the bill's going to be. And I go, cool, that sounds about right. And it's on auto pay. So I don't have to think about it. I don't have to get one of those late collection bills in the mail.

Not dealing with that. So I'm a big fan of auto pay, but you got to pay attention still. Yeah. Yeah. And I think when you hear that phone call like that, you know, sometimes people just feel like they have to play by everybody else's rules. And, you know, you don't have to because companies want to get paid. Your system is broken. And I talked with our friend Craig Rochelle about this on the Entree Leadership Podcast recently. It's time for a new system. And that means replacing the old broken system and the old bad habits and replacing it with good, healthy habits. And that might mean having a buffer in the checking account. It may mean scheduling your bills to hit on a certain day. And it's

those simple little things that really give you confidence in the plan and go, oh, I can do this thing. I can cut up the cards. I don't need them. They were a crutch. They were a safety blanket. So if that's you, America, it's time for a new system. Well, and the theme here is underneath all of this is that you can control certain things. Take control of what you can control. And you can control your budget. You can control your planning. You can control the date by which you pay the bills.

These are all things that you can control. And that's really the Ramsey message at its core. I mean, it is. It really is. You can take control. Yeah. You got this. I'm curious that when your electric bill spikes,

is it because of the incessant hair drying? If you have more than one shower in a day? That's part of it. It's about four minutes a day, Ken. Yeah. You know. Little things about George that you find when you go on a retreat with him.

He dries his hair with a blow dryer before going to bed, folks. Hey, this volume doesn't just happen on its own, Ken. Yeah, his room, Kelly, was next to mine. He's blow drying his hair at 11 o'clock at night. Let's not talk about your snoring, Ken. That's a whole other topic. Well, that was your hair dryer.

Believe it. Oh, boy. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, folks, Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.