The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Win With Money While I’m in College?

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

George Kamel & Rachel Cruze discuss: How to find a side hustle (and whether or not you should sell your horse), Moving to a nicer place while still in debt,  Should you invest while in college, Trusting a financial advisor to help you win with money, Caring for a mom that struggles with addiction. 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

🎵 From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you get control of your money, get ahead in your career, and get on the path to living and being well. I'm George Campbell, your host, joined today by my co-host, Rachel Cruz, best-selling author and host of The Rachel Cruz Show. We're taking your calls, 888-825-5225.

Let's talk about your money, your career, your work, your life, your relationships, inflation, Teslas. We can talk about it all right here when Dave's not here. That's what it's all about. That's what it is. That's the real reason we want to do this show. Katie joins us up next. She is in Paducah, Kentucky. Katie, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. How can Rachel and I help? Back in March, I decided to do Financial Peace University, and I'm in baby step two. I'm working my way through it.

Awesome. I work full-time for the USDA, and I make quilts for people, and I also own two horses and give horseback lessons. Wow. Unfortunately, last week, my main horse that I do all my lessons on is injured, and we're taking him to a performance vet here in a couple of weeks to try and figure out what's going on. So my side income of horseback lessons is went from $300 a month to zero. And, um, I only make about 34,000 a year at the moment.

So every single penny counts at the moment. And I'm racking my brain trying to think of new side hustle ideas to make up the difference since my main lesson horse is out. Okay. So what are you making from 200 to 350 every other month or so every other month so let's call it 100 bucks a month yes okay and you're making 34 do you think that you could make more elsewhere is it time to look for a different job doing the same thing? I started this job back in January. I graduated college in 2021, and I was a veterinary technologist for three years, and I was only making $12 an hour. And then this job with the USDA opened, and so I switched to the USDA, and I jumped from $12 an hour to $17. And so now this is the most salary I've ever made. So I've already hit a big difference, but I'm not opposed to trying to switch jobs to

increase salary. Okay. I'm just thinking with this job market and how much people are willing to pay, you could do just about anything. What were the things you did in that first job you explained? What was it more administrative type role? What was that that you were doing for three years? What I was doing for three years? Yes. Okay. I was a veterinary technologist, so I assisted vets.

I did treatments on hospitalized patients, helpless surgery, place IVs, stuff like that. Okay, which is a pretty big skill set. I'm like, that's impressive. So I just wonder, Katie, if there, I mean, I know, I'm sure you have a love for horses and a love for what you do, which is awesome. I just wonder if there's a way for you to either take those same passions or something you were doing in your previous job where maybe animals are still part of your career. But right now is the best time to be making money, Katie. I mean, the job market, it's unbelievable what people are paying now for labor. It's incredible.

So for you to replace $300 a month, I don't have any hesitation that you can do that even by just driving Uber and doing Uber Eats. I mean, there's so many, so many side hustles like that, that you could pick up and oh God, a heartbeat could be making more than 300 a month. But your goal too, is to have a career of something that you're passionate about and that you love. Ken Coleman talks about that a lot here on this show. So I would love for you to find something that maybe is just more full-time instead of kind of piecing these things together that gives you more of that consistent lift

to be making more money, unless you find a different way to make more money doing these things, but I'm not sure. I'm just thinking dog sitting, dog walking, pet sitting, boarding, you can make really good money doing that, Katie, with your love for animals. Have you seen a need for that in your area?

Well, I live in a very rural area. I know it said Paducah. I actually live in Murray, Kentucky. I'm about an hour from Paducah, and I live in a town about 30,000. And I switched from being a vet tech to working for the government because of the pay raise that I got. And so instead of working 60-hour weeks as a technologist, now I work 40 hours a week, make more money, and then I had extra time to do the lessons and the quilts. And with this cost of fuel, I'm scared to, like, door dash or anything. But since I live in such a rural area, I'm not even sure if that would be a possibility or dog walking or dog sitting. Yeah. So how much debt do you have?

I have, I started out at $125,000, and I've knocked it down to about $118,000 so far. Okay. What kind of debt is this? It is student loans, credit card debt, a line of credit, and a family loan. Okay. So here's my thing. Are you doing a budget every month currently? Yes. Okay. What I want you to do is stop the bleeding. Obviously, you stopped going into debt. I'm guessing you haven't gone further into debt during this process. That is correct.

Okay, good. I do think we need to up this income. I mean, with this pile of debt you have, this is not going to happen in a year or two unless we up this income to double what it is now. And that might mean working 60, 70 hours a week. I don't know that now is the time to, you know, jumping into small business and passion projects right now is the time to do whatever it takes. Work at whatever store is willing to pay you 15, 20 bucks an hour and busting your tail until this debt's gone. Yeah, Katie, this is the situation of kind of that urgency of getting, it's kind of that, we talk about getting mad at your situation and being like, I have $118,000 in debt through all this stuff. And I want this cleaned up as fast as possible. And I will do anything. I will do anything to get this out of my life. And that's going to mean not doing, maybe working the jobs that you, yeah, that your heart and your passion is not the thing.

I mean, there's some sacrifice here. And now's the time to do it, Katie. You're still young. You just graduated last year from school. And this is the time to do it. I'm like, it's not going to get easier. And so put in the hours. I mean, I want you to go crazy. I want you to go back to 60 hours a week because you picked up 20 more hours somewhere else that you're working. And so really hitting this hard, Katie, and your mindset has to change. If you keep doing what you've been doing, you're going to keep getting what you've been getting. And so I would just flip my whole mindset upside down and think, okay, it's time to get serious and it's time to really do this

and be budgeting every single month and every single penny is going towards this debt. And you're going to pay off that smallest debt first and then to the second smallest and then so on. That's the debt snowball. And, man, it has to have this level of intensity in your soul, Katie, to really go after this. Katie, I'm going to give you a hard challenge. Could you sell the horse?

Would you do it? I can't. Why not? I've't. Why not? I've had this horse 11 years. Katie, Katie, Katie. There's other horses out there. It doesn't even know your name. There's more horses for you on the other side.

Listen, I want Katie to win. Oh, my gosh. She's got a mess to clean up. I'm doing whatever it takes. I'll get another horse later. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey guys, George Campbell here. Listen, if you know me, you know that one of my spiritual gifts is giving away Dave Ramsey's money. And he's got a lot of it, and so I don't feel that bad. That's why I'm pumped to tell you about the Ramsey Cash Giveaway. Every single week, we're giving away $500 cash and a grand prize of $3,000.

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every morning until it's over. There's no purchase necessary, but you do have to be 18 or older to win. Sorry, kids. You just were born at the wrong time. Here's the other thing. 10 bucks. What could $10 do for you? Well, you can get a Chipotle bowl with no guac. That's no fun. Or you could get, I don't know, a life-changing book. That's right. The $10 sale is alive and well despite inflation. So you can get some of our best-selling books and tools for just $10 or less. So go shop it.

RamseySolutions.com is the place to do it. Hurry up. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined today by rachel cruz all right rachel i have to backtrack man that went out like that... I just hit the third rail, and I got so much hate from everyone in the booth, everyone in the lobby. No, the lobby, you had some hands. There was a few bros in the lobby on Team George. Here's what happened.

Katie called in, making $34,000 a year. She has $118,000 in debt. Rural area, not a lot of ways to up the income, and she has two horses. And one horse is injured, and we're nervous about the vet bills of what that's going to cost. Yes. We'll throw that out there. We didn't touch on that.

That's true. And there's another horse that's in perfectly good condition, and I just threw it out there because she's broke, and this is a dire situation. What if you sold the horse? I don't even know. And you would have thought I said, sold the horse and you would have thought i said shoot the horse you would have thought i said that based on the reaction oh please don't email us about this does anyone know i mean thousands of dollars i imagine like how like what is thousands like ten thousand ten thousand okay our engineer is saying ten grand rachel come on if it was a car we'd say

sell it but because it has a soul you're saying if it was000. Rachel, come on. If it was a car, we'd say sell it. But because it has a soul, you're saying you're heartless. If it was a house, the only thing that makes me nervous is what these vet bills... I don't know if she can afford to have a horse, to take care and maintain a horse. That's my point, Rachel.

I know, but you made it sound like you said sell the horse to get out of debt. If you can maintain it, how much is your dog, George? I'm not broke, Rachel. That's the difference. yeah so the the the logic though here is if you have something in your life that you cannot financially take care of um that is not a person let me say that sure uh then that's when you start to look and say okay when

do when does something become more of a curse than a blessing in my life? And that can be a house. That could be a car. You could fill in whatever you want to there. So that was the mindset that you were thinking with this. I was not trying to be insensitive. I love horses. They're wonderful creatures, great pets. But I'm just going, I'm looking around going, what are the options here?

Yeah. And there's something with pets, y'all. And again, we are pet people. We just got a puppy. We had a lab for 12 years. Like, we are, we love pets. We love dogs, all that.

I'm not a horse person. I don't know much about horses. But I had a call on the show. This was probably months ago with Dave. And there was a lady and she, I can't even remember.

She had tons of debt. I think it was maybe over $100,000 living in an apartment with two dogs. Her apartment rent was insane, but she couldn't move because she had these two dogs. It was like this whole thing.

And literally, she was sacrificing her life and her financial well-being because these dogs played such this role in her life, right? And again, we love animals. Yes. But when something becomes such a barrier in your life that you can't make wise decisions going forward, that's when you have to ask yourself hard questions. Thank you.

Is that fine? Yes. Thank you for couching it all. But when you have 10 seconds left, George, with sweet Katie on the phone. That was my buzzer beater right there. Throw it out. A little three point. Sell the horse.

Sell the car. George says sell the horse. And then you get on a break. You got. Rachel, every time I take a call by horses, it goes south. The last one, this guy called in and said, hey, should I lease a horse? I don't know. Lease a horse?

Yes. And so we absolutely said, no, don't lease a horse. Save up, pay cash. And then they came at us in the comments going, this guy doesn't understand anything about horse leasing. You're right. That was not part of the plan. There's no playbook on horse leasing.

And so they're explaining to me that it's more like renting a horse. Well, then why not call it rent a horse instead of leasing a horse? Leasing has a very specific... 100% chance you've gotten canceled in the horse culture. Yes.

Horse culture has canceled me. Don't cancel me, horse culture. Don't email Reigns to care about this. Black Beauty is like my favorite movie. So don't... You guys are kind of beating a dead horse here. Time to move on. We're beating a dead horse.

Thank you, James. Go to Justin in Texas. Justin's in Victoria, Texas and I pray to God he does not own a horse. Justin, are you with us? Justin, do you have a horse? I think I messed it up. There we go. Justin with us. Justin, do you own a horse? I don't. I've never even been on a horse. Oh, okay. We're safe. We don't. I've never even been on a horse. Oh, okay. We're safe.

We're safe. Okay, how can we help? You're okay. Well, a little bit of a backstory, then I'll get to my question. In February of last year, I quit my job delivering for Domino's to be a full-time caregiver for my mom, who's just come back from a nursing home. She spent most of 2020 in the hospital with sepsis, getting dialysis, breast cancer, a lot.

I'm an only child, and I grew up in poverty almost my entire life. So I felt like it was just my duty because I'm all she had. The nursing home would have taken all of her Social Security. Well, yeah, it financially ruined me because I wasn't working. I was just doing side gigs, you know, when I had to. But she was doing good. because I wasn't working. I was just doing side gigs, you know, when I had to. But in, she was doing good, but in December,

just a few days after Christmas, I lost her to a heart failure. Oh, Justin, I'm sorry. It was a shock to us all

because she was doing so good. We had done all this. But, I'm living in the main effective home that she bought. And it's an old, just to show how old

this house is, it's older than Dave's radio show. This thing was built in 1989 and the value is only about $3,000. I'm only paying about $400 a month with a lot of rain and the fees in charge. But honestly,

I'm trying to say it's a wreck. The floor needs to be fixed. The plumbing still hasn't recovered since the last winter storm. And the estimate I got would be over $5,000. Now, I'm able to keep my expenses low because this is such a cheap place to live, but it's just not that good. I'm sorry, Mom, but we just could never fix the house. Now, I'm thinking about moving out, maybe just get a small one-bedroom apartment, but it's going to cost about $300 more per month, between $200 and $300, depending on what kind of place I get.

I'm just saying, right now, I call myself a baby step two. I just got the baby step two, actually. I had the newest part of my emergency fund last week. But is it worth it? If you're still trying to pay down debt, still in baby that too, is it worth it to move to a better place? The place you're in, I'm sorry to say, it's crap. So you're saying rent is going to be $700 a month if you move? Between $600 and $700.

But for a one-bedroom, one-bath, and I'm looking around town. And how much are you making a year, Justin, right now? After mom passed, I got a job at the agm of our local chuck e cheese i love it here it's i'll be making about 35 a year so when i figure out the math depending on how much overtime i get it will it will be less than a third of my income which i've heard is the threshold it should be for a month and how much debt do you have? I calculate around $55,000. Okay. What kind of debt is it?

It's about $48,000 in student-owned debt, which a lot of it I've never taken. I own up to that. And a lot of it is some old medical debts. That's about $8,000 of it. And the rest is some charged-off credit cards, one of which I just got paid off. I was able to negotiate with a collection agency that had it. I mean, but he was a bit of a smart aleck. I said, you know, I'm trying to get debt free.

I'm trying to learn what Dave Ramsey said. Man, give me a break. This is America. Everybody has debt. Yeah, yeah. That guy sounds just like you were short credit card company. Could you negotiate the medical bills? A lot of them are too high.

I think the largest one is $6,000 and the lowest one is $2,000. They're too high to negotiate? Well, most of them don't want to go less than $1,000. Well, have you asked for, hey, what would you take in full to settle this thing today? And the last one I talked to, I think think the debt was that medical debt was about 1200 they said the lowest i'll go is 700 okay i'd pay for in cash and be done with it so that's my plan of attack i'm going to go after that medical debt because it can be negotiated and have the cash to pay it and get it in writing to clean that up at a better rate how many hours do you work? About 50.

About 50. I get a full 40 plus a lot of overtime, especially in the summer coming up, we're going to be busy. Yeah. So I know I'm going to get probably even more hours. Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, well, first and foremost, I'm so sorry about your mom. And especially being an only child and being with her for such a significant period of time there at the end of her life as her caregiver, I think is really, that's an amazing gift that you gave her.

And I really applaud you for that because that was a big choice I know you had to make. So that's big. I was so happy whenever I got this. I'm sorry. I was so happy when I got this job. I think it was just my mom telling me, this is your manager. Look, he's been caring for me for 10 months. Big job is done. Give him this job. I think it was just my mom telling me, this is your manager. Look, he took care of me for 10 months. Big job is done.

Give him this job. He's going to do well. I think it was like mom's last gift to me. Absolutely. And then the second thing, Justin, I would say too is that there's a, you said that you grew up in poverty. And so there's a mindset there that you're breaking, right?

The cycle of saying, I don't have to live like this. I can really start to build wealth and it's going to take time. So if I were you, I would be working hard at your job, take as much overtime as possible, even bump it up to 60, 65 hours a week, 70 hours a week, go crazy, attack that medical debt, start paying off those student loans.

And Justin, I think you are on your way. And renting an apartment for 700 a month is very reasonable and I would do that. I'll do whatever it takes to get there, ma'am. Thanks for the call. Great job, Justin. You're doing awesome. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Rachel Cruz.

We're taking your calls, 888-825-5225. John joins us up next in the Los Angeles area. John, welcome to the show. Hello, how are you guys? Good, how are you? I'm doing all right. What's going on? All right, so I'm a recently graduated senior,

and our class just finished the foundations in personal finances. Oh, awesome. Awesome, congrats. Thank your teacher for teaching our personal finance curriculum. I just want to thank you guys. Yeah, I just want to thank you guys so much because we learned a lot, and I really appreciate it. That's our pleasure.

So what's going on with you? How can we help? All right, so today's our last day of class, and we just wanted to call in with a question. I am getting ready for college, and I have a bit of money saved up. I think I have about a semester's worth, and I was just wondering how would investing while in college work, if I should do any investing at all? Good question. So you said you have a semester's worth. What's the rest of your plan

to get through college debt-free? Because that's your goal right now, to invest in yourself. Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't quite understand you. Can you repeat that? I'm sorry. How do you plan on going through the rest of college debt-free? So during this summer, before my freshman year, I'm going to work full-time and hopefully have about the rest of the year, maybe a little more paid off. And then during the summer, I will work part-time. Okay, so you're going to do it all through working. You're paying your way through, basically.

That's awesome, John. Very good. So listen, when it comes to investing in college, we actually say it's not necessary, even though I know you guys watch the Blake and Jack. We show the power of investing early. The compound interest, I know that's in the curriculum, which is awesome. And it's a good teaching point to show the power of compound interest.

But really, the best investment you can make right now, John, is in yourself and staying in school and paying your way through. And that's going to give you the best investment at the end of all of this is graduating debt-free. And then once you graduate, you're 21, I would press, and you have no debt, and maybe you even have extra savings. We've even talked to people like that that are very weird, but they do. Graduate with an emergency fund. Yes, and you graduate and you have cash saved, or you get your first job and you save up that emergency fund.

Then press play on investing. Then I would start investing. But I would go ahead and get through your four years of school. If you have any extra money saved that doesn't go to tuition, I would put it in a savings account for next semester. I would just continue to build up a fund of cash to use for tuition or other things. And then again, when you graduate, maybe you still have some more money in that account that you're able to use for your emergency funds or even to throw in and start investing because the amount of time you're going to,

what you're not going to make up in those three to four years is worth it of not it being an investment, but it being towards paying off or continuing to pay for school. Does that make sense? Yeah. That's awesome.

Is your class there? Are you like in class right now? Yeah. That is so cool. That's awesome. Hey, class awesome is your class there are you like in class right now uh yeah that is so awesome hey class is your teacher there can i talk to them uh yeah you can talk to him oh this is what's his name what's his name over the phone room right now his name is justin engelman justin just do you call your teacher just wow not mr mr engelman i think is the proper way la It's the L.A. way. They're just like cool. They just go by first name basis, Rachel. Mr. Ingleman? Yes, ma'am.

Hey! Welcome to the show. We just wanted to say thank you so much for teaching our curriculum in your class and helping this next generation get a handle on money. You're amazing. We've had a great year this year. We've invested a little bit as students and teaching them how to save. One of our goals is to get them through college debt-free.

John, that's amazing. Thank you, guys. I love to hear that. So fun. And it's your last day of school, huh? Yes, ma'am. We're at Lancaster Baptist School in Lancaster, California. And since we got on the show, the students don't have to take their final.

Yes! You can hear them shouting in the background. Oh, that is so funny. I just channeled my inner high schooler. I just got so excited for them. Now I feel,

Rachel, we're like cool now. I got to skip a final. We helped high schoolers skip a final. Y'all are welcome. Now go to school debt free. I love that. Well, thanks so much

for the call, guys. It's so cool. That is so fun. Favorite call of the day. Right there. For sure. Oh, man. That is awesome. For those of you much for the call, guys. It's so cool. That is so fun. Favorite call of the day. Right there. For sure. Oh, man. That is awesome.

For those of you that don't know, we have a personal finance curriculum called Foundation and Personal Finance. We have an entire team here, the Ramsey Education Team, whose entire day is spent getting this curriculum in schools, helping equip teachers to teach this course. And Rachel, I've been getting so many messages because it's the end of the school year from students saying like, thank you so much we love the curriculum it was inspiring it was awesome we're planning on going to school debt-free and it warms my heart I'm like there's hope for the next generation oh man and what a gift to be able to have this knowledge at such a young age

because the decisions you make between 19 and 22 follow you even though i'm not all 18 year olds realize that they follow you for your life and when it comes to your money i'm like man to be able to avoid so much and just say no and choose a different path how much quicker you win with money by just doing that and now that they have that knowledge they get to put into practice right yes and there's this concept i didn't invent it i I don't know. But it's pre-deciding. These students are pre-deciding today the kind of life they're going to live. They're deciding the kind of person they're going to be. And they're deciding, I'm not going to be the kind of person who has shackles when I leave college because I thought $150,000 was just monopoly money that I was going to pay off because I'm going to make $150 the year I graduate high school, college. That's the mentality a lot of students have. And so what I love about this

curriculum is we go, hey, the culture is lying to you, but there's hope. There's a better way. If you can learn to say no, to avoid the comparisons, to go to a reasonable school you can afford in cash, to buy a used car in cash, your life is going to be so much better off for the next 50 years. Yes. Oh, so much easier. And it's that kind of line in the sand that you have to draw. And it's an extreme line to say, I'm going to live without debt. Yeah.

To say that is extreme these days. Well, even the kids going home to their parents and the parents like, what? You learned that credit scores are stupid? What are they teaching you in school? I know. I know. Totally. But I love it.

But having that line drawn so early in life, because kind of like that was my story right growing up with big dave yeah you know teaching us it was never like a it was never a thought for me to even do it because in my head i'm like well no i'm just gonna work and i have money in my bank that's off the table so yeah and it wasn't this extreme thing in my head because it was so normal in our family uh but deciding it that to your point so early big decisions like that it makes other decisions easier because when you take that option off the table then it causes you to think different and it causes you to say okay how am i going to choose something else because when it's this idea of well i just can't go to school because i have to i have to take out loans it's the only way i can go to school i have

to that's the most dangerous three words. And when that's your mindset, right, and you say, then it is an option at that point and you allow yourself to go down that road. But if that's not even an option, then you say, okay, I have no money. How do I go to school? Do I choose a different school? My school selection is going to look different because I'm not taking out debt.

The amount of hours I'm going to work, the amount of time I'm going to apply for scholarships and grants. It forces yourself, it forces your mind to make different options when you draw a hard line in the sand and say, I'm not going to live with debt. And that's what these students have done, and it's an amazing thing.

And it's hard. Well, then four years later, they don't have to shake their fists at the government and say, someone forgive these loans. It's so unfair. Instead, they go, oh, I don't have to worry about that. I don't have debt. It's not even a thing. I get to live my life. I get to invest. I have to worry about that. I don't have debt. It's not even a

thing. I get to live my life. I get to invest. I get to live my life. I can retire early. I have options and freedom. There's freedom. And that's what winning with money is. It's not this end game just to pile up and hoard a bunch of money to feel good and to buy a bunch of stuff, even though we're not mad at stuff. But that's not the end point because what wealth actually gives you, it's not just the dollar amount in your bank account, but it gives you freedom. It gives you options. It allows you to give.

There's an overflow. There's a surplus in your life to sure change your family tree, but to help others, right? So it's this cycle. It's not just for you to sit there and hoard, but it gives you other things in life that you wouldn't be able to have

if you were living paycheck to paycheck and had debt and continued in that mindset with no money. When you have that abundance, this is a hot take. I think it makes you more selfless because you're able to focus on other things around you, people who need help, where you can give some money to help others. And so I want people to get out of debt for that reason alone. It's worth it. I love that. Because, yeah, when you are living paycheck to paycheck and you owe someone money and you're going to a job you hate to pay off this debt, you don't have the capacity to look up and look at others, really. I mean, I'm sure there's a time and place, but most of your energy is going to taking

care of yourself because you're having to pay your bills. And so once you're free from that and you have margin again, it's an amazing thing. And when you do that at 18, whoo, that's amazing. I'm so excited about this next generation. Hey, if you want to learn more about our curriculums that we have in schools all over,

we just met with a senator in Florida who got financial literacy passed as a mandate. I'd love to hear these stories. Check out ramseyeducation.com to see what that team is up to. We are big fans of teachers out there teaching this curriculum,

helping those students. So thank you. This is The Ramsey Show. So let me ask you a question. When you think of a millionaire, what kind of job do you picture them having? Is it some kind of high-powered executive position like a VP or a CEO? Well, here's the thing. Only 15% of millionaires actually have jobs like that. The reality is that the top five careers for millionaires in America are engineer,

accountant, teacher, manager, and attorney. That's just one of the surprising things our team found when we conducted the largest study of millionaires ever done. We talked to 10,000 millionaires to find out who they are and how they got there. Our study also made it clear that to become a millionaire, you've got to invest wisely. And a big part of that is getting good investing advice. So you need to work with an investing pro who can walk with you and teach you about the options that are right for you. And our team recommends trustworthy, vetted investing pros from all over the country.

We call them SmartVestor pros. So if you want to get in touch with a SmartVestor pro in your area, just go to ramseysolutions.com slash SmartVestor and start building wealth today. That's ramseysolutions.com slash SmartVestor. Linda joins us up next in Charlotte, North Carolina. Linda, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Absolutely. How can we help? I'm on Baby Step 7 and I am retired. And I wanted to know with the market the way it is right now, what is the best way to invest $100,000 to $150,000? I've talked with a smart pro, a smart investor pro, and they kind of want to assume all of my portfolio, which is a little over a million dollars, and they charge $10,000 a year to do that, about 1%, 1.25%. And I was just wondering what the smart way to invest in that would be. Yeah, well, first of all, congrats. Baby step seven, you got a paid-for house, you're retired. How's retirement going?

Very good, thank you. Good. Well, I can tell it's very relaxing when you have money, so this is a good problem to have. So you got about $100,000 to invest, and you're wondering what the right way to do it, and you a SmartVestor Pro and what you're talking about is assets under management. So they charge a yearly fee in order to do that and 1% is kind of the industry standard. And you're saying, hey, should I be giving the $10,000 to the SmartVestor Pro or is there

something I should be doing on my own? Yes. Another investor that I have most of my portfolio with from years ago recommended getting a three-year bank CD that pays three and a half percent. How old are you, Linda? I know. I am 67. 67. Okay. At your age, I would not, no, I would not, I would not put this money in a CD. I mean, still at your age, you're, I mean, you still, I mean, God willing, I'm like, you could still have 20 years left, Linda, right? 20, maybe even 30 years, even 30 years. So that's still a significant, I mean, that's, that's two, three decades that you possibly could still have so that you could be in the market. So if I were you, I trust our SmartVestor pros. I mean, we vet them and we really do. They do the Ramsey way. And if they don't, people call us, let us know. But they

really do what we teach. And I think because of your age, I think even if you just got in a mutual fund and still, even though it's kind of crazy right now because of the market when you actually have money though and you have you're set up so well really the way to look at it is that things are on sale right now you can actually be buying a whole lot more because I think that the market will recover we believe in the American economy enough to know that it will recover out of this and and yeah if I were you I, I would put money in the market. I'd put that $100,000. And unless there's something else that you're wanting to do with it, I don't know if even

real estate, if there's something else you want to do. But at this point, you may not even want to mess with anything. And putting it and parking it somewhere and even just living off that interest. Yeah. Do you need this income, Linda? Okay. No, I don't. Okay. So this is like bonus fund money right now. You just want off that interest. Yeah. Do you need this income, Linda? No, I don't. Okay. So this is like bonus fund money right now. You just want to steward it well.

It is. And it's okay. I guess I have trouble trusting someone that I just met. It's okay to basically follow all their suggestions. They're probably going to want to manage the whole portfolio, which means moving funds over to them. Well, they're going to do whatever you're comfortable with. So if any financial advisors, yeah, your job is to tell them what to do. Their job is to advise you on what the best options are, but they're not going to do anything for you. They're going to educate you on what your best route is. And Linda, never, this is our advice always, no matter your age and situation, never put your money in something you do not understand.

So if they're throwing terms out and you're thinking, oh God, I mean, I guess you don't just blindly trust them because they are a smart investor pro or they're an investment professional or whoever it is. You need to fully understand and ask questions before you put your money in. I want you to be completely comfortable with it. And again, they're not going to just tell you what to do.

They should advise you and even give you different options and different routes. And the prayer is that they have a heart of a teacher, that they're there to help you understand and know what's going on. It's not going to be this experience of, oh gosh, here's all these terms. I have no idea and I feel intimidated. And so I'm going to just trust because George and Rachel said to do it. I want you to feel comfortable. And then if you don't feel comfortable, don't do it. No, we just had one initial meeting and it was just kind of like a preliminary.

And I did feel very comfortable with him as soon as I met him. But then, like, as the days are passing by, then I just get cold feet because I just met him. Well, it's scary. I mean, you guys have worked so hard to build this wealth, and you've done an amazing job. And so you're wise to go, hey, I want to make sure that whoever I work with I trust. And so here's one thing on the fee, if this helps you. Their job is to choose funds that outperform the market. And so if you look at the average over the last 30 years, you're looking at 10%, 11%, 12%. And so to pay someone 1% to get me 11% return, you're still doing real good.

You're still making six figures a year on that compound growth. And so I don't want the 1% to scare you off from ever leaving this money in a CD or a savings account where it can't even keep up with inflation instead of still making 9%, 10%, 11% when the market's doing well. So I want to encourage you that don't let the fee scare you away. Do it when you feel ready, when you understand it. Okay. Thank you so much for the call, Linda. Way to go. Well, baby steps millionaire right

there. Yeah. Amazing. Great work. Tony's in Sacramento. Tony, welcome to the show. Hi, how's it going? Great. How can we help? So my dad left me a house and mom has been kind of knowing about that. She wants to move in now. The tenants have been moved out, so the place is empty, and I want to move in. And I want to tag along. However, she has a bit of a gambling and a drug addiction problem.

Not too sure on what to do about something like that. It's been that way since I was a kid. So sorry, Tony. So I don't think anything's changed. Yeah, things are rough. Oh, that's hard um were your parents together were they divorced when he left you this home um actually you know my dad was about uh he was uh late 70s when he had me and mom was early uh 40s i believe okay so were they still married different they were not married at all.

Oh, at all. I'm sorry. So he left you this home and there were tenants in there. They've moved out. So now you're wanting to move in to the gift that your dad left you and now your mom is wanting to come in. Has she

been through programs? Has she tried to get clean before? No. I mean, I'm sure she's tried on her own, but, of course, that's a very difficult journey on her own self. For sure. She hasn't tried anything professional, which I would feel is completely beneficial for her. But many places that I've talked to, it takes her to kind of, you know, make the first step. Sure. I don't want to give her the resources, you know, bring the horse to water.

Of course. Yeah. Do you, is there a part, is the most, does the big part of you want her to move in because you feel like you want to help or you feel obligated and you dread it? Well, I kind of want to help her, but I feel like if she doesn't want to change herself, if she doesn't feel like there's anything wrong with the way she's doing things, there might not be, it might be a fruitless endeavor. Yes, for sure.

Yeah, I see this as a form of enabling because she's now going to have no payments, I'm guessing, if she lives there. And you're going to be kind of enabling this behavior. She's not going to get better. And so I think you need to set up some hard boundaries and have a hard conversation with her and go, Mom, I love you, but you've going to get better. And so I think you need to set up some hard boundaries and have a hard conversation with her and go, mom, I love you, but you got to get better. And I want to be a part of your life, but I can't under these circumstances. And I want to help you on this journey and I will help pay for treatment, but I need you to step up

in order to do that. Such a hard situation. I'm so sorry, Tony. This is The Ramsey Show. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from The Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to The Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.