The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Change My Mindset About Money? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 28, 2021

Debt, Savings, Taxes, Retirement Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/31ricKt  Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Chec...kup: https://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/2QEyonc Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/2JgzaQR

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status and symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey personality, best-selling author of the book, Redefining Anxiety, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Kelly starts this hour in Colorado Springs.
Starting point is 00:00:59 Hi, Kelly, how are you? Hi, Dave, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Well, my question comes around the insurance, the term life insurance. My husband and I went through the insurance to get insurance, and I did not get approval for insurance. And so I'm wondering, what is your recommendation going forward? I had cancer in 2017 and lost a brother at 29 and my mom has a pacemaker since she's probably been here mid 40. So, you know, health wise, you know, I know that we're kind of unreceived, but what is your recommendation?
Starting point is 00:01:48 The pacemaker in your mom is not the deal-breaker. It's the cancer from 17. And the further you get away from that with a clean bill of health, the more insurable you'll become. So your journey with Xander is not over. You just got your first you just got your first no and uh circle back with them and ask them as ask them to check with the underwriter and find out at what point they would look at your situation because they can insure past cancer now maybe not since 17 but maybe it's five years instead of three years or whatever okay so we need to learn that as a guideline, number one.
Starting point is 00:02:26 Number two, the only way you're going to get insurance is where there's no medical involved, meaning you don't have to sign anything or make any statements about health. And those are called guaranteed issue policies. policies, and they're usually small policies, and they are usually about five to ten times more expensive than regular term insurance. And so where you have seen them is like if you've ever seen, like when you open up a checking account at the bank, they'll send you a thing, or your mortgage company will send you a thing that says you can buy mortgage insurance to pay off your mortgage if you die. Those are typically guaranteed issue policies. That's one of the larger ones you could buy, and you can go get that one if you've got a mortgage, which would be really helpful.
Starting point is 00:03:15 Yeah, we do have a mortgage. Yeah, you can probably get that. Call your mortgage company and ask them if they sell Mortgage Life because they love to sell it. They make a lot of money on it. It's five to ten times too expensive, but it's a way to get your mortgage paid off in the meantime. And you can cancel it later. You don't have to keep it forever. If you become qualified, you know, two or three years from now, get a full regular Zander term insurance policy that's less expensive.
Starting point is 00:03:37 You can cancel this crap. But you've seen it with your checking account, $10,000 insurance. You can just pick it up. Sometimes even on the back of a magazine or sometimes an association you belong to with your professional career will send you something. You know, and it's just a $20,000 policy, a $30,000 policy, a $10,000 policy. Sometimes people will get three or four of those, kind of stack them up. It's an inefficient way, an expensive way to buy insurance but at least you've got some meantime you're getting out of debt you're piling up cash and reaching towards
Starting point is 00:04:11 self-insurance so that if something happened to you you wouldn't actually need any insurance because uh the kids are grown and gone there's a pile of cash and no debt then he'd be okay without your income uh but i the mortgage life is probably the biggest chunk you could knock out and and then just stay in the game don't just say well i can never get life insurance because i once had cancer that's not true it's just that your uh cancer free date is too recent because you know basically we all know that life insurance is priced or issued based on probability of death. So as you get older, it's more expensive. You're more likely to die if you're 60 than if you're 40, statistically speaking.
Starting point is 00:04:54 And same thing if you've had cancer than if you hadn't had cancer. And so when you do get it, it's going to be double what regular term is. But it'll still be less than the other insurance I'm recommending right now. So Sheila and I, we redid our wills over Christmas as a part of just our annual planning and discussions. And she's transitioned in the last couple of years to staying at home for a season instead of working and what's your recommendation for like a stay-at-home mom or a stay-at-home dad when it comes to life insurance in a in a middle to upper income family i put 400 on them okay uh with the idea being that it would create 30 to 40 thousand dollars worth of income off of that much invested okay to hire mary poppins okay
Starting point is 00:05:42 because we got to hire mary poppins if something happens to Mama. Right. And, you know, in other words, in a sense, we're putting an economic value on a stay-at-home mom. Right. Right. What it would take to replace the duties that she has. Driver, tutor, maid, chief cook and bottle washer chef. Yep.
Starting point is 00:06:03 And I'm in a position where i mean y'all y'all would walk through that season if something happened to sheila tomorrow y'all would walk through that season with me but there's millions of of men or women who'd have to go to work on monday yeah right i got i gotta be there right or i'm working on the clock or something so every moment i stay home so that's good that's good advice i didn't know what the number would be yeah and you know if let's say your household income um say let's say we got a stay-at-home mom the husband makes 35 000 okay well average household income in america is 59 okay so this is a lower income a lower below average okay then you probably put 250 on her because you would you would have a different uh level of uh not to say she's not as
Starting point is 00:06:48 valuable at home as someone else but you would just expect a different level of uh service and care from the people that you hired to come into your home okay it's that kind of situation so plus i'm trying to not spend so that get much money on life insurance you know if i can that's the idea but yeah so typically folks we tell you to have 10 to 12 times your income on you. So if you make $50,000 a year, either one of you, if you had 10 times, that would be a half million, 12 times would be $600,000. And so if something happens, the spouse has $600,000 to invest. If they invest that at 10% for round numbers, that's $60,000.
Starting point is 00:07:28 And so you're making $50,000. So you don't want to buy too much. You have to sleep with one eye open, right? But you want to have enough invested that without touching that amount, the income off of it replaces the income of the one who died. I love it. And that way the family can go on and it changes everything. And the most mind-blowing, tear-jerking stories over 30 years of doing this are not 65-year-olds who died.
Starting point is 00:07:59 It's 27-year-olds. 35-year-olds. 32-year-olds with with a brand new baby. Dave, I've looked at those folks in the eye. They got a million dollars, or they don't. Because of the cost of a pizza a month.
Starting point is 00:08:16 And they ask you that question. Term life insurance from Zander is about as noble a product as I know of. It's really important. It's a safe place to land, man. You know, it's really important. It's a safe place to land, man. Yeah. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Your number one wealth building tool is your income.
Starting point is 00:08:57 For business owners, this comes as no surprise, as you're used to putting in extra hours and watching your bottom line. That's why Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, is a great option for those who are faith-focused and budget-conscious. CHM is not health insurance. Rather, it's a health cost-sharing program. It's not harder, but it is different. To learn if CHM is a fit for you or your business, visit chministries.org slash budget. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality Bestselling author, is my co-host today.
Starting point is 00:09:52 Open phones at 888-825-5225. In 2021, we are hitting reset. Almost a half million of you have now watched the reset event that was done a couple of weeks ago over in Oklahoma City with Chris Hogan, Rachel Cruz, Pastor Craig Crochelle, and me. And you can go watch it at DaveRamsey.com if you want. It's out there. We've still got it sitting there. I think it's still sitting there. And with our Money Reset Bundle,
Starting point is 00:10:15 it's easier than ever to create new habits that will change everything. And you get a six-month membership to Ramsey Plus. Our best sellers, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, Rachel's new book, my book, The Total Money Makeover, sold 8 million copies. A couple people read that one. And here's the kicker. Every Ramsey Plus membership now includes free federal classic e-file for your taxes through Ramsey Smart Tax.
Starting point is 00:10:41 Whoa. Ramsey Plus members get free Ramsey Smart Tax to file your taxes. I'm using that this year for my family. Boom. There you go. You can get your money and get your taxes right. It's $167 value, this bundle. All this stuff bundled together, the books, the Smart Tax, the whole thing.
Starting point is 00:11:00 Ramsey Plus, $85 for six months. Wow. Decide on a total money makeover reset right now. Go to moneyresetbundle.com. Moneyresetbundle.com. $167 value, half off at $85. There you go. Christina is with us in Nebraska.
Starting point is 00:11:22 Hi, Christina. How are you? Doing great. Thank you so much for taking my call. Hi, Christina. How are you? Doing great. Thank you so much for taking my call. My pleasure. How can we help? So my husband and I are finishing up Baby Step 3 on February 10th, and I've been listening to a lot of videos with you and Chris Hogan
Starting point is 00:11:40 talking about how you kind of take your foot off the gas on baby steps four through six but I don't really feel like mentally I've changed with my spending habits and everything I'm an emotional spender and and even though I was able to have self-control through baby steps one two and three I don't feel like I've changed. So how do I take my foot off the gas but kind of keep focused and keep my head in the game of, you know. That's a really smart question. And you've done really well. How much debt have you paid off? We paid off $32,800.
Starting point is 00:12:20 How long did it take you? Ten and a half months. How much? Ten and a half months. Ten and a half months. How much? Ten and a half months. Ten and a half months. So you've been working on it almost a year. All right. And you said we, so you're married.
Starting point is 00:12:33 Correct. And we're finishing up Baby Step 3, so it's actually been two and a half years. Okay. All right. Okay, good. And so you've got each other holding each other accountable. And are you doing your written budget i bet you are yes um i'm using every dollar app and okay he's using uh microsoft money but it's just we kind of think them up okay but the two of you have a game plan that both of
Starting point is 00:12:59 you are aware of and you're holding yourself and each other accountable for sticking to the game plan that we lay down on paper right correct him more so he's he's the saver and i'm the spender so him him more so he keeps us in the game for now okay so christina i mean dave you can correct me if i'm wrong here christina i am not a person who can take my foot off the gas and i've got to put or you can't sprint forever so let me say it this way i have to have uh boundaries that i set up in my life because i'm like you i get fired up about something you know i need to go buy a new thing of whatever i want to make sure if the apocalypse happens that we're covered so my wife and i have some agreements i get cash i'm still pretty old school when it comes to that i've got
Starting point is 00:13:49 cash um and we both use that every dollar app we've got some things that set up for me just because i know i'm impulsive and sometimes i'm i'm in my 40s now fighting the impulsivity gets exhausting so i set up boundaries that make it impossible for me taking your foot off the gas does not mean you go back to your old ways all it means it doesn't mean you don't continue to do a budget and it doesn't mean you don't stick to it and it doesn't go to dinner and it doesn't mean that you uh aren't accountable to your husband he's not accountable to you for the plan all it means is the level of sacrifice is lightened the intensity of beans and rice rice and beans no vacations no eating out and no buying anything is lightened up and you give yourself permission to have a little bit of wiggle room now in the budget to accomplish some of the things
Starting point is 00:14:40 now that you've got the emergency fund and now that you've got the other i think it would be really helpful for you all to get on the same budgeting system. I think it's a mistake that you're not. Okay. Because I think the two of you then are going to get more in sync. You're sort of in sync, like you build the thing out and then you combine them, but then you walk back off into two different rooms and run your lives. And that leaves you vulnerable to your spending habit, and he looks like the hero to his savings habit.
Starting point is 00:15:13 And I think you guys, I think you're in his life, so he has more fun. That's why the spender's there. And he's in your life, so you have more to eat. And you have electricity, right? Yes. And I think you guys, this patchwork thing where, you know, once a month you sit down together and you combine your thing, and then you walk off and each of you do your own thing,
Starting point is 00:15:38 I think that's leaving you vulnerable, and I think that's part of where your fear is coming from, is because you're only having to deal with you. Right. But when you're both on every dollar together and you both have it on your phone and you both know where everything's going and every time a debit card is swiped, it shows up, ding, ding, right there. Nowhere to hide, man. And it's all just full disclosure, full transparency. It's either on the plan, it's not on the plan, and it's either what we agreed to or not.
Starting point is 00:16:03 I can go buy, you know, if there's money in there for clothing and you go buy some clothing, it shows up, and that's fine because it was in the plan and it's either what we agreed to or not i can go buy you know if there's money in there for clothing and you go buy some clothing it shows up and that's fine because it was in the plan if there's money in there for food and you go buy some food and it shows up in there that's fine uh but we're not going to just go off some off the radar and buy something to prepare for the zombie apocalypse or something and rachel talks about that in her book despite being a best-selling author and talking about this for years and years she still has a tendency to want to go spend some stuff right so i think that you allocate for that you can do it that's exactly right but you just do it in full disclosure and as a part of a whole right and i think i'm hearing christina say i got to the end of this and i was
Starting point is 00:16:39 hoping all of this all of my innate um default settings were just going to go away and be healed by being debt-free. No, they're not. You're going to sleep deeper, right? They're not. But, you know, I'm a spender, but now I spend on purpose as a part of an overall plan that doesn't bring destruction to my house. Right. That's exactly right.
Starting point is 00:17:00 And if you say I'm a saver, that's great. You save on purpose while still allocating some money for your family to actually have shoes. For life, right? That's right. Not another roll of duct tape. Exactly. That kind of stuff. You cheapskate.
Starting point is 00:17:15 So these are tendencies. Rachel talks about the tendencies. And either extreme on the tendency is where it's toxic. It's not you're right if you're a spender, you're wrong if you're a spender. You're right if you're a saver, you're wrong if you're a saver. That's not the point. And so the whole idea then is laid out. So I think if you guys will start working together on one system and have, like, there's more touch points through the month where more set two sets of eyes are on
Starting point is 00:17:46 everything that's happening all month uh then he's going to get the benefit of you causing you all to have a higher quality lifestyle with your spending tendency and you're going to get the benefit of the stability of his savings tendency and larry burkett used to say if two people just like get married one of you is unnecessary so opposites should attract they do attract and they should and christina needs to not beat herself up for being a spender for right for having a proud spender some stress in her life and then reaching and then that's when you've got a plan that's when you've got accountability that's you got someone else in your life y'all got a routine together. Don't beat yourself up for it. You're not broken, Christina.
Starting point is 00:18:28 Craig Groeschel said the other night, he said, just say, no, I'm in training. I like that. No, I'm in training. Can't do that. I'm in training. It changes the vernacular. When you change just the words, it changes the way you feel about it. I can't do that. I'm in training. I got a marathon. I got to train.
Starting point is 00:18:44 It's inconsistent with my goals. Yeah, I do that. I'm in training. Yeah. I got a marathon. I got to train. It's inconsistent with my goals. Yeah, I like that. You know? And the saver and the spender can both do that. That's right. That's a verbiage you can use. This is the Dave Ramsey personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today. Carlos and Claudia are with us in El Paso, Texas.
Starting point is 00:19:36 Hey, guys, I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. Yes, we are. We're so excited. Whoop, whoop. How much have you paid off? Well, we paid off our final debt, which was our mortgage, $48,000 in eight months.
Starting point is 00:19:52 Woo-hoo-hoo! Yes! Talking to weird people. No debt, no mortgage, no nothing. That's right. And how long did it take you, Sid? $48,000 in what? Eight months. Eight months. And your long did it take you, Sid? $48,000 and what? Eight months.
Starting point is 00:20:05 Eight months. And your range of income during that time? We started at $100,000 combined, but we're up to $150,000 now. Excellent. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a nurse. And I'm a public relations specialist. Excellent.
Starting point is 00:20:21 Good for you guys. So well done. So how old are you two? I just turned 50. Just celebrated the big 5-0. And for you guys. So well done. So how old are you two? I just turned 50. Just celebrated the big 5-0. And I'm 47. And you have a paid-for house. Yes, sir.
Starting point is 00:20:33 That feels weird, doesn't it? It feels awesome. Yeah. Not going to lie, it's awesome. I'm so proud of you guys. That's incredible. What's the house worth? About $250,000.
Starting point is 00:20:47 Boom, boom. Just like that. Wow. I love it, man. I love it. What inspired you all to do this starting eight months ago? Well, we were very gazelle intense, Dave, steps one through five. But for some reason, we went more toward a speed with our mortgage. We were still sending double payments.
Starting point is 00:21:07 We refinanced our 30-year loan to a 10-year, five years into the loan, because we realized we had made a mistake. But then we got a sudden run from the cheetah fever in the past eight months, so we were sending thousands a month. I think our final payment was like 18 or 19 000 good lord there's nothing like a nurse coming home every day saying we should probably pick this one up carlos let's do that right correct yeah a little covid a little covid scare drive some of this well you know we um my job status didn't change Obviously there was a lot of work for me, but, um, we decided, you know what, if this
Starting point is 00:21:48 is, we're not going to do it now, why not? Let's just go for it. So, you know, Carlos picked up actually a part-time job at FedEx working nights and working in the weekends and Saturdays. And so of course, I mean, I was going to be on board with that. So we just went with it. You just jacked up and went. Wow. We tightened the budget, started eating rice and beans, beans and rice,
Starting point is 00:22:12 and we got real aggressive with it. So while other people are wandering around in the street like zombie apocalypse right now with the COVID stuff going on, you guys took extra jobs and worked more and paid off your house in the middle of a pandemic. Yes, correct. And I see two kids in the picture here. How old are they? They are 22 and 20 years old, and they are FPU graduates. They are debt-free.
Starting point is 00:22:39 They have emergency fund. They're saving for retirement, and they're going to graduate without a single debt of college debt. They're seniors already in college. Wow. Dude, man. And you guys have changed your family tree. You're amazing. Wow.
Starting point is 00:23:00 Wow. Are you guys the first ones in your family? Are you the first generation to do this? Yes, sir. Yeah, a pastor actually gave us your book, The Total Money Makeover, as a housewarming gift, the greatest gift he could have ever given us. Wow. That's so very neat.
Starting point is 00:23:20 Yes. Well, I'm proud of you guys. What do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Well, we coordinate FPU at our church, which is Hope City in El Paso, Texas. They saw how aggressive we were with our debt, so they said, you guys should be coordinated at our church. And so we tell the students that go through the class with us is do the little part, and God's going to reward and bless the rest. The Bible says that, you know, you be faithful with a little bit and I'll take care of the rest. And we've seen it with our students, you know, the people that go through the class with us, they apply for jobs and they get not just one, but two or three extra side gigs. So we've seen the blessing time and
Starting point is 00:24:03 time again in their lives. So that's the lesson we've learned. Excellent. So we've seen the blessing time and time again in their lives. Wow. So that's the lesson we've learned. Excellent. So what was the hardest part of this for you guys? Actually, for me, a lot like sharing your wife, like I'd rather just have the money sitting there, kind of a security thing. So for me, the hardest thing was applying it appropriately, applying our savings appropriately, which was to pay off our debt. So that was a challenge for me.
Starting point is 00:24:31 But thank God for my hubby here that encouraged me to follow the recommendations as they are. Wow. Well, well done. I wanted to wish. Well done, you guys. so proud of you we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires without a doubt you are on track to be that maybe the first in your lineage to do that as well and i'm so proud of you guys very well done all right carlos and claud, house and everything, baby. Woo! $48,000 in eight months, making $100,000 to $150,000. Count it down.
Starting point is 00:25:09 Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! Yeah! So awesome. So awesome. So awesome. So so awesome so awesome so you're out there listening to those two with a paid for home why not you two 20 yearold kids that have no debt.
Starting point is 00:25:46 Paid for everything. Everything's paid for. College is paid for. Everything's paid for. They're already in retirement. They've already got emergency funds. Great place to go when you're broke to work. They're going to be able to put you in a real nice home when the time comes, right?
Starting point is 00:26:01 Wow. Why not you? Yeah. You're riding along the interstate right this second listening to this. Yeah, you. It's your turn. You can. It's your turn.
Starting point is 00:26:12 People do it all the time. And people that aren't as pretty or as smart as you are. Man. Can you imagine being a PR executive? Your wife's exhausted after coming home from being a nurse every day, and you look at each other and say, let's do it. I'm going to FedEx. I'm going to FedEx.
Starting point is 00:26:30 And I'm going to get home from my PR job, take off this tie, I'm going to put on that little uniform they have, I'm going to get in the truck, and I'm going to do it until I can't move my arms and legs. I'm going to fall asleep. I'm going to do it on Saturday. I'm going to do it on Sunday. And then I'm going to get up and do my PR job again. You're going to work like no one else, and now what you do? I my pr job again work like no one else and now what you do i got nothing like no one else you work when you want to you know what he's doing tonight those feet are gonna be
Starting point is 00:26:50 propped up anything he wants wow that's how you do it so cool yeah that's what it'd be like if you had no credit cards or medical bills or student loans or car payments and you'd feel completely different and um we're going to help you. The Ramsey Plus Money Reset is all right there. We're going to walk with you day by day and show you exactly what to do for the first 90 days because there's nothing, no one ever regrets a fast start. All in. Pay off your debts fast. Finally saving for emergencies.
Starting point is 00:27:22 The Ramsey Plus daily small wins with your money add up to really big ones. And we're going to show you exactly what to do with Financial Peace University in there. We're going to show you exactly what to do with the Every Dollar Budget in there. We're going to show you exactly what to do with the Baby Steps Tracker, the Ask a Coach, the communities that you're in. This is a massive movement, and it is it's changing everything so you can just decide that's all they did they just decided and you can go all in for 90 days and take control of your money make today day one you can do a free trial at ramsey plus just go to daveramsey.com
Starting point is 00:28:00 slash reset do the free trial just get in there and you can see all the stuff I'm talking about. It's unbelievably robust. It's high quality. You're going to be going, where has this been? Well, now that you've decided, things like this are going to show up all around you. But you have to decide. You have to decide. And you have
Starting point is 00:28:20 to decide you can do it just like Carlos and Claudia did it. And somebody right now is driving and you're thinking, I think Dave's talking to me. He is. He's talking to you. You. Go home and have this hard conversation with your husband, with your wife, with your girlfriend, boyfriend. Decide.
Starting point is 00:28:36 DaveRamsey.com slash reset for the free trial. Do it. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 1 Timothy 6.12, fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Jennifer Granholm said, Sometimes leadership is planting trees under whose shade you'll never sit. That's one of my favorite quotes in the whole wide world. I think all of us are in a season
Starting point is 00:29:45 right now the country needs us to be about planting seeds plant some trees of fruit we will never eat we will never sit up our grandkids man but i love that i was actually on a flight with a guy who's um people that are uh fifth generation-generation wealthy people intrigue me because there are so few of them. Most of the wealthy people in our country are first-generation wealthy. And so we're riding along, and, of course, I'm reading a CIA spy novel. Right. And this friend of mine who is now, these days, he's like 80 years old. He just turned 80 80 as a matter
Starting point is 00:30:25 of fact um has a phd in economics from cambridge and he's reading a book on um a math formula a math problem that's never been solved so i'm reading a spy novel and this is like i got a comic book right this guy's got this so dave's coloring this just said yeah this just sets up the dadgum thing right here he's got colors so finally he puts his book down he says so so ramsey what are you what are you investing in i said well i buy mutual funds and i do that i said what are you investing in and he said well that's just so that's just so new by reach i mean that's just new rich what you're doing you're just new rich so he's basically patting you on the head right yeah yeah well i mean he has been the entire
Starting point is 00:31:10 thing the way he walks while he talks what he reads i mean everything's patting me on that the whole thing is it's ridiculous but i'm just so intrigued with the guy because he grew up wealthy his dad his grandpa was wealthy his great his great grandpa was wealthy i mean he's been wealthy a long time and so he's he can call me that because it's true of course i'm wealthy but i'm first generation right and so it's accurate and i've got a different mindset than he has and his point was he said when you grow up like we like i do he goes you think about things generationally always and he said i just bought 6 000 acres in kentucky and we just planted a million and a half pine trees on them. Wow. So he's –
Starting point is 00:31:46 And I said, grandkids. You're 80. Yeah. And he said, yeah, you know how much of a lumber shortage there's going to be in 100 years in America? And you know how wealthy my great-grandkids are going to be off of that one decision? Wow. In addition to the other family wealth.
Starting point is 00:32:01 Man. Off of that one decision. So he's anticipating a lumber shortage 100 years from now, and he's 80. Right. And putting little bitty pine trees in the ground. Yeah. A million of them on 6,000 acres, right? Wow.
Starting point is 00:32:14 And it's like. That is, that's legitimately. It's fascinating. Planting seeds. That's fascinating to me. Planting trees. The point is you think differently about money it causes you to do things differently but i think you can also do that with character right i'm
Starting point is 00:32:30 gonna absolutely i'm gonna say this in this way i'm gonna model this for my son and one day our grandkids are gonna live differently yeah we can change your family tree in terms of behaviors yeah absolutely alexandra is with us in Hartford, Connecticut. Hey, Alexandra, how are you? Hey, Dave, I'm good, thank you. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help?
Starting point is 00:32:56 So I have kind of a decision that I'm facing. So basically my husband and I have made some poor choices over two years in terms of financial decisions. And then the pandemic hit and we both lost our jobs. Since then, we've recovered and we kind of had a very hard conversation about how to make us not so vulnerable again because we almost lost our house and we have two kids. So I started on your program and I'm using EveryDollar app as of early October last year. And we managed to kind of get through $17,342 worth of debt. Good.
Starting point is 00:33:35 So we have no more credit card debt. There is no car debt anymore. Good. Medical bills are paid for. You're doing it. You're doing it. Yeah, we've been very aggressive. so we haven't really been doing much. Like, we haven't been on vacation.
Starting point is 00:33:49 We haven't gone out. We've gone out once. So how long did it take you to pay off $17,000? So the first payments we started making mid-October. Since October. So in four months, you did $17,000. Yes, we did. You went from both being unemployed, we're about to lose our house where our baby's going to sleep to, now we have no credit card debt, no car debt, no medical debt. Yes, sir. That's incredible. What's your household
Starting point is 00:34:18 income? So we went back to work. My husband went back to work at the end of September. I went back to work at the end of November. Yeah, but what's your household income a year now? Right now it's $210,000. Yay. Okay, good. All right. Yeah, so we ended up kind of like going through all of our accounts, and we found out that we were behind on tax payments,
Starting point is 00:34:44 so we have some tax payments, that we have some back taxes, which we are tackling this month and it's going to be done. But I just have a little bit of trouble planning for kind of going forward. So we have both of the jobs offer us 401k for retirement for the 3% match. But at the same time, we also want to kind of continue being very aggressive in the way that we tackle debt. And I sort of, and we also have student loans. Oh, how much are your student loans? Together, it's $150,000 between me and my husband.
Starting point is 00:35:20 Okay. Well, you got a ways to go then. You just got to finish those up. Yeah. husband okay well you got a ways to go then you just got to finish those up yeah i just don't know like if we should invest in our retirement and pay no no you said you're gonna follow the plan crush everything you've been doing has been following the plan and then you almost fell off the wagon just now and we grabbed your hand don't fall off the wagon remember you were smart and then the pandemic hit and then you realize we're not smart let's get a plan and then you got a plan and now you're starting to get too smart again go back to the plan well it it just feels like if we don't uh
Starting point is 00:35:53 because our our company offers 401k it just feels like we're we're going to be missing alexandra it's time to get rid of your student loans okay They're going to be there the rest of your freaking life if you keep talking like this. Okay. So we should just opt out of the company 401k? Yes, you should opt out. You should stop that. Do you have any money in savings? We first got the first savings badge.
Starting point is 00:36:22 We did, based on your plan, which is $1,000 in cash. We set it aside, but this is the first month that we've done it. Okay. And do you have any other money that is not in a retirement account? No. Okay. All right. So you make $200,000 a year, and you have been averaging about $4,000 a month as you've gotten this jet off the ground,
Starting point is 00:36:47 and now you're going to start averaging more than that because you need to be putting $100,000 a year. I want you to be done with these student loans in 18 months. Okay. That's $5,000 a month. Okay. Yeah, that's still, like, super aggressive. And I feel like we're just, like, we're at home and we aren't doing much.
Starting point is 00:37:10 And I kind of feel like I want to save some money for retirement. How old are you? My kids into activity. How old are you? I'm 31. Okay. In 18 months, you're not going to ever have a student loan again. Or you're going to keep arguing with me, which you've been doing for five minutes, about investing in your stupid 401k. You need to finish this.
Starting point is 00:37:35 You need to finish this. You need to finish this. 18 more months is not going to mean that you don't retire wealthy because you didn't start your 401k to 33 instead of 31 crap a year ago you weren't doing anything in your 401k anyway and you're broke and deeply in debt remember remember how dumb and how bad don't do it again. 18 months. You can do this. And quit arguing with me about your stupid 401K. If you want your kids to have activities, go be with them.
Starting point is 00:38:14 That's fine. You can have activities. You make $200,000 a year. I'm just putting $60,000 of that. That's all. That's it. $5,000 a month. You can do this. You can do it, man. But David's tired. That's it. $5,000 a month. You can do this.
Starting point is 00:38:27 You can do it, man. But David's hard. I'm tired. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Don't argue with the thing.
Starting point is 00:38:35 Don't argue with what millions of people have used at work. Don't argue with it. Quit fixing a plan that ain't broke. Thanks, James Childs and Kelly in the booth. Great show today, John. Well done. We'll be back with you guys before you know it in the meantime remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace christ jesus this is james childs producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill.
Starting point is 00:39:11 From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at DaveRamsey.com slash smart speaker.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.