The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Convince My In-Laws to Downsize? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

Debt, Home Buying, Business, Investing 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 Checkup: https://bit.ly/2BrqEuo  Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/2QEyonc  Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money and your life. I am John Deloney, joined here by best-selling author and good human being Rachel Cruz,

and we are taking your calls on life and on money. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Rachel, how are your little ones doing? They're doing great. Just, man, I mean, five, three, and one. Five, three, and one. Yes.

And I've got almost 11 and five. You spaced them out well. I feel like I have a thousand people in my home and you have a million and a half. Oh, it's... There's a human everywhere. A human everywhere and one's crying always. But it's great, you know? It's great.

It is funny though. I'm like, there's some days, I'm sure every parent feels like this. We were like, man, that was a good day. And then some days you think, what did we do? What are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing? The random thing that my wife will say, she'll walk through the house and she'll just quietly toss away. Remember when we used to think we were busy?

I know. Remember when we used to think we were tired? Remember that? And she'll just keep walking through the next room. It's so great. I laugh all the time, though, because I think, I remember so specifically, it's like so in my head. We had this lady in college who mentored a group of us. And we'd go to her house and we'd talk and we'd just be like, oh my God, I'm so specifically, it's like so in my head. We had this lady in college who mentored a group of us, and we'd go to her house, and we'd talk,

and we'd just be like, oh my God, I'm so stressed, Elizabeth. I have like three exams this week. I'm like, God, I have no clue. And she had four kids. I look back, and I'm like, her husband worked a lot. I just want to call her. Oh, she probably thought, you have no idea. No idea.

You have no idea. When I told my dad, I called him and said, hey, listen, you're going to be a granddad. There was no idea. No idea. You have no idea. When I told my dad, I called him and said, hey, listen, you're going to be a granddad. There was no fireworks. There was no, oh, my son. His response, first response was, well, you're never going to sleep again. And I remember thinking, like, that was kind of deflating me. That was the most prophetic thing I think my dad ever told me, man.

Well, you have good kids, though. Y'all came over a few weekends ago and had dinner with us. And yours, Hank. He's awesome. Yes, they're both wonderful. But Hank is just the sweet... I mean, talking to Charles, our 16-month-old little boy, oh, he was like, can I feed him? Winston was taking

him out to bed. He was like, do you need any help, Winston? So listen, in the car, right before we came in your house, we said, listen, guys, to our two kids, don't screw this up for us. For every kind thing you do, we're going to give you Froot Loops and whatever sugary We're going to give you money. Yeah, we're going to pay you. Pay you to be nice.

And my son was like, Dad, let's just do it because it's right. And my daughter was like, sweet, how much? That's awesome. All right, let's go to the phones. Let's go to Erica in Houston. What's up, Erica? Hi, Dr. John and Rachel. I'm so grateful to be talking to y'all. And we're grateful that you called. What's up, Erica? Hi, Dr. John and Rachel. I'm so grateful to be talking to y'all.

And we're grateful that you called. What's up? Well, I have what I would consider a good problem. My business has been extremely busy lately. I own a couples therapy private practice. I can imagine so. Exactly. And so I know it's time for me to expand into adding some more therapists to come work for me that I would train under me. And right now I have two interns, but I am still seeing about 80 percent of the revenue comes from the services that I offer. So I've been having some trouble finding somebody to hire. And now of, uh, I'll call myself out. I've had some really bad boundaries. I've just started taking on more and more clients, uh, myself and I find myself with low energy to be able to really do much else other than to see my clients and write my notes and, uh, supervise my interns. And that's about it. And so why do you, why do you feel like you have to expand your business? Sounds like you love counseling other people.

I do. I also love supervising, and I have another business I would like to start that would be separate, and so I would like some energy and time to be able to give to that and not so much into the clinical work, although I'd still like to maintain clinical work. Gotcha. Well, I was going to point to you, John, because you're, you were in this world. I mean, yeah.

What I find with therapists is they, you get to a point where it's exhausting, right? Erica, you see clients eight hours a day and it's at weird hours. And it's one of those things where if you stop and just like, Hey, I'm gonna go home tonight and have dinner and watch a TV show. There's that part in your brain that says, well, that was a hundred bucks, right? You can always be working, always moving. And then you, the next conversation is what's passive income look like? Are we going to write a book? And then you realize there's not a lot of money in books and I want to create a curriculum and I want to start working. So you just start expanding. So why do you want to expand things? Do you want more money?

Do you want more reach to help more people? What's your goal here? I think it's two of those things. I do want more reach to help more people and be able to offer a variety of services so that we can treat more people across the community. And then my other business is also focused on mental health, so minimalism and mental health.

And I'm going to need some time and energy to be able to put into creating that content to be able to put that out into the world, which would also help more people. Gotcha. Are you able to let other people do their job under your umbrella differently than you do it, but still effectively. Yes, I've been working on that. I did hire a virtual assistant not too long ago,

and so I think that's given me some muscles in that, although that is difficult for me. And I would say, too, Erica, and you can probably speak into this, John, because you're specific. My brother-in-law, he's a therapist and he has a wait list. I mean, it's insane. But people come to see him, not a practice necessarily, right? They want him. So how much of your clientele, Erica, would be okay to go see someone else? Like the percentage in that, because I know that therapy, it's such a personal right you you that people want to see you I know that's why you're so good um what would it look like to

bring on say those two interns but you make them full-time do you think you'll still have the same amount of business do people will your clients feel comfortable going to someone else um we've seen some trends in that so there's still obviously more people calling for me. Um, once they learn that they're, that the other people are trained under me, most clients are pretty open to it. That's great. That transfer of trust there. Yep.

Perfect. So here's what I'd recommend, Erica. I, I would recommend, I just experienced this with my buddies who are therapists. They get so excited and then they go to a training and it always comes at a time when they're exhausted from their day practice, right? They're just hearing the same married couple fights over and over and they know what they're doing and they're good at it. In fact, they're excellent at it.

They're getting the same calls and they go to a training and they experience something new and they're like, I want to do this with this group of people and I could crank out this business and I could hire these people. And then you get a napkin somewhere in a restaurant and you map it out and you realize, oh, we can make this much money and help this many people. And then you start, as our friend says, you jump off the dock before the boat's all the way up. And so I'm going to do two things. One, we're going to give you a copy of our friend Christy Wright's business boutique, which is going to give you some actual, it's going to help you walk through the steps of starting a new business. You know how to run a business.

You're running a successful one. But right now, the business is you. And so how do you step away from this business and then come up with how do I hire? How do I train? How do I do payroll? How do I do HR? How do I do training? How do I do marketing?

All of these things while also keeping the practice going. And the second thing is I want you to take some time to, I don't want to sound so cheesy, I want you to take some time to dream and actually paint a picture of what this is going to look like. Yeah. Right? What would a Friday afternoon look like for you if your real business is running, your supervision business is running, you've got a group of counselors trained underneath you,

and then you're going to have to reverse engineer that back. And what do you have to start doing right now to begin to build that practice? And then you're going to have to work on those boundaries, and you're probably going to have to see one of your buddies to help you with that one, Erica, because that one's a challenge for all of us who love helping other people. But I appreciate your question. And Houston needs more therapists. I'm glad you're there.

Don't give up on it. Hang on the line, and Kelly will get you that book. Stay tuned. This is The Ramsey Show. You know, I get lots of questions about ID theft since it's a huge problem. Most people just worry about financial fraud, which is a big mistake. Tax refund fraud, for example, is out of control. Last year, the IRS paid out over $10 billion in fraudulent refunds. Thieves are stealing

your refunds. They're also hacking into accounting and tax preparer firms to steal your personal information and use it for all kinds of fraudulent activities that aren't detected by pricey credit monitoring and prevention plans. That's why Zander's ID theft plan is the only one I've ever recommended or used. They cover all types of ID theft, including tax refund fraud. Plus, they take over the work if you become a victim, protecting your money if you get hacked. They even protect your kids for free on their family plan. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It's just the smartest, most affordable way to go. 888-825-5225.

Taking your calls on money and life here on the Ramsey Show. Let's go out to Charlottesville, Virginia and talk to Logan. What's up, Logan? How are we doing? Hey, John. Hey, Rachel. How are you guys doing? Good, good, good.

What's up? So a little debate here between my fiance and I. Oh, you're going to drag us into it, huh? We'll be the tiebreakers. Absolutely. So we're getting married on May 30th, so coming up pretty soon. Congrats.

And we recently started FPU. We're feeling pretty good about it, pretty gazelle intense between the two of us right now. We're working seven jobs in two weeks, from 11 grand in debt to 2,800. Way to go, man. We're working pretty hard with that.

Killing it, yeah. Thank you. And I know this is a little farther down the line, but one of our goals is to purchase a house with cash within the next 10 years or so. However, I was thinking about it, and I think, so what she wants to do is just save up after we get done with Baby Step 3, go into 3B and save up specifically for the house. However, I think because of how young we are, I think it will be more beneficial to use that time to open up a Roth IRA,

and max that out at $6,000 every year. And then what's left over after investing into that, put into either a money market or a mutual fund to save for a large down payment on the house. Because right now, I'm 19 and she's 20. So the yield on that would be a lot bigger if we started earlier. Sure. So the debate is save up and pay cash right away for the house, or not right away. It'll take years to save, obviously. Or go ahead and take out a mortgage and continue on is that that's the debate right save up and pay cash well no either either way we wouldn't be we'd be purchasing the house at the same time it would just be do we want to spend these nine ten years before we buy

just saving for the house or Or should we invest into retirement and then what's left over after investing every year, put that into a savings for a large down payment on the house? But you're saying down payment. When you put a down payment, you're taking out a mortgage though. So it's not cash.

Right, right, right. I'm sorry. Not, I thought you were saying by now, but no, it'd be the same time. But yes, yes. Okay. Let me make sure I'm understanding this. I'm sorry.

So do you take let's say there's a hundred thousand dollars do you take 50 of that and start investing it now do you have a hundred thousand dollars though logan like where are you guys making that up yes but i'm saying but once you get once you guys pay off your debt you're going to save up for that emergency fund three to six months worth of expenses then what we would suggest that you do if you want to buy a home then is to save up baby step 3b for a 10 to 20 down payment and then start investing i would not use baby step 3b to save cash and not invest in a roth IRA so i'm more on your side on it i would i would go ahead and keep putting money

away now if you want to use it would be baby step right baby step four is Now, if you want to use, it would be Baby Step 4 is investing. And if you wanted to say, hey, we want to rent for six years and we're going to save up and write a check for a house in six years while we invest, you can totally do that. I think that that's a great idea. But I would not miss out on the investing to save up to pay cash for a house. Does that answer your question? Yes. Yeah, I wouldn't because like you said, you guys are young. You have the time. A mortgage is the one type of debt we won't yell at you for. So if you did decide,

hey, we are going to just do a down payment of 20%, go ahead and do the 15-year fixed rate, do the formula to buy a house the right way, that's great. You can do that. But if you guys were kind of more on the quote-unquote weird side, which we like weird people, and say, hey, you know, we're going to rent a small apartment. We're going to live on

nothing, and for eight years we can save up X amount and pay cash for a house, but we're going to do that. That's awesome. And you've never had a mortgage in your entire life. That would be great too, Logan. So either one of those is totally great from our book. Does that answer your question? I'm sorry, I know that was

a long way around, but okay. No, that's fine uh it does yeah thank you and logan um not to oversimplify this but you're 19 she's 20 y'all feel like you're 100 years old right now and then when you tilt turn 30 you're gonna feel like man we're really young right now right and so it feels like you if you mess this decision up it man, you might as well. You're not going to be able to start over. Your marriage is going to be off to a sideways start. Y'all are so far ahead of the average couple getting ready to get married. Yes.

You just need to stop and pause for a second. Y'all are crushing it. You're going to get married in a few months. You're going to be off to the races. And go slow. Do it together. Right? And Rachel's right.

When you're 30, you're going to love that you have a retirement account that you started when you were 20, 21 years old. You're also going to love that you got a big chunk of a down payment or that y'all went ahead and rented for a few more years and just started your whole new family tree with no mortgage at all. That's right. And that's going to be awesome. All right, let's go to Gary in Arlington.

Gary, what is up? Hey, what's going on, Dr. D? Rachel, how you guys doing? Good, good, good. What's going on in your world, man? Yeah, so I'm in pharmaceutical sales. I'm 27 years old. I paid off about $40,000 already and still in loan debt.

Nice. Way to go, brother. I'm pretty much debt-free, but I got this car situation that I'm kind of hung up on. I have no idea what to really do so my parents guided me into this lease of a rav4 um after i graduated oh no gary's belugia i think we just lost you gary oh oh there you are you back oh yep i'm here guys okay all right so your parents talked you into a lease, the RAV4. Yep, RAV4.

Paid off all the lease payments. So now it's like, do I save up this money? I got about $15,000 left. I got about $4,000 in savings. I'm starting to build up my emergency funds. But I'm just wondering, like, should I, like, build up and start saving to buy this car? Should I maybe take out a loan, pay it off it off sell it take that equity that i have left and then maybe try to roll that into a car that's a little bit more affordable since i am going to burn this car into the ground with how many miles

i drive so i'm just wondering like what i should do with this car i feel like it's going to be a cost if i don't like just keep on trying to like maybe save up for it, like buy it. So I was just wondering what you guys thought. Yeah. And you, the 15K is, what was that you said at 15K and what? So the 15K is to buy the car. Oh, to buy the car. Okay. I hear you. I hear you. Yep. Yep. So the lease payments are done. So I'm just like, what do I do with this? Like, I feel like I almost have a part of this car,

but it's like, I would just kind of hate myself if I just gave it up. I would have to pay the mileage overage that I'm currently accumulating with this job. How much is that? How much is the mileage over? So I just passed it not too long ago. The cap was at $36. I'm at

like $38 right now. I think it's like $0.25 a mile. For 2021? You've already passed the cap? Oh, no. This is a 2018 RAT 4. No, no, no. But I'm asking you, are you talking about for the year you've already passed your cap? Or for the amount of the lease?

Or for the arc of the lease? So over the three years, I was given 12K mileage per year. And I've already passed that. Like I'm past the 36 K that that's been allotted for the lease. So you're out. So the lease is, the lease is, the lease is done, correct?

Lease is done. Those payments are done. I would, I would need until the end of this year. And that's when the lease is technically up. And that's what I need to make a decision. Am I buying this car? Am I going to turn it in?

Yeah. Should I buy and sell it? Yeah. If you don't, if you, Gary, if I were you,? Am I going to turn it in? Should I buy it and sell it? Yeah, if you don't, Gary, if I didn't have the cash to go ahead and buy it, whatever that, if it's that 15 grand or less at the end of the year,

depending on lease payments, I wouldn't buy it. I would be done with it, even though you kind of take the hit and then just start over, chalk that up as a mistake and then go pay cash for another car. Because that's good.

Okay. That'll be cheaper than $15,000. What's your penalty going to be? Do you know? Well, if I keep on driving it, like, that 25 cents a mile is just going to start accruing. That's just going to be ridiculous, I think, at the end of the year. Yeah. So, like, that's why I'm trying to, like, kind of, like, what should I do with this car?

Like, do you guys think, like, taking out a loan and then, like, trying to sell it and then pay back the loan immediately once I sell the car and then do it? No, because... I'm trying to, like, not, like... Yeah. No, I wouldn't advise that

because the only time I would take out a loan is if you were upside down in the car, not through a car lease, but a car loan. You're trying to pay the gap off and get rid of the car. So I would get out of the lease as soon as possible, Gary. If that's at the end of the year, do it, and then just scratch it up to stupid tax. That's what we call it around here.

And so you would pay that off and then go buy a car that's going to get you... A used car, because you're going to run it to the ground anyways. You don't need a brand new one. Yeah. Hope that helps, up. Yeah. Yeah. Hope that helps, Gary. Sorry. That's an expensive whap upside the head, huh?

Of that, yes. Don't get a lease with a mileage cap if you're in a job that requires you to drive. Be a traveling salesman. Come on, parents. You got it, Gary. You can do it, though. I believe in you. That's a good Gary. You can do it, though. I believe in you. That's a good clap.

This is The Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 Taking your calls on money and life. Let's go to Justin in New York City. Justin, what's going on? Hi, guys. Nice to speak with you. I've been listening to Dave for a long time,

and I've been focusing on my family, my wife and myself and our income and getting our debts taken care of and such. But it took me a while to realize that my in-laws have been failing on their own. And I'm trying to get them to move out of their home and downsize to a smaller house. And having that conversation hasn't been going so well. And, you know, my brother-in-law's been

giving them money to take care of their mortgage for a while, and they just, they can't afford the house they live in. They do have equity in it, and I'm trying to get them to sell and cash out and then downsize. And I wanted to get your opinion on how to go about it. What's their reasoning, Justin, to stay in the home that they can't afford and they're having to take money from their son to pay their mortgage payment? I don't quite understand all of it, but they've been in the house for 25 years. They've come to live in that lifestyle and downsizing just, I guess, they think they'll be looked down upon, I guess.

It's a hurt to their ego. It's like a kind of a little bit of an ego thing. Correct, correct. Not enough of an ego hit that they're going to take money from their children to keep this mirage up. That's what I've been saying. Yeah. So this is going to be hard to hear.

As a son-in-law, I don't get through this. Yeah, and here's the thing. There's nothing you can do, man. You can, I say nothing you can force upon him. You can be a kind person. You can have this one hard conversation where you are respectful and you treat him with dignity. And you take a more curious route. Hey, tell me about what the plan is moving forward.

You're working on your legacy with their daughter and with whatever family y'all are going to have. It can become a curiosity thing, but, man, you can't walk in and make anybody do anything. And as you know, this isn't a math problem. When grown people start taking money from their kids, not for food, but for a fantasy, man, we have left the cognitive reasoning area, right? That ship has sailed. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's it, Justin.

I mean, it's kind of a, it's a hard answer to your question, which is how do I convince my in-laws that they need a downsize? You can't convince them. I mean, I think that you can be a place to say, you and your wife can choose not to enable that behavior. So if their son can't afford, it gets to a point where he can't afford the house payment, you guys can set a very clear boundary that we're not going to help you fund this lifestyle

and we will not be that backup. I mean, there's things that you and your wife can have together to know this is how we're going to do our life and our marriage versus how they're doing it. But yeah, there is no convincing unless they're asking questions and want to know. Justin, have you sat down with your brother-in-law and talked to him about his enabling of their lifestyle? Yeah, I've been having that conversation with him recently and he gets it and he understands, but I don't know if he's assertive enough to, you know,

really go hard and cut them off. Yeah. To kind of direct them in the direction they need to go. Well, I think for you, Justin, if there's one more thing you can do just for your own self, and tell me you're the therapist over there, but, I mean, for you, because you and your wife, I'm sure, are concerned. And you hate this for them because it's eating up their money.

They're having to take money. I mean, it's just not a good situation. So for you two, because it's her parents. It's not your parents. So both of you or even just her to say, hey, mom and dad, and it's the last conversation we're going to have about it. But for myself, I just need to say out loud, I'm concerned concerned about you guys i hate that this is where life has taken you and i just i see the writing on the wall and i feel like you would have a better quality of life if this house wasn't sucking the life out of you and you're having you can't afford it so as your daughter

that's what i see whether you choose to take that or not I just need to say that for myself and then that's it. Like, I don't know. Yeah, and at the end of the day, anything you carry with you, Justin, and it's going to be hard for you to hear, is a choice to make your day worse, is a choice to make your marriage have conflict in it because you can't do anything about that conflict.

Like Rachel said, you and your wife can talk about how firm your boundaries are going to be, not if, but when they come knocking on your door for money, how firm your boundaries are going to be, not if but when they come knocking on your door for money, how firm your boundaries are going to be if and when they lose this house because they run out of money and they're going to have to move in with you. Y'all can have those conversations now. But, man, there's no sense in just beating your head against the wall.

It's not going to change. It's frustrating. And parents, don't rob your kids of their legacy because you're living in a fantasy world. Don't do that to your children. If you need money for food, if you need money for medical care, yeah, you call your family. If you think, wow, we got this really big house and it's important to us because we feel, don't do that to your legacy. Come on. All right, let's go to TJ in Nampa.

TJ, what's going on? Hi, that's me, Rachel. Thanks for taking my call. I appreciate it. You got it, man. Thanks for calling in. What's up? Well, I need a little bit further advice on what next to target on our debt snowball here.

You've got a genius sitting next to me, so you called the right place, brother. So what's up well um wife and i of course uh didn't do the smart things we were actually pretty dumb early on and took out a bunch of student loans going to college and after we both graduated we're done with school uh here we are we ended up with uh combined between the two of us we got uh just over $100K in student loan debt. We wised up after we had a shocker when there was kind of a family event that happened, and it forced us to move back in with my folks for about three years. But during that time, we paid off all of our unsecured debt other than just the student loans. And now we've finally started to climb back towards solvency, and we got the house that we've been in for about three years.

We just recently refinanced it to get it down to a fixed 20-year. It was on a 30-year variable, and we owe about $140 on it right now. Payment on the house is just over $930. Payment on the student loans right now, most of them are IBR, and the rest, some total is about $220, but that's not even enough to cover interest on the loan. And so your question, TJ, is which one to pay off? You're asking the student loan or the house?

Right, because we're to the point now our vehicles are paid off our credit cards are paid off we finally got smart and and buckled down paid off about fourteen thousand dollars in credit card good for you guys thank you and then we also paid off both vehicles um but now we're just to the point where we want to know what to tackle next. If we tackle the house, it's not much more as far as the balance, but the strain on the budget is much greater. Sure, I hear that, yeah. It might help us to snowball the student loans. On the other hand, the student loans, the interest is killing us. Exactly, the balances have gone up this year over the last, even with our payment.

Yep. I hear you. Well, I'm going to stick to our rule of thumb, which is paying off all of your debt, but your house. And so that student loan, it's the last one. And it's the hardest mathematically. It's the hardest mentally because it is a mountain to climb, right? You like you guys killed $14,000 in credit card debt.

A hundred grand is a lot. So is that a hundred grand? mountain to climb, right? You guys killed $14,000 in credit card debt. Yeah, yeah. $100,000 is a lot. So is that $100,000, how many, are there multiple loans within that number, I'm assuming? Yeah, there's about eight to ten loans in that. Okay. So what I would do, TJ, because there's almost a mental game to this. We always talk to people

about when you're paying off debt that you need that momentum, right? And you guys kind of felt that. I could hear it in your voice. Yeah, we paid off $14,000 in credit card debt. You couldn't feel it. So on a sheet of paper, I would map out, I would break out that $100,000. So instead of trying to tackle Everest, you kind of have these little hills, right, that you're working towards.

And that's going to continue you guys on. So I would for sure tackle the student loan debt and if you can break it up even just for your own sanity, I feel like that would be helpful as well. When we had, my wife and I had six figures of student loans. This sounds so cheesy, but we made little chains and they were of the little loans, right? And every time we got one, every month,

we would tear one off and some months i would just sit there and we actually hung it in our bedroom how's that for that's romantic heavy uh bedroom decor sheila was like thank you john thanks man all i wanted john you really just know how to dollop a room but it some months you sit there and see it and it just but you never forget it right and then it gets smaller and smaller and And it's just biting that elephant one, eating that elephant one bite at a time. That's right. Oh, man.

Thanks for that call, TJ. Just keep plugging away. Little steps, little steps, little steps. You got this, you got this, you got this. We'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. 888-825-5225 This is the Ramsey Show. I'm John Deloney, joined here with bestselling author Rachel Cruz, taking your calls on life and money.

Let's go to Chilo in Los Angeles, California. Chilo, what's up? Hello, how are you doing today? Outstanding. How are you? Good, good. I had a question. I have my daughter who's about to turn 19 this month.

She has $2,000 put away, and she hasn't had an investment. I have no idea how to tell her how to invest it. So I was wondering if I can get some advice idea how to tell her how to invest it. So I was wondering if I can get some advice on how to help with that because I don't want to steer in the wrong direction. What's her name? Her name's Camila.

Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. So considering her age, she's 19, our advice usually for young people around this age is, it's going to sound cheesy, but it's just true. The best investment is in themselves. And so I think at a young age, depending upon what's her education like, is she going to go to a four-year school? Is she going to university or is she going to the workforce? She's not sure yet what she wants to do, if she wants to go to school, if she wants to go to a straight school. She got really, that's what I'm looking for. She basically got, when COVID hit, it really rocked her. She was supposed to graduate.

She wasn't able to walk. Oh, yeah. So she's kind of like in a funk, so to speak, right now. Yeah, for sure. She's working, doing housekeeping with her mother's boyfriend. And the $2,000 that she has, she actually got it from that pandemic money that California was offering. And so she hasn't touched it.

She says, I don't want to touch it. I don't know what to do with it, but I know I want to invest it. And so right now, you know, schools are probably going to be opening back up. So she doesn't know if she's going to be going to college or trade school or just work full time. That's great. Well, I'll tell you, my advice would be if she called me today, I would say two grants at her age and with her seasons of life changing so much right now that she doesn't really have a firm plan. The best thing is just to keep it with cash and a really boring savings account or a money market account right now. Because number one, she may need that money if she chooses to go to school to help her with tuition.

She may need that money if she wants to go into the workforce and get an apartment and start, I mean, two grand in the grand scheme of things, right, can be a pretty good boost for that 19-year-old. So because when I think about investing, investing for me is long-term, which means five years or more. And while it's great mathematically to start as young as possible, again, having that cash available

during all these random transitions that she's going to be occurring in the next probably five years of her life, having some cash to spare is a huge blessing. I mean, that's huge. So I would relay to her, hey, I wouldn't put it in the market right now, even though what you're thinking about is so good. Like the fact she's even thinking about investing at 19, props to her. You have a very smart daughter.

I was not. But yeah, so. Yeah, she's way different than dad for sure. It's great. And I think that's awesome. And I would encourage that in her, like that she's so smart. She's way different than dad for sure. It's great and I think that's awesome and I would encourage that in her. She's so smart. That's so good. I would have it available for

me at 19 to use during this transition period and then once she's out of school or if she goes to trade school or she goes right into the workforce and she has a little bit of a steady stream of a season of life that she sees and she says, okay, now I'm going to work to see if I can use this. If she has any debt to pay it off or to keep it for a fully funded emergency

fund and then look into retirement. So even though it's great to start early, mathematically speaking, it's much better to have cash available at 19. I can't even tell you. I think I would smile for a month if my 19 year old was like, hey dad, I got 2000 bucks. That would make me smile. And on top of that would be, I'm thinking for the future dad i just i'm just awesome and say i married well because that didn't come from me all right daniel in orlando what's up hey i just have a couple of i guess a multi-part question all right go for it what's up we we're in or just coming out of baby step two uh where credit cards are paid off. Cars, we're right at the should have those paid off at the end of this month.

Congratulations, brother. And then the only thing, appreciate it, the only thing left is our mortgage. That's the first part. Second part is we own our own business. And we do have a business loan, and we use credit cards at the business. I mean, I know even though we pay them off, we're looking at dropping

those and just going, like Dave says, going with the debit cards. But I'm trying to figure out how to move forward. If we stuck to what we're doing now, we could probably have our home paid off by the end of this year. But I don't know if I should just go into the 15% or do them all

simultaneous, I guess, as far as retirement goes. How much is your business loan? Probably close to about $80,000. $80,000. How much do you have left on your mortgage? About $137,000. Okay. Well, technically, with business debt, I mean, it is still your debt, right? Your name's on it. You're responsible for it. And that's the conversation me and my wife are having.

Totally. Yeah, that's right. So I would go ahead and pay off the business loan. Okay. Because you said you'll be ahead and pay off the business loan. Okay. Because you said you'll be able to pay off your mortgage this year, which means you're going to have 80 grand this year to pay off that business loan. So I would go ahead and relieve myself of that and then start looking at retirement. Like you said, you're 15% past that and then just kind of chip away at the house. But that's the order I would do. Because the hard thing with business debt, again,

I feel like people function with two sides of their brain almost. They can split it down the middle and say, well, that's my business side and this is my personal. But it's still you. You still owe the money right now. Yeah, you still have it. That's a conversation my wife and I have. Yeah, and it's a great conversation.

It's personal. I mean, it's still guaranteed by me. Right, exactly, exactly. Or us. That's right. Yeah mean, it's still guaranteed by me. Right. Exactly. Exactly. That's right. Yeah, we're still guaranteeing it. Which kind of stinks in a way because at least if you're paying off your house, it's like you've paid for an asset for you personally. It feels so personal

where the business, again, feels like this other part of your life, but it is your life. So I'd go ahead and pay off the business loan if I were you, Daniel. And with that kind of income, you're almost flipping it, right? So two years from now, you're going to have a paid-off house. You're going to have a debt-free business. And then you can start building up the business emergency fund, your home merge fund.

That's fantastic. That's right. Have you ever made a dumb decision with zeros on the end because you didn't do your research? Me too. Rachel probably has it. I have. Most people make choices based on feelings or opinions, especially when they're buying a house. People fall in love with a house as though it's a person, right? But when it comes to the real estate market, feelings are not your friend.

Facts are. So check your facts. Find out what you can actually afford. Research what's trending in home prices. Talk to a reputable real estate person in your area. Never buy a house without the facts. Again, text HOUSE to 33789 and get an agent who will help you make smart decisions. That's HOUSE to 33789.

Listen, Rachel, I used a Ramsey Real Estate ELP. Mm-hmm. It was incredible. And here's why. I come from Texas where they ask for $150,000 for a house, and you say, I'll give you $110,000. And they're like, pew, pew, pew. I bought $140,000.

And we all shake hands in the middle. In Nashville, that same house is $11 million. And they expect you to give $1 million over the asking price. Yeah, $12 million, actually. And write me a letter. And I want you to sing a song on our front porch. And we go ahead and invest in my child's retirement account. I mean, it's like bananas.

So I had the first few houses we put offers on come now i feel like an idiot and my real estate agent i'm a little bit loud and demonstrative and i'm like no come on my elp she called and said we need to have a talk about um your expectations and about reality and And Rachel, her name's Amanda. She is incredible. She let me have it in the most professional, awesome way. Totally recalibrated my brain. Kept my marriage intact, I think. And we ended up in an awesome house that took too long to buy

because the Nashville market's bananas. But having that person who was trained and a person of integrity and who knew the market sideways and forwards and would say, this is a bad offer. We're not doing this. And would say, hey, this is a really good deal. This is what y'all are looking for. Let's go for it. Yep.

So good. That's the thing about, I feel like, when it comes to our life, these parts of our lives that can be complicated and kind of intimidating. If there's people that work in them day in and day out, use it. Let them do it. Have a professional in your back pocket all the time. It's awesome. For sure. Hey, another hour in the books.

Thank you so much, Rachel. Thank you, James and Kelly and Bobby Bobbertson. This is The Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.