The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Get My Husband on Board? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 12, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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 symbol of choice. Christy Wright, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Mary in McAllen, Texas, starts off this hour. Hi, Mary, how are you?

Hi, Dave, how are you? Thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Okay, so I hopefully, God willing, about next month I should get Baby Step 3 done, six months of expenses for emergency fund. My question is, because my six months of expenses is basically the same as what's left to pay off on the mortgage, should I use that fund to pay off the mortgage early and then build up my six-month expenses all over again?

Because with that mortgage bill gone, it'll be a lot easier to build up six-month expenses. Unless you had an emergency in the meantime. Right. So I have one-month emergency expenses in cash here in my home, but the rest of it is the six months. So technically I'll have seven months. Okay. Well, I wouldn't have seven. I would have six as a max.

You can have anywhere in the range of three to six, but I would not go below three. Paying off your home is exciting, but it is not an emergency. Okay. And I don't want you to have a paid-for home and have an emergency and no money. Okay, I agree. So let's just take a little bit more time and get the house paid off. But if you want to dial it down to three months and you're comfortable with that from six or seven, then use that four towards the idea. Then, yeah, that could move you forward. I'd be okay with that from six or seven then use that four towards the idea then yeah that could

move you forward i'd be okay with that but i wouldn't go below three months emergency fund the baby steps are in that order for the reason that being debt free other than your home having your emergency fund in place that those are foundational things to create stability in your life when crap happens like pandemics. You know, this is your fault. You get people so excited, they just want to pay it off so fast. I have had this call every time I'm on the show with you. Can I use this money, this savings, whatever, to pay off my home early?

They go to these extremes. It's because you get them so motivated and you get them so worked up, and then they're just ready to do all the steps all at one time. This is your fault? It is my fault. It is my my fault so i get the opportunity to clarify what i really meant but yeah it's awesome that she's excited though you know like that's awesome and here's the thing the truth is if the if i was sitting in that situation that's the exact question i'd be asking because i'd want to be done yeah i want to go i want to run and see the finish line i want to run through that tape on the finish line i want to finish i want i want my time to be over i want to be done i want to move on to the next thing check that box you know

have accomplished that goal and and i am a uh rachel talks about in our new book uh know yourself know your money the scarcity people and the abundance people. Scarcity people do not ask this question. Yep. Abundance people ask this question. That's right. Because abundance people assume there's not going to be an emergency. That's right.

During the time that you don't have an emergency. That's right. You know, I saw Rachel put something on Instagram. This was a couple weeks ago, and it was a picture of a gas tank where it's like half empty, and it's like, I need to fill up. And then there's another gas tank that's on E, and it's like, I need to fill up. And then there's another gas tank that's on E. And it's like, I got plenty of room. That is me. I run on fumes. My husband's filling up if he's got any amount of gas.

It's so true. We just look at this same amount completely different. Isn't that funny? But that's a, you know, and again, there's nothing wrong with being an abundance person. There's nothing wrong with being a scarcity person. But you just always know who's asking that question. That's right. And you don't want to go too far on the extremes because that's where you find the toxicity on any of these tendencies that Rachel talks about.

And that's one of them. That's a good spectrum right there to think about when you're looking at questions like this. Is it because I'm an abundance person? Because abundance people like me and you, we think we can out-earn our stupidity. Oh, I told Matt the other day, I go, see, money's just so fluid. You just go get more. And he's like, what is this hand motion? What is this?

What is this thing? I don't know. Go get more. It goes out. It comes in. It goes out. It comes in. Go get more.

Go get more. He's like, yeah, no. He's like, who are you? I don't even know who you are. Right, exactly. But I love your answer there. I want to go back to that really quickly. I love your answer because it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

She's got seven months emergency fund. She can have three months emergency fund, take four months worth, put it towards the mortgage, and she's making a huge leap there. Almost there. If six months does it, four months is coming pretty close. That's right. So knock her out. Get her done.

William is with us in Jackson, Mississippi. Hi, William. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm planning on graduating from college this time next year, actually.

Congratulations. I'll be debt-free from student loans. Wow. I won't have a phone. Congratulations. Wow. Good. My question is, what should I do when looking for getting a new house or starting to look for my first home? Currently, I want to live outside the city limits because inner city Texas where I live is tremendously larger than it would be outside the city limits. So what do you suggest I should do for my first house?

Okay, well, you've established one thing you want. You know what you want. You want to be outside the city. The first thing I would tell you is you don't have to be in a hurry. I'm okay if you wait a year or two. I don't want you to be a renter your whole life, but you are not being like crazy man or you're not stupid or something by not buying a house immediately because the first couple years out of college is when is one of the most transitional times

of most people's lives new jobs new relationships all kinds of things going on and a home is a very permanent type decision it's something that's not easy to undo you can buy a car and get rid of a car pretty easy by the end of the week, right? But a house, you buy it, you're going to, you know, it takes a little while to get rid of that thing if you've got the wrong one or something. And so, you know, first thing I would do is not buy for the first six months out of school. Maybe the first year out of school. And maybe even more is okay. But at least six months, between six months and a year is fine, somewhere in there. The second thing, then, is when you get ready to buy a home, take your time in searching and really researching.

It's a large purchase, and when we teach business people in leadership decision-making skills. One of the things we teach them is he with the most options and the most information wins the negotiation and wins a good decision. If you look at two houses and you pick one out, that's like going on a date with a girl two times and getting married. Okay? And so, you know, you don't want to do that. We want to take our time, get to know this area, look at several properties. I'm looking at a second home situation right now, and I probably looked at 60 properties in that area. Of course, I enjoy it. I'm a real estate guy, but I look at a lot of properties.

I learned the square foot prices. I learned where the popular side of the tracks is and the popular side of those tracks is and down in the cul-de-sacs and what's the differences. I want to learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and then you'll make a better decision. In today's world, technology and innovation are crucial for any company's success. But the primary focus should always be on you and meeting your needs. That's why you get the best of both with Zander Insurance and their term life plans. Zander uses time-saving technology like over-the-phone applications, voice or electronic signature, text message updates, electronic policy delivery, and even plans with no medical exams to speed up the process of getting you the protection your family needs.

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Open phones at 888-825-5225. Looks like Austin is with us in Orlando. Hey, Austin, how are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, I have a quick question for you. So I'm on baby step number two, and I'm trying to, you know, create this budget and create it as accurately as possible. And I have a townhouse that is currently in Atlanta, or it is in Atlanta, that I'm renting out to my best friend. So I was

trying to see if I should sell that townhouse to speed up my debt-free journey, or should I just save it, put it in my baby steps, and use it as a retirement income in the future? I would sell it. And here's why. I own a bunch of real estate, and I own it all within 20 miles of my home. As far as rental real estate goes, that is. I mean, I've got a lake house that's further than that.

But I'm talking about stuff I rent out is all within 20 miles of my home. Long-distance landlording is very difficult to do well. You did not set out for this to be a rental property. This is a rental property by default. You used to live there, and you moved away to austin or you moved away to orlando and you kept it correct yeah so you would not be living in orlando and go hey i think i'm going to buy a townhouse in atlanta no you wouldn't do that for for all the reasons that you wouldn't do that are the reasons i would sell it

okay i've had some rental property long distance and it's how you get someone to change their harley oil in your living room it's just a problem it's hard to manage and so yeah you i mean you can do what you want to do if i were in your shoes that's what i would do i think this thing is more of a uh i mean other than the inconvenience of having to deal with some displace your friend or something like that but um it's more of a hassle for you than it is an actual financial blessing at the end of the day you can take the increased financial position that you're in and buy something down there when you're in a better shape to do it and have your rental properties that you use in retirement there in the city that you're going to spend your life in, or the next period of your life for sure.

And that's what I would do. Mark is with us. Mark is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hey, Mark, what's up? Hey, Dave, great to be on the show. I appreciate you taking my call. It's an honor. You're doing a great service.

Thank you, sir. How can we help? I have a daughter who is 15 and a half years old. She's going to be starting driver's ed here in the next couple of weeks. I'm in the market for a car for her. It's exciting and nerve wracking, of course. I'm in the market for a car for her. And the car that I'm looking at is fairly expensive. It's about a $14,000 car. I can afford it, so that's not an issue. I can pay cash, and that's not going to be a problem. But I've never done this before, and $5,000 car instead just to kind of start her off on the right foot as far as showing her how to value shop for a car? I mean, the idea here is I want to buy a car that's going to last forever.

I want all-wheel drive because I'm in Michigan. And I want a good, reliable car. But I don't know. That just seems like a lot of money, and I thought nobody knows better than Dave, so let me give him a call. But you're right about that, Mark. I'm not in those shoes yet. My kids are little. What did you pay for your first one when you were a teenage girl?

I think it was like $15,000. $1,000? I think, yeah, my mom. Oh, wow. That's what mom got for me. Was that on payments? No. It paid cash for it.

She paid cash for it. She went big. Yeah. Go big or go home. It's funny, though, because it's like, when you think about the, you do want something safe, you don't have to, it doesn't have to be, I don't think, $5,000 or $15,000. Like, I think you could find a middle range if that felt like too much money to you for whatever reason.

You know, one of the things that you talk about, Dave, is how you did it with your kids. And I'm Rachel's, Rachel and I are very good friends, so she's talked about it from the daughter's perspective of having a skin in the game when she helped pay for her car. But she treated her car differently because she had to pay for part of it. And I think there's something to that, regardless of the amount of money, where you take care of it, you value it. It doesn't just feel like, you know, you can just, you know, be careless with it. So I don't know. I mean.

Yeah, Mark, what we did was they paid whatever they saved up, we would match it. We had 401, Dave. I'm going to do that with my kids mark i'm serious this is and so i love this plan in rachel's case she saved up six thousand dollars and she got a twelve thousand dollar little uh 323 beamer uh which is pretty sweet little car actually not a bad first car at all and um so but she had saved up half of that, and I matched it. You're late in the game to start that process because you're on the cusp of buying the thing. Does your daughter have any money to put some skin in the game, to Christy's point? She does.

Frankly, I don't have her work too much. In my house, we really prioritize education and doing well in school. Working at this point, not quite as much. I mean, that's going to come and they do work. They do work some. But even when they do, there's not a whole lot of money necessarily involved. I mean, if I can have them doing, you know, volunteering and working here at home, I'm okay with that because money is not as much a concern, at least for me. So I guess the short answer is no, they don't have much in the way of savings. Okay.

Well, you need to do something emotionally so that when her friend drops a McDonald's large Coca-Cola in the passenger seat, that she cringes. You could have her even just pay for insurance, Mark, where if she speeds, gets a speeding ticket, that insurance goes up, she's paying for the insurance. She could work a day or two a month and make enough money to cover insurance. There's something very valuable about having some skin in the game. Overall, obviously, just in talking to you, you're making a lot of money.

You've got a lot of money. This is not an issue. It's not out of control. I do tell people that whatever kid car you get as your first one, you're going to screw it up. I mean, you're going to destroy it. Yeah, it's not going to be a forever car. I think he said that. I get that out of mean you're going to destroy it yeah it's not going to be a forever car i think he said that no yeah that's a joke that's not even good they didn't make one they make it halfway through college with their first cars um and so uh but four-wheel

drive in your area i don't have a problem with that something reliable i'm a problem with that something safe i'm a problem with that you can get all of those things for a lot of different price ranges but um you've got the money. It's not a problem. But I'm more concerned with her posture towards the car than I am the actual expense of it. But, I mean, we live in a neighborhood where people buy 16-year-olds $35,000 BMWs because they're brain damaged. Now, that's stupid, okay? And I would just call you on that.

But what you're describing is not out of line. It's not out of line with what we did, and it was a few years ago that we did it. And I'm going to send you a copy of Rachel and I's number one bestselling book, Smart Money, Smart Kids, which is how we taught. Rachel and I wrote it together. It was the number one bestseller. Her the daughter perspective me from the dad perspective it's how we taught our kids how to handle money and it discusses this car thing a lot in there so um like i said it was a number one and i'll send it to you i think you'll enjoy it you may pick up a couple of points

nothing you're doing there is wrong uh we teach in that book that regardless of whether they have to or not, our job as parents is to train children, as our friend Andy Andrews says, not to be good kids but to be great adults. In order to do that with money, they need to have four skills. They need to know how to work. And so I don't think your daughter's working enough. I would have her doing more work just because i want to teach her to work and um you worked yep rachel worked yep uh and um neither one of you had to from a standpoint your parents weren't

broke or something like that work give save and spend wisely uh spend wisely give wisely save wisely and work wisely, and work wisely. And learn to do all those things. And you're not doing those things because they create a lot of money, but because I want you to build those muscles. It's the habits. It's the I have to be on time, and if not, I have a boss to report to. You know, Dave, before I worked here, I worked for the YMCA.

I had a staff of teenagers. I would have sometimes the mom call me and tell me, you know, Johnny's sick. I'm like, Johnny needs to call. This is Johnny's job. You learn these. Yeah. Helicopter mom. Yeah, these skills for life.

It's not about the paycheck. It's about the skills for life. Johnny's going to be late. Johnny's little cell phone not working? I was like, Johnny's going to call me. Oh, yeah. Bust a little Johnny. That'd be, yeah.

But that's good stuff. Yeah. That's really good stuff. That's a funny story. This is The Ramsey Show. Christy Wright, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Sean is with us in Chicago. Sean, I see on my screen you're debt-free.

Congratulations. Yes, sir. Thank you, Dave. Well done. How much did you pay off? $32,124 in about 27 months. Very good. How long did this, you said 27 months, and what was your range of income during that time?

I float right around $90,000. I'm in sales, so I peak a little below that, a little above that sometimes. Gotcha. Well done. Well done. Thank you. What kind of debt was the $32,000? Oh, it was all the normal stuff.

Unfortunately, I had reached the stage of insanity and repeated this a few times, many more times than I care to admit. But this is the final time, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back. So it was a car. I had a couple of credit cards that went to settlements. I had a couple of family loans. I had some medical debt that came up for some minor surgery that I had. So, yeah, it was all over the board. Okay.

Wow. Well, good for you, man. So what started all this 27 months ago? Because you're a man on a mission. Yeah, I had a job where I had a company car, and because of some of the past history with my money, it was the only car that I had. So when I left that job, I needed a car. And unfortunately, I went out and financed one, which was the quote-unquote normal thing to do.

But thankfully, this time I went out and got a used one at least. And the bank charged me 17.24% interest on the car. And for me, that was an I've had it moment. And I started to think about my daughter and the amount of times that I've gone through this. And this was it for me. So August 4th, 2018, I wrote down my money makeover plan after reading your total money makeover book. And so I want to thank you for the process and the wisdom and the guidance that you've given me to help me change my life, really. Well, thank you. You did it.

I'm so proud of you. Very well done, sir. Very well done. How does it feel now that you're free for the last time? Well, it feels amazing. I feel kind of like the wave was crushing me before, and maybe I'm on top of the wave now, but I guess I'm still not used to not having any debt. I mean, I just finished paying it off in November, so I'm ready for the wave to help me build that fully funded emergency fund. So I'm still a little anxious, but I'm glad it's done. And baby step two is behind me. You've been so intense, it feels a little bit surreal when you get the other side of it.

It feels weird. I mean, unfortunately, Dave, I i mean i'm 48 my whole life i've been terrible with money uh and it was a lot of a lot of it was around cars you know just being done with cars and buying new cars and then rolling the you know that in the next cars and uh for whatever reason uh just throughout my life it it hasn't been my strong point. But it is now. My daughter, who's 16 in May, she's probably sick of hearing me talk about it. But, you know, I just, I'm so thankful for all the free information that the podcast provides and the EveryDollarPlus app is amazing. I've never budgeted before in my life until I started using EveryDollar.

And now I do it every month. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah, it's just part of my routine. It's a totally different way of thinking, and it's changed my life, honest to gosh. And now you get to keep your money, Sean. When you get paid, you get to keep your money. You're not sending it backwards to all these bills and all your hard work.

You actually get to keep it. And like you said, work on this baby step three. But, man, what an awesome moment where you get to let that sink in, that your money is yours. You get to keep it. So what do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Because you have been very successful. Yes.

For me, you know, this program has opened my mind, my heart to a lot of different things. I had to submit to a new way of doing things and really a proven plan. You know, so for me, that was the biggest thing was just kind of letting go. I have a side hustle where I install wireless security cameras, and I'll just give you a quick example of how my mindset has changed. At first, I was Davis, so I still had a couple of credit cards, and I went out and bought some cameras that were on sale because they were 25% off. And I thought that'd be great for my inventory, but I bought them on a credit card

and they sat on my dining room table. And I just said to myself, I wouldn't have done that had I not had the credit cards, you know, because I didn't have the cash to purchase them. So I took them back and that day I shredded the credit cards. There you go. And closed the accounts. Ding, ding. It's amazing how you make decisions differently when you take debt off the table, when it's not an option, just like you said, Sean, just like you did.

That's powerful, dude. And the most gratifying piece, Dave, is that I changed my family tree. Amen. So what's your daughter's name uh it's ashlyn ashlyn a-s-h-l-y-n-n okay so is she there to scream with you she is all right very good we've got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires and um you're definitely going to be one that's's the next chapter in your story, my brother. I'm proud of you. Very, very well done. All right, Sean and Ashlyn, $32,000 paid off in 27 months, making $90,000.

Changed forever. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Yeah, love it. That is awesome.

Love it, love it, love it. Congratulations. That's amazing. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means even if you mess up, you measure wrong, you pick the wrong color, it's ugly, they will remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run all the time, you

save even more. Always use the promo code RAMSY. Today's question comes from Al in New York. My wife and I are debt-free and have $200,000 between stocks and 401k. She's a real estate agent, and I'm a utility worker in New York City. Over the last year, I took my online fitness coaching business off the ground and its monthly income is sometimes higher than my regular job. We have a paid off house on the Greek Athens Riviera and my wife and I are considering moving there. She is Greek and would work in real estate there.

Should I quit my job and work on the business remotely? How do I get over the fear of losing security benefits and a guaranteed paycheck, as well as fear of failure? That's a lot. That's a lot going on there, Dave. Yeah, there's a lot happening there. Well, the problem is you are not changing one thing. You're changing everything.

Everything. I mean, she does not have a real estate career there. She'd have to start from scratch. You do not have a fitness career there. You'd be starting from scratch, except what you can do remotely. And so you're not giving up one job. You're giving up three when you leave. And starting fresh on things you know about but uh what i would consider is i would want to have some money saved uh to get you through the first six months

uh not the emergency fund in addition to that i'd want to have a nest egg of some kind uh i don't mind you giving up your secure job as long as you're moving to something where you have a proven track record of making money and you don't in Greece. Right. Right. And what's interesting is I love this last question. How do I get over the fear of losing security benefits and a guaranteed paycheck as well as the fear of failure?

You know, Dave, one of the questions I get all the time, and I know you've heard me talk about this, is how do I know is it fear or wisdom? If you've got some legitimate concerns in a basis form that's wisdom that's not fear you should just push into and do it scared this is like no let's pay attention and do this smart yeah um if you had the income from real estate and the fitness career going that was equal to what it is in the states it wouldn't be it'd be it would be an irrational fear. Right. But this is rational fear. Right. I'm afraid, reading your story.

I mean, I want you to have a lot more of these holes plugged before you do this move. This is The Ramsey Show. Our Scripture of the Day, Ecclesiastes 9.10. If the iron is blunt and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength. But wisdom helps one to succeed. Mother Teresa said, be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. And Christy, Stephen Covey used to talk about, don't be a tree beater. The story of the lumberjack with the sharpened axe can cut down six trees before lunch after lunch he was only

able to get down four trees the next morning he was only able to get down three trees because he never stopped and sharpened his axe and when you do things to get better in your life you're sharpening your axe so that you can keep your productivity up and even increase it yeah it's it's so hard to stop because we feel like I just need to do more. I just need to go faster. It's like just stopping, whether it's to rest, to listen to a podcast, read a book, go to a conference, to invest in yourself. It's amazing the dividend, the rewards, the payoff is there.

My friend Annie F. Downs, she says, I can do more in six days rested than seven days tired. And I've quoted that and I cling to that of what does it look like to, whether it's to rest or invest in yourself, to be able to actually do more in the long term. It's hard. Changes everything. Amy is with us in Minnesota. Hi, Amy.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for having me on. Sure. How can we help? So we are on Baby Step 6, and we have an opportunity to purchase the business that my husband works at probably in about two years here. It's a pretty expensive business,

and so what we've been talking about doing is paying the owner his salary over eight years, and then that would pay the business off. But I'm not sure if that's something that you would advise. I'm kind of thinking not. Yeah. So what is the profit the business makes a year? It is about $1.6 million.

Profit every year? I believe so, yeah. Okay, and so what is the owner's salary? $66,000. For eight years? It's not $1.6 million. His purchase price is $575,000 for the business. You can buy a business for $575,000 that has a net profit of $1.6 million. Why?

How? Something's wrong. Yeah. I guess maybe I'm confused what you're asking. Yeah. So he told us that the purchase price would be $575,000, and that's for the business with some blue sky. The business with what? I'm sky. The business with what?

I'm sorry, the business with what? With some blue sky or the additional. Okay, but the business has a gross revenue of 1.6, not a net profit. Yeah, the gross revenue yearly is about 1.6. Now, what is the net profit? That I'm not sure. Okay. Because if you're spending 1.7 to get 1.6, this business has a value of zero.

Oh, yeah. We would spend, well, we would spend five. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about his expenses, which you don't know what they are because you don't know what the net profit is. Oh, his expenses. Yeah. So his expenses are probably about $400,000.

No, they're not. Okay. Which would mean he makes $800,000 profit, and he's going to sell you the business for less than one year's profit. There's something wrong with that. Yeah, he wouldn't do it. The numbers just don't make sense. Because the phrase blue sky means he's trying to get you to pay for what you might grow it to, one year's profit there's something wrong with that yeah he wouldn't do it the numbers because the phrase blue sky means he's trying to get you to pay for what you might grow it to and i'm not

paying him a dime for that okay his your blue sky is your blue sky you don't pay him for your blue sky that you create that you're going to be the one to create he's already had his storm and his blue sky and he gets to get paid for what the net profit is. So you need to get your numbers together and figure out exactly what the business is profiting because that's how it's valued, not what its gross revenues are. So if it's something where the business is profiting and it makes sense. Yeah, I'm kind of guessing this business is making about $100 or $200 a year.

Okay. That's my guess. And that would make a $575 price somewhat accurate. Okay. Okay. And so then would paying him his salary yearly be reasonable, or is that still... No, if you're paying him $575, I want to get it out of the way. What I want to do is get you and your husband...

Your husband paid a salary. He wanted him to pay himself a salary after the owner's gone that you guys can barely live on. And I want all the rest of the profit committed to the former owner until he gets to $575,000. And so let's pretend. Let's pretend the business makes $200,000. What's your husband make now? business makes $200,000. And what's your husband make now? He makes $90,000. And the owner makes $66,000.

Yes. He's commissioned. They're flat rate commissioned. So he makes, you know, as he turns more hours, he makes more, basically. Yeah, you guys really need to learn about what's going on here. There's so many squirrels in this cage. What is the business? It's a body shop.

Yeah, there's so many squirrels in this cage, I'm not sure if you all know what's happening here. I mean, this is just, there's so many things backwards that I can't tell you what to do. But, okay, let's go back let's pretend that you get into this thing and you actually discover real numbers not people making up crap and this is the kind of a business that people make up crap in all the time okay so real cash profit is 200k your husband's currently making 90 then i would cut your husband's income if i were you while you own the business down to about 60 or 50 or something like that y'all live on that and give this owner 150 or 120 000 a year until you get to 575 and that's going to take you

about five years i'm now not thinking this business is making that much, and I'm now not thinking that this business is worth $575. I think you're overpaying for it possibly. So you really need to get into it and figure out what this thing is worth because I think I've got two old boys here working on cars and making sales, and I don't think anybody's doing accounting in this thing, not anybody I've talked to, anyway. So, all right, Heather is with us in Massachusetts.

Hey, Heather, how are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks so much for taking my call. I'm so excited to be talking to you guys right now. You too. How can Christina help? So, my husband and I have been following your plan. I admittedly have to say we've been a little Davish,

but we have paid off about $46,000 since we started, and we're technically somewhere between baby step two and three. We're trying to get out of two car leases right now. My problem is my husband is kind of on board. He's not a hundred percent on board. He's not refuting your plan. He thinks he sees a success, but he just won't sit down and do an actual budget with me. And it's so frustrating because we're trying to make these upcoming decisions with getting out of our leases and talking about our financial goals. And, you know, the other day I said to him, I'm like, you know.

Christy, how do you get him to sit down? Yeah, I mean, I said to him, what, Dave? Christy? This is important to me. If you look your husband in the eyes and you say, hey, look at me, this is important to me, and he still won't sit down. You've said it before, Dave. You don't have a finance problem.

You have a marriage problem. If something is deeply important to you, Heather, and your husband will not meet you there, will not listen, will not acknowledge, will not engage, that's a bigger problem. But he hasn't heard that. You guys are just frenetic. You're all running around in circles over there chasing your tail.

You're doing Ramsey-ish. Nobody's committed to anything. And so you're just going, hey, we need to sit down and do a budget. Well, yeah, later. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah. And there's no sit down, turn off the television, turn off the screens, put the kids in bed, look deeply into his eyes and go, this matters.

Listen. He hadn't heard that yet. Yeah. And what's interesting, too, is sometimes I feel like that if we can paint the picture of what we're hearing, what we're seeing, experiencing when they don't listen, sometimes they get it more to say something like,

Hey, when you don't acknowledge this, I feel like I'm not valued. I feel like you don't see me. I feel like I'm not important to you. That'll get their attention. Oh, you are.

Well then sit down. Yeah. Yeah. Then show it. This matters. This matters. This is a big deal to me and you got it but you have to turn off all the buzzing and dinging and the screaming and then

you can talk that puts this hour of the ramsey show in the books thanks to james childs our producer kelly daniel our associate producer and phone screener i'm dave ramsey your host we'll be back 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 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.