The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Get My Spouse on Board? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is the Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your life. We want you to win in your money, win at work, and win with your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. That's 888-825-5225. Jade Warshaw is with me. I'm Ken Coleman, and we are together for you this hour.

Jade will lead off on your money questions, and I'm here to help you at work, and you're winning with your income. How do I make more income? I want to get promoted. I want to start something. I'm here to help with those questions because we want you to increase that income. Let's go to Hayden, who starts us off this hour in Denver, Colorado. Hayden, how can we help?

Hey, guys. So I'm 18 right now. I'm attending a state college. I'm racking up about $40,000 in student loans a year. I've always wanted to be a veterinarian, which would be another $250,000 student debt. So I have about $500,000 student loans at the end of this. I've started changing my thinking towards opening up my own dog grooming business. Startup costs would be about $40,000. I could maybe make up to $50,000 a year. I was wondering what you guys would think about me

dropping out. Well, I'm not your dad, but I would drop out once I knew if I should drop out. And so just because we feel a pivot going away from veterinarian, I'd want to walk through all the different options. I think you've got a love of pets. That's probably away from veterinarian, I'd want to walk through all the different options. You know, I think you've got a love of pets. That's probably driving this veterinarian choice. Is that fair? Yeah, that's for sure. And then now you went, man, I'm staring at that mountain of debt, which by the way, just a quick commentary, Jade, it just pisses me off for this young man, for him, that that's the kind, that's the barrier to get into to be a vet it's just it's

a racket it's an absolute racket and it's sad it's really sad but we won't that's a whole separate phone call um so so you started thinking all right uh what else can i do with animals and the dog grooming thing has presented itself how why is it forty thousand dollars in the startup cost what do you what are you paying 40 grand for to be a dog groomer it would be supplies maybe a van to drive around and do it and um just overall bills and stuff yeah can i suggest that you do two things in the near future before you drop out number one one, I want you to actually go spend some time, coffee or lunch with, I'd like to see two dog groomers at minimum and dog groomers that aren't starving. And I mean this. Dog groomers who have some margin and they're

making enough money and you can, by asking just questions, how much do you pay yourself? What are your revenues? Somebody will share that with you. And I would do some homework on that. I'd want to talk to a minimum of two and learn everything there is about the actual business. That's the homework assignment one. Homework assignment two is to actually dig into with them and just kind of looking at the one ads what kind of basic qualifications do you need to get hired as an actual dog groomer uh you may not believe this or not jade but we take our beloved dog our golden doodle ellis you know how fabulously handsome he is we take him to pet smart it's not some fancy place and they do a great job give him a little shampoo give him a little trim and he's a handsome fella and so I would start going you know what what's the barrier for entry just for to become a dog groomer and learn the skill of actually dog grooming test it out do I like this

would I want to do this in the long term because I would want you to get paid by somebody else to do it before you ever launch your own business. And for heaven's sakes, buying a van that you may end up living in down by the river if the grooming doesn't work out. Look, I saw a groomer the other day in his van. Somehow the dog had got loose and he was chasing the dog through the neighborhood trying to get whoever's pet back. My contribution to this conversation is probably uh take it take it for what you will but if you i almost wonder um if there's a way because just because you can't

be a veterinarian right now doesn't mean sometime down the line you can't pay your way through this education so to ken's point i'm wondering you know you're you're um shadowing these groomers and maybe you you decide yes i love being a dog groomer. And on down the line, you start that business and you start making some money. And it's in your mind that a percentage of what I make, it goes into my veterinarian fund and my education fund. It's just because your dream is deferred

doesn't mean that it has to be completely denied. And so I do want to put that out there. And you're just being smart right now and realizing I can't afford this right now. It doesn't mean that it can never be completely denied. And so I do want to put that out there. And you're just being smart right now and realizing I can't afford this right now. It doesn't mean that it can never happen. Yeah, I love that. Hayden, questions about that? No, for sure.

That was some great advice. Yeah, go get paid, man. Go get paid to groom dogs or work with animals. Hey, here's the other thing. One other homework assignment. You live in the Denver, Colorado area. A lot of outdoor animals opportunities. I'd be looking at just what are some other things that I never thought of where I could make decent money. You know, maybe you could make, and I'm making this up, Hayden,

but maybe you can make north of $20 an hour. Taking care of horses on a ranch. You know, just get in the animal game. There are a lot of different ways to make money at your age, by the way, because entry level is wide open. They need people. And I'd get in the game of just helping animals, caring for animals, and just learn a lot, stack cash to Jade's point, because maybe you look up 10 years from now and you've found another way that's not $250,000.

By the way, on that point, too, while I'm adding things. Add more, Ken. Like, dig in. Are you telling me, Hayden, and I don't know, is every veterinary school in this great country $250,000? I'm going to do some Google right now. Oh, I love when you get on the Google. I do.

What do you know, Hayden? Is every veterinary school that expensive? Very near to that. What a racket. Yeah. Nice. What a racket. That's a shame, man. $250,000. Well, here's the deal. Do the math on how long it would take you to save up $250,000 realistically. Run some different numbers. And I do like the idea of where there's a will, there's a way. And 10 years from now, maybe you got all that cash stacked up. But in the meantime, we've already given you advice on what we would do.

Jade, I got to tell you, I'm going to go on a mini rant here. And I'd love for you to weigh in. Do it. Do you think, because I know you have no problem shooting me straight, do you think that I might be right that it is a racket that they're charging that much? Does it really cost these veterinarian schools or colleges, does it really cost them that much that they have to charge a quarter million dollars to train someone i don't buy that for a second i think these folks just care about profit i think so too

they know they know that because animal lovers are some special people with big hearts i think they're ripping people off 100 they are okay what did you find so we're going through the top 10 cheapest vet schools number Number 10, Virginia Maryland Regional College. Resident four-year tuition, $100,629. Number nine, Texas A&M. Resident four-year tuition, $99,000. Let's see, $929. So it might require him moving, getting a residence.

So they are less than $250,000. Yeah, they're out there. You just got to live in the right place, live there to get your residency, you know. All right. Well, that's a lot more doable, Hayden. Washington State University, $102,000. Is it getting cheaper than that? University of Illinois, $97,000. Oh, we're getting cheaper as we go. I like it. I thought there might be some options. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down.

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CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back, America. You are listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me. And the phone number is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Today's question of the day comes from Jeff in Pennsylvania. I'm 32, and my girlfriend and I are expecting our first child, looking forward to a wedding

next year. Financially, we're in a good position, but I've fallen out of love with my career. I have about $60,000 in savings and $190,000 in stocks and IRA. My only debt is $138,000 on the house, and my girlfriend has $25,000 in student loans. My current salary is $200,000 a year, but I'm miserable and burned out with the baby on the way. Leaving work and taking a pay cut is terrifying for me. I feel like I need to take a few weeks or months to let my mind heal and get back to feeling like myself, but can I afford to do so? A lot going on here, Jade. I would take a couple of weeks or maybe a full week to kind of get clear. I don't think your mind will necessarily heal in that amount of time, depending on what's going on with this burnout. But I do think it's hard to make a decision like this to make a large pivot when you're burned out. It's like you've got to get, if it's two days, three days, or a full week, Jade, I'd like to see him get to a place where

he can fully identify what's causing the burnout. So a couple of questions, you know, is it stress? If it's stress, what's causing the stress or who's causing the stress? How much of it is his, he has some control over versus he doesn't have any control. So we've got to dig into what's going on with the burnout. I think the answer is he's fallen out of love because I actually agree with that. I mean, that's really at the heart of what I teach. I think that one of the causes of burnout is no juice, no passion for the work. So if that's the case, we've got to figure out first, Jade, well, what do I love and what's it going to take to get there? We've got a baby on the way and we've got an income. And so I want him to sit still and say, all right, I'm grateful for the money I make now.

We've got to switch our mindset. I'm grateful for what I have. I now know, okay, I just don't love the work. So before I even make any moves, we want to make a strategic move to something that I do love. And we've got to figure out, A, what that is. B, what does it take to get qualified if I'm not qualified? How much that's going to cost and how long that will take. And that takes some maturity, but that's how we bridge that change. But right now we've got a baby on the way and there's some

financial stuff there. So we don't want interruption in income. So I would say, no, he cannot afford to. Yeah, not not yet otherwise he's running from something without running to something and i think that's a very dangerous position because you're kind of desperate at that point you're you're acting out of desperation i would love and and i'm just going to throw this out here for us to come back later but what do you make what do you think makes somebody lose their juiciness like when you when you something, you're excited to be there. And what makes that go away? Well, it's a good question.

So assuming you had it initially. So let's say at some point you loved the work. We see this a lot with teachers that'll call my show. So what changed for them is they didn't lose, in this case, the juice for instructing. They still love teaching and instructing. They just don't like where they're doing it because the environment is toxic. So, you can absolutely love the work you do, but hate the place that you do it. And that creates confusion because what happens is, and I'm glad you asked me this, you keep going into a place that is unhealthy and you love the work. the unhealthiness makes you question the love

yeah but you never lost the love of the work you you just can't even focus on the love for the tree because it sucks so bad to be there and i think if that's if i had that love initially. Now, a lot of times people think they had love for it and it was just like. And you got to, you know what I mean? Because it's kind of like if we take it back to relationships. It's the idea of it that they like. 100%. Or they really like this person. But when things happen and when relationships, when the rubber meets the road, you're kind of like, I don't like them so much right now. If you don't love them, you won't stay.

That's a word. But there are a lot of days where I know I'm only speaking for Stacey, but where Stacey does not like me. A lot of days. No comment. Well, no, you know it's true. I do know it's true. It's almost 26 years. You don't get here without love.

I know, that's right. Because there are a lot of days where there's not like.'s a fact come on and talk about real things i'm trying to keep it real you are you are now i've never not liked stacy i've loved her every day i just want to put that out there that's a lie that's a lie that's a lie here it is i'm so glad you said that oh Oh, I tried to get through that. I tried to navigate that. Did I do okay? You did good. You're right. The point is you can be infatuated with work.

And then, like you said, when the real stuff starts hitting, it's like you make that choice. Just like in marriage, I am choosing every day to love this person, right? That's right. And that's, man, that's a good analogy, Ken. Yeah, that's just real. And by the way, in the work, and we'll wrap this up, in the workplace, you've got to be okay saying, huh, I never really loved this.

And I'm not ashamed to admit it, but a lot of people will stay in a role, in a career that is sucking the life right out of them. Yeah, because they invested time and money. And they're afraid to say, hey, I chose a college. I chose a major. I chose this company. And I've been lying to myself for a decade or longer.

And that's okay to say, look, it's not for me. Life is too short to not do work you love. Listen, luckily God works all these things together. For the good of those who love Christ. So from one marriage thing to another, how about this one? Daryl's got a question. I feel like we're going to stay in this area. Daryl in Lubbock, Texas. What's going on? How can we help? Oh, pretty good. How are y'all?

We're doing well. What's happening today? Oh, nothing. I was just got a question. How do I get my wife to be on board with the baby steps and how do I approach it? Oh man, that is such a loaded question. We get it all the time. So tell me let's let's diagnose this a little bit have you talked to her at all about the baby steps and if so tell us how she reacted uh she uh gets she says she gets annoyed and rolls her eyes and walks off oh wow the roll the eyes and the walk off jade and okay have you been able to identify which part of it is is getting getting stuck in her craw is it the budgeting part is it the we have to pause investing to pay off the debt part like do you know which part of it really just grinds her gears

uh it's mostly just i mean i'm trying to pay off debt and then um long story short i mean i take care of my niece nephew and it's just really overwhelming and i know she's i'm always on the road for a month or two months at a time so i know she's single parent and it's overwhelming for her and so when i talk about this when i'm on the road she just she doesn't want to talk about money period so she thinks that if you guys go down this path a lot of the bulk of their responsibility is going to fall on her because you're off on the road. You've got the niece and nephew.

That's also part of the mix. And she's just like, I don't want to put anything else on my plate. Is that does that cover it? Basically. OK. Listen, I can I can sympathize with that. I think right here we're talking about right now. All this is to her is you having heard something on the

radio or you having heard something on a podcast and you're running back and telling her i found this thing and i think we ought to do it and she's like oh my gosh like we already have i think you nailed that and you know what it is it's one more hard thing and she's going bro uh i can't do one more hard thing yeah i feel that she's trying to keep her nose above water, it feels like. Does that sound right? Pretty much. I mean, I know Dave always says don't shove it down her throat, but I don't try to shove it down her throat. I say, hey, like this morning I have, what is it called,

mortgage life insurance on my house, and Dave doesn't recommend having that. So I'm like, hey, when I get back home, I'm going to cancel that. And she's just like. Well, that's a problem. Just do it. that's a problem you're she sees that's security whenever you say the word insurance mortgage all those are security things and when you run home and like honey i'm gonna cancel it she's like what like you're canceling it maybe lead out with hey um uh i i learned that the insurance that we have is super expensive and there's a cheaper one out there. Here's what it is. You show it to her and you explain, hey, if we do this term life policy,

it's going to be a lot better and da da da da da. And then I'm going to put this in place. And once that's in place, we can let the other one go. So a lot of this is how you talk about it. And we're going to make sure that you get set up with Financial Peace University. You and your wife do this together. And that way, Daryl, you're not the one having to deliver all the news. Dave and the personalities will do it for you. Dave, what do you think? Can we get him a session with one of our financial coaches as our gift, just to let that coach kind of be that middle person?

I love it. All right, so let's give him a financial coaching session as well. That's going to really help kind of ease you in with your wife on this. But you're a good man. Hang in there. Take it slow. She's got a lot going on. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman and Jade Warshaw helping you through this hour. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Michelle is joining us now in Jacksonville, Florida. Michelle, how can we help?

Well, I have an adult son who's in a situation where he has a house with his girlfriend, and they have a good interest rate and a really good payment, and they broke up, and so she wants him to refinance the house in his name, and he has bad credit. I put $40,000 down on the house for them. And he wants me to either help him to get the house by co-signing for it or for me just to buy it outright. And then he rents from me. But I've been helping him his whole life. And he's like 35.

And I just don't know. I'm a widow. And I don't know when to say. I guess he has a history of mental illness and a substance abuse that i'm kind of you're scared feeling like i should yes i'm scared he finally got a good job really good job and he but he can't manage his money yeah well don't buy this house for him do not do not put yourself in this situation but i also i understand you're scared but i think this is the moment where he's looking to you for direction anyway.

If he's got a really good job, you're just going to sit down with him and be okay to let him know why you're not doing it and what his real options are. And these two young people are on the – well, they're not even that young, for heaven's sakes. They're on the home. Both of their names are on the home? Both of their names are on the deed, but only his girlfriend's name is on the loan, so she's suing him to force him to refinance the house or move out,

and he doesn't have the credit to refinance it. Well, then it's a really clear decision. He moves out. Yeah. He moves out. I'm just so scared this is his only chance in life to own a house. No, no, no, no, no, no. Of course it's not. What is the evidence that this is the only time he could ever own a home?

Well, he makes about $60,000 a year, and they each pay half of the mortgage payment, so they each pay $750,000. And he says he can't afford child support. They have a child together. He pay half of the mortgage payment so they each pay 750 and he says he can't afford child support they have a child together he can't afford a mortgage payment he can't afford a new car his car's about to die on the side of the road he wants me to co-sign for a car too credit card is max no money in savings but i don't want him to be homeless and on the side of the road with no car and like i just have fears i get it and get it he's not here to like allay my fears well there's so many other options though you're choosing options that put burden on you and you called because quite frankly you're exhausted at the idea of doing this the very idea of doing this

is exhausting and it's probably equal parts scary and the only reason you're even considering this and not saying hard pass and immediately is because you're worried about your boy he's had a lot of struggles and you feel like but i gotta tell you i think this is a blessing in disguise he's got a new job a good paying job sounds like there might be some growth opportunity they break up yeah he needs to get out of this house because it's the only shot he's got to be able to afford the child support. Because he doesn't have any shot on that. The judge is going to decide that.

But he says that rent is higher than his mortgage payment. Not if he's sharing. No, not if he's renting with one or two other guys that are single. And believe me, there's plenty of those in Jacksonville, Florida. This is where you can mama him in the sense of showing him adult options and saying one of the options that you don't have is me. So here are the other options. Yeah. He's even down to saying he can't afford to move the stuff out of his house or afford a rental storage unit. I wish he was on the phone because this guy needs a good sip of grown-up juice.

Did you say that you put the $40,000 down for this house that the girlfriend basically has the right of ownership to? Well, they each have a 50-50 ownership share. And he was living at my house in the basement paying no rent. And he had trashed my basement because he was on substances at that time. So I honestly just wanted him out, and for my peace of mind, I put down $40,000, and it was in 2022. And you're not getting that money back. No, and he held that over my head and said,

I hate to see you lose your $40,000. Let's refinance this together. Now he's pissing me off. I felt a little bad for him. But now this is a kid who's manipulating you, and you know why he's doing it? No. Because it works. Yeah, it always has worked. I operate on guilt a lot. Today's the day. 35-year-old boy needs to understand it's time to be a 35-year-old man, and the best way he's going to do that is you have to look at him and go, and by the way, I'd be okay being really raw and sharing your emotion. Share with him why you've

done this in the past because of guilt. And now you've got to earn this and go, I can't do it anymore. I can't, it's not good for me and it's not good for you. And I know deep down, you don't want me to hurt me. I don't know, Jade, I don't have anything but tough love here. What do you? I have nothing but tough love. I'm holding my tongue. My son is young and you're further along in life than I am. And so there's part of me that just wants to wallop this dude. But I also understand that there's, you know, like there's motherly love here. And so I get that. I can understand that there's this pull that you probably have to want to get involved.

But I also feel like you can't like you got to just let this guy do what he's going to do. And all you can do is pray. And, and, you know, you know what he needs, Michelle, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you the one thing I think you can and should do in this situation. We've already told you what not to do. I think he needs belief from mama, not help. Oh, that is probably something I've never really offered. That's true because I'm always operating on fear and guilt. And by the way, you have, and listen to me, Michelle, I say this,

I say this with a father's heart and I say this from my own experience. Mm-hmm. He needs belief. No more help. Yeah. You need to sit down with him and tell him what he should do and show him that he can do it. And then you need to walk away. Okay. Okay. Thanks for taking my call.

I think you need to be his number one cheerleader. I love that, Ken. Oh, that's so good. It's so good. It's tough. It's so good. It's tough. It's so hard because we want to help our kids. My goodness. I mean, it's just so hard.

I get it. I truly get it. Yeah. But at this point, I mean, and that's the rub, right? He's 35. He's not a boy. I honestly think when it comes to this house, I think they just need to sell it. I was going to suggest that. And get whatever the profit is, give it it back to mama she's the one that put the money down to begin with i was gonna ask you but see you get the girlfriend involved and her name's on it

so she gets all the dough she's on it yeah they need to get a lawyer involved that this is what broke this is what yeah but mama does mom is already if she wants her money back if she cares anything she might not care. She might be like, I washed my hands of the situation. I'm out. But if she's like, man, I'd love to get my $40,000 back. I'd love to, you know, talk to somebody to see how this happens. I just don't want her racking up $10,000 in legal fees.

And that doesn't take long. But I like what you're saying. But I think this is the get out of jail free card for this guy. I wish we had him on the phone and say, I know you guys broke up and that sucks. I know you got a kid. But the girlfriend's going to want his name off the deed. I'm not exactly sure what the process for that, the best process for that would be. But this is a chance for him to start over.

Yeah. Meaning he's already got the breakup. 100%. He's got a good job. Yeah. But I don't buy this rent. It's so expensive. He's manipulating there.

He's manipulating. He's got child support staring him in the face, Jay. He's got a lot. He needs to make more than $60,000, and he's just got to get his life together. Yeah, he's got to grow up. My guy's got a lot to get together. By the way, Jade, I'm going to give it to you.

We've got about a minute and a half. This is a great time for new listeners and viewers that come in all the time. I want you to tell them why this call is exhibit A on why we shouldn't buy a house with somebody we're not married to. Go ahead. Because there's no clear rights. Like I said, with this, it's like, okay, both their names on the deed, one name's on the

title, mom put the money down. Like there's such a tangled web here and it's going to take a lot to untangle. That's why I said, if I was mom and I wanted to see about this, it's going to take a lot to untangle that's why i said i if i was mom and i wanted to see about this it's like now you got to involve a lawyer in a different sort of way there's no clear uh division of of assets and so that this is just what is known as a hot steaming pile ken that's what this is and so it's it's. Don't play house. Don't play. I haven't heard that in a long time. That's what this is. I know, but that's how I know your dad's a preacher. Oh, a hundred percent. That's true. It's true. I can't get it. You can take the preacher's kid

out of the church. You take the church out of the preacher's kid, right? But you know, that's what happened here. We love each other. Let's go in and do this house and now look at it. You know what? They would benefit from some counseling too. They really would. The two of them, mom and son together, mom on his own, on her own. I just saw flashes of a reality show where you're coming in and telling these two, get your stuff fixed

and just love each other and get married and get this nonsense over with. I'm not a counselor, but I can send them to better help and they can help. I think you could be a matchmaker. You think I could? Sit down and be quiet. Let Jay fix this.

Act like you got some home training. This is the Ramsey Show. All right. Are you in the Baby Step 4 range, really close to finishing Baby Step 3 3 or you're in Baby Step 4, maybe you're past that, but you'd like to just learn from Dave Ramsey himself on how he invests, then you're going to love this new event. It's coming up. It's called Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials.

At this event, Dave's going to do a deep dive into his investing strategy and for the first time ever share his personal playbook, including how he buys real estate. So I know this is always a hot topic, Jade, on TikTok and Instagram, all these people giving how to buy real estate and get rich. Dave does it very differently, and he's going to be sharing that. This is a two-night virtual event happening May 21 and 22. And you can watch it anywhere you've got a device or a computer. You'll learn how to maximize your 401k and mutual funds, Dave's personal strategy, as I mentioned, for real estate, and then investing

trends to follow and which ones to avoid. It's a $249 ticket. You can sign up at ramsaysolutions.com slash events. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash events. It's Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials. And I think our buddy George Campbell is going to have a cameo as well. A camel cameo, I like to call it. So that's always an extra bonus. All right, let's go to Birmingham, Alabama, where Catherine is waiting for us. Catherine, how can we help today? Hey, good afternoon. So I just had a quick question for you guys. My husband and I are anticipating a good quantity of inheritance to come in in a few months or so, possibly. But we just want to have a plan for this money if it does come through. And so we're currently like in the middle of baby step four. So like my husband is investing like 10% in retirement. Um,

and I'm working on getting my 401k set up right now with my newer workplace. Um, so, you know, we're debt free. We have our larger emergency fund saved up. Um, but our question is, do we, would y'all recommend throwing a hundred percent of this cash toward our mortgage um which is about i mean i guess we owe maybe like 260 at this point 275 i know that's bad i don't know the exact number but um would you guys throw it 100 of the mortgage or would y'all recommend investing in the home itself to do some addition

in the attic space? So adding a bedroom, adding a bathroom. We currently live in a three bed, two bath. So, you know, our home's worth about $340,000. But we're looking at, you know, a large return on our investment if we were to add that bedroom and add that additional bathroom. How much money are you, how much money do you think that is coming your way? And I also want to know, you said it may or may not, so I want to know more. So it's contingent on, so it's a family property that my in-laws own and it's potentially about to potentially about to be purchased and if it is if the home gets purchased then it gets split between the grandkids which I'm married to one of and so

it would be between 20 and 30,000 is what we're expected to receive so yeah so that would be about what we would be looking at if the home sold you know and we just want to have a plan if it does we don't you know we don't want to get this chunk of cash and not have a plan. 100% I like that way of thinking. Yeah, you know, baby steps wise, you know, you said baby step four. Obviously, I want you to be at the point where you're investing 15%, not 10. And then, you know, four, five, and six, it's simultaneous. And so I do want you being intentional about putting extra towards the mortgage, kids college.

But it's not to say that every windfall you get, all of it must go on the mortgage. You know, you can look at this and go, OK, what's what's a fair split here? Do we want to put half of it on the on the mortgage and do we want to use half to do some additions? Is it enough to you know, if we do half, is it enough to complete the addition? Do we only want to put 10 percent of this on the mortgage? And so you guys have some freedom here. How much, how much is it going to cost to do what you say you want to do to the house? I haven't gotten estimates yet. Um, but my dad works in construction and so he's, he's familiar, you know, with roundabout pricing and he's like, I really feel like you could, you know, your attic space's familiar, you know, with roundabout pricing. And he's like, I really feel like, you know, your attic space is already suitable to finish out.

So he thinks that it can be done for, you know, around 20 to 30 for what we're wanting. So it would take all of it. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. If you are if you're already putting let's say let's say you called and you said, Jade, listen, we're investing 15%. We pay an extra mortgage payment every month, or we pay whatever, X amount of dollars extra to our mortgage every month, and we're getting this extra $30,000. I would love, we've been wanting to do this addition. It's the perfect amount of money. I would not be mad at that.

I would love to see that you're putting some additional regularly towards your mortgage or you have a rhythm, whether it's once a quarter, whatever your rhythm is that you're paying extra towards your mortgage. I'd love to see that you're doing that as a caveat to just dumping this whole thing on it, dumping the whole thing into additions. OK, yeah, so that's that's me, but don't lose sleep over it. I'm not going to come haunt you if you if't lose sleep over it. I'm not going to come haunt you if you, if you don't on this, I'm not going to come haunt you. There's some things I will show up in your dreams, but not on this one. I like that. The ghost of Jade. Don't take out a heel. I'm a little scared. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm a little scared. Justin is up next in Rochester, New York. Justin, how can we help? Hey, how you doing? Good. So the point that

I'm at is, you know, I went through divorce a couple of years ago and things are still doing pretty good financially, but I'm very concerned with the, you know, just that everything ends up on my shoulders. And I have, I have two young girls that I have shared custody of and I want to keep everything, you know, great for them, keep the house over their head. So I have, I have two young girls that I have shared custody of, and I want to keep everything great for them, keep the house over their head. So I have money in cash and savings, but I'm worried that I'm just keeping too much of it liquid, and I'm afraid to do anything with it. And I don't feel like I have good quality of life because I'm sitting on this cash, and I'm like, I think I need to get this stuff out and working for me. Um, but I'm just concerned too, because as I look at my finances, you know, over like longterm, but like, I don't see it growing as much as I want it to. And I'm, I'm just nervous to like put this money out there to work for me. And I'm really opposed to the idea

of like, you know, borrowing against like home equity and things like that. But I have a lot of resources. I'm 42. Okay. We've got about two minutes, so we're going to ask really fast questions so that Jade can give you some advice here. Do you have any debt at all? Just the mortgage. Just the mortgage.

How much cash have you stacked? I got about 84K in cash, like not investments, just like in checking and savings. Are you investing anything like a 401K or anything up to this point? Yeah, I have about 200K in a 401K, 21K in a Roth. Is it a rhythm though? Is it a regular rhythm like you're doing? What percentage a month? So I think right now my 401k is at 7%. And the reason for that is

because I got HCE capped. I think the HCE cap, that's the highly compensated employee cap, where they basically just said, Hey, you, you can't put any more in your 401k. We're knocking you down to 7%. So I mean, that was around the time that I went 140K. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. So, I'm right around like the threshold. So, like every year, like I have to wonder, like, am I going to get HCE capped again? You know? But what you're, you called because you feel like there's 80,000 you've put away. It's just all fear because you've got the two girls and you're just being safe, you're a good dad, and you'd like to do more with that $80,000. Is that right?

Yeah. I think I'm probably doing the wrong thing by having it sit there. So I don't know if I'd try to start bumping my 401k or put a bulk against it. I think it's wrong for me to sit on that money. I would agree with that to a certain extent. We would suggest having three to six months of expenses saved. So for you, what's six months of expenses? Because for you, I would do six months. You've got two girls, single dad. What's six months of expenses for you? Probably at least 30K, I would say. Okay. So we're going to make the other 54. And if you're getting capped, you've got your 401K over there with your business, you can do 7%. That's great. You should also be doing a Roth IRA. So I want to make sure that

we're getting you at least a 15%, whether it's a mix of your 401k, Roth IRA, and even if you go over to a brokerage or an HSA, those are all really good places for you to go one after another. And then as far as this $54,000 is concerned, I would get with a smart Vestor pro because when you're out in the market, then you've got a lot of different funds that you can choose from and they're going to help, you know, uh, which funds are best, but yeah, get it into, uh, get it into a brokerage, get it somewhere where it's, it is, uh, gaining a return for you because sitting in your checking account, that ain't it. No, love it.

Good stuff, Jay. Thanks again for the call. Uh, Justin, you're a good dad. You're a good dude. You't it. No. Love it. Good stuff, Jade. Thanks again for the call, Justin. You're a good dad. You're a good dude. You're doing really well. All right. That's going to do it for this hour. Thank you, Jade Warshaw.

Thanks to James Childs and our team for keeping us on the air. This is your show, America. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you.