The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Start Building Wealth? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Take our Audience Survey & Enter to Win a $500 Visa Gift Card: Click here to take the survey   Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze discuss: How to build wealth, Refinancing a house, Being debt-free but still stressed out about money.   Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6   Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, 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. We help people build wealth, do work that they actually love, and create real, amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author,

and my daughter is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. So Rachel, your smiling face is overlooking Times Square. Digital billboards. Oh, I had no clue where you're going with that. I was like, what is my smiling face doing? Yes, someone texted us a picture. Amazon Music has a series of digital billboards across the side of two buildings. It's massive in Times Square. There's lots of huge digital billboards in Times Square. And we're working with Amazon Music to carry this podcast. Now, I think everyone carries the podcast that possibly carries a podcast that we know of anyway.

We appreciate them carrying it. And they were nice enough to feature the Ramsey show with a picture of you and Dr. John Deloney and me. And you worked too hard to be this broke. That's good. And lying on there. And so a little Times Square advertisement for the Ramsey show brought to you by the fine folks at Amazon Music.

And you can also find this show there. So thank you guys for that. Pretty cool. It's awesome. Yeah, one of our guys was up there doing something on the team and took pictures of the actual or video of the actual thing. Because it stays up there like four seconds, literally, and then comes back around every 16 seconds or so.

It's like four different panels they use on them. But in that environment, it's pretty wild. Well, the amount of eyeballs, too, that can see it, which is awesome, of people that you may not have reached unless unless people are hanging out in Times Square. So it's awesome. There you go. I hope we can help. That's what we're here for.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Raul is with us in Phoenix. Hey, Raul. Golly, I cannot push the right button today. There we go. Raul is with us. Hey, Raul, how are you? Good.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, thank you for taking my call, and thank you for all of you guys, what you do there. It inspired me a lot, and I'm sure it inspired so many other listeners, too. Thank you. Very nice. Quick background.

I'm 30 years old. I have a master's, and I graduated from the doctorate degree a couple months ago, moved to Phoenix, Arizona, because I find a job here. So my first question, my question is, my compensation for the first year is $180,000. And then from starting next year, it would be ranging between $20,000 to $50,000 bonus on my base salary so way to go dude thank you uh we graduated i graduated from the debt free so me and my wife worked throughout the school i did go and paid off 180k off my school and also paid off paid off our car 30k so we are completely debt free now and was just wondering how do i start from here how do i start investing building wealth to to have the good retirement wow what's your phd in uh pharmaceutical sciences okay good for you. What are you doing for a living? I would be a project manager in one of the big companies.

Yeah, I thought so. Research, R&D, yeah. Okay. Man, well, I would take out a car loan and arbitrage, which is what I'm hearing. I'm just kidding, Ronald. I'm just kidding. That was from another segment.

I'm a failure as a father. That's the first thing I thought of. Take out a car loan and invest in Airbnb. That's the first thing I thought. Take out a car and invest in Airbnb. That's what I would do. No, really though. You guys have done a fantastic job. I mean, you really, you're definitely one of the success stories that you're,

because your income even rose, not your lifestyle, right? You guys did really well with the income you had to pay off your debt and to do the right things and to set you guys up so well, because now you will be able, yeah, to invest greatly. So we do recommend investing 15% of your income into retirement. And so things like your 401k or 403b, Roth IRA, and keeping that steady investing for the long term and that's your 15 and then do you guys have kids yes we i have two year old okay and so looking at college uh

for your three-year-old and looking ahead and saying okay we want to save up uh for their college and with your income that's gonna yeah you'll have definitely the margin to be able to do that. Is your wife working outside the home, sir? No, not now. Okay, so you'll be able to max out your 401K. I assume they offer a Roth 401K in some match, correct? They offer 401K up to 7%. Really? You mean a match up to 7%? Yeah, a match up to 7%. Really? You mean a match up to 7%?

Yeah, a match up to 7%. You can put the max of your 401k in there, $22,000. And so you put all that in and then you get all the match. Do it all in a Roth 401k in good growth stock mutual funds. We spread it across four types. Growth,

growth and income, aggressive growth and international. Fund your kid's college fund. Each of you can do backdoor Roths. You're going to make too much money to do a traditional, a regular Roth, but you can do what's called a backdoor Roth. Get with a smart investor pro at ramseysolutions.com that's in your area. They'll sit down and teach you how to start these basic investing things going.

And that's your first step to investing your next step is get the house paid off and once that's paid off then you can decide what the surplus you've got beyond those things and you will have surplus because your income is going to continue to go up you're obviously an unusually bright guy, very smart. And so you're going to end up making amazing amounts of money and always be enjoying some of it, giving some of it and investing some of it. Always enjoy it, give it and invest it. And I would put percentages on that. I just gave you percentages on minimums to get started on your investing side, but make sure that your lifestyle is not ridiculously low if you make $250,000 a year. It doesn't need to be, but make sure you're not consuming it all with your lifestyle, and make sure you're not investing everything and having no generosity in your family.

So we want to have all three things functioning. The people that we find that have high quality happiness coefficients, we find happy, well-balanced, mentally healthy people with good relationships that are wealthy. And there's lots of them. They're everywhere. But the people that we find that fall in those categories are always generous. They always have a reasonable level of enjoyment not over enjoying it not hedonistic and they always are steadily investing they're always doing those

three categories and you and I taught that just to teach your own kids and smart money smart kids your first number one yeah no for sure I mean it's it's the basics of all three and here's what's fascinating too you know people really do think if I could just make more money, everything will be okay. Right. And, and the habits that you have carry on with you. And, and speaking of social media and Instagram, there's this account that she does these budgets. People submit their income and their budgets for the month. And she, and she shows them on the account.

Anyways, long story short, this couple makes like 3 million a year. It's like 70, 80, 90 a month. And they spend it all. It's like $70, $80, $90 a month. And they spend it all. They have like $1,200 left over. It's like $4,000 on clothes. They have a full-time job. All this stuff. And I'm like, oh my gosh.

It's just crazy. You can still spend your way into stupidity regardless of your income. So those three principles are so important. They're so important to give, save, and spend. Congress has proven that for years. This is The Ramsey Show. have you ever noticed when you commit to one change in one area of your life that you tend to make progress in other areas? We've met thousands of people on their journey to building wealth who accomplished other amazing things along the way,

like they lost 50 pounds, they found a career that they love, their income went up, they overcome stress and anxiety and depression. What seems impossible becomes possible when you have a smart plan and you turn up the focus and intensity on your goals. That's why we're bringing the Smart Conference to Dallas, Texas, Saturday, October 22nd. Smart Conference is the one-day event where you're going to hear from the top thought leaders and authors in every subject. From marriage, yep, our friends, uh, Dr. Craig,

our pastor, Craig Groeschel and his wife, Amy will be with us to, uh, speak on marriage. We'll be talking about mental health. Dr. John Deloney will be with us doing that.

We'll be talking about careers and getting the job and you love and passion and, and in your work. And man, Ken Coleman will be talking about that. Our, our newest personality that's on the stage this year is George Camel, and man, is he a hot property. People are loving George and everything he's saying.

He's going to be talking about money. Rachel Cruz, to my right, will be there, best-selling author, talking about money, and I'll close up the day talking about your life and how we put it all together with a sense of intentionality and your spiritual walk. Yeah, all about God. So you're going to love this. It's called the Smart Conference.

It's all day long. When you leave, you will be smarter. And it's a whole $35 because the VIP and Platinum are all sold out. So general admission is all there is. Again, October 22nd in Dallas, Texas. It is the only live event we have for the fall that has any tickets left. So if you want to come to Dallas, Texas, this is your place right now. RamseySolutions.com slash events to find out about all of our events,

especially the SMART Conference on October the 22nd. Maria is with us. Maria is in Houston, Texas. Hi, Maria. How are you? Hi. It's a privilege to speak with you. You too. Thank you. I am debating between selling my home and refinancing my home. I'm on baby step two. I recently got

divorced, and so I have to give him a third of the proceeds of the sale. I have spoken to a real estate agent, actually one of your ELP referrals, and also a credit union. And I have a daughter in high school. She's a senior. So filling my home would mean putting her through college debt-free. And I do have a place to go to with my sister. She recently widowed. So I do have a place.

And the reason for refinancing is because I don't plan to be with my sister long term. So if I go live with my history, it would be just to save for a new home in the future. And I don't know if it makes sense to sell the home when I'm going to come back in two, five years to buy a new home. What do you owe on it? I only owe $15,000. $15,000? Oh, my. Yes. And what is it worth?

$225,000. Okay. So you owe him like $65,000 or $70,000, huh? Correct. Correct. And what do you make? I make $66 a year. That's gross.

How long were you married? Over 20 years. But it was a bad, you know, it's a good thing I got divorced. I understand. But there's a lot of bad memories in this home. Yes, and at the same time, I do like the home. You do like the home. At the same time, it's a good home. I can see myself staying there.

I could also see myself in a new home. How old are you? I am 47. What do you do for a living? I am a legal assistant. Is the daughter you're talking about, Maria, is she your only child? No, she's my youngest. I actually have three.

Is he responsible for part of her college too? I have no communication with him and I highly doubted that he would be able to participate. So even if he was supposed to, he couldn't because he's... Correct. He would not be able to. Because he's worthless. Yes, yes. because he's correct he would not be able to because he's worthless yes yes it took me so long to figure this out oh i'm sorry honey you've been through hell oh bless your heart here's what i would like you to do um man there's not a bad answer here okay it's not bad to sell the home moving with your sister send your kid to college and come back and buy later that's not the end of the world

uh if you didn't like the house uh i would do that in a heartbeat you like the house and even me challenging you with negative memories you you could see yourself staying there you only owe 15 000 so at the end of the story you only owe 85 000 or so or 80 000 to refinance that's a very very low mortgage especially when you make 65 000 a year um and i'm going to refinance it and keep it. Okay. That leaves the daughter in a lurch for school, so we've got to figure that out. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, number one, she's going to select a school that's affordable because her mom's a single mom who doesn't have a lot of money.

Okay. You're not sitting on $200,000 to send her to school with. Her mom's a single mom who doesn't have a lot of money. Okay? You're not sitting on $200,000 to send her to school with. So she's going to select an affordable in-state school. She's going to be working while she's in school to pay for parts of things. She needs to work on her grades. It's probably too late, but she needs to work on her grades and make sure she takes as many different things as she can take to get her grades up to help her get scholarships.

And I want her to fill out 500 applications for scholarships. That's not an exaggeration. I'm working on that. Not an exaggeration. 500. Because all she's got to do is get a few, and she can go to University of Houston. She can go.

If I remember, ATM has a – you got one in Houston, right? I got some Aggies sitting out here in the lobby. Yeah, so there's a – Aggies got their – they got a branch there in Houston. It's probably not called Aggies. They're probably called something else there. But, yeah. they got a branch there in Houston it's probably not called Aggies or probably called something else there but um yeah so yeah I uh yeah we got to get her through school but as far as the house goes I would keep the house because you got a very very low mortgage I don't know Rachel what are you hearing yeah I mean my question is Maria do you um you know did you raise all three kids

in this house like is the house for space wise? Do you need, do you need all the space? Like, I don't know what, you know, what, how big the house is for you and what it is. And if you enjoy it and all that, cause I mean like, you know, another option would be to sell it, you know, obviously you'll have money to help daughter go through school, which is great. Live with your sister for a while while you guys both have been through something really hard, having someone there, you know, that's great. And then finding something that is reasonable for you now that all your kids are, you know, you're an empty nester now. So that would be the only way to look at it on the other end of the coin is to say,

okay, here could be a fresh start in that sense. But, but I mean, it's a great, it's a great asset to have. And like have and like and like dave said your mortgage is going to be low and and there's a way to go to school debt-free i don't want you to make a financial huge financial decision like a house decision based on four years of education for your daughter because there's options for her because there's options for her um but yeah if you were like oh get me out of this house i don't like it i don't yeah then that's one thing but yeah but if you're kind of okay with it and what it would do yeah if you had told me you had a two hundred thousand dollar mortgage i'd tell you so because you'd be at you'd

be rid of the problem and the and the stress of that but a fifteen thousand dollar mortgage and you got to go get 70 or 65 to take him out yeah i'm doing that and by the way do that at your local credit union you don't need a mortgage mortgage they're too expensive when it's small like that just go to your local credit union and tell them a couple things number one you want no closing costs because there's you got a huge equity so they don't need to charge closing costs number two you want a fixed rate you won't do it unless it's a fixed rate and you won't do it unless it's no closing costs talk to credit unions until you find those two things and um you can get a better deal that way on this loan a loan that size a mortgage company is not a bargain it's a

small loan for them and they're going to stick you with a bunch of fees usually so don't do that wow i'm sorry you've been through this i hear a lot of pain in this but i'm glad you're there and i'm glad you're free. This is The Ramsey personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Brian is with us. Hey, Brian, how are you? Doing fantastic. How about yourself? Better than I deserve, sir. Honored to have you. Where do you live? Oklahoma City. All right. Welcome to Nashville. Very cool.

Thank you. Very cool. So, how much debt did you pay off? $47,785. Very good. How long did that take? 24 months and one week. Very cool. So how much debt did you pay off? $47,785. Very good. How long did that take? 24 months and one week. All right. Nice.

Love it. And your range of income during that two years? So 45, and towards the end, it bumped up to about 60, and that's what I was netting between all of my sources of income. Side hustles. Yeah. All right. Cool. What do you do for a living?

I'm a systems analyst for a private company that supports the Air Force in Oklahoma City right now. And I also do some DoorDash and I started my own small business within the last year. What was the most lucrative, best paying side hustle? Let's see. Lucrative, I would say based on just not only the financial, but also the professional development would be the business that I started with in the last year. I would

say with the encouragement of your platform, as well as just kind of hearing everyone on this very stage, it just gave me the courage to even try something like that. Yeah. What was the business? So I own just a small IT company kind of catering to one to ten seats. So just residential, small businesses, just doing consulting and kind of your general computer repair and stuff like that. That's awesome. If you work from home and you discover that IT department is no longer there for you. Enter Brian. Here is Brian.

Yeah, good. That's a great idea, man. I love it. Good for you. That's fun. Very, very cool. Okay, what kind of debt a great idea, man. I love it. Good for you. That's fun. Very, very cool. Okay. What kind of debt was the 48,000? Wow. Sorry. It's very exciting to be here. Thank you again for having me. And so a lot of it was credit card. I played the 0% APR juggling game. You know, I thought it was a genius with money, even though I knew absolutely nothing.

I also, a little bit of student loans, so maybe about 5 to 10K tied to a couple of semesters. And then, embarrassing to admit, but it's an honest part of my story. I was on social security disability for a short period of time and had some overpayment that needed to be paid back. So that was taken care of. And I also, in my early twenties, got sued for not having the right insurance coverage. And that was a fun mess that I decided in good faith to clean up while going through this whole program. And that was basically the amount of debt that I had two years ago. I've been in debt pretty much my whole life. So thank you again, you guys. Well, thank you. You did it. I'm proud of you. How's it feel to be free? Fantastic. You know, looking back to some of your videos,

talking about the leverage that people do and don't have over us when we're in that type of predicament, not being in that position anymore is really liberating to say the least. We hear that all the time. And it is amazing when you're like, okay, oh oh it's just

a car payment it's no big deal and Toyota owns a part of your life month after month after month I mean there is something just to be said whether it's MasterCard your student loan whatever just to be completely free so what happened then 24 months ago that you were like okay so my best my best friend who I've known for I would say say, forever, it's been about 10, 12, 13 years. She's like a sister. Her family is my family, essentially. And she's here in the studio with us. Her name is Lori.

She just kept gently bumping my head with the total money makeover. And she's always been the most financially responsible person that I kind of knew of that was close to me. Gently hit you in the head with a book. Metaphorically. But it had the same effect. So I just, I was tired. I've heard this term before. I was tired of having my pants down, you know, whether it was dating outside of my social class or it was getting exposed to job opportunities that were being pushed down because of all the pressure that was on my back because

of not taking care of my own financial responsibility. I just got tired of all the doors being closed. And so I read the book. I basically started looking through the class literature. I was too cheap to pay for every dollar. So I actually realized that there wasn't a prerequisite to become a coordinator. So I just dove in and taught it to myself and started spinning up some of those classes. And I just, I went crazy. I was listening to your podcast every day, doing like Amazon shopping and a variety of other things. And every single day I was making money and maybe three to six months into living actually in Massachusetts, I was living about 25 miles Northeast of Boston. COVID, the last individual that was on the stage uh it was very inspiring uh i could relate to uh covid being an opportunity when all of that stuff closed down and i was working remotely i

thought to myself you know what i love massachusetts but i'm not an owner i don't own anything here uh find some population density in a place i've never been before that cost a lot less and i'm i did a blind move to oklahoma city and I wouldn't have been able to do that without you guys. Wow. So it just, it cut into that last little category that was becoming just a thorn in my side. And, you know, I've been there ever since. And it's just, it's been life-changing.

Well, praise God, man. You're amazing. You've had a lot of life change. Moving and everything. I mean, that's a lot. There's a lot of transformation going on with you. You're a neat guy. Well done, sir. Well done sir well done very very proud of you very proud of you good work wow okay you've been a coordinator um albeit for selfish reasons but it's still a good coordinator

that's how the best ones start by the way and uh i can go through for free that's it that's a good i get a lot of good ones that way. But thank you for leading the classes. You've been a coordinator. You've been through it yourself. You've been gently bumped in the head with a book. And you paid off $48,000 in 24 months in one week. You are by far an expert on getting out of debt in America today. What is the secret to getting out of debt?

So it's not going to sound gentle, but there are two things. Stop complaining and basically just gain some clarity on who you're spending time with. Responsibility can and definitely will be somewhat contagious. And not that other people are responsible for your decisions, but basically just make sure that your goals align with the people that you surround yourself by. Those would be my biggest recommendations. And don't get me wrong, I complain every single day. So I'm in no place to judge other individuals that do it, but it does slow down the process of just opening that door, making a few extra bucks and just pushing

forward. Yeah. Wow. Well, good for you, man. That's a great piece of advice though. The attitude through it, right? Because the budget's a great tool. There's a bunch of stuff that adds up in this process that helps people become debt-free. Yeah. But that overarching thread of just your attitude of how you're looking at it can either make the process somewhat bearable of like, we're going to do this, or the whole time it's just like, oh, I can't believe, I can't believe. And your whole life then becomes that. And so I love that, that it's your attitude of saying hey yeah it sucks and yeah

I may complain every now and then because it's not fun but what I tell myself and the thoughts that I have really do change your actions so that's amazing I love that it's your perspective discipline for discipline's sake silly but discipline to get to a greater good it gives you the right perspective the right attitude so what are you going to do now, Brian? Now that you're debt free, you have no payments. Let's see. I mean, I have about five to 10 years to make my first million. Aside from that, I don't really have any plans. Yeah. Sounds like a good one. I'll go with that one. Good work. Hey, we got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you to help you do that. How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth, how you can too. It's my latest number one. Another membership to Financial Peace University. Maybe you can find

someone who's too cheap or unable to buy it and you can give it away to somebody that needs to help. And we'll give you a copy of Total Money Makeover so you can bump someone in the head with it. That'll be great. And I'm honored by that. Thank you, Lori. Well done. Well played. It's good to have friends like you. Yeah, good stuff, man. That very good proud of you brother very proud of you excellent job brian from oklahoma city 48 000 paid off in 24 months in one week making 45 to 60 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream One. I'm debt free. Yeah. That's how it's done, boys and girls. So good. Last two debt free screams, singles.

That's right. Sing with him. Singles. I love it. Singles. I like it. I like it. I like it. Because it takes that extra level of perseverance when you're like, okay.

I mean, yeah. You haven't got anybody to gripe at you, but you don't have anybody to gripe at you. That's right. I mean, it's harder. So, very cool. Very well done. It takes an extra level of backbone to do it when you're single, I think. But people do it all the time.

Proof of it. Brian's proof of it. And we see people from everywhere, all across America, every shape, size, and background. Baby boy, baby girl, this is how it works. Thanks for being with us, America. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author, Ramsey personality. My daughter is my co-host today. Your call is at 888-825-5225. Michelle is in Baltimore. Hi, Michelle. How are you?

Hi, I'm fine. Good. How can we help? Actually, I'm not fine. I'm debt-free, but I'm stressed out. I'm struggling. I have my emergency fund, and so I thought I was going to be excited and feel all over this piece instead of stress. I'm struggling to save 15% of my income in a lost retirement fund plus tithe and try to save for anything, a house, a car, anything else. So I must be doing something wrong. I'm still doing a written budget, the same thing I did to get out of debt and save money, working a part-time job also. You mean, you said save for a house or a car? Is that what you're saying? Yes, anything. By the time

I try to do 15% of my income just tithes, you know, it's not much left over unless I'm, for the rest of my life, I'm just working a part-time job. What's your household income? I thought it was a lot, 92.

92, is that what you said, Michelle? Yeah, 92,000. And I did the SmartVesta Pro, and I was all excited, and we did the 15%, and when my check came, I was like, whoa, I can't pay the bills. What is your, you got a rental or a house payment? Are you a renter? I'm doing renting, $1,500 in rent, which is cheap for this area, and I hope it stays that way.

Are you getting a big tax refund every year? Unfortunately not. Are you paying a lot for health care insurance? I am. What are you paying? I'm paying about, if this went up to about three per check, I also have two kids. Three what per check? I'm sorry, 300.

You get paid how often? Every two weeks. 600 a month is not bad. Okay. All right. Okay, so you have $18,000 and $12,000, and that's $30,000 and $12,000 and that's $30,000. And your taxes would be $15,000 probably. That's $45,000.

I don't know where all your money is going because your rent is $18,000 a year. 15% is $12,000 a year. $13,000 a year of your $90,000. Your health insurance is not out of control. So my rent is $1,500. Yeah, $1,500 is $18,000 a year. Right. BG, my electricity, $115.

Yeah. Internet, $75. Yeah. Tide would be $768. Yeah. Food, down to $300. Trying to do that. Cell phone, gas. and that, yeah.

And so trying, you know, and that's, and then I did the 15%, and if I want to save to eventually buy a house, I'm not able to make that happen. 15% would be just a little over $1,000 a month. Right, so it's about five out of each check, five something out of each check. Yeah, that's about right. Five, 30, I think, it was five, 30 out of each check. Yeah, that sounds right. And my cards are 2012. I'm cutting my own hair.

Yeah, I mean, you're throwing about a lot of emotional triggers, but I'm still not finding all your money. I'm cutting my own hair. I don't eat, all this stuff. But all of that has to do with your emotional state. It doesn't have to do with the actual math. And the actual math, I still got room in. I still got about $3,000 a month laying around there, miscellaneous.aneous i mean you're using up some of it with basic stuff i get that um and i might have

to sit down to the whole budget to see it but i right now i don't there's i keep what i usually do in these calls when i'm talking to someone in this situation michelle is i'm looking for the offender in mathematically. What is offending? What's sucking up all the money so that Michelle has none and has worry instead? And I'm looking for that offender. It's not your rent. It's not out of control.

It's not the 15%. That's not out of control. It's not your water, your gas. That stuff's not out of control. You're not overspending on food. That's not out of control. I don't hear anything in here that's like way over the top uh your health care is not a cost is not out of control um you know it's 600 bucks a month um you know in today's world that's cheap with two kids uh maybe it's daycare maybe your daycare is super expensive. Or maybe you've got the kids in a private school. I don't know.

But what I'm looking for here are, I just take $92,000, and I take taxes out, and I take $1,500 a month out for rent, which is $18,000, and I take $13,000 out for the 15%. And when I start taking that out, I've still got a lot of money left as I go along this line here, and I'm having trouble finding it. So, you know, I tell you, let's do this. Um, it sounds like that, uh, uh, you're not going to fix this situation with cutting your own hair. That's not what this is about or not eating, you know, cutting your food

budget down. That's not what this is about. You need to get to the root of where all this, where your money's going and get more comfortable with the balance of that. Now you're not going to save 5,000 bucks a month towards a house when you're putting in this situation, you don't have that kind of income. Um, and so you may put your 401k on, you may put your retirement on hold for a little while you save for a house or save for a car. If you get in a pinch on something something that's stuff we teach called baby step 3b uh but i i'm gonna put you on hold and we're gonna give you a free coaching session with one of our financial coaches who can get into this in more detail than we can on a radio call because this is not the format for me to go any deeper into the numbers yeah and i would want to

know too michelle you know you're on baby step four five and six which is amazing um but where that extra margin of not having the debt not focusing all your time on saving up an emergency fund so where was all where all that money that was going to those things where is it now how much were you putting away a month towards your emergency funds through baby step three where is that going and and i think it's a hard realization too um you know that doesn't necessarily help you michelle but i can empathize with just the fact that like life's expensive and once you do it all right once you give once you pay your rent once you're funding retirement i mean your tie there's nine thousand bucks it it takes it does chip away on what feels like okay okay, 92 grand, that's a great income.

And then the reality of life, though. I mean, there is a reality that when you do all of this stuff, it does dwindle. I mean, it does dwindle. And so I would kind of figure out, yeah, what the big things in your life are, which we didn't get to on this call, but whether it is a child care situation or I don't know what it may be. But to kind of find that so that you're not stressed or that you can like really see the extra money and get some kind of traction. But I agree that, yeah, that is a defeating feeling when you feel like you should be feeling good you're not um yeah raising two kids in baltimore um as a single mom on 92 is still no picnic even when you're debt-free that's right it's fair to say that yeah it's not it's not like it's gonna be a hot knife

through butter and like suddenly you're gonna feel like you hit the lotto or something and you got 20 million bucks because you don't um that that's fair but is it so defeating that you can't go win still over time no it's not it's not and um you know and i don't hear a single thing in here that so far that i would jump on and go oh you gotta stop that that's that's what there it is that's the thing and that's what i'm always looking for because there's usually something like that in there. Yeah. There's still a, you know, there's a big old car payment and you got rid of all your debt. Or there's something like that.

There's something in there that's causing a log jam. And it's not here. It may just be that, you know, inflation is catching up and is affecting her because she didn't have a lot of margin to start with. But it may be, too, that you have to put your Baby Step 4 on hold to save towards a house for two or three years. We talk about doing that in Baby Step 3B, and we're not mad at you for doing that. I don't want you to use this as an excuse to never save for retirement. I can't afford it. Yes, you can.

You can afford it. It means you can't afford something else, but you can afford it yes you can you can afford it it means you can't afford something else but you can afford it so um and i'll bet you you had more than a thousand dollars a month in payments on the other stuff before you got rid of them that's what i want to kind of figure out where was that money going where is that going now i bet you did i bet you did and somehow you figured out a way to make that and to get rid of that debt yeah yeah so it's a it's a really good question it's a journey it's a really good question and thanks for joining us hang It's a journey. It's a really good question. And thanks for joining us. Hang on.

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