The Ramsey Show - App - How Do We Decide if We're Financially Ready To Have a Baby? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 23, 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Jeff is with us in Birmingham. Hey, Jeff, how are you? I'm doing well, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? So my wife and I are currently on baby step three. We have right at three months of expenses saved up. We have a potential move on our hands. I've got a job opportunity potentially coming up in April and May. And we also, she has a 20-year-old car we're looking to replace. And we just found out two weeks ago she is expecting our first child. Yay!

Yeah, we're very excited, but we're just curious, what is your advice on the next step? Should we begin Baby Step 4 yet? Should we hold off and start saving for those things? What should we do? Wow. Well, I mean, all three of them are predictable events and so we should save in addition to an emergency fund because they're not really an emergency since they're predictable yeah yeah yeah absolutely how much do you think it would take you to move jeff

is your job going to give you a moving allowance? It potentially will, but I don't know that exact figure yet. So there is some cash there that I might be able to get, I think, possibly up to about $1,000 in moving expenses. Sounds good. I wouldn't worry about the car right now. I heard you say you want to go ahead and replace that eventually. I'm not worrying about the car. If I am you, I am moving on to baby step four and I am starting the investment process. But also at the same time, like Dave said, I am going to be focusing on saving for the baby and then finding out if I am going to get some moving expenses for my company.

If not, then yes, you may pause baby step four so you can go ahead and prepare to move because that is a priority. That is a must. Yeah, when you add all three of these things together, what's going to come out of pocket for the move and out of pocket for the baby in particular, I'd want to make sure you have that in addition to your emergency fund before you move on to baby step four. But buying the car, I think you can probably save up four to do that, and that car will make it a little while. It didn't suddenly become old. It was already old three months ago before you got all these other pieces of information.

Right. So, you know, you do want to, again, budget to pay cash for it so you don't end up with another stupid car payment, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I will tell you, this is breaking news. We have not told anybody, so I'll just let you know you're the first one to know that we're expecting our first child.

You should have told your parents before you told Anthony. Yeah, because I'm going to tell the whole world. I'm going to let you know right now. Just told 21 million people, dude. That's it. Well, congratulations. We are planning to do that this weekend. It's just our schedules haven't allowed for it.

Oh, no. You need to call them now. It's too late. They've already heard it. to do that this weekend just our schedule time allowed for it oh no you need to call them it's too late they've already heard it well congratulations we're so proud for you man that's awesome and yeah uh so babies first travel our move is second and car is third and depending on your household income how quickly you could pile up enough money to take care of those i might pause a little bit and let's just get ready for a known situation. The beautiful thing is, is you're actually thinking about all this and doing it intentionally.

It's not happening to you. You're happening to it. Yes, sir. And, Dave, I don't have any kids, but you do. So, you know, when I had my first child, is it safe to say about $5,000 to $10,000 is a good extra cushion for a baby? It depends. depends depends on what your insurance is going to cover uh you know what is health insurance with this company will cover the labor and delivery right uh and what's his deductible and does he have an hsa and you know

what's out of pocket um if you're paying cash for it yeah you would need that okay you'd need 10k probably in today's world uh and you know if you if you do not have insurance for labor and delivery but most places do nowadays yeah and uh most most policies do and so uh you know what's your co-pay what's your deductible then you can calculate and get an estimate what your out-of-pocket is going to be not what the total cost is because that doesn't matter got you what matters is what you're going to have to pay and then uh and you got nine months to get ready for that, apparently, or eight. And then $1,000 will not move you. Right.

And so if you've got a $5,000 move, you've got another $4,000 there. Right. And so if you're making $100,000 a year, you can do this real quick. If you're making $50,000 a year, it's probably going to take you a few months to get ready for all of these things that are coming at you. Yeah. That's what you're facing. Way to go, man. Very cool. Sean is in Pittsburgh. Hey, Sean, how are you? Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So four years ago, my wife and I bought a house in Colorado that turned out to be a big mistake because we couldn't afford it. We bought too much house. And we ended up selling it two years later, made about 30 grand profit off of it,

used it to sell, to get rid of all the debt we had. And we moved out to West Virginia, where I got a job as a youth pastor. And now that job has kind of ended, and we're looking at moving back to Colorado. And I was wanting to ask you if it would be a good idea, our plan here, we're thinking about moving in with my parents that live right next to where we work in Colorado remotely right now. We're thinking about moving in with my parents and living there rent-free to save up a bunch of money for a little while and then buying a lot of land and then using that land as collateral to get a loan to build a house instead of buy one outright because of the market out there. The houses are so expensive. We're like, well, we could probably save a bunch of money and have tons of equity

in the house already if we just built one instead of buy one. So, Sean, let me ask you a couple of questions before Dave jumps in here. You said you're working remotely. So are you no longer pastoring and you're doing something else? Yeah. So the youth pastoring job I have here is I feel like God's calling me on to other things in Colorado to move back there. And so I put in my notice that I'll be leaving in July when my lease is up at our apartment here in West Virginia. And we're going to be moving back to Colorado. And what will you be doing and how much money will you all be making a year? So I will be pursuing a new job to make more income.

But right now, what we will be making, my wife and I together, will be about 60 to 65 a year. Okay, cool. So here's my answer real quick before we go to our commercial break. No, I don't want you to go back in with your parents. And I don't even want you to get a piece of land. Right now, you need to go ahead and just get a solid foundation. I would go rent an apartment and then follow the baby steps from there. Because it sounds like you don't have three months in your emergency fund already, correct?

Yeah. Yeah. So get an apartment, live below your emergency fund already, correct? Yeah. Yeah. So get an apartment, live below your means and go in the heck. And you said you paid off all your debt. Get your three to six months set aside. Then you and your wife can start looking at land down the road. We don't need to move into your parents' house. Skip over baby step three to go buy a house.

You will be right back in the situation you are today. So get an apartment, get three months and you'll be straight yeah that's exactly right the um the idea of buying a piece of land and building a house and having a bunch of instant equity it's not it's not going to work out that way um when you finish building a house you're going to have almost in it what you would have had had you bought a house uh that's what it costs to build a house and so you don't get like a 50 discount because you built from the ground up it doesn't work that way so now i i think you i think anthony's right you need to get a little apartment and get your jobs and your careers solidified and then start gradually

working your way back into home ownership at that point that's going to be your best bet. Listen, this is important. Are debt collectors calling you at work? Are they reporting errors on your credit report? Folks, that's not just wrong, it's illegal. If you think you're being harassed, take a quick survey at CollectionBully.com to determine whether you're a victim of illegal debt collection harassment. If you are, Collection Bully will help connect you to a consumer law attorney in your state to make the harassment stop. Learn more and get the help you need at collectionbully.com Anthony O'Neill Ramsey personality is my co-host today.

I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us on The Ramsey Show. Emily is with us in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Hi, Emily. Welcome to the show. How can we help? Hi. So my husband and I got married in November, and we've been talking about having a baby, not right this very second, but sometime in the near future. But all these numbers that you see, everyone says it's so expensive, like hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And I'm a planner. So I'm just wondering, how do we decide if we are financially prepared for a baby? You are. Yeah, I was about to say, if it's $100,000 to have a baby, Emily, are financially prepared for a baby? You are. Yeah, I was about to say, if it's $100,000 to have a baby, Emily, I'm never having a baby. Those numbers are stretched, and they really mostly come into play if you get into a super large family. But if you have a couple of children children the vast majority of your electric bill does not change your water bill changes a little but not that much your food bill will change some but not that much first couple of years you got some formula and diapers and other things

mandatory pediatrician bills that come at you and that kind of stuff we always joked and said it's mandatory it's federal law in the first three years of a child's life to pay the pediatrician's porsche bill but they they don't really make that much money the pediatricians don't but it's still fun to mess with them but the um uh yeah so you're gonna have some costs but the idea that you need to have two hundred thousand dollars in the bank before you have a child is absolutely ludicrous no or will you realize over the scope of their life that you spent $200,000 on them? No, you won't even realize it

because it's just like, you know, we get a little bit more macaroni. We get a little bit more another six-pack of Coca-Cola or whatever. I mean, you just,

whatever it is that the family eats, they're just going to eat it. And so, you know, if you're asking the question out loud, you probably can afford it. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Have a baby, Emily. We do not, have never in the history of Ramsey Solutions told someone to have a child or not have a child based on their financial situation. Yeah. Now, obviously, you want to use common sense and reasonableness, and if you're completely broke and you make $21,000 a year, don't have 16 children. It's a problem. You know, that kind of thing. That's common sense and reasonableness.

But, you know, the typical middle class family doesn't have any trouble affording, in air quotes, their children. You're going to be just fine. I agree. I like that answer, Dave. I'm proud of you on that answer. Well, thanks. I feel better about myself. But you that answer, Dave. I'm proud of you on that answer. Well, thanks. I feel better about myself. But you know what, Dave? I have said this. So tell me if I'm wrong for saying this.

I don't believe in the first six months to a year you should you should have a baby of your marriage. It should be spent with y'all to getting to know each other and figuring out what you're going to do with your life. Yeah, that's not a financial equation though that's just a space equation and you know most couples do that yes um but other couples are um really excited to have children i know uh and and that's okay too if you want to do that i i we enjoyed a couple years like you're talking about before denise came along and um and we've enjoyed every year since she came along as well so um uh and none of them were her fault one way or the other. So, that's, you know, that's the first baby, right?

Right. But, yeah, anytime in any area of your life, money, relationships, anything, you can give yourself margin. Yeah. That's a good thing. Margin's never a bad thing. It gives you a little, it kind of smooths out the waves of life a little bit. All right, Milton is in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Milton, how are you?

Hi, Dave. Pleasure to speak with you and Anthony this afternoon. Sure. My question, so I've been contributing to my 401k for about 28 years now, and just last year they opted to give us an option of a Roth 401k. So I took that option and I stopped contributing to the traditional 401k and started contributing to my Roth. Good. And the match is the same on the Roth as it was on the traditional.

Good. So although I currently have about a $2 million net worth, i figured anything i can put together tax that grows tax-free would benefit me in the long run you are right but my but the question is can i roll over the roth portion of my 401k into my roth ira yes it will be a different it will be technically a different account number uh but you can always roll over your 401K to your Roth IRA if you've left the company. Are you still working for the company? Yeah, I'm going to be with the company for about another six to eight years. Yeah, you can't move a 401K while you still work there.

Well, no, I was just trying to get ahead of the game here to see if I would do that when I did leave. Oh, yeah. Yes, I would do that. Yes, I would do that. Okay, because I couldn't see the difference. It's one account number, and it shows my 401k and my statement, but it isn't broken down as to Roth and traditional. Right.

How old are you? I'm 54. How much is in the traditional portion of your 401k? The bulk of it is about $1.6 million. Okay. I might begin to move some of that into Roth and pay the taxes on it now inside that 401k. Okay. Because let's say you move $500,000 over and you pay the taxes on $100,000, okay?

Or whatever they come out. Yes. Something like that. $100,000, $100,000 and a quarter will be your taxes before tax rates go up. And apparently they're going to. According to the president, he says he's going to raise taxes, tax rates. And so on people that have the kind of money you've got. And so before that happens, maybe you move some of it into Roth

and go ahead and pay the taxes on it and then let that additional $500K grow tax-free from this point forward. So paying that, I wouldn't have – I don't have the $100.25. You do. I only have about $60. Oh, okay. You don't need to do it then. You don't need to do it.

I was thinking maybe with that kind of net worth you had some cash outside of retirement. But, no, you don't need to do that. But whatever you can afford to move and pay the taxes with cash out of your pocket, I would go ahead and begin to move it inside that 401k to Roth. Now, when you retire, whatever's Roth, you can move to a Roth, and it will be a different account number than your current Roth IRA, but it could

be in exactly the same mutual funds as your current one. Okay. But rollovers just don't combine with existing is all, technically. But it's just a fine line. Okay. I appreciate it. Yeah. So, very cool, man. you've done great congratulations

did you you didn't inherit any of this it's all 401k money so you became worth two million dollars from the ground up starting with nothing way to go thank you very much that's impressive and 54 years old worth a couple million dollars that's exciting to me dave that's how it works i mean listen you can't stop saying you can't be a millionaire follow the steps you'll get you can't be a millionaire. Follow the steps. You'll get there. He's not a millionaire.

He's a couple of millionaires. That's probably bad grammar. But I think we knew what you meant. Yeah. He's a millionaire two times over. Right. Yes. There you go.

All right. A multi-millionaire. Yes. There we go. I like that. That's how that's working. Good. I really do.

I really do. Now, let's say, Dave, he did have the cash. Would you even say, hey, go ahead and move the whole 1.6 over to the Roth if he had the cash? It would be very hard to swallow emotionally, but mathematically, then from this point forward, it would all grow tax-free. Yes, that's going to work out for him. Because he's going to pay taxes at a higher tax rate later because the tax rates are probably going up if this current president

and Congress have their way, and I suspect they will because they all agree on everything. So, you know, it looks like taxes on evil wealthy people are going up. So then, mathematically, it makes sense to do it now because you save yourself money if you have the funds to do it right now if you just take the money out of the ira to i mean like reduce the 1.6 balance by enough to pay the taxes right then

it's a wash mathematically because that portion you took out would have grown to enough to pay the taxes anyway yes so you would have been okay. Yes. But you'll come out better off if you've got a 10-year period of time or more to roll if you can pay it out of your pocket. In other words, your baby steps seven. Yep. You've got extra money laying around. You need some multi-millionaire. Now, you don't need to fool with that if you're in baby steps two or three or four or five, whatever.

And then six, you still need to pay off your house first before you talk about that strategy. Yes. But any money you can get out of taxable accounts if you're going to become wealthy is going to be a good idea because the tax rates in the political climate appear to be going up. Yep. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. 2020 is finally over, but there's still a lot of work to do in 2021. Here at Ramsey Solutions, we are working hard and we need people like you to join us on our mission to change lives. We're hiring designers, marketers, writers, sales reps, and tons of engineers. We're paving the way with our digital products and we have massive goals to deliver hope to millions of more people this year.

And you should know, while we always work hard, we also have a lot of fun. Our 1,000 team members get together for weekly staff meetings, monthly celebrations, and epic annual events. We volunteer on company time at local charities and nonprofits because we value giving to the community. It's simply who we are. It's also why Ramsey Solutions was named Best Place to Work in 2020 by Inc. Magazine. So join our team here in Nashville, Tennessee. Apply today at DaveRamsey.com slash careers. ears. On the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Justin and Heather are with us.

Hey guys, how are you? with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, Dave. Hey, Anthony. Welcome. Where do you guys live? We live right outside of Memphis, Tennessee in Collierville, Tennessee. Oh, yeah.

Just about three hours down the road there, huh? Yeah, that's right. Well, welcome to Nashville. And all the way over here to do your debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? Just around $407,000. Goodness gracious. Whoa!

How long did that take? It took a little over eight years. It took a while. Okay. That works,000. Goodness gracious. Whoa! How long did that take? It took a little over eight years. It took a while. Okay. That works, too. And your range of income during that time? We started off around $140,000, got up to about $190,000 for a couple years, and then we're back down around the $140,000 range again.

I went part-time. Oh, okay. Good for you. Yeah. Well, I'm guessing with this amount and how long it took, it must be you paid off your house. Yes, sir. Yeah! We did.

Look at it, weird people. What is this paid off house worth? $360, $370. It's all yours. How old are you two weirdos? I'm 34, and today's her 35th birthday. Unbelievable. Yeah.

Wow. Way to go. Happy birthday. birthday very nice a better way to celebrate amen do a death free scream baby let's go i love it man 407,008 years so tell us the story how did you get started on this and what happened well um i went to pharmacy school so that was a pretty big chunk of the money. That was about $70,000. And he was working at one of your Momentum churches during that time, Bellevue Baptist Church. And he's a pastor, so he was on staff there. And they went through your whole program. And he had actually read, I think, Total Money Makeover before that.

I was in a bookstore and saw your face on a book. And I was like, all right, I'm going to get it on a whim and just read it. In spite of the picture. There you go. And read it in the morning. I think I was around 24 or so at the time. And kind of went from there. We've been leading FPU classes.

And we took our whole church through it last year. It was just super cool to see how God used you guys and our lives, but also in life for our church because we didn't know what 2020 was going to bring. And we took our whole church through it through 2019 and then boom, and it really helped a lot of people. Pastor Gaines is a good man. He's a good friend of ours.

And we're at Collierville First Baptist now and they've gone through it as well. Oh, wow. Okay. But anyway, yeah, I just remember having this distinct memory taking out loans in pharmacy school, which I had some help from scholarships, but not enough.

But I remember checking my loan balance and I think I did it like, I checked it one day and then I checked it the next day and it had gone up like $200 or $300 in one day. And I was like, oh my gosh, these have to die.

Like as soon as I get out of school. This is just not going to work. I'm not going to keep letting this pile up on us. So how long have you guys been married? 13 years almost. Wow. Yeah, coming up on 13 this year.

So you worked through the student loans and the other debt and then you started on the house. The student loan went by really quick because we just kind of lived on his salary when I got out.

And so we were just able to hit that really hard. So that was like a sprint and that was done. I think that's one of the keys is as you make more money, just be content with what you have. So good. Don't just keep increasing your spending just because you're getting more money. And so we just, that was one of the things that we tried to do. And I got Rachel's,'s the gratitude journal her contentment

journal and just trying to daily remind myself just to be satisfied with what i have and to be content in that and that kind of helped along her journey yeah but the house that was just a marathon man that just took takes a while to go from the consumer debt to your your mortgage i mean consumer debt and i'm pretty sure you did your savings account three to six months yes but then what why like why did you want to attack the mortgage i know that's babysat six but you're young 30 you're in your 30s in your 20s like why what was the thought process behind that well one of the things when you go through fpu you go you go through with people in different life stages. And I saw

and heard so many stories of empty nesters who would say, I wish I had this in my 20s and 30s. And they were speaking wisdom into our life of saying, if you do this now, you'll be more free later. And that's kind of how I viewed it as not holding my future kind of in chains, but being fiscally responsible so that in the future future I could do whatever the Lord calls me to and I'm not bounded by debt. And so that's kind of helped us over the last few months as we've been out of debt is we can now give more to things that we're passionate about. And when a water line busts in your house, you're not freaking out because, you know,

you've prepared for it. So good. And you can go part-time with a house full of kiddos. Yes. Yes, that's been huge. That's been huge. Yeah. Big lifestyle change.

And it's because we've worked the program, honestly. So you've led FPU. You've paid off your home at 34 years old. You've done it all. You're absolute heroes. Tell people what the key to getting out of debt is. Again, I would say being content. And then just sticking with the budget and working the plan.

It's kind of a bad plan is better than no plan at all, but this is a good plan. And I always tell people, you know, when it comes to FPU, I'm not a paid salesman. I'm a satisfied customer. And I just tell people, you know, just work it and give it time. And, you know, you say we're in the crockpot business, not the microwave business, and it's tough. And I would just say if there's anyone out there who maybe you're beginning this kind of whole process, I just want to encourage you because it's going to take some time

and it's hard, but it's worth it. And having been on the tail end of this, just encourage people that it's worth the work. You're going to be free and you're going to be able to give like never before and you're going to have freedom, and it's great. So over the eight years, what was the hardest thing that you two had to get over? I don't know. Well, you never want to get in the comparison game of comparing yourself to other people.

Yeah. Because even when she was in pharmacy school, there were people buying like Mercedes and just taking out more and more loans. And we're just thinking, you are crazy for doing this. And to say, you know, but what I've seen is what's helped us, Anthony, is God has just been so faithful throughout the whole time. And he's provided for all of our needs. And I just, I'm a believer that when we're faithful to him, he's faithful to us. And you reap what you sow and so part of it is just sticking with the plan and um putting your big boy pants on

and just getting after it and uh and it works it works you guys were obviously very unified in the process too yeah i mean i'm the spender so there were definitely some times when i was not happy about not being able to do something. Now you can do anything. Yeah. Well, within reason. But, yeah. You got no freaking house family. I'm just saying.

It's nice. Wow. That's so impressive. You guys are amazing. Very, very well done. And you brought the kiddos with you to do the Dead Free Scream. What are their names and ages? Madeline is our first.

She's seven. And Anna Kate is five. And little Truman is our COVID baby. He's one. All right. Go Truman. Matching shirt with dad. That's right, baby. That's awesome, man. Well done. Well, we got a copy of

Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. That's definitely the next chapter in your story. Thank you for leading financial peace through your church. and thank you for doing this stuff. Absolutely. I'm so proud of you guys. Very, very well done. Thanks.

All right, Anna, Kate, Madeline, and Truman, are you ready to scream? Say yes. We're ready. Are you ready? All right. We're going to count it down. Justin and Heather from Memphis, Tennessee, $407,000 paid off in eight years, making $140,000 to $190,000 to $140,000. House and everything at 34 years old.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! Fabulous! Oh, man, that's perfect. That young family, and they don't have a house payment.

That's going to be so much money in 20 years. Listen, making that kind of income, these are definitely millionaires within the next few years. Yeah, and they know how to control it, and they've completely reformed their brains, renewed their minds, as the Bible says. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that's what they did. It's absolutely incredible. Very, very, very well done. What an inspiration.

And those little kids, man, their lives are changed forever. Oh, for sure. And their kids. Yeah, that's Dead Tree College. And their kids' kids. Yeah. I mean, this is incredible. They're going to be in such a completely different place.

Oh, man. Stuff we teach works, guys. It works. It's that simple. Yeah. Wow. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. We'll be right back. Well, tax season is upon us. I know.

Try to contain your excitement. Nobody likes doing taxes, especially after a year like 2020. It is a hassle to begin with. But then you go look for help, and these so-called free tax software tools get you knee-deep in the filing process and then sucker-punch you with add-on fees and credit card pitches and try to get you a mortgage. Or worse than that, try to sell you a refund loan where they loan you the money for your refund early.

Oh, my goodness. And they're, too, add up the interest rate on that baby. Well, there's a better way to do it. None of those gimmicks. It's simply called Ramsey Smart Tax. This is our team's brand new tax filing software that will help you file with confidence. And with Ramsey Smart Tax, you get upfront pricing at a very inexpensive deal and no tricks and no trades. And if you're a member of Ramsey Plus, you can use Ramsey Smart Tax for free. Wow.

Check that out. So text the word TAX to 33-789. Check out Ramsey Smart Tax by texting TAX to 33-789. Quinn is with us in Denver. Hi, Quinn. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Hey, so I'm in baby step two. I still owe 80 on my student loans. I started at 120. I paid off 40 last year, making 50. Good for you. And I have some medical issues. I had like five surgeries when I was going through high school and college in my left knee.

And I no longer have cartilage in my left knee. And I need to get these very expensive shots. They're about, you know, $1,000 a shot, one a week for three weeks, every nine to 14 months. And I was curious, how do I plan that into my budget? Or do I do the second option my doctor's giving me, which is a $10,000 stem cell treatment? How do I plan that into my budget so that I can not be in as much pain as I am walking around?

Wow. I'm sorry. That's awful. What do you make? You said 50. You said 50. Yeah, I make around 50. I make a lot of overtime, so I made like 58 in overtime last year. What do you do? I'm an engineering project coordinator for a med device and drug R&D company.

Hmm. So you're around this stuff all day long and then you need some of it huh yeah okay um well i mean it it sounds i don't know what the uh uh probability of the stem cell is is that a hundred percent does that work all the time or is it just a hope it's it's a it's a uh they say it's not fully approved by the insurances yet because they're still doing their their trials so but it but the science looks good when i looked at it because because i know how to read those papers but but i'm saying if you do this is it a 98 chance you're going to be okay and never have

to do anything else 70 ish percent chance which-ish percent chance, which is very high in my understanding of the world. Okay. All right. I don't know anything about this. I'm just trying to gauge $3,000 shots and pain. Or $3,000 shots. Yeah. Three $1,000 shots and pain regularly versus 10.

Well, you break even after three rounds of that right yeah and minus the pain and i'm pretty much a coward so i don't like pain um so i'm trying to figure out a way to do that but you got eighty thousand dollars of student loan debt left left um so if you make it one more year without doing this procedure, that's going to cost you $3,000. Right. And it will move further out of the clinicals, possibly to become insurance covered, right? Mm-hmm.

Possibly. But, you know, these things take, you know, five to ten years. Yeah, unless it's a COVID vaccine, then it takes about ten minutes. Yeah. It's interesting how approvals change on things. But the, yeah, I mean, it could be. Is it serious pain, Quinn? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's rather serious. You know, I don't want to walk on it even you know minor minor surgery is what happens to somebody else okay okay it's all pain yeah yeah i'm trying to think what i would do in your shoes knowing that i'm a complete coward and you're hurting so i'm trying to empathize i've never had this exact thing obviously but um if i'm in that much pain sharon did do the stem cell thing and it did work but it was a much smaller situation than you've got um so i i don't know um if i woke up in your shoes i probably would stop everything and come up with the 10 grand you would yeah oh yeah the only other

thing that comes into my mind is it is more than interesting to me that you are in that in and around that business and i wonder if one of your uh leaders with your current company knows the leaders with the company that provide the other proceed provide the other stuff and can't get you some help on the pricing no i already went down that path i tried some other things that that my my boss knew about that were um in development and those those work pretty okay but you know they don't last. Yeah, but I'm just saying, I guess, is it the actual injection that is so expensive or just the procedure itself? The three-shot injection?

No, no, no, no, the stem cell. I think it's the, well, as it was explained to me, they take a sample out of my knee, and then they grow it in a lab in boston and then they inject it back into my knee after it's grown and that all comes around ten thousand dollars yeah and i'm just saying the company that does all of that should have a friend working inside your company that's what i'm hoping and i'm just going to continue to poke around on that because it's a ten thousand dollar discussion and if they knock half off or something because you you pushed around tried to find one degree of separation here one of your bosses knows one of the bosses over there probably yeah that's what

i'm saying and just go hey do my guy do my guy a favor here man and um take care of my guy and the worst case scenario i've made those phone calls for people here not not medical calls but in other situations where i go hey man, man, you got that over there. Would you take care of my dude? Yeah, take care of him. And then I owe you one, right? And if I can figure that out, it would help speed this up. The cheaper this gets, the faster I would do it, you know?

And so, but yeah, I'm taking care of your knee, man. I mean, you need to get this done. And I don't like the 70% probability, but the rest of it, I'm going to give it a try if I'm in your situation. i mean you need to get this done and um i don't like the 70 probability but the rest of it i'm gonna i'm gonna give it a try if i'm in your shot in your situation what do you think no i'm saying the same thing dave and even right now you had a knee done never never yeah never but uh i imagine i imagine hogan has i'm pretty sure he has especially playing football and stuff like that yeah yeah but while he's looking at that, I'm starting to save for the worst case scenario if I got to pay the full $10,000.

Yeah. I'm going to build the 10 as fast as I can. And during that time, I'm going to work every phone and every connection I can to try to get a better deal. Yeah. Which gets the procedure done that much quicker. Quicker. Yeah.

That's interesting. Very interesting discussion. Sorry you're going through that, man. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Very interesting discussion. Sorry you're going through that, man. Yeah, really. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Misty, I'm sorry. Brandon says, I just started following your baby steps. The largest debt I have is my student loans, $100,000.

Should I move this to baby step six since I do not have a home? No. No. What? No. No. What? I'm confused. Student loans, right? Yeah. No.

I'm sorry, Dave. That threw me. Why would you ask? Well, because it's a huge loan. It's sometimes bigger than a house loan, and so people often ask us, you know, I want to move it to Baby Step 6 just because it's big. No. No.

It's Baby Step 2, you guys. Yeah. Well, you're not getting rid of Sally Mae, even if she's a big, big Sally Mae. Yes. She's a big, ugly woman. Don't prolong her. No. Get rid of Sally Mae.

She ain't even ugly. That's just a nasty, ugh. $100,000. The only way it's going to go away is if you attack it, not if you put it off. Right. And so we don't move the student loans to another baby step because of that. I've had calls where people said, I got $200,000 in student loans. I owe $60,000 on my house.

Ooh. You know? And they want to move it. And I'm just like, no, still don't do it. You've still got to attack it and get rid of it. Yep. That's the thing. Fun stuff.

Good hour, Anthony. Yes, sir. Thanks, James Childs and Kelly in the thing. My stuff. Good hour, Anthony. Yes, sir. Thanks, James Childs and Kelly in the booth. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is The Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts. The Ramsey Show.