The Ramsey Show - App - How I Find Accountability Budgeting as a Single Person? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 13, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: Finding accountability when budgeting, Giving land to family members, Retiring young, How you can (or can't) treat kids equally and fairly. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 of Moving and Storage Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumped, 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 love, and create actual amazing relationships. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author

and host of the Dr. John Deloney famous podcast, is my co-host today. Open phones here as we talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Patrick starts us off in Louisville, Kentucky. Merry Christmas to you, Patrick. What's up? Merry Christmas to you all, too. How can we help today, sir?

My question is, I'm a divorced single father of three, and I'm having a hard time staying on a budget. I don't have anybody to hold me accountable. So that's kind of my question. It's like, what do I do to find something like that that can hold me accountable? Who's your best friend? Probably an older couple that's down the road from me sounds like a candidate yeah let me ask you another question why have you chosen not to have somebody in your life that can hold you accountable that's a choice you've made for a reason how come well i would say it's probably uh

where i went through my divorce and everything i kind of just shrunk back there for a while there you go and you know i just don't get too close i guess hey that's fair i'll give that to you man and you you've unfortunately had to learn the hard way that you can't do life by yourself, right? Right, it's hard. Yeah, it's real hard. And so we talked about in an earlier segment, Dave and I, you're at a point where you've got to choose your heart.

You can choose to white-knuckle your way through life, raising three kids without any buddies to walk alongside you, without any people who are 10 or 15 or 20 years down the road from you who can give you some wisdom without another romantic without another wife right you can do that or you can choose the other hard path which is I'm going to slowly open myself back up to relationships again that's your two choices and and you are seeing in real time that one of those is not working yeah so i think you know what happens is in a divorce usually is uh you you lose some friends to the uh one side or the other right and uh yeah kind of they chose

a side so to speak and that's not unusual uh so some people you thought were going to be standing beside you including her are not there anymore and so yeah you've got to go reset your friend group and uh the need for accountability on this one thing on the budget is just pointing that out right and my guess is you probably accountability and other things i don't really talk with very many people yeah so it's time yeah and it my guess is this isn't the only thing you need accountability on right right yeah i mean you're walking through one of the hardest things you've ever walked through in your life doing that alone is super tough yeah so yeah the the couple down the street the people at church the uh if you're not in a good church it's time to hunt one up maybe grab a couple buddies from from where you work and invite

them over to your house to watch the fights and just y'all do whatever get an online group with one of the online fpu classes yeah jump into one of the financial peace university classes you can get you know get accountability it's probably a church in your area teaching it uh we had 11 000 fpu classes taught this year wow so not at this particular moment but throughout this year there have been so you can hopefully you can find one there in louisville to plug into but uh that'll give you the accountability that's all around this particular subject and who knows you might strike up some friendships in there it's not unusual for those people in those financial peace university groups to become lifelong friends because they're fighting the same battle against the same dragons.

Or find a singles dads group or a divorced dads group. They're in your local area, man. Reach out and do that. There's some great churches in your market that we're familiar with. So, yeah, I'd plug in. But, you know, here's the thing. It's normal to go through that, and you've got to move on to the next thing. Dave is in Pittsburgh.

Hi, Dave. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. hi dave and dr john uh appreciate you taking my call it's an honor to talk to you guys today you too merry christmas how can we help thank you merry christmas um i have an uncle who is wanting to gift um a piece of property to one of his sons uh myself and my sister and i'm just having a hard time trying to figure out whether or not it's a good idea um my wife and i are on baby step four five and six right now how many acres um it's maybe two two and a half. What's it worth? I'm sorry?

What's it worth? I don't have a dollar amount on it right now. Oh, I mean, is it $2 million or $100,000 or $50,000? Oh, no. It's probably $100,000, $50,000? Oh, no. It's probably $100,000, $150,000. Okay. I would, if he called me and asked me if he should do this, I would tell him no. Because you've got three different people

with three different sets of motivations that are now co-owners in something. This is an opportunity for you guys to get in a really big family fight right and i i if i were in his shoes i would just leave i would just give you some money and sell the property to give you the money it's a lot easier yeah i was um it just it was it just came up the other day and he kind of dropped it on my lap and I'm just kind of emotional about it. So I wasn't, I didn't want to make a bad decision because of emotion, you know? I mean, my advice to him would be to don't do it this way

because it's going to cause, he's trying to be a blessing and he's going to cause unintended problems that he doesn't see coming. Sure. And that's if your sister and your cousin and you all really love each other. It's still tough. Because they're married to somebody who has a dream about a trailer park they want to open, and somebody else wants to start a hunting lease on these two acres. I mean, it just gets off the rails quick, man.

Yeah. How old is your uncle? He's probably about 78. In good health? Fairly. They're trying to put a plan in place because they can see themselves not being able to be there long term at this point. Yeah.

So, Dave, let me ask you a question on behalf of Dave here. I'm talking to Dave Ramsey. Let me ask you a question on behalf of Dave. Let's say his uncle, he talks to his uncle and says, I don't think this is a wise thing. It'd probably be best if you sold it and we can just split the money that way. And he says, all right, I'll take that into consideration. And then he hands everybody an envelope at Christmas,

and it says, I've given you three this. Do you reject the gift or do you accept the gift just knowing that at some point i'm not going to fight my brother and cousin over the like yeah i would just hold it if if the gift is put up in your hands anyway i would just hold it very openly and kind of let the other two win all the fights i just i because if you enter into this like this is life-changing stuff and everybody's going to argue over every little nuanced thing, it's just not worth it. And if it gets really heated, I'd just do a quick claim date and give the other two my ownership.

I would not. This is a recipe for everybody to be pissed off. Very few of these things work out well. Very few of them. This is the Ramsey Show. Merry Christmas America We're glad you are with us. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for being here.

Hey, if you're a small business owner and you've got questions about business, we're going to be doing an Entree Leadership Theme Hour here on the show, and we want your questions. We want to get in touch with you, have you participate in the show, be a caller. You've got questions about hiring and firing, questions about family business, questions about marketing, questions about running your business. I have run this business for 30 years, so I'm uniquely qualified to answer your business questions. It's what I do. We teach leadership all over America, all over the world for that matter. So you get the opportunity to call in

for free, no cost for this kind of coaching. Pretty cool. It's an Entree Leadership Theme Hour. You need to email in and get in line. The email address you use is ask at ramsaysolutions.com. Put Entree Leadership Theme Hour in the subject line, ask at ramsaysolutions.com. Well, it is the Christmas season, but with the Island of Misfit Toys in Washington, D.C., we've got words like recession and inflation and gas prices in the news. Crazy out there.

But join me and Rachel Cruz, George Campbell, Dr. John Deloney, and Ken Coleman this spring in a city near you for our Building Wealth live event tour. We're going to teach you the proven plan to inflation-proof your money. Build lasting wealth. Apply these principles to your life in a real and a practical way. The first event will be in Nashville, here in our home headquarters. We'll be doing that on January the 12th. And then we'll be in Indianapolis on

February the 16th, Austin, Texas, February 23rd, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 24th, and Anaheim, California, May the 2nd. Event passes start out at just $49. Don't wait. All of our fall building wealth events and last spring all sold out early. These will, too. Get your tickets now. They make great stocking stuffers. RamseySolutions.com slash events. John is with us in New York. Hey, John, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave.

Thank you for talking to me. Sure. What's up? My wife and I are at the point where we actually took financial peace back in the early 90s, back in Dallas. And we set up a plan, and we've been working towards that plan since then to retire around the age of 55. We're close to there now. We've got about $2.5 million net worth. Good for you. Now that we're that close, we're scared, kind of scared to pull the trigger.

Okay. What are you scared of? Just that we don't have enough saves. How much do you need to live on? You know, it depends on what we do. Well, no kidding. What do you need to live on? Generally, to live on, I think we can live 50 to 75 a year max.

Okay. Well, I mean, if you've got $2.5 million, if it's generating a 10 percent rate of return there's 250 000 a year without touching the two and a half million see that's what i like that number better than you know i looking at you know the traditional four percent withdrawal and concerns about whether that well i mean it has everything to do with what you've got it invested in if you're if you're drawing four percent you've got it invested in. If you're drawing 4% and you've got it all sitting in 1% accounts, you're going to tear into the principal, right? Right. But if you're drawing 6% or 8% and the thing is growing at 10% or 11% on average,

then you're going to be growing your account every year and still pulling off a couple of hundred grand. Okay. You're making me feel much more confident. Well, I mean, are you invested in good mutual funds that have a long track record of north of 10%? Yes, our return average is right around 10% for the last 10 plus years. Okay, and so if it averaged that over the next 10-plus years and you pulled off 8%, it would grow by 2% a year.

If you pulled off 6%, it would grow by 4% a year. Right? Yeah. I mean, now some years it's going to be down, some years it's going to be up. Like you said, it averages 10, which means some years you made 15 and some years you made 4. But on average, if you're pulling off 8 and on average it's making 11, you've got a growth rate of 3, which is about normal inflation.

Now, not current inflation, but that's normal inflation rate. Okay. You're making me feel much better that we can financially do it, and now it is a plan to how we're going to live life going forward. Yeah, and I think that's more important in this equation. Right. Because this idea that we do nothing for 35 or 40 years is a good way to die young. Right.

I had a grandfather that did that, and my dad did the opposite. He retired at 55. Unfortunately, he did pass at 65, but he always said for that 10 years that he didn't know how he had time to go to work before he retired because he was volunteering and constantly doing things. Yeah, yeah.

We've got to plug into something. It doesn't necessarily have to create an income, but here's the other thing. You probably have some skill sets that you could apply without breaking a sweat. You might end up making the most money you ever made in your life and not break a sweat. Right.

I mean, an encore, you take a bow after the curtains come back up, right? Right. That's what both my father-in-law and my dad have done that. I did not hear that. I said both my father-in-law and my dad have done that. Found something completely out of the realm of possibility when they were doing their career jobs in their late 60s and 70s, and it's been transformative.

It's been great. And they made more than they did at their original career. Both of them. That's not unusual, by the way. It doesn't have to be volunteer work is my point it's okay to make money there's nothing wrong with that um and it's just the weird thing is you can end up doing it with less effort because there's no pressure and so it's just kind of you just kind of lean into it and it goes and then you can tell not the boss quote unquote what you really think, but you can have your opinion and say it out loud.

And if you're a good leader, you want somebody who has an informed opinion that they're not afraid to say out loud because it helps the whole product become better. Yeah. And then you become a gift to the organization. Exactly. Or start your own thing that you've always thought about, even if it doesn't require, you know, you work three days a week at it and you hire two people that work 40 hours and run you a little small business,

and all of a sudden that's thinking things, making more money than you've ever made in your life. It's just silly what you can do when you don't have to. You know, it's pretty amazing. Lindsay is with us in Boulder, Colorado. Hi, Lindsay. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Thanks so much for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? So my question is about my children. I have two teenage boys, and my question is about really so that they feel like they're being treated fairly with what we spend on their extracurricular activities. My older son is 16, and he's very involved in a whitewater kayaking team, wants to try out for the national team here in the spring. We spend a lot of money on this activity. And my other son is pretty basic. I mean, he plays school sports that are very reasonable.

Is this your issue or is this their issue? They have no issue. Yeah, this is inside your heart, not theirs. You can't make your boys feel anything. What you can do is treat them fairly.

And if one loves one thing that happens to be more expensive and the other i mean there's not a dollar amount ledger like that right right yeah it's okay you're doing fine you're doing great okay well my other question about we told we told our kids growing up that there's nothing fair unless it's got the tilt-a-whirl and got cotton candy other than that in a fair okay i mean my question too is you know he he my older son works mostly in the summertime um and he has contributed a little bit but at some point it's like um well if you want to limit what you're spending on whitewater rafting that's your choice but you don't have to do that

to be fair to the other son. And don't use your other son as a reason to limit your spending. You be the adult that makes that choice. Yeah, and just go, this is kind of out of control. We're going to back it down a little bit here. Субтитры подогнал «Симон» Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author and host of the Dr. John Deloney show is my co-host today. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, and you're welcome to join us through the holidays if you're going over the river and through the Dr. John Deloney Show is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. And you're welcome to join us through the holidays if you're going over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house. And we're on your way if you want to stop and hang out. We've got free homemade cookies every day and coffee is on us. Are you called people's grandmas big bad wolves?

Over the river and through the Woods to Grandmother's House we go as a song, John. Oh, that's a song. I was thinking Little Red Riding Hood. Yeah, Little Hood Red and Hide. I'll go with my bet on that one. Yeah, okay. It's good.

That's why you're here for the commentary. Yeah. So, anyway, come visit us. We'd love to have you. And you can also visit the debt-free stage, which is what Alan and Amy did. They're here to do their debt-free scream. Hey, guys, how are you? We're great. Fantastic, Dave. Cool. Good to have you and you can also visit the debt-free stage which is what alan and amy did they're here to do their debt-free scream hey guys how are you they're great fantastic dave cool good to have you guys so tell me how much debt have you guys paid off 194 000 all right how long did that take

nine years a little over nine years wow and your range of income during that time we start off around 93, dropped to 50, and went back up to a little over 180. Well, there's a nice move. So what do you guys do for a living? I'm IT vendor management. I help manage vendor relationships and look for cost saves for IT groups. Okay.

And I am a virtual assistant. I have my own business as a virtual assistant, but I was also a homeschool mom. Very good. For many, many years. Yeah. Good for you guys. Well, well done.

All right. So what kind of debt was the $194,000? All of it was our home. You paid off your house. All right. Look at it, weird people. So what's this house worth? $400,000.

Wow. Very nice. How much have you got in investments? A little over $500. So you're bumping up on the Baby Steps Millionaire number, huh? Oh, yes, sir. Way to go, guys. Proud of you.

Very cool. Dave, I do have a question around there that I've never heard. I've been listening to you since 1995. Wow. So around that is calculating that is how do we do – I'm a retired military, and so I have that pension as well as another pension and i've looked at very different many multiple resources how do we calculate pensions into your net worth you don't it's technically not an asset it's just a it's an income stream you can't do anything with it so it's not an asset so technically i mean if you

want to give it a present value and say you know i'm getting paid fifty thousand dollars a year and it would take five hundred thousand dollars to do that i'll count it as five hundred you could do that but um the good news is is that you're going to have a great net worth and a great pension thank you for your service oh my pleasure i'll call you a millionaire alan no no no i've seen him all the way so i got you I think you made it bro so tell us the story what started you guys on this Ramsey stuff nine years ago oh not nine I'll let her talk about nine years ago I've been on this journey like I said since the early 90s so yes um we've been on this for a really long time and We've been debt-free except the house since about 2008.

And then we're in a townhome that we weren't sure if we were going to keep or not. So we were not focused on paying that off. And then in 2009, we found out he was going to be deployed to Afghanistan. So we put everything on hold except investing. And then in 2012, that townhouse flooded. Oh, no. So we had to rebuild our townhouse from the studs thankfully we had the insurance and the kids had a good attitude but in 2013 we sold that house

and built our current home so that's when we kind of started the journey of paying this this debt off and then we were also financial peace university coordinators oh well thank you you're welcome it was a lot of fun and our students really just got us excited and we were like you know well we can do this yeah it's doable it's doable it's right there we just got to go get it so in the meantime we also cash flowed well over a hundred thousand dollars for braces college real life oh yeah absolutely We actually, so our children, we cash flowed through that, two associate's degrees and a bachelor's degree.

Both of our kids got their associate's degree in high school, and our daughter just graduated in May with her bachelor's degree in 19. Wow. Cash flowed all debt-free. Way to go, guys. Scholarships. Ding, ding.

Yes. That was efficient. Yes. Absolutely. Well done done you guys well how's it feel to be a hundred percent free no it's it's absolutely amazing so it's kind of surreal because you don't realize it you wake up sometimes and you just uh just a great example about a month ago i said hey let's just go up to the Ark Encounter. And we just know we have the budget there because we've already increased our giving, we increased our saving. So now we can increase our doing.

There you go. It's great just to be able to take her to Savannah. So we just pick a weekend, a quarter, or every couple months and say, where do you want to go? You don't have any concerns because it's all cash. Live like no one else later. You can live and give like no one else. Absolutely. Well done. Good for you guys.

Yes. What do you tell people? You've coordinated classes. You're millionaires almost. You are 100% debt-free, house and everything. What's the secret to managing money well, to getting out of debt? What do they need to do if they're listening? For me, the first thing is you need to pray.

You've got to get wisdom from above. You can't get wisdom from yourself. Second, surround yourself with smarter people. And a great example, not to toot your horn, but Dave, I was very ignorant in money. I had some idea, but when I saw you, met you in Jackson and started listening to you, I just got educated. And, of course, I listened to other personalities. idea but when i saw you met you in jackson and started listening to you i just got educated and of course i listened to other personalities so educate yourself on that surround yourself with

good people but um i tell her one thing is if you're going to fail fail small and i mean by that is when you uh when something goes wrong if you fall off the wagon don't make it to where you don't feel like you can recover ah that's good so you can recover and then uh third is bounce back and fourth i say reward yourself as you go like the first time we paid off before the house we paid off all her other debt paying my student loans y'all y'all student loans yeah yeah about a hundred and some thousand but that's another conversation but what we did is when you paid off the first one, because we didn't consolidate at first, we just paid them off. I took her to Wendy's just to celebrate.

But when we paid off- Whoa, he goes big. I'll tell you, man. Well, that was the first one. My heart just started beating fast, Alan. Yeah, I was just saying. But when we paid it all off, we went to Ruth's Chris. So as you go through your journey, reward yourself small.

Now we're picking up. Okay. All right. Good. What was the best uh disagreement you you all got in over the last decade oh her her trucks when we first got married she always wanted a truck and we had a minivan and her mother-in-law my mother-in-law has been always great but she made the comment she says i hope i don't have to come pick you guys up when the van

breaks down again so we were debt free we had money and shaming from the mother-in-law no no we don't have to pick you up on the side of the road what kind of man did you marry amy so we uh she wanted to she always wanted a truck and i wanted to get her a truck but so i found a new one that i had had a lot of uh major discounts i got a lot of uh uh with military discounts. And then I had bought an old truck to help us move into the house that I actually traded it in, sold it for more than I paid for. And I went to the dealer for five days. And the last day, the guy goes, say, Mr. Jobson, we have your office for you. So just real numbers, but it was like a $43,000

truck, 42. And I had them down to 21.5 out the door. And I got them to throw in the one-year maintenance in that package too. Very cool. And we looked at the used ones. We could find one of like 25 or 30 or 40,000 miles. And I said, we're just going to buy them and get you the new truck. So she was not for it because I had the platinum version down too.

But she said, no, the xlt version's fine so she's got her f-150 and she still has it with over 200 000 miles amy you i just don't see f-150 when i look at you she's all that's pretty cool steering wheel and license plate f-150 girl okay i got it i i have adjusted my paradigm all right hey guys we've got uh the live and give bundle for you as a way of saying congratulations it's got the total money makeover the baby steps millionaires books in it it's got financial peace university membership for a year in it so bring the kiddos up and tell us their current names and ages these days this is ava she's. And this is Asa. He's also a Chick-fil-A scholar.

All right. He got the Chick-fil-A scholarship this year and doing really well in school. How old is he? He's 17. 17. All right. Very good. All right.

Alan and Amy, Ava and Asa from South Carolina. 194 paid off in nine years. House and everything. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream three two one well done man that's fun merry christmas america this is the Ramsay Chef Our scripture of the day, Isaiah 26, 3 and 4, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast

because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal. Corrie ten Boom said, if you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest. Oh you look within, you'll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest. Oh, Corey, well done. Well played.

So the live and give bundle that we give to each of the debt-free screamers is on sale. If you want to do a live and give bundle, you can break it up, and you'd have three gifts in there, one for yourself if you wanted, like the Baby Steps Millionaires book, and give away the Total Money Makeover book and give away Financial Peace University. All three are in there. And, of course, when you get the Live and Give box, it's a bundle.

It all comes in a neat box. You can give it all to somebody as a gift. It's only $99. Now, Financial Peace University is normally $99. So that means the two books are like free which is like 50 worth of books free so this is like 30 something percent off right so it's a good deal the live and give box or bundle or whatever we want to call it total money makeover book a year of financial peace university and baby steps millionaires all at

ramsey solutions.com slash box shel Shelby is in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Shelby. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi there. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I want your advice, or I want your opinion.

My husband and I have a student loan debt. It's mine, $99,000. And we used to have $12,000 in credit card debt, and we're down to $5,600. So we're feeling really good about that. My question to you is, I was listening to the podcast from a couple weeks ago, and I didn't realize that with my husband's stock, he invested stock in the company he works for, about $10,000. I didn't think about it, the fact that we kind of have all our eggs in one basket. Should we pull that and use that to pay down our debt or should we leave it no you should use it it's not in a it's not in a retirement account it's just

vested stock it's stock option as a benefit yes yeah just cash it out yeah you would not borrow on a credit card to buy stock and in effect that's the net effect of what you've done accidentally yeah so yeah i would undo that and just cash it out and and pay it down and you're gonna have plenty of time to invest later and invest in good mutual funds inside your retirement account once you get rid of these stinking loans right yes what's your household income shelby um we make between my husband and i we make make $94 a year before taxes. Great.

How long have you all been married? Two years? Seven. Seven? We have two kids. Okay, good. Okay. Well, so I'm proud for the progress you've made.

I want you to turn the fire up hotter and get it done faster because I want you to win. We love you, and we want you to go out there and kill it, okay? So get her done, kiddo. Well done, well done, well played. Jessica is in Billings, Montana. Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

My husband and I have been on your plan for about the last five years. We have done 3B for the last two, and we've decided to go back to doing four. We're just feeling really discouraged and not being able to afford a house where we are here in Montana and just feeling like we're still years away even after we've been saving for the last four. And I just wondered if you had any advice for us. How much have you saved? We have a $20,000 emergency fund and $47,500 in a down payment fund.

What's your household income? Between my husband and I, it's $75,000 a year. You need to go buy a house. We tried. We've been trying. So we looked at a house yesterday for $265,000, which is really affordable for our area, and I know you recommend a 15-year loan, but that seems way out of reach. So on a 30, the payments would be between $1,700 and $1,800 a month, which is more like 35% of our take-home pay instead of $25,000. You're not discouraged. You're throwing a fit because you can't buy the house you want that's not the same as being discouraged okay we haven't been able to find anything lower than that yeah keep looking you need to find a home that you can afford that is a blessing don't buy something that's a curse because you uh because you didn't look hard enough i mean

sometimes this isn't an adventure this house hunting thing um you don't look hard enough. I mean, sometimes this is an adventure, this house hunting thing. You don't have an unlimited budget. You make $70,000 a year. You have $47,000 to put down. Don't put your family into a crisis just to become a homeowner. But also, don't say homeownership's out of reach in Billings, Montana. It's not. You can do this.

But, you know, it may not be the house you saw yesterday and and yeah i would do it on a 15 year fixed where the payments no more than a fourth of your take-home pay why because i want you to be millionaires later and i don't want this house to ride you i want you to ride the house dave i sheila and i my wife and i did something that's not really it's not the baby steps um but we found ourself in this situation and tell me if this is crazy we as a couple decided we are going to do essentially a another gazelle sprint so that we can afford this down payment of a house and we decided just to lock things down in the middle for a limited amount of time i think we said nine months something like that and we're just going to work bananas i'll take an extra job and i'm

going to adjunct here i'm going to do that and let's just accelerate this process real fast get this down payment so that we can then move this thing along the only thing that's not in the baby steps there is just we teach you to be intentional not intense right and you said in order to get the house i want i'm gonna i'm gonna we're gonna we're gonna turn up the heat yeah we're gonna go for it but and we decided together like yeah yeah and so like both of you work extra no vacations no eating out and you go back to gazelle intensity and you take your 47 and you make it 75 right and let's do this for six months and let's just be bananas about it and then it then we're to have no problem. Yeah. But the problem is when you do a little bit of everything, nothing gets done. That's right.

And so you start losing death by a thousand cuts then, and that's what I'm afraid of here. And so it's just – it is – it's not all skittles and rainbows when you go look at houses. No, it's the worst. Because you and rainbows when you go look at houses. No, it's the worst. Because you always see something you can't afford. Always. We're drawing a house plan to build next summer.

And the guy helping us with it actually added the numbers wrong accidentally. And so when we actually added them right, the house was like ridiculous. We're like, we're not doing that. And we can afford to do whatever. But it's just like, it's huge. You know, just no, we're not doing that. Let's fix this. So we've gone through and cut the dadgum thing down.

But it's depressing. It hurts, right? To go backward after you were up is depressing. And I can afford it. Right. So I have the choice. But if you don't have the choice and you've got to cut down because it doesn't fit the budget or it doesn't fit the

situation it's depressing yeah if you you know it's don't go drive new cars if you're in the getting ready to buy a new one or used one yeah because a new one goes you know blow your dadgum mind and then you're you can't you can't return you can't yeah and don't fall in the trap of a frustration of frustration of frustration if you're around a child especially like a toddler you know they get annoyed they get annoyed they get annoyed and then they just hit something or they just shove something over or they bite somebody don't just go see a house go see a house go see a house and then just get so frustrated you buy it in that you buy something yeah because it's just the way it is and you don't understand just see a house, go see a house, go see a house, and then just get so frustrated that you buy something.

Because it's just the way it is, and you don't understand. Just walk away. Day range. Yeah. And then reset. That's what you do. Back up, take a cold shower, get a house fever. I mean, it's a real thing.

I understand. It's easy to be. Oh, listening to her, I threw a temper tantrum the other day. I wanted to buy something. And again, I can afford it. There was no reason on the planet to buy it none zero except i just wanted it and i that my temper tantrum day was at me yeah you know the grown-up me was telling the kid me i can't do this and the kid that's what we're doing with this house plan so like the grown-up me looked at that and went

that's just dumber than crap we're not doing that and sharon goes that's ridiculous we're not doing that and i'm going but i like it and i want it i want it i want it i want it and yeah i mean that's human freaking nature and if i who teach this stuff every year for 30 years fall for it then jessica in billings montana you have permission to fall for it too right but you've got to fight the inner child. Do the next right thing. The one on the cereal aisle that throws a fit and says, I want it. I want it. No.

Call the Wambulance. Take six jobs. Build up your down payment or lower your price point that you're looking at and quit looking at houses you can't afford. And that's what you got to do. It's a pain in the butt, this thing called grown-up Phil. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to Austin, Ben, James, Zach, and Andrew, the booth dudes.

They make it happen. I am Dave Ramsey. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to the Ramsey Show every week a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country to find a station near you go to ramseysolutions.com slash show