The Ramsey Show - App - How Much Can We Spend on Our Honeymoon? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony discuss: Regretting a move across the country, The feeling that you'll never get out of debt, Developing a plan for a special needs child, How much to spend on a honeymoon, Moving during inflation.   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

Девочка-пай From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you get control of your money, get ahead in your career, and get on the path to living well. I'm George Campbell, your host, joined today by Dr. John Deloney, and we are happy to take your call this hour. We're pumped.

We're pumped. Let's do this. 5-2-2-5. That's 888-825-5225. Kayla's kicking us off in Billings, Montana. Kayla, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi. How are you guys?

We're so great. How can we help today? Good. Thank you. So my question is, my husband and I moved across the country recently, and I am unhappy here. And I'm just wondering, at what point do you put forth mental health and caring for that versus finances and putting yourself in a bind or losing money on our house. Often when you back yourself into a corner and give yourself one of two cryptic options, there's something else going on. Tell me what else is going on here.

Okay. So, oh gosh, I don't know. I'm just very depressed where we live now. What is it about this environment, this world? Are you missing your friends from your old place, your old community? Are you not plugging in? Did you have a bad experience? What is it? Yeah, a couple of things. We are very far from our family.

It kind of feels isolating. And the weather here is a little rougher than I prefer. Like winters are very long and seasonal depression, I feel like is a real thing. It's a super real thing. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's just hard and just not as much to do or the things that I enjoy doing.

We had a home before, and so I miss that home and that area and that climate and people coming to visit us. And we have a house now, but nobody comes to visit because we're very far away. Or if they do, it's very rare. So why'd you guys move? Stuff like that. Why'd you move? Why? He works.

He's the truck driver. He works for FedEx. And if we transferred, the pay was a lot higher. So he went from being a city driver in Tennessee, and then we transferred out west where he was a road driver. And they get paid quite a bit more. So we could always transfer back, but they aren't hiring at the moment for road or city.

So I'm just here trying to figure out what to do. How long have you lived there? We've been here a year, but we've been out west two years. Okay. I had a very similar experience when I moved from Texas where I had my community, my friends and my family and to Tennessee to Nashville into, it was a great job. It was, it was a,

um, a much, it's a much more significant paying job. It was an incredible group of people I got to work with, but I was lonely and I was missing people. And I like doing these things and I wasn't able to do those things here because now I'm in the city. It kind of reversed of what you experienced. And ultimately, my wife and I had to sit down and say, okay, we're going to go all in on making this our home.

And it was a completely different identity shift. And she actually went way faster than i did she went and made friends got connected started going to coffee with people and that's not her nature it's not my nature and um i had to i've told some stories on air about inviting people to my house and be like so this is super weird but will you be my friend um will you go hang out and when someone would invite me that i didn't know that well to watch the fights, I said yes every time. And I've come, like, our family goal now, a few years after that time is this is it. Like, my goal and hope in life is to die in Tennessee. Okay? This became my home.

But it took some high intentionality on our part. So here's my challenge to you. Number one, don't frame this as money or mental health. That's not a fair framing of this. It's not, hey, you want to be rich and crazy and depressed? That's not really what's happening here. What's happening here is, hey, we made a decision together that this is going to be a significant increase in pay for us.

We're going to be able to change some things of our lives that we thought was going to be great. And maybe missed the mark and that's okay we tried it out two years three years cool let's get back on the transfer list and see if when that happens until then we are not going to voluntarily choose misery i'm not going to choose to be miserable waiting for this thing that may or may not happen in two months five months two years ten years choose the things that are going to make you joyful. In the meantime, that may mean that we need to add to our budget plane tickets.

Cause we thought we could see family once a year. I want to see him three. And that's just going to be a thing that we're going to do. That's a little bit different. Um, I am not big on going to coffee with, with the gals. I'm going to coffee with the gals.

I'm going to make that a part of my life. You see what I'm saying? Go all in where you are. And if you go all in where you are and you come back and you say, hey, I want to go back to Tennessee. And you end up back to Tennessee and Kentucky and North Carolina, whatever. Nobody failed anything. Nobody lost anything. We thought this was going to be the right thing for us.

What I found was, oh, man, I just missed my family and friends. And that's a completely normal thing. You're supposed to be sad when you miss your family and friends. And now my new life adventure was finding new people to do life with. And I have. See what I'm saying? I see. Yeah, I see.

More of the effort. Well, it's not, no, see, there you, like, okay, I'm just not doing enough. No, no, no. Not like that. Not like that. Here's what I'm saying. It's completely normal to feel how you feel right now. Okay?

And moving forward, you have a choice. Do I want to continue this? Do I want to continue just to be here and be sad? Or do I want to do something differently? Not do more. Do I want to do something different? And what you're doing right now is you've been healing, right? You made a big, major move.

Now we're healing. Now we're going to figure out something that's new. And let's set a time limit with my husband. When he's home, let's say, let's put a pin on the calendar at six months. Let's just check back in with each other at six months and see how we're doing. And I'm going to go all in. You go all in. We're going to make this thing work.

We're going to choose to have fun out here, even though I'm not really a hiker or a, I don't fly fish. I don't know what you do in Montana. Um, but normally I wanted to, I'm more of a pedal tavern gal there in downtown Nashville and there's no pedal taverns out here. And I don't know, I'm losing it. Right. I'm being, I'm being rude, but, um, decide to go all in there and then put something on the calendar and it gives you some peace, right? This isn't a forever thing and this isn't a cast into the ocean. And if you are struggling, if you are feeling depression in a way that I don't want to get out of bed, I don't like anybody, I don't have joy, please call somebody, okay? Yeah.

Please go visit a counselor, okay? And yeah, seasonal depression is very, very real very real um there's all kinds of lights you can get there's all kinds of um interventions you can do with lighting on your house and activities you can do to help with the lights that is a very real thing um and winter is coming right so be ready for that as it heads your way yeah that's huge. Yeah, when I moved to Nashville, John, from Mobile, which I had moved from Boston, you just reset. And I had to go, all right, I'm going to get plugged into my local church.

I made some great friends there. I started here at Ramsey Solutions. I knew no one. And now there's some of my best friends here, some of my best community via the church and work. And I love it. And I can't ever imagine going back to Boston. But that takes a lot of time and intentionality.

And that's all we're asking for. And some awkwardness and some failure. It's a part of it. And you're a king of awkwardness. I am king of awkwardness. John has mastered it. I love it. More of The Ramsey Show coming up. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី welcome back to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined today by dr john delone our question of

the day comes from blinds.com. Their 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they will remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSEY to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Will in New York. Will writes, my wife and I earn about $83,000 a year and have over $238,000 in student loans, auto loans, credit cards, et cetera. I did a couple of balance transfers and split a credit card between a few to get 0% interest rates on as much of the debt as possible. I feel we are

somewhat on track doing the debt snowball while still paying the minimum on some and trying to get the ones with 0% interest paid off before the intro rate expires. I just turned 30, so I'm also trying to build a small emergency fund and feeling pressured to start a 401 and plan for retirement. I don't want to be in debt anymore, and I fantasize about paying cash for a house, but fear that will never happen.

Any advice or guidance you can offer would be greatly appreciated man it's a tough situation gosh this guy sounds just like john deloney we've been there john we're like we're gonna game the system we're gonna move this to the zero percent card and do some balance transfers no it's it's the when he says i just fantasized but i remember just just walking around the house when my wife was asleep at night thinking, our life should be different than this. I remember that feeling. And yes, I remember trying to come up with every scheme in the book to figure it out,

like a way to cut corners and do different and whatever. Yeah. So let's address one thing. You're doing too much at once, man. We've got to slow down and focus on one thing at a time. That is the power of the baby steps, which means we're not working on the emergency fund right now. We have our starter emergency fund of $1,000.

Then we're doing the debt snowball. Then the emergency fund. And then we'll start investing in the 401k. And you're 30. You still have a lot of life ahead of you. A lot of people, John, go, oh, I'm 30. It's too late for me, John. And the same person at 20 is feeling that way,

and the same person at 40 is feeling that way. It's not too late, but you've got to take intentional steps. And when I see fantasize about paying cash for a house, and then I look at their situation, that's like me fantasizing about being the best guitar player in the world, but I don't want to practice guitar ever. And it's part of it. We have to get out of debt, have margin

back in our life to be able to pay cash for a house. So you're right, right now it is a fantasy because you have $238,000 of debt and you're sitting here playing games. I, this is a conversation that's not talked about enough. I think, and me and you, we can do a better job of talking about it. With this type of student loan debt, I didn't have this much, but we had six figures. We got pretty radical. We moved. And I think we moved into a residence hall, into a dorm, right?

It may be that living in one of the most expensive states in the United States is just not tenable anymore. And we're going to take our jobs and we're moving to Kansas. We're moving to Nebraska. We're moving somewhere where the cost of living is exponentially less expensive. And that means we're not going to be able to be in a cool city. And that means we're not going to be able to do some cool whatever's and this is and that's, but this is how much freedom means to us. Um, and we're going to pay a little bit of money to move, or we're going to get new jobs, whatever money to move or we're going to get new jobs. Whatever the thing is, we're going to get radical. We're going to get radical.

And right now, $83,000 a year in New York paying off that much, it's going to be years and years. We've got to double that income in the next six months. We've got to get different jobs. And I know that you love your job

and I know you feel safe at your job. You've got to get different jobs. And we're probably selling the cars. That's right. We've got to get radical about this. And we're cutting up the credit cards and we don't care if it's 0% or 20%. We're going to pay it off smallest to largest because that's going to make us feel the progress. It's going to motivate us to actually do this thing. Yeah. And we're pausing that retirement, no matter how much pressure. I don't know who's feeling

pressured. I don't know where that pressure is coming from. For me, it came, it just came from shame. It just came from this picture that this is what a husband should be investing by now i i'm gonna i'm failing yeah and that failure just it just spins and spins and spins on you and by the way if you choose to stay in new york we had a teacher who did debt-free scream that was like yeah i was a teacher and the moment i got off i just went and drove uber all night. And then I got up in the morning and did Uber. And then I went and was a teacher. And she did that for a period of time. She paid off a ton of money. So if you're going to stay in New York, cool. It's going to cost you a soul tax. You're going to have to work like crazy. But do it, man. Just do it. It's worth it. But you got to go all

in. And that's been a theme on the show today is you can't be ish because you're going to get ish results and you're going to be emailing us and going well i try to do the zero percent i try to move it over here and i'm trying to invest because i know that's good and i want to get that emergency fund and then you wonder why you're not making any progress here's a good example i spent some time with the mind pump guys in san jose awesome guys um really doing for the fitness industry what dave is doing that's done with the financial industry right and um we're talking about getting getting in shape and losing weight and building muscle and what Will is doing here is like you know what I'm gonna lose some weight and I'm gonna get in shape and I'm gonna get stronger and so he turned the treadmill up as fast as it would go and he got a barbell and he's got like a kettlebell and he's running and trying to lift and throw the kettlebell at the same time.

You're going to get hurt, man, this whole thing. Stop. Do these things in the right order, right? Let's start lifting weights and let's lose weight and then let's build muscle over time. And then once we get more healthy, then we can start. Let's do this thing in the right order, right? So same with Will. We got a plan for you, man.

Just follow the plan. Thanks for the question, Will. Get after it, brother. it, brother. Absolutely. Let's go to the phones. Lacey joins us up next in Tulsa. Lacey, welcome to the show. Thank you for taking my call. How are you today? We're doing great. How can we help? Good. I am thinking of maybe starting a side business. My husband and I have a special needs son and we have a trust. And so I'm wondering if we should put the money from the side business into, we do not have like our three to six month emergency fund. We're about a thousand dollars or so away from having our debt paid off. And so I'm wondering, should we put the money into the emergency fund or put it over in the trust to take care of our son, you know, long, long term? What's the nature of special needs?

He has Down syndrome. And then last year, we also got an autism diagnosis, so we have Down syndrome and autism. Okay, how old? He's 11. He's 11. Is he just a, is he a rambunctious, smiley ball of fun? Yes, all of the above, very hyper. That's so great. I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it. So it i love it i love it so with this trust are you planning on releasing this uh as he you know enters adulthood um we have within our trust we have like the special needs um set up more we did it more for when we set it up it was more for just the care of you know something should happen to us and just recently i've started trying to think of you know we need funds in there as well to care for

him um i don't know that it would ever be released to him directly probably just depending on how he you know progresses as he gets older i don know. And what his care situation looks like, right? And whether you guys are... Well, the best thing for him financially is for you guys to get a hold of your own finances. And so that means following the baby steps, we're putting any extra income towards the baby steps, which means we're paying off this $1,000 with that money.

We're filling up the three to six months emergency fund with that money. And then baby step four through seven, we go from intense to intentional. And so if you want to, at that point, invest 15% of your income and then put any extra money into the trust, I think that's when the time to do it. And you can also designate your retirement. If you were to pass away, whatever you're putting into retirement would roll into this trust and the sale of your home would roll into this trust, right? So it's not like you're going to lose this down the road.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Our home is not in our trust name. And that's one thing I'm needing to do is to deed it over into our trust. We sold our home last year and just purchased this one. And so our last home was in the name of our trust. Sure. But I have not gotten this one sent over yet.

Yeah, and that's one of those things that, as a parent, that can just be a burr in the back of your, ah, just, ah, just go get it done. Just make a note, get it done this week. Knock that out and get that off your chest so your day will be a little bit lighter. And you're about to knock out your debt. You're on the doorstep of debt freedom. And by the end of the year, you're going to have that fully funded emergency fund.

And it's going to put you guys in a different place when it comes to your foundation of money. So I'm real proud of you guys. Way to go. Love that little bow, man. Love that 11-year-old. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for the call. This is The Ramsey Show.

And it is that time of day when we get to celebrate someone on the debt-free stage. And that person is Debbie. How are you, Debbie? How are you? Doing fantastic. Welcome, welcome. Thank you. So you paid off some debt, didn't you?

I did, a little bit. Where are you from? Shakur, Pennsylvania. Near Pittsburgh? North Pittsburgh, yeah. Okay, awesome. How much debt did you pay off? I paid off $98,107.

Whoa! Woo! How long did that take? 38 months. All right. And your range of income during that time? It started at $65,000 and it ended at $177,000. Whoa.

Okay. What do you do for a living? I'm a nurse. Is that all nursing? Is that travel nursing? Nope. Wow. Fantastic.

Nurses have had a boring last three years or so, huh? Yes, we have. Yep. Oh my goodness. That's quite the jump. So boring last three years or so, huh? Yes, they have. Yep. Oh, my goodness. That's quite the jump. So was that jump overtime or what happened? Promotions? I work at a hospital and then I picked up at visiting nurses.

So I worked all the time. I was never home. My kids never saw me. I worked doubles all my days off all the time. Are you a single mom? I am. Yeah. Wow. You're a single mom? I am. Yeah. Wow.

You're a rock star. You're actually a hero in a t-shirt, actually, without a cape. That's incredible. Thanks. Wow. Okay, so what type of debt was the $98,000? It was my car. It was credit cards.

I had co-signed a student loan. I charged everything. I charged my bed. It was everything. Wow. So what got you to that point where you were just charging everything and going, like, were you in la-la land? Or did you feel like, well, this is what you're supposed to do?

Well, I thought I could juggle everything. I was pretty good at juggling all my credit cards. And then I bought a house I couldn't afford. And then two weeks after we moved in, Murphy moved in and stayed for about six months and $30,000. I was totally broken, totally. I had done financial peace

and failed it before. So then my daughter, who's here with me today, she said, why don't you just try it again? You don't have anything to lose. You're already in the hole. So I said, okay.

I love that encouragement. You're already at rock bottom. It can't get't get worse mom I can't go any lower so hand me a shovel and hold my beer I can dig deeper right exactly well done so you went through it again I did I credit I cut up all my credit cards and that day I applied for the visiting nurse job wow and that was 38 months ago yeah just about yeah about? Yeah. That's incredible. So how'd you hear about us in the first place? I had Googled how to pay off debt because I thought I was going to be smart and paid off and still juggle my credit cards, which is ridiculous. After you look back, you really can't do that. You have to go all in or you're not going to make it. It's like having a fire extinguisher in one hand and a flamethrower in the other. Exactly. And you

go, yeah, we put out a fire over here i thought i could do it but i didn't failed how long have you been doing this all by yourself uh how long have i been uh seven seven years seven years okay so when i look at your story um one word that comes up a lot is a lot of loss right a lot like we lost this and we lost the we got a house and we lost our sanity and we lost our money and then murphy moved in and then i don't want us to forget like we could ever forget that when you started this journey 36 three years ago the world was literally on fire right and, yeah. Right? And so what happened?

Like, that's an extreme testament to your character and strength that you chose to stand up in the midst of all that chaos. How'd you do that? I got really scared with the COVID. In the hospital, it's a different world. And, you know, people outside, we were told when we started COVID that pack a bag because you may not leave so I was frightened that I was going to leave my kids with all that debt and I thought I did that myself and I'm going to leave it to my kids so from then on they're my why wow that's how I did it I just I

I need you to hear me say just person to person parent parent to parent, what you've done is amazing. Well, thank you. And yes, you've been really open about some of the knuckleheaded things you've done with money and whatever. What you have done here is brave and courageous and inspiring. And you sacrificed a couple of years of being around your kids to change their life forever and to change your life forever. And I just need you to know just person to person, this is inspiring and it's amazing. Thank you. I'm proud of you.

It's awesome. So inspire someone else out there who's got $100,000 of debt. What do you say the key to getting out of debt is? You have to have a big enough why or you're just not going to do it. This is so hard. It is not for the faint of heart. It was so hard. I cried a lot going to work i'd call my daughter she's a nurse as well and uh she heard a lot from me she just keep keep going keep going

you'll get there so was she your biggest cheerleader yeah all my kids helped out they took care of the home so i didn't have to i didn't cook i didn't get groceries i did nothing because they took care of everything well you you raised some great kids who are self-sustaining that's a big part of it self-sustaining yeah is that a word no but okay it's cool though i feel like i could google that it's a word it's self-sustaining wow that's pretty incredible so and i'm older so it's like could i do it because i was 52 when i started and i'm like wow i see i watch all the debt-free scrims and they're like, oh, these are young couples and here I am, an older mother. So it was a personal challenge to yourself going,

is it too late for me? No, it's not. So is that what you'd say to someone else who's in their 40s or 50s or 60s? It's not too late. Nope. Yeah, the real question you have to ask yourself when you're 52 is, I'm going to be 55 either way.

Do I want to be debt-free or do I want to have debt? That's the question, right? Are you still working this second job or have you let it go? No, I still work it, but I work it because I want to. Not because I have to. That's different. That's incredible. So how does it feel?

Oh, it feels great. You seem light, airy. You could just float away at any moment. I'm very excited. Have you had some of these moments where the check's cash and you have no bills? Yeah. I paid it off in

February, March. March 3rd. Fantastic. We're so proud of you. We've got some parting gifts for you. We've got Baby Steps Millionaires, Dave's number one best-selling book. That's the next chapter in your story as you've changed your family tree and step into Baby Steps Millionaire status. And number one bestselling book. That's the next chapter in your story as you've changed your family tree and step into Baby Steps Millionaire status.

And, of course, a copy of Financial Peace University, the newest edition. You can gift that to maybe one of your nurse friends who's going, you did what now? In 30? How? Show me the way. You can hand that to them as well as a copy of The Total Money Makeover to kickstart someone else's journey.

So proud. You brought the kids with you? I brought my older daughter, Allison, and my young son, Emerson, and this is my son-in-law. I love it. Well, you want to bring them up on stage? Are they screaming with you?

I don't think. Okay, they're hanging out. Are you screaming with me? I didn't know that I wanted to be a part of this. Hey, y'all had to take care of the house. You need to get up there and scream with her. Yeah, you guys were a part of this. I have to add, my son-in-law is awesome.

Anytime anything would break, he's like, no, you're not paying for it. He was over before I even put the phone down. Wow. Kudos to him. Very impressive. You look like you have some incredible people in your corner. Yes, I do. That's awesome.

Well, let's get to it. The moment we've all been waiting for. It's Debbie and Allison in Emerson, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. $98,107 paid off in 38 months, making $65,000 all the way to $177,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

I'm debt-free! Woo! That's the opposite of a Debbie Downer, John. Right there. That's my dad joke for the day thank you for using my line again that is fantastic i love these stories john it really is inspiring never gets old and i just love the fact that you can decide at any age and i love what you said you're gonna be 55 anyways do you want to be debt-free at 55 or do you want to keep living how you've been living yeah my wife had a few friends they were 35 and

they were all hanging out talking and they said man we always wished we'd gone to med school so dumb we should go to med school but now it's too old and it would be seven years of going to school and going through rotation and my wife because she's very very wise she said that's not that's not what you should be asking yourself. What you should be asking yourself is, you're going to be 42 either way. Do you want to be a doctor when you're 42 or not a doctor when you're 42?

And they were like, ooh, well played, right? And your mom has an inspiring story of that too. Yeah, it's very similar. I just have people in my life, my mom, my dad, people who have made some major changes past ages when people think you can change. Right.

And Debbie's a perfect example. As if there's a certain day where it's like, all right, it's too late. This is it. You're always going to have back pain. You're always just good. You know what? Couple, y'all been married so long. You're always just going to argue.

It's just going to be that way. You know what? Single mom, you just, just, you can't do it. You're always going to struggle with money. You can't do it. Hey, you're already working a full-time job. Now, don't work too hard. You have to do this with the kids.

Debbie's one of those curvebusters, man, that just says, I'm going to throw all the rules out the window. I'm going to get this thing done. For 38 months, she said, I'm going to pay a price for a time. But then the next 30 years of her life, freedom, baby. That's what it's all about. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Matthew 5.3. You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope.

With less of you, there is more of God and His rule. Franklin Roosevelt said, When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on. Good stuff there. Hey, George, it's no secret that I love a good concert. If it's going to be a good one, I'm going to be there. And I know folks listening have something in mind that you would like to

do with some extra cash. Like go to a concert, go have some fun, go on a date, go do something cool. So I'm super excited to announce that it is back. We are giving away 500 bucks every week and a grand prize of $3,000 in August in our Ramsey Cash Giveaway. That's big, John. You know, on top of National Make-A-Will Month, it's also Giveaway Month. Could this month get any better? No, but seriously, think about all the cool things you could do with that extra cash. You could fill up your gas tank at least twice, all the way up, without even worrying about what gas station is the cheapest. That is true luxury.

All of the groceries you can buy without feeling like you just got robbed. You can add it to your investments, pay off debt, you name it. Or if you're like Dr. John, you can go to that concert you've been waiting to see, which John goes to a concert about once a week without me. And if you were like George, you can get a pedicure. You could get two a month instead of just one. I know. I get them for my dogs, John. They're not for me anymore.

That is right. Sacrifice. But you can go enter the giveaway, ramsaysolutions.com slash giveaway, and you can do this every single day in August for extra chances to win. No purchase necessary, but you got to be 18 or older. Sorry, kids. ramsaysolutions.com slash giveaway. All right, let's go to the phones. Thomas joins us up next in Greensboro, North Carolina. Thomas, welcome to the show. Hey, y'all. Thanks so much for having me. Sure. How can we help?

So I have one primary question and then a second one if we have time for it. But to give you some context and background to the first one. So my fiance and I are wondering if we're about to spend a little bit too much on a honeymoon or not. So she is projected to make about 28, I'd say about 32,000 this year. She is a beautician. She does haircutting. Then I will make probably about a little bit more than 45 this year. I drive a straight truck for a living. I plan on getting my CDL probably in the next two to four months. So that will also increase my income. She has absolutely no debt whatsoever. And she has about, I think, three to four months of emergency funds. I have $1,000 in emergency fund. I do have a little debt. I have one credit card with about $1,500 on it.

That will be paid off by the wedding. Our wedding will be in October. We're thinking about $8,000 for the wedding. Five of that is coming generously from our parents and then we're cash flowing the rest. But then there's the honeymoon. We were kind of wanting to take a little bit longer of a honeymoon. I personally haven't had a week over a week vacation in about five years. So we were thinking about two weeks and the grand total was probably about a little over 13,000. So we'd be going, we'd be going into it a little. Where are you guys going? To the moon? Is this like an overwater bungalow in Fiji? Well, I wish. So we will be going about, if we can afford it, we would be going to St.

Thomas and the Virgin Islands for about a week. Then we'd be coming back home, going to our state fair in North Carolina for about two days, and then going to the Biltmore Resort in Asheville for about three days. So that would all be paid for in cash as well. We'd be cash flowing that. So that was kind of my question. We'd be making about $75,000 a year when we're married together, but we didn't, we were just trying to figure out, you know, even though we were debt free, even though we would have some, a decent income, if maybe we should back off a little bit. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I'm a cheapskate, but spending $13,000 on your honeymoon and $8,000 on the wedding feels backwards to me.

That's pretty wild. It does feel a little sideways. That's like the guy that buys the $2,000 car and puts $5,000 rims and tires on it. It just seems a little bit backwards. Gotcha. So, I mean, I don't know what you spent on your honeymoon, John. Not near that. The purpose of the honeymoon, you're going somewhere tropical.

There's not that much difference between Cancun and St. Thomas as far as a nice view. So if I'm you, I'm going to do some heavy research to go, how can we cut this thing down to $3,000, $4,000 and still have an amazing time? Yes, if you don't mind, we

have done a tad bit of research. We did get a person to look over things for us. It's really things like the flights that are just killing us. So, again, we've only put the deposit on some of these things, so we can take it back. And from what you're telling us, we may end up doing that. You can get all your money back?

I believe so. We've only put like $300 or $400 on the deposit, and they're countable two weeks up until the arrival. Okay, so as a guy who's been married for a long time, I just went to Asheville for my 20th anniversary, so it's a great place. You're picking well. It's awesome. There is going to be some stress to dealing with the wedding, to getting married, to moving into a place together. Even though we got it all planned out, we've been dating a while, we're best friends, we love each other, all those things,

it's just going to be a season of stress. And if you throw $13,000, go into this country, then get home, and then go in here, you're going to end this two weeks more tired than you started. And then you're going to launch back into work. She's going to be back. So you're setting yourself up back into work she's going to be back right so you're you're setting yourself up um to stumble at the at the starting line i would much rather you take a much

smaller a less expensive not cheaper but a less expensive time for y'all to just be together at rest and enjoy life have some fun do some cool rest doesn't mean do nothing right but? But rest means we're going to do some stuff that's going to be cool. And then let's put a pin in it. Let's say our five-year anniversary or our three-year anniversary or our completely debt-free anniversary, we're going to St. Thomas for two weeks and we're going to blow it out. Dude, do that, right? And then that's going to be something y'all work for together

and it's not going to be stressful on top of stress on top of stress. Yeah, I'm probably going to punt at the Asheville trip, the Biltmore trip to the spring, and just focus on this tropical trip, maybe do a week, maybe eight or nine days, and check out Costco Travel. That's where I've personally booked my honeymoon. We just did a three-year anniversary trip to Cabo. We did it all through Costco Travel, and it was a fraction of what you just described, and it was all-inclusive. We did it all through Costco travel and it was a fraction of what you just described and it was all inclusive. We had a great time. It was very relaxing. I've never heard of Costco

travel. John is writing down Costco travel. I'm telling you, dude, you can get some great deals. It'll include flights. There's a lot of great options there. That's where I get peanut butter and dog food. I didn't know you could get a trip to Mexico too. Costco travel. They've got like virtual travel agents that will help. I was just like, hey, here's my budget.

What's the three best places to go? They told me. I said, what's the three best resorts on each of those? Great, you just saved me 14 hours of research and I just booked it.

I'm in. So that's what I would encourage you to do, Thomas. Congratulations on the wedding. That's fantastic. But 13 grand, goodness gracious. That's some bougie lifestyle

right there to go back to the fair and eat fried Oreos. All right, Lynn joins us up next in Charlotte. Lynn, get right to the question. We're up against the clock. Okie dokie. Thanks for having me.

I am getting conflicting advice if this is the right time to make a move, sell my house and escape from the super congested suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, and buy another house in western North Carolina in a rural environment. Okay, so why wouldn't you do it? My loved ones are saying this is not the right time to move. People don't move in a recession. People move all the time. Okay. Yeah, all the time. All the time. Here's the big question. Are you in a good spot financially to move? Yes. Yes.

Do you have a pile of debt or do you have money in the bank? Nope. I can tell you're good. Lynn's crushing it. Yep. Yep. I have about $200,000 for retirement. I have $4,100 emergency, $1,800 credit card debt, and I do owe on my Jeep Wrangler.

Ah, busted. Busted. Well, moving is going to have a cost to it. Are you going to downsize? I probably will do a lateral move. I bought this house for $236,000. A realtor I met with last week said I could sell it before $15,000, and I'd like to put it all into the next home, so lateral move.

Okay. Well, if you do it, here's what I would do, Lynn. I would pay off all of my debt as part of this and then maybe downsize slightly so that I'm not in a crunch financially. That's right, and pay off all your debts, get an emergency fund so when you buy this new house out there, it's a crunch financially. That's right. And pay off all your debts, get an emergency fund so when you buy this new house out there, it's a peaceful transaction.

And if that means pausing on the move until we're out of debt with the emergency fund, that's a great plan too. There's not a ton of urgency around this. So that's what John

and I would do. Teach his own. I got no problem moving right now. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to my co-host,

Dr. John Deloney, all the folks in the booth, and you, America. We appreciate you listening. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.