The Ramsey Show - App - How Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) Is Determined (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 28, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave 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. We're glad you're here. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Brittany is with us in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hi, Brittany. How are you? I'm doing way better than I deserve. How about you? Just the same. How can I help?

Okay, so I'm getting ready to leave my current job with the great state of Oklahoma and be a stay-at-home mom for our daughter and work part-time from home in the morning. One of the things of working for the state is I have a 401A and a 457 retirement fund. There's about $15,000 between the two of them. My husband and I are trying to figure out what to do with them. We know cashing it out was a bad decision, but we don't know if we should roll it into his 401k or if we should roll it into a Roth IRA or what we should do. One piece of information regarding his 401k is our next piece of our snowball is actually paying off the 401K loan that we took out. So we don't know what to do.

You can't roll your retirement into his 401K. Okay. It won't work. They won't do that. Okay. And if you cash any of this out, you're going to have taxes on it. So I would roll it all to a traditional IRA, not a Roth, but a traditional. That way there's no taxes on it because your all's income is going down as a result of you coming home,

and we don't want to create a bill. Right. So what does your husband make a year? Take home about $70. Good. Maybe a little bit more. Okay, cool. Yeah, just get in touch with your SmartVestor Pro in your area.

Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com and type in your information. It'll drop down a list of the people in your area that we recommend. They're called SmartVestor Pros. And I'm not in that business, but you pick from that list. You pick out what you want to do, who you want to meet with, and then you sit down with them, and they'll help you do a direct transfer rollover into a traditional IRA. And I always spread my investments, and we always recommend people spread their investments across four types of growth stock mutual funds, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth,

and international, a fourth each inside of your retirement plans. So, hey, thanks for calling in. Sherry is with us in Springfield, Missouri. Hey, Sherry, how are you? Hi, Dave. I'm fine. How are you doing? It's an honor to speak with you.

You too. What's up? Well, I'm a teacher, and I have a pension that we're required to put into in Missouri, 14.5%. And I'm just, after 20 years, I have not accumulated as much as I feel like I should have. And I'm wondering if there is, should I be able to roll that or move it to some other kind of investment? Because I'm looking at wanting to leave this profession in the next six years. Well, I don't know if you can roll it while you work there,

but possible when you leave that they have a lump sum distribution option. And if they do, then yes, I would roll it. I always take pensions and lump sum and roll them to an IRA because when you die with a pension, it dies with you. When you die with an IRA, the money's still sitting there. And so this is only $100,000. Well, it's $100,000 more than your heirs will have if you don't roll it. Right. And you can make more on it. You can make a better rate of return on it in good mutual funds,

and then that pension will be paying you as well. So you'll make more if you live, and you'll make more if you die. So if you can do a lump sum rollover, if they allow for it after you quit, I doubt they will while you're there. But if they do while you're there, go ahead and do it now. If they allow a lump sum distribution based on your number of years of service or whatever since you've been there so long, it's very possible that it can be done. But if they allow it, let it be.

But usually when you leave with that number of years of service, you've got a lump sum option, and I've hardly ever seen one that the lump sum didn't come out way ahead of leaving it in there after you leave the organization. So, yeah, I would take it with me when I leave. Stephen is with us in Springfield, Missouri. Hi, Steven. How are you?

I'm doing great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my wife and I are in Baby Step 2, and we just received a medical bill from before we started the Baby Steps. And I was wanting to know if we should throw that in the debt snowball or pay it out of a funded HSA account that gets funded every month.

How big is the medical bill? It's about $2,000. Okay. How much is in your HSA? Currently, it's about $100. It gets about $120 every month. I'm sorry, there's $100? Yes. Inside your HSA?

Yes. Well, you can't pay a $2,000 bill with $100. What am I missing? Well, we would pretty much just pay a monthly payment to it as the HSA would get funded, and then once that's all done, attack that if there's anything left on it. Okay. Now, I would stop funding the HSA. Okay.

You're putting the money in the HSA, right? It's coming out of my wife's paycheck. Okay. Pre-tax. Yeah. But, yeah, that's how HSAs work. But you don't need to be putting money in an HSA, which is a limited emergency fund, and you only got $100 in there to start with.

Okay. Right? So, yeah. No, I would not wait to pay the bill until I ran at $100 a month 20 months through the 2000. No, just put the 2000 in your cash. Take the $100 out and throw it in the pile and stop adding to the HSA and then put the $2,000 bill in your debt snowball and pay it off as quickly as you possibly can that way.

But I would not be funding an HSA, the savings part of an HSA, while you're in baby step two, you need to get your debts cleared up, then build your emergency fund. Then you might want to think about funding the HSA, but an emergency fund has a lot of possible uses and HSA has one possible use and that is medical only. So, um, except to the extent you have chronic ongoing bills that are predictable and you want to run those through pre-tax that might make sense uh because you're going to be paying those bills anyway but short of that just to build up savings inside of an hsa while you're in baby step two no i would not be doing that so hope that helps you appreciate the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. RH on Twitter says, does the credit score determine how much PMI you pay? No. The loan-to-value ratio determines, and the amount of money you borrow determines how much PMI you are. If your loan-to-value ratio is more than 80%, if you're borrowing more than 80% of the value of the house, you get charged private mortgage insurance.

And the private mortgage insurance premium is based on the loan amount, not based on your credit score. So I hope that helps. Thanks, R.H. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month.

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Enter promo code SAVEDAVE and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalks.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means even if you mess up, you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds free. You get free samples, free shipping, and new promos every month to save even more use the promo code ramsey number one seller of window blinds on the internet blinds.com susan's in iowa my husband and i have been aggressively paying off debt we paid off sixty thousand dollars and all we have left are student loans while we cash flow my doctorate

my stepfather a self-made self-styled hillbilly millionaire, has recently started paying off my $150,000 student loans as a gift. I'm so humbled and grateful. How do I say thank you for an amazing gift like this? A thank you card doesn't seem to cover it. um i would share your plan with him and say because you're doing this i'm going to be able to do this for your grandkids because you're doing this you're helping us to change our family tree the fact that you're living like he has lived is the best way to say thank you to him that's a tip of the hat that's saying

yeah dad i get it i get what you've done all these years and um you've paid a price to win and we are too now and it's because of your influence that we're doing that and this gift is going to accelerate it so um you know um a nice letter and in-person dinner and cover that with him both would be, you know, I'm blessed to get to hear that kind of thing from my kids from time to time. And so Bible says a righteous man's children rise up and call him blessed. And so you get the chance to do that for your dad. That's a pretty cool thing. you get the chance to do that for your dad that's a pretty cool thing not many people get to do that so it's a good thing that you could do that and i would do it uh in writing and i would do it verbally both but i think the fact that you're living the way he has lived is a just a huge endorsement of him and that and and a way to say thank you for the lift that he's given you.

It's a type of gratitude to follow through, in other words. Folks, it is the time of year where we start looking towards kids graduating from high school. You got a college-bound grad out there in your life? You know, the average college student right now ends up with $37,000 in student loan debt? That's just nuts. So we created the perfect gift for the college graduate. It's called the Graduate Survival Guide. Five mistakes you can't afford to make in college.

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You can call customer care. They can help you, too, at 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223. Jessica's in Casper, Wyoming. Hi, Jessica. How are you? can help you too at 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223. Jessica's in Casper, Wyoming. Hi, Jessica. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my husband and I both lost our jobs about two weeks ago, and we are blessed enough to receive money from the VA and also a pension for our job. And we have about $7,000 in taxes we are underwater on. And I would like to pay down the balance on the car a little bit and then use the rest to pay off medical debt. And my husband would like me to hold off until he's back working again.

And I guess I just want to know what your opinion is and what you would do. Oh, I definitely think you preserve all the cash you can right now. No, I would not pay down anything. I would put a pause on any debt reduction or anything that's got money going out. I think you're in the middle of an emergency. You're in the middle of a storm. And so you buckle down the hatches and you pile up cash until you get the incomes back. And then when you get your incomes back and they're stabilized,

then you take that money out of savings immediately and pay everything down, down to $1,000, right? And money that's not retirement savings is used to start reducing debt at that point. But, no, I think right now I'm going with your husband. We're going to just pile up cash, and then let's go both get jobs right quick. And the quicker you get jobs, the faster. And who knows? A lot of times people get better jobs.

I talked to a guy earlier today on this show that lost a job making $60 and ended up making $150. He changed careers. He changed careers. So, I mean, he's like, best thing that ever happened to me was I got fired. Well, my husband's talking about going back to school to learn a different trade, and right now i'm in a medical emergency i i can't work but um you're in a you're in a medic you've got a

health problem yeah yeah i do um just just had biopsies done and trying to figure out if I have cancer or not. Yeah. You stop everything right now, kiddo. Pile up cash. Okay. You both lost jobs, and you got a cancer scare. Hopefully that's all it is, right?

Right. You know, you get past that that and you get these jobs back. But right now, a big pile of cash is more important than paying down these debts. And it's not the time for him to go back to school right now. Not full-time anyway. He needs to go get some money. Y'all need some money. You need an income.

Right? Right. Yeah, he needs to go get a job. if he wants to take us some classes at night and start moving towards changing his career um once we know your diagnosis he can make that decision uh but um right now this family needs money you have two you're down two jobs right now am i wrong no you're not okay so a big pile of cash and him getting a really good job and then he decides if he wants to take some classes at night we'll get you the other side of this diagnosis it's going to come back you're going to be okay you're going

to fight your way through it either way and um and then you can decide whether you're going back to work or not based on that right what? What did you do for a living? What was your job before? Massage therapist. Okay. All right. And so the good news is you can jump right back into that, right? Right.

Okay. All right. So, yeah. Well, let's find out what's going on with you. Let's get him employed. And in the meantime, pile up cash and just keep that as your rainy day fund because it's raining right now agreed yeah okay and uh hey kiddo if you need some help as you guys are working through this you call me back again i'm here okay much all right god bless open phones at 888-825-5225. Isaac is in Orlando.

Hey, Isaac, how are you? Great. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, so I just recently started listening to you, and I just need some advice. So I'm married, and I have a one-year-old, and I'm the only one working. And we're in the process of selling our townhome.

I just, we're in some debt right now, about $28,000 in debt. And I wanted to know from you, if I was to, if we sell our home, should I take the proceeds and pay off the debt with the proceeds while we're blessed, we have family that we can stay with and pile up, start saving for a down payment for another home and do it that way, or should I just pay off some of the debt and then use the rest as a down payment? What kind of debt is the $28,000? So I have a car payment. $15,000 is the total. Student loan is about $10,000. Why are you selling the townhouse? Uh, so, uh, I have a car payment. 15 grand is the total. Um, student loans, about 10 grand.

Why are you selling the townhouse? Um, we're selling because, uh, basically it's, I'm trying to, it's hard right now for us. Um, and I just figured if we were to sell, we are to make some money off of this townhouse, about $35,000. Gotcha. Hold on. When we come back from this break, I want to hear more. I don't think I got my hands around this story yet. Hold on. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. The last thing I want you to feel is buyer's remorse,

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Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. All right, we are talking with Isaac in Orlando, Florida. He owes $15,000 on his car. He's got a town home. He's thinking about selling and moving in with relatives in order to try to get ahead. They are struggling. Your household income was $60,000. Is that what you told me, Isaac? Yeah, $61,000 and change. And you got a new

baby. One year old. One year old. Yeah, okay. And you had $15,000 in debt on a car. And what else in debt had $15,000 in debt on a car, and what else in debt? $10,000 in student loans, and then a couple of other crap that I was just stupid about. And before I started listening to you, I was doing this, and now that I am listening to you, I feel more guilty about the choices that I've made. Yeah, so like credit cards or something, is that what you're talking about?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. And you said about $3,000 on that, right? No, credit cards, it's not even that much. It's about like $700. Okay. All right, cool.

And the townhouse is worth what? So the townhouse is worth $159. Okay, and it will sell for what? That's what we're selling it for. We're selling it for $159, I'm sorry. And it would sell for $159. I'm sorry. And it would sell, okay, sell for $159. What do you owe on it? $110.

Okay. You've already got it on the market? Yeah, I put it on the market about two weeks ago on a Friday, and then that Saturday I got an offer for $1,000 under the listing price. Did you sell it? So we're in the process of going through the selling process, yes. So you accepted the offer? Yeah, until I was told that once the appraisal is done, if the appraisal is set for $159 or $160,

then I can go ahead and say you know, say, yes, I'm 100% sure I'm going to sell it. If it appraises under the offering price, then I can back out. Right. That's what was told to me. So if it appraises, you've sold it? Yes. You've signed a contract.

Okay. All right. Cool. Okay. I don't know if that's a good decision Okay. All right. Cool. Okay. I don't know if that's a good decision or a bad decision. I mean, that's why I'm... Well, I don't think it's a horrible decision. It probably wouldn't have been the first thing I did, but you're there now.

And so let's run through a couple scenarios. Scenario number one is the appraisal comes in, the townhouse sells, you close, you write a check, and you pay off all of your debts, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. And then you said you can move in with relatives for a few months and build up your emergency fund and then down payment, right? Yes, yes.

I actually have an emergency fund already set. That's one of the first things I heard from you was save $1,000. But I'm talking about a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Okay. Okay, I haven't done that. Yeah, I want you to do that and pay off all these debts and then start building your emergency fund and then build your down payment. So you wouldn't be with relatives but maybe six months or eight months

if you really get on a real tight budget, right? Exactly. Okay, good. All right, let's do that. That's if it appraises. If it doesn't appraise, I might stay there and sell your car. Oh, okay. Before I would sell my house, I'd probably sell my car.

Okay. And I think, too, you're just getting started on this process, and I want you and your wife to start working your every dollar budget in detail together right now and start trying to make these dollars scream a little bit, make them behave. Of course, cutting up the credit cards, and of course. But when you start living on a detailed, written plan, every dollar has a name before the month begins. Every dollar has an assignment before the month begins every dollar has an

assignment before the month begins and you stick to that you're going to feel like you got a raise okay you're not making a ton of money but the sense of control you'll get out of that will replace what you're trying to get right now you're trying to get a sense of control by selling the townhouse right yeah and uh it's okay if the townhouse goes through. We're just going to call that God and keep moving, right? Yeah. But if it doesn't go through, then you just stay there, and let's start working that budget.

And if we sell anything in order to get control, it needs to be the car, if the townhouse doesn't go through, if it doesn't appraise. If it appraises, then just follow through on your plan, and you'll be okay on that. And then I want the two of you – go ahead, I'm sorry. Because I know how cars depreciate once you leave the lot. Right. So if I owe $15,000 and I can't sell it for that much, do I have to come out of pocket for the the yes okay yeah you gotta cut you gotta cover

the difference in order to sell it if you're upside down and you'd either borrow that and a little bit to get you a beater car to get around in uh but it's easier to move down in car than in his house it yeah yeah it is i got blessed with uh another car actually from uh my cousin and uh i'm using that car as my work car to get to work and back, and I have the car that I owe for my wife and the baby. But like you said, if I'm able to sell that and get another beater car, I mean, why not? That would clean it up.

That would clean up that payment, and that payment's hurting you as bad as your house payment is. Yeah, tell me about it. So that's what I'm saying. But again, we me about it. of you to go through Financial Peace University. I'm going to give you the one-year membership, and I want you to find a group to get in there in the Orlando area. There's a bunch of the groups that are meeting there, and go in, actually take the lessons with the group, and you'll get the kit and everything, and you'll be signed up for the online and for the EveryDollarPlus for a year. I'm going to give it to you as my gift, okay?

Thank you, sir. Okay, and I want you to go through the only thing i require is is that you you attend every single lesson at the group and that you get on there and you do this stuff and you go win and then someday when you're in really good shape financially you find a guy who's a little scared like you are and got a new baby and you pay for him to go through okay you pay it forward later but you won't worry about that later right now you just go through and i want to hear back from you if you've got any questions and make sure that you're winning and that you're moving along with this, because I think you're going to turn this around faster and easier than you think you're going to turn

it around right now. But you need to follow exactly what we tell you to do in this course, okay? It changes everything. Sarah is with us in San Antonio. Hi, Sarah, how are you? Hi, Dave, I'm great. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, how can I help? So my husband and I have a lot of changes that have occurred recently and that are going to continue coming. First, we just had our first baby. So we are starting to really look ahead. We're about to finish baby step two, which was a little bit of a process for us. We were doing our version of Dave for a while and as everyone says, that doesn't work. So when we got serious

about it about six months ago, we really started to make big progress. And the great news is I think we'll be completed with Baby Step 2 in the next several months. Okay. How can I help today? The good news is my husband is about to get a new job. We're about to move out of state. He works in university administration, and there's kind of an interesting benefit to that career path, which is that he typically gets really excellent tuition and education benefits as part of his compensation package. So we're trying to think about how to take that into consideration as we plan for our daughter's college savings. And just wondered if you had any thoughts, whether we should plan to fully fund or think about other impacts.

I don't think you need to fully fund. As long as he stays in that career path, you don't need to fully fund. But I would fund it somewhat. And then also, if he ever veers from or took a position let's say she was 13 and he took a position that didn't have that then i'm gonna i'm gonna light a fire under that thing and get going right yeah yeah you'd have to play you'd have to play catch up if he went with the university that didn't offer that or he changed career paths either one and who knows what 15 years brings.

But as long as he stays on this career path, you're right. You're going to have a lowered cost in some way or another of her going to school, which is awesome. But, yeah, we save some, but I wouldn't save as much unless you see him veering off the path or taking a position where the benefits aren't as good. But, you know, it's just like military benefits for your kid going to school, that kind of thing. And it's very helpful. It seldom covers 100%, but very helpful. And so you would lower your need for your baby.

Step five doesn't have to be as intense, in other words. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Tax fraud, medical ID theft, account takeover, employment fraud. These are just a few of the identity theft events that Zander's ID theft team has helped resolve for their clients lately. The reality is breaches are all too common and hackers are using new, sophisticated methods to steal and use your personal information. Everyone is at risk, even your children. This is why it's crucial to have ID theft protection that covers all types of identity theft, and the only plan I have ever used or recommended is from Zander Insurance.

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Life is partly what we make it and partly what it is made by the friends we choose. Be careful who you hang around with. You become them. Charles is in Denver. Hey, Charles, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

How can I help? So I'm 22. I'm currently a student. I'm going to enter into a career as an air traffic controller in roughly more than the next six months. Great. So thank you. So my question was, when I'm really starting out in a career, what should I be investing? Like once I begin, like once I start the job, should that be my focus or should I just start piling up cash or a house? I'd rather not take

out a mortgage. So my plan was to kind of rent for a little while and then buy a house. Okay. Do you have any debt? I have no debt. Good. That's a great first step. The first thing after that you would do is make sure you have your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And that's not college student expenses. That's out there doing the adult job expenses.

Okay. So what's it take me to operate my life about times about six and that's just your rainy day fund um and then the next thing we tell folks to do is that's baby step three we call it uh baby step three b is save up a down payment for a house and baby step four is 15 of your income going into retirement now if you're just fresh out of school and you're making good money as an air traffic controller, which you will be, it should be fairly easy to save 15% of your income and still be very aggressive on saving towards your house as a single guy who's used to living like a college student.

Okay. You don't have some big lifestyle need that you've developed yet, you know? It's not like you're like... Yeah, I try to avoid that. You know, you're used to living like a college student, so just keep living like that, and you ought to be able to pile up some serious money towards getting a house over just a couple of years. Meanwhile, starting your 401K and getting a match and getting some good mutual funds, getting in the Roth 401k, getting in the Roth TSP, whatever's available to you there. And, you know, also your Roth IRAs as well, but all in good mutual funds with long track records.

And if you start that at 23 years old, you will be wealthy. It's just a matter of when. And, of course, the more aggressively you save, the faster you'll be wealthy, the's just a matter of when. And of course, the more aggressively you save, the faster you'll be wealthy, the more aggressively you save for a down payment. But the two primary pieces of millionaire status as we study millionaires is that they use their 401ks, their retirement plans, to build wealth with mutual funds, and they get their house paid off. Those two things are the first two things that millionaires do that lead them to millionaire status.

And that's your first level of wealth is millionaire status. And moving beyond that, there'll be some strategies and some things that might change. But, you know, to getting to that first level and, you know, I'll give you my prediction. I think you'll be there in about a decade. Just listening to you, you know, depending on if you decide to marry someone who's going to spend all the money. But, you know, if you don't do that, if you get, you know, get somebody of like mind to you and you keep your eye on the ball, you keep focused and you live a good life, but

a frugal life and you invest, invest, invest and pay off your house, pay off your house, pay off your house, you're going to be wealthy, and you're going to be wealthy relatively quickly. So well done, Charles. Well done. Rob is in New York City. Hey, Rob, how are you? Hey, good. How are you, Dave?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a career question for you. I'm currently a teacher, and i'm looking to get into physical education which is really my passion and was the teaching job was meant to be a bridge to that um i've i've read 48 days the work i love i've read star and they all lead to the same thing the other part of this though is like i'm also interested in educational leadership and um eventually i could see myself doing that,

which would be, you know, increase my salary as well. And I'm just a little hesitant because of family time, and it keeps coming back to phys ed because that's really my passion. So I don't want to make a lateral salary move. I've just been throwing this around for a while. Okay. So what are our two choices right now? So really I'm looking either to get into phys ed or to go back to school

and get the educational leadership, which would increase my salary but decrease family time, which is a big thing for me. But then I'm not going into my passion either. You know, so I'm very interested, and I could see myself going into leadership in the future. It's just, you know, it's tough right now. So very interested. Are you very interested because of the money or very interested because you have a passion for leadership?

So there's both. There are both there. The money is nice, but I'm also interested in leadership. It's definitely something I could see myself doing down the road. How old are you? Right now I'm 31. Okay, so when you're 41 or 51, what do you want to be doing? Definitely leadership.

Then what's the path to get there? So I would just have to go back to school and get that degree and then get into it yeah i'm just you know the family time is the thing for me too but and but uh you know and also phys ed is a big it is also a passion of mine but it's a lateral salary move and i'm also a little more at risk it's a salary lateral salary move but more importantly than that when you're 51 you don't see yourself doing that right that's true and so it's not a lateral salary move, but more importantly than that, when you're 51, you don't see yourself doing that. Right, that's true. And so it's not a lateral salary move.

It's your old dream. Your new dream is leadership. Okay. And then I guess what can help me be more efficient with family time if I was to go into that? How long will it take you to get your degree? It'll take me probably a year and a half, two years. Okay. And, you know, I think the thing, we've done a lot of things

as we've grown this business over the years, and our children were never abused in the process, but we've worked our butts off, you know, to get things done, to be able to hit our goals. And none of our children will tell you that they lost out. And so one thing I would do is prioritize important dates, and that's things like birthdays or proms or hockey tournaments or whatever. I coached my son's hockey team while I was busy as crud here, and I never missed a hockey

tournament, okay, except one when they moved it but uh but you know other than that and i never missed a prom date uh in terms of the you know boys coming to pick up the girls and we take pictures and all that or girls going to pick up boys or whatever works and that's not right but anyway the however the whole you know we were there for the important dates birthdays that kind of stuff we scheduled around those on whatever we were doing the second thing is is we made it a point to be there while we were there too many times people call oh i need time with family and they're sitting in front of stupid television so turn off your television unplug your television when you're home with your family um and you know, actually engage. So when you're studying, study.

When you're with family, be with family. People, you know, too many times we've got our mind on the other thing than the one thing we're with. So be focused and focused in on what you're doing right then. And, you know, sometimes people call that quality time. And, you know, it's quantity and quality time. But be present wherever you are. Be and quality time but be present wherever you are be there be in the present wherever you are and i think your kids will be fine and your family

will be fine over a year and a half because you're living out a goal and you're showing them what it takes to go and hit a goal and you know the power of education i'm going back to get my degree to move into leadership and this is something i'm going to do And they'll look back and go, I remember that time my dad went back to school and got his master's so he could move into leadership. And, you know, you're setting a precedent for them on there's a price to be paid for something that's worth doing. And I mean, that might mean you don't you're not there for every dinner and you might not be able to make them eat their broccoli every night, you know?

But that's so what? You work around that. You work with it. And it's only a year and a half. It's not throughout their entire childhood. It's not like you work 100 hours a week through their whole childhood. It's a year and a half. So you pay a price, and the family just has to be on board with you.

Your wife has to be on board with you and be part of the goal and be in agreement with the goal, and then you'll be fine. You'll be just fine. It's a temporary thing. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We will 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.

This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration, subscribe today.