The Ramsey Show - App - How Should I Handle Employee Stock Options? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual, real, amazing relationships. Dr. John Deloney, number one best-selling author of the book

Own Your Past, Change Your Future, and host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, is my co-host today. The phone number, we'll talk about your life and your money right in front of you. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Jack is on the line. Jack is in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Jack, how are you? Hey, how's it going, David?

John, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Yeah, so I recently had a career change. In my previous employer, I vested about 7,800 privately held stock options to purchase. I vested about $1,000 off my purchase center, like a dollar a share. Like I said, they are privately held. And so, yeah, I'm just looking for some advice as to whether we should purchase any or not.

I just got married in February with my wife, and we don't have any debt. We have about $10,000 in our emergency savings, and we also have a sizable amount paid for a down payment for a home. We're currently renting. And, yeah, I just, like, want to know what the best option would be moving forward. Okay. The way I answer questions on this show, Jack, after 30 years of doing this, is knowing what I know, if I woke up in your shoes what i do and that's the way i

look at it okay you're newly married you got 10 grand you got a house down payment and these are privately held shares uh do i invest in them okay everything in your life sounds normal except that that kind of stands out over here is weird you know yeah yeah that's an investment you would make if you had a million dollars you'd been married 40 years whatever and if you wanted to have some play money uh you would goof around with that okay so a couple of issues i would have with it if i were in your shoes is, number one, it's single stocks. So you've got all of this money, basically all of your investment money at this point, tied up in a single company. So as it goes, so goes your entire portfolio.

So that's called risk because you're not diversified. You're not spread out, number one. Number two, it's's privately held which means two things we have no idea what's going to happen right none whatsoever it's a small operation or it's a big operation but either way you have very little transparency you have very little control uh and you have very little liquidity once you own, it's hard to get out of it a lot of times. And so even if I was going to buy single stocks, I wouldn't buy that one. Yeah. The only reason I was concerned about it was, so we do have two Roth IRAs.

I have one and my wife has one. We've maxed out the last two years. And then, yeah, I was talking to some friends and they're saying, you know, even if you buy 5,000 of them at $5,000, um, over the course of your entire investments, um, for retirement, yeah, I mean, it's a risk, right? Um, so I'm not sure if that 5,000 would be a risk or if I should throw a thousand in it and then if they go public, um, the rate of return could be, could be very lucrative, but I know. And you could set a thousand dollars in the middle of the floor and set it be very lucrative. And you could set $1,000 in the middle of the floor

and set it on fire. Yeah. That's the thing about Instagram, man, is you'll see these things roll up every once in a while. If you had invested in Tesla nine years ago, you would have $100 billion. What that kind of thinking doesn't tell you is how many people sat at their friend's brother's table with this new business

idea they invested and they lost everything they lost 1 000 5 000 10 000 or whatever there's way more of those than there are of the teslas in the world you know and um so here's the thing about this situation okay one of two things is going to happen you're going to make a lot of money or you're going to lose all your money there's probably no in between you're either going to put 5 000 in and get 25 000 out or you're going to put 5 000 in and say bye um you're newly married you're trying to buy a house you don't need to put five thousand dollars on the roulette table and hope it hits red. And that's what you're doing. So you can do whatever you want. I've done it.

I did it when I was your age, and I lost it several times. Because I'm stupid, and I have to learn these lessons more than once. Because I always think I'm a glass half full guy. I always think it's going to work out. Oh, that's me. And it doesn't. So it's a bad investment strategy jack i wouldn't do it and your friends that are giving you advice on this are people who are broke they're not millionaires so millionaires do steady predictable investing they get out of debt and they stay out of debt nothing in this

discussion falls in those under those headings i wouldn't do it but you do whatever you want we'll still be friends. Ronald is with us in Greenville, North Carolina. Hey, Ronald, what's up? Hey, Dave. This is a great day to get to talk to Dave Ramsey and John Deloney, and I turned 52 today, so this is literally the icing on the cake. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, young man. Thank you, sir. Just a couple quick questions. So basically, me and my wife, we're at about 1.4 million net worth. Over the period of four or five years, we're at 87.7. I have rolled

over about 470,000 into a Roth. Good. I've got about $80,000 left before I can completely be all of the pre-tax stuff is rolled over into the Roth. Good. Number one, is that smart to do?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. The number two piece is basically being 52, do I continue to, because in our job we don't have a Roth IRA. We just have a simple IRA. So would it be smart right up to 60 years old to roll over every year, convert it, and then pay the taxes until 60 and stop at 60 doing that? If you're going to leave it alone, whatever piece of money we're talking about, if you're not going to touch it for 10 years, it's going to be smart. Okay. Even past 60. I'm 62, and I'm going to do a Roth this year. Okay.

Because I'm not going to touch that money. I'm going to let it grow tax-free. Now, if I'm going to get the money out sooner, it starts to be questionable as to whether that's the right direction. Okay. But if you're going to leave it alone a decade, you're better off to have the tax-free growth. And let's repeat, you're 100% debt-free, Baby Step 7 house and everything. You have a $1 million-plus net worth. You're a Baby Steps millionaire. You did it on your own.

You didn't inherit it. It's all sitting there. You've got the cash to pay the taxes that this $80,000 going from traditional to Roth creates, and now that $80,000 is growing from this point tax-free. And so if it grows 10%, it grows $8,000 next year, that's $2,000 that would have been taxable. On that $8,000, it's not taxable. Okay.

And the next year, and the next year, and the next year, and the next year. And also, too, the small, like right now, I know with the, you know, the funds, the mutual funds are down, so basically I'm... Great time to do a roll-up. Yeah, great time to do a roll-up. That's kind of what I've looked at.

I didn't know. Again, you said pretty much past 60, as long as you don't touch it with a 10-year time period, continue to do it. If you've got an investing horizon of 10 years or more, it's always going to work out to do the tax-free growth. That's it. It's that simple.

And you do a baby step 7. Now, I'm not going to tell people that have debt to create a tax burden by rolling to a Roth while they need to be paying off their car debt. No, no, no, no, no, no. This guy's a baby step seven. He's got extra cash. All we're doing is getting tax-efficient growth on his investments. That's all we're doing. This is The Ramsey Show. We are highlighting some discussions on insurance today. We're big on talking about the importance of insurance.

Matt is with us in Greenville, South Carolina. Matt, talk about how insurance has impacted your life. Hey, how are you guys doing over there today? Great, Matt. How are you? Doing absolutely awesome. So it was around July of 2020 when I was in a car accident. And thankfully, because of the coverage that we got through the coverage of an ELP, I was able to have not only money from the company, but also from our emergency fund to be able to replace that car within a couple of months. But the funny part is— It was a weird time to be buying a car wasn't it yeah but um summer of 2020 yeah tell me about it but the funny thing was like not even six months later

my wife was in a car accident and so we had to go through the whole process again. No way. No, I am not kidding you. And it was, and it was one of those just after we had recovered from that. Now we got to go back to the emergency fund again to take care of that along with what we got from the insurance company. But thankfully we were able to replace that. And by the summer of 21, we were actually able to finish building our emergency fund, and now we're saving for a house. Very good. So you have a heightened awareness about all this insurance stuff for sure then, don't you? Yes, sir. So what do you tell somebody when they act like they don't need to worry about insurance

because you're like a walking claim? Yeah. It's not a matter of if it happens to you, it's when it happens to you. So I know it'll sound like a big expense. And then one of those things that's just kind of, but when it happens to you, you'll be glad that you have it. Amen. Amen.

Amen. So you went through the confidence in your coverage series with George Camel, right? Yes, I did. Excellent. He did excellent on that, by the way. He did. I thought it was really good. It was funny and fun and informative, and did. Excellent. He did excellent on that, by the way. He did. I thought it was really good. It was funny and fun and informative, and it was short.

It didn't choke you down too much. So what was the biggest thing you got out of that? Just the urgency to get this stuff done now. And one thing I tell people, don't think about it as part of the baby steps. Just take care of it as soon as you can. That's exactly right. I agree with that completely. Well, Matt, thank you for sharing all that.

That's actually great, great input. Very, very good stuff. So if you want to see this five-video series, Confidence in Your Coverage, you can go to RamseySolutions.com slash confidence, and it is a free five-video guide on insurance. It is short, it is fun, it is funny, and it is a free five video guide on insurance it is short it is fun it is funny and it is informative so it's not too painful george makes a pretty yucky uh subject uh entertaining as often george does so uh check it all out ramsey solutions.com slash confidence oh by the

way it's completely free brian's in omaha ne. Hey, Brian, welcome to the Ramsey Show. What's up? Hey, Dave. How's it going? Better than we deserve. How can we help? Yeah. So my question is, well, I guess there should be a little bit of backstory.

Me, my girlfriend, and my six-month-old, we moved out of the apartment that we were staying at. Um, they were raising the rent on us. And then, uh, we just, our, her parents decided to, uh, let us stay at their house until we were able to save enough money to either buy a house or rent another, another house or apartment. And, um, basically I feel kind of, i feel kind of i feel kind of horrible for doing that i don't feel like i don't feel like as good as i should because i know saving up is what we need to do and i know i have some debt to pay off so i want to use the opportunity to to actually save and pay off as much debt as possible before um the six months to a year is up that they had allowed us to stay. But I mean, is it, I guess one of my questions is, is that, is that the right thing that I did

or should I have just kind of manned up and try to pay the extra money that they were charging or, and then also I mean, what's the next step here? Because I know paying the debt off is a big one, but it just doesn't feel like I can do it in the amount of time that I'm being given. So let me jump in. Number one, paying an accelerated rent rake has nothing to do with manhood. Uncouple those. Number two, why do you feel awful? You said you feel awful.

I've always been that type of person to never accept help. Okay. You feel like a charity case. You feel like you're failing your wife and your kid? Yeah. Okay. How old are you? 26. What do you do for a living?

I'm a mechanic for a dealership. Cool. What do you make? I haven't completed a full year. So I know I get paid about $,800 a month i think over a year it'd be 40 45 000 yeah sounds right and uh if you've completed your year does your income go up um i am not entirely sure about that i know after like six months they did it did come up pretty good um but uh after a year i believe it should i just don't know how much are you asi uh as you know um i have a couple ases done but not completely certified um i guess that counts and then the dealership that i work for they have their own training that they want to work outside uh she doesn't. We haven't been able to afford daycare, so she stays at home.

Well, if she made $100,000 a year, you could afford it. What does she do? Well, she doesn't work. I know. Does she have a degree? No, she's in school right now. Like I said, I'm 26, but she's 20, and she's going for sociology. So, Brian, I'll just take a page out of my own story.

I took on the burden of student loan debt between me and my wife. I had about six figures. We did together. And ultimately we sold our house and I moved us at my insistence. And she went along with it into a residence hall, a dorm with a two-year-old. And I felt like a loser and I felt like a failure. And I looked at the math and I came to terms with the fact that the single most quote unquote manly thing I could do would be to have a really hard year. An uncomfortable 18 months. And in that 18 months, we didn't spend anything and we paid off six figures in a very short amount of time we took i took extra jobs i worked like crazy and in retrospect i can't think of a better thing i did to stop the

madness stop the sunk cost stop dumping money into my pride and ego and to stop and say i need help and the help came through this area, right? And then we got to work and then put a period at the end of that sentence and moved on. Asking should you have moved is, you've already moved. So asking yourself that question's a waste of energy. Asking yourself, should you move again?

Maybe, that may be another question to ask. But going back and saying, and debating that decision, you've already made it, man. Let that roll off. Don't carry that sucker around with you. How much debt do you have? I have about $6,000 in credit cards, $500 in school loans,

$17,000 in car payments, and then... Who has the $17,000 car, you or your wife? I do. It's the only reliable car we have, but right now I know that it's got some hail damage that is getting repaired. As soon as that gets repaired, I know I'm going to try and get rid of it as soon as possible. Yeah, good.

And get you a hoopty. And get yourself out of debt. It's a good time to be selling a used car. Okay. Here's the thing. I don't know how mature emotionally your 20-year-old wife is, but she needs to make some income. Even if it's working from home. Even if it's selling stuff on eBay.

She needs to get off her butt. And you need to get off your butt and figure out what your income is and how you can go make more. You don't even know what you make for sure. And you don't know what your promotion process is. You need to go get some money, both of you, and get this mess cleaned up and get your autonomy back and get your sustainability back. And when you get autonomous again on your own two feet and both of you have a plan, you're going to be making some money and you're going to be winning again.

But right now you're just wandering living in your mama's basement, her mama's basement. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Jerry and Ellen are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Doing good. Doing good, Dave. Good to have you guys.

Where do you live? Round Lake Heights, Illinois. Okay, and that's near? Waukegan, Illinois. Ah, okay, cool. Good to have you guys. How much debt have you paid off? Well, we've paid off about $126,199.28.

Just about, right? Just about. Yeah, just about. And how long did this take? Took us about 36 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? We started at about $135,000, went to about $60,000, and then now we're up to $185,000.

Whoa, what do you all do for a living? IT. Both of you? Both of us. I do support. He does programming. Okay, so did somebody lose a job and then you got it back? Is that what happened?

That was me. Okay, all right, cool. Well, well done. You guys are making good money. What kind of debt was the $126,000? Well, you'd call this pretty much normal, except we didn't have any student loans at the time. We had about $24,000 between two vehicles. We had, I want to say it was $30,000 in...

$30,000 or $36,000 in credit card. Credit cards alone. Plus we had a second mortgage, which had come from refinancing credit cards back in 2006. And we had a lot of other. And then during our debt-free stage, during our debt-free journey, we actually paid off $31,000 that we cash flowed in other expenses. Oh, wow. Including some money to the KGB, some money to paying off some medical bills, some pet medical bills, as well as furnace repairs and water heaters.

Okay. So how long have you two been married? About 34 years. So what happened three years ago after 30 years of marriage that you said, oh, this needs to change? Okay. This is two-part. The first thing that happened was in july of 2018 i was afraid to

take my dog to the vet we didn't have any money we were broke i was unemployed at the time it turned out that my little brown dog that's in the photo there had cancer and it filled completely his chest before we finally took I took we finally took him to the vet and he couldn't breathe then about a month later and I'm still looking for a job I just was going to start in a couple weeks we got a call from the electric company saying they're going to cut off our electricity so So the two things together, my guilt over that, I started looking for answers. I had heard of you, Dave, through Silent Sales Machine Group, and I had heard of your book Entree Leadership.

I was selling on eBay. I was selling on Amazon. I was selling on Etsy at the time. What we ended up doing, I had no clue what I was doing financially with business. Let's just put it that way. We ended up, I ended up saying, when I started, I started looking. And I remembered your book, and then I started looking into the other stuff that you did. I knew there was a financial thing behind it.

Once I had an idea about it and had the podcast and everything, I turned to Jerry and said, can we do this? And your answer was? It's about time. Where have you been all my life, beautiful? I didn't really grow up with the ramsey process but my parents pretty much lived that style as far as i knew they didn't have a credit card to their name but they they paid off their mortgage and everything and you know we were kind of an odd statistic because we actually did have student loans but we had paid them off about a decade

before we started the process my my parents actually had paid off their home. I was born and raised in a house and lived in that house all the way up until. So you guys rolled out the whole Ramsey process and started rolling and started just doing it straight up. Just straight up with everything we said you did it. It was things. 2020 really, really was bad. I was in the hospital between six and eight times that year. 2021, I was in the hospital between six and eight times that year. 2021, I was in the hospital

twice. This year, blessedly, I've been in once, but there was a very good reason I was in. That's not. So I have pulmonary hypertension. Oh, wow. So I'm very susceptible to a lot of things. And I. COVID was nasty for you. Yeah. COVID is still nasty for me yeah let's just put it that way oh my goodness wow wow oh bless your heart very cool I'm so glad you got free of this that's got to help with the hypertension well not only that but as soon as we paid it off on July 4th of this year my whole attitude toward buying things changed. A lot of people say in the beginning their buying attitude, I started reducing how much I was spending on groceries. I started really looking at, do I really need this?

I wasn't willing to do that until we paid it off. Wow. I don't know why it took me so long, but I don't care. Now you're there. We're there. Yeah, we're there. How does it feel to be free? Quite a bit relaxing, yes.

Brother, you look like you are nine Xanax into this day, man. You are just chill as can be. I love it. I love it. It's amazing, guys. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? The budget. The budget is key.

I never understood a budget at all, completely. I have a degree in geology. I have a master's degree in geology. I am not a non-science person. I had no clue about budgets. It's a different kind of math. Yes, it is. It's a math of the heart

and that's different than a simple equation how has this helped your marriage you can't even describe it we can't even begin to describe how much we have gotten together. Yeah. How much that, with a lot of help from others, have say, hey, why are you talking about yourself in the third person all the time? I was so disconnected from myself. And between this, a person in Minnesota who suggested me look into Dana K. White's books, which are on decluttering and getting a new counselor.

Wow. It's just completely turned me around. So were you kind of hoarding also? Yeah. You think? Oh, I didn't know. Do you think it was like boxes? Empty boxes?

Oh, my gosh. You collected empty boxes. Okay, that's officially hoarding. And actually, I'm running a business now, and I'm looking at looking, and I'm like, we don't need all these boxes. Get these things out of here. All right. A lot of stuff cleaning up. Oh, yeah.

So proud of y'all. Well done. Thank you. You faced the person in the mirror, and that's the hardest one to face. Yes, it is. Very well done. Very well done. And you are free.

Hey, we got a copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give away to somebody and get them started. Baby Steps Millionaires for you. That's the next chapter in your story as well. Learn how to be a millionaire because you're going to be one. Probably when you just sell all that stuff. And of course, Financial Peace University, a one-year membership to that as well. That's the Live and Give Bundle. And we're going to help you guys. You'll be able to give and live. And way to go. I'm so proud of you.

Very, very, very well done. Very well done. All right. What do you tell people the absolute key is to getting out of debt? One more time. The budget. The budget. The budget is key.

The budget. That's it, man. That's how we do it right there. And if you're listening you you don't have the the blessing of seeing jerry and ellen y'all look like two people who have just flat out arrived you look like you are peaceful your accountants yes like just everything about it man and if sometimes i talk to folks and they're about to cry because they've got so much buried in i feel like you're about to cry because they've got so much buried in.

I feel like you're about to cry out of joy. Just you are so glad that you're still here, right? And you are free. Air conditioner went out right after we paid off everything. And we looked at each other and said, we'll put another window. We'll put a couple window air conditioners in and we'll save up the money. Delays maybe step three, but we'll get a new HVAC system. There you go.

Awesome. There you go. That's a totally new life. That's what's changed. It's a new life. Sense of control and destiny. Jerry and Ellen from Illinois, 126 paid off in 36 months, 135 to 60 to 185. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. ស្រូវានប់ពីប្រូវានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ព� Dr. John Deloney Ramsey, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Hey, if you like this show, please consider subscribing to it on YouTube or on the podcast.

We'd love for you to do that. We're offered on every podcast platform that's out there, from Spotify to Apple to Google Play, whatever. You can find us everywhere also while you're doing that leave us a review especially if it's a five star don't bother if it's one we just soon not hear from you send those to james chiles and here's the thing most importantly share the show just take a link of it or just or just tell your friend listen on the radio station that you're listening on wherever that is and uh just tell people to spread the word because common sense is so rare in america today that it's like having a superpower so and i found out if you if you subscribe if you

leave a five-star review it kicks it up in the algorithms and you actually share the show um and it costs you nothing right it it puts it well in front of more people. You're helping America. That's right. I mean, really, because, I mean, this information is important. Spread the word. Not because I'm saying it, but it's just life-changing stuff. We hear it here every day. Amy's with us.

Amy's in Boston. Hi, Amy. How are you? Hi there. I'm doing well. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm pretty nervous here. No trouble.

What's up? Yeah, so my husband and I are on baby step two. We are both 52 years old, so we got a little bit of a late start. We have paid off like $120,000 since the beginning of 2020. Very good. Yeah, but like 76 or so thousand of that has just been since in the last 18 months or so. So we are plugging along, plugging along. And my question is, and I've heard you guys answer a similar version of this question, but what do you do when you're not fully, fully on the same page with your spouse with regard to how deeply you're willing to sacrifice? Like we're mostly on the same page. And like I said, you know, we're making great progress, but we have like

$32,000 left. Um, and my husband and I had a little situation with the heat at our house because oil is like over $5 a gallon. So I was keeping the heat turned off and he was away on a work trip and he turned the heat on and he was like, I'm sorry, I am not, you know, I'm not willing to wear a coat and a hat in my house. Um, and so I just, I'm so stressed about heating season, like, we can afford it. Amy. Yes. What's your household income? Our household income is about $154,000. Your husband's right. Amy, this is not about heat. I'm not wearing it. Listen, I teach intensity.

I can't believe that. And the depth of your sacrifice will be based on the depth of your intensity. And the depth of all of that is going to be based on the depth of your sacrifice will be based on the depth of your intensity, and all of that is going to be based on the depth of your why. And you're talking to Mr. Get-Everybody-Out-of-Debt Dave Ramsey, and I am not going to wear a coat in my house. I felt like he was being a drama queen. No, he's not. No, he was cold.

He's not. You are. He was cold. He's cold. You are. He's cold. You are. Amy, there's something below this. What is it? There's something beneath this. This is not about heat.

What is it? Have you been carrying a lot of this? Are you scared? Well. Are you tired? I'm definitely tired. I'm definitely tired i'm definitely tired um and like i am clearly the nerd in the relationship if you guys couldn't tell yep yep loud and clear and i'm high intensity he is the

yes man he is you know the free spirit for sure and but he's been going along with you pretty good because you paid off 76 000 in the last the last 18 months. Yes, he has. And you crossed the line when you made the man cold. Hey, Amy, listen, listen. Okay, Amy, listen. You ever been driving down the highway and you got to go to the bathroom and you don't know when the next exit is? And so your body just kind of settles into a constant, like, I got to go, but I'm fine. And then you exit, and you get right to the gas station,

and all of a sudden, your body's like, it's happening right now, and you have to sprint that last 15 feet into the gas station. For the last 15 miles, you've been okay. That's right. That's where you are. You are several years into this you see the finish line you're 30 grand away you're almost there and right you're just like

this stupid heating season is gonna make it that much don't lose your marriage over a couple hundred bucks i'm so pissed at biden for the oil prices yeah yeah don't yeah turn the news off like yes it's it's heat it's it's heat it's what it is and it's just i praise the lord we can afford it that's here's the other thing i'll tell you this what this means is there's a shirt there's every marriage book i've ever read says that you have a healthy marriage if you argue about the thermostat every every couple i've ever met in my life argues about the thermostat me and my wife are gonna be married i've been married 40 years and i still can't convince sharon how a thermostat works that its purpose is just to hold the temperature she thinks if she cranks it up or down it makes

it go faster i'm like this isn't we got through the worst of it the temperatures are going up this week i'm like you're not whining and then through the worst of it. The temperatures are going up this week. I'm like, you know, stop whining. And then my husband comes home from a trip and he's like, I am not wearing a coat and hat in my house. He's right. He's right. And the good news is you're, you're, uh, you know, he's willing to say that and not just go crazy on you.

And you're willing to laugh about it when we poke a little fun at you because we've all done stuff just exactly like you're doing and like he's doing for that matter. But you really have done a great job so far, and you really are going to get there. You're almost there. And you really don't have to skip a meal to do it. Oh, my gosh.

I feel – I'm so grateful for the encouragement. And you really don't have to live in a cold house. How many more months away? I know you've already got that number tattooed on your wrist. How soon? Well, probably seven to eight months. Yeah, or less. Our goal is like when our fourth kid graduates from high school,

I want it done by then. Do it in five months. I think you're going to do it. Do it in five months. You can do it. There's other things that gonna happen but the what the weird thing is the math works better when you're working together versus when you've sacrificed so much that you lost your partner and you lost the connectivity and the unity of the relationship that somehow causes the math to get better more so than

alienating them over the temperature in the in the house or whatever the thing is you know so uh now you know if it was if it was something else if it was like i demand to go out to eat i would tell him to quit being a drama queen i demand to go on vacation i deserve a vacation i'd say shut up you whining snowflake i would i would got after him right but but you know but all the men wanted was heat what was the temperature it was 62 hey and you haven't told us the truth you took the toilet paper out of the house too already, didn't you? It was colder over the weekend while he was away.

I told my kids, we got through the worst of it, guys. We got through the worst of it. Oh, the kids are cold too. She's got a senior in high school. He's going to be telling his counselor when he's 42 that his mother actually froze him to death while his dad was out of town. On behalf of Mental Health Practitioners of America, we want to thank you for keeping us in business for the next 30 years. Man. That's so precious.

What's precious is not the situation, but how she's handling it. Yes. And how he's handling it. Like I say, their marriage, clearly, he was able to get up to the line. He's walked alongside with her for three years. He's put the work in

and he's also able to speak his needs out loud, which a lot of men won't do. Not wearing a coat. They just live in resentment and anger and they go to the bar and complain about their wife.

Hey, good for you, man. Good for you. Y'all got a healthy marriage. It's good. Thermostat wars are a way of life. It's just part of it. Good for you. Y'all got a healthy marriage. It's good. Thermostat wars are a way of life. It's just part of it. Turn it up.

Turn it down. I got up yesterday morning. She's got it cranked down just because she likes cold house, not because she's trying to save money. Yeah. She just wants to freeze me out. My wife would love to take up residence on the sun. She just wants to live on the sun, and I don't understand it. Don't understand it. Don't understand it.

Oh, that puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.