The Ramsey Show - App - How Should We Save for a Home? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony discuss: Buying a camper, Purchasing a home when you're planning on moving, Why you shouldn't switch Baby Steps 1 and 2, How to save up for a home. 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 Ramsey personality, George Camel, joined today by Dr. John Deloney, and we are excited, even pumped, to take your call.

888-825-5225 is the number to call. We'll talk about money, life, relationships, boundaries, horses, rock and roll. It's your show, America. Before we take a call, we're pumped, huh? Yeah. Nope, I decided I'm going to be nice to George. We are pumped, America. I like pumped.

What else would you say, John? Enthused? I'm just, can we going to be nice to George. We are pumped, America. I like pumped. What else would you say, John? Enthused? I'm just, can we just say happy? No. We have to say pumped? We're happy to take your call? Like we're an old basketball that somebody found in the yard? Hey, to each his own.

Put some air in this thing. When you drive, you call the shots. You normally say stoked like you're a 12-year-old skater boy. Yeah, I'm jazzed, dude. Jazzed, stoked. Choose your own adjective. Skater boy, he said, see you later, boy. See?

Like, I'm jazzed, I'm stoked, I'm ready to rock and roll, or I'm pumped. All right, we know how John feels now. Thank you for that. Cool, I'm a deflated basketball, ready to go get it, America. Let's do this. Let's move on to someone who hopefully likes me more than John, and it's JW in Atlanta. What's up, JW?

Hey, how's it going, guys? Great. How can John and I help today? So I just heard of the Ramsey Method and Dave Ramsey this past week. So I'm very new to everything. Welcome to the gang, man. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I've been doing the Ramsey Method my whole life but didn't know that somebody was out there doing it.

Some people call it common sense it doesn't seem to be very common anymore you're correct you're correct but um i'm debt free um i do owe on my house i owe about three years left and i had my house paid off i'm 31 years old um i've got college accounts for two of my kids, which is all of my children. I've got my Roth IRA and 401K accounts. I've been saving for retirement since 18. And I've been stacking my money away. But right now I'm struggling because I want to buy a camper for my family.

We like to go camping, but I have two little girls, five and seven, and between my little girls and my wife, I've been told that we're done camping if there's not air conditioning and a toilet that they don't have to walk to in the dark. Hey, I'm with him. It's ridiculous, J.W. You don't have to put up with the dark. Hey, I'm with him. It's ridiculous, J.W. You don't have to put up with this. John thinks he's Bear Grylls out there.

My parents didn't immigrate to this country, so I could sleep in the woods with no toilet. That's how I feel. George camps at a Marriott. He's like, hey, honey, tonight, no room service. We're going to rough it. To me, slumming it is like we're going to the Days Inn. We're really going to rough it. I love it. So, J.W., what's this're going to rough it. To me, slumming it is like we're going to the Days Inn. We're really going to rough it.

I love it. So, J.W., what's this camper going to cost? Well, I've never bought anything with a payment, and I'm not going to this time either. I've got about $8,000 or $9,000 that I could spend on it. That's outside of your emergency fund? Yeah. Okay. want it that's outside of your emergency fund yeah okay so what i'm wondering is should i go ahead and buy the camper enjoy the memories with my kids while they're still little or should i

take that money and put it on the house and try to knock another year off of paying for a house and try to put it off down the road for a couple more years. Let me just answer how I've done this in my house, okay? And then George can actually give you real wisdom with actual math, okay? I have a very similar situation to you. My kids are 6 and 12, okay? I chose to split the difference. And what I've chose to do is we now go to campsites that have like a little cabin that we can rent that has little air conditioners in them and that has been a lifesaver for in fact that's been a fun game changer for me and my family because i love camp and i love being outside my wife's actually way better camper than me i'm actually more like george than i care to admit um but it's also it's just a pain right and there's it's a hassle that when you're traveling

with kids and stuff and all that so um we have found some really remarkable success going to KOAs across the country and staying in cabins next to lakes and rivers and all kind of stuff. And we get to close the door, get an air conditioner, and I don't have a payment of a camper. I will own a camper at some point, and it will be cool and it will be nice. I'm choosing in my house to pay my house off before I go buy a camper. I don't know, George, and I'm looking at you, that that's wrong the other way around.

I don't think in this situation there's a right or wrong here. That's exactly right. If you saved up and paid cash and you're in baby steps four through six, there's nothing wrong there. You're still being very intentional. But to John's point, I probably wouldn't go out and spend $50,000 on a camper. And spending $9,000 on a camper is not going to get you much of a camper, if we're going to be honest.

Yeah, campers are expensive right now, man. For four people with a bathroom. Yeah, well, they're used to me being a cheap ass. They know I'm not. Hey, my family is too, brother. My family is too. Yeah, they know there's going to have to be some work to be done to this thing when we buy it before we can ever take it out because we're going to get a deal.

Right. It may be that you camp with your buddies and you take them on. Again, it's one of those things that I've got this picture of my life, and now that once my kids reach a certain age, I have to be an adult enough to say, okay, my picture of what we're going to be doing is going to be very different. And I had these pictures of my daughter and the deer blind with me and my wife. It's not going to happen. And so I have to just grieve that for a second and be like, oh, man. And then I got to be about, okay, what's the right thing for our family now? I would not put nine grand into a crummy trailer with the idea that I'm going to fix it up

and please all the women in my house. JW, what's your income household? Uh, well, it's just me that works. Um, I make about 70,000 a year. Okay. And, uh, what vehicles do you have right now? Anything with a motor in it? Uh, right now I've got my truck. What's's that what's it add up to as far as the worth of those vehicles oh six thousand dollars between both of them wow jw i probably enjoy your life i would probably upgrade those before buying a camper yes this is brand new baby i just got hey and uh george asked a great question i forgot about i

have a buddy of mine who bought an incredible camper and that meant he then had to go buy an f-350 to pull it and so the camper turned into a whole other purchase too right yeah yeah i i've been looking and i can find small ones that i can pull behind my truck no problem and you know the question is your family gonna want to stay in that because it sounds like you're gonna get the dumpiest camper ever and they're gonna have a miserable time and they were better off camping in the backyard JW you're a man after my own heart my brother this guy I know you're one of my favorite calls I ever took hey keep being here's the thing sit down with your wife and get to the bottom of it okay what's what's

a good vacation for our family. And if you need some woods time, which I'm a guy who does, I need that. Um, that might be something that you do separate and apart or take one kid with you or something like that. And family vacations, family time may look differently. And I will tell you this, my brother, having learned this the hard way, it's okay to spend money on time away with your family. I have been the cheapest I'm ashamed of myself when I look back and see how I have neglected going

to do some nice things, going on some trips, going on some vacations in the sake of I've got to save this money, I've got to save this I've got a deal, I've got a coupon on top of it. Dude, just take your wife out. Take your kids out. And if you have to, you have to. Go get a cabin at KOA for a couple years. Yeah, just budget for if you want to go camping seven times a year,

just budget for that and go, all right, it's going to be 1,000 times. Each time we do that, 1,000 bucks. $7,000 for the year, we can do that every year. And it's still cheaper than buying a real nice camper. Way cheaper. And go rent your buddy's, which is sitting in his driveway that he uses way less than he thought he would, and he'll give it to you for 200 bucks for the weekend.

There you go. This is The Ramsey Show. this is the ramsey show i'm george, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined today by Dr. John Deloney, host of The Dr. John Deloney Show. You can find all of those shows on The Ramsey Network, YouTube, podcast, you name it. We are there for you. It's a free call today, 888-825-5225. Graham joins us up next in Grand Rapids. Graham, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Happy to take it. What's going on? So I was looking at Randy's Solutions website in regarding to investing, and I saw that Randy's

Solutions advocates for mutual funds and is very against bonds as an asset to use. And I was curious if you could flesh out why that is. I read some articles on the website, but I didn't find them fully satisfactory. What's not satisfactory? I'd love to hear your take. So it really came down to the lack of return of investment rate of return and i know it's the most important metric with an investment but it's not the only metric and i it felt a little one-dimensional in its analysis meaning in your analysis being there's the other side which is the perception that bonds are somehow a uh it's – it's like when you buy drywall that's fireproof. Like this will stop the fire.

And it's like – so it's your protection, right? It's not so much protection. It's that bonds are serving a slightly different function than, say, a mutual fund or an index fund. So why are you – clearly you're a fan of bonds. So tell us what your reasoning is for wanting to invest in them. Well, I'm a fan of bonds only to the extent that it seems to be a good idea to include them in a portfolio, but I'm not advocating for an all bonds portfolio. Sure.

I mean, we're very counter-cultural. We're weird in a whole lot of ways. Bonds excluded. But financial advisors, what they do is over time, as you get older, they want to put you in more bonds to create safety, which guess what? Creates safety for their jobs because you're not knocking down their door when you're going, well, I lost money and I'm about to be in retirement age. And so that's a very countercultural thing where we go, no, keep investing, diversify your portfolio, four types of mutual funds, growth, aggressive growth, growth and income, international, and you're going to be better off in the long term. So here's what I'll tell you.

I'll answer the personal question, let George kind of walk you through it. I have no bonds in my personal portfolio. None. Zero. Okay. So that's how I'm choosing to do with me and my family. And so this isn't like a, we got some company statement that we're making. This is how I choose. Because the idea that it's somehow a protection or somehow a hedge against a riskier investment simply isn't, it's not mathematically accurate, right? It's a debt product. Right. But I don't,

I guess I see it as more of a fixed income and that's what, that's what the image is. It's the fixed income. It's not some appreciation or that's debt or that. I don't even see it. I think every asset is inherently risky, even treasury bonds, right? I think we could all agree on that. So I guess it's, I was just curious where that just made with the risk reward, but I just wasn't sure how I felt about it. So I'll see what your guys' thoughts were. Yeah. I mean, like we talked about, the returns you're going to get from bonds are not impressive.

You're going to do better in the stock market than in the bond market, and they're going to barely outpace inflation. And we want you to beat the market so that you can build wealth. And so when it comes to fixed income, if I have $5 million because I had all of my money in the stock market and none in bonds, and you've got $3 million because you were heavier in bonds, well, I'm going to have a higher fixed income with my $5 million sitting there, even if it fluctuates a little bit with the stock market. But over time, we're going to see the stock market continue to grow.

The economy is going to continue to grow long-term over a long period of time, and that's how we look at investing. And by the way, if you buy a bunch of bonds when they're cheap and interest rates go up, you're going to be unable to move those bonds because the value has gone down it had all it's yes going back to your original thing this is the idea of a um it's like remember when the when the government gave put out the food pyramid years ago and come to find out there was mostly lawyers who made that determination of what should be on the food pyramid.

You're saying we shouldn't eat a ton of milk and sugar, John? I'm saying that milk and sugar shouldn't make up the bulk of your diet. All that says, but this is not a nutrition show, so now all the nutrition zealots are going to come at us. What I'm saying is there is a picture that's been sold to us that is this is the balanced portfolio and this is what this looks like. We could go into a whole bond segment. I don't think that's worth the time.

What I'm saying is understand that bonds don't provide, well, you've got to have your dessert. Otherwise, it's not a complete meal. And what I'll say is at the end of the day, it's not healthy. Let's move on. Yeah. And there are some nerdy studies out there

that I've looked at where it's comparing, hey, if you just stayed in the stock market with more aggressive investing strategies versus putting it in bonds, you're going to end up ahead in the long term. It's a theory that doesn't pan out in reality. Yes. And again, financial advisors want this because it's job security for them so that you're not angry when you lose some money in retirement. They want to make it safer for you as you go there. But then you've got no return in retirement, which means that money's going to run out a lot faster because your retirement, remember, you might live to 95 and retire at 60. So you need that money to continue growing at the pace it was growing from 60 to 95

versus it running out at 70. So it's a great question, Graham. And if you're not satisfied with the website, I mean, we can agree to disagree. It's okay. We can still be friends. Thanks for the call, man. Angel joins us up next in Irvine. Angel, welcome with the website. I mean, we can agree to disagree. It's okay. We can still be friends. Thanks for the call, man. Angel joins us up next in Irvine. Angel, welcome to the show. Baby, you're my angel. What's up, dude? Hey, guys.

How you doing? Good. You? Hey, thank you. Thank you for taking my call, man. Of course. Right. So my question is this.

My wife and I were immigrants from Spain. We've been here for about 20 years. You know, everything has been great. We discovered you guys about six years ago. We started paying off all of our debts, and now we are on baby step number three. We believe we should be done with it by November this year. And so we have a lot of certainty in that we are going to spend our retirement back in Spain in maybe 25 years from now, 20 to 25 years from now. We're currently renting, so we don't have a house. We don't own property. And so my main

question would be, will it make sense for us to make an investment on a house right now, or should we focus on, on our retirement? Well, I think you can do both. Do you have any money in retirement? So currently we have, uh, saved up about, uh, $40,000. How old are you? I'm 44.

My wife is 39. Uh, and our household income is about 175. Awesome. Um, and so, well, that's really thanks to you guys. I mean, the method really works.

John and I did nothing, man. You did this. We didn't do anything, Angel. You did it. So here's what I'm seeing, Angel. I would absolutely invest in a home in the US. I mean, so you're not going to retire in Spain for 25 years. And so think about what rent's going to do in 25 years in California versus you investing 15% of your income in retirement after you get your fully funded emergency fund, then saving up for that house down payment as quickly as possible, and then locking in a fixed expense with a 15-year conventional mortgage and paying that thing off before you retire in Spain. And then think about what the appreciation on that home will be 25 years from now in California or wherever you live.

And you go sell that home and go retire with a giant pile of cash and no payments for a long time. That sounds like a great plan. It would make sense then. Okay. And for investment then, I should just follow the rules for mutual funds. Yeah. follow the rules for mutual funds. Once you get a paid-for home, you can ramp up that 15% and go harder on that and really start to ratchet it up if you guys want to retire earlier. But you're doing great.

Stay on the path. And definitely, let's get the emergency fund beefed up, get the retirement beefed up, and get you in a home long-term so that you're not trying to keep up with rent for 25 years. Way to go, man. More of your calls coming up on The Ramsey Show. so Well, John, you know this. August is National Make-A-Will Month, and we are celebrating all month long. If you don't have an up-to-date will as a part of your estate plan, what are you waiting for? You need to knock this out right now.

But here's the thing. There's more to estate planning than just having a will. Estate planning covers all of the documents, plans, and conversations you need to have in case something happens to you. And no, you don't have to be an eccentric millionaire with an offshore account to have an estate plan. It wouldn't hurt, but you don't need it. So that means you need an estate plan because a good estate plan protects your family's future and it's easy to put yours together with the right tools. And we've got a great estate planning guide for you that's free and easy to use. It'll help you keep track of everything you need and it walks you

through exactly which documents to get, like your will if you don't have one, what conversations to have, and where you can go to get more info so you can knock this stuff off your list. So give yourself and your loved ones peace of mind by figuring this stuff out ahead of time. You can download your complete guide to estate planning for free at ramsaysolutions.com slash estate guide. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash estate guide. Before we go on from here, if you're new to the show,

let me say this. A friend of mine named John says, the only reason to not have a will is if you hate your wife and kids and I think he's exactly right the number of people I've sat with in the middle of the night whose husbands have died or whose wives have passed away who look at me and say

I don't know what to do we have nothing, I gotta go to work on Monday. I can't count that number of people. Have a will. You can go to Mama Bear. I mean, just have a will. Go to Mama Bear, wills, get a will done. You can do it in a not very long time at your kitchen table and knock it out, right?

Absolutely. Or you can go to a more drawn out process. You can get a full estate. Get a will. I'm a single person. Get a will. We're newlyweds. We don't have any kids. Get a will. I'm a single person. Get a will. We're newlyweds. We don't have any kids.

Get a will. There's no reason. None. Who are wills for? Breathing people. A hundred percent of us are going to die. None of us get out of this thing. Right?

Love will find a way. Even you, George. Love will find a way, John. They will, man. Well, I just saw this article. It's been blowing up. Prince, the artist, his artist his estate formerly known as finally it came to an end 156 million dollar estate this crazy battle because he didn't have

a will in place 156 million dollars and six years later they finally ironed it out after a lot of pain and suffering so i don't know about you george but over the last few years, I haven't been, I'd say over the last 10, I haven't been just overwhelmed by the government's performance on just multiple issues. Now, some things are great. Some things I'm like, wow. They built a great park in my neighborhood. And when you don't have a will, you are saying, you know who I want to take care of my wife and kids when I'm gone? You know who I want to take care of my wife and kids and i'm gone you know who i want to take care of my family i want the government to do it they're doing a bang-up job all across everything else i see let's let them go ahead and take care of my most prized possession like my most prized relationships on the planet i want to make sure they'll take care

of it don't do that no thanks tom hanks that's what i say no thanks tom hanks at the bank i'm trying to make my friend named frank i'm trying to make a catch on. That stink. Well, thank you for that reminder, John. Get a will. And you can check out the estate guide. Once again, ramsaysolutions.com slash estate guide. It's completely free. All right, Brian joins us in Oklahoma City.

Brian, welcome to the show. Thanks, guys. So I just had a few questions for you guys. We have a few answers. Let's do it. Well, I hope so. So currently me and my household, it's single income. It's about $56,000 a year. So before we got on to Financial Peace University and everything else, I actually didn't even know that y'all showed until I got the new vehicle. And that was about $20,000 in the debt. And so after watching the first couple of episodes on the Financial Peace University,

we thought it was more lucrative for us to change the baby steps for us from one to two and do it backwards. Pay off our debt first and then save because our budget's real tight and we wouldn't have been able to save the $1,000 completely up for like four or five months. And I felt like that was way too long for us to try to save up $1,000 versus keeping credit cards and not paying more on our car that we could have paid over that time. What do you guys think about that? Well, Brian, my brain hurts because you just said the word lucrative while also saying you have $0 in the bank while you pay off debt.

How is this a money-making scheme to you? Well, I don't necessarily think it's a money-making scheme. I think it's more along the lines of it's going to help us pay off debt faster, and then we can save afterwards. What happens if you get a flat tire? Well, I have a flat tire that I make about $500 a week. That's your emergency fund, dude. That's it.

That's your $1,000. $500 a week. So two weeks, you'll have $1,000. Ta-da! Right. And that's kind of what I had always thought. But that was aside from my regular household income because the other thing is DJing weddings,

and so it doesn't necessarily always happen. All of your income, all of your income, all of it. Side hustles, front hustles, back hustles, top hustles, bottom hustle, all the hustles. All that dumps into is your household income. So if you have a household income of $56,000 and you make an extra $500 a week, you're going to toss that on top of that and all of that together is piled in there. Okay? Okay. Brian, I'm listening to this story. I don't see this as an exception to the rule. I don't see you as unique or special here. You save up a thousand dollars. Then we attack the debt using the debt snowball from smallest to largest, ignoring the

interest rate. And I might look at selling this car. What's it worth? I have no idea what it's worth. We just bought it, I think in in May before I even found out about it. Call and see what you can get for it. If you can get Even Steven for it, then go sell it and then buy something half the price. You have another car? Yeah, it's a beer car, and it's paid off. But I put a lot of miles on it, going back and forth to weddings, and I drive it back and forth to work. The other car is like our sacred car.

We don't really take it anywhere if we don't have to. There it is, the sacred car. There's no such thing as the sacred car. It's a depreciating asset. It's a piece of metal that's going down in value every day. There's nothing sacred about it. Yes. And don't keep a car payment and a nice car for a side hustle i had to and me my wife

getting out of debt i don't tell the story a lot because it makes me sad and it makes me want to cry george i had to sell a couple of my guitars and so it may be that you look at your nice dj table and say hey i haven't been djing i'm gonna sell my gear and get a thousand dollar emergency fund sell everything until you get that $1,000. How much total debt do you have? Figure it out. Oh, we only have about $23,000 in debt, including the car. What's the other? You said 20 on the car. What's the other three?

They're like just some small credit cards. Okay. So listen, dude, if you sold the car and then you worked six weeks on your side hustle, you're debt-free. You're done. You're free. Right. Before we got the car, we were only a couple thousand dollars in the debt, but we didn't really have a good car for us to use, and it was more of a headache trying to find a good used one. So, and it was real hard for us to get financing because we had bad credit. And before David Ramsey, before we found out about Financial Peace University, we really didn't know, you know, the principles of... Well, let me ask you... Now you know, Brian.

Ignorance was bliss until now. Now you know. Can we just say this? You've had tough... You've got tough credit. You've had bad experiences with money. I haven't been wise with it. Let me just ask you this point blank.

Have your ways worked? As in finances? Yes. Are you happy with where you are financially? Do you feel like you're crushing it? I feel like I could do better. I don't think I'm crushing it, but I know that I'm not doing it. That's all we're here to do is help you do better.

That's what I want to help you do better, man. And this program, millions of people have done it. The baby steps are in the order they are because they've been tried and true over millions of people, and you're no exception. And if you go all in on this, I'm telling scorched earth, we're doing the baby steps exactly as is. We're not special. We're going to be one of those tens of millions of people who changes our family tree,

sells the car, sells some gear, do whatever it takes. Man, it will change your financial situation and even better, it's going to change you. It's going to change

how you make decisions. Stop saying, yeah, but, yeah, yeah, but just go do it. Go do it. You got this, man. Let us know if we can help along the way.

This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined today by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. That's a Ken Coleman word for you, John. Colleague. I was going to call you my good friend, but I'll go with colleague. I like that. Very professional. That's how we keep it here on the show. Richard joins us up next in Vegas. Richard, what's going on? How are you doing, gentlemen? Great. How can we help? Excellent. So here's the deal. I am 24.

I've been with this girl for a while. We're looking at getting married, and we want to buy a house. We want to do it the right way. We want to do it without needing a credit score. I've avoided credit cards. But we're newly started in our careers and have no idea how to pay for a house if we're not doing it the, I guess, the traditional method with a FICO score and all that bull crap. You came to the right place, my friend. Excellent. I did this in 2019,

got a house without a credit score, paid off the mortgage, life is good. And so let me walk you through this. What's your income? Do you know what it'll be when you're married? Yeah, it'll be between $60,000 and $70,000 in that ballpark. Okay, cool. You guys have any debt? I have $16,000 in student loans and $4,000 in a car. What do y'all do a living? She is a hairstylist, and I am a magician, of all things. Excellent. Aha! This just got interesting. So you do, is this full-time work?

It is. Okay. What do you make versus her? Do you know? We both make in around $35,000, give or take. Because it's Vegas, there's a decent amount of variance with the tipping industry. Sure. So that's why I say in the $60,000 to $70,000, but in about the $35,000 ballpark each.

And we're both, again, we just started our careers. So I don't expect to make $35,000 for the rest of my life, but it's a start. Okay, cool. I love magicians. They're the best. The best. So what is, you know, if she has any debt? She does not.

Okay, so we're looking at $20,000 total in debt and looking at $70,000 household income. So how quickly can we pay off all of this debt and start saving up for the down payment? I have been trying to put as much money towards it as I can. I don't have a full $70,000 right now. I have $35,000. I think I can get it paid off from my own personal income in a matter of

probably two or three years. Okay. So two or three years, this thing's paid off. I want you to do it in two. And if that means side hustles, if that means something else, let's do that. But I think three years is, for 20 grand, we can get this thing

cleaned up in two years. That's 10 grand a year. Are you able to drive in the evenings or do pickups in the morning or are you able to squeeze in side hustles there? It seems like a job like Uber,

Uber Eats would be a perfect side hustle to what you're doing. Yeah, that's a possibility. I won't bore you with the details, but I can actually kind of side hustle magic as a street performer. I'm going to one-up George. I want this thing gone in 12 months. I want this thing gone in 12 months. I want this thing gone in a max 16 months. I want you to put that on a calendar and reverse engineer it and say, how much money do I have to make every month?

And work on it like your life depends on it. Because it kind of does. Because you're one more shutdown from being in a crap land, right? Yes, sir. Let's get this stuff all done, man. Let's just knock it out and let's have one crazy year. You'll look back

and remember the time we were nuts when I was 24 and then when I was 25 I was free. And then you can go do real magic, right? Are you engaged yet, Richard? Not officially, no.

Okay. It's a magic ring, George. It's a magic ring. But we're talking maybe marriage is on the horizon a year from now. You have a wedding? Yeah, thereabouts. We've been concerned with money has been a big thing and just, you know, we've been scared. If I'm being completely honest, we're absolutely terrified. So I haven't gotten down on the knee and officially asked the question, but it's going to happen.

Awesome. Well, do that when the time's right. But I think we need to pause. I love that you're excited to get into home, but it's going to be years from now, and that's okay. It's a couple years away, dude. So get that $1,000 starter emergency fund. Beyond that, any money goes towards the debt. Let's clean up this debt in a year or two.

Then let's start making sure we cash flow the wedding. No debt there. Cash flow the wedding, no debt there, cash flow the ring, and then be about the business of getting three to six months of expenses saved up in an emergency fund. And then and only then do we start saving up for that down payment. And you're going to have a lot more margin in your life. You're going to be making more money and have no payments. And so I want you to save up, you know, 10% down would be great. 20% would be even better to avoid private mortgage insurance where you're just throwing money away to the lender. And then make sure you get a 15-year fixed rate conventional mortgage with a payment that's no more than a quarter of your take-home

pay. You get all those numbers? And we got them all on our website as well. I know I threw a lot at you there. But that's what the path looks like. I'm writing this down, but if you got it on the website, I will look up there. Richard, let me tell you this. Here's what this is going to look like in real life. This is you sitting down with the woman who's about to be your fiancé and probably get engaged, and then you all sit down and say, here's what life's going to look like. I want you all to grieve it.

You know what would be really cool? It would be to get married. She's a hairstylist for the stars in Vegas, and you've got your name on a big thing. You all aren't there yet. And so a hairstylist for the stars in Vegas. And you're, you've got your name on a big thing. Y'all aren't there yet. And so grieve it. It'd be super cool. We were 25 and married with a big dope house here in Vegas. It's not going to happen. So let's grieve it. Let's, let's go out to dinner and be like, this is our sad dinner. And then after that, we're going to get real excited about our one bedroom apartment that we can actually afford.

And when we afford it, we're going to feel safe and we're not going to spend the first two or three years panicked and worried about, Hey, are you working? Why are you sitting down? You should be out cutting here. We can't make the rent. And then we're going to have unnecessary fights and stress and drama in our new wedding and a new marriage that doesn't need any more stress than it's already going to have. You see what I'm saying? So we're going to lean into this thing and then we're going to be happy about the one bedroom apartment because we can afford it. And then we're going to have. You see what I'm saying? So we're going to lean into this thing and then we're going to be happy about the one bedroom apartment because we can afford it. And then we're going to be about working these careers and grinding

and grinding and grinding until one day me and George come out to Vegas to see Richard. Yes. Like, wait, is that the same guy? We'll come see your show. Hey, yeah, when you hit it, you let us know and you send us some tickets. We'll be there. That'll be a blast. I'm willing to pay for the tickets, but you can give us for free. It'd be great. George is the guy. I will pay for my tickets. Actually, no, you send me my tickets.

Yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with, especially once you get married, you got to adjust to a whole new lifestyle. So let's just rent for a while. Getting into a home can be very stressful. There's a lot of costs, a lot of things associated with it. So it's totally okay to rent for a year or two after you're married and let's start saving up that down payment. Let's not rush into this thing with nothing down while we still have debt. That is a recipe for disaster financially and maritally. And I actually would tell if he had said, Hey, I've got $200,000 ready to put down in a house. I'm going to get engaged and get married. I would say, Hey, I would do my best to talk him into pausing, pause, rent, just, just get to know one another man and you think we've

been dating for five years when you start brushing teeth next to each other everything's different right you're gonna start to see all the ticks and all the quirks and this is where john puts his laundry in the corner of the room yes and if you've married somebody that has a lot of ticks i was thinking of the bugs because i live out in the woods oh yeah literally john has to worry about this is why i don't go to John's house. Exactly. And because I don't invite you. That too.

There we go. But it's a good reminder, John, for those that are, there's a lot of people who are excited about, I want to get married, I'm going to get a house, and life's going to be so great. We're going to have this dual income. But when you do it and you still have debt and you're trying to get the house

and now we feel like we need to upgrade and car and look at what our married friends are doing. It causes so much drama and pressure. have debt and you're trying to get the house and now we feel like we need to upgrade and car and look at our married friends are doing. Causes so much drama and pressure. Yeah. And we just need to slow down and run our own race. Yeah. I had a great line the other day on the show. I don't remember it, but it was something to that effect.

You've already dropped no thanks Tom Hanks. And so you're one for one. It was when you run other people's race, there is no finish line. That was, that's a good line. We can agree to disagree all right fine if i tweeted that i get at least three retweets though and two of them would be your mother she's not on twitter jokes on you john sweet may uh when you got when you guys got married did you move directly into a house into townhome we had an apartment and we started saving up

aggressively and i was doing side gigs i was like hosting outside events. I was doing marketing consulting. I was building websites. I was going, how can we stack up as much money as we can for this down payment? And then we also went, let's get a really reasonable house. Because the bank said they'd give us like half a million dollars. Yeah, we're not going to do that. And so going for a very reasonable mortgage on a reasonable house, it doesn't need to be a five bedroom, four bath.

It's just the two of us. Right. Relax. Just the two of us. Again, John's singing. You're welcome, America, and I'm sorry. And we lived in a tiny little apartment too. It's great. You kind of look back on those days with fond memories. They were miserable, but we got to

figure each other out and we got to learn one another as the bugs were coming in the apartment. You learn all kinds of things, right? It's good. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Austin and James and Will and the whole crew in there, Andrew, and of course you, John. I guess America's in there, too. Appreciate you guys listening.

We'll be back with you before you know it. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million peoplehost of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.