The Ramsey Show - App - How to Decide If You Should Sell the Car (Hour 3)
Episode Date: June 22, 2018The show about you...
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America.
Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225.
That's 888-825-5225.
You jump in.
We'll talk about your life and your money.
Brandon is with us in Spokane, Washington.
Hi, Brandon.
How are you?
I'm not quite sure yet, but I do know I'm excited to talk to you, Dave.
Thank you, sir. How can I help?
Okay. I recently had to clear my emergency savings fund for some medical stuff,
and I got that all paid off, so I don't know anything on that.
But shortly after that happened, we figured out that we needed to put a roof on our shop.
It's leaking real, real bad. So I was working to
get the emergency fund back up, and I just don't foresee us being able to save the money to put
the roof on and fund the emergency savings at the same time. However, I do carry some options here.
We have three vehicles. We own them them all and i have a toy that's
sitting in the shop and i don't i don't really want to sell the wife's vehicle she drove the
beater with the heater for a long time and i think you're probably going to tell me to sell my pickup
or my toy to do it so i could probably cover putting the roof on.
What's it cost to put the roof on?
If I did the labor myself,
I kind of just had it nailed down
about two grand, give or take.
Big roof.
Well, I've got
to redo. I've got to put
the OSD back down before I put the metal
back on it because it's an older pole building
and just the way it's got to go okay back on there so you say the shop do you work out of there or
no it's just a big building that doubles as our garage to like a 30 by 40 pole building okay
all right and so what's it hurt that it leaks on the short term um i just well i'm concerned that it's going
to get into the structural part of the building yeah but i'm saying over the next three over the
next three months or whatever it's not that big a deal no but i mean just makes a mess
yeah it's not like you're working in there or anything. What's the toy?
Well, it's a Polaris side-by-side.
Okay.
And so what is that worth?
Probably about $8,000.
Okay.
And what's your household income?
Between the wife and I, about $70,000.
Okay.
Well, I mean, you know, it's up to you.
No, you can't sell your wife's car to fix this when you have a Polaris sitting there.
That's just like against federal law, dude.
I mean, seriously.
I understand.
I don't want to sell her.
I know, but you did bring it up.
I mean, you said it out loud, okay?
So I've got to address that, all right?
So that's just like against federal law. You can do that so yeah so uh uh household income is 75 we need two grand
to fix the pole barn roof got no emergency savings and how much debt uh just just the house we own all the stuff oh good okay all right so if
you guys bear down how quick can you come up with two grand two months yeah i mean two months yes
sir probably that's about right it'll make it it'll make it for two months and um you know you
may have to buy one more sheet of OXP before when you go up there
because it may leak over and rot one more piece, right?
Pretty much.
Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of thing.
It's a pole barn, dude.
I mean, it's not like it's ringing in your bedroom here, you know.
It's hitting the ground back there.
So, now, what is your truck worth?
It's worth probably $8,500.
Okay.
And what's your wife's car worth?
It's worth about $8,500.
Okay.
All right.
Because a rule of thumb I use, you've probably heard me say this,
is don't have things with motors in them totaling more than half your annual income.
You don't.
You're at about 25 000
okay with all with all your eight with all three of them all three of them and you're under
you know so you're under half your annual income there so that's okay um
if i were in your shoes and you really want to keep the toy then the the there's only two options
in my mind listen to this okay one
is cash flow this over the next two months or two sell the players that's the two options
i mean that's really your only shot here and you can do it you're just going to have to bear down
like you had like you were getting out of debt back in the old days you know you're doing gazelle
intensity and you know you're you're leaning into this.
And, you know, we're not going out to eat and we're not doing anything.
We're going to get on a tight budget, beans and rice, rice and beans.
We're going to fix this stupid roof and don't want to sell the Polaris.
So, you know, and you find $1,000 a month for the next two months and you fix it.
And it'll be summertime.
And so it's not going to be cold to get up there and fix it.
And, you know, you'll have it up there and ready to go by winter.
And you're fine with that.
That's okay.
So all of that's fine with me.
An observation as an outsider looking in, and I've got toys too.
I've got two boats.
I've got two jet skis, two Sea-Doos.
I mean, I get it, okay?
I'm a toy guy, too.
And I've even got some other cars, extra cars laying around just because I like collectibles and that kind of stuff.
So I'm in the same camp you're in on all of that.
But the observation I would still make is this.
Compared to the vehicles you guys drive every day, you have a lot tied up in a Polaris.
Copy that. the vehicles you guys drive every day you have a lot tied up in a polaris copy that um and so it's something to think about but it's not like demanding that you sell it in other words if you told me you had twenty thousand dollar polaris sitting there i'd be going and
you're driving an eight thousand dollar car and she's driving an eight thousand dollar car i'm
going dude you're weird that's just crazy okay so you're you know you're you're bumping up towards
that but you're not all the way into that.
You follow me?
You see how that's working?
So it's ratios.
It's all about ratios and bouncing stuff, other stuff in your life back against it.
So this is something that means something to you.
That's not a particular vehicle I have collected, so I can't relate to you there.
But if it was a boat, I could.
So I kind of get it.
If my boat was sitting in that garage, I wouldn't want to sell my boat.
I would cash flow.
I would go on beans and rice for two months and cash flow the fixing of the roof.
That's what I would do if my boat was sitting in that garage.
And it was $8,000.
So that's a way I can emotionally relate to what you're doing because my boat is, you know, I'm a boat guy.
I'm a lake guy.
So, you know, my Mastercraft, I got a couple of Mastercrafts.
If one of those was sitting in the garage and that was the ratios, the same dollar figures sitting there, that's how I would not sell it.
I'd cash flow.
And I'd just say, hey, household's on a budget.
Stupid roof's leaking back here.
We've got to get everything together.
Everybody's clipping coupons.
And what we've got we can throw on Craigslist we can sell.
And we're going to have a big garage sale this weekend,
and see if we can sell $500, $600 worth of stuff,
and jumpstart this, and we're going to do some other stuff.
That's what we would do instead of selling the boat.
But if you want to sell the Polaris to do that, that's your other option.
I think you're going to cash flow it, and you'll keep the Polaris.
That's what I think.
And that does not make you a bad guy in this scenario with the numbers you gave me.
There's nothing here that just screams crazy at me.
But just some observations.
Good discussion, man.
That's fine.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I get asked all the time about what people need to do to improve their family's money situation.
Two of the most overlooked things are term life insurance and disability insurance.
Both plans make sure that you have income to pay bills and take care of yourself and your family
if something were to happen. For term life, you need to carry 10 to 12 times your income,
and I recommend 15 or 20-year plans for most families. Stay away from cash value or return
of premium plans. They're just a ripoff.
Disability insurance is just as critical.
How are you going to pay your bills if you're unable to work?
Disability is the leading cause of bankruptcies and foreclosures.
That's why I send you to Zander Insurance.
They've been helping my listeners find the right plans at the lowest cost for almost 20 years.
Call 800-356-1780 or visit zander.com and compare online.
That's 800-356-1780 or zander.com.
Thank you for joining us, America.
We're glad you are here.
Ashley is with us in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Hi, Ashley.
How are you?
I'm doing all right, Dave.
How about you?
Just the same.
How can I help?
I am calling because my husband and I are on baby step two.
We have been there for several years now, but we really started hitting it hard last summer.
We paid off $20,000.
Good for you.
So far.
Yeah, so far.
But we're paying out almost $2 order to decrease the pressure of minimum payments and possibly get ahead.
Yeah, it's possible.
So what do you owe on your car?
On my car, I have a van, and we owe about $23,000.
What about his car?
There's a Honda Civic, and we owe about $6,000.
Okay.
And what is your household income?
Take-home is $66,700.
Okay.
And how much debt do you have including these cars but not including your mortgage?
Including the cars is about $120, like $118.
Whew.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, the bad news is I would sell your van, yes.
You would sell it? Yeah.
Let me tell you how I came to that, okay, kind of the same way you did,
but I dug into it a little bit more over the years.
I've got a rule of thumb.
Even if they're paid for, cars and other things that have a motor in them go down in value.
All of them do.
And if you're going to become wealthy, you don't want to have too much tied up in things that go down in value.
I define too much as if you have more than half your annual income tied up in things that go down in value.
And you're right there on the bubble on that.
Yes.
Okay.
The second thing I use when people ask me this question is,
I want to be debt-free, not counting my house, and I need to know if I need to sell my cars.
If it helps you to make the goal of being debt-free within two years real, then sell the cars.
If it doesn't, then I don't fool with it.
And so out of 120, you've got a lot of student loan debt, I'm guessing.
We do.
We have about 50,000 student loans between mine and my husband's.
And then the rest is personal loans and medical bills.
We have no credit code anymore, though, so woo-hoo.
That's good.
So you've got $30,000 in cars, $50,000 in student loans.
That's $80,000 of your $120,000.
So you have another $40,000 in medical and personal loans?
Yes.
What are the personal loans?
Medical is probably about $6,000 to $7,000.
So you've got $30,000 in personal loans?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I did the math wrong.
Add another $20,000 to the student loans.
Oh, okay.
All right.
So 100 of the 120 is cars and student loans.
Yes.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Okay.
All right.
So, yeah, you guys have been struggling for a while.
Oh, yeah, you guys have been struggling for a while. Yes.
And so you're not feeling the progress mathematically.
You're not seeing the progress.
And that's one of the reasons you calmed down before.
And now that you're geared back up and you've got 20,000 knocked off, you're going,
I think we can do this, but it's still a long run.
And I'm out of breath. And maybe we can do this but it's still a long run and i'm out of breath
and maybe we can shorten the run by getting rid of the van and the answer is yes you can
and uh the only problem with that is that we are upside down on the van yeah it only was about
16 17 000 023 yeah who's already talked to our credit union and they won't um they won't give
us a personal note for the difference or anything at
this point so have you got the loan with the credit union yes okay well they've already given
you a personal loan for the difference because if they had to take the car back that you would
still owe them the difference okay so they're still they're already unsecured so i think you
need to go sit down with that branch manager again and go, look, this van's going away,
and you already have an unsecured loan for a portion of this
because the collateral won't stand for the loan.
And so we need to just admit that by letting us sign a note for the difference.
Now, when you said $17,000, where did you get that value?
Kelly Blue Brook private sale value.
Okay, that's the correct number to use.
Good.
You're ahead of me on that one.
Good.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's going to be easy to get rid of the van,
but I agree with you that it'll help get the river flowing here.
It's kind of stopped up right now, you know?
It does.
It's kind of got a log jam.
And here's the thing.
It's not like you're not going to ever have a nice van.
It's not like you're never going to have any of this stuff
because you're going to live like no one else for a little while
so that later you can live like no one else
because, my goodness, you've been paying so many payments for so long.
If you didn't have any payments, you'd feel rich immediately.
Yeah.
If we didn't have any payments, our fully funded emergency fund
would be funded within about four months.
Yeah.
You're moving the needle. So, Yeah, you're moving the needle.
So, hey, you're getting after it. I'm proud of you.
You keep after it, and you call me back if you need some more help.
But I would try to get rid of that van if I can,
and I'd probably go down there and sit down with the two of you in the manager's office at the credit union.
Let's have a face-to-face discussion and push on this a little harder,
because you understand what I'm saying.
Basically, they already have a partially unsecured loan
because the collateral doesn't stand good for the loan by itself.
Jonathan is with us in Tampa, Florida.
Hi, Jonathan. How are you?
I'm doing wonderful. How are you, sir?
Better than I deserve. What's up?
Awesome.
Currently, I have a mortgage.
I'm having a little trouble hearing you.
Can you speak directly into your phone, please?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
I currently have a mortgage that's at an interest rate of 4.5%.
And I'm getting offers from my mortgage company for 6.5%.
6.5%?
And my wife doesn't work.
Why would you go to 6.5% and a 3% mortgage? No, no, no, no. 3.5%. 6.5%? And my wife doesn't work. Why would you go to 6.5% and a 3% market?
No, no, no, no. 3.65%.
Oh, I misunderstood you. I'm sorry. Okay, good.
I might have said it wrong.
Okay.
I'm a veteran, so they cut some of the costs for me.
But I talked to one gentleman, because they'd been harassing me with letters trying to get me refinanced.
And the first time I called, they said that it wouldn't be worth it because the amount that I have on my current balance,
that it would take me back to where I was starting.
My current loan right now is at $111,000, and my original was $118,000.
So if I were to add that $3,100, it would bump it up.
My question is, is it worth doing that because my mortgage would drop from $820,000 to $700,000?
So your current interest rate is what?
$4.2700. So your current interest rate is what? $4.75.
Okay.
So if we went down, for instance, 1%, 1% is $1,100 a year savings for you.
Okay.
1% of $110 is $1,100.
You follow me?
So if we go from $4.75 to $3.75, just do some rough and dirty math, okay?
So that gives us eleven hundred dollars and so if the
closing costs and everything are thirty three hundred dollars how long does it take you to
break even on this transaction thirty three hundred divided by eleven hundred three years
exactly so you don't get gravy on the biscuit until after three years everything after that
you're going to be making money on having refinanced so the
answer to the question is if you're going to stay in the house longer than three years yes it makes
sense to refinance now my my thinking was as well too is you know because my wife doesn't work
in a lower tax bracket uh using my taxes is around $6,000 to $7,000.
I was thinking about taking that $3,100.
That doesn't matter in the equation.
Either way, whether it's on the balance or out of your pocket,
you're going to write a check at some point in this process
for the $3,300 extra cost.
So it would make more sense to put it towards my baby steps?
Yeah, you could just add it into the mortgage if you want.
But the point is you're going to be out of pocket at somewhere in your life, $3,300,
and you're going to save $1,100 approximately per year.
And so it's going to be three years before you're in the money.
That's the point.
Now, I think you can beat this.
I don't like the quotes you're getting. I want you to check it with Churchill Mortgage,
people that we've endorsed here for 20 plus years on the air. So call Churchill Mortgage,
go to churchillmortgage.com and see if they can give you a better quote on that. I'm not a big
fan of the VA loan in general. If you can get a conventional loan, you'll get a cheaper rate
and lower costs, and I
think it'll help your breakeven analysis get it down to about two and a half years probably.
That'd make a lot more sense then.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
Hey, this is Dave Ramsey.
You know, most of us have gotten behind on our bills at one time or another.
That's nothing to be ashamed of.
It happens. And many of us know the embarrassment that comes with those harassing calls from collectors.
Some of these guys are just scum.
But then there are the collectors that are just plain crooks. These are the guys that take it a step further,
and they violate the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on a daily basis.
They're breaking the law, and they need to be stopped.
The truth is, debt collection is the most abusive, out-of-control industry in America today.
But you don't have to put up with it.
If you have collectors calling you multiple times a day,
calling you at work after you've asked them not to,
cursing or threatening you in any way,
then you need to visit CollectionBully.com.
These folks will connect you with an attorney who I know can help you.
These attorneys know how to stop collection agencies from bullying and threatening you anymore.
CollectionBully.com.
Go to CollectionBully.com today.
That's CollectionBully.com. Go to CollectionBully.com today. That's CollectionBully.com. Giving you the same financial advice your grandmother would, only we keep our teeth in.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
Derek is with us in Tampa, Florida.
Hi, Derek. How are you?
I'm doing well. Thank you so much.
Good. How can I help?
Yes. I am educated by choice or by trade, and I was thinking about starting a tutoring business.
So I started doing some research, looking around, and started working with a friend of mine.
By chance, a unique opportunity came up, and he asked for me to take over his franchise that he has at this moment.
And then through continuing talks, he now asked to open up a new franchise in a different location.
So I'm trying to find out which would be the best opportunity for me to make a transition,
either into my own tutoring company at a small scale, part-time or full-time,
take over an existing franchise, or start a new franchise with a friend and a partnership.
Okay.
Well, the last one would be off the table for me,
because I've been in partnerships and I don't want to be in any more.
We always say the only ship that won't sail is a partnership.
There's all kinds of problems and all kinds of issues you're going to run into,
things you're going to have there.
So I'm going to avoid that one pretty quick.
And so then it comes down to do you start and run your own tutoring business
or do you take over a franchise are the two other options, correct?
Yes.
Okay.
And so what does it cost to take over the franchise?
The franchise itself has a franchise fee,
but it's already an established business.
So therefore, I have to go through some training,
and then after we go through some training,
we can kind of work out the numbers when it comes down to
he'll still be an investor within the business,
but I'll be taking over 51% of the franchise itself.
Okay.
So you're still in a partnership?
In a sense, still in a partnership.
Not in a sense.
You are.
You have two partners.
Just one of you owns 51.
The other one owns 49.
Yeah.
That's still a partnership.
Yeah.
I'm going to avoid that.
I'm not against franchises.
I'm against overpaying for them, and sometimes that happens.
And I'm against going into debt for them, and sometimes that happens.
You started all of this just because you were trying to earn some extra income.
Yes.
And let's not pull the thread on that sweater, okay?
Too hard.
I think it's pretty simple. Let's have you
go earn some extra income, and if you can,
as you can scale that up over the years,
you'll learn some things, or if you want to
get a franchise,
if you're interested in this particular system of
learning that this franchise is offering,
and methodology
for gathering customers and those kinds of
things, then that's all fine.
I don't have any issue with that.
But I'm going to avoid the 51-49 or the other partnership and the other deal, either one.
I just don't – I've not had a good experience with that.
And I'll tell you, coaching small businesses with Entrez Leadership,
we find almost no small business people
that a partnership survives 10 years.
Almost none of them.
A situation like yours, the chance of it making it 10 years, it's 99%.
I mean, that's just anecdotal.
I haven't done detailed research.
But we've worked with thousands and thousands of small businesses,
and two of the biggest, you know, one of the biggest strain points that we run into is these people come into Entrez Leadership.
And they're like, I got a partner that's, you know, he's doing this or that or she's doing this or that.
It gets you into all kinds of problems.
And now the exception is medical and lawyer.
Okay.
It's not unusual for law firms to be set up as a partnership or medical practices to be set
up as a partnership and a lot of those do survive even dental practices but that's that's a that's
a unique space number one but number two the method that they use for running the partnership
is not the same as we're talking about here and And the methodology that's used in a law firm to be a partner is a different thing.
And so it doesn't run into the same strain points and so forth typically that the others do.
So I just avoid them.
I just not I'm not found them to be the best way for you to.
You know, to grow a small business and it to be your dream rather than your nightmare.
Ruth's with us in Boston.
Hi, Ruth.
How are you?
Okay, I guess.
Okay.
What's up?
I'm trying to get out of my in-laws' house.
We just moved here in February, and it's really hard to save and get out of here.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
I just, I don't know what to do. Right now I'm working a job that's $12 an hour,
and my husband's making $75,000 a year,
and it's still, like, really bad.
And we've tried everything.
We've tried forbearance.
I had over 22 credit cards and um my mother-in-law
is charging us seven hundred dollars in rent which is more than we can even afford so and
so basically you have a hundred thousand000 household income. Yes. And you can't figure out how to move out.
Only because every month, like, those basically,
how do I explain it?
Like, say, for instance, if we're making $35 a month.
Yeah, so how much debt do you have that's draining all this cash?
So it's basically credit card debt.
How much credit card debt do you have?
I want to say, like, $15,000 and we have
student loans. How much are your student loans? Right now we have $11,000 left to pay off and
the other loan is I want to say $5,000 left to pay off. So $16,000 in student loans, $15,000 in credit cards, and how much on your cars?
My husband has a lease for $471, and the insurance is $171.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
What's the other car?
There's no other car.
There's so many bills that we pay.
And you guys are 34?
No, I'm 25.
My husband's 28.
Oh, you've gone all the way into 34-year-old stupid.
Okay.
Yeah, I know.
So we're also paying the utilities and electricity here.
And it's really hard to get an apartment in Massachusetts
because the rent starts at $1,200 for a studio.
And I have a kid, so it's really stuck in that.
I tried to see if I could sell anything.
I tried to sell clothes, nothing.
So what does your husband do for a living?
He's a bus driver.
He's a what?
A bus driver.
A bus driver.
Okay.
Yes. Inside the city of boston yes okay all right and um so how far out of boston do you have to go before the rent starts dropping
um we've tried 10 miles from right now we live incy. We've parked 10 miles from Quincy, and it's still about the same.
It's $1,200 for a one-bedroom.
Yeah.
So what about 20 miles, 30 miles, 40 miles?
I haven't searched 20 miles.
I'm sorry?
I haven't searched 20 miles.
I didn't think so.
Okay.
All right.
Well, here's the situation.
Number one, the car is absolute insanity.
It needs to be sold.
You're probably going to have to borrow a little money to sell it and get rid of it.
But a $471 car payment when you're living with your mother-in-law, that's in the land of stupid.
That doesn't work.
The second thing is you've got no bargain with your mother-in-law here.
$750 plus utilities and all these other things you're paying, it's not a deal.
It's not a deal.
You're completely out of control.
You do not have any kind of a written budget, and you and your husband are not working together on your money.
Did I miss anything?
I also forgot to mention we have a private loan that's also $11,000 a year.
Well, here's what I would do.
I would sell the car.
I'd put the student loans on hardship deferral.
If you have to stop paying the credit cards for the law, stop paying them for a month or two.
It's going to damage your credit, but so what?
Move 20, 30 miles out, get you a rental,
get your husband a beater to drive back and forth to work.
You can get a $12 job somewhere out there that's closer to home,
and let's get you on a budget and get this thing turned around,
where you're writing everything down every month.
But you're not a victim.
You're not a victim here.
You're not stuck.
Every bit of this can be fixed with the income you have.
Are high health care costs getting you down?
Are you confused trying to navigate your options?
Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs?
Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM,
helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ
to share their major health care costs.
Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau accredited organization,
CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills.
It's not insurance.
It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other.
It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years.
And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more,
visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud
sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 13, 20,
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Casey Kasem says, Success doesn't happen in a vacuum.
You're only as good as the people you work with and the people you work for.
Chad is with us in Atlanta, Georgia.
Hey, Chad, how are you?
Good, Dave, how are you? Good, Dave.
How are you?
Better than I deserve.
What's up?
Great to hear.
Hey, I recently purchased a home, actually closing pretty soon here.
And, well, I've got a car loan and I've got a student loan.
And I've got about $6,000 sitting uninvested in a Roth IRA in my account right now. And I got about six
months in emergency fund on the savings accounts in case something happens. My question is, I got
three years left in the car loan and approximately six to seven years in the student loan. Car loans
at 1.9 percent, student loans, it varies because they're broken up about 5.5%. Do I take that $6,000 that's not invested in the Roth and put it into one of those loans
and take some of that emergency fund money?
I mean, I have a little more than six months and put it into one of those loans,
or do I just let them sit there and send me an account?
So what's the balance on the car?
The balance on the car is about 17 000 what about the student loan
student loans about 19 000 and that's your only debt other than your home
only debt other than home i mean i have credit cards but i pay them off every month that's just
groceries gas okay and what's your household income? It's about $56,000.
Okay.
All right.
Good deal.
All right.
Well, what we have found is this.
Over all the years and all the millions and millions of people we've coached with money,
the best way to become wealthy is not have payments.
Because payments steal your ability to invest and to be generous.
And investing and generosity are the biggest causes of wealth.
It's a pretty simple equation, right?
Yep.
So, in other words, no car payment and no student loan payment
is going to help you be a stronger investor.
And so what we've done is we have learned also that personal finance is about 80% behavior.
It's only about 20% of head knowledge.
So the problem is not so much knowing what to do.
It's the doing it part.
It's kind of like losing weight.
We all know what to do, but I like cookies, right?
So that's what we're facing here.
Now, having said all of that, what we laid out is a thing that we call the baby steps, which is the approach to knocking off the debt so that we can make sure we have an emergency fund so that we can build wealth using investments.
And if you try to do it backwards, it doesn't work.
You can't build investments while you have debt, not least effectively.
And then an emergency fund comes up and cashes out your investments.
So you have this Roth that you've just stuck money under the heading of a Roth,
but it's sitting in just like a money market account or something?
Yeah, it's sitting in a money market account.
And I have about $10,000 in the stock market, and I have about $10,000 in my 401K as well.
Okay, the stock market, what do you mean?
I've gotten investments that were given to me from grandparents throughout the years.
Okay, all right. Now, the Roth IRA is not invested. What is it in?
It's in a money market, so it's just sitting in the account.
And you just moved that in there recently? No, I started contributing to it
and a friend of mine told me about your show and told me how stupid it was to put money into that
when I should have been putting it into the student loan payment. So I stopped putting it
in there and started putting that extra money into the student loan payments. Gotcha. How much
money is in the Roth? Just about $6,000.
Okay, so you've got about one year done.
Ten and six, and then you've got six in the emergency fund right now.
Okay.
About six months, more than $6,000, yeah.
I don't tell people to cash out retirement accounts in a typical scenario unless it's to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure.
There's no tax implications of taking this money out of this Roth
because it's not done any growth,
and you really have just kind of gotten started with it.
So I'm going to go ahead and take that out.
I'm going to pretend like that's an investment.
I'm going to take the stock market investment out as well,
and I'm going to take your emergency fund down to baby step one,
which is $1,000.
Okay.
And that gives me somewhere around $21,000 in my hand,
and I've got $38,000 in debt, so we pay off the car today,
and then that throws another $4,000 or so at the student loan,
and then you get on your EveryDollar budget plan.
Go to EveryDollar.com, download the app.
It's free for your iPhone or Android or desktop to do your budget
and then get on a really tight budget.
I take it the way you're talking, you're single.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
So you don't have to talk anybody into this,
but you also don't have anybody beating you over the head to make sure you do it.
So, you know, you need to get that friend of yours that's been bugging you
to be your accountability partner, okay?
All right.
And work that budget really, really tight.
I think you're debt-free by Christmas if you do all of that,
and you stop investing
and you just tear into the debt, what's left of that student loan,
we're just going to live to kill the student loan.
That's all we're doing, trying to kill that student loan
and give Sally May her eviction papers, put the old woman in the street, right?
That would be great.
I would like to do that.
So you roll into Christmas, you've got no debt.
Now we build your emergency fund.
That's baby step three, back up to three to six months of expenses.
Then you start your Roth IRA up into good mutual funds again,
and you'll have your investments back in no time because you don't have a car payment,
you don't have a student loan payment anymore.
And during that time, you will have learned to live on that written budget where you're in control because you make good money you ought to be able
to get some traction how old are you uh 25 very cool good good yeah man you you are in a really
good place if you make some good solid decisions but that's how you would implement the stuff that
we teach and we've seen so many people have so much success with.
And so, you know, hang on.
I'll send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover,
which has got all the baby steps laid out in detail in it.
So it's a process book.
It shows you exactly what to do first and second and third and then why.
And six million people bought this book.
So The Total Money Makeover.
Hold on.
I'll have Kelly give you a copy of that.
Denny is with us in Dayton, Ohio.
Hi, Denny.
How are you?
Hey, thank you for taking my phone call.
I'm doing very good, but I do appreciate you taking my phone call.
Sure.
What's up?
I will be 65 in about four months.
I was a pastor for 50 years.
Never really made a lot of money as a pastor.
Lived in, you know, Parsonage, et cetera.
My wife worked full-time.
She passed away two years with brain cancer.
Back, and we were together 42 1⁄2 years.
Wow.
Okay.
But we never really made more than $50,000, $55,000 a year, you know, at the most.
And that's pre-tax or, you know, what you would get on your 1090 forms.
I started drawing her Social Security.
You know, I could draw her Social Security, leave mine in, continuing to set.
I've never really been able to save, and that's the truth.
I've never been able to, you know, we've always lived, and I'll just say hand in hand.
Before I run out of time, what's your question?
Okay, my question is, I'm about $8,000 in debt plus my car, which is about $15,000.
I make about $32,000 in debt plus my car, which is about $15,000.
I make about $32,000 a year.
You know, I'm able to pay all my bills on time.
I have been doing that.
But it's still a week-to-week thing.
Right.
Do you have any way to earn any extra income to get that car knocked out?
I'm working full-time, really. You know, I can probably get, you know, if I wanted to, I work 830 to 530 pretty much Monday through Friday,
other than taking an afternoon and evening job.
Right.
Okay.
Because the car as a $15,000 car as a percentage of 32 is killing me.
That's a very heavy weight on you right there, Pastor.
And if you could get that out of your life, it gives you a lot more wiggle room in the day-to-day.
And that's the first thing I see
that you need to work on, is to clear
that. And I think you can make it once
you do that. So we either need to do something
to get that paid off or
get it sold, one of the two. That's what I see
initially. Hey, thanks for the call.
I'm sorry we didn't have more time. That puts
us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back
with you before you know it.
In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,
and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.
Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener.
We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year.
Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word.
Folks, the real estate market is on fire all over the country.
If you're looking to buy a home and you need a mortgage,
don't sell yourself short by going and getting a typical pre-approval.
That's a false sense of security, and it's just not good enough in today's fast-moving market.
Instead, call Churchill Mortgage and get their certified homebuyer program.
I'm telling you, it's a game-changer.
Churchill helps my listeners become fully approved before they go house shopping.
In other words, Churchill does up front what most lenders wait to do at the last minute.
This gives you an advantage over other buyers and helps you close really fast.
Plus, Churchill won't let you get into more house than you can afford.
So become a certified homebuyer and get ahead of the game.
I trust Churchill Mortgage.
Call 888-LOAN-200 or visit churchillmortgage.com.
This is a paid advertisement.
NMLS ID 1591. Equal Housing Lender 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027.