The Ramsey Show - App - How to Stay Motivated (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 20, 2019

Chris Hogan, Home Buying, Budgeting   Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE   Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR  

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the pain of home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Joining me at the bottom of the hour, America's Trusted Voice on millionaires and on retirement

planning, Ramsey personality Chris Hogan, number one bestselling author. He'll be with me at the bottom of the hour. on millionaires and on retirement planning. Ramsey personality, Chris Hogan, number one bestselling author. He'll be with me at the bottom of the hour. You want to talk to the voice, you can jump in now. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's my best Chris Hogan impression. It doesn't get any, I can't even get close. It's just, it's ridiculous, but oh well.

You guys that listen to the podcast in 1.5 that's even funnier you know people listen to the podcast and like speed it up so they're like listening dave mickey mouse style so they can get through some faster that's just weird it is fat it is it is higher it changes the octave it's just oh i can't do it you do it do you do it james yeah i listen to podcasts at one and a half speed you listen to podcasts you're one of those people sometimes faster than that oh even faster than that it doesn't usually make it higher but it definitely gives it a weird weird quality the caffeine intake has an impact on how fast you're drinking. James is with us in Kentucky. Hi, James. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Uncle Dave. I actually thought you were just talking to me a second ago. What's up? Oh, yeah. James, my producer. Okay. Sorry about that. What's up, man?

Not a whole lot. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? Well, good. This is exciting because I'm actually leading my first FPU class tonight. Wow, thank you. How cool.

And I'm on the air today, so that's awesome. That's neat. How can I help? All right. Well, probably almost a year ago now, I filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy about six months before really getting into your teachings, we had quite a bit of financial troubles and self-employed income kind of went down quite a bit. But the problem with it was we still actually had $50,000 in student loans after we did that because I didn't even think about that, and apparently that wasn't the best situation for us. But,

um, as of the first of this month, though, uh, this next month, about 10 days, we will actually be a hundred percent debt free. Wow.

So we've paid off that 50,000, uh, since January 1st. I don't know, man. 10, 10 days from now. So,

um, well, thank you. Well, before, before all that happened, we actually sold our house and moved in with our in-laws before bankruptcy, trying to avoid it. We made a little bit on there, but it just wound up not helping enough.

But now that we're debt-free, we definitely want to move out on our own again. And after living with the in-laws for almost two years now, my question really is now, now that we're debt-free and we'll have our emergency fund done by January, should we wait three years until we qualify for a conventional mortgage, or should we go by sooner? Yeah, I would rent until you can, because you're going to get, if you're not three, really probably four years from your date of discharge, you're going to get hammered. Yeah, you're going to get hammered on your interest rate, and it's a subprime mortgage is what it amounts to. And so, you know, you'll be 100% debt-free, you'll have your emergency fund, and you've got three years of renting conservatively to build up a huge freaking down payment.

Yeah, it'll definitely be a very large down payment. Might even pay cash. If we wait that long. So that was actually another question. If that was the answer, should we go ahead and start four? Should we go ahead and start baby step four and put money into our 401k? Well, if you can, I mean, you can if you want, or, you know, can you save enough to pay cash in three years? I guess it depends on the type of house we get. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So, I mean, I would have that talk. If it's going to be just a down payment, then I'd save a big down payment, and I'd start my baby step four, okay? 3B and four is what that's called. But if by not doing four for three years years you could pay cash for a house that you and the bride are willing to live in, then I'm into that. Now, I don't want to go 4 years or 5 years not doing baby step 4. I want you to start building some wealth in addition to debt free. That's kind of what I was thinking, too, because it's a long time to just not. I'm 31.

I'm not super old or anything. Three years is pretty much my normal max on that, to do zero baby step four while we work on our house. Okay. But if you can pull it. Three years from October, I'll be ready to do it. Yeah, if you can pull it off in three years, I'm saying no baby step four. You're not going to be on baby step three B until January. Right.

Okay. So that's when we start. Three years from then, I don't want you to go. I don't want to go three years from that point and not invest anything more than three years and not invest anything. If you're going to go four years, I wouldn't do that down payment plan or I wouldn't do that plan. But you can certainly do whatever you want to do, but that's the

guideline that I generally use, is stay out of your retirement for a little while, but I wouldn't more than three years. Three years is fine. I mean, you'd be 34 years old, 35 years old, you have paid for a house, that'd be worth doing. But again, it's got to be a home you guys are willing to live in. Of course, when you have no house payment, now you're in baby step seven, really, and you can build wealth and save up and pay cash to move up in house over five years later after that, you know. So it's not as if that's a house you have to live in for more than four or five years. So if you could get into a property that's reasonable for your family's needs as a part of a 10-year plan and then notch up again by being debt-free house and everything,

that'd be a real cool place to be after having been through a Chapter 7. Chapter 7 is no fun. No fun on the marriage and no fun on anything else. We've been through it. And it was 30 years ago for us, but Sharon still requires that we have an emergency fund to protect the emergency fund after that. She's, you get near that emergency fund, she becomes a wounded animal.

It's not a good idea. So that's the thing. You know, once you've been through that stuff, you never go back. And so I'm sorry you went through it, but it's a pain as a thorough freaking teacher without a doubt. So thank you for leading the class tonight too that'll help you guys on your journey because there's no way you cannot do something when you're leading it most people just have too much honor to be that hypocritical to be walking around with a credit

card and a car payment and going into debt further while they're leading other people out of debt doesn't make sense so you're gonna you're gonna do great as a leader you got a real compelling story and uh you'll do great thank you for doing that open phones at 888-825-5225 nick is on instagram my wife is now a stay-at-home mom but still has a 401k left in her previous employer what should we do with that anytime you leave a job we tell you to take your 401k with you. The way to do that properly is get in touch with your SmartVestor Pro. Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com and do a direct transfer rollover into an IRA. The money moves directly from the 401k into your new IRA.

Do not take the money home. Direct transfer. There's no taxes on that. You've got more control over it and more options to pick from for mutual funds than you have with your old 401k, with your old place you used to work and really don't have any contact with anymore. Much better to roll it with you. It's portable. Take it with you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives.

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That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. coming up at the bottom of the hour chris hogan's going to join us if you want to talk to him the phone number is 888-825-5225. Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Everyday Millionaires. Up next is Gwen in Idaho. Hi, Gwen. How are you? I am doing well, thank you. Good.

How can I help? So my husband and I have a 2004 van. Anyways, it's not the acceleration is bad, and he's kind of a handy mechanic, and he can't find the problem, and he doesn't want to take it to somebody else. He'd rather invest the money into a newer van, but it would require taking money out of our emergency fund, which makes me really uncomfortable. So we thought we'd get your advice.

Well, I'll tell you what I use my emergency fund for. Emergencies. I use my emergency fund only for emergencies. Are you there? Yes. Yep. I'm listening. Sorry.

So is this an emergency? Well. No, it's not. Yep. I'm listening. Sorry. So is this an emergency? Well. No, it's not. Okay. Yeah. Well. That's fair enough. It's not an emergency.

Your car is running. You have a way to get to work. You don't like how it accelerates and he can't figure it out. Yeah. If you want to sell the, what's the van worth? Maybe $1,000. What's your household income? $65,000 for the year. And how much do you have in savings for your emergency fund? $14,000. Okay. And so do you have any other debt

other than your home? No, we rent and we don't have any other debt period. Okay. So I would get on a very tight written budget, and I would save $1,000 a month for five months, and I would buy a $6,000 car by selling the $1,000 van and not touch the emergency fund, and I would do that by Christmas. Okay, great. No, don't. You win the argument, in other words. Okay, great. No, don't. You win the argument, in other words. Okay.

It's not an emergency fund. If it's not an emergency, we don't use the emergency fund. Now, the exception would be if you had mischaracterized an emergency fund, meaning you had $100,000 in your emergency fund. Well, that's not, the emergency fund is supposed to be three to six months of expenses. That would be ridiculous, especially in your scenario. So, you would have too much in your emergency fund is supposed to be three to six months of expenses. That would be ridiculous, especially in your scenario. So you would have too much in your emergency fund. We would recategorize part of that and buy a car with it.

But you don't have any excess money. $14,000 is an adequate emergency fund, three to six months of expenses when you make $65,000 a year. That's a pretty good number. By the way, you've done a good job with that. But save up and buy your car. Save up and buy your car. Save up and buy your car. That's what, if you want to be wealthy, this is the path. All right, Lee is with us in Washington. Hi, Lee, how are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for kicking my call. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for kicking my call. How are you doing? Better than I deserve.

What's up? I just had a quick question about this is my first time renting out my house in Washington. I'm moving out of state, and I was hoping to have a pet-free tenant, and the property manager said there's no way to prevent service animals or a down payment for a service animal. Do you know if there's a way to have a tenant without a service animal or an animal in the lease or it depends on the laws in your area in the state of washington i would not be surprised that animals have more rights than humans but i don't know it's possible i don't know i don't know it's um and i get the need for a service animal i also get then we all get that they're um a little bit uh overdone sometimes

like people have service animals for almost anything now um and it's it's gotten a little bit ridiculous it's like an excuse to have an animal okay uh which is fine if you really need a service animal i get it i mean but i'm old school i mean i mean when i was a kid the only service animal there was such a thing as was called a seeing-eye dog. I don't even know if you're allowed to say that anymore. I may go to jail now. But I probably just broke some law when I said that. But that's what it was called when I was a little kid.

But I'm in Tennessee, and we don't have that law. And so I can just say no animals. And it's not because I'm heartless and I hate animals or I hate people with disabilities who have service animals. It is none of those things. None of those things at all. It's very simple. Animals in a rental property tear up crap and they stink. It's that simple.

Right. And I'm a landlord. I don't allow them in my property. I've got animals. I've got a Shih Tzu that rules the roost. He runs everything in our house. And just like every other animal, he pees on the floor sometimes. But it's my dog and my floor, and that's different, right?

Yeah. Yeah, that's what we were hoping to avoid that, but maybe there's just no way. I don't know. I don't know the laws. I don't know the laws. The other thing you can do is if you've just decided this, and the law says you have to have service animals if someone presents that, you know, you may look at the tenant and there may be another reason that you don't want them. Okay.

It has nothing to do with that. They may not qualify on credit or that you don't like their job stability or you don't like whatever. It has nothing to do with the service animal, but you've got two tenants there and one of them is more desirable than the other one in terms of their financial standings and you are allowed to discriminate on that in any state and i certainly would i do i'm going to pick the best possible tenant we had two property management look at it one of them said that she could she'll work around it she'll make sure we don't get one but she charges more per month for maintenance. And so we didn't know. And the other one was like, no, I can't prevent that. Well, let me help you with that.

One of them didn't want to. The one that's cheaper didn't want to. It's a politically correct stand of hers. Right, right. Don't hire her. Okay, yeah. She's more concerned with all this other stuff than you yeah she does charge less though i don't care percentage okay it's gonna call it's gonna cost you more if a cat

tears up the property right you're trying to get cat pee out of something you can't get the smell out of there if you burn the house down so i mean you just you know it's just silly so i'm sorry y'all but i mean you always every time this comes up on the show, I get hate mail for weeks about how I hate animals. And it's just not true. I wrote a big blog about when my dog died, about how I cried and how horrible it was and how it broke my heart. And 8 million people read the blog and cried with me about the dog dying. I love animals. I do.

As a landlord, I'm just not gonna do it i've been in the business too long i'm too old and i'm too ornery and i've just seen too much and the answer is just no so you know if you've got a if there's a legal way without being i don't break the law to without being you know then the lady the other one's willing to work around it, but that's who I would use. I'd pay a little more or get a different property manager or just manage the property yourself. That's always a possibility too. If you're moving out of state, you might want to just sell the property.

I don't really like long-distance landlording either, by the way. Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Kate is with us in Idaho. Hi, Kate. How are you? I'm great. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yeah, so I have a little bit of a unique situation. My husband and I are on baby step two, but he is a wild and firefighter. So he makes all of his income in about six months of the year, and then we have to budget that for the remaining six months. The remaining six months he doesn't work at all? No.

He has a side hustle, but the majority of his money, like he has a side hustle. So his side hustle sucks? Yeah, but he makes, like together we have a $95,000 income. What's he make in a year? $52,000. Okay. And so he has, but he has six months off. Yeah.

And so he needs a better side hustle. Correct. Yeah, that's the first thing. Anyway, how can I help? But my question is, so he does have a side hustle that pays for our month to month expenses. But this being our first year married, I actually am seeing our savings account and our emergency fund is right now three to six months of expenses. But so I'm wanting to throw all of that money minus a thousand towards our student loans. And he doesn't want to do that because his job stability like he

something horrible could happen and he could be fired that can happen to anybody yeah no i mean you got to decide if your job is so unstable that you can't depend on it to eat then you need a different job if you haven't got a good side hustle that's part of the problem here but no this is this is how this works. It's a temporary thing. Now, if you have a deficit on your income where you're having to subsidize out of savings, that's a different account than an emergency fund. But I think you're able to make it without having to have that account.

And you're just going to have to decide whether you're going to work our program or not. This is big news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates rise again. Here's the deal. Most people are paying too much interest on their largest expense, their home. So you're freaking crazy if you don't take 10 minutes to call Churchill Mortgage right now and see if they can save you money before rates rise again. A mortgage through Churchill could save you thousands, or better yet, reduce the time until you're debt-free. Can you imagine how it would feel to no longer have that payment looming over your head every month? Just go to ChurchillMortgage.com or call 888-LOAN-200.

Their team of experts will give you more clarity about your options and more peace knowing you're saving significant money in the long run. Call 888-LOAN-200. That's 888-562-6200 or churchillmortgage.com. Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author. Latest number one book is Everyday Millionaires. Chris Hogan joins me to answer your questions this half hour. The voice of millionaires in America.

I'm going to have to come up with something with the voice thing. I mean, we have to somehow get advantage out of this. That makes me nervous, Dave. Because you're grinning at me in a certain way you should be nervous it's one of those scary yeah it is nervous it is just don't have me sing no we're not i've heard that i'm not going there again that's uh there's a reason you and i are in talk that's exactly right oh man so uh you're getting ready to hit the road, dude. You and Anthony doing Financial Peace Lives. And then you and I are going to be doing one in Charleston in November.

And that one's almost sold out already with our friends there at Seacoast Church is where we'll be. I'm looking forward to going back to Charleston. It's a wonderful town. But you and Anthony got three before that. Yep. And I'm excited about it, Dave. We're going to be in Austin, Texas on September the 12th. That's going to be the first one that's coming up.

And then after that, we're going to go to Tacoma, Washington on October 2nd. And then I'm going to end up in the desert, Phoenix, Arizona on October 10th. And I just want to encourage everyone out there. If you have not come to one of our live events, you're missing out. This is not a boring financial conference. We are not dry we tell stories uh we have fun we tell on ourselves about the mistakes that we've made but more importantly how to help you grow forward so if you haven't come out and see us if you have come on back out

uh this is uh we add and tweak things to this event each and every year yeah financial peace live basically we are going through the baby steps. But it becomes a pep rally for those of you that have been doing this a while or you're trying to convert someone, you're trying to get your reluctant spouse or your crazy brother or your crazy parents or whoever it is, you're trying to get them on board and you get them out to this event. It doesn't cost much at all. It's typically like a Thursday night or a Tuesday night, something like that. So it's a weeknight.

It doesn't mess up your weekend, that kind of a thing. And it's a packed, full night. You're going to laugh. You're going to cry. But Anthony and Chris will do those first three. Chris and I will do the last one there in Charleston, South Carolina, November the 20th. Tickets are on sale at DaveRamsey.com. But, I mean, you're going to hear some jokes you've heard before.

You're going to hear some of that stuff if you've been following us a long time. But it's, you know, if you go to a – I went to the Eagles concert. I already know all the words. I didn're going to hear some of that stuff if you've been following us a long time but it's it's you know if you go to a i went to eagles concert i already know all the words i didn't go to hear new words i went to hear the eagles sing right you know and so uh you know it's the same thing in that sense it's a pep rally a gathering of the tribe and a rah rah you'll come out there pumped up and ready to go again even if you already knew the answers to fill in the blanks before you got there that's exactly right and. And people will ask me, Dave, okay, what is the age for this event? I'm here to tell you, it doesn't matter. You can be 18 to 80.

Come out. It's for people that are wanting to do better and go faster with their money. And Dave, the last one that you and I did, there were three generations there. There was the grandparents, the daughter, and they brought their 17-year-old son. And it was fantastic to see the three of them. They were at the backstage experience, the opportunity where you can come and ask us questions and do things. But it's just, it gets me excited to hit the road. Fun stuff.

Here we go. Game on again. We've had the summer off, and we're about to kick into gear. Labor Day hits, and it's fall season's here for us. So, good stuff. All right, let's hit the phones. Brad is with us in New York. Brad, your question for Chris and me.

Hi, how you guys doing? Good. How can we help? How do you stay motivated? I work two jobs. I got a full-time job working for a utility company, and I have a side business I do, heating and air conditioning, and I'm never home.

In three and a half years, we've paid off $260,000 or probably more than that. That's awesome. I've got two things, two vehicles left, and on Monday, I'm sending the bank their last payment of five grand for a personal loan. Love it. Do you not feel awesome like you're getting traction i i do but i'm just i'm tired you've been working your can off buddy yeah it's it's just i'm i'm non-stop how do you i just want some time where i can take my family and do something with them i i mean i, it's like I'm missing my kids growing up. You're not.

Cause you can see the light in the tunnel. You're almost done. Yeah. Brad, what all have you paid off? My friend, you paid off $260,000. What have you,

what have you deleted out of your life? Um, two credit cards, uh, actually probably three, um, uh, uh,

the house I got stuck with that wouldn't sell, and I finally just sold it, two vehicles that I bought trying to, like $10,000 trucks to run my business with that after a year they completely burnt right up, house remodel. How much do you have left? How much much do you have left? How much debt do you have left? $72,000 will be after Monday. When will you be done?

I'm not sure. Well, run the numbers, man. Run the numbers out. Figure out when you're going to be done. How much are you paying off a month average? Average, we're paying probably did you do roughly two well the one payments 990 and the other vehicle payments no i mean you're paying extra on debt how much extra on debt are you paying a month normal month

uh about an extra right now uh this month we're going to pay an extra 5 000 okay well so 72 000 divided by 5 000 is what 12 months 14 months okay so you need to do that and you need to mark it out and put it on your refrigerator door or put it next to the coffee, because you're drinking a lot of coffee these days. You're working hard. That's the one thing I'm trying to cut back on. Whatever. I mean, I don't care.

But the point being, you've got a chart, and you can see there's a light at the end of the tunnel. An interesting thing happens. I've run several half marathons, and an interesting thing happens. After running for two and a half hours or so for me, you see the finish line it's weird you can sprint because you can see the end of it and when you can't see the end of it if i just thought i had to run for two more days well i just quit because i don't like it that much you know right but you gotta see you gotta see the light you gotta see the end of the tunnel what do you think yeah brad you really do listen you're so close to this right now that you're seeing exactly all the battle that you've done uh over the last multiple months and what i think you

need to do is get some perspective which means you need to glance back and look at where you were so you can see how far you've come uh you you have done this my friend and i want you to amazing yeah and stop measuring the the time with your family in quantity and let's have quality time you've got 12 more months of this and you're completely debt free so i want you to call us back and give a scream my friend your debt-free scream because you can do this keep looking at those little kids that you have in your home and stay motivated you know the other thing you might do if you want to, I don't care, just pick two days and take it off and just sit for two days and then get with the plan that you're going to get back after it. You're kind of taking a breath because you're out of breath

and then get back after it. But the big thing is you're not noted. Chris is right. You haven't looked back and you haven't looked forward. If you don't see where you are in the line of progress, you don't keep running. That's human nature, and we are all that way. So it's very, very important. It really is.

Chris, the interesting thing is, and Brad, you're exemplifying this. One of the things you found when we did the Everyday Millionaires study, one of the statistics we put in the Everyday Millionaires book is their belief that they can do it. Yes. Yeah. We found, Dave, in doing this study, 97% of these millionaires believe they control their own destiny. And that's a powerful statement. As opposed to when we studied the public.

Oh, yeah. I mean. 62%. Very small. And so what it shows is the mindset. It's the mindset of people that are focused and they refuse to be denied. They're going to work hard. They're going to stay focused like Brad has. And so I want more people, Dave, believing they can do this. And that that was a shocking stat to me. But it wasn't that surprising. Focus. People make things happen. 97%. That's big. That's like all of them. Yes. Believe they control their own destiny. And so, Brad, that's where you are.

You're winning. You can tell you're winning. The other thing is you just literally are tired. You just are fatigued. And the old saying is fatigue makes cowards of us all. And so take a break. Take two days off. Make you some charts for the refrigerator beside the coffee pot.

And then get back after it and knock that last 14 months out. You got this, dude. We're cheering for you. We know you're a hero. You're changing your whole life. You're changing your whole family. You have stretched to the point you will never be able to return to the same shape. It's impossible for you.

That's what happens with heroes. Proud of you, man. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. joining me this half hour chris hogan number one best-selling author the latest number one is everyday millionaires how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can too continues to sell like crazy so speaking of selling like crazy back in march we announced the first ever ramsey cruise and it sold out what you had to do to register was put down a deposit on the website and so forth and um then you had until whatever i don don't know, September, October or whatever, to pay the rest of the money and that kind of thing.

And it sold out in 27 days. Did it really? Yeah, it was gone. The cruise line and the people that are doing the promotions and stuff said it was the fastest they'd ever seen. It's pretty incredible. So it's the live like no one else cruise. It's for those of you that are on Baby Step 4 and beyond.

We don't want you coming and spending your emergency fund on a cruise and so forth. But it's quite a lineup. I mean, Jeff Foxworthy, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Chris Hogan, Rachel Cruz, Christy Wright, Anthony O'Neill, Manette Chauhan, one of the top chefs in America today, and, of course, Ken Coleman as well. And so not only did sell out we had a waiting list and uh what's happened is they've worked their way through the waiting list and so they sent me an email this morning and said there's 30 cabins available right now and then we'll go back on waiting list oh wait a minute no they sent me it's 20 cabins now

so much for the 30 they went fast okay so uh but if you are baby step four and you were wishing oh i wish i'd gotten in on that cruise and i wish you know you just jump on ramsey cruise like right this second ramseycruise.com because you probably got about 10 seconds to do this ramseycruise.com and again less than 20 cab cabins now remain they'll be gone in a flash we'll be back in the waiting list mode but if if the pattern holds your waiting list probably gives you a pretty good shot. Well, David, I think you left out you and Sharon are going to be on this cruise. Oh, yeah, that's a detail. It's Ramsey Cruise.

Well, yeah, but people need to know that you're going to be there. I should have just sent y'all. But I guess I better go. Yeah, that delegation skill of yours. It's a skill. Tammy is in Washington. If I hit the right button, she is. Tammy's in Washington.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Tammy. Your question for Chris and me. Thanks, Dave. So I am 57. I got divorced three years ago after 32 years of marriage, and I'm in baby step number two. So my question is, once I get through that, I don't own a home. I rent an apartment.

It kind of wiped me out financially, the divorce debt. No retirement plans. So I have $100,000 in my retirement, which is not enough at 57. Right. And so moving forward, would you advise me to put more in my retirement or purchase a home? What are you making? Well, I do have some alimony, so it's about $70,000. Okay, good.

Good, and you're just finishing baby step three, right? Baby step two. Two. So I've got about nine months. I'm also going to get a part-time job, so I really want to get that paid off. Good. Good. Okay.

All right, Chris. As you look at this, what kind of debts do you have left, Tammy? It's credit card. It was buying to feel better after my divorce, basically. It was dumb. Yeah. No. And you know what?

The fact that you can pinpoint that and you see that, that allows you to break that cycle. It does. It does. And so tell me about the job that you're working. Do you enjoy what you do? I do. Okay. I do.

But the thing is, is where I live, it's very expensive to buy. It's very expensive to buy. Right. What right what i would do tammy is just work continue the baby steps it is the shortest path and um part of what you're you're dealing with that makes you want to short circuit things and it'll make you do something dumb if you're not careful is just the recovering from the grief of this as you said like you did with the credit cards same thing you were doing that to feel better and now after you've kind of gotten feel better the next thing that comes up is just some fear you just get scared you're like oh god retirement's right

here my doorstep i'm 57 okay but you got 10 years easy maybe 15 that you can make a great living and you will be able to continue to put money into your retirement. I'd put 15% in and then I'd start saving up for a down payment on a home. I would buy a modest condo or home that you can get paid off during that 10 or 15 years because when you quit working, I want you to have some money in your nest egg and a paid for property. And so just kind of lay that goal out there and then back out what that means money-wise. Okay. Just simple long division, in other words, okay?

In other words, if I want to pay off a $150,000 condo in 15 years, that's $10,000 a year, right? Correct. Or if I want to do it in 10 years, it's $15,000 a year, okay? And if I want X number of dollars in my retirement, I can talk to one of the SmartVestor pros, and I can get that started. And, you know, jump on ChrisHogan360.com, use some of the calculators there, and it'll help you get dialed in. But just work those baby steps straight up, 15% going into retirement, then save like crazy for a down payment, put that on a 15 year fixed and then pay it off in 10 yeah and dave as you've told people you want to make a home purchase that is a good business decision not emotional and so looking at this and really taking your time the baby steps work you know we've helped over five million people walk through that process

tammy so you stay focused and stay in control and i hope you're plugged into a church you've got some people around you that support you to encourage you through this life change. Yeah. You know, divorce recovery is a big deal. We had a couple here come in for a staff meeting a couple weeks ago, or one of our devotionals, and they were in the midst of divorce, and now they were both second marriages, and now they're teaching Financial Peace university for the 23rd time wow and they're millionaires and they teach divorce recovery because they went through a divorce recovery class as well and um you know marriage

recovery and that kind of thing and so it's just these things work hand in hand they really do it's a big deal mary jean is with us in pennsylvania, Mary Jean. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Okay. So I just finished Financial Peace University at my church, and it was fantastic. Just letting you know, a year ago, I would not have done this because my mind and my heart was not open to it. Currently, I'm in the $1,000 payoff challenge, and I have paid off $1,000 worth of debt so

far. I'm very excited. Paid off one credit card, and now I'm just snowballing it. We're still in baby step two. However, my husband wants to buy a house, and I don't know how to tell him in the sweetest way possible, no. This is what happens if you go to Financial Peace University by yourself. Yes.

And, I mean, he said, I think you should should go because he said he knows more about money than i do because i've made some horrible financial decisions in my life because i have things that have happened in my past well sweetie you told me to go this class and the class taught me not to buy this house yeah exactly so now you have to go to the class too right so i'm gonna just because i still you know have access to everything i'm'm just going to pull up your video. No, just go back through. You can go back through. Just watch it. Just watch it.

Please just watch it. No, take him to the class with other people. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I think they're offering again at our church again in January. Here's the point. No one is smarter than God.

Exactly. And this is God's ways of handling money. It's not Dave Ramsey. No. And it's not Chris Hogan. This is so, he, if you guys are regular church attenders, the way you use in your sentences, I take it you are. Yeah.

Then it's a good spiritual exercise for him. Right. And then the discussion changes on the house rather than you go, no, I'm not doing this house because I went to this class. He's going to go, what? And you go, no, listen, we need to learn to handle money scripturally together as a couple, and we're not dealing with the same set of facts, the same set of knowledge base, and we have to start from that. And it's why we tell people not to go to Financial Peace University without the other one.

Yeah, and Mary Jean, unless you can adopt my voice and tell your husband no, which is not possible. You could sell that. I could. We need a product. We're going to start an app, Dave. Right now. But Mary Jean, here's the deal.

The goal of having a home is supposed to be a blessing. Be a little weird. Be like that Allstate commercial. She said that. There you go again, Dave. Mary Jean, you want buying this home to be a blessing, not a curse. And right now, you guys are trying to clean up a mess, and you need to clean up the mess and have an emergency fund

and then start investing. Then you can save for a down payment. So it's okay for him to want a home. It's about the timing. And I agree with Dave. Going back through Financial Peace University, give him an opportunity to learn this and see this, just like you, so y'all can stay on the same page. Good stuff. Chris Hogan, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for

hanging out. Thank you for having me, Dave. We'll do this again soon. Yes. The problem is you and I are just having a little too much fun. We don't get all our work done. I know. We're going to get in trouble. Wait a minute.

You own this place. But you can still get in trouble. I'm in good hands. The FCC is listening in. I love it. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show. In the books. Hey guys, this is Blake Thompson, senior executive producer of the Dave Ramsey Show.

Did you know over 15 million people listen to the Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen to one of over 600 radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.