The Ramsey Show - App - I Can’t Seem To Stick to a Budget (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: How to stick to a budget, What to do with an inheritance, "I feel stuck in the Baby Steps, what can I do?" "Our wealth is causing division with friends and family" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life, specifically money, work, and relationships. I'm your host, Ken Coleman, joined by my co-host, George Campbell. This hour, the phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. We've got a bunch of new listeners and viewers that are joining the conversation, and we're thrilled about that. If you want to

learn more about the baby steps and how to get started in this conversation, go to ramsaysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation, season of life, and need. So go do that. It's the Get Started button at ramsaysolutions.com. All right, George, you warmed up. I'm ready to go. I saw you were gargling hot salt water during the break. It's an Americano. Oh, it was an Americano. Okay, so you're ready to go. Oh, yeah. You sound strong of voice. I'm caffeinated and irritated. Let's go. Really? Yeah. Boy, I'm very excited to see how that plays out. All right, let's go to Devaney, who is joining us

in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. How can we help? Hi, I have been struggling with a budget for what feels like forever. I've used every dollar, I've listened to the books, just recently started listening to the podcast, but I still can't seem to stay on a budget and get us out of debt. Well, are you in good hands today with George Camel? Okay, so tell me where you feel like you're failing with this. We set the budget and then we go over it. So we'll set it for, let's say, food and then we go over that. Or we set it for, let's say, entertainment and we spend it on something else or something else comes up. Okay, so let's take the food category. This is an easy one to grapple with. So you have the food.

What's your food budget every month that you set? I don't know what to set it as. That's a problem, too, is I have trouble knowing what to set it at. How many months have you been doing this? We've been on and off trying to set a budget for three years, probably. It's just never been taught. So if you look back at how much you spent last month or the month before, give me an average.

Are you spending $500 and you're setting it for $250? Well, it kind of fluctuates. So let's say we spend $400 or $800 on food, eating out, and groceries, and all of that stuff. Are you guys trying to get out of debt? What's the goal here with doing the budget? Yeah, yeah. We have insane amounts of debt. So why are we eating out? That's part of the problem. We are too lazy to cook at home.ada bing bada boom we're getting some answers now yeah this is not a budgeting issue this is a focus lifestyle issue for sure we have trouble yeah you're not focused do you guys really want to get out of debt or is it just kind of an ish is it just like yeah it'd be nice no it's it's weighing on us So when you get in that car and you go out to eat, do you feel like a shame and guilt afterwards where you're like, man, gosh, we just blew 60 bucks.

We could have ate at home, but we just, our brains are foggy from work. We didn't want to cook. That's normal, right? That's how I feel after I order extra fries. Been there. And so we've got to adjust our behavior and create the right habits when it comes to budgeting. So let's say you set it for 200 bucks and we're not eating out. That's our grocery budget for the week. Now we go, all right, we got to stick to that. We have to track what we're actually

spending. And so are you tracking each transaction in the budget or is it just kind of you set it, you go over it at the end of the month, you have some shame and then you repeat the process? Yeah, the latter. Well, know that you are not alone and budgeting's hard. It's kind of fun when you make it and it looks great on paper and then having to stick to it is very difficult. I'm going to jump in here, George. Budgeting is not hard. It's behaving within the budget is what's so hard. Yeah, we can all make the Excel spreadsheet, but then not eating out after a long week, that's the difficult part. It's the sacrifice.

And so this is going to take some forward planning. It's going to take sacrifice because right now you have a pile of debt. How much debt do you have? Not including our house with student loans and other consumer debt, like $214,000. $214,000? Yep. What's the bigger debts in there? We've got two car payments and an RV, and then we've got like $11,000 in credit card debt.

What's your household income? About $120,000. What's the RV worth? About $26,000. What do you owe on it? $23,000, I believe. What about the car loans? What's the car's worth and what do you owe on them? We owe $25,000 and $19,000 and they're both worth about just that. I think I might be upside down in mine. All right. First things first, we're going to sell the RV today. That's a depreciating asset. And at least you're, we hope you're, you're not upside down in that one. No, we're not. Well, get rid of it. How much money do you guys have in the bank? Um, we've got about probably $2,000. Okay. If I'm you guys, I'm saving up for a cash car, a beater to get around two of them,

and I'm selling this whole kit and caboodle. You make $120,000. You have almost double that in just consumer debt. No wonder you guys are eating out. You're stressed out to your eyeballs. You can't even think straight. But, George, I agree with your advice, but I want her to sell the RV today.

Let's get some momentum. Yes. Because that one, we don't, we've got to save up some money and replace the cars. You don't have to do jack squat to sell the RV. And then you come away with $3,000 that George will tell you what to do with the $3,000. What do your payments add up to, servicing all that consumer debt each month?

Oh, God, it's like two four six eight it's probably like twelve hundred dollars or more so twelve hundred bucks to keep up with the payments what's your take-home pay um it varies i'm i'm self-employed and then my husband's a firefighter so it depends on his way if he works overtime or not what are you doing for work it could be two thousand i'm a photographer. So can you step up your photography game for a year after we sell this RV? I mean, I'm always trying to level up and step up on that. Can we charge more? Can we do some specials? How about do something else in between trying to grow the photography business? Let's go make some money. The great news about this is this is solvable. Getting

rid of the cars and the RV is the game changer. Have you cut up the credit cards yet and closed the accounts? No, I thought I got stuck in that. You have to have your credit, your credit score. So I left them all open. For what? Well, I didn't know that you didn't really need a credit score, which I listened to the episode the other day. Okay. Well, then today we can cut up those cards. They're not a blessing in your life. They're not a crutch. They're not for emergencies. They are keeping you broke. Right. So my goal for you, we sell the RV, we get the income up, we stick to the budget. And the way we do that is by actually caring about the end result of doing the budget, which is to get out of this mess. And so at every turn, every time a transaction comes out

of your bank, you've got to ask yourself, is this worth continuing to be in debt, stressed out, not where we want to be, not where we should be. You guys make six figures and it all goes out to lenders every month. And so you've got to really find that why, channel it, and then that'll help you go, all right, we're going to be, we're going to start meal planning. We're not going out to lenders every month. And so you've got to really find that why, channel it, and then that'll help you go, all right, we're going to be, we're going to start meal planning. We're not going out to eat. We're cutting every subscription, no more travel for the year. We're going to batten down the hatches and get out of debt once and for all. And if you start doing this stuff and you might need to sell the cars, once you have enough cash to get the beaters, that's going to help you climb out of this pile and see the light at the end of the tunnel. So hang on the line. I'm going to send you every dollar premium, which will connect to your bank.

There's a paycheck planning tool. It will help you finally get control of your money. So hang on the line. Austin will gift that to you to help you on the journey. Thanks for the call. Thank you so much. You can do this. You've got to believe that you can do it, but you've got to start taking action. I'd list that RV within the next hour. Thank you so much for the call. He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show continues from our Ramsey Solutions World Headquarters in the Nashville area. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225.

Well, is it possible to build wealth in this economy? We keep hearing that question, and we understand the heart of the question. There's a lot of noise out there about inflation, stubborn inflation, looming layoffs, new headlines every day about more layoffs, rising interest rates, and on and on and on the negative news goes. That's why we've decided to bring our Building Wealth live event to more cities. Dave Ramsey and our team will be coming to a city near you in the spring. Each Building Wealth live event has its own unique lineup. Dave Ramsey, George Camel, Rachel Cruz, and Jade Warshaw will be in Indianapolis on February 16th.

On February 23rd, you'll see Dave Ramsey, myself, Dr. John Deloney, and Jade Warshaw in Austin, Texas. Next, we head to Salt Lake City on April 24th, where you can see Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, George Camel, and Christina Ellis. And then for our last stop, Dave, Ramsey, myself, Dr. John Deloney, and Christina Ellis will wrap up the tour in Anaheim, May 2nd. Tickets start at $49, or you can get a four-pack of tickets starting at $175. Bring your friends.

It's going to be a lot of fun. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash events. That's ramseysolutions.com slash events to reserve your seats today. So, George, as I look here, we are... I'm going to miss you on the road, Ken. We're just two ships passing in the night. It looks like our on-road tension has finally caught up with us. They've decided to separate us.

I thought it was because we're too powerful together on the road i think it's because they're worried about the root beer float taking over i agree and uh we're such a popular combo here on the show that we are called a root beer float and they're like well we don't want to distract from dave being out there he's the star of the show i mean if we're the root beer float dave's the steak he's the bell of the ball ken always a bridesmaid never a bride you know i wouldn't call him that i like the steak analogy a little bit better feels more appropriate he's not listening it's fine yeah well that is true uh i'll tell you who is listening though it's sarah sarah in cincinnati sounds like a uh rom-com i love that alliteration yeah there you go let's go to sarah now sarah how can we help hi guys, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

You bet. So I had a quick question. I am a photographer. I know the photographer, you guys just talked to one. I just got a small inheritance and my trust from my grandma after she passed away. And I wanted to know, I need new equipment for my business. Just a small amount, not a lot. And the amount of money that I'm getting isn't huge, but I was wondering what to do with the amount that's left

over after we're still paying off our debts and we pay off about $70,000. Good for you. And we've got, thank you. And we've got about 90 left, I believe just a little over 90 left to pay off. Um, and so how much is the inheritance? Um, it's before taxes, it's like a little over $12,000. So after taxes, it would be close to like nine or yeah, like about, are you sure there's taxes on it? Um, when we went and met with the, um, person who takes care of her trust with Edward Jones. They told us that there was like 25% or 22% because of our tax bracket, I guess. Okay. Just wanted to verify because a lot of the time inheritance isn't taxed for the person who's receiving it.

But if you've got that information from a professional, I would trust them. Yeah. Okay. So you think it'll be closer to $9,000? Yeah. So after tax and everything, it'll be just a little bit either north or south it just depends i'm not exactly sure the exact amount but it right around that nine thousand mark how much does the photography equipment cost that you feel like you need i just need a camera so it would be somewhere close to about twenty five hundred dollars and the rest would be just like free

and how much are you making from this photography business somewhere close to about $2,500 and the rest would be just like free. And how much are you making from this photography business? About $75,000 after taxes and everything. Way to go. It's awesome. And what's your household income if you include your spouse? I think about $210,000 total. Wonderful. Well, I'm in the boat of wanting to use this money to pay down the debt,

and we upgrade the camera equipment through your business income, through kind of fresh new income. Either way, you're going to be using the cash. But I'm just wondering, it would feel different if you're investing in new equipment through cash flow from the business. Okay. How much money do you guys have in the bank? We've got our, so since we're just doing our, that we're in baby step three or two, because we're paying off all of our debt, we've got the thousand dollar emergency fund. Okay. But then everything else is just going towards that debt. What kind of debt's the 90 that's remaining? Student loans.

Student loans, I have one car payment, and the rest is credit cards. Okay. What's left on the car loan? Like $9,000. And what's the car worth? About $26,000, $27,000. Ooh, that's pretty tempting. I think I'm paying, now I'm, George, that's what I'm thinking.

She was like, I was hoping he wouldn't go there. I mean, I'm just looking at the hard math on the thing. I mean, you're going to net $17,000. You'll get a car for $7,000. Now you've got $10,000 that magically appeared. And I would feel a whole lot better using that money to purchase the new equipment the rest going towards the debt to put a little bit of skin in the game because right now it doesn't feel like the you guys have you're you're on the plan for sure but it's easy to get a little bit comfortable this money you

know from grandma which what a beautiful legacy to leave um yeah would i don't know i don't know grandma i don't know how she would have wanted you to use it i think it's beautiful either way for using it to grow your business using it to pay down debt those are both great things but i still would want some sacrifice to feel like i earned this camera purchase okay but either way you're going to get there. It's not a lot of money at the end of the day. And see if you can get the camera used. Are you buying a new camera?

That was my thing, is I was definitely going to get it used because it's not something that I need to get brand new. Okay. Yeah, I might just pause and not rush into the camera purchase and go, let me wait. Let me find a deal on Facebook Marketplace,

Craigslist, my photographer community in Cincinnati. There's people unloading gear left and right. I'm curious. I want to make sure you caught the momentum there where George is very, very nice. I think you got to sell the car because it allows you to fast forward so much. What's on your debt snowball? What's the smallest amount? What is it? A credit card? What's the amount? It's a credit card. How much? It's like $6,000. I'm taking that.

What's the interest rate on that card? 23%. Yeah. And where's the Tums, Ken? I'm going to fill in while George wipes it. He just threw up in his mouth. He's going to wipe his mouth off. My question is, what is the payment on that that credit card

for nine so right now well without the extra payment we're putting on it it's like 239 i'm taking the i'm taking grandmother's money and i'm gonna pay off that credit card now that you know what to do where i was going that's okay that's what i would do is i'd take the money from grandmother pay off the next snowball, which is $9,000 credit card. You know what to do. You've done it so far. You roll that money into the next thing. I would sell the car, like George said, that's 26, get a $10,000 car. That's okay. And now we're sitting there with more money to put on the next credit card. I mean, you're just motoring here. This is like advancing the momentum is what I would do. Okay. And now making 210, having a payoff, you

know, 70 grand, we're going, oh, we got this thing in the next year. Like we can see the light into the tunnel. And that's the whole goal is how do we speed this up? Because this is not fun. We can all admit that. Getting into the mess was kind of fun along the way, getting all the stuff. But now we're looking back at it with regret. And so I want to speed up this process so you guys can focus on the future and building for that instead of paying for the past. So that's the spirit of all this. It's not because I don't want Sarah to have nice things.

It's because I see this sweet gift from grandma as a little fast forward chip in the debt snowball more than I do a shiny new camera. Look at that. Yeah, I agree. And the camera will get there. You're already crushing it with the photography business. Do an extra few sessions and use that money towards the camera.

And Georgia, she does what we said. Sells the car, takes the money from grandmother and just fast forwards the whole process. What is the feeling in one word that you get from that kind of a big act? I'm going to go with elation. Elation. Pure joy. I like that. I mean, that's one. You're going from that kind of a big ax strike. I'm going to go with elation. Elation. Pure joy. I like that. I mean, that's one big swing at that big old tree there.

I love it. Thank you so much for the call, Sarah. You got this. Don't move. More Ramsey Show coming right up. We'll see you next time. helping you win in your money life your work life and your relationship life this is the ramsey show 888-825-5225 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me taking your calls. David is up in Columbus, Ohio. David, how can we help?

Hello, hello. Hello, hello. What's going on? Well, my wife and I went through the Financial Peace University DVD set last year, and it helped us to pay off quite a large amount of debt from our credit cards and a personal loan that I had. And we've worked ourselves down to two debts, but we seem to be stuck in a revolving door of the baby steps the past six months and kind of looking for guidance on where to go from here. Okay. What's this revolving door? Have you had some emergencies?

Yeah, we built up our emergency fund. We've got three vehicles, one of them I owe on. The other two we own outright. The two that we do own on have some higher miles. So every time we build up the fund, they need maintenance or the house needs maintenance. We built up our six months essentially savings. And unfortunately, last year we had an unexpected need to put a roof on the house. So that took a big chunk out of that fund as well. So we're kind of looking at where to get it from here.

I'd like to put more in my 401k. How much are you putting now? I was putting 15% in. Last year, I cut it back to 6% to help pay off the excess debt. And I'm wanting to take that back to 15. But I'm torn as to whether to put more in the 401k or to pay off the car loan that I currently have. I'm confused as to which Financial Peace University you went through, David. You're doing 17 things at once.

Yes, that's our downfall. We seem to take on way too much at once. Okay, so how about this? What if for six months you tried the plan as is and you went all in? Which means we're not investing, we're taking our savings down to $1,000, and we're putting every single ounce of energy and money towards our consumer debt. Would you take that challenge? Absolutely. And I tell you that because I have such confidence in you, and I've seen thousands of people who go all in actually accomplish it.

And I've also talked to hundreds more on the phones who go, hey, I don't know why I'm not making the progress I should be. And also, I'm not following the baby steps as is. And so it's not to be fundamentalist. It's just to go, when you focus all of your energy and intensity on one thing at a time, you make progress. That's all it is. So how much do you have left in consumer debt? We owe $100,000 on our house, and I owe $13,000 on my car. So we're just 13 away from this thing being done in Baby Step 2.

Correct. What's the car worth? It books for right under $14,000. However, the offers I've gotten from the dealer, I've tried to sell back to them. They're not wanting to budge off of 10. Well, forget the dealers. Let's go private party. Let's do our research online and see if there's any online companies that would buy it for more and go from there. Because this clears the deck for you to be able to start saving up that fully funded emergency fund.

And you have three cars. Can you survive with two? Yeah, we're exploring the option of selling our truck we own an outright so that would be you know 6,500 to 7,000 dollars we could pocket okay and i i don't want to miss david i want you to miss what george said you're kind of like yeah don't sell the car to the dealer they're never going to give you what you can get private party it's not even close yeah i tried to sell a private party last month unfortunately a lot of tire kickers uh not a whole lot of interest and they seem to offer

about the same as where'd you list it where'd you post it uh it was on craigslist local ads facebook um just a couple places well are you offering are you selling it for what it really could command via Blue Book? Oh, yeah. The Blue Book's listed it for $13,900. I had it priced just under $14,000. I even had a couple offers out, you know, if someone was willing to do $13,500, essentially that would dissolve the loan and I'd pocket $400 and I could wash my hands of it and continue on with life. Why didn't you do that?

The best offer I could get was around $10,000. Oh, you weren't actually getting the full. Oh, I thought you said you got it. Yeah, that's the downside. What's your household income, David? We bring in, we gross about $100 a year. Okay, so let's say we even didn't sell the car. How quickly do you think this thing is getting paid off if we brought investing down to zero

and we want full focus on getting rid of this car loan? I know without touching the investing, we calculated we could potentially have it paid off by August. Without the investing, I'd say probably June to July. I'm thinking 90 days max. You guys are bringing home, what, $7K a month? A little bit under that. So $13K, let's say we could divide that in three, right? That's going to be $4,300 a month.

So the question now becomes, how do we find $4,300 worth of margin to throw at this debt? Which means we're pausing investing, which means we're pausing investing, which means we're not eating out, which means we're getting the budget dialed in. Could you come up with four grand a month to throw at this car loan? Absolutely. And so now 90 days from now, we're at baby step three. And so we're out of this vicious cycle you've been experiencing. And if there was another emergency, we would just pause the baby steps and start saving up with those future paychecks.

Okay. But you got to go all in for this to work, David. And so I want you to call us back as you go all in on this and let us know if anything has changed for you. Because I think it will. Yeah, good advice there. Thanks again for the call.

Let's go to Glenn in Chicago. Glenn, how can we help? Gentlemen, my wife and I are trying to figure out if we're on baby step 3B or baby step 4. We've paid off a lot of debt and we have our emergency fund in place, but because we have four kids and we're thinking about college, but we also don't own a home yet, we're just trying to figure out what the priority now needs to be. So you said you've paid off a lot of debt. Is the debt gone completely? Yes, sir. That's correct. Everything. Awesome. And you've got a fully funded emergency fund. How much do you have in the bank for that? $15,000. Wonderful. So you're wondering, should we focus on 3B with the down payment, or do we go ahead and start investing that 15%? And then what about college? Is that the kind of conundrum? Is what speed to do all of these?

That's exactly right. You got it. How old are you two? My wife is 36 and I am 31. Okay. Is there a rush to get into a home? You got four kids and you're renting. Is there enough space? Are you guys good there? Could you rent for a few more years? Yes, we could. I think we could rent for another three years. We're both content with that. Great. And then have you been investing at all previously or is this all new? We've been setting aside $150 every month into a Roth for the last year. Other than that,

we've been setting aside, we've got about 30 grand now for the house in addition to the emergency fund and a brokerage account. So we are investing, but really the 150 is the retirement investment. The rest of the savings we have is going into the, like I said, a brokerage for the house. Okay. If I'm in your shoes, if you're doing the brokerage, you want to have a longer term timeframe and mindset. So this is a three plus decision for the home. And so if that's the case, I would start investing 15%. I would throw a little bit into a 529 or an ESA for each of those kids. And then anything remaining is going to go towards the down payment to keep saving up for that. And then whatever money you have at the end of those three years or four years, that will help us decide how much house we can afford and where

we're going to live and all of those decisions. Okay. So for now, you think it would be best to start 15% into retirement? Yes. At your ages, you haven't saved a whole lot. I want the power of compound interest working for you. You guys have done the hard work of getting out of debt, getting the emergency fund in place. Now, let's start building for the future so that the kids don't have to cover you guys in retirement. Because there's a 100% chance you'll retire. There's a 50-50 chance the kids go to college and graduate. And so I want to make sure we're at least investing that 15%. We'll get the down payment when we get there. And let's put a little sure we're at least investing at 15%. We'll get the down payment when we get there. And let's put a little bit for college to help that money grow. Thanks for the

call. Yeah, got this, Glenn. Good advice, George. I'm trying to keep up, Ken. You're doing more than keeping up. You get yourself a little protein bar. It's all the caffeine. A little protein. All the caffeine's starting to make you crash. A little protein during this break. He'll be ready, folks. And I've always got the juice, so don't worry about me. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Camel. We're taking your calls this hour, 888-825-5225.

Studies show, George, that most people abandon their New Year's resolutions by February. Are you aware of this? That's a shame. How are you doing on yours? Did you have any at all? You know, I just said a few. I usually go overboard, and I went a little more focused this year. What was your focus?

And I'm on track. Trying to get the habit of reading and writing. Those are the big ones. You like that? You skipped elementary school? Well, reading more books, and then a habit of writing more regularly. And are you staying with it? Mostly.

All right, good. Well, the truth is it's too early in the year to get discouraged about finding meaningful work. Purpose in the workplace. Purpose, period. You don't have to resort to quiet quitting because you want to make a change but don't know where to start. You were designed, you were created to fill a unique role in and through your work. That means you were needed and you must do it. Somebody out there needs you to be the best version of you.

That's why I do the Ken Coleman Show here on the Ramsey Network, and it's why I created the Get Clear Career Assessment, so that you can see how you are uniquely made to contribute. In other words, your talent, what you do best, your passion, what work you enjoy, and then your mission, what results motivate you to do your best work. It's only going to take you about 15 minutes to answer some specific questions. It's going to give you a custom report that describes you in the way I just laid out, and it makes some suggestions to you.

But more importantly, it allows you to have, maybe for the first time in your life, awareness that will lead to tremendous confidence and courage to be who you're supposed to be. And the result of that, George, is more income and more impact, more money, more meaning. You can get the Get Clear assessment today at ramsaysolutions.com slash get clear, ramsaysolutions.com slash get clear. And if you need more direction, even after your results, call me on the Ken Coleman Show. Helping a lot of people, and this is a game changer for those of you who feel stuck. So go check it out. All right, let's get to the phones. Ruth joins us in Los Angeles, California. Ruth, how can we help?

Hi, I'm calling because I'm at a life stage where I've come through a lot of transition. My husband passed away three years ago, and what happened over the course of time is he passed away, and in the course, I, I took on our properties and that sort of thing. So I, I inherited wealth or took over the family business, that part of it. And, um, I lost a lot, uh, actually like all family, uh, friends, and I've had family try to sue me for part of his estate, and I'm in a place where I just need new friends, and I'm looking for people that have wealth and are interested in using it to reach out and make an impact and help others, but I don't know where to go for that sort of thing. Wow. Well, first of all, you've been through a lot, and that's tough. And you do need those people, and you need friends. Did I hear you say you lost your friends? Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, I lost my best friend. She died the year before my husband died.

But also, what happened is all of a sudden friends expected me to give them money or make things, throw them parties, that sort of thing. It got weird. Yeah, because they saw you come into a lot of wealth, and then they got real attached. Yeah, and so, I mean, I literally had to cut basically everybody out. Wow. Sorry, Ruth. Well, I'm sorry you've been through that, and I will tell you, though, I think you do know where these people are. So you're in the Los Angeles area. You are still running the company, I'm guessing?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you... I don't... It pretty much runs itself. I'm basically retired. I don't really need to do very much. It's not hands-on. I was that way before my husband passed as well. Exactly.

So first thing I want you doing is... I have something. I'm sorry. Here's what I want you to do. I'm sorry. I just want you, here's what I want you to do. I want you to start joining some social activities where you know, quite frankly,

let's just be really honest, where other wealthy women are going to be. Because now they don't need you for anything. And you're going to find some like-minded souls and people who understand you and they're not, you know, they're just friends with you.

They just want to play tennis with you or they want to play bunco. They don't want anything from you. They don't want anything other than just it's a social thing. So, I mean, they're just friends with you. They just want to play tennis with you or they want to play bunco or they don't want anything. They don't want anything other than just, it's a social thing. So, I mean, this is as simple as, you know, local country clubs and, and social clubs and like, you got to get out and meet people. And the only way to meet people is to get in those places where those people are congregating. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, the old phrase, birds of a feather flock together. Well, you know where those people are flocking, yes or no? Why would I be calling you if that was an obvious thing?

No, but see, I think you're calling for ideas, which I'm giving you ideas, but you know where those people are. Where in the Los Angeles area do you live? Give me the neighborhood or the area of Los Angeles. It's like Manhattan Beach. Manhattan Beach. Okay, great. Lovely area. Okay. So are there country clubs in the Manhattan Beach area? Yeah. Okay. So that's a big dollar thing. I know. Hold on. We're brainstorming. All right. So it's not a country club. But you live in a neighborhood, Ruth, right? It's got an HOA? I live with HOA, yeah. Yeah, so there's Facebook groups probably in your community. There's probably multiple for different social groups. I mean, I'm in a small neighborhood, and we've got a ton of them.

And so I would start connecting, go to the HOA meetings just to meet people in the neighborhood because likely they are in the same level of wealth in a general way as you and then you start joining those Facebook groups and find figure out what hobbies you want to connect with people over or do you have things that you like to do for fun yeah I mean just like what you guys were saying in the break I mean I love reading I love writing I like hiking and that sort of thing I have a disabled family member that lives with me, my son, and that limits the amount of time I have free to engage. Yeah. So I do have a, but I still, even in the neighborhood,

I run into situations where people are asking a lot of financial questions and that's uncomfortable. You mean like they're asking you for money? I run into situations where people are asking a lot of financial questions and that is, that's uncomfortable. You mean like they're asking you for money? No, they're asking me how much I sold my house for. They're asking me how much the repairs on my house. I mean, I don't normally, I don't know. I don't expect to be having those kinds of conversations with people that are

friends. It would be more like, you know, how's your mom or how was your trip, your vacation or that sort of thing. Well, again, I mean, I appreciate George jumping in and I appreciate what you're saying, but you do know where wealthy people are spending time. You do. You simply do. I don't know Manhattan beach like, you know, Manhattan beach, but you know, in surrounding areas, I mean, you, you've got more hobbies than just reading and writing. Now you are limited. And I think this is part of the problem, but in surrounding areas, you've got more hobbies than just reading

and writing. Now, you are limited, and I think this is part of the problem, or I should say challenge because of your son. I mean, that's a challenge for you. You just don't have a ton of time, so you've got to make the most of that time. And so whether it be book clubs in certain areas, but I mean, where are wealthy people, people that are successful that, again, aren't clinging and aren't looking for anything from you other than just the enjoyment of relationship and a shared hobby or shared interest, that's what you've got to do.

You make a list of your interests and where people are hanging out, and you're in a very wealthy area, so it's not going to be hard to run into those people, but it is going to be some intentionality, like George said, on certain maybe groups and talking around the neighborhood. And then, you know, listen, it depends on how much of this, the rest of your life, this wants to be a big deal. You've got a lot of money. If you need to move to a better area, you know, I mean, this is the stuff life is made of. You can't do this alone. You don't want to be alone and you need this. And so you need to make moves to put yourself around those people.

It's just you deciding. It's time. And here's a challenge, Ruth. And so you need to make moves to put yourself around those people. It's just you deciding. It's time. And here's a challenge, Ruth. What if you started the book club and you posted in your neighborhood Facebook group and said, hey, I'm going to have people over once a week. Here's what we're doing. Let me know if you want to join. That happens all the time.

And it's a great way when you're the initiator, amazing things happen. Yeah, I love that idea. Okay. So just put yourself out there. It's gonna be a little scary. It's, you know, as you get older, you're like less likely to want to put yourself out there. But, you know, as you just go grocery shopping or where you're out and about, make conversation with people. Yeah, I mean, where are women exercising or doing things in the Manhattan Beach? You're just looking for affinity groups and something that you're interested in, and that's just paying attention to what's out there. By the way, George, you ever

been to Manhattan Beach? No, I want to go now, though. Absolutely lovely little area. The street kind of just goes down into the pier. Let's go. A little buddy-buddy road trip. Is that what we're doing? All right. Well, we'll book it during the commercial break. Don't move. More of the Ramsey Show coming up. hey it's ken if you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Go to ramsesolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramsesolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.