The Ramsey Show - App - I Don’t Know What To Do Next (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, find and do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined by my good friend, Mr. Ken Coleman, and we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. If you've got a question about money, about your work, about your purpose, the impact you're making out there, or you just got a conundrum and you need a third party, maybe an unbiased party, to just give you some advice, Ken Coleman's got lots of wisdom for

you. If you don't know what a conundrum is, that just means you got an issue where you feel a little stuck. And George and I, we're going to shoot you straight and we're going to have fun while we do it. That's the goal. That's our MO. That's our promise, if nothing else. So let's get to the phones. Victoria kicks us off in Destin, Florida. Victoria, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you doing? Good. How are you? How can we help today? I'm all right. I'm a little nervous. I'm just calling because about five months ago, I had a stillbirth. So sorry. At 39 and a half weeks. Oh, wow. Yeah. So my life has just been a little crazy.

Yeah. Understandably. And on the work side, just this past month, I recently, you know, just built up the courage to go get another restaurant job. And it turns out that they're just running it unethically. And the manager and owner are in the tip pool and basically stealing money from servers. So I'm just kind of at a point where, like, I just reached the courage to, like, go work again. And I live in a tourist destination.

So I was even surprised to get this job because most places don't hire till February before spring break. So I've tried to start a few different businesses in the past and it just never turned out good. I tried MLM. I've tried. I just tried MLM. I've tried, I've just tried it all. And I'd like to own my own business. Me and my husband are saving to buy land because I want a market garden. But that's not anywhere in the close vicinity.

So I'm stuck in this, this like back and forth of like, well, I'm grieving. So it's hard to, it's hard to start anything right now, but then I don't want to work in restaurants. Um, you know, I, I owned a, a childcare, um, my first business when I was 20, I started, uh, nannying for tourists. Um, and that did pretty well, but I, at this point in time, just can't be in the childcare realm. Sure, of course. You know, I've tried starting a sticker business. I've tried several different things, and I just don't know what to do.

The internet is such a big place. It's overwhelming, isn't it? Getting to the Internet side. You know, I've written a grief journal, but it's like I don't even know how to go about, like, publishing that and actually making sales. Because that's, you know, Dave talked about it, like writing a book and publishing it unless you're on your guys' platform is not a short-term thing. It's like I'm in the middle of grieving. Absolutely. So let's simplify this for a second. Do you need the income?

Do you and your husband need your income, or is that considered extra? We are – our shovel is not very big. Sure. What is he making? I would say we bring in, he just started a business at the beginning of this year. So. What is the business? He does lawn care.

Lawn care. Okay. Is it already successful? Is it, is there a net profit? Yeah, I mean, he doesn't have, yeah, we started it with cash. We've never been in debt for it. Right. Everything's paid for. We're

saving for more equipment. It's just slow. Sure. So the answer is you do need your income. It's not like you're... Our bills and our life is paid with his income, but there's no extra. Okay. So my money is just the extra. Okay. So we're going to reverse engineer this. Okay. With a couple of rapid fire questions. So what would be the amount of money, forget what you're doing. Okay. But let's say we're taking restaurant business off the table. What would be the amount of money that if I snap my fingers and you were making that it would, you would go, you would be able to breathe easier and continue the grieving process with a lot less stress because of the money you're bringing in. What would be that amount of money? I mean, my idea, if I, my idea would be about

6,000 just for savings. Our living situation is 6,000 a month, 6,000 a month. Okay. So that's pretty, are you talking about for the two of you or just you? For, well. I'm talking about just you. What would be an income? I'm trying to get to a baseline. What's the number that you would really like to make? How much? Four. Four thousand a month. Four thousand a month. Okay, great. All right. So I think that's an important number to kind of put in the whiteboard of your head, if you will, or write it down on a piece of paper and go, okay, that's what I'm looking for financially. That becomes our goal. All right. Now, outside of the restaurant business in that world where there's really just no juice, you don't love it. It's just kind of something you're doing. It could be difficult. The hours can be crazy. You're grieving, doing some work that is connected to that thing that you would do, which is if I give you a blank check to write yourself for a business, you would buy a piece of land and you would be in gardening, some type of plants and gardening. Am I understanding that

correctly? Yes, sir. Okay, great. So here's what I'm suggesting. And I know the area that you're in, love that area. It's one of the greatest areas on the planet. Our family goes down there a lot. I would be thinking about the gardening centers. I would be trying to get in that space. Could you get an hourly job or even a salary job in that space where someone else is paying you and you're in that space, you know, healthy plants, eating fruits, veggies. Am I making sense so far? Yeah. We just don't really, everything here is luxury stuff. We just don't have, we don't have, I'd have to go like an hour north where we would buy land and- Well, forget the land right now. No, no. I'm not talking about the land.

Can you get a job at the Lowe's in Destin in the gardening center? That's what I'm saying. Like, get around the plants and get in that space. Like, work for a very successful farmer out there. They're growing this stuff and selling it. I think you need to try to get in that space because it's something that you really enjoy. I think it's going to advance the healing process. Can I get paid to do something very similar to what I would do for

myself? Does that make sense? Yes. That's what I think you should focus on. You need some income. You need to heal. Okay. And so instead of trying to start a business or even worry about that right now, now's not the time. I think you're very mature to understand that. So my encouragement is let's get out of the restaurant game and let's go get as close as we can to the type of work you really would want to do for yourself. Get some stability with that full-time job close to what you want to do while you build this thing on the side. I'm going to send you some resources. Hang on the line. We're going to send you Ken Coleman's Get Clear Assessment. That's really going to sharpen this image of what you want to do. And we're going to send you Dr. John Deloney's bestselling book, Own Your Past,

Change Your Future, to help you with this grieving process and help you take the next step. I'm so sorry for what you've been through, and I'm excited for the future ahead for you guys in this business. And we're wishing you the best, Victoria. Thanks so much for trusting us with this call. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Ken Coleman. This is your show, America. You call us with your questions about money and work and everything in between. 888-825-5225.

I know a lot of you out there, you're struggling. You don't love the job you're in. You've got the toxic boss, the toxic environment. There's this other thing you want to do that you've got this itch for. My friend Ken Coleman is the expert on work, and he's going to help you make a plan and make a path to get there. And, of course, I'll help you with those money questions that are on your mind. Speaking of money questions, I'm really proud of you, George. Your new book coming out in January. That's right. And this is really fun. It's called Breaking Free from Broke.

And he's got a copy of it right there. Let me see the actual cover. It's the actual cover. You look great in your little denim outfit there. I shouldn't say little. I don't know why I throw that in there. It's little on the cover. Yeah. But let me tell you what, this book is not little. It's got a lot of great content in it. And this book is a little bit different. And I want people to know this. So in your words, George, I got all the talking points. We want people to know about the special deal. I'll get to that very briefly. But how is it different than every other money book that we've put out? Well, this is my personal experience and tons of research on how the system, the financial system is designed to screw you over, how it's

designed to keep us broke. That's right. And how I broke free from it. And it's controversial in today's world, Ken, to tell people, oh yeah, I don't have a credit score. Yeah, I don't use a credit card. Oh, I don't have a car payment. Oh, I don't have a mortgage payment. People look at you like you've got seven eyes. And so I walk people through exactly why the system is set up this way and how you can break free from it through very simple steps, the same steps I use to go from broke to millionaire that millions of people have stood on a debt-free stage and talked about, budgeting and how spending can be self-control and how you can actually save for the future and build wealth with patience. But it takes getting riled up about the current state of things, which doesn't take long,

by the way. That's exactly right. When you look up at all the excuses we can make and what the system is doing to us. So this is the book I wish I had when I was in my 20s. It's very practical. It's going to feel like he's reading your mail as to what you're dealing with and how to break free from it. It's available today for pre-order for only $20, and you can get $100 in free bonus items,

including a talk that George does. It's great. It's called Show Me the Money. You get the audio book, the e-book, and an online Q&A with George. All of that is available at ramsaysolutions.com. Go pre-order it today. It could be a great gift for somebody for Christmas as they head into the new year with maybe some new financial goals. It's called Breaking Free from Broke, and it's a fabulous book. You've got to get it. Thank you for that kind endorsement, Ken. You bet.

By the way, I noticed my endorsement didn't make it on the back of the book, so it's a little awkward. It did not. We found some other bigger names, it looks like. We thought we could have Mike Rowe or Ken. Who are we going to choose? I guess I see where I stand on the old George Campbell totem pole of friends. You know what?

You were quoted in the book, Ken, to be fair. Is that right? Yes. I didn't even know this. Maybe multiple times. I must have missed that. You'd have glazed over that part. I glazed over that.

You're too upset. Tell me what page number that is. I'll get to that tonight. That'll be exciting. I'll FaceTime you. Your kids will be like, dad, you're so cool. You made it to George's book. They like George.

My kids think you're cool. That means the world. Not me. Well, you're a bit older than me. I get it. A bit. Not by much. I know. Alright, let's get to the calls. Jared is in Salt Lake City. Let's see if we can help him out. Jared, what's going on?

Hey, guys. I've got a question for you. We are moving from Salt Lake to Texas in June, July of next year, 24. And I've just got a question about, should we continue paying our monthly minimum on our student loans in efforts to try to save up for a house purchase that we know we're going to have to make in that June-July timeframe? Or should we throw everything that we can at our student loans now and then see what happens in June-J July for a house and where to live?

What's the total debt amount you owe? It's $135,000 in student loans, and that's the only debt that we've currently got. Well, that's plenty. I don't think we need any more. Yes. Okay. What's your household income? Right now it's around $120,000, but in August it should double to about $240,000. So this is a job in Texas or are you remote? My wife's actually in residency right now and she's going to, residency's ending in June, and then she'll start a new job in August at a clinic, being a full-time practicing doctor.

Wonderful. And that's why the income increased. Love it. And that's why the move as well. Doubling the income, I would assume, is it a similar cost of living? Is it going to be cheaper in Texas slightly? It will be cheaper. Okay.

So, like, we're currently paying $2,200 a month in rent, and we would rent, but there's just nowhere to rent, and we're moving to a pretty rural... Hold on, hold on, Jared. Now I'm fighting words right there. You're telling me there's not a single place to rent in Texas. Not one. In this town, there's not very many places to rent.

Let me rephrase that. I would feel comfortable living with my baby. Jared wants to buy a house. Yeah. Am I right? You're just itching to buy a house.. Jared wants to buy a house. Yeah. Am I right? Yeah. You're just itching to buy a house. That's okay.

We would like to buy a house. Okay. Yeah. So here, you called our show. We're going to give you our advice, and it's exactly what we would do. I would not buy a house before these student loans are paid off. Dump, dump, dump. I know that stinks because that means we're going to aggressively attack these student loans until we move,

and maybe after we move, and we're going to rent for a year, maybe two years, because then we've still got to get an emergency fund in place. What's the timeline on that, George? Well, most people pay off all of their consumer debt in 18 to 24 months using the debt snowball method. And with your income doubling, how quickly could you pay off $135,000 making $240,000? A year at the very latest. Love that. Wow. Now, you're not making that $240,000? A year at the very latest. Love that. Wow. Now you're not making that $240,000 for a little while. And so that's going to slow this down a little bit. Do you guys have any

savings? We've currently got about 15 in savings. Okay. So that could be a head start on this debt payoff. And that'll help you knock out this debt faster, help you get back to a fully funded emergency fund, which may be $30,000 for you guys. I don't know. And beyond that, we start saving up for the down payment on a house. I imagine it's going to be expensive in that area to buy a house. Do you have a ballpark number of what it would cost to get a reasonable home there? A small starter home would be around $300,000, and that's what we'd like to move into. Just a relatively updated starter home. Okay. So here's my question, Jared. If you follow George's advice, and you should, how long would you be renting?

We'd be renting for, we'd probably have to do a year lease and rent for a year. That is nothing. My wife and I rented for two years when we moved from Atlanta back to Nashville. We had three kids, so we really wanted to make sure that we were landing in the right place. I just want to point that out, that you're going to be debt-free and in your first home, and that is such a better prospect than if you do it your way. I agree with George wholeheartedly. You're not throwing money away, by the way, for a year. Yeah. Yeah. And I know you might be limited in options of where you're going to rent that's nearby, but it's only a year. You guys sound

young. How old are you two? We're 29 and we've got a three-month-old. Wow. It's a three-month-old. It doesn't care if you're living in a box, you know? So you get there on the ground in Texas and you get a lay of the land. I like it for a lot of reasons, not just the financial reasons, but also just getting there on the ground, you're renting, you got a lot of freedom. Yeah. Where do you guys want to raise that child? I like that. What are the school districts like? You know, all of that stuff is you need to just take your time with it. So even if you were in a good financial position, renting is still a wise move when you're moving across the country to figure some things out and settle in. Yeah, and we know we want to be there for the long haul. The place she's working is a clinic that we could buy out eventually.

Cool. But we don't want to plan for that. We just want to plan for what's in this next seven months, what's in this next year. Rent, rent, rent. It's right financially and it's right emotionally to make a decision you feel confident in. You guys want to be there long term. I would absolutely rent for a minimum of a year to go, where do we want to plant our roots? And all of that's going to help you make different decisions down the line when it comes to buying out this clinic and you don't have debt payments weighing you down and you've got a bunch of money in the bank and you've got a reasonable mortgage payment because you waited until you had a solid down payment. All of those things are going to affect the rest of your

life. And so I want you to make decisions now that you're going to be proud of a decade from now. Where you go, yep, that was the right move. It delayed us two years, but, man, it catapulted us for the future. So hope that helps, Jared. Yeah, it does. Thank you. Excited for you guys and the move and the jump in income, and you got a little baby that you're raising. This is an exciting time. I got a three-month-old too, Ken.

I know. Look at that. Yeah, and you look remarkably rested today, I must say. So much cake, cake, dog makeup. Oh, is that what it is? You look fantastic. I would be more tan if I had makeup on, let's be honest. Hey, more of your calls coming up.

888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So, if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped

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So learn more today and join at chministries.org budget. That's chministries.org slash budgets. That's chministries.org slash budgets. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Ken Coleman. The number to call is 888-825-5225. We'll take your call live, and if you're uncomfortable, you're nervous, we can change your name, your location. We want to do whatever makes you comfortable. We just want to make sure you get the help that you're looking for. And our phone screener, Christian, can assist you with that if you make it through, if you should be so lucky. Our question of the day is sponsored by Neighborly, your hub for home services. Let me ask you this. When was the last time you thought about your dryer vent, Ken?

You know, I think about it two or three times a year because it could cause a home fire if you don't get that cleaned out. Three times a year. I bet you don't even know where yours is. I know. Because I didn't. I know the location. Do you?

Yeah. Oh, that's more than I... I'm impressed. I clean out the lint every time, if that's any consolation. I now do, but several years ago, I had no clue. You were that guy. And my father-in-law said, you should probably clean that out once a year. No clue where it was.

Here's why it's important. Those clogged dryer vents are the cause of thousands of house fires every year. That's what I just said. So let the experts at Dryer Vent Wizard clean yours. Don't let Ken Coleman do it. He'll do a terrible job. 100% do not want me. Yikes.

Yeah. Let the pros handle it. Visit neighborly.com slash Ramsey to schedule service today. All right. Today's question, George, comes from Nick in Wisconsin. I just graduated college with a finance degree and got a job offer from a real estate investment firm to be an agent, but it's only commission, which means I wouldn't see money for six to 12 months. I want to know if I should stick with this job and get a remote part-time job or find another job. I want to work for myself, but don't have the money

and don't know where to start. Wow. Okay. So we've got a little bit of a head spinning question here. We're all over the place. Let's talk about the commission job. So you got the job offer from real estate investment firm and you have that ramp up time. So can you adjust your life? Would a part-time job give you enough to stay in it? A. B. Would the part-time job distract you from crushing it in that first six to 12 months to where you're building your pipeline, you're getting going? These are questions that I would ask.

You've got to get the answers to these questions, George, because they really determine whether or not the part-time job is even an option. Can you financially survive in a straight commission job? You're not the first person I would venture to have to do this kind of thing. So then that begs the question, do you want to be in real estate long-term? If the answer is yes, then this is an option. It doesn't have to be the only option. However, this is the game. Real estate, by nature, is a straight commission play. So it feels like in the back half of the question, George, he's kind of going, I don't know if I should do this.

I want to work for myself, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so we've got to get clear on what's that 15, 20, 25 year play. What's that mountaintop professionally that I want to scale? And I know it's hard when you're coming out of college, but it is possible. It's why I created the Get Clear assessment that we sell at Ramsey Solutions. It helps you go, okay, what is it that I do best? What is it that I enjoy doing? And then what results would give me tremendous motivation and joy if I knew I was producing a result? Remember, all work is around a product or a service. I'm indirectly involved in providing the product or the service,

or I'm directly involved. And so really getting to that, that's really important for this young man. So trying some things, testing some things. Don't put all your eggs in this one real estate basket. Yeah. Finance is such a wide space. He may go, you know what? I really want to be in the banking sector or I want to be a financial analyst or on the investment side versus real estate investment. So I don't think this is a bad move, but you're probably going to have to find an evening job to just pay the bills. And if six months down the road, you're like,

this isn't it, this is not for me, you got to go find something else. But I would also be asking, hey, can you show me what the last five guys have made in the first six months of them starting out? Just very entry level. How long till they see a paycheck yeah i just got to know for my own bills and expenses i think that's a reasonable ask to me yeah i think that's

absolutely right and here's something else too you know get around people um that are in all different areas of finance to your point the banker the the uh the investment advisor you know uh whatever all the options. And just get around at this stage in your career, you're so young, get around some people, multiple different channels, if you will, or lanes, and just shadow them, talk to them, take them to lunch, coffee, and get an idea whether or not that's something you want to try. And I'd even do that with the real estate pro too.

Go, all right, do I really want to go through the next six months? And now's the time when you're a young, single college grad, that's the time to try out all the things and no one's going to miss you if you're working at night. So it's okay. You did that. Yeah. I was working a lot of nights, just side hustling, just trying to get rid of debt, get a savings goal, get a down payment for a house, all of those things. And it didn't kill me, Ken. I'll tell you that much. I survived to tell the tale. You did. You did.

Thanks for the question, Nick. Appreciate it. All right. Cameron is up next on the line in Knoxville, Tennessee. Cameron, what's going on? Hello, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Coleman. How are you all doing this afternoon? Doing well.

How can we help? It's an absolute honor to be able to speak to the two of you all today. I've been listening regularly to the show for about four years, so I'm trying not to fangirl too hard, but no promises. Well, George is used to it. George is used to it. He handles it with grace. I'm 19 and currently studying construction science and management

at the University of Tennessee. I absolutely love it. I've been working construction for a few years now, but decided that I wanted to run a business. So I started a little construction and handyman service here in Knoxville. I recently learned how lucrative this kind of business can be. Coming from a very humble middle-class household, it's really exciting for me just to see a check with four digits on it. This excitement sadly has led me to forget my priority here. I'm a Christian myself, but I've realized that recently I've been spending my life chasing money and business rather than God. You broke up on us, Cameron. Speak directly on your phone. Sorry. I'm sorry. Can you hear me a little better?

There we go. What was the last thing you heard? You said you were chasing money instead of your relationship with God. That's the last thing I heard. Yes, sir. So that moves me to my question. I'm calling today not necessarily for money help, but more so for spiritual guidance. I want to work hard and build a good life for myself and my future family, but I also don't want to live a life focused on my worldly desire for wealth.

How in the chase for success have you each personally dealt with prioritizing your relationship with God uh I'll jump in first and just say that I appreciate the question but but you working and being successful is not mutually exclusive from having a relationship with God. Like, you should be able to do both. In fact, I believe if you're going to ultimately be successful, you've got to understand what the success is based in. I'll give you a verse that stuck with me. My dad gave it to me when I was probably 16, so not much younger than you.

2 Timothy 2.15, this is the King James Version. That's the one I've got memorized, so you can look it up in a different version. It's a little old school, but it says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed. That's just part of the verse. And that stuck with me, and I believe that Genesis chapter 2 makes it very clear that we were created to work. And I think, you know, you look at Colossians 3.23, do your work as unto the Lord. You know, work itself is, in fact, what God created you to do. In fact, I think there's two primary purposeful roles in a human. One is relationship, first and foremost, whatever the relationship situation you've got in your life, and the relationship with God.

So with God and then with your family, that's your primary role. There's purpose in that role. And I think there's purpose in your work role, whatever it is. And so I would just encourage you that you're not choosing between one or the other. You can absolutely go after it to be successful financially and vocationally. But that does not in any way cancel out you having the ability to be successful spiritually. George? Yeah, I think this is going to take a reframing, Cameron, to go, all right, money's not evil. Wealth is not evil. 1 Timothy 6.10 says the love of money is the root of all evil. And so we've got to search in our heart and

go, where is this greed and fear and pride coming from? Is it a scarcity mentality because I didn't grow up with money? It sounds like that's a part of it. And when you realize, listen, I'm a steward of this money that God's blessed me with in this business. I want to use it wisely. I'm going to give wisely.

I'm going to spend wisely. I'm going to save wisely. And when you do that, I don't see it as interfering with your relationship with God. In fact, I think it makes the whole thing a whole lot richer. So I hope that helps.

Baby Steps Millionaire's book talks about this. The Legacy Journey talks about this. So check those out. I think that will help you reframe some of this. Our friend Rabbi Lappin's book, Thou Shall Prosper, also a great read on this topic. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Ken Coleman this hour. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Don't be shy. Ken and I, we're very gentle, and we're going to make sure that you get the help you need

with very little judgment. That's true. I don't know if I'd choose the word gentle. Well, you're not the type to get angry and yell at a caller. Yeah. You'll rant about an issue. Yeah, you're not the type to get angry and yell at a caller. You'll rant about an issue, but with callers, I think you're a kind soul. We're here to help. That's it. That's it. And hopefully entertain at times. We're going to try to be fun today. Let's see if we can do that here with Tammy. Who's up next? Tammy in Chattanooga is up next. Tammy, how can we help today? Thank you for taking my call. I'm hoping I can get some advice from

y'all today. Oh, you're going to get advice. Whether or not it's good or not is up to you. Well, in August, my husband and I jumped on the Ramsey train, and since August, we have paid off $22,000 in credit card for the vehicle. Whoa! Choo-choo! Awesome. That's awesome. We now currently owe on our house, and we only owe $150,000 on it. Wow. I show that by figuring, it looks like we can pay this off in two and a half to three years. The problem is we both currently are not investing 15% in our retirement. We both have a pension.

Therefore, when we started in our careers, we never invested in a pension because we had the pension. So we never invested in a 401K. But we currently do that now, but it's only like maybe at 3%. My husband is hoping to retire in a year and a half to two years from his current job, but he'll still work after he retires, but he will be drawing the pension once he retires. So my question is, would you suggest that we go ahead and invest that 15% or go ahead and pay our house off first because we can pay it off in two and a half to three years if we don't invest. And then after we pay the house off, then we can invest a lot into our retirement and continue and do that then. I think you're seeing this as a black

and white A or B issue. I want you to do both of these things. You should be investing 15%. Whatever money's left over, let's throw it at the house. Now, to your point, that might slow this down by six months or a year, right? Possibly a year to a year and a half. Okay. I'm all right with that because that money's going to compound for you for the next 30 years in those investment accounts. So I don't want you to delay investing at the sake of paying off the mortgage a year early. So when it comes to this pension, is this, the company is forcing this out of your paychecks? No, no. Our pension, we are both in public service.

Okay. So we have a pension through that. The problem with pensions is that they're out of your control and they perform very poorly. And so I don't want you just relying on the pension. You should also be investing in that 401k up to that 15%. Okay. How much is being taken out percentage-wise right now for the pension? We don't have to invest in the pension itself, yes. Okay.

Yes. We only contribute to the 401k, but it's like 3% that we're putting in our 401k right now. I would bump that up. And how old are you two? 54, excuse me, 55. Okay. The good news is you also have catch-up contributions that will up your limits in that 401k, which is great. So I would take advantage of those while you can. And that means putting more in there? Putting even more in there. Yes, exactly. Okay. So what's your household income?

Bring home is about $86,000 before taxes is like $136,000. Awesome. All right. So let's do 15% of that and make sure that that's the total amount you're investing over the course of the year. And that will help you guys retire with some extra dignity because I don't want you just relying on this pension, because again, it's out of your control and it performs poorly. So it's going to be great to have different buckets when it comes to retirement to be able to draw from. And what's in the nest egg currently? Do you know what this pension will amount to? I'm not really, I'm thinking our bring home with the pension would probably be about $2,500 to $3,000 a month for him once he retires, which is not much less than what I would say probably bring home for a month would probably be between $3,000 and $4,000.

Okay. So it'd be a little less than he's making now. What's the house worth? Yes. About $260,000. Okay. Yeah. We just don't know what the future holds, what expenses will be, health care costs. Are you going to want to upgrade and house later on or downgrade? We just don't know. And so I'd rather have you have a bigger pile of money. And if that means the house is paid off a year later, so be it. You guys are doing great. Proud of you. Okay. Well, let me ask you one other thing. We have two IRAs. And we thought about taking from them and putting that down on my house. No.

Boo. Okay. Let that grow. And in fact, if you look at our investing strategy, it's match beats Roth beats traditional. And so if you don't have a match, let's fully fund a Roth IRA for the year and then go back to that 401k and finish out the 15% there. And that's going to help, again, add more buckets. And the Roth IRA is great because you have unlimited investing options and it's totally in your control, which is way better than that pension. So you guys are doing the right things, but I want you to follow those baby steps in order.

Baby step four, invest 15%. Baby step six, we're paying off the home early. Once we pay off the house early, then the world is our oyster. We can increase investing far beyond that. And you guys are on track to do that in just a few years. Way to go. All right, let's take a quick one here from Emily in Philadelphia. Emily, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you? Good. What's going on? So I just have a question about a family business. I have worked for my dad for as long as I can remember. But this past this past year the business is really bad. Um,

he already sold off half of it, um, the previous year and now this year business is bad again. So we ended up closing for the season. Um, we're usually just pretty busy in the summer. Um, so right now I'm out of work, but I am staying home with my two kids. Uh, there are two and, um, well, almost three and one. So I'm trying to decide if I should go back to work or if I should just kind of like see what happens with the business

or if I should just go find another job. I'm just trying to figure out where I should go next. What's the number one priority with this and what I mean by that is do you need to go back to work in other words if the season comes back around and you don't have a job is that going to affect you guys tremendously or could you make it without it and is that your priority to stay home with the kids? I love what I do and I love working outside the home. Right now we're on baby step three and we should be done baby step three by March. So our main goal is just like throw everything at like what we can to save up. We do expect to have another child at some point

fairly soon. So and I probably I't know, I don't think I have to go back to work, but it would definitely help with our- I would work. Based on what you just told me, George, that's my quick opinion on that. Based on what you said, I think the answer is I would work. I wouldn't wait. Yeah. Are things going to be tight if you decided to stay home today? What does that budget look like? So right now we have about like $2,000 that we're just like throwing into savings. So my husband brings home around like $80,000.

So like we're okay, but like extra money would always be helpful. I would go into every dollar and make a fake budget and pretend like his is the only income and let's add that other kid in as a line item in the budget, the diapers, the expenses, and see what that would do monthly for you guys. If that's going to feel tight, if you can't then invest 15% of that income into retirement, and you can't put anything away for college, and you can't put anything toward the house,

then that tells me things are too tight, and we either need to find a way for him to make more money, or for you to work part-time in order to close that gap. Okay. Does that help? Yeah, that helps. I haven't ever done another job other than what I've been doing since I was a kid, so I don't really know. Yes, but you do have some skills that are transferable and experience that's transferable. So think about how the skills and experience from what you have done can be translated. Hang on the line. Let's get her the Get Clear career assessment, which will help as well.

Thanks so much for the call, Emily. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Ken Coleman, my co-host, all the folks in the booth, and you, America. We'll be back before you know.