The Ramsey Show - App - I Don't Want My Husband To Buy a Dirt Bike! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Christy Wright. I'm an author, speaker, and Ramsey personality, and I'm joined today by my good friend, also an author, speaker, and Ramsey personality, Anthony O'Neill. And we are taking your calls. Give us a call at 888-825-5225

if you have a question about money, life, or business. And Anthony, I love it when we get to host together because we get excited. We go back and forth. And one of the things I like about hosting with you is we'll take these calls and take some questions and then unpack the answer. Absolutely. And really dig into it a little bit deeper. And that's a lot of fun. All right, let's go to the phones. We've got Angela

in Salt Lake City. Hey, Angela, how's it going? Good. How are you? Good. What's your question today? So my husband and I are currently knocking out our our debt and most of our debt is coming from our two vehicles um and we both decided that we're going to sell them this spring because we've got equity in them um the problem that i've got is my husband um wants to use some of that equity to purchase a used dirt bike for the summer. And I know that it wouldn't have a loan on it. Technically we would still own our vehicles outright because we'd be downgrading, but I just wanted to see what your input is on that and if that's a smart move or if it's a bad idea.

I know that he really, his heart's set on it and I've already gotten him to agree with selling his beloved truck. So I just kind of want to know what I can do. Yeah. Is your husband there with you, Angela? No, he's working. Anthony wants to talk directly to him. Angela, could you give us a call back? I'm just kidding.

All right, man. She's sneaking it in while he's gone. That's what's up. She's like, oh, he's gone. Oh, let me just get some outside input here. I love this. And I know Christy's going to have my back. He's a hard worker.

Christy's going to have my back. I actually have your back right now. I'm so ready for this. Well, hey, listen. So let me make sure I understand this correctly. Once you all sell your two cars, you're going to be out of debt. You will have cash cars, correct? Yes.

Okay, cool. How much money will you have in your savings account? Will you have the three to six months in your savings account? No. We currently have the $1,000 in our emergency funds. Then, yeah. I hate to say this without your husband being here because I'm with him thinking we're talking behind his back, but you're right. I mean, we shouldn't be purchasing anything major like that. We need to lay down a solid foundation. And to prevent you all from

going back into debt, you need a fully funded emergency fund. So what's your combined household income right now, Angela? About $95,000. Okay, so $95,000. What's your mortgage payment? Total with our HOA, it's about $1,600. Okay, so $1,600. So right now, you need about $10,000 in your savings account to get the three months of your expenses, I would say. How much is a dirt bike i'm curious so um initially he thought that he

could get one around 3 000 but it seems like the price of things are going up and it's looking more like 4 500 4 to 500 so 4 500 the kind of estimate he gave me okay yeah yeah so that's half of your $500? So $4,500. Oh, okay. I was about to say. Yeah, the kind of estimate he gave me. Okay, yeah, yeah. So that's half of your three to six months. So no. So no.

No. You know what, Angela? I got to tell you, when you said he has his heart set on it, I get that. Man, I get my heart set on things, too. The thing is, is we just have to be grownups, and we have to do things in the right order. And it doesn't mean he can't get the dirt bike ever. It just means we're not going to get it when we don't even have more than $1,000 in our bank account. Right.

Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So just encourage him in that sense. When you break the news to him of this news that Anthony and I have given you when he's been out of the house, please tell him it doesn't mean not ever. It means not right now that's our that's our advice for you and here's a rule of thumb that I go by uh Christy for me okay and this is not really something that Ramsey teaches it's just something that I've been teaching since I've come uh up

underneath Ramsey and teaching something I don't really buy something like that unless I can afford it at least twice. Okay. So it was like for me, when I purchased my used car, if you follow me, you know what I purchased. I won't say here on the radio. I didn't purchase it though

until I had at least twice that amount in my account. Here's why. Let's say he goes and buy the dirt bike and he has the $5,000 cash and then he comes back home. What happens? He has no money. He's broke. So if the happens he has no money he's broke so if the emergency happens no he doesn't have any money so for me my philosophy is on top of my emergency

fund can i afford to purchase this twice if that's a gucci purse if that's a car if that's a backpack if that's a kitchen remodel i remember you gave that example a couple weeks ago when you and i hosted together someone called in with a kitchen remodel and they had like the exact amount of money and no cushion and i remember you saying that same thing yeah yeah you want you want to have some cushion because you don't know what will happen especially on the kitchen remodel you remember that like if the estimate is 20 000 oh you're going to spend about 25 to 30 000 on the car well in that one that example with the kitchen, you don't know how much something's going to cost.

But even with the dirt bike, I mean, I hope nothing ever happens. But that's a very dangerous sport. Is it a sport? Yeah, it is a sport. Is that considered? I don't know. Hobby, whatever. That can be really dangerous.

And I would hate for anything to happen, a wreck, or you have to go to the hospital, anything like that with something so risky, and you got $1,000 in your bank account. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, that's why I say, just make sure you can afford to buy it twice i got that from jay-z for those of y'all asking where i got it from i love it all right let's go to austin in philadelphia hey austin what's going on hello rachel hello anthony how's it going i am christy but i love rachel and that's a compliment no problem no problem i'll take it

yes rachel and ao are here for you. What's up, Austin? I tried. I tried. So basically, I just turned 23. I'm pretty financially secure. I definitely can't complain with that. I stress about money a lot more than the average person.

Well, maybe not. But I don't know about my career. I know I don't want to do it for much longer. I don't know about my career. I know I don't want to do it for much longer. I don't know when I should transition. I do highway construction. Okay. And when you say financially secure, what's your savings?

You're debt-free? Yeah, I owe $18,000 on my car. And I got about, between my real estate and other savings, I have about half a million. What? You have $500,000 in your account through three investments? I have about, give or take, about $300,000 in... How much do you have liquid? ...like mutual funds and stuff like that. Cool.

IRAs, 401ks. Okay, cool. How much do you have liquid in your savings account right now I have a little over a hundred thousand a little over a hundred thousand okay cool great and I also own a house cash okay cool great um uh because we're about to go to break bro I'm gonna help you out real quick um you are secure okay you need to take that money out and pay off your car. Why do you have a house debt-free but you still have $18,000 on your car?

So I would go ahead and pay that off. In regards to the career perspective or side of things, not perspective, but to the career side of things, I would encourage you, it sounds like you're not happy, I would encourage you to check out

our good friend Ken Coleman, who is our career expert. I will call into his show on Monday and tell him, hey, I'm great financially. Just paid off my car. Chrissy and Anthony told me to do that on Friday. Can you help me find or figure out how to

land my sweet spot into a career that I actually love? He will help you out with that. So give him a call Monday or Tuesday of next week and he'll walk you through that. But, hey, young man, you're killing the game. This is The Ramsey Show. This time last year, we didn't know how our lives were going to change.

We didn't have a clue that COVID, job loss, and homeschooling were about to take over our daily existence. And you may be feeling like last year got away from you. Maybe you lost complete control of your money. Or maybe you had to find a new job quickly to make ends meet. The bad news is a lot can happen in a year. But the good news is a lot can happen in a year. Which is why now is the time to think about where you want to be this time next year.

And if you're looking for a proven plan to get back on track, our number one bestselling book, The Total Money Makeover, will walk you through the seven baby steps for getting out of debt faster, creating a budget you can stick to, building real wealth, and becoming outrageously generous. Get your copy of The Total Money Makeover today at the online store at DaveRamsey.com or call our Ramsey concierge team at 888-22-PIECE. That's 888-227-3223. I'm Christy Wright.

Co-hosting with me today is Anthony O'Neill. We are good friends. We are Ramsey Personalities, and we are here for you answering your calls about money, life, business, life balance. Tough situation you're in. You're not sure which decision to make, and you just want an outside person to give you a new perspective. We are here for you.

All right, we're going to go to the phones. We've got Nikki in Richmond, Virginia. Hey, Nikki, how's it going? Hi, how are y'all doing today? Good. How can Anthony and I help? Good. Thank you so much for taking my call.

I do appreciate it. So we're debt-free. We actually are on Baby Step 7. We was there to the station in December to do our debt-free screen. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. So we do have a question now.

So our household income is around $138,000 to $140,000 a year base pay and um so what we're calling for is um we're living in um a home now that my husband purchased when um he was single um and during that time um when our debt fee journey we wanted to go ahead and include the mortgage because it was like only only like 52 thousand dollars on it so that's how we became debt free the home is older it was built in 1956 and we've been living here. And we intended not to live here forever, but we had a plan to purchase our together home. And so we were going to stay here for two or three years to save up for the house because we were thinking the value was like $120,000. But we had an ELP to come out on yesterday, and since it's a seller market,

he told us what the comp price was, and now the value is $165,000. So, with our initial plan was to stay in the home for two or three years to save to do the $100% down, but given it's a seller market, should we sell now and take approximately $150,000 and then go into apartment for a year and a half to two years until we have enough for 100% down? Or do we continue to stay in the home that we're in for another two to three years and then sell? But I guess my only fear is, will it still be a seller market at that time? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I sold my house as well when it was a seller's market. I'm telling you right now, your house

will not be on the market for long. I mean, I sold my house within a matter of like 20, not even 30 minutes. I mean, the house received offers. So I think right now it's up to you and your family. I mean, do you you if i was in your shoes yes i'm putting a house on the market today um and then i'm gonna go rent something real small um just so we can stay low on our expenses so we can save up more money and then when it when it becomes a buyer's market uh then i'm gonna go out there because i do believe it's a mountain you're gonna have a seller's market buyer's market seller's market buyer's market, then I'm going to go out there because I do believe it's a mountain. You're going to have a seller's market, buyer's market, seller's market, buyer's market. And so as soon as the buyer's market comes back around, absolutely, you should be able to go out there and find something great.

Yeah, great question. And the one thing I would add to this is for those of you guys that are calling in with real estate questions, that type of thing, Anthony and I are always, as are always the Ramsey personalities, we're talking with each other and we're talking with our ELPs. We're talking with Dave Ramsey himself. Say, hey, we got a call. We weren't sure about this.

And this is one of those questions that we have heard directly from Dave that this is what he would recommend to do, which is interesting to me because the nature of the market we're in right now is so unique. And it's one of those things where it's like, oh, what is the right thing to do? And so, yeah, that's something we've been talking about here. And it's one of those things where it's like, oh, what is the right thing to do? And so, yeah, that's something we've been talking about here.

And congratulations, Nikki. You've done a great job to build a solid foundation. This is not a step back for you. It's a strategic step forward. It's just a little, looks a little bit different than maybe what you had in mind.

But great question. All right. We have got a question from Andrew in L.A. Hey, Andrew, how's it going? Oh, it's going pretty well. I just wanted to say that you, Christy, and A.L., you're a dream team, and I'm hoping that you guys co-host more often.

We help each other really well. Hey, man, she gets me in trouble sometimes. You get yourself in trouble. I just highlight it. I believe that. Hey, hold up, bro. Really? What's your question, Andrew?

What's your question? So my job is mobile, and I can do it from pretty much anywhere in the world. And my wife wants to be a writer for kids animation. In 2019, she landed her dream job working on a popular children's show, and we moved to Los Angeles. And then the pandemic hit, and there were a lot of changes in her company. She was let go, and they're not going of changes in her company. She was let go, and they're not going to be bringing her back when things lift up. She's been trying her hardest to network, grow her online following, talk to the right people, improve her skills. She's often working like 60 hours a week to do that. And she's landed a few freelance gigs, but all of them are

short-term, and none of them require her to live in Los Angeles. It's been over a year, and living in the city has been really draining on both my emotions and our finances. And I want her to live in Los Angeles. It's been over a year and living in the city has been really draining on both my emotions and our finances. And I want her to achieve her dream, but it's really hard to justify living in such an expensive area when we're getting little to no benefit from being here. At what point should we throw in the towel and move to a less expensive area, probably out of state, or should we just double down on pursuing her dream for as long as we can? I think whenever, we've talked about this before, Anthony, but whenever I feel like it's these extreme examples, it's this or this, and they both feel really extreme, and they both feel really

bad, I start to feel a little anxious, and I would say it doesn't have to be that. I would say that should you move out of California, I would if I were you. You've been there a year, you've given it a shot, and the job she's getting, she doesn't have to be there. Does that mean you can never come back? No. Does it mean she can't do her dream job somewhere else? No. I mean, I just would take the pressure off of like you have to make your lifelong decision based on right now, which is a weird couple years, a weird market, job market, real estate market, all of that.

I would just say if you don't have to be there right now, and I mean, I'm assuming you and your wife have talked about this, but that she's okay with moving too. Yeah, I would. If I were you, I would get those jobs that don't require you to be in California, save a lot of money, have a lot of fun, see a new area, have options. And then if in a different year, a different time, a different season, you look at your options and you want to go back because there's something that only happens there, then you can. But the reason that you're there is no longer there anymore. And so when things change, things need to change. So I would head out.

Yeah, I think I'm almost there with you too as well, Chrissy. Andrew, what's y'all's household income right now? She brought in around $30,000 last year from her freelance gigs, and I brought in about net net probably about 150 000 150 and uh she brought in 30 000 net as well um probably gross so probably closer to like 20 000 net because again taxes are really high here okay so 170k yeah man i'm leaving i'm I'm leaving California with that. I mean, now 170 is still not bad income. You know, it goes quick in L.A. It goes real quick in L.A. Yeah, it moves fast in California, period.

California, New York. So if I'm if I'm you again, me personally, I'm looking at places like Tennessee, like Texas, somewhere to where I can get something nice, be very comfortable somewhere that has like a lot of land and I can buy some things. So I would definitely leave, man. I will be having a conversation with my wife tonight in San Bay by this summer. I think it's time to leave. Now, here's the thing. Don't forget, just like our last call, you're in a seller's market.

So I wouldn't be trying to buy anything right now. I would move somewhere, rent something for the rest of the rest of this year, stack up some bread. And then let me ask you this question. And you might have said this, so I'm sorry if I'm repeating, but do you have any debt right now? Just a mortgage on a rental property that we were living in. And then when we moved here for the job, we kept it and we're paying that off. It's worth, we bought it at 545 and we paid it down to about 112 right now. Okay, cool. Great. And then you have, how much money do you have liquid to you right now? Cash in a savings? Liquid? Let's see. I have a roughly,

oh gosh, after I make my step IRA contribution, it'll be around 40,000-ish in our emergency fund. And then I have a non-retirement mutual fund that has about 90,000 in it. Yeah, so move. Yeah, I'm saying move. I mean, look into some of these states and see where y'all want to go. And the reason why I say Texas is because it's a 45-minute flight back to L.A. if something was to come up with her dreams down the road. I just want to point out one thing, Andrew. You are a really supportive husband. Yeah. The fact that y'all moved there for her dream job, you're staying for her dream job, you're considering staying longer for her dream job.

She's bringing in $30,000 a year with this dream. We're trying to get it going, and you are still believing in her. That is an awesome husband. Well done for believing in her. Yeah, man. I'm really impressed by that. So regardless of where you end up, she's got a good husband that believes in her, and y'all are going to be just fine. You're doing great financially, and you're going to be just fine.

Well done. Mentor some of us other brothers with that same love, brother. This is The Ramsey Show. Well, are you tired of feeling stuck with your money? Like you'll never get out of debt or save enough for the future? Listen, it doesn't have to be that way. You can make progress with your money and faster than you think. But the only way to make it happen is with a budget. That's why you need a Ramsey Plus membership.

You'll get access to the premium version of our EveryDollar budgeting app where you will first plan out every dollar that you'll spend and save before the month begins. Also, connect your budget to your bank so you never miss a transaction and even get custom reports that show you where you can find more money to put towards your goals. When you budget and actually get intentional with your money, you will make progress fast. And you can start budgeting for free today. To start your free trial of Ramsey Plus, go to DaveRamsey.com.

That's DaveRamsey.com. All right, let's go to Derek in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Hey, Derek, how's it going? Good. How about yourself? Good. What's your question for Anthony and I? So I have a question about investment.

My wife and I have a little bit of extra pocket cash that I've held on to for quite some time. And I want to know what would be the best investment to put my money in. I have about $8,000 that I have in pocket cash, and I would like to have it make some money. I do currently have a 401k with my job that I have right now. And I know that $8,000 ain't much, but we do have the thousand dollars for the emergency funds. We have the three months in the bank and everything else. So I just want to put it somewhere instead of underneath my bed. I like that, man. Now, Hey, I just want to make sure I'm of underneath my bed. I like that, man. Now, hey, I just want to make sure I'm clear. You have no consumer debt, no student loans, no credit cards, none of this, correct?

No, sir. I worked my tail off to pay it all off, get everything paid off. The only thing that we do have right now is a mortgage that we just bought our first house with. So walk me through baby step four, where we're investing 15%. How much are you investing in your 401k right now? Well, that's where it kind of gets a little tricky because I'm the only source of income right now. And I did knock it down to the matching, what they matched me 5%. And I'm putting in 5% right now. My wife is a stay at home mom, and she's going to be working here in the next six to eight months, something like that. Okay.

Are you investing into a Roth IRA? Any mutual funds? No, sir, I am not. All right, cool. So that's where you're going to put this extra $8,000 because, again, we want you to invest 15% of the household income. So right now you're only investing 5%. So what we need to do is take this other $8,000 and put that inside of an investment. But then also moving forward every month, you're going to be matching your 5%, which is 401k.

Then you're going to take some more money and you're going to put that inside of a Roth IRA. So I would definitely jump on the line with one of our smart best of pros, have them walk you through this whole process because you may, depending on your income, you may not be able to, you'll max out your Roth IRA, but then you may have some extra money left over from there as well with your 15%. So we may come back to your 401k, dump some stuff into that. Or if you have an HSA with your job,

we could dump some of that money into your HSA. But right now, I think the key thing is the very first thing is you need to go max out your Roth IRAs, jump on the line with one of our smart investor pros, go to DaveRamsey.com, type in smart investor, and you'll get phone calls from about five to six of our smart investor pros.

And here's the thing, Derek, interview all of them, man, because what I hear in him, Christy, is that he's very passionate. He's trying to do the right thing. And so when it comes to investors and financial advisors, sit down and find the best fit for you and your wife and someone that can teach you along this along your journey here uh so great question man love it um love your heart uh congratulations on being debt free yeah i love it when someone has extra cash and they're like where can i invest it not what can i buy so you're you're gonna do great well done all right we've got taylor in south bend ind Hey, Taylor, how's it going? It's going, thank you. Yeah. What's your question? Well, I'm just working on just the next step. I'll be 26 this year. My girl will be 26.

You're cutting out on us, Taylor. You're 26. You have a girlfriend that's 26. I'm trying to piece it together here. I'm sorry. We were fortunate enough to buy a house in December before this crazy spring market. I have no debt. She has probably. Yeah, sorry. Sorry, Taylor. We cannot hear you. Maybe call back when you've got a little bit better connection.

Let's move on to Nathan in Des Moines. Let's see here. There we go. Nathan, how are you? Oh, I'm good. Thank you so much for having me on, guys. Yeah. How can Anthony and I help? So this is a relationship question, sort of just in general terms. Since I'm in my second year in college, I was kind of putting my nose to the grindstone for like my first two years doing like 18 credit hours. And I was going to drop that for my junior and senior year once the coursework becomes heavier. But I just wanted to know how much should I like put towards like my social life since I sort of felt left out on some things. But like, what would you guys say?

Like, how much should I like try to put towards the social life? I'm curious about the why behind that. Are you trying to graduate early? What's the reason for getting such a large course load? So it was mostly because my father is, like, one of the big influences in my life. He's, like, he said, like, to always push to do the best you can. And I was like, you you're right because he's paying pretty much through my way through college so i gotta like make sure that i impress my parents

you know i can't hurt the piggy bank so yeah yeah yeah well let me ask you this question you are you're young man um and i feel like you're you're feeling like man i'm missing out on fun i'm missing out on life but are you really missing out on life because you're working hard and you're using your youthfulness uh wisely right now uh i i don't know i because it's like everyone tells about how like college is this experience and then i see like the parties and stuff happen and you always get that like sort of feeling like i kind of wish i was there yeah let me hold on hold on let me let me help you out here brother we're gonna we're gonna park right here we're gonna park right here because i just want to

say this right because i'm not on i'm not at the table so I can't say you know certain things on the Ramsey show uh but here here's what you're not seeing you're seeing parties but you're also could be seeing I'm not gonna say everyone who parties uh they are not uh good students they're not making A's but I what I don't want you to do is is look at the fun life look at uh the exterior life and see kids partying. You're seeing kids having boyfriends and girlfriends. You're seeing your peers having fun. You do not know what's on the flip side of their choices today. OK, what you need to do is be focused on solely your life.

Have a tunnel vision. Hey, I am focusing today. I am getting an education today. I am taking these extra classes today. I am working hard today. I am making the right choice for my life today so that the caliber of my future is better tomorrow. Okay. So yes, are you going to be a little uncomfortable today? Will you miss out on a little bit of things today? Yes, you will. But let me tell you this much, man. The average person is going to work until they're 75, 80 years old. You're not going to be average because you're going to make the right decisions today. You're going to retire at 45. You may become a millionaire at 35. I don't know the way you sound right now. You may be rich before you even can blink. You know what I'm saying? So you got to focus on your life. Don't focus on their life. You focus on your life. Give

your life all the attention. And I promise you down the road, you'll thank yourself for not worrying about what they were doing because they could be in debt. They will be working until they're 80 years old. They will be driving Uber at 90 years old trying to get some money. But you will be in a wise position, man. So don't worry about that stuff. You get fired up. Yeah, when I hear young people. I want to dig into this, though.

When we come back from the break, I want to dig into this because I think you have a really great point. And I have some questions about it. So this is good. This is good because it's a valid question, whether it's about your college or even someone working in a job, working lots of hours. I want to dig into this because this is an important conversation. OK, this is the Ramsey show. Scripture of the day for the word of the lord is right and true he is faithful in all he does that's psalm 33 4 and jack canfield said for every reason it's not possible there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and succeeded.

That's a good word. I like that. I like that. No excuses. No excuses. Okay, Anthony, before we went to break, we had a call. College student working his tail off, 18-hour course load, missing out on friendships. My question for you that I wanted to ask, and we ran out of time, my question for you is, when is enough?

And I mean this literally. So you could always work more. You could always take more classes. You could do more, more, more, more to make more progress faster. At one point, do you go, I am pushing the limits. I'm working really hard. I'm being a good steward of my time, my course load, my work, whatever that thing is for you. Because this isn't just a college student question. You could apply this to work. I could get six extra jobs. At what point is it enough? And you go, yeah, I'm not going to, I don't want it to be this black hole of like it's never enough, it's never enough.

And you don't get to enjoy your life. Now, I don't want him going to parties, but to have friendships or have hobbies or have time off, at what point, because you, for the longest time, worked with teens and college students. I know you still do. At what point do you say like,

hey, you're doing a great job. You can go on a picnic, something the longest time, worked with teens and college students. I know you still do. At what point do you say, like, hey, you're doing a great job. You can go on a picnic, something, you know, virtuous on the weekends, whatever, where it's not a bad thing to have a life. I'm curious. No, and Christy, I actually learned this from you. You know, you teach priorities, you know, and I think for me, once you set your priorities in life just make sure that those priorities are being accomplished so if education is your number one priority right now then I think that you need to be focused on that and what is that what what what do you have to do to accomplish that now do you need to be taking you know 10 classes a semester no um i mean but can you take some extra classes a semester right

absolutely um but if after prior if after education uh relationships healthy relationships are important to you and then yes you know you make time to build healthy relationships but for me i think i i tend to focus on one thing and one thing only probably one of the main reasons why I'm not married yet, because I was focused on transitioning into this new career that I had. Yeah. And so I really wanted to focus solely on just, you know, learning Ramsey's culture, learning everything we teach and talk about when it comes to finances. And I was in I was studying, I was learning everything about Dave, learning everything about our team. Now I'm in the season to where I'm ready for a relationship. That's actually my number one priority right now.

So I'm focused on that and other things fall behind that. So I think once you just outline your priorities, then you're able to really gauge from, okay, what am I doing too much? What am I actually not doing enough of? Yeah. It's interesting. That's a really good point because I've noticed in my life and especially working with different personality types and people with different strengths and weaknesses, I feel like that, at least for me in my faith, God is always stretching me where I'm

weak. So I tell people, you know, if you're that type A go-getter workaholic, you have a bent towards being a workaholic. You have a bent towards, you know, at all costs, you might need to learn to take a Sabbath. Yes. You might need to learn to make a friend. Yeah. But for the person that they're doing the bare minimum, they're taking hardly any classes, they're just skating by, you need to give it some gusto. Yes.

You need to work hard. So it's almost like we all kind of tend to swing to these extremes. And I think the growth happens when you grow in areas that you're weak. When you figure out what is hard for me, and let me do that. So even just I was curious with him because that's one of those things where it's like he sounds like that go-getter. That's like he is a perfectionist. He's hardworking, which is awesome. But at the same time, maybe there's some growth there.

All right, great conversation. All right, we're going to go to Ferris in Houston, Texas. Hey, Ferris, how's it going? Good. How are y'all doing today? Good. What's your question for Anthony and I today? So I just recently graduated 2019, December, and I have about $20,000 in student loan debt that has been deferred. I haven't had to pay one payment yet.

And I recently, in October, I bought a car. I make about $55,000 a year pre-tax. $55,000? $55,000, yes. And the reason why I bought a car is because I got 72 months interest free and my car payment is only about 280 a month. I was wondering if I should sell my car now. Sell it. Anthony's not sure how he feels about this. Let's give him a minute.

Hang on, Ferris. Let's let him think about it. What in the world, man? I hate hearing that. I got 72 months interest free. Zero interest. You're still in debt? You're still in debt? 72 months interest-free, zero interest. You're still in debt? You're still in debt? It's not free money, Ferris.

You're still in debt? Yeah. You're still in debt, Ferris? Mm-hmm. What kind of car did you buy? A Toyota Camry SXC. You bought a Toyota Camry what? A Toyota Camry.

It's an XRC. How much was it? How much did you pay for it? I put down $9,000 down payment. I have about $20,000 left on it. Okay, so your total debt is $40,000? Yes. Right now, my total debt is about $40,000.

So let me get this straight. Before you got the car, you had $20,000 in debt. And you had $9,000 in debt and you had $9,000 cash. Yeah, and I also have about $17,000 or $18,000 in the stock market. Okay. Ferris, I'm going to calm down, bro. Walking through the baby steps.

I'm going to walk you through the baby steps, Ferris, and then I need to interview you on my show because I think a lot of young people would love your story. All right. So, Ferris, and then I want you to, I need to interview you on my show because I think a lot of young people would love your story. All right. So, Ferris, here's what I'm going to recommend, man. Here's what, your income right now is $55,000 a year. You owe $20,000 left on the car.

All right. So, here's what I want you to do. Right now, you need to put all, you need to stop everything you're doing, and you need to go um i'm going to give you a free year of ramsey plus okay so stay on the line when we get off kelly's going to give that to you and i want you to watch all the classes okay because i don't have enough time to walk you through all the baby steps but baby step number one is a thousand dollars in your emergency fund the number two is you're going to pay off all of your debt using the debt snowball the reason why i'm kind of like if you're watching me on YouTube,

you see my facial expressions and my hands going all over the place and I know the producer's probably saying, Anthony, calm down. And Chrissy's like, oh, my Lord, Anthony's getting upset. It's because I'm hearing a young man, you could have been debt-free, bro. You could have been 100% debt-free

and you could have paid cash for the car. You're the young man that I wish I could have got a hold of you three months ago before you purchased a car because I would have said, all right, cool, let's get you a car. You got $17,000 in single stocks right now, right?

Say it again. It's all in Apple. It's all in Apple. Yeah, so $17,000 in single stocks. You had $9,000 in cash. So you're. So $17,000 in single stocks. You had $9,000 in cash. So you're sitting at $28,000. Well, yes, about $28,000, about $27,000 right there. So I'm like, man, listen, let's pay off the $20,000 in debt.

And then let's take the rest of that. Go buy a cash car for right now. And then from there, let's start working our way up to go ahead and get you into the Toyota Camry, into something a little bit more nicer that you really wanted. But right now, we can't do that. So I want you to go ahead and focus on paying off this $20,000 in student loans. You're going to line your debt up from smallest to largest. And you have two options. Okay.

And I'm going to treat you just like how Dave was here. You have two options. Okay. And I'm going to treat you just like how Dave was here. You have two options. You can sell the car, which I would do in your situation. Or because it is only worth, it's less than half of your actual income. You can just get very aggressive with it and pay that car off. But if you go that route, man, I'm talking about you need to go out there and get you an extra job. It's a nice car. You need to be driving for Uber. You need to be delivering pizza.

I want to see you debt-free within the next six months. Bottom line. You can sell your car. That would be great. The problem that you're going to have from there is will you have the cash to go buy you a used car? That's the problem. If you're saying, hey, Anthony,

I can sell the car and get the cash to go buy a new car, I'm going that route. If you're saying, Anthony, I can bust my butt within the next six months to pay off all of my debt, I'm cool with that too. Yeah, the thing to remember too as well, Ferris, is it's not free money. Don't make this mistake

again. When you get debt free, like Anthony told you, the next time someone says, oh, 0% interest for however long, it does not matter. You're still in debt. It is still buying something you cannot afford. When you do that, you are taking steps backwards,

not steps forward. In America, it's not free. It was just included inside of your car. Okay? That's it. Anthony, this is good. This was fun today. We get fired up. I love hanging out with you.

I want to thank producer James Childs, associate producer Kelly Daniel, my co-host Anthony O'Neill, and you, America, for hanging out with us. This is The Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.