The Ramsey Show - App - I Have $120,000 Buried in Tin Cans (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

George Kamel & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: I have $120,000 buried in tin cans, How digital subscriptions can be death by a thousand cuts, High-yield savings accounts, The "rent-a-chicken" trend, Convincing a boyfriend to pay off his debt. 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, hosting this hour with my friend, Jade Warshaw. We're taking your calls, America, at 888-825-5225. Jim kicks us off in Austin, Texas. Jim, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

How can we help today? Well, I'm looking for some advice on how to invest $120,000 in cash. Whoa. I retired in 2010 from my first job. I've been working a second job full-time now. And over the years, I've saved a lot of money. And I've got about three different bank accounts with money in, so I'm financially good there. But I have $120,000 in tin cans buried in the backyard

that ain't making me no money. Wow. So I thought I would try to find out what I can do. We finally found the guy with the tin cans of money in the backyard. Wow. Let's start with your address. Where exactly can we find it's going to treasure hunt? Jim's like, he's like, my name is not Jim and I don't live in Austin. Fooled you. Well, if I told you, I'd have to shoot you. Oh, man. I believe you, Jim. I totally, I'm not going near Jim's property. So you've done a great job saving. Do you have any debt? I have no debt whatsoever. In 2010, I paid everything off, and I work for the municipality that I work for now, and I do a lot of security jobs on the side, and I have been able to really, really save a lot of money. My wife is retired, and I should be retired. I'm at 67 years old.

Do you just like working? I do like working. I don't like sitting at home. I retired in 2010. I stayed retired six months. Didn't like it, so I got a job. Good for you. That's awesome. Okay. How much money do you have? Do you have anything invested, or is this all just sitting in checking accounts and savings accounts? Well, I have two bank accounts, two different banks, and then I have a credit union that's a money entity too. So those three accounts is only making whatever the interest rate is for the banks. Oh, that stinks.

So it's not— What's the total of all that money that's in the banks? About $125,000. Okay, so you've got $125,000 in banks and then $120,000 in cash. And you're wanting to invest this? And I'm wanting to invest at least $120,000 in cash because I know it's not making me any money.

Well, even the money that's sitting in those banks, you could do way better in a high-yield savings account. You could be making 3% or 4% on that instead of, you know, zero to a half percent. Okay. Well, that's what the advice I need and how to do that and what to do to get to that point. Now I would tell you, I have a CD for the wife and one of the accounts were 6,000. So there's another 6,000 there. And then I do invest in the 457 program. I'm not sure if you're aware of that, how that works through the county. Is that like a deferred compensation?

Exactly. Okay. And I have about $15,000 in that. Do you have any retirement options through your current employer? Yes. What are those options? Well, I'm drawing an annuity from my first job, a considerable amount of money. I'm drawing Social Security because I'm at 66 in two months.

I'm drawing full Social Security there. How much? Do you have a 401K or anything through work? No. Okay. It's the two-to-one match through the county. I was a TMRS before when I retired from the other one. Now it's a Texas Municipal County retirement. Okay.

Both of them are good retirements. So do you need the income created from these investments, or are you living off of the annuity and Social Security plus your current income? That's what I'm living off of the annuity and Social Security plus your current income? That's what I'm living off of. I don't really use this other money for anything other than just sitting there. Okay. Even in the bank accounts, I just let it sit there. So I would leave enough to have a fully funded emergency fund in that high-yield savings account, and it sounds like you'd be more comfortable having more money in there. Are you going to plan on making any big purchases in the next few years? No. Okay. You've got to pay for a house? Yes, sir.

Great. So the first focus you want to look into is tax advantaged accounts, meaning things that have some kind of tax implication that can help you avoid paying Uncle Sam his due. And so that would be things like a 401k or anything Roth. So a Roth IRA. What's your household income? It's just me right now. So it's, let's see, 30, 30, 60, probably around 90 to 100,000 a year. Okay. Yeah, you've got options to make this work a whole lot more for you than these bank accounts. And so beyond... Tomorrow, the wife starts on her Social Security, so we'll have her income coming in. Woo!

Payday. Yes. Well, you guys have done really well. I mean, I know it hurts to look back and go, man, over the 12 years this money's been sitting here, it could have grown at 8%, 10, 8 to 10, 12 percent. And instead it just, you know, couldn't beat inflation. I could kick myself for letting it sit there, but if I'm ever going to retire and be comfortable, I need some advice and some help to get some kind of investments in it. Yeah. Well, I would for sure, you need to connect with an investing professional

who can walk you through all of your options and dig into all the details. And we've got some that we vet all over the country. We have some in the Austin, Texas area that can help you. If you just jump onto ramseysolutions.com and click on Ramsey Recommends, you can connect with a SmartVestor Pro. And they'll walk you through,

hey, Jim, here's all of your options that we could do with this money. They're not going to force you to do anything. You still call the shots. They're just going to educate you on what you could do and where to invest that money to help it grow. They're probably going to recommend things like mutual funds. These are groups of hundreds and thousands of stocks

that can help your money grow with way less risk than just a single stock in one company. Okay. That's an example. There's index funds that you could also invest in, which are just tracking, you know, like the S&P 500, tracking the top 500 publicly traded companies and their growth. We're kind of all banking. That's what the economy is really based on when we look at the stock market is that S&P 500. So there's a lot of options, and you still got time. How old are you? I'm 67. So, I mean, Jim, we still got, what, 30 years ahead of us here to invest this money and let it

grow. Hope so, yes, sir. You got kids? That's what I'm looking for. Yes, but they're all married and grown, and I've got three grandkids and one on the way. I love that. Well, you know, I'm a Bible believer man, and it says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. And so that's a great goal for you to have. Well, I do have, for the three that I already have, I do have my accounts

for them set up at the credit union. Love it. Man, well, you're off to a great start. You've got some homework to do, Jim, which is let's research a good high-yield savings account. There's a ton out there. You can look into Marcus by Goldman Sachs or Ally. We don't have any affiliation with them. You just want to make sure they're FDIC insured, which means your money's covered just like it would be with that credit union. And those for sure are. And then connect with that SmartVestor Pro and get investing.

Don't just leave this sitting in a checking account. It breaks my heart to hear you've got six figures that have been sitting out there for over a decade, man. But you've done really well. And being debt free really helps the situation, Jay. We love to hear that. So thanks for the call, Jim. More of your calls coming up on The Ramsey Show. ស្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប្រូវាប់ពីប� I'm George Campbell joined by Jade Warshaw this hour this is the Ramsey Show the number to call is 888-825-5225. Joel joins us up next in Greenville, South Carolina. Joel, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I don't really have a question. I really just wanted to share kind of what I've been able to accomplish and what I've learned about my finances in the last year or so, I've never really struggled with credit cards,

but my problem has been subscriptions. The $5, $10 monthly or bill you once a year type subscriptions. I figured up that I was paying sometimes $200, $300 a month in those things, because here's what happens. They say $10 a month or $8 a month if you pay for a whole year. And then you forget about it. A year later in February, suddenly you get a bill for $100. And like, where'd this come from? I wasn't planning for that. Absolutely. That's a tough one. So what was your solution? I've been on a year-long war against subscriptions and canceling any of them that I can. And here's what happened.

So you have Netflix and you start thinking you own those movies. You don't. You stop paying to go away, right? So it's like you kind of feel like you're going to lose something. But I realized if you want to sign up, they'll let you sign up the next week. So I've been canceling them as much as possible. I especially hate the ones that lock you in because you feel like you're dependent on them. I'm sick of Gmail and getting all spammed. Oh, the storage. Dude, I just did that, Joel. I gave Google my $2 so they'd stop threatening me

that I'm not going to get email anymore. No joke. I had three cloud backup services, three or four photo backup services, two music subscriptions, five streaming services. It was just nuts. Wow. And a partridge in a pear tree. How old are you, Joel? I'm curious. I'm in my mid-40s. And it's like some of them I had for years. And also like your Amazon Prime. Studies show that people with Prime subscriptions pay more on Amazon. The longer you have them, the more you pay on Amazon. And so it was like I'd had that for like ever since they started. Then it's like ingrained in your life.

It's like you're passing this down to your kids, your Amazon account. You're dependent on their photo backup. You're dependent on their music service. You're dependent on their music service, and they etch their way into every part of your life. Digging their claws into you. I'm sick of it. Absolutely. Well, I'm glad you fought back against it, Joel. And for the listeners out there, there's a lot of ways they can rally against this. Number one is just paying attention to their money. When you sign up for something, go ahead and add it as a line item in your budget. And inside of EveryDollar, our budgeting tool, you can actually add a due date. And so

you'll know exactly when that's going to come due, you know exactly when it's going to happen, and you'll know to cancel too. I set calendar reminders all the time when I sign up for stuff. I'll set multiple calendar reminders for me to cancel it before the time comes due to pay. I'm a little bit more extreme than that. So what I've started is, okay, let's say there's a new season of a show like Stranger Things that I want to watch and I'll sign up for Netflix. I'll cancel it immediately and it will last for that month. It'll still give you the rest of your 29 day trial. Yeah. And that way, again, I'm living intentionally. I'm not letting it, it just get, get, become a habit. And I find that I'm living intentionally. I'm not letting it just become a habit. And I find that I'm not using it

because there's so many companies out there that are banking on people paying for their service, but forgetting about using it. That's so good. So Joel, how much were you actually spending per month? Like when you, at your height, at the height of this addiction, how much were you spending on subscriptions? If you count everything, including the Amazon Prime and all that, it probably got up to $150, $200, sometimes a little bit more than that. Wow. And again, it's the death of a thousand paper cuts, right? Because $10 a year, Audible $15 a month, all this stuff that, again, those are great services if you use them. But again, I just found it just became so much and would just, especially with the annual ones,

you know, even a setting reminders, it never came at a convenient time where, oh, I have $60 more just sitting around that I want to spend on that because, or it would be like, any of these like videos or blogs about 10 websites that will change your life that you didn't know existed, those are all, like, influencers paid marketing commissions to get you to sign up for those. And, you know, I'm in the tech industry. I work for a Microsoft partner. I always, you know, love technology. So it's like I'm a sucker for that, you for that tool that's going to make me more productive,

make me a better note taker, make me more organized. It never does. You don't use the tools you have now. Why is some awesome new AI-powered thing going to make you better at that thing if you don't use what you have now? Well, it's their slick marketing that always makes us think, I'll be more productive, and I've got to get the premium version now because it has this feature.

And so that's a tough thing, Joel, that I think a lot of, you know, especially with the newer generations, Gen Z, millennials, even Gen Xers struggling with is this just digital clutter in our life that's keeping us broke. You know, I know for Sam and I, one of the things we did is, you know, because some of them are slick, like Apple is slick. You just see the payment come out. It'll be like $8.99, but it doesn't say what it was. Oh, exactly. It never says what it's for. And the same thing with Amazon. You know, the charge comes and it's just, you know, $27.99.

You don't know what it was for. So we really started getting intentional about labeling as they came into our every dollar budget, we would label it and really track it towards where it was going. And then you really see, man, like Amazon, it's not just subscriptions. Like, are you paying, is it for groceries? Is it household goods?

Is it just crap? You know what I mean? And I think that when you label it out and then you go through the Apple ones and you label them out, you're like, okay, this one was Spotify and this one was, you know, the workout app. You can really start to see where you're spending and where you're starting to overlap. And better than that, just setting a budget on I am only going to spend no matter what.

I only have seventy five dollars to spend on subscriptions. And then, like you said, it's like, hey, I might have to cancel Paramount Plus this month. That's right. How are you going to see the new iCarly reboot, Jade? I'm watching Yellowstone, George. I don't know what you're watching. I'm trying to watch 1883 out here. Shots fired to the iCarly fans out there. Well, Joel, I'm glad you fought back against the system and saved yourself, you know, $150 a month. Way to go. That's great. Yeah, absolutely. And it just, for one thing, it makes your finances and your budget so much simpler because you don't have a million things that say Apple, Apple, Apple, or Google, Google, Google. It's kind of like,

you know, you set the power off to your house, you try to get the little meter to stop spinning, it never does. Same thing. It's like, just can't get those to stop and you know that's why again it's taken me a full year because i've still been getting and even like saturday i saw an ad for some new streaming service and i almost hit the button subscribe to the thing you know i i want to watch those shows like i don't have time for that stuff oh yeah i mean when we have four subscriptions there's just too much content out there already. So I feel good. I get no greater joy than canceling a subscription that I was not using. I know that's right. And can we just say, if you're in baby step two, you don't have time for these subscriptions

because you're out here working. That's right. You don't have time to watch Netflix and Hulu and Paramount Plus and YouTube TV. If you have that much time, you are not working enough. And then still complaining that you can't get rid of the debt fast enough. Yes. No. So, yeah. Well, here's a fun little exercise for you. If you're an iPhone user, just go to your settings,

click on your name at the top, and then click on your subscriptions, and it will show you a whole list of all your subscriptions, and you can just tap on it and cancel it. I love that feature. So there we go. I just figured I subscribed to the Stormwatch app that I'm going to cancel right now in front of America for 99 cents a month I was paying. Look what because I got freaked out by a storm coming through. And so Nashville Severe Weather, who I love on Twitter, was like, hey, you might want to get your own local app for this to really track it. It'll, you know, alarm if a tornado is coming through by your house. You just saved yourself $12 a year, George. And here's a life hack James will appreciate,

our producer. There's a site called privacy.com. I have no affiliation with them, but you can create basically one-time use debit cards with limits and time limits and transaction limits that are connected to your debit card, but it won't keep charging your bank account. And so if you know you just want to pay for something once or sign up for a free trial, this is a great way to never actually get dinged and fall for the stupid tax. So check it out, privacy.com. I've been using it myself, enjoying it, and it's fun time. So that's a fun call to remind us of the sneaky ways we are becoming broke as a nation. And it's from subscriptions and they add up. And

if you start to cancel those, you're going to give yourself a raise in your budget by a hundred bucks, 150 bucks. And then you realize I can live without this. And you sure can. My life is better because I have margin in my budget. Love it. Thanks for the call, Joel. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw this hour. Our question of the day comes from Brent in Virginia. Here's what Brent is asking. What are your thoughts on high-yield savings accounts? Are they regular bank savings accounts? If so, which ones do you recommend,

and do you have to file income tax on interest gained from them? These are great questions, Brent. They really are. I feel like that's a hot topic lately. I know. You wouldn't believe how many messages I get weirdly per week of just people going, hey, what's a good high yield savings account? HYSA. And the reason is interest rates on those accounts have gone way up.

Yes. I mean, it was at, you know, back in 2019, I think you could get 2% on these accounts. And then it all went downhill to where you were getting half a percent. And then all of a sudden in the last year, it shot up. And so now you can easily get 3% or more on a high yield savings account. And here's what it is. It is slightly different than a bank savings account. They're both going to be federally regulated, both going to be liquid savings accounts. High yield savings accounts usually just means these are online banks and they have less overhead because they're not brick and mortar stores they have to staff for and build. And so they can offer higher savings rates. So there's a ton of them out there. I opted for the Ally one. I mean,

this is not to push them for it. I mean, these are all banks and they're all products. We have no connection here at Ramsey, to any of these banks. These are just kind of personal preference. I know Rachel's an Ally fan. I use one called Marcus. Yeah. And the key is make sure they are federally regulated. So they're FDIC.

That means they're insured up to $250,000 per person on the account. So that's one thing you want to look at. The other one is all the fees and all the minimum balances and transfer that. And so you want to make sure you're finding one that has little to no fees, is easy to use, will transfer your money quickly from your savings account over to your checking account at your local bank or wherever you do your banking there. And the other thing to think about, which I think you mentioned here, is you are going to get like a 1099 INT for that interest.

You know, I don't know how much you plan on stocking away, but yeah, you'll have to pay like a 1099 int for that interest you know i don't know how much you plan on stocking away but yeah you'll have to pay taxes on the interest right yes and so they will you can log into your account and download that form i just did that this week to bring to my my tax appointment and i mean if you've if you've got a lot of money in there so if you're saving up for like a house down payment yeah you could have some serious gains on that. And if you look at a 4% on $100,000, for example, that's pretty serious over the course of a year. A decent chunk of change. But it's okay. You add it to your taxable income and it's still worth it to have that money grow for you. We take calls all the time where people are just watching their money, not even beat inflation, just sit there dying in a normal checking or savings account at the rate of $20,000, $30,000, $40,000. So I would rather have

that money grow for me. Interest you pay is a penalty. So interest in this case is a good thing because it's a reward. So highly recommend all of you, if you've got a bunch of money in savings, move it to a high yield savings account. It's a great place to store the majority of your emergency fund. If you want to keep a little bit in your local checking for those little ankle biters, so you don't have to wait for it to transfer, that's fine. Mine has an ability to do wire transfers. So if you do need the money, same day or next day, you can do wire transfers. Just watch out because your local bank may have a fee to accept that wire transfer. Something to look out for. Very good look out for.

Very good. Great question. Only I am excited to talk about high yield savings accounts. It really just lights me up like a Christmas tree. I know. When we saw the question, I was like, George, this has got you written all over it. Love it. You got way too excited. Well, now the interest rates are back. It's a way more fun conversation. True that. Because now I'm like, what are you doing? Jump on that, my friend.

And also, there's a lot of high yield savings accounts that are attached to some of these giant, I'm going to call them not scummy companies, but a lot of credit card type companies out there. Yeah. That's where you got to be careful. That's what I don't, I don't tow over that line. Now, all banks are going to have debt products. It's the nature of the industry, but it doesn't mean you have to go to discover and step into the lion's den because that's basically a gateway drug for you to give them all your information so they can market to you all of these amazing offers, 0% on this credit card if you open today. And so I like to find ones that aren't as heavy on the marketing side for their debt products. I agree. I agree. I don't think that I get any from mine, but they probably know better. They know better not to come over here with that mess. Don't show

up at my doorstep in my mailbox. I love it. Well, Jade, in other news, eggs are all the rage among the youth in today's America. And now there's like memes, we're making fun of it. But there was a hilarious article that we got got sent what is it unbelievable so the nationwide egg shortage and ensuing record price spikes has led americans to seek alternative means to fulfill their appetite and their baking needs you're never going to guess what this is you can actually do george a rent a chicken coop yes your face is exactly right they will bring me an actual chicken coop like the wire fence and everything to my house so that i can have eggs yes everything that comes with it i mean they will come they will deliver it they'll set it up uh they'll help you

set up these chicken coops they come with a you know you can decide how many chickens you want so for instance for this one let's see you can get two rented chickens you want. So for instance, for this one, let's see, you can get two rent-a-chickens. So you get two laying hens. You get eight to 14 eggs per week, a standard chicken coop, a food dish, a water dish, and 100 pounds of chicken feed. Plus your quick guide for taking care

of your rent-a-chickens. Oh my goodness. And this is, oh my goodness and this is oh my gosh 485 dollars for six months hold on over the six months you pay 485 dollars this is that comes out to about 80 bucks a month i don't think that math is math and george that math ain't math right so here's the deal if they're saying you're gonna get 8 to 14 eggs per week out of this let's call it a dozen for easy numbers right yeah you're getting a dozen eggs per week for 80 bucks a month that's $20 for a dozen of eggs yeah no that I told you it ain't

math and this is fun as like a I guess if you've got kids and they want to know what it's like to be you know sure it's just a project and get closer to the food you're eating. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah. But as like a hack for inflation, this is the worst hack I've ever heard of. Do you kind of know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of when people are driving their car, right? They've got their car, they're driving along and the car breaks down and they're like, oh, I take it. I got to get it repaired. And they don't want to pay the bill to get it repaired. So they just get a new car. Oh, yes. That's kind of like this. I feel like it's, oh my gosh, chicken prices.

You know, I don't want to pay the two to three dollars more. Let me just go buy a whole chicken and a whole coop. This does not make sense. It doesn't make sense. They also have like an elite package, which is $13.85. The old McDonald's special. $1,385. You get a fancier chicken coop and you get 16 to 24 eggs a week. I don't even know.

I just looked at my local, like there's a little frou-frou grocery store nearby called Sprouts. Yes. Here in Franklin, Tennessee. And I just checked on their page how much eggs are going for. It was $3.39 for a dozen of eggs. It's really not that serious, George. And I even looked at like, okay, what are the really bougie, expensive, you know, the chickens had a great life.

They saw the sunshine. They took them to Disney World. They laughed. They cried. Even those eggs were $8.99. You know what? I think it depends on where you go because I know in some states it's like super high. You know who always comes at us is Canadians.

They're always like, well, in Canada, eggs are $19. And I'm like, listen, I can't speak to Canada. Y'all are doing things differently out there. You got poutine. Your prices are out of whack. Not poutine, George. I'm not coming after poutine. I'm just saying they do things differently.

Well, here's what I want to get to. I feel like in the economy, things happen and we just go to extremes. Like remember in like 2008 gas prices were crazy and everybody started buying smart cars oh yeah like those ridiculous teeny tiny cars and it's like this is the solution to our problems a terrible idea or people just like freak out and start buying a bunch of gold and i'm like now the eggs are expensive let's just we're buying chicken wire we're buying buying whole chickens, whole coops. This is a symptom of something deeper.

If you're really frantic, right? If you're really freaking out about this, if this egg shortage is, and the price increase, is if it's breaking your bank, there's something further beneath the surface there that needs to be. You're complaining about egg prices going up, you know, 50, 60%. Okay, that amounts to three bucks for a dozen of eggs.

That's probably 20 bucks max a month for y'all. But then you're okay sending a lender 500 bucks for that car payment. Yeah. And you're okay sending Sally Mae 400 bucks over here for your student loan payment. There's a problem. Let's look at the real problem. It's your debt. It's not the eggs, folks.

I never thought I'd have to say that sentence out loud. Yeah, it's not the eggs. You will overcome problem. It's your debt. It's not the eggs, folks. I never thought I'd have to say that sentence out loud. Yeah, it's not the eggs. You will overcome this. It's your debt. We will survive the bird flu egg shortage of 2023, and you can become debt-free and create margin in your budget. And then you're not really all that concerned about egg prices. You just adjust the budget and move on with your life.

Sorry we had to explain that to you guys. Oh, George. There we go. That's my dad joke for the day. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw this hour. Hey, if you're a homeschool parent out there, you've already got a lot on your plate, being both a parent and a teacher, but you don't have to add money expert to that list to teach your teens how to win when it comes to money. We've got a brand new Foundations in Personal Finance homeschool curriculum where our personalities teach this complex money stuff for you. They'll cover real

life skills like how to budget, save, invest for the future, and your kids will learn everything you wish you'd learned about money when you were their age. Plus, the curriculum comes with everything you need to make your life as a parent and teacher so much easier. You're going to get lesson plans, activities, transcripts, everything's already created for you so you can focus on raising teens who are confident about money and prepared for the real world. So if you want to check this out, Foundations and Personal Finance Homeschool Curriculum, just go to ramseysolutions.com slash homeschool to learn more. That's ramseysolutions.com

slash homeschool. Good stuff there. All right, let's go to the phones. Kelly is in Brookfield, Ohio. Kelly, welcome to the show. Hi, George Brookfield, Ohio. Kelly, welcome to the show. Hi, George. Hi, Jade. Thank you for taking my call. No problem. Happy to do it. How can we help today?

We love the Ramsey Show. So I'm calling basically about my boyfriend, and he has done a great job at saving and has made huge changes, and I'm going to tell you about them. And I believe that he can be debt-free this year, including his house. And he wants your opinion on what to do with the money, and I want to see if it matches what I say that he should do. Ooh, this is a fun game.

It is. Okay. Hit us with some facts. Okay. So right now, actually, he has made huge changes. Like he even bought another vehicle for cash that was $16,500, and he has a Jeep that he's going to be getting rid of. So it's amazing.

So right now in the bank, after he bought this truck, he has $66,899. Okay? he bought this truck, he has $66,899. Okay. And he has consumer debt, which is his Jeep, a student loan and a tractor that is $45,060. And when we were talking about this, I said, I felt that you should, he should go ahead and pay off all that. And he's like, well, I don't want to pay my G-Box because I want to sell it. And I'm going to be selling it before June. And, um, that's where I feel like maybe you guys could help with that. And also he has a student loan that, um, has like 10,000 left on it. And I'm like, he thinks he's like going to, or he's hoping for like this forgiveness. And I'm like, oh no. Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. There's some issues here. Okay. So he has the money. He could pay this all off today and still

be left with $21,000 in the bank. Yes. And that's actually more than his monthly expenses. Like his emergency fund, I think should be about $10,000. Yeah. He he'll be just fine, but he wants to hang on to this debt. So does he understand that when he sells the car, he has to pay off the loan anyways? Um, well say that again, I'm sorry. When he sells the car, he has to pay the loan to get the clean title. The Jeep, yeah, he would, but he's thinking he's just going to pay it off, like, when somebody pays him. Because he thinks, I'm pretty sure he has about $10,000 to $15,000 equity in this Jeep. What happens when the used car market keeps on dipping and all of a sudden he's underwater while he continues to make these payments on a vehicle he's not even using? Yeah, like he, I don't know. That's why I'm like just talking to you guys about it.

I want to know, I want to know where is he at? Well, you're saying you want to see if his advice matches ours. Our advice is obviously to pay this all off today, be done with it, free yourself of those payments and the stress related to all this debt, and move on with your life. It's the simplest solution of all time. He's got the money sitting there with plenty left over. How long have you guys been dating? For, like, 18 months.

And he honestly has made huge changes. Like, he doesn't get coffee every day. Like, we don't go out to eat near as much. Like we. So you feel like you're influencing him towards a positive direction financially? Yes. Yes, absolutely. And I feel like he should just go ahead and follow these steps.

But it's like he wants to not let go of his savings. He says, he's like, I've not let go of his savings he says he's like i've never had that little bit of savings ever and i'm like but after you pay those payments off and all that that's gone look how well he has the illusion that he has 66 000 really he doesn't because he owes people a whole bunch of money is Is he interested in Financial Peace University? Honestly, I was a coordinator and I've had him watch it. He's watched all the lessons and he still wants to hang on to the debt. I feel like it wasn't just him and I having this, watching the videos and maybe it wasn't super impactful at the beginning because maybe he

didn't feel like it was as important. Would he go back through it again? When did you guys go through it? Actually, just a couple of months ago. Oh boy, it did not stick. So it's, I just have to ask, are you kind of trying to, you're trying to see, is this guy marriage material? If you guys can get on the same page of money and you're really trying to see man i hope i can get him i hope i i hope you get him too um but you know i think i think the thing is is he's just he makes a very good living and our incomes are not combined of course i'm just saying like i think that you could literally have your house even paid off by the end of this year. Yeah.

I don't think he wants that. That's the thing. He doesn't have much vision for his future. He's hoping the government's going to take care of him based on what you told us. We agree with you, Kelly. But your guy, he's got a whole different methodology in his mind. And I think it's admirable that you're trying to show him this, that you're giving them information and that you're teaching. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

And you can just keep setting that bowl out there for him. And maybe eventually he will, but you need to set yourself a time limit. And then you might need to sell the horse. I know that's right. If he ain't got a drink. Get you a stallion. Very controversial advice. We actually have another meeting set up with an investor pro, which I contacted, and we're going to talk with them. Because his top priority is to save for retirement.

And I said, okay, then you have your emergency fund already in place. Now you need to start putting your full 15% because he right now is only doing three. And he needs to be doing zero until his debt is paid off. Yeah. Kelly, you're right. You're preaching to the choir. You're preaching to the choir here. Here's some math you can do with him. Add up all of his payments plus interest and said, Hey, what if you invested that over the next 30 years and just show him what that number would turn into okay okay because that'll put his money where his mouth is if he's saying i really want to invest for the future imagine a life without payments and repurposing that money instead of throwing it to lenders he throws it to his future

and if he still doesn't care then he's lying he doesn't care about his future or he just wants to do it his way which we think is the wrong way i I know. And I do, I have to say like he has done really well for himself, even though. You can out earn your stupidity. Plenty of people do it. He can keep making money and he, you know what? He can still have a fine life, but right now your values are misaligned and it's a red flag for sure. I'm not saying that it won't work out with this guy i hope it does he sounds like a great guy we're not here to bash him uh he's very normal and you have decided to be weird and it's hard for those two to be compatible we need to have two weird people

if this thing's gonna work uh-huh uh-huh if i'm you kelly i'm taking this advice i'm gonna give it a couple of more give the old college try and keep trying to feed him. Like George said, like do the math, like sit down and look at this thing, but then give yourself a time limit and go, if my guy doesn't, if it seems like we're not aligned on this area, start digging deeper and see if there's, you know, see if it's worth you going forward with this, because this is something that is going to be critical if you guys go forward with getting engaged and even onto marriage. And dig in and ask him, hey, why are you hanging on to this? And if he goes, well, the student loan, show him the stats on student loan forgiveness.

It's bleak. Show him how bleak it is in Congress trying to get this thing through and how little chance it is of him getting a student loan debt cleared completely. It's not going to happen. And so you can go back through FPU. You have access to it still. So I'd go back through it with him and say, I not going to happen. And so you can go back through FPU. You have access to it still. So I'd go back through it with them and say, I'm going to give this one more college try, buddy. And I really want to make this work, but I need you to show me that you really care about our future and what it relates to money. So thank you for the call, Kelly. It was a fun one. And thank you all for listening to this show, America, that puts this hour of the Ramsey Show

in the books. My thanks to Jade Warshaw, all the folks in the booth. We'll be back real soon. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade. 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. Just go to ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.