The Ramsey Show - App - I Have Half a Million Dollars and Don't Know What To Do With It (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 18, 2021

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I'm out. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, it's the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money and your career and whatever else you want to talk about. I'm George Camel, your host, joined by my colleague and best-selling author, Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show. Just came hot off The Ken Coleman Show, didn't you, Ken? That's right, George. I'm two hours in. I'm already warmed up.

I'm stretched. You can do three more. Oh, sure. Three more is no problem at all. It beats working for a living. That's true. You know what I mean? We get a fun job.

Somewhere, some schlup is digging a ditch right now now and he's going, I need more. I need to listen to the Ken Coleman show. I need to call the Ramsey show today. I need to get out of this ditch. And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, you're right. Because it could be worse. Absolutely. You know what I mean? Answering questions, coaching people for five hours. I mean, I'm not

going to gripe a lot. Nobody wants to hear me gripe about that. No, there's results in that. That's one thing you talk about is being on mission. Helping people win. And by the way, George, today you and I are together. So we're talking about money and meaning. We're talking about income and impact. I love the alliteration there. You like that? I like that you also said colleague because last Friday we were together on the Ramsey Show and I said colleague and you're a millennial and you're like, you hadn't heard the word very much. It's a $10 word for a guy like me.

I'll tell you that much. Colleague. I say work buddy. Is that what you said? I don't know. I don't know what I'd say. We call them team members around here because we don't really like the word. Employee feels a little stiff.

I don't care what you say. Just don't call me work buddy. Okay. Ever. I'll stay away from that. Okay. That's great. Well, it's a free call today.

888-825-5225. Give us a call. Kelly will put you through. Tell her George sent you. I don't know if that's good enough. I like that. Maybe today it is. I like that.

Yeah, Ken, we hosted Friday, and here we are again. And I call that a double blessing. It is a double blessing. Did you have a good weekend? I did. How about yourself? Fantastic. Did you watch the big game?

The big games, George. Football watching is a sport in the Coleman house. Do you know what the NFL red zone is, George? Heard about it. You've heard about it. It sounds real hot, red zone. Well, it's a way of life in the Coleman household. And we only get up to go to the restroom or get more food

and beverage, and we're watching football for several hours. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. It's an American tradition. And so is the Ramsey Show. It is as well. 30 years in, we're doing this, and I'm excited to take your calls today with my colleague Ken. We're going to kick it off in Cleveland, Ohio, with Mike.

Mike, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? All right. So I have a long history of debt, like credit cards and stuff like that. I have all that paid off. I'm a one-income household now, a single dad. I have a truck payment and I have a mortgage. My question is, should I pay my truck off and keep it and then work on my house or should I sell it? It's a fairly expensive truck. So I guess that's my question. What is this truck worth right now if you sold it today in this hot market? What do you think you can get for it?

It's, I think, around $34,000, and I owe $29,500. Okay. So you would profit about $5,000 off of this thing, and you'd get out from under the truck payment, and you'd have $5,000 to put towards a car. Correct. And you can buy a car have $5,000 to put towards a car. Correct. And you can buy a car for $5,000. Absolutely.

My other question with that is, now, aside from my yearly income, I do have options within my job. I'm a police officer. I can cash out vacation, holiday, and a little bit of sick time, as long as we don't call off sick for the year. I've totaled up everything and it comes to about $22,000 over the year. So next year, basically from this December, we cash out every holiday. So it's kind of like a nice Christmas check. But from this December until next December, I could come up with um just over twenty thousand dollars um and i was going to try my best to pay my truck off uh and not have a car payment starting january 1st 2023

hey mike let me ask you a question are you pulling uh like uh direct i don't know if they do this in cleveland ohio and in national tennessee if you go driving around on a Sunday morning around 11 o'clock, in between 9 and 11, you've got police officers out there, directed traffic coming in and out of churches, getting a lot of overtime, high school football games. Are you maxing out your overtime possibilities as a police officer? So I do. It's kind of first come, first served when you sign up for it.

I do work as much as possible. I do have another part-time job. I work at a hospital as a police officer with my department, but I work alongside the security there. So that's an extra side job. So are you figuring that into this other equation you just gave us? No, I'm not figuring any overtime, and also that is not counting the monthly payments throughout the year. That is just extra money that I can cash out

some now and then obviously some next December when it comes to that time again. Yeah, so what Ken is getting at is could you keep the truck and pay this thing off pretty quickly? And it sounds like you could. There's nothing wrong with keeping this, but based on the fact that you were willing to get rid of it so quickly, which is rare for a truck owner, it tells me you're not in love with this truck and you'd rather clean up this debt and just have the mortgage to grapple with. Is that right?

Kind of. I actually do love the truck. There we go. I've had it for about a year and a half now. The only owner, I take very good care of it. So my thought process is if I can do this, if I can pay this off by December 31st of next year, 2022, can I just keep this truck and move forward to my mortgage? Yeah, I think you can do it faster than that. What's your household income without the overtime?

Is this before or after taxes? Let's say before. All right, before taxes is $96,000. However, I have child support that I pay $1,000 a month for. So at the beginning, so it's $12,000 less for that. Okay. So it feels like if you took some overtime, could you get rid of this thing in under a year? I'm hoping.

I know, so my goal is a year, but, you know, with all the overtime and extra jobs, I think once I get that thing down to, you know, near, closer to zero, that I'm just going to work really hard. Once you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you're going to go full throttle on this thing, gazelle intense. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I do have about five grand in the bank right now, and that is after I've paid off all my debts and everything. I do have my emergency fund of $1,000. My other question, though, is should I skip baby step four, which is saving for the retirement, I believe, right?

Yeah. Should you skip it? No, I do have a retirement. Not skip the baby step, maybe add to it, because I already have my retirement set up, and I do put a little bit more than I have to into it. I want you to continue on. I don't want you changing up the plan here. Keep doing the 15%. You can keep the truck, but I want this thing gone in under a year with this income and with this overtime. And if you've got cash, throw it at that car. I want you to get rid of this thing ASAP so you can live your life, man.

But you're doing great. Appreciate your service as a police officer. More of the Ramsey Show coming up. You've got a lot on your plate. A job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your healthcare.

Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider.

I'm George Camel, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined today by Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show, and we are taking your calls, 888-825-5225. You know, right now you're probably focused on all the fall stuff you've got to buy, the Halloween candy, the jackets and sweaters, it's pumpkin spice latte season. But here's what you should start thinking about right now. Christmas. Christmas seems to sneak up on people every year. And when you let that happen, it's so easy to go crazy on

overspending or worse, put Christmas on a credit card. Don't do this. When you plan ahead with a budget, you'll keep Christmas from getting out of control. And the best way to do that is with our budgeting tool, EveryDollar. You can start your Christmas budget right now by deciding how much you want to save each month and plug that into your EveryDollar budget so you can pay for Christmas in cash. Then when you start shopping, your EveryDollar makes it easy for you to keep up with how much you're spending on gifts. And by the way, it's totally free to get started. Or you can upgrade to a Ramsey Plus membership and get premium features like syncing with your bank that allows you to just drag and drop your transactions into your budget and all kinds of custom reports to show you where

your money is going. Guys, Christmas is coming. It's not a surprise. And this year you can actually enjoy the holiday how it should be stress free and debt free. Start budgeting with every dollar by texting the word budget to 33789. That's budget to 33789. That's BUDGET to 33789. Maria is with us in Austin, Texas. Maria, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Maria, are you with us? Yes, hi. Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, how can we help today? Hi. Okay, so me and my husband, we're in our 30s. We went through and we got all of our debts paid, and we own our own house. We're so blessed with that. So you're baby step seven. Yeah. You just breezed right on by that.

You're in your 30s, and you've got a paid-for house and no debt. Way to go. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So here's the deal I'm having an issue with. I think that we're kind of, you know, like thrifty people. We're not like spend beyond our means. We're not just – we like to – anyway, so here's the deal.

We're going to sell our house. It's up for sale. But we're diving into a new mortgage to live closer to town. We have three kids that are, like, involved with stuff, and we travel, like, 20 miles. I mean, yeah, 20 miles to get to town every day. And it's, like, a lot of back and forth. And And we're just like, we just want to be a little closer. So anyway, I was just having these issues.

I'm thinking, are we making the right move? Are we... So you're wondering, is it a wise financial move to get back into a mortgage? You're in Baby Step 7. You're saying, hey, this will put us back into Baby Step 6. How much is the house? How much is the house you're looking at buying? Well, it's $106,000.

Sorry, you're breaking up on us, Maria. Try speaking directly into the phone. Sorry, it's $196,000. $196,000? The new house? No, no, I'm sorry. $179,000. What's the house No, no, I'm sorry. The $179,000 new house. Okay. What's the house you're selling now? What's that one worth? Maria, did we lose you?

Oh, boy. Oh, no. We were so close. To the good part, Ken. So close. It doesn't sound like this is a huge cost. We'll see if we can get Maria back. Did I understand her right? That's $179,000? Yeah. Let's see if we can get her back because I'm on the edge of my seat myself. I know. It looked like it was going to come down to

a simple math equation, but if they did get back into a mortgage, it sounded like it wouldn't be much. Depending on what their current house is. Did I hear correctly that $179,000 is the house they want to buy? That's what I heard. And they've got a paid-for house, which I imagine is going to be in the ballpark. I would hope. I don't know. They're moving 20 minutes into town. I don't know. If we can't get her back, here's what I would tell Maria. If you need to

take on a $10,000, $20,000 mortgage, tell Maria. There we go. All right. Maria, are you back with us? Oh my gosh. Maria's back. Come on, Maria. Pull through. All right. It was a good effort.

Okay. Oh, there we go. I can hear you. I can hear you. Hi. Sorry. Let's get to the brass tacks here. What's your current house selling for?

We put it on the market for $497. $497. Yeah. And it's paid for? Yes. And what's paid for. Yes. And what's this new house worth that you want? Well, it's $179,000 is what we're getting for our loan. Oh, for the loan.

Okay. We were very confused. We thought that's what the house cost was going to be. Maria, just so we are all on the same page, how much is the total price? I don't want to know your loan amount. What is the price of the home that you want to buy in town? I'm thinking after we get everything set with what we want to improve on, it's going to be in the $225,000 range.

I'm further baffled right now. So if you sell this house, you're going to have a half million dollars in cash, basically, right? Yeah. So you don't need a mortgage. So where's all that money going? Well, the house right now, it's being built. It's a mobile home. Okay, time out.

And we just thought it was a smart thing because it's, you know. We've got more questions than answers here, Kate. All right, Maria. All right, Maria, I'm going to take one more shot at this. Okay, Maria. Okay. You were asking us, should you take a mortgage out on a home in town? You're 20 minutes outside of town,

and your current home is worth basically just under a half a million dollars, the one that you've listed. You've listed it at just under half a million. True or false? True. Okay. If you sell it for that, you already own it free and clear. You're going to have that number minus your commission to your real estate agent are you still

tracking with me yes i am and i'm on board with that i'm just like in this market are we going to sell for i mean are we diving into like too fast no no you're not but you're not diving into anything this sounds like a really nice gentle stroll because you're going to buy a house for less than half of what your current house is worth in town, and you're going to pay cash for it. Right. No mortgage. If our house sells here. So you have fear the house isn't going to sell.

Yes. Well, then you don't. I do. Well, then you don't move until you, it's a contingent. So with your real estate, you go, look, if we sell this house, then we're going to put an offer on this. So you got a really good real estate agent, a Ramsey-trusted real estate agent. You've got one of those?

I do. I've got a good one picked out. Okay. I don't know what you're afraid of. Even if it sells for $50,000 less, you're still going to be able to pay cash for this next house, plus repairs and anything you want to do to it. Yeah, you don't need a mortgage. Okay.

Now, did you say this is a mobile home that you're going into or out of? Both, yeah. So you're in a mobile home worth half a million dollars? Well, we have acreage. Oh, there's some land attached to it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we're going to...

Well, are you going into another mobile home? Yes. And what's the reason behind that? Just because, I don't know, I guess we just wanted something new and something kind of fast. Well, my worry is that with a mobile home, it's going to be a depreciating asset. It's not going to grow in value like a single-family traditional home would be. So are there traditional homes in that area you want to move to that are in a similar price point? Oh, no.

I guess really just something new. And all the house, like building a house would just be, you know, expensive. You don't need to build one from scratch. I mean, there's plenty of homes people are selling that are single-family homes. Maria, George is being really, really nice. I've got to tell you something. It's a bad idea for you to cash out of this current situation and go get another mobile home.

It doesn't make sense. It's going to depreciate in value. Go get something a little bit smaller, something that will take care of the family. Maybe you can fix it up a little bit pay cash for it and keep living your life but to go into a mobile home is a horrible idea let me just say that

don't do that you don't need to if this is about a better life well then let's not make a bad decision on the place we're going to live in it's a depreciating asset don't do it I don't like this

that was a roller coaster Ken but we got off the ride safely on the place we're going to live in. It's a depreciating asset. Don't do it. I don't like this. That was a roller coaster, Ken. But we got off the ride safely. Good thing we're wearing our seatbelts on that one. I got some whiplash on that. I'm going to have to get my head together for the next segment. All right. This is The Ramsey Show. Imagine a world where people never have to worry about money ever again. At Ramsey Solutions, our mission is to teach people how to get out of debt and build lasting wealth.

And if that means we have to take on the toxic money culture that says you need debt to get ahead, then we're okay with that. We've seen millions of lives changed, and we will continue to create digital products and services to help people transform their lives. If you want to join our 1,000-member team on this crusade, we're currently on the hunt for software engineers with expertise in Ruby on Rails, Java, C Sharp, and front-end technologies. Or if you're a UX designer or an SEO and content marketing specialist, we'd love to talk with you. Together, we will disrupt the toxic money culture in america find out about all the available jobs by texting careers to 33 789 text careers to 33 789 to find out about all our open opportunities This is the Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined today by Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, host of the Ken Coleman Show,

and from paycheck to purpose, Ken, is coming real soon. It's a new book. Hot on the heels. Hot on the heels. What's going on with this book? Well, it's the tool that I wanted to have two years ago, three years ago. But as with anything, George, you've got to put the time in to make sure it's the right tool. And we're approaching now 5,000 phone calls in the last four years

on The Ken Coleman Show. And so this book, From Paycheck to Purpose, is the full clear path. The subtitle is The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. But what is the book? It's the seven stages on how to figure out what it is that you're supposed to do with your life, work where you really love it, you're making the income and the impact. And then how do you figure out what it is,

then how do you actually get there, and then be great at it? That's the short version. It's the full journey, super practical, the seven stages, and it's for anybody who just wants more out of their work. Whether it's dream job or not, I want to do better. I want to make more money. Ken, how can I make more money to get out of debt faster? Well, the book will help you. Some of you go, I'm making the money.

I just want more meaning. The book will help you. So it is the entire path and it's going to really equip and encourage. It's not a motivational book. It'll inspire you, make you laugh and cry. But it is a very practical book that will

allow you to stop being miserable on monday mornings america needs that with this great resignation needs it yeah yeah well it's less than a month away from launch we're excited about it you can pre-order right now ramsay solutions.com is the place to go you get a lot of pre-order goodies audiobook ebook uh you name it so make sure to tune into that and jump on ramsay solutions.com and grab your copy. We're going to go to the phones. We've got Summer in Scottsdale, Arizona. Summer, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi.

Can you hear me okay? Yes. How are you doing? How can we help? Hi. Hi. This is exciting. I've never been on the Ramsey Show.

We're just as excited. I just had a quick question. So I have two jobs right now I have a day job I'm a loan officer associate for a bank and then at night I work in bars in Old Town Scottsdale and because I can save

I have the ability to save and I do save between 40 and 60 percent of my net income every month but I do have some student loan debt and also I owe a little bit of money on my car between 40 and 60% of my net income every month. Wow. But I do have some student loan debt, and also I owe a little bit of money on my car.

So I was wondering if my student... I plan on paying off my car this month, and that'll just be gone. But I have about $32,000 in student loan debt. But my interest rate on my student loan debt is very, very, very low, about less than 2%. So I was just wondering if you think it would be stupid of me to put about 25% of my income towards my student loan and then 25% just into like a cash savings account, investing or whatever. What I'm hearing is you're wanting to do a few things at once.

You're wanting to pay off the debt, but you're also wanting to stack up some savings. And what I recommend is focusing on one thing at a time. And that's what we teach in the baby steps. And so we teach to start with that $1,000 savings, which it sounds like you have right now.

You've got $1,000 in cash, right? Yeah. And once you have that, what you want to do is list out your debts from smallest to largest, which it sounds like the car loan is the smallest debt

you have right now. And that'll be gone this month. And that will be gone this month. And that will be gone this month, which means we're really focusing on the student loan. And so what I want you to do there is stop saving right now. Stop socking away that cash. Do you have more cash other than the $1,000? Oh, yeah. I have about $14,000 in cash right now after my car's paid off.

There we go. And that's aside from the $1,000 emergency fund, or is that all lumped in there? No, about $14,000 in cash right now after my car's paid off. There we go. And that's aside from the $1,000 emergency fund, or is that all lumped in there? No, about 13, so 14 total, so 13 not including the emergency fund. So if I'm you, what I'm doing is taking $13,000 and slapping it on the student loan, getting rid of that, and putting the rest on the car, and that's going to take down that car loan to, what, $20,000 maybe?

Under $20,000? So the car will be gone. After the car's paid off, I have $20,000 maybe? Under $20,000? The car will be gone. After the car is paid off, I have $13,000 in cash. Fantastic. So that means you're down to $19,000 on the car. And with all this extra income. On the student loan. No, she keeps saying the car is gone.

So after the car, now she can slap it on the loan. $32,000 on the student loan. And you have $13,000 you can throw on that. That's huge. Which would bring that down to $19,000 total in the student loan. And with this extra income that you have coming in, which is fantastic that you can save all that, instead of putting it in savings, I want you to attack that debt so that you can be debt-free, my guess is, within a few months at this rate.

Is that possible? Yeah. Probably about, yeah, I make about $6,000 a month usually. So if I put $3,000 towards debt, that's hard. Yeah, about six months. Yeah. If you've got $19,000 left, that's about six months. That's fantastic, Summer.

What a game changer that is in your life. I want you to just soak on that for a moment. How would that feel? Pretty good. Yeah. What's great, Ken, is that she's got the discipline down. The work ethic is there. Yeah. You're just trying to do multiple things at once. And what I want is for you to feel the progress of seeing this debt gone so that you free

up the payment from the car loan, the payment that you were making towards that student loan. And we don't really, we don't care about interest rate. What we care about is getting the biggest wealth building tool back in your life which is your income. Momentum, Summer. Do you see what George is telling you?

This gets you the most momentum and it just powers you through this. Mm-hmm. Yeah, thank you guys so much. Yeah, you bet. You're impressive. Call us back

when you're debt free. I'd love to hear the debt free scream on this one. Yeah, she's busting it. Two jobs. Sacrificing. Getting after it.

Hear that? She said, it's my day job, and then I'm working the bars down in Old Town Scottsdale, and she's not scared to work. And that is the number one indicator that you're going to be able to get out of this debt. No question about that. I love it. All right, we're moving to Antoinette in Orlando, Florida. Antoinette, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you guys?

Doing great. How can we help? So a month before I started the Financial Peace University, I consolidated a lot of my debt into my mortgage, which I probably not do now, having started this class. So I have a total of about $269,000 all in my mortgage, but I have two rental properties. And by consolidating, both of them are paid off, essentially speaking. So my question for you is, should I sell one of the rental properties that has always been rented and brings in about $1,600 a month and use that to completely become debt-free? Or should I just continue to attack the debt

and keep those two investment properties? So what debt do you have right now currently outside of your primary residence? Okay. So what I rolled into my mortgage was a boat loan, a home equity line, which I had used to buy one of the rental properties, and then one of the rental property mortgages. Does that make sense? And you're saying you could get completely debt free and get out of all of this if you sold one of the rental properties? Correct. Do it. Woo. How would that feel? Do you feel like a weight would be lifted? Do it. It would feel amazing. So I get a lot of pushback from family. We have a lot of rental doers in our, you know, so I'm getting pushback. So they go, Antoinette, don't do that. That's not

a wise financial move. The rental is bringing in income. What are you doing? Yeah, but you're paying off a boat. You're paying off all those other things you put into it. Do you want to do what your family is telling you to do, or do you want to be debt-free and then be even richer and more wealthy than they are? I want to be debt-free for sure. Yeah.

You can do it with one. I needed an extra blessing. Do it. I've said that's the third time I've said it. Don't make him say it again. Don't make me spell it again. All right, great. Oh, that's fantastic. No, I think here's the thing. Once you have that income back in your life and you're debt-free, you're going to be able to save up and pay cash for your next investment property. But it sounds like you've been on a joy spree, a spending spree, going, I want the boat, let's do the HELOC, let's buy some investment property. And based on the people around you, it looks like, wow, we're crushing it financially.

But you're feeling the weight of the payments, aren't you? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I hate that. I hate it with a passion. How much do you like that boat, by the way? If I could convince my husband to sell it i would have no problem selling it there it is i'd start working that angle too that goes toward the next rental property exactly exactly the boat is probably not bringing you guys income like a rental is

no it's bringing stress relief but i think once we're debt free that'll also bring a lot of stress relief as well yeah i'd sell the house off all the debt, then go for a boat ride. There we go. I like it. I like this plan a lot. Hey, Antoinette, we're rooting for you. Way to go. You're cleaning this mess up, and you're going to have a whole pile of money coming into your life when you get rid of this debt. You're doing the right thing. Don't listen to family members. Listen to George. Listen to me. I'm family now. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. I'm George Campbell, joined today by Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. It's a free call, 888-825-5225.

If you've got a question about money, life, your career, your purpose, your calling, Ken and I are here for you. Even if you just need some confirmation, Ken, a lot of your purpose, your calling, Ken and I are here for you. Even if you just need some confirmation, Ken, a lot of the times people just go, hey, I think I know the answer, but... I took three calls today on the Ken Coleman Show. People literally have new opportunities. They're going, do I stay where I am? Do I take this new opportunity? So we'll talk about those fork in the road questions. Hey, listen, if you're just going, you know what? I know there's more. I feel like I'm a part of the 55% of Americans who are going, you know what? I know there's more. I feel like I'm a

part of the 55% of Americans who are going, I'm actively looking for something else. What should I be looking for? We'll walk you through it. Today's the day. Because you're super nice. I'm pretty nice. There's nothing to be afraid of. This is the day to call in. We're not going to beat you up. And if you need some confirmation, you're going, hey, my broke brother-in-law said this. I read a headline. I was in a Reddit thread. Call us up and we can walk you through that situation with a clean slate,

good head on our shoulders, no bias. Some of you are going, I want to make more money. How do I make some more money in the short term so I can apply it to the baby steps? Let's go. We'll help you with the shovel. The shovel is important. 888-825-5225. Angela is in Austin, Texas. Angela, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Doing great. How can we help? Well, this is, here it is. My husband and I,

we've been debt free for a number of years. And we have a lot of money in the bank right now, and we need to move it because it's approaching to a very big number. How big is this number? It's $500,000 plus. $500,000 just sitting in your bank account? Yes. Wow. And he's, he works for the government. He's a civilian. And so we have income. I'm retired military. We have income coming there. We wanted to buy a business this last two years, but COVID hit. So we're reluctant to even invest in anything, even, even real estate. Cause right now we're trying to basically just be mobile, wherever that is. You don't want to be tied down. Correct, correct.

So, you know, now we're empty nesters. We don't know what we want to do when we grow up is basically what it is. But we have this money, and it's not really working for us. And I'm just with the information coming down with this administration, I'm nervous. So where did this money, how did you accumulate this money and how fast? Well, since he's a civilian, we went overseas. I've been retired for about 10 years. So we try to live on my pension from the military as much as we can.

So we went overseas and he makes good money. We just socked that away for five years. In addition to when we went overseas, we sold our house. We had a little income from there. And we just really live below our means. We have one car. We're renting. I mean, my car's a 2014.

You say you're renting because you're not there for a while? Yes. We're looking, you know, do we move to Tennessee? Do we go with family in Georgia? Do we just buy here? I don't know, you know. So those are the unknowns for us. We want our money to work for us, and we just feel we need to either split it up and put it in different piles.

Do you have it in one account right now? Yes. Okay. Well, number one, you should split that. And here's the reason. Your money is FDIC insured up to $250,000, which means if your bank just went out of business today, you're backed for $250,000, which means you'd lose half your money.

So we need to at least split that up and you can look into the rules around can I just put it in two different accounts or does it need to be with a different bank? Check with your bank as to how that would work. But I want to make sure your money is at least protected right now. And then as far as growing it, I see you're saying,

hey, I know we can do better with this money. I don't want you throwing it into the market, investing it if you're going to need it anytime soon. And it sounds like you just don't know. There's a lot of unknowns right now. Yes. Correct? Correct.

Now, what you could do is invest part of it. You could work with a smart investor pro and go, hey, we're going to put $100,000 into some mutual funds in a brokerage account outside of retirement and just let it grow until we know what we want to do with that. But as far as the money goes, what I would do is put it in a high-yield savings account. Right now you could get about a half a percent to a percent depending on where you go, and that would at least help grow your money in a safe way where it's still very accessible. Okay, okay. Angela, how soon before you guys are going to be locking in on a decision, some of the decisions that you just shared with us about where we're living primarily?

Yes. I think probably within four months. If some things don't work out with a new location, then we'll probably just build roots here, buy a home, and then just ride it out until he retires. And so that's kind of where we are. Yeah. Well, and so let's just say that the decision was made today, okay?

Yeah. That we were either going Tennessee, Georgia, or staying in Texas. What would you do with that money today if that decision was already made? Well, then I would say we would take that money probably, don't laugh, but just probably move into a mobile home on some land and probably fish and live on my retirement. So it just kind of evens out, to be honest with you. Okay, so you see where I'm going with this? That money, you've already got a plan for it, and what it's going to be is it's going to be cash.

You're going to pay cash for wherever you're going to live and finish out. Yes. Well, then I'd be, you know, and George is right. I'd protect your money in the short term, but you guys need to make a decision. And once you make a decision, that money is going to be spent on paying cash so that you don't owe a dime for anything. And you may have some left over after you buy a house or whatever you're going to do. Correct?

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I just think you're overthinking it. Let's make a decision. Stop spending all this time worrying about how much money you got in the bank, which you shouldn't be worried about anything. Good on you guys. Good job. Let's make a decision on where we want to drop anchor, and let's drop anchor and then spend that money on that.

The only thing I would challenge you on is the mobile home. It's just, you know, why not buy a nice little home or build a nice little home? That's what I say. Well, say it a little louder. It seems like Hubs needs to hear that. Say it a little louder, yeah. Is he not wanting to be locked into something? I think that's where it is because,

you know, we're getting older and, you know, what I thought retirement was going to be, it's not. And it's okay. I mean, it's a good life. I mean, we're moving around, we're traveling. What did you want retirement to be? Kind of still that, but I don't, I've been, we've been mobile so long with the military that... I feel like you want to plant roots. I do. I really do. I wanted to be able to say this is home and come back to it. You know, I'm originally from California, and I really love his family, and I would like to move close to them, too. But it is, and the good thing about it with his job, with this this COVID is the teleworking opportunities have really,

it doesn't limit us now where we can live and he can still maintain his job. You can have roots anywhere and still be able to do the job. Yes. I think all of a sudden, Angela, this is no longer a money call. This is a marriage call, and you all need to just sit down and meet in the middle. He likes some freedom to roam. Let's's get him some land pay cash for it we can roam and hunt and fish or whatever it is you guys talked about but you want to drop anchor and you need to drop anchor and so you guys need to sit down as a married couple and go let's decide he needs to know that you

don't feel safe emotionally not knowing where you want to land. You want to land. You want to nest. You want to settle. Settle down. What's the difference? Maybe get a single family somewhere and get an RV so you guys can take off for a few weeks. There we go. You guys got plenty of money in the bank.

You got half a million dollars. It's just two of you. Build a little house, and it's a nice asset. It's going to appreciate land. And, George, it's a great point. Then you guys can drive around, and when you get tired of driving around with each other, then you It's going to appreciate land. And, George, it's a great point. Then you guys can drive around, and when you get tired of driving around with each other, then you can go back to the house.

You have home. There you go. H-O-M-E. I love it. Well, Angela, it's a good problem to have. Most of America is like, I wish I had Angela's problem. Half a million dollars, don't know what to do with it. Isn't that true?

Good for you, by the way. Look at that. Diligence. You hear that, Ken? They would just say, you know what? We got money, and we put it to use. We saved it up. We didn't go spend it on a bunch of toys. We just saved it up.

And look at them now. What's your position on those tiny homes that you can drag around? Are those basically mobile homes still? Yeah, they're just hipster mobile homes. So they don't appreciate it? No. Ah, okay. That's what I thought.

But if you've got tons of money to blow, and you just want to have some fun, make an Airbnb, live there for a while, that's fine. I'm not mad at you. They look cool on those little HGTV shows. They're really cool. I would fit great in a tiny home, so I've looked into it. You would. You'd have plenty of room in a tiny home. Oh, boy.

Hey, it's been fun. That puts this hour in the books. Our thanks to Ben Hill, our producer, Kelly Daniel, associate producer and phone screener, and you, America. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back with you before you know it. This is The Ramsey Show. and phone screener and you, America. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back with you before you know it. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life?

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