The Ramsey Show - App - I Hit Rock Bottom and Don’t Know What To Do Next (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: "I hit rock bottom and don't know what to do next", Preparing to be a stay-at-home mom, "Can we afford a second home?" "We make $100k and can't seem to make ends meet", Why financial literacy education matters, "When should I buy my first house?" from the blog: How to Buy a House in 2023 Support Our Sponsor: Neighborly 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/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving and storage studios. It's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author. My daughter is my co-host today. She's also the co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour with one George Camel, which the popularity of as a podcast has yay now exploded.

It's pretty freaking incredible how many of you have caught on to that thing uh they're fun they're funny um and they're the nice bunch around here but today you've got me so there you go you got old papa dave today that's right we sip on a cocktail talk about pop culture and money it's great it is great it's a great podcast it's fun and funny and and you actually um also teach some stuff when you're in there. That's what he wants us to do. You sneak it in there, yeah. You got to teach something. I'm like, we can just have fun and enjoy.

Some kind of value to this. We do, we do. It's a good value proposition. It's worth listening to, so check it out. Smart Money Happy Hour. You don't want to miss out. All right. Alex is going to start off this hour in Orlando.

Hey, Alex, how are you? Hey, Dave. I've been a little bit better, but I'm really glad to be able to be on this call. Thank you so much. Our pleasure. How can we help, sir? So I am basically starting over essentially my whole life at this point. Lots and lots of changes. This all started maybe, I would say, probably about two years ago is when the dominoes started to fall. Basically, I was with my fiancé and living with my fiancé in my home and my daughter, and then we split, and she left,

and I was with taking care of my daughter for the last two years. And just kind of went into a little bit of a depression. And then eventually I took a leave of absence at my job a year later. So after that happened, I didn't really have an income. And I ended up selling my house. I sold my house and I got a lot of money from it. It was a good return and impulsively

in the loneliness, I met someone and during that time basically I spent essentially all of that money parading around with that person and spent all of it and now the money's gone so it was that person and now I can't financially take care of my kid,

so she's going to be living with her mother in a different state, and I am living with my parents now. And I'm just trying to start over and just seeing, you know, just trying to put the pieces together to see where to go from here. Wow. Sorry, Alex. How old are you? I am 36.

Okay. So I hear broken hearts, yours. I hear shame and regret. Yep. I kind of hear, I think I hear you kind of hitting bottom. Yeah. Are you, have you turned back up yet or are we still sitting at the bottom? We are, we're still sitting at the bottom.

It's just now hitting me harder now because, you know, she'll, you know, my kid will be leaving in probably a couple months uh less than that probably so uh a couple of months i thought you said you couldn't take care of her uh right so she's finishing up the school year so i'm just scraping by just doing odd jobs to uh you know she's got a shelter know, she lives with me and my parents in their home, so she has food and everything. So she's finished up the school year. So why can't you turn your life around enough to take care of her in two or three months?

At this point, her mother is essentially wanting her time with her at this point, and because of where I'm at, you know. That's different than I can't take care of her, so she's leaving. Right. I mean, if that's a good thing for your daughter, for her to spend some time with her mom, and it might be, that's an okay thing. But that's different than

i've screwed up so badly i can't take care of her and she's leaving i kind of thought she was already gone the way you first said that right no no she's she's going to be leaving within a couple months i got finishing up this full year yeah okay what did you used to do for a living before i've done i've done sales my whole life that i have just sales experience i've done sales what's the best year of income you ever had uh probably 60 to 70 000 what do you think you're going to make in this calendar year in this calendar year i i don't know. I'm not employed right now. And the only reason I was stopping from getting a job at this point is because I take my daughter to school every day.

In order for her to stay at her old school, it's a 40-minute drive there, 40 minutes back. So I've just been doing odd jobs like Instacart and things like that just to make ends meet in the meantime until she leaves. So the plan is to get the actual job once she leaves. So Alex, the positives here in the stories, I think that there is something that really happens to people emotionally when they hit that bottom. Because I think it does allow you to look up and say, oh my gosh, here's where I'm at and here's where I don't want to be. Because sometimes when you just live in this perpetual cycle of like things are kind of working, it's fine. You just

continue to live almost in this like, you know, you're sleepwalking through life almost. And then when something, these drastic things start to hit, it wakes you up. And so for you in this time, since you said, I'm still feel like I'm at the bottom, I feel like you just need some wins and you're called a, you know, a money show. We talk more about life here on the show, but from the money perspective, Alex, I would love for you to have some level of confidence and dignity in what you're doing and how you're handling your money to at least get some level of a foundation under you to stand on so that in 90 days when you do decide, okay, I'm going to go out into the job market, which it's a great job market right now. There's a lot of open jobs. So that's another positive in this story. But to have some of

these quick wins of intentionality. And so if you hang on the line, Austin's going to pick up and we'll give you every dollar plus and Financial Peace University because I want you to have something that you can control in your life right now because there's a lot out of your control is what it feels like.

I want you to map out what kind of man you want to be one year from now and three years from now in your spiritual walk, your physical condition, your finances, in your career, and then I want you to start taking the steps to be that man immediately. Immediately. You figured out who you don't want to be, now you need to figure out who you do want to be. And I would figure out, Alex, too, to throw a Dr. John Deloney spice in here. I mean, if there's a great counselor, therapist, pastor, someone to sit down and really understand, Alex, what caused me in the first place to be making these decisions? Because you can just white knuckle your way through good decisions in life.

But when you understand underneath what those motivators are, what are those things in your life and in your story that have caused that. That's going to help you too. So, I mean, honestly. I would sit down with someone. I agree with Rachel. And I would also find a great church, get some good men around you that are who you want to be in your next stage and start looking at them and saying, how do they function?

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

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care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budgets. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. If you're wondering whether to buy or sell a home this year, here's what you need to know about the housing market. There's still more buyers than there are homes for sale. There's still more demand than there is supply, so we're not going to see prices plummet. Interest rate hikes have made mortgages uncomfortable, unaffordable, piss you off.

I get it. Home prices aren't going to spike either. They're going up, but very gradually, like they have in most years, prior to the weirdness we just went through. If you're buying a home, you may still face some competition. You may see some big price tags. If you want to sell your home, chances are you can still make a good profit, and you can sell it, and you're just going to get it ready,

and you're going to have a normal marketing period, 90 to 120 days. You're probably not going to get 100% of asking price, but that's a fairly normal transaction in real estate. And that's the world we live in now. So if you want to have all of this happen properly, you need an incredible agent in your corner. And you can find these, they're Ramsey Trusted through our endorsed local providers program. Top-performing, high-octane, high-protein agents around the country that we trust to serve you well and get the job done in this weird time we're in. RamseySolutions.com slash agents, how you find them. RamseySolutions.com slash agent. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Allie is in Denver. Hey, Allie, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave and Rachel. Thank you guys so much for taking my call. It's an honor to speak with you. You too. What's up?

All right, so my question today is on paying off our mortgage versus investing a full 15%. So some background on our situation. My husband and I are both 25 years old. We're debt-free besides the house. We have a household income of about $250,000. Of that, I'm about $180,000. My contribution, our mortgage is $400,000, but it's always been a dream of mine to be a stay-at-home mom we're not having kids yet but i see it in the next like three or four years and so what do you do what advice would be i work in sales wow you're good at it you make 180 he makes he makes 70 yeah they're about and

i mean honestly i'm a conservative person so I feel like these are pretty conservative numbers. I could get closer to like 280 this year, too, combined. Oh, okay. I know. I was like, dang, girl. Wow. No, no, no, no, no. But still, that's $30,000 more, so that's not bad. Yeah.

Okay, and so you want to set up to be able to quit when you have kids in the next few years? Yeah. Very years. Yeah. Very cool. This has kind of been, yeah, we both have stay-at-home moms. We see the value in it. Yeah. And I am still kind of, like, not entirely sure. My whole life I've thought I wanted to stay at home,

and then this job has come up, and I've really enjoyed it. It's been fun. I've been good at it. And I'm not sure if I'll want to stay home, but at the same time, like, I just want the freedom of the choice when we get to that point, you know? So just kind of trying to set ourselves up to have the option if we want it. So what's your question then? Yeah. So do you think right now we are paying around, we are investing around like 10%?

Also because my commissions have been increasing recently. So that's part of why it's lower than the 15. Prior to that, we were doing the 15. But we've been putting like everything at the house every month we possibly can. And so I'm just wondering like if you would suggest that we continue with the 15% even with the idea of me potentially leaving the workforce in the next couple years and then us losing that income. Or if we should put more aggressively for the next just couple years. How long have you been paying extra on the house? A couple months now.

We only got the house in November, yeah. Okay, how much did you pay for the last two months on the house? Extra. About $3,000 extra. $3,000? Yeah. In the coming months, we're looking at like $6,000 to $8,000 extra. last two months on the house extra about three grand extra three thousand dollars yeah in the coming months we're looking at like six to eight extra moving forward because we we got a car um that was something else we how much do you have left on the house ali 400 it was a four hundred thousand dollar house is it still 400 yes yes ma'am okay That's what's remaining on it. That's what's remaining, okay.

Mm-hmm. Okay, eight grand a month I like. That's $100,000 out of $300,000. Okay? Right. That's very doable. And that puts you out of debt in four years. Right.

Yeah, I would continue to do that while putting 15% of your income into retirement. No, I would not back off on retirement because here's the thing 10 of 300 000 is 30 000 30 000 a year does not solve this problem it doesn't solve a 400 000 problem 100 000 a year does but 30 doesn't okay so okay uh you you've got a a philosophical thing more than a mathematical thing going here. So the actual math associated with what you're requesting, so if you stopped retirement, would you pay off the house that much faster? About six months faster is all. Okay.

We don't want to stop by any means. Yeah, but I mean if you stop completely. Yeah, in an extreme example, you know, it's still. Yeah. So the difference in 10 percent, 15 percent doesn't matter for your goal of knocking out the 400. What matters on your goal of knocking out the 400 is the eight grand a month going on it or more. Right. And just leaning in and making that like one of your sales goals.

It's a reason I'll go make a sale at the end of the day when I'm a little tired and didn't really want to go make that last call I'm going to go make it because I'm going to knock the house out that much faster because I got to tell you when I'm a salesperson and when you can increase your income by extra effort the way you can and the way you obviously have you're obviously very good at it congratulations yeah and All, if you guys do this for two, three years, you'll be out of debt. You'll be out of debt. And you don't know, even with family planning, I mean, everyone's story is so different down that road. You know, you could get pregnant the first month. It could take you guys another five years or, you know what I mean? You may end up adopting like you never know. And so I love people that prepare before the family, you know,

begins where they're like, OK, I want to be looking out because I know we're going to take this step eventually. But it may not even be in your timeline. And if you guys are aggressive in two to three years, you're going to basically have it paid off. So even if you did have a baby and stayed home, you're only going to have another year or two of the mortgage if you go down to his salary. So if you're aggressive now, you'll have plenty of room, whether you get pregnant right away, if that's what you guys want here in two to three years or not, you'll have the ability to be home. And I think that's a great financial goal for you. I think it's awesome. Yeah, I think you've got good goals and you're obviously high achievers.

So, yeah. But let's let's recap. The answer to your question is put 15 percent of your income into retirement and everything else you can find, throw it at the house so that you can hit this goal. The more fired up you are about having that house paid off, the faster it's going to be paid off. Now, we say be intentional, not necessarily gazelle intense in these last four, five, six baby steps. But if you want to be intense because you have this goal of knocking it out and to have the dates uh line up with when you want to be home

then i'm in with that i'm good for that open phones at 888-825-5225 tom is in long beach hey tom how can we help dave it is a pleasure to talk with you. I've been just dying to talk with you for so long, and I have a burning question. I just want to find out what your take is. I think I know what you're going to say, but I just want to ask you. Well, I'm interested, and my wife and I are interested in buying a second home, and we want it as kind of a vacation home. Great. So I can do my woodworking.

How much is it? And, well, we're just shopping right now. Well, I mean, what do you want to spend on it? I guess probably under $300. Have you got the money? Well, that's what I'm calling it. I want to ask you. I mean, do you have $300,000 to put on the house?

No. Then you can't buy it. Right? No, I get you. I'm seeing every day that the prices go up. I don't care. A second house is a toy. We pay cash for toys. I see every day that the prices go up. I don't care. In this area. A second house is a toy.

We pay cash for toys. If you can't pay cash for it, you don't buy a mountain house, a lake house, or a woodworking house, or whatever this is. It's a toy. You knew I was going to say that, too. But I'm here to say what you always predict I'm going to say. That's what I do every day, over and over and over and over again. This is The Ramsey Show. We know there's a bunch of you out there that are new to this Ramsey stuff. We know that because our rankings and ratings have gone up dramatically.

And so if you're brand new and some of the stuff we say is, well, it kind of sounds like inside baseball, like it's tribal speak, and you don't know what all the words in the vernacular means. Well, it's like baby steps and dead snowballs and all that kind of stuff. Well, we'll help you jump in, okay? Just go to ramsaysolutions.com, click on the Get Started button. It's a completely free thing. It'll just walk you through where you are and what your next step is, and you'll begin to kind of get the vibe of what we're doing, the process here. And we'll walk you through it. Again, completely free, RamseySolutions.com. Click Get Started.

Cole is in Wichita, Kansas. Hey, Cole, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. I'm proud to be on here with you. Thanks for your time. Honored to have you. How can we help? Well, I messed up.

So we are in the hole big time. I mean, I guess not big time. We're on our way there. And I don't know what to attack first, I guess. What we're going to do, we're selling one of the vehicles. It's got some problems that are coming to arise that I've noticed. So we're just going to sell that one. Whatever money we have left over, we're going to save a thousand of it for our emergency fund and then start

applying whatever else we have to the rest. Basically what I don't know what to do is like looking ahead to the end of this month, I'm going to be in the red and I don't know what not to pay and still be able to live, I guess. Okay. I don't want to go behind on anything, but it's inevitable at this point, I'm pretty sure. Okay.

How old are you guys? I'm 31. My wife is 30. How long have you been married? Five years on Friday. What's your household income? It'd be $112,000. Okay.

So you make good money. Yeah. I mean, $100,000 is no slouch in Wichita, Kansas, dude. That's excellent. Yeah. So what's causing the problems? Well, I think where we're at right now is after Christmas, there were some bills that I forgot about,

and we've got an almost one-year-old, and the hospital called on that, and I got on a payment plan with them, and that payment plan came out, and it overdrafted my account. And after that, I'm just trying to play catch-up, I guess, on that, and it's just been one thing after another. We had a tire blowout on one of the vehicles. I get a new tire for that and others.

It's expensive right now. How much was the hospital bill that came out of your account? That one was only $222 payment. With making $115,000 a year, $222 does not put you in this mess. What other debts do you have, Cole? What else do you have? So we have two vehicles right now. One of them we owe $4,500 on.

The other one we owe $6,200 on. The $6,200 one is the one we're selling, by the way. We've got, my wife has around $30,000 in student loan. The credit cards is right around $14,000. And the house is $102,000. And what else is there? How much is the house is $102,000. And what else is there? How much is the house worth? House, right now, I haven't had it appraised or anything,

but I'm thinking I could get around $140,000 to $150,000. Okay, so your house payment's not, like, insane. It's not like you guys live in a half-million-dollar, million-dollar house. Right, it's $1, guys live in a half a million dollar million dollar house right it's a thousand fifty dollars a month yeah so cole i mean you know yes i understand this is it's overwhelming and there's a lot of numbers here but also um this could work so my question is month to month do you guys to month, is your lifestyle just completely out of control? Are you guys just spending a ton? No. You got a lot of money going somewhere that

you haven't shown us yet. Yeah. Oh, daycare too. So $300 a week going to daycare. What's your wife make a year? She makes $52,000. Was that part of the $112,000? Yeah, that's part of it. I make $62,000, she makes $52,000. The only thing I can think of is you're completely chaotic and disorganized to the point that you're out of control. That's the only explanation because there's nothing there's nothing glaring in these numbers i kept waiting for the 50 000 car and it wasn't here i kept waiting for something big that was smacking these smacking this budget in the mouth and it's not here so the only thing i can come up with is you guys must be some of

the most disorganized completely chaotic people that I've run into in a while. Yes, I would agree with that. Okay. We're jumping on with this. We want to get it. Okay. That's fair. I'm not picking.

I'm just trying to help you. I'm trying to figure out where this is going so I know how to fix it. I'm not picking on you, okay? Because I get that. So, okay, that's bad news and that's good news. The good news is that you're the problem. The bad news is you're the problem. So we can fix So, okay, that's bad news and that's good news. The good news is that you're the problem. The bad news is you're the problem. So we can fix this, okay, really quickly.

So a detailed, in-depth game plan where you tell every dollar exactly what to do every single month and you and your wife pinky swear and spit shake that you're not doing a freaking thing with a single penny except what you agreed to on this hardcore plan will get you out of this really fast you're going to turn around so fast and call that plan is you're not you're not going out to eat you guys aren't amazoning stuff to the house you're not shot like you're doing you're literally doing amazon prime you're doing nothing but catching up on these bills because that you're not going out to eat you can do this cole i mean the numbers are here that i'm like no vacation this summer you're broke people yep no eating out you're broke people you don't see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there as your extra job to clean this freaking mess up

okay so this is like put yourself in financial boot camp because here's the thing you two are not dumb people and if i hired you and said i'll give you ten thousand dollars to look at these people's budget and tell them exactly what to do with it you'd have it done in an hour and a half yeah so here's what you do you take care of food first, lights and water second. You pay the house payment third. You pay the car payments fourth. You put gas in the car fifth. You don't need any clothes.

You've got enough this month. Yep. Okay? Buy clothes only when there's something that's completely about to fall off of somebody or whatever right now. People got clothes in their closet for days. Don't talk to me about style you're broke people okay and so you know this is what you do this is what sharon and i did all right and so you could turn this around really fast we call that the four walls you take care of the four walls of your house the necessities of life food shelter clothing transportation utilities gas in the car and everything else can wait yeah well it won't have to by the way when you start writing this out you got enough room in this

budget to probably pull this off i don't hear the payments because you're not making any payments on the stupid student loan it's not affecting anything and if you just throw the credit card payments in the in the trash for one month whoopty doopty oh i'll hurt my credit well good you don't need credit you're not really good with it yep okay and so if you and honestly i'm like where you guys are there's almost this like radical behavior change that needs to occur on a very radical scale because you've been on one extreme i'm like and i know you have a one-year-old, but honestly, I'd say, you know, between now and July, do Uber Eats at night for four months. Just make some extra.

Like, you guys need to like... Not get Uber Eats. Deliver Uber Eats. No, drive. Don't drive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, shock the system, Cole. You and your wife.

Honestly, shock the system for a short period of time. Deliver pizza. Cut grass. For a short period of time. And hold on the line. Austin will pick up, but we'll give you guys Financial Peace University. Go through the Financial Peace University class. Because honestly, you guys got this. You could do this.

Get that every dollar budget out tonight. You and your wife sit down and say, okay, we can eat. We got the money. We keep the lights on. We can keep the house payment paid. You can do all those things. And the rest of it, you just got to fight through. And you can do this. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author.

My daughter is my co-host today. If you didn't know, April is National Financial Literacy Month all month long. Teachers and students in classrooms across America are taking time to talk about the importance of learning good money skills. We've got one of our incredible teachers that teaches foundations in personal finance in the classroom. If you didn't know, we have a high school curriculum that's in about 48% of the high schools. That means there's 52% that need to be doing it that aren't. But this teacher is absolutely incredible. We wanted to get her on the phone in honor of financial literacy class.

It's Chelsea. Chelsea is in Delton, Michigan. Hi, Chelsea. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Good, good. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Thank you for teaching the class. Of course. It's a blast. I love it. Now, what school do you teach at? Delton Kellogg High School. Okay. And so what age kids, young people are going through this? It's mostly juniors and seniors. Okay. That's good. So they're kind of looking out into the world saying, we're coming at you. We need to know how to handle this money stuff.

Oh, yeah. Definitely. Now, how many kids are enrolled at this school uh just under 350 oh wow all right the small rural school yeah yeah where is belton or delta is it belton or delton delton okay yep um it's closest to kalamazoo. Oh yeah. Okay. All right. And how long you been doing this? How long you been teaching the foundations class? This is my sixth year. Okay. So what's happening actually in the classroom that makes you want to keep doing this while you're doing it? Well, my first year teaching, I had no idea what Ramsey was or anything. So that first year I taught it, I was really teaching myself and I thought I was good with money, but I absolutely was not. I was really good with credit card debt and I was like, I need to practice what I'm preaching.

So I fully embraced the curriculum, became debt free in 2020. Wow. Yep. That's awesome. And I celebrated with my students and they hear all of my money stories that I've had throughout the process. So good. Chelsea, that's amazing. so so good it's so that's amazing

yeah that's amazing for your own story and then the stories of the kids in your class have you had through those six years ones that have graduated and have come back and said oh my gosh you know thank you so much for teaching us because of x y and z what do you have a story in mind or think of a student or two? Yeah. Like homecoming games, I'll see previous students and I'll be like, are you still debt free? And they're like, I am. And this year I really focused on going to college debt free. Just as I've gotten more comfortable with the curriculum, I'm like, this is going to be my goal this year. And of course we watched the borrowed future and it scared my kids, of course,

in a good way. Yeah. Good. And I have so many kids who are like student loans are off the table. They're going to community colleges instead of universities. They're applying for scholarship just so many kids this year are dedicated to no student loans so it's awesome you know all we had to do is tell them right nobody told them you know way to go you're there to tell them thank you so much

now michigan's got legislation that mandates personal finance curriculum, right? Yes. Actually, it will be in effect for this current year's eighth grader. So when they graduate high school, they do have to have a financial literacy class credit. And my amazing principal, Lucas Treeweiler, he is dedicated to your curriculum to fulfill that credit for our students. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. All you Michigan people, we can do it for you. They got to have the credit.

We can help you get there. We've met all the Michigan benchmarks, and the lesson plans make it easy for you, don't they? Yes. Oh, my gosh, yes. It's amazing. It's amazing. Our guys have built this out so well. Our whole education team are actually phenomenal professionals in curriculum development

to make it easy for the teacher, make it fun for the kiddos, and it lights out amazing. And you are lights out amazing for teaching it and for getting your – and jazzing up your amazing principal. Way to go. Thank you. And the kids do love George Campbell's. Way to go. Thank you. And the kids do love George Camel's dad jokes. So, you know.

That's good. So do we. Listen, we all love George Camel's dad jokes. Even dads love George Camel's dad jokes. Yep. So, oh, man, that's fun. Hey, congratulations. And thank you so much for leading this for so long. And for just being a teacher, too, Chelsea.

I just know in today's world, it's a lot. And as a mom with little ones in the school system, just thank you for all you do and all the teachers out there. Because it's a hard job and sadly sometimes a thankless job. So just here thank you from us and what you do. Yeah, I couldn't do it. And it's not because of the kids. The helicopter parents, I would do like a it's not because of the kids the helicopter parents

i would do like a sam's missile and just take out the helicopter and it'd be over i mean i just couldn't do it i could the helicopters would crash because i couldn't do it i can't handle them and so yeah because i mean i i grew up in a house you know in that where if if we had an argument with the teacher my parents automatically assumed the teacher was right. That's where we started. I had to make a real case. For yourself. For myself.

In other words, I had to learn to argue well if I was going to. Otherwise, just shut up. Hey, there are great parents out there, though. There are great parents and there are fabulous teachers. Yes. That put up with some not great parents. And some not great students and some great students. It's all done matter of nature.

It's all mixed in there. It's all mixed in there. All that's said, they have a very selfless, sacrificial job. So teachers, thank you. It's tough. Any teachers listening out there, we love you. We respect you. We thank you.

And as a part of the Financial Literacy Month, we want you to enter the Ramsey Teacher Appreciation Giveaway, sponsored by the army national guard no less one teacher will win a five thousand dollar vacation two more teachers will win a three thousand dollar vacation each no purchase necessary if you're all you gotta do is be a teacher and go to ramsey solutions.com slash teacher you can enter and we want to be a blessing in at least three of your lives, and to all of you, just say we salute you. Thank you, Chelsea. You're absolutely amazing.

Beautiful, beautiful stuff. Anthony's with us in Sacramento. Anthony, how are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm just looking kind of more or less just for like a future financial decision

um whether it be like trying to invest more or looking into kind of buying a house okay um so where are you at anthony with your with your money is is there debt? Do you have anything liquid? So I have about $30,000 in my savings, debt-free, making around $120 a year. Good for you. How old are you? 23. Amazing. What do you do? I'm a firefighter. Good for you. Awesome. Well done. You know, well, Anthony, I mean, yeah, the savings you have is incredible. Are you looking to settle down in where you live right now? Do you think that that'll be a long-term play for you, location-wise? Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I would like to, you know, kind of get a first house

and then see from there whether it be kind of moving up to another house and using that one as a rental property um i just you know i i'm i feel like i'm in a kind of in a good position right now are you in a serious relationship yeah i live with my girlfriend okay all right um don't buy a house with someone you're not married to so if you buy a house you buy a house you don't buy a house with your with your shacked up girlfriend that'll get you in a mess okay yeah but uh now uh i will say if you're about to get married then she would be involved in the purchase of the house after you're married and so i don't know what your timeline is on that kind of stuff but um uh if that if that's not coming I don't know what your timeline is on that kind of stuff. But if that's not coming soon, don't, you know, you don't put her on the deed. And honestly, she's not in the decision either.

Right, right. Okay. But if there's going to be a wedding in the offing, then we change the whole dynamic and we involve her in the purchase and you close after you're married. Yeah. And both of you are on it. So looking at a good starter home, Anthony, you can use some of this money. I would keep some of it as an emergency fund at three to six months of expenses. Whatever's remaining, just making sure you have at least 5% for a down payment if that's

what you want to do. And then start investing 15% of your income into retirement after that is what we would say walking down the baby steps. Yeah, very good. Good job. You're ahead of the game at your age, sir. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz. 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 ramsesolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramsesolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.