The Ramsey Show - App - I Love My Truck…but Should I Sell It? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

Retirement, Debt, Saving, Career, Relationships, Budgeting As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. George Campbell, Ramsey personality and host of The Fine Print, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. The Fine Print is the podcast with Ramsey Networks that gets behind The Fine Print. You know, the part where you got screwed. You remember. And George has been looking into that and making sure we know

what all of those are season one has 10 episodes has the 10th one dropped today final episode final episode well maybe final forever but maybe just the final of season one that's right so what is the uh what's the subject today here's the title i didn't get to it this morning what robin hood doesn't want you to know about their investing app. This is a controversial one. But we've seen so many people. They're asking questions going, hey, should I be investing in these apps, doing micro-investing, robo-investing, DIY investing? And so we looked into it. We talked to some experts.

I know we've been in trouble on GameStop. They've been in a lot of trouble lately. They had a giant data breach that we didn't even insert into the podcast. There was so much to cover, we couldn't even cover the data breach side. But they had the biggest fine from FINRA ever. Yeah, that was on GameStop stuff, right? Yes. And you heard about the story of Alex Kearns, the college student who committed suicide, 20 years old, thought he had a negative $730,000 balance in his Robinhood app, couldn't get in touch with anyone at customer service. And so he took his own life because of that incident. He even said it in the suicide note, $30,000 balance in his Robinhood app, couldn't get in touch with anyone at customer service.

And so he took his own life because of that incident. He even said it in the suicide note, how could a 20-year-old leverage this much debt without knowing what he's doing? Such a sad story. And so they've been under fire for a lot of that. They've been trying to do PR to clean this up. But this isn't a piece to bash DIY investing or bash Robinhood, but we want to let people know what's going on here. Too late. Yeah, maybe a little late, but listen to the episode. We talked to Jerry Walsh over at FINRA. So we actually interviewed Jerry, who's over the investor education, to really figure out what should people know before they jump into these investing apps and start doing everything themselves. Because the democratization of investing is great. It used to be only rich know, only rich people on Wall Street could jump into the stock market. But now anyone

and their mom and an 18-year-old with a phone can make some real risky decisions and get into options trading, single stocks, cryptocurrency, all kinds of things. Nothing sounds good here. Robinhood doesn't sound like it stole from the rich and gave to the poor to me. Not quite. Not quite. And you know what the GameStop thinks. I'm not thinking it made Marion's good here. Robin Hood doesn't sound like it stole from the rich and gave to the poor to me. Not quite. Not quite. And you know what the GameStop thinks. I'm not thinking it made Marion's happy here.

This is just my thought. Okay. Well, check out the podcast. It's called The Fine Print, and everything is there. So be sure you step into that and don't miss out on any of it. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sherry is with us to start off this hour in Tucson, Arizona. Hi, Sherry.

How are you? Good. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Okay. I've been listening to you, and what's happening is I started out in my life having the role models of spend, you know, splurge, spend, even if you can't afford it.

So I never learned how to do finances correctly. However, I am now 72, divorced, nine years, have my own home. Get free. But right now what I'm looking at, listening to your advice, is some of the monies I have, are they better off going to pay off my mortgage rather than sitting in the bank and making no money? Yeah.

So how much do you owe on your house? I re-fied, so now it's $89,000. Okay. And how much money do you have in the bank? I have, let me see, over $50,000. Some I will use to, you know, fix up my home a little, or vacation, or emergency, but, you know, fix up my home a little or vacation or emergency, but, you know, it's a chunk. $50,000. And how much do you have in your nest egg? Do you have retirement savings as well?

I have retirement, and I have a guaranteed income. So I'm not hurting in that respect. How much is in your retirement, and how much is your guaranteed income? Okay, in my retirement? Yes much is your guaranteed income okay my gear okay my in my retirement yes my own retirement is only about 50 60 000 okay but you know retirement fund okay so you got a hundred thousand bucks to your name give or take and you owe 89 000 on your house and your guaranteed retirement income is how much okay and every month every month between everything, let me think this through. I should know it by now. About $4,000?

Okay, very good, very good. Yeah. Well, you've done very well. I'm in better shape than ever. You've done very well, yeah. So here's the thing. Thank you. Obviously, a paid-for house would make your golden years relaxed.

Yes. So that should be our goal. But we don't have to panic about it. You need an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And how much is this mortgage payment every month? The mortgage is, wait, let me, I have to think. i'm a little nervous um not real it's not real high it's um with taxes and everything yeah uh 750 a month okay so with that 750 a month that's going to be added to that income and really help you live out this retirement so i do want this

house paid for um and like dave's saying once you have that emergency fund in place out of that $50,000, then I would put whatever else is remaining on there and put that on the loan. Yeah, let's just make it kind of round numbers for a second. Let's set aside $25,000. How much did you say you had some repairs to do? Did I hear that? Well, it's repair and improvement. I'm estimating it'll be $20,000, but that may not happen for another year or so. And I plan to use cash, not charge anything. You better. You better. Okay.

Yeah. All right. So, okay, we need to set aside $25,000 for your emergency fund, and let's set aside $15,000 for repairs and renovation, okay, in a separate account. Okay. Two different little accounts. And then let's put the other $10,000 on the house. That gets it down to about $79,000.

And then let's just begin to pay extra on the house as you can out of your monthly budget. And let's get that house paid off as quickly as you can so that then you have smooth sailing in there. So you should be done in probably done in probably done in five years, probably 77. That's what I'd like to do. Yeah. That's what I'd like to do because, I'm sorry. That's what I would do. Yeah, do it.

Do you have the margin to do it? And then I have, oh, I'm in good shape. I bought my car for cash before. You can put an extra $1,000 a month on this house pretty easy, can't you? I probably could. Yeah. And that puts you done in five years with putting $15,000 or $20,000 out of your current account on there, setting aside $15,000 for repairs, setting aside $25,000 for your emergency fund.

And there's nothing wrong with this formula. The beautiful thing is if you're 87 and your house is paid for, if you're 77 and your house is paid for, if you're 27 and your house is paid for, it puts you in a completely different headspace. Your emotions, your spirit, and the arithmetic all changes. And it's called financial peace. Two words that don't go together like Fauci math.

This is The Ramsey Show. People put off buying life insurance and getting the protection they need for a variety of reasons. So let's clear up a few myths to make sure you get your family protected. First, term life insurance, it's not expensive. In many cases, it's just plain cheap. Most people are surprised by how much less expensive it is than they thought. Second, life insurance through work is not enough. You need 10 to 12 times your income to protect your family and relying on protection that in most cases you lose when you change jobs is a big mistake. Third, stay-at-home parents need life insurance as much as anyone, especially those with young kids at home. How else will your surviving spouse get the help they need? Lastly, it's not complicated, especially

when you use Zander Insurance. They shop the top companies to find you the best rates, and they're there every step of the way. Visit Zander.com or call Zander at 800-356-4282. Well, the Christmas countdown is on, and me with the rest of the team at Ramsey Solutions, we're in a Christmas frame of mind already. We love Christmas around here. It's become a Christmas tradition to give away a boatload of cash. Every year we celebrate Christmas with our Ramsey Show listeners with our Ramsey Christmas

Cash Giveaway. Big tradition. This year we're giving away $500 a week. We've already started. And a grand prize of $5,000. You can enter every day to increase your chances of winning. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash giveaway. And if you're looking for life-changing gifts for your family and friends,

our famous week-long Black Friday sale is here. This week only, get 73% off bestsellers. Makes perfect gifts. Books are great stocking stuffers. And we've got gifts for him, gifts for her, gifts for kids. Check it all out. The life-changing book that sold so many copies. The total money makeovers

only twenty dollars the new book baby steps millionaire that comes out in january is on pre-sale just launched the pre-sale on it first book i've done in eight years it's on there as well all kinds of stuff check it all out black friday sale everything online at ramseysolutions.com, ramseysolutions.com. All right, open phones at 888-825-5225. Solomon is with us. Solomon is in New York City. If I were to push the right button, I would be talking to Solomon. There we go.

Hey, Solomon, what's up? Hey, Dave, how are you doing? Better than I deserve, man. How can we help? So I have two questions. One of them kind of runs into the other. Basically, I saw you started seeing your videos on YouTube, and I'm 18 years old, and I read the Total Money Makeover,

and I have $1,000 saved. So I'm just wondering what should my baby steps look like if I'm starting with no debt and no experience? Well, you got a good early start, my brother. I'm glad you called. I appreciate it. So, Solomon, you're 18, and you have no debt, and you're wondering what the next step is after this baby step one that you're at.

That's right. Okay. Well, the next step for you would be baby step three because you're out of consumer debt. So we want you to fully fund that emergency fund that you've started. And so whatever three to six months of expenses looks like for you, I want you to save that up as quickly as possible before we ever get to any kind of investing. Yeah. Are you living at home still? Yeah. Cool. Okay. And what are you doing for a living? I'm actually still in school.

Okay. But I'm not going in debt for it. Awesome. Okay. What are you studying? I'm still in rabbinical. Wonderful. Okay.

Good for you. Good for you. Well, here's what I would do if Iinical. Wonderful. Okay. Good for you. Good for you. Well, here's what I would do if I were in your shoes. I would just pile up as much cash as I can pile up until graduation. When will you graduate? The end of this year, God willing. Oh, wow. Wonderful.

Okay. And then you will move into what is your next step in your career then? I'm actually not sure. It's not a clearly defined system. I might move home and get a job, and then I can start really piling up stuff. But I'm not exactly sure. Okay. So when you graduate from rabbinical school,

you don't automatically move into a paid rabbi position then? I don't know how this works, so I'm asking because I'm in the middle. No, that's right. Okay. So you would go get a job in the mainstream and then move into your rabbinical studies and ministry later on. Is that right? Right. Okay. All right, cool.

So what are you going to do for a living after you graduate, do you think? I mean, I have a couple friends who own these, like, companies in different industries, and I'm just, like, I guess I'm going to try around trying to get some experience. That's good. Okay, great. Well, what I would do is this. This next 24 to 36 months is going to be highly transitional. You're going to be moving.

You're going to be taking on new jobs. You might be setting up your first apartment with furniture and hooking up cable or whatever, the Internet, whatever you're going to do, however you're going to live. And because all of that transition and because you're still very young in the process, it's fine to just have a huge pile of cash. Like, for instance, if you had $50,000 cash saved, I wouldn't be mad at you. I don't want it invested at this stage. I want you to get settled and steady in your income before you start worrying about your investments.

But right now, just a big old pile of of cash it's like grease in the gears man it'll just cause that cause stuff to happen and if the more money you piled up the less desperate you are to get a job and so you don't take the wrong job with the wrong people the toxic environment or a thing you hate doing just because it looks like it might make you money and instead you can get into something that's a true act of service that follows in uh in the rabbinical rabbinical mindset and can move you out in that direction so yeah just give yourself this pad between uh all of the garbage out there and life called life and that pad is called money so just a big old pile of cash and then you know when you're 23 22 and you kind of got a rhythm to your income then you start worrying about investing and start thinking about buying homes and those

kinds of things but right now let's just see how much cash you can pile up yeah i remember being 18 and solomon's got so much wisdom for an 18 year old to even be asking he has the name solomon wisdom i didn't put two and two together. Look at that. But I remember being 18. I thought you were playing on that. I'm not that smart. But at 18, I was living at home, and I was spending every paycheck I got, and it was gone. And I wish I had the wisdom to go, hey, what if I could save this so that as I step into adulthood, I've got a pile of money instead of a pile of debt and stress.

Wouldn't you love to have a rabbi named Solomon? That's amazing. This would be pretty cool right here. This is destiny. All right. Aaron is with us. Aaron's in Lexington. Hi, Aaron. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I had to hear you say that's the only reason I asked. Hey, I want to keep it brief. I know you want everybody to do the same. I have a tricky situation. Everyone does. Me and my wife are going to get a home in the next couple months. We've been living in my brother's basement.

We've paid off every debt except her student loan and her car. But the tricky thing is my mother is going to probably be moving in with us. She has a home now, but she's going to sell her home, live with us. The good part of that is she's going to probably purchase 25% of the home where she's going to be living with us. She's going to sell hers. The tricky part of this situation is that my aunt, her sister, is in charge of her estate. It has been since my grandfather died.

My grandfather knew she was terrible with money, and she is. So his will, he put that he wanted my aunt to be in charge so that she didn't burn through her estate. But the only problem is my aunt has never, ever once told my mom or me or my brother how much she got. She's never told us anything. This has been nine years now. She's being very difficult with the fact that now we're going to have our mother-in-law. She's asking all kinds of questions. She's like, to be honest, she's coming across as if she doesn't want her to kind of,

because she's going to have to tell us some answers as to what's going on. She's told my mom, she just last Christmas, she told my mother that she was nearly out of money and was going to have to figure out what we're going to do with her because she's almost out. And now we brought up the proposition she's going to move with us and now she all of a sudden what's your household income here my household income is about seven seventy five hundred a month okay you're not going to like my answer much well i'm probably not okay you shouldn't do any of this.

Okay. Number one, you're broken in debt. You don't need to be buying a house. Number two, you don't let someone who have absolutely no idea what's going on with their finances and you've got all this conflict going on, own 25% of the house you're going to own with your wife. This is a recipe for marital discord. Okay. You ain't seem pissed off till you seem pissed off like your wife's gonna be when this story ends right bad idea dude you're putting a lot of hot sauce in the chili man you is asking for it okay well what what about is there anything we can do i think your mom needs to stand on her own somewhere and be taken care of by your aunt

until your aunt decides that she wants to come clean with the finances. You don't need to buy a house anyway for your mom, and you don't need to buy a house with your mom even after you're in good shape financially. If you want to let her live with you as a tenant, that's fine, but you need to buy your own house after you're out of debt and not before. If your aunt won't come clean with what's going on, you can hire an attorney, drag her before the judge, and have the judge do a full audit on the finances and expose them to the family and maybe remove her as power of attorney. Sounds like that is what needs to happen, by the way, because Barney Fife, your aunt, is out of control.

But that's a side issue. That's not when she owns 25% of your house. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Morgan is with us. Hey, Morgan, how are you? I'm great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you live? I live in outside of Greensboro, North Carolina. Okay. Nice trip over the mountains this time of year to come see us. Sure was. Good to have you. And how much debt have you paid off? I paid off $62,710. Way to go. And your range of income during that time? Started at about $55,000 and this year will be about $78,000. Cool. And your range of income during that time? Started at about $55,000, and this year will be about $78,000.

Cool. And I skipped over. How long did that take? 23 months. 23! Way to go! Good job. Good job.

All right. So what kind of debt was this $63,000? Oh, man. Okay, so it was a little bit of everything. Had some furniture, a TV, a personal convenience loan. I had four credit cards, a car loan, and a truck loan. A personal convenience loan. Of course. Was it convenient? No. It was convenient until she got it, and then it wasn't convenient anymore. Exactly. That's how it works. That's a nice brand. I like that brand.

Yeah. It makes us sound so innocuous. So you were kind of normal. You borrowed on everything. I did. How old are you? 32. Okay. And so you started this journey when you were 30. Yes. And you looked up and said, ah! Yeah. All right. So how'd you get connected to Ramsey? And tell us your story.

Sure. Well, I'll have to go. A few months before I started, I got my dream job at a company I had tried to get onto for a long time, several years. And with that came a pay increase. And so I thought that was the key. That fixes it. That's key. That fixes it. That's right.

That fixes everything. But I wasn't budgeting correctly, and I was spreading all of my extra income across all my debts. So I wasn't making any progress. And so my dad had mentioned Dave Ramsey, and I should check him out, but I didn't, of course. And then one day I was on LinkedIn, and I saw a post about how a guy paid off all his student loans using the debt snowball and the baby steps. And I was like, hmm, there's that Dave Ramsey name again.

There he is. And so I researched it and dug in, and I bought the Total Money Makeover. And that was actually the last thing I bought on my Amazon credit card. So isn't that lovely? Oh, a curse on the book. Exactly. You got 5% off, right? You know it.

Shut up. There we go. That makes it okay. And so I read the book, and I'm not much of a reader, but I read it pretty fast. I think in a week's time, because it's easy to read, and I just attacked it. Wow. I think in a week's time, because it's easy to read, and I just attacked it. Little is the biggest. I laid everything out, and I didn't realize how much I

had actually ranked up. I knew I had some debt, and I knew I needed to fix it, but I didn't have the drive to fix it until then. Wow. Did it feel overwhelming when you listed it out for the first time and really added it up? Yeah. It was like, how am I ever going to get this done? So what was that journey like? When you paid off that first little debt, what did you feel? Oh, my gosh. It was very gratifying. And like, well, maybe I can actually do this.

And I was spreading my extra income across my different debts before I read the total money makeover. And I wasn't making any progress. So that's hard when you're not making any progress and, um, and feeling like, like you're not getting anywhere. And I made this income I thought was big at the time. And so, um, you know, that should fix my problems, but it didn't. So what sacrifices were you making? You were throwing half your income at this debt. Yeah. Well, um, the, the pandemic helped because we, um, everything was at home. So we did a lot of cooking and eating at home, my son and I. And we actually turned down a trip to Disney World this year, a free stay at Disney World. So we made some...

There's no such thing. Exactly. And I knew that going into it. It's a trap. You walk through the gate, they got you. They do. Was that a timeshare presentation by any chance? Well, my aunt and uncle have a timeshare, so that was how we were going to stay.

But anyway. Wow. Yeah. Very impressive. Well done. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Me too.

So I'm guessing your dad was cheering you along. He was. Who were your other cheerleaders? Well, my family, for sure, and my son. Okay. And some of them came with you to cheer you on today. They did. They absolutely did. Who came with you?

So that's my boyfriend, Micah, my son, Zeke, my mom, Lisa, and then my sister-in-law and her son, Lane and Lucas. It's a good Nashville trip. That's right. We've had some fun. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You did it in 23 months. When you start, it's overwhelming.

You got your stomach in your throat. You can't breathe. And then they pay off the little minimum. Maybe I can do this. And then the next one, maybe I can do. Yeah, this is going to work. Yeah, this is going to work. Exactly.

So what's the key to getting out of debt? The key is really just to stick to the plan. Don't try to cut any corners or make it work with your situation. Like, just follow the plan. It's simple. It's hard, but it's simple. So I think that's the key is just sticking to it. You know, some of the most profound, life-changing things in the world are easy to understand and hard to do absolutely love your neighbor yep yeah but he's a jerk exactly how is that possible i

get the idea but exactly which neighbor can i pick? Yeah. Yeah. I want to modify the plan. Yeah. Everybody wants to ish. But profound life-changing things, principles that we live our lives by, values are simple to understand and hard to execute because they require dealing with a person in our mirror. That's right. So I'm proud of you. Thank you.

Really well done. I know your family's proud of you. I know your little boy's proud of you. He got to watch you do this. He sure did. And it changes the way he do this. He sure did. And it changes the way he views things. He'll remember.

My mom, the single mom, for 23 months, we busted it, and she changed our lives. That's right. You're a hero. And riding in the car, he would say, Dave Ramsey again, because we listen to the podcast. Me too. Me too. That's what my wife says. Way to go.

I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Good stuff. We've got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you. That's the next chapter in your story as you're on your way to being a Baby Steps millionaire. And a copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give away. Start someone's journey the way yours got started. That same exact book. That's right.

So very cool. Very, very, very well done. Thank you. All right. You want to get Zeke up in the in the debt-free screen picture here let's do that he's excited how old is zeke again he's seven seven yeah a good looking young man yes he is all right zeke and morgan from greensboro north carolina 63 000 paid off 23 55 to 78. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Count it down.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! I love it! Woo! That's awesome. He gets to use his outdoor voice inside. That's why he's so excited.

That's fun. Good physique. Well done. He likes Dave Ramsey now. Very well done. why he's so excited. That's fun. Good physique. Well done. He likes Dave Ramsey now. Very well done. Well, for the next few minutes and then after that. That's awesome. You know, what's interesting is all these years of doing this,

there's every demographic, race, creed, color, marital status, income, background, region, has stood on that stage and done their debt-free scream. There's no correlation to any of it, like how you were brought up, whether you're married, whether you're a single mom, whether you make $100,000 a year, whether you make $40,000 a year, whether you make $55,000 to $78,000 a year. The only correlation that I've ever been able to see across all of the data

that's walked across those stages in front of me over 30 years is that they decided they could. That's a good observation. I mean, here's a single mom. I mean, you know how tough single moms got it? I mean, that's tough. They got to do everything by themselves. And she's got a good family support system around her and other things and obviously she's a very whole person talking to her i mean she's very well-rounded very bright very wise but uh it's

a tough gig and and yet she paid off 63,000 in 23 months and i got people completely healthy marriages making 120,000 and dave ramsey's not realistic well kiss my butt let me just tell you about dave ramsey being realistic let me just tell you her name is morgan and she just did it and made you look bad she just completely shamed you no excuses yeah and she could have had him because she i mean she's doing a lot there's so many reasons she could have gone well the debt can debt can wait. Everybody's got a dad-blame excuse not to win until they go win. Everybody's got a dad-gum excuse until your butt gets on fire and you say, that's it. I'm done.

I'm not living like this anymore. I've had it. And that's the demographic that changes their life. Is you just light yourself on fire and see who wants to come see the fire. You know? I mean, let's get it. Let's get it. Put on a show.

And then people say, then come see the fire. You know, I mean, let's get it. Let's get it. Put on a show. And then people say, well, then they've got, they criticize the fire. Meanwhile, you're changing your whole life and Zeke's family tree. Mic drop, baby. Well done. There it is. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll see right back. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today as we talk to you about your life and your money. It's common sense for your dollars and cents. Jeremy is in Evansville, Indiana.

Hi, Jeremy. How are you? I'm good. How about you? Better than I deserve, man. What's up? I just got a quick question I want to get your input on whether I should

take advantage of this crazy auto market right now and sell my current vehicle I have a truck that I bought brand new before I really took upon your ways and it's gone up actually in this value or in this market right now as far as value and I have

the opportunity it is I have the opportunity. It is. And I have the opportunity to sell it, like, later today. And I'm just kind of wanting to see if you think that's a good idea. Like I said, my perspective has changed on this a lot as far as vehicles go and losing value. Wow. And so I have no debt right now. We have no debt.

Really, there's no emergency. This would basically just kind of shoot us into baby step four and some. So what will the truck sell for today? They're about $38,000. And what's your household income? Right around $150,000 to $170,000. It varies depending on overtime and things like that. What's the truck?

What kind of truck is it? One of your favorites. It's a 2018 Tacoma. It's a great truck, yeah. Okay. I love it. I actually love it. Like I said, the only reason why I would sell it at this point is just because of the

advantage of actually making money. As far as my wife's car? Mm-hmm. I'm wanting to say, think we've uh just looked into recently it was right on 27 000 it's a 2018 toyota camry okay well here's the thing you've heard us talk about this obviously and it's made you think about this and you can do whatever you want to do there's no um there's no uh you're stupid in this discussion okay no column we check that box so you can keep it or you can sell it um and here's why the car a car is the largest thing

all of us buy just about all of us buy um that goes down in value and so it's a big item and it goes the wrong way so they all suck financially okay there's not a good one there's not a good one and we've got an anomaly in the market right now where it actually went up in value but that's the first time in a hundred years the cars have gone up in value and it won't last okay it's just till the supply chain gets straightened out the supply demand-demand curve evens, and then they'll start going down again like a rock. That's where Chevy gets at, like a rock. So this is the – it's just a fact, okay?

So given that, years ago when we first started teaching people to become Baby Steps millionaires, we determined that there are two measures if somebody has too much car. One is if they can't pay off all their debt not counting their house in two years well you've already you're debt free so that doesn't even apply to you and the second one george the second one as far as okay if you buy a car new no you don't want to buy a car new unless you're uh which you've already got this car but if you're going to call me up to am i going to buy a new car i want you to have a million dollar net worth i didn't ask you about that oh but if if you don't want more because they're so big and they go down in value you don't want more than half of your annual income even if everything's paid for tied up in things

going the wrong way anything with a motor in it yeah anything with a motor or wheels totaled up it doesn't need to be more than half your annual income because you know let's say in your case you make 175 000 a year so if you had 110 000 worth of vehicles going the wrong way that's going to weigh you down in your wealth building right you don't absolutely you don't you've got about 50 something thousand and you make 175 000 a year so yours is not out of line it's a little high and it's kind of stinging you because you you got new information the way you're processing this emotionally but there's no financial thing screaming that you

need to sell this truck and you like the truck i'm personally going to keep it if it's me are you just trying to fast track baby step three right now uh you know i mean we're pretty much good on baby step three so kind of like just us fully in the baby step four. Um, and the other part of this too, to kind of throw in the equation is I'm, I'm a police officer. So I actually have a take-home car and that's what I drive 95% of the time. So this truck just sits in the garage and I'm, you know, normally I just feel like I'm sitting there watching it go down in value while I never use it. And so if I did this, it would be basically to kind of let the market calm back down and then find a better deal on a used car that i'd still be pretty happy with well you can do that that's not an unwise thing it's not an unwise thing and so yeah this is a this is get

out while the getting's good kind of thing i'm with you exactly and so i i think that's you know you're topping out the market because you know know, two months from now, it's probably not going to be that way. This is probably your one shot at pulling this deal off. And like you said, you can go buy something for half this price when the market evens back out. That is a really nice truck still. Absolutely. Especially for a driveway sitter. Exactly.

You know, so, yeah, I'm'm with you i think it's okay but i just want you to understand it's not the same weight as if you had 110 000 worth of vehicles because guys call me up making 250 and they want to buy a 200 000 lamborghini and i kick their little butts because that's just stupid short-term thinking that's friday night i'm gonna spend all my money that's all that is it's a child and you're not doing that you're doing the opposite of that so i wanted to talk through the critical thinking of this but i agree with you i think i'd do what you're doing if i woke up in your shoes there's no problem with keeping it though you're not on the bubble you're not out

of line if you just rethink this and go you know i just really like this thing i'm gonna keep it well that's okay you know but if you wanted to get out and come up with something six months from now that was half the price and still a really nice vehicle, this is the month to do it. Because, I mean, it could last two more months, but I don't think it's going to last six more months. I'm positive. As positive as I can be about anything, it's not going to last six more months. But you know, George. What's that?

That there's only two people that can keep their jobs and be wrong all the time. Weather forecasters and economists. That's good. I should have chose a different career path. That's good. Well, and apparently mathematicians in the medical profession, too. That's another one. But, yeah, you can keep their jobs and be wrong all the time.

But other than that, the rest of us have to be right most of the time. So I'm actually guessing, but I'm looking at supply-demand curves. I'm looking at what's settling out. I'm watching these supply chains smooth out, and I'm watching some of the tsunami following the pandemic. So we shut down the whole freaking economy. That was an earthquake. Following an earthquake at sea, there's always a tsunami.

And then we have this tsunami hit, which is all this labor disruption, the supply chain disruption, the supply-demand disruption. And so there's a shortage on everything, which immediately drives the price artificially up. And so all this hyperinflation you're seeing, you know, you can blame Joe Biden if you want to, but you'd be wrong. I'm not a Joe Biden fan, but he didn't cause this. Pandemic shutdown caused this.

And everybody freaking out, shutting down the whole freaking world caused this. And the economic disruption that we chose when we chose to quarantine the entire world, that's what caused this. And so if you want to blame something, that's what you blame. Now, there is one thing you can blame Joe Biden for on the prices, no doubt about it, and that's gas prices. Because he keeps tinkering with all the energy policy, and he's screwing with it, and he put OPEC back in charge, and that's going to drive prices to double. So you've got double at your gas pump.

That is his fault. But the other economic stuff is not – you can try to blame it on him if you want. It may affect fall elections, but it's not his fault. It's the tsunami following this stuff. And that's what we're all experiencing right now. And so lumber prices are through the roof or whatever, housing prices, and there's a shortage. And everybody's running around buying up everything. And Christmas is going to be horrible because we're not going to be able to get our little jungle gym thing or whatever it is.

There's a lot of just fear, and people are freaking out about inflation. And I think the best thing you can do is to do the baby steps. Get out of debt. I was 22 years old in 1982 when Carter went out. And I walked through my teenage years with gas prices and gas lines and shortages and real inflation that went on for a decade that was double digits wow 10 a year steady that's inflation to be afraid of inflation that spiked temporarily brought on by this by the supply demand curve screw up and out there is not something i'm panicking about but if i thought

these guys were doing monetary policy that was you know driving inflation now obviously they're spending money like they're in Congress up there, and so that's going to hurt it, too. That's going to slow the recovery from this down, the recovery of this, because you print money like that. But that's also not what's causing it, because that money's not been injected into the economy yet. So it's just the perception of that that's blowing everybody's mind.

And then you politicize it and want to argue about it. Then you go bananas. Makes for a better headline. Well, and you lose all your critical thinking skills when you start talking politics. So just melt down. All in the name of what you supposedly believe. This is The Ramsey advice in their life let them know about the Ramsey call of the day podcast it's a quick hit of advice about life

and money in under 10 minutes check out the Ramsey call of the day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts