The Ramsey Show - App - I Overspent on a Car Behind My Wife’s Back (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony answer your questions and discuss: "Should I quit my high paying job that requires travel?" Making fun of finance guru influencers, "I spent way too much on your car..." "How do I talk to my wife about taking another job", "What should I do with a work bonus?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance at $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSgvwy Shop our bestsellers during the $10 Sale! https://bit.ly/TRS10Sale 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 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm your host, George Campbell, joined this hour by the one the only, Dr. John Deloney. The phone lines are open at 888-825-5225. If you want to jump in,

if you've got a question about a relationship, maybe a mental health crisis, maybe some debt you've got, we want to help you take the right next step. And you've got your Kirkland's coffee out today, ready to rock and roll. John, you know I'm a Costco fan. Hashtag not sponsored. I know, but man.

For the context, folks, John was very judgmental because I had a cold brew coffee with the Kirkland logo on it. It wasn't that. I just don't normally- What was your comment that you made? I don't normally eat things. I don't consume things that also make pants, but- They do it all.

Kirkland's incredible. They're the largest white label in the world. They're the best of the best of the best. Love them. Well, let's get to the phones, fans, whether you're a Costco fan or not. And we'll see if Jordan is over in Pensacola, Florida, kicking off this hour. What's up, Jordan? Hey, how are you guys?

Doing well. How can we help? All righty. What's up, Jordan? Hey, how are you guys? Doing well. How can we help? Alrighty. So my initial question is, should I stick it out in my high-paying job in order to pay off my mortgage quicker or get a nine-to-five so I can finally be home with my family? And my initial situation is, I mean, I'm 29 now, but from the ages of 18 to 24, I pretty much did everything the wrong way with credit cards, repossessions. I mean, it was bad.

Since then, I've been following you guys, and now I'm debt-free besides my mortgage with good credit and about $80,000 in liquid assets. I'm married with a baby on the way, and I travel for work, so I'm two weeks away from home, 84 hours a week, then get to spend a week off back home. Right now, I'm making about $175,000 salary. With the baby on the way, my wife and I would like me to quit my current employer and go get a regular 95

so I can have much of my time back with my family after this type of work for the last 10 years. My debt to income right now is only 25%, which comes out to about $3,500 a month in bills, and the rest I can save and invest. If I keep this job, I can have my $200,000 mortgage paid off in about three years, and then finally begin investing in real estate, which is kind of my ultimate goal. I'm just looking for some guidance on how far of a setback it could be by quitting. Okay. So if you got a 9 to 5, how much of an income decrease would that be, you think? Could you get a job making $100, $120?

You know, I'd really hope so, but on the low end, I'm thinking more realistically, it's going to be around $80, $85. Okay. So let's just pretend like your income gets cut down. How much more margin would you have once your bills are paid to throw at the house? Cut down that far, I'd probably have, I'd say my debt to income would probably be closer to 50%. So, but we're talking about the house getting paid off, you know, three, four, five years later than you wanted to. Possibly. Yeah. I mean, if I keep my job now, I could pay off my house easily within three years. How much do you owe on your house? So right now, I owe

$340,000. Are you going to be able to afford this pay cut? It sounds like you've got a whole lot of house thinking that this job is going to be sustainable for a long time. Well, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I should, like I said, my bills only come out to about $3,000 to $3,500

a month because I don't have any debt. Yeah, but you're about to have a human. You're about to have a child. Yeah, see, and that's the biggest reason why I'd like to come home and be with my new kid, you know? The way you phrased the question, my wife and I have already decided that we want me to quit my job. It sounds like you've answered the question. It sounds like you also have a lot of shame and regret for how you handled money when you were younger

and you're still living out of that. Yeah, exactly, because I'm scared. You've broke your neck to get to this point. Yes, and so I don't want to lose it all or dip into any kind of savings from all the work I've put in. Then don't. So you're saying stick with it? No.

It's not an either or. You're 29. If you pay off the house in 10 years instead of three, you're still going to be okay. You're ahead of everybody. And you also get to be there and watch your kid grow and not have your wife resent you. Or if you want to suck it up for 36 months and just say, I'm going to travel, but when I'm home, I'm going to be 100% home

and we're going to knock this thing out. You can do that too. That's probably not a trade I would make, but every family is different. George said it best, man. Anytime you back yourself into a corner and say, I've got to do this or I have to do that, man, that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah, that's a good point. Is the plan for your wife to stay home with the baby?

Yep. So she's been home and planning to stay home. Yeah. No, she's not working. Okay. And this is your first child? It is. Okay. When's the baby due? June 23rd. Woo. We're coming up on it. It's exciting. Yeah. I'm very excited. So I might consider a hybrid of the two right now.

Is there a possibility to say, hey, I'm going to keep working, and we're going to look up in six months, and we're going to figure this out, and at the same time, I'm applying for other jobs. I'm having conversations. That way, I don't have to take the first train out of town for $72,000. But also, I can still keep, I can just start piling up cash and throwing it at this debt and throwing it at this debt and throwing it at this debt. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of our initial conversation was, well, let me finish out this year. And then that gives me plenty of time to do what I need to do to get another job and stuff. But finish out this year might look like applying like crazy and making phone calls and having cups of coffee with folks. Maybe consider selling your house. Maybe consider moving to another city

where it may be a little bit less expensive to live. All these things are on the table now, man. You just started a new phase of your life. Does your current employer have any other opportunities for you that don't involve as much travel? No, we're two weeks on, one week off, and everybody's scheduled like that. Okay, but I assume you're really good at sales. Yeah, I do okay. You're making $175,000 and you're still working, so that tells me you do a good job.

So I think you're short-selling yourself on how much you could make in a regular sales job. What do you sell? I don't sell anything. I actually work on a drill. I'm a supervisor for some drill rigs owned by a big company. Okay. So is there anything else in the field in Pensacola where you could do that locally? Or would you need to go to a whole other career? I'll probably need a whole other career.

Anything around there, it's not much for drilling. It's all over here in Nevadavada for the mining industry okay and that's i actually was thinking that which is why i want everyone we have we have a challenge in our country right now and and i'm talking to you but i'm also talking to george here with people who want to stay in a certain location and they want to stay in a certain job and they want to stay in a certain job. And yet they expect to make X amount of dollars. And one of those three variables or two of those three variables often doesn't work. And so instead of looking at the choice I'm making to want to live here and the choice I'm making to work in this industry, I just get mad at my employer for

not making enough. And I cause havoc and I want them to raise this and increase this. When really the variable I can pull is, it might be time to move or to go try something for a couple of years, right? It's going to look different than I wanted it to, but that's the reality that I'm in right now. Well, Jordan, I want to send you some resources. One of those is Ken Coleman's Get Clear Assessment, as well as his book, From Paycheck to Purpose. I want to help you make that career move that's right for your family so you can be there for them and not decrease your income by 50%. That's the goal. So hang on the line. Austin's going to pick up. We'll get you those resources. I'm wishing you the best with this new baby and this career move. A lot going on, man. Hang on tight. This is The Ramsey Show.

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Or you can just keep listening. That's fine, too. It's your show. So, John, I come across things on the internet and they make me laugh, which I think is one of the only things the internet is good for. Correct. And I love especially when they make me laugh by calling out stupid crap that's happening out there in the culture. Excellent. And I know you love stupid stuff. With all my heart. So I thought I'd show it to you for the first time.

You've never seen this. Correct. Like that magician who's like, you are not a plant in the audience. So I want to see what you think about this. And we've reacted to this guy before. He makes hilarious videos on the internet and I'm here for it.

All right, I'm in. The next time you're going to waste $10 on a Netflix subscription, don't. Use that $10 to buy an Airbnb property that you can rent to people. Now, once you've collected some money, you're going to use that money as advertising money to grow your Amazon FBA business

that you started last night to $300 billion in daily profit. Now, once you've done that, you're going to hire your kids as W2 employees. Why? So you can write them off as a business expense. This is how I managed to retire my parents before I was born. If you're interested in more generational wealth content, make sure you click the link in my bio.

Oh, man, that gets me every time. That brings me joy in my heart. It starts absurd absurd and then it somehow gets more absurd it's how i retired my parents before i was born i saw one guy the other day uh and he was on instagram and he just said he was kind of making fun of guys like me but he just said i wake up every morning and i sprint as fast as i can towards a sunset and then i do jumping jacks in the surf. I mean, I just went through this hole.

And then I eat a head of raw lettuce. I mean, he just, yeah. We can go too far. Well, you do that, John. It's called cold plunge. I can go too far. But that guy needs an Emmy. So let me just recap what just happened. He's making fun of all the get-rich-quick bros out there.

So let's see where he went. He went from, hey, stop wasting money on your netflix subscription great start that's something we all agree on then he went use that to buy an airbnb property that you then rent out use that money to then advertise for your amazon fba which is a way that people can become sellers and sell their stuff on amazon and wholesale it's a whole thing another Another get-rich-quick trend. He says you'll make $300 billion in daily profit, and then you can use that to hire your kids as W-2 employees, which is another get-rich-quick trend, John, if you've seen it out there.

It's like it's a write-off. It's genius. You hire your kids. I'm like, your kid is seven, okay? Legally, they probably can't. You probably don't even have a real business. So they're trying to get people to start businesses they don't even have to hire their kids as a tax write-off.

If people would spend as much time just hanging out with their kids and being connected with their wife or their husband as they do trying to come up with schemes. Remember back in high school? This was probably never you. The amount of time it took to sneak notes on a

tiny piece of paper before an exam or middle school. If I had just spent that much time studying instead of trying to cut corners, golly man. But shortcuts always sound so much more fun, John. It's so boring to be like hey, just invest 15% in your 401k

and eventually you'll be a millionaire. And learn how to talk to your kids. And everyone's like, boo, give us the right crypto coin. I'm like, oh, gosh, okay. It reminds me of Kramer and Seinfeld when he runs this scheme where they get all the cans and recycle them over in Michigan to make an extra five cents a can. And it goes haywire.

It feels like Kramer was onto something. He would be a get-rich-quick bro for sure today. Oh, my goodness. That's fun. Good one. That one did not give me hemorrhoids, George. That's number one. Because it was making fun of the stupid stuff.

Correct. Instead of actually promoting it. Well done. We love to see it. All right, let's go to the phones. Jason is up next in Denver, Colorado. Jason, welcome to the show. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's going on?

Well, I committed a financial sin and I financed the vehicle and my wife wants me to sell it. I'm having a little trouble getting it sold anywhere close to what I paid for. I was wondering if you had any advice on that and what to do. Do you think you should sell it? Yes, I believe I probably shouldn't have bought it. Okay, so how much was this car? $65. What do you owe on the loan?

I just bought it, so it's probably $64,000 right now. Okay, you didn't put anything down? No, I totally financed it. Okay. And have you actually looked at private party value for this vehicle? Yes, it's quite a bit less. So I'm seeing $54,000, $55,000 for this vehicle. How much money do you have in the bank?

We don't have a lot, probably about $10,000 in the bank. I do have quite a substantial amount in my TSP or 401k. Okay, we don't want to touch retirement. So you've got enough that you could cover the difference on the loan. Let's say you sell it for 55, you owe 64, you'll take nine grand from savings, and it's going to hurt. But that would cover your stupid tax. You'd be out of this thing. Now you still need another car, correct? Yes, yes. So we need to save up a little bit more and get a beater in order to do that. And if you wanted to, this is the only time we would tell you it's okay to take out a loan is to go to your credit union, get a small loan

to cover the difference, and then you can use that to make this all happen and clean this up. Okay. Let me ask you this. The way you said you committed a financial sin. Here's the thing. We all screw up with money. That happens.

But had you and your wife agreed that y'all were not going to borrow money and y'all were through borrowing on cars and you went out and did this anyway? Yes, yes. We had been kind of following the baby steps and things like that. But I had a vehicle that had uh, was, uh, had about 280,000 miles on it. And, uh, I went to get it, uh, worked on it stuff. And they told me how much I was going to, you know, have to spend to get it fixed. So I just, I kind of, uh, got stupid in there and just went and bought another vehicle. So you said, I'm not going to pay for a $3,000 repair. Ha-ha, joke's on you.

I'm going to buy a $65,000 car. That'll show me. Yes. Yeah, that was... Okay, so here's what I want you to do. So you obviously did something dumb with math, right? You know that. Yes.

I'm way, way more concerned that with what we call here financial infidelity. You cheated on your wife. Yes. Y'all came to a core agreement on values and who we are going to be, and you had a toddler moment where you took your ball and I'm going home, and you put your ball and I'm going home and you bought a 60, you put your family in jeopardy. So if you haven't already, I want you to go home and turn all the TV off and all

the Netflix off. And I want you to take a knee in front of your wife and hold both of her hands and look her in the eye and say, I'm sorry. I violated. Have you done that? I've done that already. Good. What'd she say? She, I guess she forgave me, but she's still pretty upset. Yeah. Both of those things can be true, right? She can forgive you and be really pissed. Yeah. Forgiveness can be instant, the healing process and rebuilding trust. That'll take a while. Yeah. So cool. Go sell this car, the healing process and rebuilding trust. That'll take a while. Yeah.

So cool. Go sell this car, man, and make it right. Will do. What's your household income? I make about $177,000 a year. Okay. My wife probably makes about $50,000. Awesome.

You guys have an amazing income. Yeah. So next month you'll have, do you have any other debt? We own two houses. When we got married, I had a house and she had a house. We were talking about selling my house and just moving, you know, and just having this one house. I think that's a great plan. Could you start to knock down the mortgage once you have your emergency fund in place and you're investing? Could you start to knock down the mortgage? Once you have your emergency fund in place and you're investing, could you start to chip away at the mortgage if you sold that place?

Oh, I think if we sold one of the houses, we could probably be pretty close to paying out the other house. Which house does she want to live in? Her house. Sell yours. Tell her tonight. We're going to sell my house. That will show her that you're serious about this.

I'm serious. Your level of sacrifice. I'm going to sell my truck. That will show her that you're serious about this. I'm serious. Your level of sacrifice. I'm going to sell my truck or the car I just bought. I'm going to sell the house, and we're going to unify this thing once and for all. And we're never touching debt again. Ever. I'm getting rid of this mortgage. I'm done with debt, and I'm done not working together as a team because that's what we signed up for.

Thanks for the call, Jason. This is The Ramsey Show. Obviously, I can't meet one-on-one with every single person. It's not possible. But that's exactly why I wrote the book. Think of it. Think of Own Your Past, Change Your Future like us sitting across the table having a conversation, trying to figure out what the next right step is. It's practical advice and encouragement on topics like relationship, overcoming past hurts, and healing from traumas that you've experienced. And as you read through each section, I'll show you how to learn from what happened in your past

so you can start focusing on what it means to live well. And for the first time ever, we're including this book in our $10 sale. Dave's just giving it away and he's having all of our commissions too. But my best sellers, Own Your Past, Change Your Future, Redefining Anxiety, plus all the questions for humans, conversation cards, everything. It's just $10 each. Get your copy of Own Your Past, Change Your Future, and actually I'm just playing. I'm so glad it's at $10. We've been asking them for years for the year to make it $10.

I want to get this book into the hands of as many people as possible. And same with the questions for humans cards. Everything is just $10 at RamseySolutions.com. I might get a copy for myself since you won't hang out with me. You know a guy. I'll hook you up. I'll sell it to you for $5.

Ooh. The super, super sale. That's the Deloney special. Right. If he sits right next to you. All right, let's get to the phones. Drew is up next in Michigan. Drew, welcome to the show.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. So I just wanted to kind of get, I guess, chime your opinion. Obviously, George, chime in if you please. But I, and basically, so I've been following the Ramsey steps for a while. I, right now, my wife is currently not working. We had recently moved to the Michigan area about three months ago. When we got our home and our mortgage, it was a little bit above the 25%. It's about at the 35% mark, so higher than we want it to be, obviously. But with my wife eventually working, obviously we can get that down to 25, no problem. Um, however, um,

in good news, my wife is pregnant. Um, and so obviously that's great, but I guess my question is, um, I'm contemplating getting a second job to kind of get that mortgage under the 35% that we're at right now and get it down closer to that 25%. How do I kind of go about that conversation without putting guilt on my wife or, you know, making her feel like she's not pulling her weight or so to speak? Yeah, I appreciate your heart in this, man, I think the challenge here is what you're asking probably is not sustainable over the longterm. And so what do you do for a living?

Uh, I do like management. So management. So what kind of second job would you go get? Um, I mean, I'm open to anything. Uh, I mean, anything like in warehouse or retail or anything like that. I don't have a specific area where I'm like, you know, closed off. What's your target goal for income? Is it $500 extra a month, $1,000? Yeah, you got it. About $500 to $1,000, and that would easily put me. If I did $1,000, it would definitely put me back under 25, if not 20%.

I would much rather you begin the process of finding a new job that's going to pay you what you need. Okay. Here's what I'm afraid of, and it's a very common thing that happens to people. Is this your first kid? Yeah, this is my first. Okay first okay very very common experience is this wife gets pregnant husband and wife are all excited and nervous and all those things and there's a plan in place and the plan gets thrown out the window because everything's different than what you think it's going to be but you stick to the plan and you stick to the plan. And I don't want to over gender this, but it's common with men that you slowly get, start feeling edged out of the situation because you're not carrying this

baby. You're not feeling the extent of this stuff. And so what you do is what the, the, you want to help. You want to be supportive. You want supportive you want to to be a part of this thing and you go to the one place where you know you're good and that's work and it starts as a tiny little splinter and if you're not careful you're going to wake up in five years and you're going to have a second and a third kid and you're going to be two inches apart from your wife and two thousand miles away from her And so I would much rather, now let me say this, sometimes when somebody gets pregnant, man, go work three jobs and stack up cash. That's not what I'm saying here. If you had said, hey, how do I tell my wife for the next six months,

I need to get another job? I would tell you just to go sit down and tell your wife, we have a math problem and I want to be a good husband. And so I'm going to dive in and go get another job. That's not what you asked. What you said is I've got to fill up a ratio gap. And so this is an indefinite move to work two jobs. And man, that's just going to pull you and pull you and pull you apart from your wife. And so I'd much rather you look at math, look at the hard reality that you're facing

and then slowly start looking for a second job. You're in no rush. So I'd much rather you look at math, look at the hard reality that you're facing, and then slowly start looking for a second job. You're in no rush. Nothing's on fire. And bring your wife into that conversation and say, I want to be present at home. I want to be a good partner here. I want to be a co-manager of this house with you. And we have a math problem. And we had plan X and that's not

going to work. And so we're going to move on to plan Y. And you can't really choose how she's going to feel. That's her decision. And if she chooses guilt, then y'all can have that conversation later. But really, I want you to start leaning in towards a long-term decision here and not just a instant to instant to instant to instant to instant, because that's a good way for you and your wife to end up completely separated in this deal. So I just threw a lot at you. Tell me what you're thinking. I guess my first question would be with the work I do currently, a promotion is definitely, you know, getting promoted and increasing my income is definitely an option at where I work at. The question obviously is that no one knows when that happens.

And then I guess that's kind of like where my headspace goes into is, I guess, in your guys' ideal thoughts and everything, would you, how long would you, I don't want to say wait, but how long would you, would you kind of, I guess I'm having trouble just kind of thinking about, I guess, you know, oh, once the baby's born, we'll go back to work and then it doesn't happen. Um, and I'm hearing that. Um, but I guess going, cutting down and cutting back a little bit, other things, um, and doing either just small little side gigs and things. That's where my head goes. Um, that way I'm not taking a ton of extra time away. Are you guys actually in a financial pinch right now, Drew? Do you guys have debt? Do you have an emergency fund? Where are you at? Just the mortgage. We have the emergency fund, but obviously I don't view that as, you know, I don't view this as an emergency because it's not. It's just a, we need to kind of change the current trajectory, I guess. How much do you make? After tax, about 60 a year. What's your mortgage? About 15, it's almost 1600. How much, you owe in your house?

Two, I think it's like 220. I can't remember the balance right now, but it's 220 something, I want to say. Okay. The ratio, like John mentioned, is not the big issue here. So if you're trying to get this gap of 10%, I'm going to do whatever it takes. Again, it's not going to be sustainable. So your best bet is let's make what we have work. Let's get on a real tight budget. Let's save up until baby and mom are home and healthy. And while we're doing that, let's kill it at work. Let's see if we can get that promotion. And if you want to work a side job right now, just to stack up cash to feel better until the baby's here, that's fine. But I wouldn't use that as a long-term plan. And if you guys need to go, hey, this house is too much for us, it doesn't sound like it is. And so we're not fundamentalist. We're not too legalistic on this

25%. We just know it helps you accomplish the other baby steps faster. Let me say this. If I'm you right now, and I have any kind of relationship with my direct supervisor at work, I would go sit down and say, congratulations. I'm excited to tell you we're having a baby, and I would love to know how to get on track for the next promotion. And let them tell you that information. You're scared of variables that you don't know yet. Go get the information that you need so you can make good decisions. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Dr. John Deloney this hour. Hey, if you're a new listener to the show and you want a deeper dive on all of the Ramsey baby steps, some of the lingo we mentioned around here, what kind of tools and resources we can offer,

go to RamseySolutions.com and click on Get Started. It's a magical button that will help you figure out the right next step for your financial journey based on where you're at today. That's RamseySolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. It's a magical button. Magic. It's fun to click buttons. That's a tried and true American pastime.

Button pushing? Yeah, especially on the internet. My daughter's incredible at pushing that button. I guess you don't click them anymore. It's just a tap. It's a tap. Let's be honest. It's cool. It's fine. Alright, we got a call from Poland. Is that right, John? Am I saying? I mean, that's correct.

Am I reading? You're reading correct. This might be my first call from Poland. Taylor, welcome to America. How you doing? Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my call. Good to have you. What's up?

Are you from Poland, or are you living there? I'm not. I'm military. Oh, cool. Thanks for your service. Thank you for your support. What's going on? Yeah, so I'm currently deployed over here. I'm 21, and I'm able to save a lot over this time period that I'm 21. Um, and I'm able to save a lot over this, uh, time period that I'm deployed. So I'm nervous. Uh, but I'm estimating that I'm going to be getting about 15 to 20,000 saved by the end of this deployment. And I don't know if I should, my dad said I should call y'all.

And, uh, he thinks I should put it in the money market, but I'm thinking that maybe I should invest it and capitalize on the compounding interest I can get off of it. Cool. Well, your dad's a good man. I appreciate him sending you our way. Yeah, we usually don't say this, but it sounds like your dad's correct. Okay. So let's talk through this. What's your financial situation?

Do you have any debt? Do you have any savings currently? I don't have debt. I have $4,500 in my emergency fund, and I'm investing 15% towards the Roth IRA. Awesome. Where did you learn this? 21 years old. Is this from Dad? My parents have been following y'all, and they taught us. Golly. Hey, kind of hung up. Hey, you know this is true.

None of the people you're on deployment with are following this. Yeah. Spread the word. Their money is falling out of their back pocket like water. They're going, sweet, $20,000 bonus. What car am I going to put a down payment on? That's how they're thinking. No.

Well, you're smarter than that. So to your question, where should you put this money, this 15 to 20,000 that you're going to have saved? When are you deployed until? Are you coming back to the States soon? I've got about like five months. Okay. So the reason your dad was saying money market, which is essentially a savings account in cash versus putting into the stock market, is that five months from now, you get back to the States and all of a sudden you got to put a deposit on an apartment. You need to get a car, whatever the situation may be. There's too much volatility that could happen in that short time horizon. And so you're better off keeping it liquid and keeping it safe. And right now with some of these high yield savings accounts and money market accounts, you can get 4% or more just by storing it over there. And that keeps

safe from volatility. Because last year the market was down 18%, which scares me. If you put 10 grand in, you're now down two grand five months later. And so that's why I want you to keep it safe right now. At your age, you've got a lot of life ahead of you, a lot of milestones, a lot of things you're going to have to purchase, so I'd rather you have it liquid. Okay, okay. When you get back, are you going to remain enlisted or are you going to go do something else? I'm going to remain enlisted.

So you're going to be able to pile up cash for the foreseeable future, huh? Yes. Yeah. Man, I would look for a two- three or four year time horizon and say, when I get out, if you choose to get out, I'm going to buy a house here. I want to pay cash for a car. And just so it doesn't sound like George and I are robots, I've got my eyes on something I want to buy. I'm just putting cash into a money market account. That's how I'm doing it. And it's going to be a couple of years away. And so I'm just putting in there to hang on to it. So we live this advice too. So I absolutely

second what George was saying. I would not just dump the stuff into the market. Who knows what's going to happen in the short term. And you're already investing 15% into the Roth. So you've got that part dialed in. So your next goal would be, let me have a giant pile of cash that if I want to buy a house down the line, I've got 30, 40, 50, 60, $70,000 saved, which is a good down payment these days for a house. So that would be my next goal for you, man, while you're, while you're deployed. Okay. And I have one more question too, if you don't mind. Um, so say I save like the 50, 60, 70,000, when should I start investing in a different asset just so I save like the 50, 60, 70,000. When should I start investing in a different asset?

Just so I can like, instead of waiting until I'm like 69, until I get all this money, I can start growing some wealth before then. When you say investing in a different asset, what do you mean? Investment property or? Mutual funds. Okay. I hear Dave talking about that. So you're wanting non-retirement investing funds. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay. Here Dave's talking about that. So you're wanting non-retirement investing

funds. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay. Yes. The time to invest beyond your 15% into retirement would be once you have a paid for house. Otherwise, every dime should be going towards trying to get rid of that mortgage. And so once you have a paid for house, there's no more 15% parameter. You can invest 25%, 30%. So anything beyond your retirement accounts, and you want to go there first because those are tax advantaged, then you can start doing some non-retirement and just a taxable brokerage account. Okay, perfect, perfect. I can do that. Yeah, thanks so much for the call and thank you for your sacrifice, man. Hey, George, let me ask you this on behalf of Taylor. Let me ask a twist of a question here. So let's say he decided to stay enlisted for 15 or 20 years and he decides to live on base for free

or take his stipend and just live somewhat Spartan. Would he just continue to put money into a money market account or at some point would he start to build wealth outside because his housing is taken care of by the nature of his employment? Well, at some point it won't be. And so that's the problem is people go, well, my life is great now. Why save? And then all of a sudden they go, oh, I want to retire and I don't have any money to buy a house. So he might earmark 300,000 and just begin piling up cash for the next 15, 20 years until he's got 300 grand in a money market account. Yeah. If he could pay cash for

a home down the line. And then just go pay cash for it. Yeah. Yeah. And if you know you're not going to touch the money for five plus years, you can could pay cash for a home down the line. And then just go pay cash for it, yeah. Yeah, and if you know you're not going to touch the money for five plus years, you can go invest that in a taxable brokerage account if you wanted to. But for most people, there's a lot of assumptions made about what life's going to be like,

and then it doesn't end up that way. Right. And they go, oh my gosh, it's all tied up. It's locked up. The market's down. We get calls like that all the time. People say, oh, I have debt now, but I can't get rid of these investments, John,

because the market's down 50%. We got one on crypto. The guy's crypto is down 47%, and he had a pile of debt, and we went, sell the crypto at a loss. Yeah. And the crypto bros were not happy with us, John. But again, that's a stupid tax you pay when you got a pile of debt over here, and you're not safe, and you have a pile of money elsewhere that you can use to pay it off. So I just want to have the most options. And I think having it liquid at 21 years old is the best option. It's almost

an option tax, right? Like I'm going to take a little less on this imaginary return for the fact that I can spend my money on what I need. And you've heard about this FIRE movement, I'm sure. This is financially independent retire early is what it stands for. And so there's a crowd who's like like hey i want to retire in my 30s which we know is not a great plan and now that people are doing it five years later they're either bored or broke and so we're like go find work you love to do but the thinking there is great because what they do is they say i'm going to make as much money as i can and live on as little as i can and that gap right there they just funnel into investing. And so they're able to have a million, $2 million in their thirties that they can use to play around

with. So for people that do want to retire early, they can't access the retirement funds till, you know, 59 and a half, there is something called a bridge account, which essentially is your taxable brokerage account that you can use to float you by from age 50 to 59 and a half. Do you roll that out of a traditional retirement account? How do you create a bridge account? That's just the taxable brokerage outside of retirement. So you just go and you create an account that's non-retirement and you just start investing in there. And now over time, over 10 years, you might have a million bucks in there or 20 years. And then you go, cool, I can retire at 50, live off the million until I can get to my

retirement account. Hence the term bridge. So that's a cool idea. I think we're going to see a lot of Gen Zers and millennials who saw their parents unable to retire when they want to go, that's what I want to do. I want to have more options. And it's a noble goal. I still think I'll be working, but I want to have the option to not later on. I want to have the option to work on what I want to work on. And if that is more service oriented or less obsessed with a dollar amount and more obsessed with a mission or something that I find value in. But knowing us, John, we'll be here at 78 years old. Dave will be, you know, 99 by that point. He'll be an AI voice.

Still taking your calls. That's frightening. Just a hologram Dave in here with AI. And it would still be a better show than we could put on. So I think we can all agree on that. Hey, that puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to all the guys and gals in the booth. Skyler, Austin, Joe, James, Zach, Andrew, keeping the show flow.

And you, America, thank you for listening. We will be back before you know it. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube. Ramsey Show.