The Ramsey Show - App - I Owe $13,000 In Taxes From My Side Hustle! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

Rachel Cruze & Kristina Ellis answer your questions and discuss: When you should pause investing to pay off your mortgage, "I owe $13,000 in taxes from my side hustle and don't know what to do." from the blog: Freelance Taxes 101 How to pick between going straight into the workforce or going to college, from the blog: Is College Worth It? How to go to college debt free, from the blog: How to Pay for College Without Student Loans How to be disciplined in your budget and avoid impulse purchases, from the blog: Impulse Buying: Why We Do It And How To Stop Is moving to be close to family ok when paying off debt? When to pause the Debt Snowball for health a crisis, from the blog: When To Pause Your Debt Snowball Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I am Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, hosting today with fellow Ramsey Personality, Rachel Cruz, hosting today with fellow Ramsey Personality and bestselling author Christina Ellis, and we are taking your calls about anything. Again, life, money, relationships, career, and it's a free call anywhere in the

country at 888-825-5225. So give us a call and we can help you out where you need it. So first up, we have Brad in Rochester. Hey, Brad, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys? We're doing well. How can we help? I have a question about, we're trying to pay off our mortgage early and how aggressive I should do that. My main thing I'm concerned with, I mean, we have a fully funded emergency fund and no debt besides the house. And I would like to, well, we're saving 17 and a half percent

into our 401ks combined. And should I reduce that to 15%? I have 207,000 to pay off on the mortgage yet. 207,000, okay. Yes. I mean, for sure. I would lower that to that 15% because you'll take that extra cash and throw it at the mortgage to pay it off early. How much money do you guys make a year? We make combined $260,000. Oh, good job. That's awesome. What a great goal. What's your time projection for when you're going to have this paid off? Well, including some stocks that I have from

my company, half of them will vest in July. So I want to sell those. And then two and a half years after that, sell those too. We think we can do it in two and a half to three years without reducing our 401k down to 15%. The reason I'm concerned with reducing it is I'm 51 and she's 50. So I want to put as much as I can into the 401k. For sure. How much do you guys have in it now? Combined about $900,000. Oh, yeah. You're doing great, Brad. No, I mean, I think you're fine. I think, I mean, if I were you, I'd still go down to that 15%. Again, any extra money that you have, throw it at the principal of the house. And as soon as

you have that paid off, then yeah, you guys are right into baby step seven, which means you guys can go back up and invest that 17, even more 18, 19% of your income if you wanted to. But just being able to, nothing, it's not going to make that big of a difference, honestly, in just those two years of lowering it two and a half percent. I understand what you're saying. And I get the, yeah, the intensity of like, oh, man, we can keep throwing this because you have a plan of other ways that you're going to be selling off that stock and paying off the house. But I would go ahead and just lower it and start knocking off, knocking the house down. Knocking the house down. Don't knock your house down, but knocking down the mortgage.

Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. Well, the snow we're having this week probably would do that. Yeah, I saw Minnesota. I was like, yeah, no. Yeah, and I think especially too with like such a solid income, y'all are investing so well

and we're not talking about the difference between, you know, five to 10 years of paying off your house early. This is just going to be a small change. So I think it's going to feel good emotionally to have both things solid. That's right. So great. Thanks, Brad. Thanks for the call. Up next, we have Rob in Los Angeles. Hey, Rob, welcome to the show. Hello. So I wanted to pay off all my debt, um, about eight months ago. So I had a couple of side hustles going on and actually made quite a lot of

money in the side hustles. And now on face, I just did my taxes or not did them. I started doing them myself and I feel, I not feel it calculated out to about that. I owe $13,000 that I just didn't plan for. And I feel like I just kind of screwed myself up even more. I tried to get out of debt. So tell us more about your situation. So you said you kind of started these side hustles trying to get out of debt.

How much debt do you have? Well, now I don't have any besides the mortgage. My wife and I would pay off everything and good got rid of a car and were the side hustles like 1099s what were the side hustles you were doing it was mainly um like project management based stuff but I just did it myself just just self-employed stuff yeah so yeah Yeah. And it ended up being, you know, $60,000 that I made on a side hustle. Yeah, that's great. Just some project management stuff, which, I mean, it was, but I didn't plan for enough for taxes, I should say.

So with the money that you made, was that just all going towards debt? Do you still have any of that saved up, or what's going to happen with that money? Yeah, we have an okay emergency fund. And I guess, I mean, I guess the answer is that I would use that, but it just feels like I'm taking a step backwards again then. Well, what, how much do you have in your emergency fund? There's, there's about 20,000. just over it yeah so you have no no more debt twenty thousand dollars in an emergency fund and you owe thirteen thousand dollars in taxes okay so so mathematically rob you pay yeah you you have the money you pay for it emotionally

is where you're struggling because you're thinking oh my gosh and I hate to say it California New York have some of the highest taxes in the country so you probably do have a huge tax bill and again it's yeah you forgot about it you didn't calculate it correctly and it is what it is but and you have to pay the taxes you have to pay taxes and so I know it sucks to feel like oh my gosh we paid off all of our debt. We have a great emergency fund, but yo taxes, Rob. I mean, like, you know, there's really no way around it. So it really is just you swallowing the emotion of the eye roll of, oh my God, this is so annoying. And you pay it and you keep moving forward, but you have the money. I mean, you're, you're in a great spot. I would, I would tell you no different, right? You, you

have the ability to pay for it and you need to pay for it. If not, I was going to say that's going to be your next goal. I thought you were going to say you had nothing in savings, you know, maybe a thousand dollars and that's it. And then you're going to have a journey of side hustles again in order to pay the taxes on it. But now it's a great end of the story. So what's making you struggle? Is it just the emotion of it that just sucks? And you're just calling us to be like, what, it's just terrible. We're all going to just sit here and talk about how terrible taxes are. I just feel, I mean, somewhat like,

it's been the whole process of just kind of feeling like a little bit of a failure where I got myself into that position to begin with. And just, and then not planning it out properly. And you just feel like, why did I even know? I mean, I kind of, I feel like, why did I even bother? Like where everything was okay before, like I didn't want to be in debt, but it didn't hit me hard like this.

And I guess, you know, I understand I have the money to pay it off, but it's just emotionally as hard. Yeah. And it probably takes a hit to your pride of like, oh, wow, I didn't calculate it and think about it. And so but I would rob much whether be in your situation where you are, then have no savings and a lot of debt. And so you did the right thing. Hear us say that we talk about making extra income, living like no one else, sacrificing your lifestyle, doing all of this to get out of debt. And you did that far and beyond and exceeded an incredible goal by doing that. Yeah. But then you got to be a grown up. We all got to pay taxes.

And so that's just kind of part of the gig. So no, you didn't do the wrong thing. I get it's probably a hit to your pride that, oh, wow, I didn't think through this all the way to the end. That's OK, Rob. You got the money. Pay for it. Yeah. You're debt free. And thanks for this call, because for all of you out there who are doing side hustles for the first time, this is an important note. You need to set aside money for taxes. That just has to happen. That's right. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Well, the Building Wealth live events are happening. And there's one in Austin, Texas tonight with Dave Ramsey, Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, and Jade Warshaw. And they are so excited to hang out with you guys there in Austin. We had one last week that I was on with

George Camel and Jade Warshaw in Indianapolis. And it was absolutely incredible. And you know, as we were talking as a team, as we were building out these events, we were kind of just tired of hearing the lie that you just can't get ahead today. It feels like everything is doom and gloom. Everything is against you. And we just have the opposite approach at Ramsey.

We really believe that you can step in to your financial situation, change your money habits, and actually build wealth. So if you feel like, though, gosh, you're kind of confused because you're hearing stuff on the news, you're seeing stuff on social media, and you want to clear all of that and truly learn how to build wealth, we want to help you. We want to walk beside you and help you build wealth that will change your family tree. So the next events coming up will be with Dave Ramsey, George Camel, Christina Ellis, and myself.

And we are going to Salt Lake City, Utah, April 24th, my birthday eve. The eve of my birthday. I'll be there, Salt Lake, celebrating with you guys. And then Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, Christina Ellis, and Dave Ramsey are heading to Anaheim, California on May 2nd. So again, April 24th, Salt Lake City, May 2nd, Anaheim. So make sure to get your tickets. Every Building Wealth event that we've had

has sold out by the time the event comes. So make sure to get your tickets today before they're gone at ramseysolutions.com slash events. And we're gonna head to the phones again. It is a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. So up next is Adam in Lynchburg, Virginia. Hey, Adam, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me on. Absolutely. How can we

help? Hey, so I am 16 years old and I'm about to start a new job with a local house washing company here in our town where I live. And it's a pretty good hourly rate, but it's probably not going to be a super long-term thing, probably a couple years maximum. I'm also considering college for acting and film production, but I'm not really sure if I can afford it right now. I'm trying to look into pay grants and stuff like that. And also, you know, I don't want to have to take out loans or anything, obviously. So basically, my question is,

should I pursue college and kind of go long term or go more immediately and kind of try to get with this job now and save up as much money as possible, start investing early, etc. I love the fact that you're 16 and you're asking this question. What grade are you in?

I'm graduating. Oh, at 16? That's awesome this question. What grade are you in? I'm graduating. Oh, at 16? That's awesome. Yeah. Did you graduate early? Did you homeschool or how did that happen? Yeah, I did homeschool. I started school a year earlier than is standard.

And then I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason I was able to skip a grade. Yeah, no, it's great. Good for you. You're a smart guy. Yeah. Are you working full-time right now um i was working full-time but uh that job was kind of put on pause for now and i'm actually working at my local church and i'm working there with uh another guy friend of mine and so

i'm making a couple hundred dollars every other week there, but it's definitely not anything long-term. So you want to go to college. Right now, it's just part-time. Okay, you want to go to college, right? Yeah, I haven't completely decided. Honestly, it's kind of something I've gone back and forth about for a long time. But I've kind of considered what I want to do, and I kind of always find myself being drawn back to something like acting or film production, producing, directing, etc.

And so I know that probably the first realistic step to that is college. So that was my thought process there. Well, if you want to go to college, you can go debt free. And I know it's intimidating when you see the news, and there's so much about student loans, and there's such a myth right now that in order to get a college degree, you have to go into debt. And with our documentary, Borrowed Future, with my message, I am all about teaching people how to go debt-free. Now, you may have to have a creative strategy. You may need to go to community college first, maybe go to a public school, maybe work like you're doing now. But if you want to go, then we can figure out a strategy. It does sound like with what you want to do, you're interested in going to school. So basically, you can have a full-time job with some sort of company. And while you're working, they're paying for your college education so you can go debt-free. So you're earning a paycheck like you're doing now

and getting to go to school for free. So I think with your work ethic, that sounds like that could be a good fit for you. How do you feel about that? That's definitely something I'd be interested in looking into. I don't really know exactly where to start with all that, honestly, but that definitely sounds like something that could work for me. This is going to sound like the most basic advice ever, but Google. Google is a great place to start for that. Just literally look up tuition assistance programs in your area,

type in your city, and look for tuition assistance programs, and you can find incredible results. It sounds almost too easy. assistance programs in your area, type in your city and look for tuition assistance programs and you can find incredible results. It sounds almost too easy. It feels like there should be some complicated, you know, search process, but just start looking online and figuring it out. Now, I'm going to offer you an alternative point of view, kind of channel the internal Ken Coleman, you know, perspective where it's like, if you want to go into film and acting, you don't necessarily need to go to college. I mean, we've talked to several, we have production people here at Ramsey who do film, they do camera production, and a lot of them learned their skills from YouTube.

Well, that and Adam, have you been around Austin, our producers? He's pointing at himself right now. Adam, have you been around that industry that you've been around it that you thought, oh, yeah, I had this experience here or there that really made me interested? Or is it kind of just this idea in your head out there that you've seen it from a distance and just think it's really intriguing and interesting? Where are you at in that? Yeah, probably the latter. I'm not really close up with it.

I haven't seen a lot of it firsthand, per se. Yeah. So I think my advice, Adam, and again, it kind of sounds wild because you're 16, right? I mean, like you've just done all of this life so quickly with school and all of that. So you're at a position that I would say, if there's any chance, I'm trying to think in Lynchburg, if there is, I'm not sure, but if there's anything around that world, again, even like a news station or something, if you can go shadow anyone that's doing some type of, again, even like a news station or something, right? If you can go shadow anyone that's doing some type of, you know, whether it's camera work or again, if there's film production, local community stuff, like if there's anyone or

anything that you can go and just shadow, I think that that's a great option. I think, you know, when you're 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, that like kind of ladder high school into college, it always scares me a little bit, Christina, 18, 19, 20, 21, that kind of latter high school into college, it always scares me a little bit, Christina, where I'm like, we make these 18-year-olds go and invest all of this money to get a college degree in something that they think they want to do.

And the majority of people don't even use that college degree for the job that they have. And so I'm like, man, when it comes to real life experience, that's going to be one of the best teachers, Adam, to help guide you. Because honestly, things can look glamorous from the outside. And then when you get into the nitty gritty, you think, oh, gosh, actually, this is way more miserable than I thought. Maybe this

isn't what I want to do. You know what I'm saying? If you could have any level of real life experience against shadowing someone or being on set somewhere for a little bit, I think that's either going to draw you closer to that passion and say, wow, this really is happening in my spirit of like, this is what I want to do. This is the right direction. Or it may be like, no, actually, I want to go to code school and be a computer programmer.

Like, I don't know what it is. So I would say, you know, keep those options open. And if, again, if you can have any real life experience, I would recommend that. And like Christina said, look for options that you may not need a degree or if you do, I mean, there is, you know, film and, you know, acting degrees out there, depending on, you know, specifically what, what line you're thinking of in that career, and look around and just, you know, shop options, apply for scholarships and grants, like Christina saying all these other

programs. But yeah, if you choose the college route, Adam, definitely do it debt-free. But I would say look into that specifically as much as possible. Well, and if you're open to moving, I've heard Disney has a great tuition assistance program. So you can potentially work somewhere strategic where you're getting those skills, you're getting the experience, you're seeing it firsthand, and you're getting your education. So, I mean, look at creative options because you really could do both. Yeah, that's great. Well, Adam, thanks so much for the call. Again, like Christina said, always impressive when we get young people that call and they

want to know how to start this, you know, this journey of being wise with their money so early, which is absolutely incredible. So thanks again, Adam. Again, it's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. I'm Rachel Cruz, and this is The Ramsey Show. So one of the things when it comes to money and spending money is impulse buying is always the thing that breaks the budget. Things come up in life, spur of the moment, or maybe something comes up, you're like, oh, well, I just totally forgot to plan that and didn't put it in the budget.

But this impulse buying is something that if you're not aware of, it can be an everyday habit, really, of just spending on impulse. So Christina, you and your family did a no-spend challenge in January, and you guys not only saved a lot of money, but learned a lot. It was a it was a truly a challenge to do. Yeah. Yeah, it really kicked a lot of our bad habits. We realized in December that our budget was kind of fluffy and we needed to tighten back up. We just gotten in a bad habit of when we're rushing around and doing things, just grabbing Chick-fil-A or just doing things in a hurry. So we went through January and we were super disciplined. And once the no spend challenge was done, it's like, man, this is like easy now. We're not spending as much on groceries. I don't feel tempted to go out to

eat. But then last week I had this week where I was just my schedule was packed and I had things in the evenings and I was kind of rushing around doing things. And I caught myself like going back to Chick-fil-A each night and just like quickly like grabbing little purchases here and there. And after about like three days, I was like, what am I doing? I'm starting to go back to this. I got to stop. So yeah, I really checked myself and was like, what, what is this? And I realized that when I get in a hurry, I tend to impulse purchase when I have a lot of things going on, when I'm just kind of, you know, like, oh my gosh, I got to go to this thing. And I forgot to bring food and all of that. So I was helping lead an FPU class last night at church and we were having this conversation. And a lot of people were like, yes, that's when I tend to eat out when I've got something in the

evening I didn't plan for when I'm in a hurry. So it really made me think about it. Like, how can we kind of prevent that feeling of I'm in a hurry, I feel stressed. And so I just need to grab something quick and, and kind of, you know, impulse buy. And I was doing the math. And it's crazy how those purchases really do add up. So it's easy to be like, okay, it's just five extra dollars a day, no big deal. But at $5 a day, that's $1,825 a year. Just $5 a day, just a careless little $5 is almost 2000 bucks in a year. And if it's $27 a day, which is easy to do with kids, if you run through Chick-fil-A and get everybody meals, 27 bucks easy that's ten thousand dollars a year ten thousand dollars just gone and so it's really important to get a handle on this especially you know with our family we're like we've got some big money goals so we really want to keep this tight so yeah every little bit it does it adds up and that's why one thing I love that helps me with

impulse buying is the budget because I'm like okay we can look ahead and we try to do this again life happens so it's not always perfect but we do as much planning as possible like we get the calendar out and we're like okay you know these are gymnastics nights right for the for the girls and we're gonna be home at six they're gonna be starving so it's either gonna have to be crock pot or something like something easier chick-fil-a uh but let's plan it out and actually have a plan so So it's not this reaction, but we're being proactive with our spending because then it makes it doable because you can say, okay,

if we're going to be eating out because you plan ahead of time this much, does that match up with our money goals? And if it's like, no, we need some more money to hit these money goals, then you start shrinking those categories, you know, like I see and make you plan around it because, oh yeah, we do that.

Not to pick on Chick-fil-A because we love Chick-fil-a I'm like at the red status on the app now I got that the other day I was like oh my gosh I spent a lot of money at Chick-fil-a uh but it was 41 dollars for five of us to eat oh 41 and that's that's three kids meals and two adult you know meals and you're just like okay 41 dollars at the grocery store could buy four to five meals for us we could do spaghetti one night you could do talk i mean i could literally go through a meal plan and and i'm like you know what but we planned it right for my defense like i was like we knew on that night we were going to go out so we had planned it but when that happens over and over and over and over and over and you don't plan, that's

what you're saying is I'm like, oh, my gosh, it does. It adds up. But when you budget and you plan, then you can know, OK, is this going to help my financial goals? Is this going to set us way back that we don't have the margin for that? And it really is your guide. Yes. And it's actually it's like permission to spend.

Right. So a lot of people avoid the budget because they know that they're out of control and they're like, I don't want to feel restricted. I don't want to do the budget. But it's like you can actually carve out that space so that you don't have to feel guilty. You can go to Chick-fil-A and enjoy it. Now, that being said, like even if it's in the budget, that doesn't mean you want to use your whole budget in the first two weeks of them. That's right. That's right. Be strategic. And to do that, it's helpful to use cash. So that is a big thing for us, especially since no spend. We have gone back to the envelope system. I know that's like OG Ramsey um like it it works the pain of like handing over physical cash like it's a thing

it is a like there are studies psychological studies about how your brain treats that differently whenever you just swipe a debit card then it's like you don't feel that attachment to your money going away but it's like when you have to hand the cash over and you don't get it back you're like oh and then also you can just look in your envelope and go okay i don't have i don't have anything left i can't spend more money it's like a natural because there is there is zero emotion with a credit card because it's not your money at all like you have no attachments to this number that you're spending out there there's not there's no emotion attached to it uh a debit card may be a little different because you know okay that's coming out of my checking account like that's my money leaving but you're still not physically feeling it like you do

with actual cash and so it's interesting christina i i've had two interviews this week with just different sources and they both asked uh okay, well, places don't take cash. So they only accept credit cards. What do I do? And I'm like, yeah, because we are running into some places, some establishments are not accepting cash. But just so y'all know, and again, not to like shame anyone if you don't know this, but I was shocked that I got this question twice.

A debit card works at any place they take a credit card. It's run by the same system now sometimes you put in your pin numbers you know or you do you run it as a credit and sign but anywhere that accepts a credit card will accept a debit card so i taught two people that this week because they didn't know and i was like oh wow it's such you know just secondhand knowledge you know it's just in my head i just know that but to say it out loud for all you everyone listening cash is amazing like you're saying because you're actually feeling it leave but also your debit card is another place that you can use and if and if

your budget's attached to your bank account and you have every dollar that transaction comes in and you're dragging and dropping those transactions so you know exactly what is in each category yeah that's so good um like the granny in me is not ready for the world to go away i know the no cash that's like a whole okay let's not get rachel started uh but uh there was a there was a study that came out this week someone told me on monday at our staff meeting that the number one thing that germs are exchanged with i thought it was gonna be kids. I was like kids. They carry the most germs out of anyone. It's dollar bills.

Oh gosh. It's money. And then doorknobs is number two. Rachel, we're trying to tell people to use cash. I know. I just thought that was an interesting fact. Very interesting. Wash your hands after you use it. You know, I don't know. Okay. Back to impulse spending. I love that you mentioned planning in advance because that's one thing, like sitting down on Sunday and like laying out your whole week. Think through the nights that you have soccer practice. Think through the night that you have to volunteer at church,

that you get to volunteer at church. You know, think through that thing so it's not a surprise. You're not like, oh, wait, I only have 20 minutes. I didn't think about it. Like you thought about that. You had a plan. And then I feel like a good backup plan is like just having lots of snacks I feel like that's like every mom out there knows that but even for adults like I've started carrying like one of those meal replacement protein bars in my purse so that if I do have one of those nights

where I'm like I'm running from work to another thing I don't have to go well the only option is to grab something to eat I can can just have it right there. That's two bucks versus 10. Yes, we were somewhere with the kids two weeks ago and there was a vending machine, which again, kind of going back to the old school days. I'm like, oh my gosh, a vending machine. I don't know.

I still have those. Yeah, I never see them anywhere. Yeah, and my kids were like, we're starving, we're starving. And so they wanted, and I looked and there's like Pirate's Booty. You know, it's all the snacks that we have at home. And it was $2 for the, and I looked at them. I like Pirate's Booty. You know, it's all the snacks that we have at home. And it was $2. And I looked at them.

I was like, no, no, we are not. We're going to go in the car because I have a snack bag in the car. Then I'm like, we will eat snacks in the car. No, we're not spending too. But I'm like, that would have been $6. Back to your first example of $5 a day. I'm like, that would have been money. So snacks, snacks, snacks.

And to get you to the next place or to get you through the meal until you can eat later, you know, at home or whatever. And the last thing is just to keep your goals in mind. Y'all, whatever baby step you're on, whatever your goal is, repeat that to yourself. So we're trying to pay off a house.

So every time I see a purchase that's like impulsive, I'm like, is this worth the house? Is this worth a paid off house? It is not. And then I have the strength to wait. So good, Christine. Thanks for walking us through that. I think it's so helpful to get tactical when it comes to our money and

our everyday spending. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I am Rachel Cruz hosting today with Christina Ellis, and we are taking your calls on your life and your money. So up next, we have Jennifer in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Hey, Jennifer, welcome to the show. Hey, Rachel. Hey, Christina. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. How can we help? So I'm from the Baby Steps and my husband and I really are banging it out. We've paid off over $47,000 in 15 months. Oh, my gosh. Amazing. Yeah, I kind of like, it really is a snowball effect.

It just kind of builds. And you get really excited and you're like, I got to get this out of here. That's awesome. So the last thing on our plate is my student loan debt, which is relatively low compared to other people. It's less than $13,000. Okay. I'm not waiting on Biden or any of that kind of stuff. My thing is, so lately my family, my parents and my husband's dad,

they've been getting older, obviously, but also sicker. So my dad was just diagnosed with diabetes. My mom seems to have a health problem every other week and legitimate. Um, and his dad is starting to forget who he is, who his son is. Um, so my question is, I kind of want to sell the home we're in right now and move closer to them. And this is kind of like where I'm thinking, you know, microwave versus crock pot, which I've heard several times on the Ramsey show.

But I don't know, like, I feel like I'm doing it for the right reason, which is family, not just because I don't, I love my home. I do. And we only paid two and nine for, and it's worth like 350 now. And now houses are crazy. So I really want to move closer to my family. Yeah, absolutely.

Are both sets of parents close together, location-wise? They're both south. So if we move in that direction, for sure. Where do they live? So, let's see, Mantua and Blackwood. But in the same state? It is, I'm sorry, it is in the same state. It's about 45 minutes.

Okay, 45 minutes from where you're at now. Yeah, it's not horrible. I just feel like if this was like 20 minutes or two. Yeah, no, absolutely. So, yeah, Jennifer, I would say yes. I would make the move if that's what you guys are wanting, but I would make it a lateral move and have close to the same consistent mortgage that you have now. So your house is worth $350,000. How much do you guys owe on it? We owe $180,696. Okay. Very specific. You're so great.

Yeah. So, I mean, when we talk about buying a home that you want to have a good down payment, that your payment's no more than 25% of your income. So we have a lot of that formula on RamseySolutions.com if you want to look more into that. But I would say just make sure it's, for me, it would be more of a lateral move. Again, that it doesn't take you deeper into debt. Or if anything, you downsize and get a little bit of a less of a mortgage, I think is great. And you want to be able to foresee some moving costs and the expense that comes with that. And so when it comes to moving,

this is one of those situations that we talk about. If there's a big life situation coming up, a health situation, or you're pregnant, or you're wanting to move, that this would be a time to pause the baby steps and save up some cash for those moving expenses and do that. So yeah, I mean, if that's what you guys choose to do, I think that that's totally, totally okay.

If you guys know the timeframe of when you can pay off this $13,000, and it feels like, gosh, we could knock it out because we are so aggressive right now and paying this off and do that and then move. I mean, it's either way, but I just know how important family is and that you said your parents, you know, they're getting older. You don't know how much time is left and being able to help them and be available to them, I think really key so again I wouldn't put yourself deeper in a hole of debt I would make it a lateral move but if you guys want to move locations I mean I see it Christina like you know you're moving for another job or something you know what I mean like people move all the time but I would just make sure that

again financially that you guys do it smart and not overly emotional and go buy something crazy that you can't afford. Yeah. Jennifer. That's what my husband and I were talking about. I'm sorry. Did I cut you off? Oh, no, go ahead. Go ahead.

The only thing is, and I hate to add something to it, is my husband has skin cancer and he knows he's taking off in June about six weeks and it's FMLA. He'll get disability, but we know disability doesn't like come in like that so i was actually going to start stockpiling for that yes this way while we're waiting for disability to come in we've got all the bills get paid still we're not stressing like that i didn't want him to stress about he has to get this taken care of and he was afraid he was afraid to take off some work yeah and i'm like no you've got like, this is your health. Okay. So Jennifer, this, that,

I'm glad you told us that because that adds to the equation of what's going on in the situation. So I would pause moving. I mean, obviously taking off the six weeks for, for a procedure for the cancer, which I'm so sorry. That's so scary. I would, I would get through that first because you guys probably will have to save. Will you need to save extra money to be able to keep your budget where it is while he's out for six weeks? No, not at all.

Thanks, Saranthi. We live so below our means, it's ridiculous. We can do it off three paychecks. Oh, good. Okay, okay. Well, Jennifer, when you're thinking about moving, what's kind of the timeline you have for that? Okay. Well, Jennifer, when you're thinking about moving, what's kind of the timeline you have for that? Okay. So if I was doing the crock pot, taking my time, a year.

Okay. A year. But part of me is like, we should try to do it in the next six months. But his surgeries, not even his surgeries, he has to put stuff on his skin, which will cause him to scale. And he can't work at that time so he's got surgeries in march which is fine they're quick surgeries but then he's got that procedure we'll call it well he'll be out for six weeks and one thing to factor in is moving is pretty stressful like there is i think i saw a study whenever we were moving last year i was feeling so stressed and was like, this feels like so much. And then I saw something where it was like moving is in the top five most stressful events that people typically go through. And probably sickness as well, Jennifer.

So you have a lot of that going on in your family too. Yeah. So it's just factoring in like packing up the house and what that's going to take in the midst of walking through the health journey. That could be a lot. And I wouldn't want you to get so far into packing and prepping to move that you don't really realize the weight of it until you're in the midst of all of it at the same time. Not that moving is not a good thing, but just making sure to really factor in what is that going to feel like to pack up our entire house? What's it going to feel like to list our house on the market? What is all of that actually

going to feel like and how much time is it going to take in the midst of walking through your husband's journey, in the midst of still wanting to take time to be with both sets of parents? Like, there's just a lot of factors to consider that are all going to take time. And the other thing I'm thinking, too, is, you know, if you do end up taking the bit slower route and moving in a year, you did say, say like you powered through 47 000 in debt you feel so much momentum right now how much you guys make a year jennifer sorry christina uh 161 000 okay okay so y'all could knock out this debt 13 quick right we could if i wasn't pausing it because of his health at first. Like that's the first priority, not moving.

Okay. So you've already paused it to be able to save up for June. Is that correct? Well, we just paid off his 401k. So we were paying that off and now we're going to pause it. So technically as of like last week, it's paused. But you said you're going to be able to get through. Anything that comes in, we'll go aside.

Okay. But you don't have to set a ton aside, right? You saidchecks no yeah we don't have a set i was going to set everything aside should i not do that no everything extra yes yeah but but you're saying though you can have enough saved up for those six weeks that he will not be working you can do that in three paychecks is that what i heard i was saying that we can pay our bills in three paychecks. Is that what I heard? I was saying that we can pay our bills in three paychecks. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. I hear you. I hear you. I'm sorry. No, it's okay. Because like, when I say three paychecks, I mean, like, we get four, I get two, he gets two. Yes. Yes. Okay. Throughout the month. So y'all have set yourselves up to be in a good position where there's not

really a wrong answer. Like if you move, you've got equity in your house. And like Rachel said, you could do a lateral move. If you stay, you know, you have enough to be able to pay for this middle ground period. And I think one thing that gives me comfort is that you're not super far from the parents. Like it would be different if we're talking about they're in Texas and you're in New Jersey. But thankfully, they're 30 to 45 minutes. And I know it'd be great to be, you know, 20 minutes or even five minutes away. But you have a lot working for you in this situation. Yeah, absolutely. In the midst of some challenges.

Yeah. So, Jennifer, I would get through the surgery and all of that with your husband and then see what extra you have. And since it's just $13,000 with your income, you could just knock that out and then look to move, you know, in November. I mean, you could wait another, you know, six, eight months if you wanted to, considering how close you are. But I think moving, I would do that, yeah, in the next year if you guys can, because I know you want to be

close to your family. So thank you so much for the call. This has been a great hour. Thank you, Christina, for co-hosting and thank you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Christina Ellis. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps, go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation.

That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.