The Ramsey Show - App - If You Can’t Pay for It, Don’t Buy It! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. George Camel, Ramsey personality, YouTube host, and author of the brand new book, Breaking Free from Broke, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. A lot of you calling in the last several days have been brand new to this whole Ramsey thing, the stuff that we teach. And so it probably is a good idea, I just decided this, for George and I to spend a segment outlining some of the basics.

Number one, when I was 28 years old, I'm 63 now, so when I was 28 years old, I'm 63 now. So when I was 28 years old, I filed bankruptcy because I'd gone into too much debt. I lost everything, and I got the opportunity to start over. I went on a quest to learn how money really works. Because at that point, I had a finance degree and several other letters and licenses after my name that said I was supposed to know something about money, but I was broke. So obviously what I learned was wrong. And I discovered this thing from rich old people called common sense. And it also lined up with what the Bible says about money. Get out of debt, live on less than you make, have a written plan called a budget invest and save be generous and we've capsulized that into live like no one

else so that later you can live and give like no one else and then we started teaching people what order to do these things in because all these questions came up about insurance and retirement and kids college and we put together a process called the Baby Steps, and it became a 10-million-copy book called The Total Money Makeover, teaching people how to do the Baby Steps. Also, about 11 million people now have been through Financial Peace University, the class that we teach. All of these things outline what we, the Ramsey personalities, call the Ramsey Way,

which is now a proven plan to become wealthy, not only get out of debt, but to become wealthy. It is the fastest right way to build wealth. So, George, let's unpack the baby steps. Absolutely. So it's seven steps in a very particular order, and they have to be done in this order with intentionality and intensity. So baby step one is a $ dollar starter emergency fund. This is a small buffer between you and life as you begin to pay off debt, which is baby step two, pay off all consumer debt, except the mortgage using the debt snowball method. That means smallest to largest balance. We're ignoring the interest rate. We are focused on behavioral momentum and progress here.

And you roll the payment into the next one and into the next one as you knock the small ones out and you're debt free. An average of 18 to 24 months, people following the plan. Once you have no debt, now we can get that starter emergency fund beefed up to a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, not income. And most people do that in six to 12 months. Once we have no debt and a pile of money to protect us from life's emergencies, a rainy day fund, now we move on to investing. What's interesting is baby steps four, five, six are done simultaneously, but in order. So you're going to start by investing 15% of your household income into retirement, 401ks, IRAs. Once you have that plate spinning, you got 15%, start funding the kid's college. And that looks different for everyone. And once you have some money going to the college fund, now we can start aggressively attacking that mortgage and pay the mortgage off early. And that takes you to step seven, which is build wealth and give. And when you don't have any payments in the world it's amazing no house payment no car payment no student loan that's been around so long you think it's a pet master card is no longer your

master you haven't discovered bondage or american distress instead you're free and you now have control of your most powerful wealth building tool which is your income and um the steps one through three the starter emergency fund getting out of debt except the house and the and a fully funded emergency fund are done with great intensity if your broke friends aren't making fun of you you're not doing it right if broke people make fun of you if fat people make fun of your diet you're doing it right think about it you have you know you're gonna your diet you're doing it right think about it you have you know you're gonna eat that you're just gonna yeah so there you go so that that's

the thing now with great intensity you're not going out to eat you're eating at home it's cheaper and it's better for you you're not going on vacation you You're broke. Broke people don't need to go on vacation. So you're getting out of debt. You list your debts smallest to largest, and you attack them with a vengeance. We call it gazelle intensity after the gazelle running from the cheetah. He's running for his freaking life. So act like it. Otherwise, you work your whole life, and you make more money than 90% of

the people on the planet make and you retire broke and hope the government, which is well known for its ability to handle money, will take care of you. That's a stupid butt plan. You're going to count on social insecurity? No, you're not. Don't do that. Then when you get those three things out of the way i mean think about it what if you had no payments but a house payment and fifteen thousand dollars cash in the bank well you'd be in the top four or five percent of americans for one thing you could breathe can you breathe that in just just a little peace right there financial peace two words that don't go together like airline service right i mean come on list it out there now then you start doing as george said four five and six simultaneously retirement kids college

and paying off the house with other money we can find you're going to do that not with intensity but with intentionality we're going to get off the gazelle thing we actually can go out to eat buy a couch we can go on vacation again. Upgrade the car in cash. Got to upgrade the car because you're probably driving a hoopty at this point because we got rid of the stupid $85,000 car. Have you lost your mind? And wondering why you're broke. See, this is what we do. It's grandma's common sense.

If you can't pay for it, you don't buy it for the rest of your life because you will destroy your most powerful wealth building tool, which is your income. Shut up. Be a grown up. No whining allowed. Suck it up, buttercup. That's the Ramsey plan.

That's it. It's that simple and it's that hard. And people think, Dave, well, this is going to take me 30 years. No, people on average, baby steps one through three to get out of debt and have the emergency fund, you're talking two and a half to three years. Even paying off the house, the people following the baby steps, they pay off their house on average in seven years. Exactly. And typically, they are millionaires easily within the first decade. That's amazing to think about. So how old are you?

I'm 34 now. And you're a millionaire, debt-free house and everything. And I started this plan when $40,000 in consumer debt. And you were how old? 23 years old. Okay. So 11 years from then to today. Yeah.

And actually at about 10 years, you were there. And yes, you were working here, but no, he didn't make that much. I don't pay that well. I'm kidding. I'm a W-2 employee. I'm not some entrepreneur side hustler guy. Everyone thinks you have to have some kind of weird hustle to make that. You cannot out-earn your stupidity.

I tried it. I went broke trying that. I'm good at making money. I've always been good at making money. What I wasn't good at is taking care of it once I made it. And that's how I went broke at 28 years old. And then from then on, I've been telling everybody else not to do this. Dave Ramsey just doesn't understand.

Dave Ramsey's done it. Shut up. I am the story. Shut up. No excuses, wuss. Go do it. This is the Ramsey Show. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America.

George is the author of the brand new book, Breaking Free from Broke. We'd love to have you pick it up at Ramsey Solutions or anywhere great books are sold. Ramseysolutions.com, to be precise. Thanks for hanging out with us. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. solutions or anywhere great books are sold remsysolutions.com to be precise thanks for hanging out with us the phone number here is 888-825-5225 i want to say thank you to all of you we've been asking you to subscribe and click the subscribe button click the follow button and you have been we appreciate it uh and we've been leaving some really nice five-star reviews on the show thank you for that you're You're very helpful. We appreciate you.

And, of course, you can help. The big thing is share the show. If the platform that you're on has a share capability, just click share and send it to somebody or cut the link out. Or if you're listening on talk radio, just tell people where you're listening. Just share. Tell people what you're doing. And, you know, we appreciate it. We know it's happening because we just hit number one on all Apple podcasts the other day.

Number one of all of them. That's kind of mind-blowing. And we've had our billionth download. One billion downloads. And that's because of you guys. Thank you so much for that. All right. Up next is going to be Jim in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Hi, Jim. How are you? I'm well. Hi, Dave. My question today, Dave, is me and my family are on baby step four, and we want to buy a house. We've saved up about $25,000, $30,000 to buy a house. Good for you. My profession is very volatile.

I'm a college football coach. We could be somewhere a year. We could be somewhere football coach. We could be somewhere a year. We could be somewhere 10 years. We could be moving across the country. We're just trying to figure out when is the best time to buy a house. We've got a young family, and we're kind of sick of renting. We want our own spot. We're just trying to figure out when is the best time for us to do it.

Do you have a winning season? This last year, we did not. Okay. So when are you moving? We're on the move. Right now, we're kind of looking. Right now, we're looking. I'm a young coach, and we're looking, and we're just trying to figure out, okay, this

next job, are we going to buy or yeah it kind of depends on you know where we end up but um just trying to figure out should we even be considering like yes you should buy you should buy you should buy because we don't know now here's what you want to look for nick uh in your situation i'm sorry jim in your situation um typically you need to own a house in most markets a couple of years otherwise you're going to lose money on it okay but in most cases you're going to be there two years yep okay and the way to be careful about that is if you are going into some uh job where it's a super small town and there's not much of a market, you need to be careful. But if it's a metro area where there's a good market and you

can turn the property over, then you're probably going to make money after two years in most cases, just historically. Now, if you want to be real nerdy about it, here's how you can do it. When you are looking at a neighborhood in the next town that you're going to move into, ask the real estate agent and get one of the good Ramsey trusted real estate brokers that we endorse. Ask the agent to pull some MLS, multiple listing service statistics for you. Here are the two stats you want. Okay. Number one, just say within a five mile radius of this house we're looking at just like a drop a dot in the middle of it five mile radius you following me yep what is the average annual growth rate in prices for the last 10 years got it yep now keep in mind you have 20 in there and 20 is screwed up statistics

because after the fauci pandemic people came out of their houses like a baptist looking for a casserole and ran the real estate market up right yep okay so you got an anomaly in the stats there but other than that look for it hard and you're looking for average annual rate of return. A correlating number is the second one, and that's average days on the market, DOM. How long does it take the house to sell on average in a five-mile radius of this house? So let me give you a couple of different ways you look at that number, okay? If it comes back, the average annual rate of return on the house is 2%, and the days on the market are 270, nine months, you're going to lose your butt. Don't buy. Yep.

Because it's going to take nine months to sell it, and you're going to make 4% in two years, and it's going to cost you 12% to get out of the house. You're going to lose money, and you're going to have trouble selling it. Right? The other end of the spectrum, that would be a slow, draggy market. The other end of the spectrum would that be a slow draggy market the other end of the spectrum would be average days on the market seven days and the appreciation rate is 10 a year you're gonna make 20 in two years and you can dump the thing in a heartbeat yeah you buy there

you see how i'm doing these stats so and you'll find them running together okay you don't have long days on the market and high appreciation rates it's very unusual you're bigger together it's usually usually an active market and you've got good appreciation rates so but if you're moving you know we talked to the military guys about this too if you're in the military don't buy a house because they move your butt every two years unless you move into a metro area but if you move in one of these podunk military towns where the whole economy is the military all you've got is a bunch of houses on the market all the time from the last goobers that moved in there and bought a house okay so you can't

they don't appreciate and you can't get rid of them but if you're moving if you're in the navy and you're moving into san diego which is fairly typical by the way uh or you're moving into virginia beach or something like that you got a very active market and you're going to be able to get out of it and make some money so two years is your you need to know you're going to be there two years and look at those numbers nerdy and yes you should buy because you might have a 17 year run saban did you never know dream big and the last thing dave that you've talked about before is not over buying in the neighborhood yeah don't don't buy the top of the market by middle to bottom of the market in that neighborhood so if the houses on that street are most of them are

350 000 don't buy the 450 000 one buy the 350 300 one, because people don't drive down that street looking for that price range. They drive down the street looking for three 50. So don't buy four 50 on that. Oh, that top of the market on that street. That's a good point, George. So, and you know, use other common sense things like this is the house ugly. When you're standing in front of it, you can't get over ugly. Ugly is to the bone, man. So you can't get over it. If it's just your standard has no curb appeal and you're getting a deal, when you sell it, you're going to give it a deal because it's got no curb appeal.

It's ugly. Make it pretty. Stage it nicely. And there are houses out there that, trust me, are ugly. But I have overlooked them in the name of price sometimes, and it's bit me in the butt, so I don't do it anymore. I buy stuff that's pretty or can be pretty when i dress it up a little bit well sometimes it's you know we can swap the carpet and the paint yeah that's an easy fix yeah but if you put lipstick on a pig it's still a pig yeah yeah so there you go good good question i like your question

and yeah i think you're you know you're you're gonna you're gonna buy and you're gonna be fine and you're gonna end up you know you are move. It's the nature of your business. I've got football coaches in our family, and, you know, you are going to move. It's part of it. But hopefully you've got runs that are longer than two years, and you're in good, solid markets where you can make some money. Maybe if he buys, he'll be more incentivized to be a better coach and more wins. Is that how that works? No, I think he's going to be a good coach.

He's a great coach. He's listening to the Ramsey Show. That tells me he's a wise man. There you go. a good coach. He's a great coach. He's listening to the Ramsey show. That tells me he's a wise man. There you go. He's a great coach. What do you mean? I mean, you don't become a better coach because you buy a house. That just makes you more stuck.

That's true. And the other thing, somebody may come along and want to pay you double, and you want to leave. Oh, but you're tied with this asset. There you go. It's not as easy to just up and leave yeah you gotta buy my house and buy out my contract in order to get me you know you got you got two problems right so uh i don't think i can coach little league at this point dave have

you ever done some coaching uh not at not not been paid no i just just avoided the just ministry time yeah daniel when daniel was playing ice hockey and he's a little bitty guy, we coached from four years old till 13. At 13, the mouth kicked in, and I quit. Oof. So I can't do mouth, and I would get put in jail these days. I think this could be like a Netflix series. It's a hockey coach. I mean, I've got a stick in my hand.

You're not going to do this. It's like, no. America needs to see Dave Ramsey coaching Little League. No, it's not a good idea. I was sweet to the kids. I just don't. Helicopter parents are morons. You're yelling at the parents, not the kids at that point.

I sit down with them at the first of every year. Listen, I'm doing this for free so I can hang out with my son. If you want to take over at any time, you can. And if you bitch about it, you're going to be taken over. So there you go. Dave Ramsey's Rules of Little League. This is The ramsey show george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the

debt-free stage seth and sierra yes sierra are with us i want to make sure i pronounced your name right welcome you, you guys. Good to have you. Where do you live? Clarksville. Clarksville, Tennessee. Welcome. Just up the road.

You had to slip and slide a little to get down here. Yes, sir, we did. All right. How much debt have you guys paid off? $110,000. All right. How long did that take? 36 months.

Good for you. And your range of income during that time? Started at 38, ended at 120. Good Lord. Okay. What do you all do for a living? I'm a police,000, ended at $120,000. Good Lord. Okay, what do you all do for a living? I'm a police officer. Okay. And I'm in accounting.

All right. So how did you jump your income from $38,000 to $120,000? Somebody got a job? You. I got a job. I lost my job because of COVID, and then I became a leasing agent at our apartment complex. I did that for two years, and then I got an accounting job. And then that was the last hole for our debt free so i've been in that job for almost well two years to january so between the two of us we had five jobs yeah i got two other

jobs and she got two jobs wow getting it what kind of debt was the $110,000? Oh, we had $10,000 on a credit card, $13,000 on a car, and $87,000 in student loans. Wow. Okay. So criminal justice degree or what? Yes, sir. Criminal justice degree. Okay. All right.

I was guessing. Okay. Good. Very good. So what happened 36 months ago? You said three years ago, this has got to change. Yes, sir. Coming out the backside of the pandemic, right?

In short, that's what happened. The pandemic hit, and we were doing a lot better off than a lot of other people. years ago this has got to change yes sir coming out the back side of the pandemic right in short that's what happened the pandemic hit and we were doing a lot better off than a lot of other people i mean we had money in the savings account but we just a whole lot of normal she lost her job you know she called me when i was at work one day and said hey they're they're they're telling us not to come back into work so uh things got really tight there for a minute and and we were kind of still making it but kind of too much month left at the end of the money. So I remember I was just laying in bed, and she was laying there, and she was just really stressing about the money, and I didn't like that.

So I was like, I can't control a pandemic. I can't control anything else, but I can control how we spend our money and how we move forward. So I looked you up. Well, I looked up just how to manage money better, and your plan came across, and I was like, this guy's plan works. So I looked you up. Well, I looked up just how to manage money better. And your plan came across and I was like, this guy's plan works. So I just did it. Never heard of us before that. Never heard of you before that. I just looked up how to manage money better. And I watched just about every YouTube video. It was funny. She went to bed and then I stayed up watching just

about every YouTube video of you I could watch. And I was like, you know, I'm not the smartest guy, but dang, I can work. Dang it, I can work. I know how to work. I know how to make money. I know how to work, but I like it. That's most of the battle when it comes to getting out of debt is being willing to do it and sacrifice. And you guys did it, working five jobs to get out of this mess.

Yep. So the wake-up call is the stress point then you're flipping through these videos what were you seeing there that made you say i can do this what was it that gave you hope you know every other every other plan that i saw there was some kind of gimmick that went with it you know zero interest credit card or do this well that just that just moves the problem that doesn't fix the problem and i watched dave ramsey does the baby steps live in dallas and you're screaming at us telling us how stupid we are and i'm like you know what this guy that's one of my favorite videos i think was that from like the 90s or early 2000s you did a thing i think on fox i have no idea i was i was

watching him like this guy's screaming about gazelles and telling me to go to work and telling me yeah this this guy yeah we don't sell microwaves we sell crockpots i'm like that's that's the plan i need right there so okay i would like to add that i wasn't on board at first because i was like terrified because i just lost my job i was on unemployment and he was like we're getting out of debt and i was like i don't have a job like how can we do this like and he made me watch your video. So at first I called you a fun terrorist, Dave. Yeah, that's it. But then I got...

I am. I am a fun terrorist. That's good. I got on board. Looking back, I feel really bad. Not a violent terrorist, but fun. Looking back, I feel really bad because she went to sleep with her husband

and she woke up with some gravy. Yeah, some new person that just wanted to get out of bed. That's how it goes. We'll blame YouTube for that. You go down the rabbit hole of Ramsey videos, you walk out on a different man. That is great. Thank you,

YouTube. Wow. That's very cool. So you guys, within a few days of that, rolled up your sleeves, got on a budget, and started, I guess. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Okay. So, way to go. What was the most lucrative side hustle? The one that surprised you? Like, oh my gosh, this is pretty incredible. Well, actually.

I was like, you did electric work? I did electric work. I think the most lucrative for me was working security at the church I attended. Oh, nice. They decided we were really blessed. I mean, God really came through in a lot of ways for us in this. And the church was like, hey, we need somebody to do security. Can you do it?

Sure. I'm here anyway. So they paid me like $40 an hour. Wow. Yeah, it was pretty good. So that came through. And then you got some on-the-job experience there now as a police officer. Absolutely.

That's really cool. Are you a police officer in Clarksville? Yes. If I ever get pulled over there, I'll be like, hey, I know Seth. Does that do anything for you? Probably not, but, you know, I'll try. I was going to say, and I got commissions with leasing apartments, so that was, I'll try. I was saying, I got commissions with leasing apartments, so that was

also very lucrative. She's really good. Yeah. Very good. Good job, you guys. Well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you've done it? Communication, sticking it out together, and also trusting the Lord. We had never tithed

before, so we started doing that, and that's when everything changed. Yeah, it really did. together and also trusting the Lord. We had never tithed before. Oh. So we started doing that, and that's when everything changed. Yeah. Yeah, it really did. It really did. And when we started handling money God's way, it really came through. What church are you in there? First Baptist in Clarksville.

Yeah, okay. Excellent. That's where we go. But, yeah, perseverance. We had a lot of things happen. We had to pay a lot of stuff out of pocket. We had to move in there. We had some medical bills in there we had to pay.

But just get right back on that horse and keep going and lean on each other. There will be times I'm working 90 hours a week. It was a hard 36 months. Very hard. Yeah, it was very hard. Very hard. Towards the end of it. Now that you're 100% free.

It's amazing. Was it worth it? Yes, sir. Absolutely. Don't want to go back in it. No. No, never. I don't want to ever have to live like

that again it's live like that so never never live like that right yes sir it's funny we kind of switched roles seth was wanting to save the money save the money when we were going through the debt journey and i was wanting to spend it and then uh once we got debt free i was like i'm a hoarder now i like want to save all the money and that's like i want to buy something now we're finally out she's calling me about a ten dollar expense at walmart and i'm like just buy it yeah we have the money you got to rewire your brain to go oh we're free now yeah we're free we can enjoy life absolutely way to go guys congratulations we're proud of y'all thank you sir well done very well done this is uh it's honoring to us to hear that the the youtube uh videos in the middle of the night gave you some hope when everything was closing in on you absolutely

you know and that's that's a cool thing that's very neat um and you know obviously you got access to that all free that's that's perfect that's the way it should be i love it the youtube team and the seo team working on hey if he searches for how to manage money we want to show up we want to give people hope instead of some shortcut scheme that's out there. Yeah, that wasn't an accident. Yeah, very good. Congratulations, you guys. Hey, we've got the live and give box for you for you to be able to enjoy some of these things and give some away. The Baby Steps Millionaires book, because that's your next step. You will be one. You are on track to do that for sure. total money makeover book and uh of course the financial peace university membership uh we want you to enjoy all of those

things or give them depending on how you want to do it it's the live and give box uh congratulations again thank you way to go very cool did you have people uh telling you you shouldn't be doing this that you're crazy people thought we were nuts yeah we had people that just kind of didn't understand the urgency not that they didn't support it it's just they didn't understand like the urgency of getting out of debt because we're so we're still young so i had so many people telling me don't pay off your student loans they're going to forgive it they're going to forgive it i'm like i've never trusted the government for anything so i'm like no and yeah these are people that would never say that about anything else, but they say it about that. That's what's strange.

Right. Yeah. Well, how do you like me now, huh? There we go. Toby Keith, right? Exactly. Way to go, you guys. Excellent stuff.

All right. Seth and Sierra, Clarksville, Tennessee, $110,000 paid off in 36 long months, making $38,000 to $120,000. They're free. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. paid off in 36 long months, making 38 to 120. They're free. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Yeah! That's how it's done. I know how to work. That was his quote for the day. It's a mic drop right there. If you're not scared of work, I'm pretty sure you're, was his quote for the day. It's a mic drop right there. If you're not scared of work, I'm pretty sure you're invincible in this economy. Yeah, it's like, you know, having common sense is like having a superpower. It's pretty crazy.

This is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, author of the brand new book Breaking Free from Broke, is my co-host today. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. It's book launch week for George. We're all really excited about this book. It is selling like crazy. You guys, it's going to be a great help to you. We're just pumped for you.

Jacob is with us in Macon, Georgia. Hi, Jacob. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I went a little bit crazy last year.

Me and my wife jumped on a journey to pay down as much debt as possible. We paid off $240,000 last year. Way to go. But I also spent everything I had in my savings, everything that we had made together. I mean, I unloaded just about everything into it. We still got $14,000 between savings and checking. I got $5,000 in cash.

But I need a tractor to be able to take care of my property. And I know that you are 100% against, you know, any kind of financing, but a new tractor that goes between, you know, 50 and 60,000 would be able to have the right size to do, you know, my property. So I don't know, you know, is financing okay, especially at 0% for 60 months or? Yeah, so you went crazy getting out of debt, and you know that we tell people not to borrow money,

and you called here wanting to finance a tractor. I just don't know. Like I said, I think I kind of put myself into a boat. My property's going to end up taking over. What do you make a year? Last year we made $210,000. I am laid off from my job, and so I'm going off of my job. Um, and so I'm, you know, going off of my wife's, uh, income at the moment and she's

a women's health nurse practitioner. So what does she make? A hundred, 120. Okay. And so when are you going back to work? Um, we're not sure yet. Um, no, I mean, you're not looking for another job. You're waiting on them um uh we kind

of are making a decision at the moment as to whether i'm going to be a stay-at-home dad to homeschool our two girls because we're not exactly too fond of the um school systems um so we're kind of in in between at this point she's we're both talking about um you know getting some cattle and you know just making some money off of the farm since we've already got the property how much acreage do you have 42 and a half acres okay does not take a 62 000 tractor to take care of 42 acres, dude. Seriously. It's not that big a spread.

Okay. You know that. And you can't afford it. You don't have the money. So, and you're not making a living on the 42 acres. You might have a few few cattle but you don't even need a tractor for cattle have somebody run a bush hog over there ever so often or something maybe but um especially if you're going to decide to stay at home uh and cut your income almost in

half right why don't you go back to your old career, even if it's not with the company that led you off? Kind of as much as I'd like to, we're looking at the well-being of taking care of our children. What were they doing while you were working? Well, me and my wife are four states away from each other. You're four states away from each other and uh you're four states away from each other well that's an interesting piece of information halfway through the conversation we uh we did something crazy we went all out to pay off as much debt as humanly possible to where

i mean we paid down the house halfway and uh all other debt is gone so you're there where is she uh she's in georgia we're both in georgia now she's back to make it yes that's where she's been i went to ohio to uh work construction oh i see and that's what you got laid off from? Yes, sir. I see. Okay. So not only do you not want to be – you're not only worried about the kids in school, but you're also worried about being away from your family all the time. That's fair. That's a lot better plan. Okay. I mean, you could – but you might not make as much as you used to make if you worked construction in your area, right?

Yes, sir. It'd be cut down to uh between 50 to 60 000 so what do you own your what do you want the only debt you have left is your property yes sir uh we owe uh 260 000 wow so you paid off other stuff then, not that? She, the house was almost half a million dollars, and then I paid off her car also. And then my other house in Kentucky is paid off. What's the house in Kentucky? It's one that I bought while I was going to school.

It was something I bought online. What's it worth? I did while I was going to school. It was something I bought online. What's it worth? I did $200 to $220. Sell it and pay off your house and buy a tractor. All right. Why do you have a house in Kentucky? You didn't set out to do that. You ended up with it from back in the day.

If you didn't own it right now, you wouldn't write a check for $200,000 to buy a house in Kentucky, Tennessee, or Arkansas. Right. It's very random in your life now. I understand how you got there, but I would sell it and pay off your mortgage and use your fabulous fact that you have no payments in the world to save up and pay cash for a used tractor.

Not $60,000, maybe $30 60 maybe 30 but pay for it okay oh the house why do you want to hang on to this you're not gonna do that are you uh no i've got some attachment uh we've talked about for the last year to sell it i've got um i've got 130 $150,000 equity in it. Who cares? Sell it. Do you care more about your kids or this random house? What are you attached to a house in Kentucky for? I had it for going to Bible college.

Who cares? Jesus didn't live there. Take a picture and put it on the wall. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's not an heirloom. It's a house. It's not your great-grandfather's Bible. It's a house.

I mean, dude, really? Okay. I don't think I can help you, man. But that's what I would do if I woke up in your shoes. I would sell the house in Kentucky, and I would solve a lot of my problems by doing that and get the house that you're living in paid off i think i heard you could pay it off i thought it was paid for and then i thought he said he owed 130 so now i'm confused i kept learning new facts along the way this whole thing unfolded but you kept saying we keep doing we did this crazy thing we did this crazy thing

was an accordion but um i think the craziest thing is to keep this house when you have this dream to run this property and homeschool the kids. And yet you're hanging on to this property that could get you through. You got too many conflicting priorities. And so we need to decide what it is we really want in this life and give up a bunch of the other stuff to get what you really want. And if you really want to be home with the kids, great. If that's really what's driving this, I think you really want to be off the road. And I think you won't play gentleman farmer. That's what I think. And I don't think you're blaming your kids. So I'm going to be real hard on you now, but, um, um, that's okay. And by the way, 42 acres is a gentleman farmer.

That's not a, that's not somebody making a living. So, um, uh, anyway, yeah, you do what you want to do. But if I were in your shoes, I would get a job in construction, and I would sell the house in Kentucky, and I would buy a used tractor for cash, and I would pay off my house. That's what I would do. But you're going to do what you're going to do. But thanks for calling. Appreciate you being here.

Interesting story, at the very least. A lot going on here. Yeah. Moral of the story, story too is if you move four states away temporarily and take a high-end you know high-paying construction job if you're willing to sacrifice being away from your family which he did for a short period of time there you can make a ton of money and that's what he did and i don't recommend that for a way of life but i do appreciate jacob's work ethic oh yeah being willing to go do that for a short period

of time to accomplish some of the goals he just got stuff out of line in the in the process and um then when he suddenly got sent home i think it threw him into a tizzy yeah this might be kind of a midlife crisis situation trying to figure out what's next but hope he figures it out soon absolutely gave him the plan thank you jacob that puts us out of the Ramsey Show. In the books. Thank you. We'll see you next time.