The Ramsey Show - App - If You Don't Define Your Finish Line, You'll End Up Crossing Someone Else's (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Christy Wright. I'm a business coach. I'm an author and Ramsey personality. You can follow me on Instagram at Christy B. Wright. And hosting with me today is my good friend, also author, fellow Ramsey personality, Anthony O'Neill.

You can follow him on Instagram at Anthony O'Neill. We've had a fun first hour and we are just going to continue the fun. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. We're answering your calls about money, about business, whether it's a small business, side business, side gig. Maybe you just need some extra cash to pay off your debt. We can help you with that. Or just life.

You've got some questions about a decision you're facing and want an outside perspective, we are here for you. 888-825-5225. We're going to go to Nicole in Dallas, Texas. Hey, Nicole. How's it going? Hi, guys. How are you? Great. We're going to go to Nicole in Dallas, Texas. Hey, Nicole, how's it going? Hi, guys. How are you? Great.

What's going on? So I have a couple questions. This is in regards to the most recent stimulus check and my student loans. So I have been doing the Dave Ramsey plan following the principles explicitly, and I have paid off $44,000 all in 2020 with my fiance, and I'm just killing it. Wow, congratulations. Thank you. All we have left is my student loans,

and that is sitting at $31,066 and a pesky 56 cents. They are currently not due, but I really want to start attacking them. And some other things that are kind of in our mix is my fiance's car. His transmission went out, so we are functioning as a one-car family, which is a blessing because we're both working from home. Secondly, we want to start saving for a wedding, and we also want to save for a house. So we are praying through this and prioritizing,

but I really want to get down to the mini-gritty. I want to attack my student loans in the best way possible, and I already have it built in the EveryDollar app, so it's already set up with the interest rates. In the best way possible. And I already have it built in the EveryDollar app. So it's already set up with the interest rates. It's already going from smallest to largest. I'm just ready to go on this. And I'm basically sitting at where they're not due. So I can get pretty creative with my payments and pay specific loans off. But October 2021 is when they all go active and they all go do at the same time.

When is the wedding, Nicole? So we actually got engaged before COVID and kind of before the world got quiet. And we've actually, we've done a little bit of planning, and we don't have a date yet because I come from a large Italian family, and I want my family to be present, and I want it to be joyful, and I just don't really want the COVID, you know, little your sadness following us with that. So we want to be respectful as well for our family members and make sure that it's a safe environment for everybody.

Because we just haven't picked a date yet. Okay. I'm going to give you two answers. One of them, you may not receive it, and that's fine. I just want to give it to you, put it out there, because I love you. I don't know you, but I love you. And then the other answer, I'm going to give it a practical thing of a question. Here's the first answer that I want to say.

You guys are already living together. You're already acting like you're married. You already have combined your finances, which I'm not a huge fan of non-married people doing. And so my suggestion is only because I just i love you and i want to see y'all win um and with my my particular christian faith background um you know i'm not perfect but i definitely gotta say this um i would definitely say how about y'all just go ahead and just save this fourteen hundred dollars put that towards getting married just go ahead and get married maybe a small wedding because covid we don't know when COVID is going away.

And so I don't want to see you all living as an engaged couple, doing everything as a married couple for the next two, three years, just going ahead and get a small wedding, go down to the courthouse, do something private, you know, and then when COVID is lifted and you and your family feel like it's safe to do it, then have maybe a bigger wedding or a bigger celebration of y'all's union. That would be the first thing I would do with the $1,400. I want to jump in on that before you go into the tactical AO because I really agree, especially in this world, and you're seeing a lot of brides go through this. Engaged couples go through this.

And the idea of when it is quote unquote safe yeah is a moving target and i'm not this is not a political statement this is just like if if you're going to get married someday someday is not a day on the calendar and it's it's just going to get pushed out and pushed out and pushed out you're not prioritizing something that is sacred and i hear in your voice it's sacred to you you want your family there but you know uh just like you said anthony my sister-in-law did that last year she had they had a small backyard wedding and they got married and it cost hardly anything i think it was just in the backyard with just family and friends and then they had a big celebration reception in the fall you could do your big italian reception whenever you feel

comfortable with that but then you're prioritizing your marriage um in this grand scheme i just wanted to jump in and affirm that because i think that's really good advice go ahead with the the tactical too yeah and nicole it's not i heard you want to talk earlier so i would definitely give you some time to respond but uh just know me and christy are not attacking which is we just want to give you some practical advice my brother did the very same thing john gives he got married right in the middle of covid and um had a very small wedding because he didn't want to wait so long. He went to live with his wife, just acting as a married couple, but they're not married. So that's what I would do with the first fourteen hundred dollars with. I would go ahead and get married if I was in your shoes, just to go ahead and just sell that.

And then from there, move on. And then it's safe. If you don't take that advice, because that's totally up to you. So then, yes, the very first thing I'm going to tell you to do is attack your student loans. Okay. Go ahead and just pay it, uh, towards your student loans. So this way you can get ahead of, uh, any interest that will come up in October when, when it's time to pay back the student loans. So that's what I would do with the $1,400. If you don't decide to get married, go ahead and apply it to your student loans.

Does that help, Nicole? Awesome. Absolutely. Thank you guys for that perspective because, honestly, I just have been so zeroed in. He's kind of the free spirit. I'm a nerd, and I've been so honed in on these student loans. And actually, his folks had a timeshare up in Montana and two weekends ago we kind of dabbled in an elopement up there so we might have to have a little um financial meeting tonight in regards

to a little small wedding because that is just so cool and I didn't even think about that you know and you know what Nicole if you do it I want you to call back to the show and tell them that uh tell Anthony uh we got married and if y'all do that I'm going to call back to the show and tell them that, tell Anthony, we got married. And if y'all do that, I'm going to send you all a gift, a financial gift, just because I believe that's something that you should be doing for real. That's awesome. Well, Nicole, great call. Thanks so much for your question. And you know what? This is an exciting time. You're talking about big plans. You're talking about big dreams. This is an exciting thing. And I love this reminder that she can prioritize her

marriage and still attack those student loans. It doesn't mean the student loans aren't going to get attacked. It doesn't mean your financial goals are off track. We're just going to zoom out a little bit and have the right perspective and say, hey, what's most important right now? This is most important. And we're going to do this. We're still going to have the big Italian celebration at some point. And we're still going to attack the student loans. We're still going to have the big Italian celebration at some point, and we're still going to attack the student loans. We're just going to do things in the right order. Great question. This is The Rancy Show. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM,

is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with healthcare expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Well, St. Patrick's Day brought us a little luck this year. The IRS announced that it's pushing the federal tax deadline back. Everyone in the U.S. now automatically gets an extra month to file with the date moved from April 15th to May 17th. Why? Well, the pandemic's still affecting things, and when you throw in the very recent tax

changes, the April 15th deadline was looking like a pretty tall order. Now, with the change to May 17th, you have an extra month not just to file, but also to pay your tax bill. If you're in Texas, Oklahoma, or Louisiana, your tax date from the IRS is still June 15th because of the winter storms. So what does this all mean? Well, you have extra time to do your taxes, but if you can file now,

especially if you're due for a refund, go ahead and do it, and that advice comes straight from the IRS. And if you need help filing either online or with a trusted tax advisor, we can help. Text TAX to 33789 and get it done. That's TAX to 33789. All right. We're going to keep going to the phones.

And we've got Adriana in Ventura, California. Hey, Adriana, how's it going? Hi, good. How are you guys? Good. How can we help? So I'm calling because I have $130,000 in savings, and I wanted to know if I should buy a home with that

or put it towards my current mortgage. What are your plans? I mean, aside from the money, what are your plans? Are you planning to move? Do you need to move? No, I don't need to move. So the reason why I'm considering this is because I'm in a special situation where the home that I want to buy, it was my sister and I. It's our home.

It's 50-50. And so she wants to get rid of her 50%. And in order to sell it, because it was rented for 10 years, we would have to pay appreciation or what is it called? I think it's... Oh, no. We got depreciated, so we will have to pay taxes on it. Yeah, so this is not the home you're living in, you're saying.

The home that you're living in is not the one that you and your sister own together. Yeah, correct. No, no, no. I have my primary home. I have my own house with my husband. Okay. Okay. Here's the thing.

I'm going to say sell the home. I'm going to say both of you all just go ahead and just sell the home and then just stay where you are. Take that one 30. As long as you are debt free, as long as you have a fully funded emergency fund, take that one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Go ahead and just put it on top of your current mortgage.

Just go ahead and sell your 50 percent. She sells her 50 percent and just get out of it. It sounds like maybe it was inherited or something happened and they inherited the home. And so I would just sell the 50 percent, get rid of that responsibility, pay off my current mortgage, and then proceed forward. Yeah. And it's interesting, too, because I can't tell you how many times we've gotten calls like this on The Ramsey Show, Anthony, where people are in a situation and they're doing

something and they are considering to continue to do it just because they've done it. Yes. Not because it's in line with their goals, where they want to go. It's necessarily the right thing anymore. Something that was right 10 years ago isn't right anymore. Or in your example, if it's something you inherited, not necessarily something you wanted. And so I love that advice. It's just get that out of your hair.

Yes, you'll have to pay taxes on it, but then you also still have all that extra money from the sale of it. You can put to your current mortgage. You're going to be in a great financial situation, and you just don't have to deal with it anymore. If that's not a part of your ongoing plan, financial plan, gets you out of this tangled thing with your sister, which would be good as well.

So that's great advice. All right, let's go to Catherine in Philadelphia. Hey, Catherine, how's it going? Pretty good. How are you? Good. What's going on? I have kind of a specific question about taking some time off work to do like a long through hike onto the Appalachian Trail. Okay. Well, what's the situation around it? So I do have some money saved. I'm on, I guess I'm technically on baby step seven. I don't have any kids or a house.

And then I have about $40,000 saved, which is my emergency fund, and then also money that I would use towards it. How much? So I just kind of was looking for some advice. How much extra do you have on top of your emergency fund? That is, the $40,000 is everything. Okay. And then my $40,000. I'm being a 401k alright sounds good

what do you do oh I'm an engineer how old are you Catherine I'm 32 oh 32 yes alright should you take 6 months off to go hiking?

I'm so excited about this answer. I can't even see straight because I feel like there's going to be another really good segment between me and you. Because let me tell you, Catherine, Ayo and I don't have the same answer on this question. I can just tell you right now. I can tell you right now. Go on. Give her your answer and then we'll go together.

See, here's the thing. We might be on the same page okay let's have it because she's debt free she doesn't have any you know she has a fully funded emergency fund here's where i have a question that will determine my answer uh katherine how much do you need for six months to live like how much how much will you have to spend um on your bills back at home and to survive how much money will you need uh probably 8k and that's probably overestimating so about ten thousand dollars worst case absolute worst case scenario yeah that leaves you thirty thousand dollars in your bank account yes at 30 some years old how much do you000 in your bank account.

Yes. At 30-something years old, how much do you have in your retirement account right now? $120,000. Go hiking. Yes! Yes! See?

I'm so excited. I didn't expect that, Catherine. I thought I was going to have to swoop in with that other perspective. And all y'all out there laughing. Y'all just see, y'all was like, Anthony, don't do it, doc.

He said, Anthony said, should you take six months off to go y'all was like, Anthony, don't do it. He said, he said, Anthony said, should you take six months off to go hiking? I was like, oh, this is not going to be good for Catherine. I can tell he repeated the question. He doesn't like hiking and he doesn't like this. I do not like hiking. But at the same time, that's why we work so hard.

Do what we have to do so we can one day do what we want to do. That's right. Live like no one else. Like Dave says, so we can live like no one else. And so she's done that part. Go live. Now, she would have said quit working for the rest of her life, Christy. I would have been like, nah, shawty. Listen, here's my perspective that I'm bringing to this too, Catherine. As a mom of three kids, go hiking, sister.

Go hiking. Because when you get three kids. If you have kids in your future, Lord willing, if that's part of your plan, now is the time. Now is the time to live those dreams before you got kids. So go hiking. And that's Christian. As long as she's saying 10 grand. Yeah. 10 grand is okay.

Well, you don't have a lot of needs out in the woods, Ayo. There's not a lot of things to spend money on. So what's she going to do? Get rid of her apartment and stuff back here too? No, but I'm saying the 10 grand covering the bills you don't have a lot of needs out in the woods, Ayo. There's not a lot of things to spend money on. So what's she going to do? Get rid of her apartment and stuff back here, too? No, but I'm saying the $10,000 covering the bills, there's not a lot of additional expenses. It's not like we're going to travel Europe for six months, or that's going to be real expensive. So the woods are cheap. So I love it.

Catherine, do it. And when you do, call in and tell Ayo how it is. Maybe we'll get him out in the woods, get him hiking. All right. We got a call from Matthew in Richmond. Hey, Matthew, how's it going? Hey, going well. How are you guys doing?

Good. How can Anthony and I help? Yeah, good. I got my wife in the background. But our question is, are we financially ready to start my own consulting business? All right. Let's have some details. What do you currently do? How much money do you have?

Let's talk about that. Sure, sure. So we've kind of streamlined what we're doing. I'm a civil engineer. Actually quit my job making around $130,000 a year. And my wife is now, she's a freelancer, does film work and she can make pretty good money, but it's temporary work from a couple months at a time. Are you debt-free? We are debt-free. And how much savings do you have? We do not. We have around $24,000 in an emergency fund, and then we have a down payment of about $160,000. All right, we got to to wrap this up because we've got to go to break. Here's what I'm going to tell you.

You need to have three to six months of expenses ready to get this consulting business off the ground. And you need a secure plan on how you're going to monetize it and make it profitable very quickly. You need the money there to support you as you transition into this business, not hope it's just going to magically be there. But you need a plan for it to be there. And it needs to be a proven plan with clients, with leads, that kind of plan. You have that there, then yes, you're ready. But if not, you may need to save up a little bit more to get it ready before you're ready to take that next step. Great question. This is The Rancy Show. I'm Chry Wright. Co-hosting me with me today is Anthony O'Neill, my good friend and fellow Ramsey personality. And we're taking your calls about life, business, and of course, money.

You can give us a call at 888-825-5225. And this has been fun today because some of the calls Anthony and I have different answers on, which leads to a really good discussion. I've already been seeing people comment on Instagram, which is really fun. You can follow me at ChristyBWright and Anthony at Anthony O'Neill. Yes. And we love connecting with you. We love hearing your stories.

We love answering your questions. All right. We're going to go to the phones. We've got a call from Rob in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, Rob. How's it going? Hey, Christy. Hey, how are you guys great what's up i was calling to see i have money left over from the 529 plan from my daughter and i was wondering if i could change the beneficiary to my son-in-law uh he has student loan debt and help them move forward

okay are they legally married they are engaged and they get married in August certainly I wouldn't do anything until then yeah yeah yeah so once they are legally married you can transfer your daughter can transfer the 529 that's in her

name to her spouse or to her kids and so from there then from there, the max that they can take out is $10,000 a year. So yes, but they have to be legally married and she only can transfer to her son, to her kids or to her legally married spouse. So yes, you can.

Perfect. All right. Awesome. Thanks for calling, Rob. you can. Perfect. All right. Awesome. That's what I needed to know. Thanks for calling, Rob. Great question, man. You know, it's hard with some of these ever-changing rules and some of the fine print. I'm not good with fine print AO, so it's good to – I'm glad you know stuff like that because I wouldn't have known that either. All right.

We've got a call from Deneen in Boston. Hey, Deneen. How's it going? Great. How are you? Good. How can Anthony and I help? Okay, great. Thank you for having me. How can Anthony and I help? Okay, great.

Thank you for having me. So my question is about goals. I met someone recently who asked the question, what are your goals for their life? And don't tell me about helping other people. What are you doing specifically for yourself? I struggled to answer that question because I guess I have a passion for helping other people and making them great. And so I kind of wanted some advice or recommendations on how to refocus back on myself and kind of making them great. That's an interesting question.

And I'm curious what Anthony thinks on this. I would say that first I just kind of want to back out of that and not look at goals as something that are self-serving or selfless, that goals are really a tool. They're really a strategy to get you to where you want to be. So where you want to be could be helping others. Where you want to be could be doing something for yourself or growing yourself financially or losing weight or running a marathon or starting a business. I mean, it could be whatever end goal or end finish line that you want to define for yourself and your life and where you want to be in your future. And that could be six months from now, a year from now, 10 years from now.

A goal is really just your tool to get you there. And so that becomes your path to say, okay, here's my strategy of how much, for example, in weight loss, I want to lose 50 pounds. I need to lose five pounds a week or five pounds a month or whatever your path is between here and there, depending on your timeline. So I would start by asking you, where do you want to be? Not what should you do today, but where do you want to be? Because when you cast your vision out into the future, you begin to see what you want your life to look like. And if you're not careful,

Deneen, one of the things I've done before, and I know a lot of people that have done this, if you don't define what your finish line is, you'll end up crossing someone else's finish line. I remember being in a small group one time, Anthony, where we were all sharing what our goals were for the year. And this guy next to me shares, and he said,

I've got a goal to read 30 books this year. And I thought, oh, that sounds fun. I should read 30 books this year. That was a terrible goal for me with two, you know, young kids under the age of three.

So think for yourself, where do you want to be? What is your version of success? What do you want your future to look like? And then you basically use goals to get you there. So I would start with that question. Where do you want to be in a year, Deneen? Where do you want to be in two years or three years? What excites you? What are you dreaming about for the future? Let's start with that question. Okay, that's a great question. I really kind of have a passion for helping people heal. Helping people what? Heal. And that probably sounds vague, but what I mean is just like overcome brokenness. So there was a time in my life where I had to mentor survivors of human sex trafficking,

and I was passionate about that. Then some things happened in my life, so it kind of pushed me a little bit away from focusing on it, but it just felt good. It felt right, and helping other people realize that they have life worth and value, and they can overcome whatever they've been through. So I guess it's kind of vague, you know, I want to help build communities and eventually get into like philanthropy. That's kind of where I am right now. That's great.

It's the opposite of what I do right now. What do you do right now? I'm in the military. Okay. Well, thank you for your service. I don't think it's a bad thing at all that it's vague. I just want to encourage you. You know, when I help women through Business Boutique at the event

or even back whenever through the Business Boutique podcast, Anthony, we start with, and we do this through Entree Leadership too, we start with a dream. And a dream is fuzzy. It's kind of like, I don't know. I just, I want to help people heal and build communities. And it feels really vague and it feels fuzzy. And that's what dreams are. We can't quite put our finger on them yet. And that's okay. That's what a dream is. But as you back out of that dream and say, okay, what does a vision for that dream look like? Well, vision gets more specific. Okay. In five years, I have started a nonprofit or I have become a volunteer

or a leader in a nonprofit that is helping human trafficking victims. And I am helping through counseling and consulting. You get more specific with the vision. And then out of the vision, you back out of that further and say, okay, what's the goal to get me to that vision that fulfills that dream? And so, Deneen, I just want to encourage you to keep working on that process. You've got the dream. You've got this high-level, kind of fuzzy idea of maybe sort of what you want to do, but you're not sure what it looks like.

I would just continue to spend time with that dream. Journal about it. Pray about it. Think about all the ways that you could engage with that. There's so many different ways that you could do exactly what you just said. And so what are your strengths? What excites you?

What's realistic with your stage of life, with your skills and your education and your time restraints, maybe with a full-time job or something else you have going on. But start with that dream, spend time with it and back out of it and put a little bit more clarity and more specifics around it for a vision. And then back out of that and set goals that get you there. And Deneen, if you'll stay on the line, I would love to send you a copy of my book, Business Boutique. Even though it's for women starting and growing businesses, it can help you even with this

idea. And the first few chapters talk about this exact process I just walked you through in much more detail, going from dream to vision to goals. And so you can even just go through those first few chapters and that'll help you get clarity around what your goals should be and what that can look like for your life. But I'm excited for you. That's a great question. And I think it's awesome that you want to help others.

And I don't think that's a bad thing at all. They're not mutually exclusive. You know, Anthony, I think people have this idea that when we do things in life, it can be through our career or something else, you else, even on the side, just hobbies. It either is selfless or selfish. It's either self-serving or completely for others. And these are not mutually exclusive. I tell people all the time, business is a win-win.

It's a win for the marketplace when you serve the marketplace, and it's a win for you when you earn an income for your family so where do you think this idea comes from because i know you talk about this even on your show that it's either for others or for me it can't be both and if it's for me then i'm a bad person and if it's for others it's like we can't even consider yourself in the process i mean i think it comes from the generation of being uh what the culture says, if it, if it doesn't help someone else and you're selfish, um, but then if you help someone else and you're not, you don't really care about yourself. So I think for me, people are just confused and I'm like, you is it's okay to do both. If I start a business, it's benefiting me

personally because it's bringing income into my home and it's helping me build wealth while at the same time serving my community helping other people and so um i definitely think that you need to find something that helps out with both and when i look at goals goes to me i had it on my notepad i pulled up earlier because i've been writing down some things for my books but goals are about the results we want to achieve now habits are about the processes that leads to those results. So you got to have goals, but you got to have daily habits to accomplish your goals. Yeah, the discipline. Craig Groeschel says it's the small things behind the scenes that no one sees that lead to the big things that everyone wants. It's those small things behind the scenes, those disciplines, those daily habits that

lead to those goals and those visions. So good. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Christy Wright, sitting in today with Anthony O'Neill. We are both here to answer your questions about life, money, or business. And we've got a lot of exciting things we're working on. Anthony has The Table, his new podcast where he tackles all types of tough issues, fun conversations, real world, relatable topics. I have The Christy Wright Show, a new episode airs every Tuesday.

And I haven't talked about it today, but I wanted you guys to know that my new devotional is out now. It's called Living True, 40 Days to Get Back to You. This is a 40-day devotional specifically to help you get back to yourself. I don't know if you've ever felt like that, but I have. I have. Tough seasons of life or in your job, certainly in my role as a mom. It's different things can lead you to that result. But the sentiment is the same.

I just feel like I've lost myself. Man, COVID made people feel like that. I feel like, you know this, Anthony, from working at this company and we launch projects and you have timelines and you get excited. This was supposed to release in April of 2020, got pushed back, got pushed back, and God knew when it needed to be out there. And I think it was right when people were starting to feel that of, man, I feel like I've lost myself. What is going on in this world? And I'm going to walk you through four sections of knowing who God is, who you are,

where you are in your season of life, and where you're going and what God says about your future. And it's just a, it's an awesome three to four minute daily devotional to get you some time with God, some time to get back to you. That's Living True, 40 Days to Get Back to You. Would love to hear what you guys think if you have checked it out. And if you're a man listening, it's a great gift for your wife. We hear a lot that a lot that men are buying it for their wives or girlfriends or moms or daughters.

All right, we're going to go to the phones. We've got Chris calling in from Washington, D.C. Hey, Chris, how's it going? Hey, y'all, how you doing? Great. What's your question for us? Hi, great, great. My wife and I just had our first anniversary last week.

Congratulations. Made it through pandemic uh impact yeah but yeah we're both uh we're both in our mid-30s we're in baby step four um bought a home in 2019 um and we're you know really thinking seriously about a kitchen remodel um Um, you know, and those are pretty pricey, especially in this area. Uh, but yeah, we live in a town home likely to cost around 25 to 30 K for the remodel. We've actually got 30 K saved. I guess my question is, is really trying to figure out if we're about to do something dumb by, you know, investing in a remodel versus waiting until later. And just really trying to figure out if there's any guidance that you all have in terms of making that decision.

Is that $30,000 that you have, is that all that you have or that's above and beyond your emergency fund? Yeah, that's above and beyond, specifically for house improvement or home improvement. Okay, one more question for you, Chris. The quote that you've gotten on a kitchen remodel of 25 to 30, have you gotten actual quotes on that, or is that just a wet finger in the air guess? No, we've had about three to four estimates. And so it's really about trying to narrow down and make a decision and pulling the trigger. It's just a lot of money. We're trying to figure out if we should actually do it or not. How much is in your emergency fund, man?

We have, we usually carry about six months. I mean, it's about $19,500 right now. And you're in Washington, D.C.? That's correct. Yeah. I need you to up that a little bit. Yeah, I would definitely say about $25,000 in Washington, D.C. Then you will come down to about $25,000 for the remodel.

And here's my philosophy when it comes to remodeling. I'm going to wait until I can afford to pay for it twice. While I'm waiting, watch this, I'm going to get several quotes from other people to see if I could find a better deal. Right now,

with everything, housing market being the way it is, a lot of people are trying to remodel. Prices are going sky high right now. Prices are crazy right now, yeah. You know, and so if I was you, I would up my emergency fund, of people are trying to remodel prices are going sky high prices are crazy right now yeah you know and so if i was you i would up my emergency fund especially being in washington dc to at least 25k and then from there you have 25k in your savings account i would spend the next six months or next

three months trying to get that to about 50k for remodeling find you something to do for 20,000 then you can maybe use the other 30,000 to do some other stuff around the house but just my personal philosophy is I'm going to wait for any kind of remodeling until I can afford to pay for it twice when I get that number I'm going to do a lot of research I'm going to interview at least five different people once I interview those five different people I'm gonna see which one comes back the lowest route then I'm'm going to pay cash for it as the journey goes on. That's just my two cents, brother. But I would

definitely up your, because Washington, D.C. is expensive. It's expensive. I like that advice, Anthony, of pay for it twice, because even if you don't need it, you have it. And house remodeling projects, anybody that's ever done them knows they always take twice as much and take twice as long. Twice as much money, twice as much and cost and take twice as long

yes twice as much money twice as much time and and that becomes a major headache if you don't have it so you definitely i love that advice that's really good the other thing i would throw in there chris i think you said that um you guys are newly married just take into consideration anything else that may be more important next year that you'd rather have that money for i don't know if you guys are planning to start a family or anything else. I don't know how stable your jobs are. But just before you spend that money on a kitchen remodel, which is not a bad thing, but make sure that that's more important than a nursery in two or three years if you want to do that.

It just changes your perspective when you think about all the things coming down the line. And then maybe the kitchen remodel still happens, but maybe it just happens in a different priority order um than you originally had planned when it comes to remodeling a home we know the top the number one is the kitchen ladies look at the kitchen when they first walk in it's a kitchen big enough isn't nice enough then the master bedroom um and then it's out then after that's the official what living room space so chris to make that investment is a wise investment to do for a home building process. But just make sure financially it's right, because let's say if you get a quote for twenty thousand dollars, I can almost guarantee you you're going to end up spending thirty thousand dollars. Yes. And so what I don't want you to do is have the money right on the head.

And then now you got to go into your emergency fund to finish this project that's another reason why i say make sure you can afford to pay for it twice you have some extra left over and then get some better quotes yeah and it's for two reasons too it's not only because you don't want to be stressed if it costs more it's also they may get in there and you're like hey it would only be an extra two thousand to to open up this wall and it makes the whole room you're like oh well while we're in here, we want to do that. And if you had the money, you'd want to do it. And you just don't want to be right on the line like that.

That's a great perspective. You know, Anthony, when my husband and I bought our house, it was about eight years ago. We didn't have kids. We'd been married a year. And it was an older house. It is an older house. It was built in 83. There was a lot of stuff we wanted to do, but we prioritized it based on what I was

saying with the kids. So, for example, the laundry room in those old houses opened up to the kitchen. It was in the kitchen, basically. I was like, I can just visualize hampers everywhere with kids' clothes. And so we turned that into a pantry, built a laundry room upstairs. Later, years later, built on the deck we wanted. Nice. But we didn't do the deck first.

You know, you just prioritize it based on your life plan. So just think that through and then save up a little bit more. That's a great perspective. All right, we've got a call from Victoria in Decatur, Texas. Hey, Victoria, how's it going? Hey, I'm good. How are you? Good.

What's your question for us? So I'm just going to give you a little bit about me, and then I'll give you my question because it makes more sense. Um, so I kind of got out of a relationship where I had like no freedom. So now I have freedom and I'm basically kind of starting over and I'm starting over as a single mom, a 22 year old, and I have about $15,000 worth of debt and then $19,000 in dental work that I need done and the expenses of my daughter. So I guess my question really is just like, where do I start? Do I go back to school or do I just keep my job and work on expenses and work on moving out because I love my parents? Like, I'm just curious on where's a good start for me to get to where I can fully support myself and my daughter

alone. Yeah. Well, first of all, you are a hero and you are enough for your daughter. I am a daughter of a single mom and she raised me for most of my childhood as a single mom and you're a hero. Let me just say this and I want Anthony to jump in here too before we have to go to break. Write it down. Write down everything you want to do and when you see it on paper, it will take the overwhelm out of it. When you see it, you can do it. You just need to write down what do you want to do and prioritize those things. Those expenses,

debt small to largest, definitely get on our every dollar budget. But writing it down, I think will take so much of that overwhelm out of it. Well, this wraps up this hour of the Ramsey Show. I want to thank producer James Child, associate producer Kelly Daniel, and my co-host Anthony O'Neill. This is The Ramsey Show.

Hey, guys. This is Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. Did you know that over 16 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.