The Ramsey Show - App - If You Want a Different Life Something Has To Change (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

Девочка-пай 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 amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Cruz, and this is your show, America. So give us a call at 888-825-5225. We'll show you the right next step you need to take with your life and your money. Christian kicks us off this hour in Omaha, Nebraska. Christian, what's going on? Hey, how are you doing?

We're doing great. How can we help? So over the last couple days, I lost my job. Oh, man. I'm sorry. And I'm just trying to figure out the best way to move forward. What happened? It was just a disagreement between me and my manager. And I think it was just a clash of personalities, really.

And so your manager was just like clash of personalities really but and so your manager just like you're fired yeah pretty much what were you doing I was in IT okay what were you making uh 58 a year and were there any conversations about like was it straight firing, no severance, nothing? Just done? Yeah. As far as I know, I got my last paycheck this morning. Okay. Are you single? How long were you there for? Just, so, I'm married, and my wife brings in some money,

but I was only there, we moved here to Nebraska in May. Was it for the job? Yeah, so it was for work for both of us, actually. Okay. So, yeah. You've been there less than a year, and now it's just your wife's income. What does she make? $35,000.

All right. Have you started looking for jobs already? Are there other opportunities in your area in IT? It seems so. I've heard back from a few. Good. Okay. Well, hopefully we get you back working in IT very soon.

In the meantime, we've got to figure out how to survive until the next thing happens. So what are your monthly expenses right now? Have you guys sat down with a budget to go, okay, here's what it's going to take to run the house for the next month and the next three months? Not specifically. I pay attention to what's in our bank account, but we do have a mortgage and then food and gas is really all it is right now. Okay. So this is what we call storm mode. And so when you sit down to do your budget, we're going to gift you every dollar premium,

which is going to help. It's going to connect to your bank account, track transactions. There's a paycheck planning tool that you can use to make sure that you've got enough money coming in to cover all the bills that are coming up. And so what I want you and your wife to do is sit down tonight and lay out every single expense,

print out the bank statement, do whatever you got to do and lay out exactly what you need, not what you want, what you need to cover your budget for the month. And Rachel, what are some of the things they need to look out for in that budget? Well, just know as you're pulling those numbers, Christian, this was numbers that you guys were living off of before a budget. And you made over double so you're probably gonna be yeah uh spending more because it wasn't very much on purpose and so when you guys look do you guys have kids uh no okay just you guys so yeah i mean i would look and say okay here's here's what it costs for um us grocery wise uh restaurants lights utilities um you know, when you look at subscriptions, like anything that

is coming out of your checking account, I want you to write those numbers down. And again, this is before you've budgeted. So I mean, I don't know if you spent 700 a month at a grocery store, just know it's you two. And that wasn't on a budget. So try to bring that down to 400, right? I mean, like do what you can to limit as much expenses as possible for you guys during this time, because, you know, just maybe a month or so before you transition in. And so just know that if you cut things now, it doesn't mean that they're going to be forever. But for this time period, because I don't want you guys going into debt, I don't want anything like that to be happening, because that's going to cause more stress.

But I think having these numbers down and getting a good idea of, okay, here's the paycheck for next month. Here are our expenses. And then if there are gaps, Christian, between now and you getting a job, I mean, that may mean you're picking up an hourly job somewhere and doing what you have to do,

even though it's not the job and you may feel overqualified for it. But the idea is staying afloat with your food, shelter, utilities and transportation. And that would be that that would be the biggest thing. So as you're talking to these other companies, do you think the transition getting a new job will be fairly quick? Would you say? I hope so. I'm doing some interviews soon. Okay, that's great. Yeah, yeah. Well, Do you guys have any debt?

We have a mortgage, and we just paid off our car just last month. Oh, good. So no other debt except mortgage? Correct. Any savings? We have the $1,000 emergency fund and then about $3,000 on top of that. Okay. Great. Yeah, I mean, and this is a time that if you have to use that emergency fund and then about three thousand on top of that okay right yeah i mean and this is a time that if you have to use that emergency fund that's what it's for i mean job

loss is one of those that we list out but if you can avoid it and do what you can not to touch it that would be ideal but if you need to dip in and you know get a get some money out of that emergency fund that's what it's there for but it won't be there forever. And it's not a big one, right? It's just to really cover those really major things. So if you can, in the meantime, again, cover the basic expenses, but hopefully it won't be too long, Christian. I mean, I feel hopeful for you. I think you're in a great sector of looking for a job and the job market and all of that. So I just, I don't know. I just feel like there's a lot of hope there. Thank you. And in the meantime, you may, you know, even outside of a retail job, you can download these apps like DoorDash and Instacart and Uber Eats and go to your local pizza place and deliver pizzas just for a few weeks until you land that next thing, until that

next paycheck comes in. That would be very wise. And I know that's hard for a lot of people to do to kind of swallow your pride and do a job you'd rather not be doing and making these sacrifices. But this is what it looks like to take care of your family. Yeah, I actually did DoorDash in college, so I'm trying. Nice. There you go. Yeah. And you can make 15, 20 bucks an hour, you know, and tips and all that. So I think that you're going to be back on your feet with a great field like IT in your area. It sounds like you'll be back in no time, but this is the time to just go,

we got to live on the rice and beans going scorched earth for a little while until we're back in the clear and have some stability. Yeah, and whenever there's a situation like this with a job loss and especially due to a disagreement, I think it's always fair, Christian, that, yeah, your boss could have just been a complete jerk. Unreasonable, there's people like that out there. Maybe that was him, and that's fine. But I think there's always good introspective work to go back through and say, okay, what part did I play in this?

What did that look like and to learn in that because this isn't christian but i remember talking to somebody i think i may have been hosting with you and they had had like four jobs in like nine months or like it was just it was a very extreme like okay there's kind of a you know the similar pattern that we're seeing a common denominator which was the caller you know and i'm like hmm that's interesting that four people couldn't get along with you four different bosses um so again that's a tale that's a tete moment i'm not saying that's you christian i'm the problem it's me yeah that's right i'm not saying that's you but but those moments in life and in any kind of conflict i think it's always good just to do a little bit of that kind of okay let's let's flesh that back out what can i learn

from this too yeah well we know science shows the job loss has very similar effects to like a death. Like you're grieving something that was near and dear to your heart, that protected you, that provided for you. And so you have to grieve it too and move on with confidence that that was just a blip. It'll be a memory soon enough, my friend. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Cruz. If you enjoy this show, you might enjoy another show that Rachel and I co-host called Smart Money Happy Hour, a fun episode that launched this week about

the cost of love going up with relationships, with dating apps. And it was hilarious. I learned a lot. So if you want a good laugh and listen to it with your loved one, or if you're single, we have many single people. Yeah, there was a lot of content there. Producer Skylar is single.

And so she filled us in on the current status of the dating world. And Rachel, I was very glad to just be married and done and the amount of requests for ramsey dating apps people want the ramsey dating was and we will never do it i don't want to be tied to that there's too many creeps out there i can't vouch for these people now if rachel and i got to approve every single person that came onto the app what if we were the matchmakers i've matched done that once and they got married. Have you ever matchmated?

I don't think I've ever ventured that far. Okay, okay. But all right, Rachel's signing up. I'm one for one. That's the premium version of the dating app. You can get Rachel to be the matchmaker. This is actually not the worst idea. All right, on to bigger and better things. The Ramsey Show Question of the Day

is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services from repairs and maintenance to home improvement projects. Winter can bring some challenges for homeowners, so check out their helpful winter checklist. You can get it for free at neighborly.com slash Ramsey. And today's question comes from Grace in South Carolina. My father and grandfather passed away and I've inherited what my father would have received, my husband and I are always arguing because I don't want to touch the money unless we purchase a house or invest it to secure our family's future. We are not responsible when it comes to money. We have saved an emergency fund of $10,000 and in less than seven months it was gone. My husband has

always wanted to start a business and now that we have a cushion he wants to quit his job i asked him to build um some of some clientele before quitting his job because i know that he will use the inheritance to pay our bills and living expenses and i'm not okay with this how do we move forward well i think grace has a lot of wisdom here she's first of all self-aware to say we are not responsible with money and then she says um i know he'll use this money to basically just live our life and that starting this business is not smart he's got to build some clientele and i would agree with that that you shouldn't just up and quit your job and then hope because you've got this fund over here that you can blow that's right but the

problem is grace is that there's obviously been a pattern here that's occurred with how you guys live with money, the fact that you saved $10,000, which is great, but then you spent it all. So the pattern of money is what needs to be addressed.

And so that can be, you know, a pattern that you have, that your husband has. But either way, that's the core of the issue here is that the way you guys have handled money in the past

will repeat itself unless you guys change course. And so that's what has to be addressed, in my opinion. Yeah. But how do we move forward? It's more relational than it is financial. We don't know the amount of the inheritance. We don't know if they have debt, their income, all of that. But I would hit pause on touching this inheritance for a long time until we're on the same page. Yep, and the value system, that's what always gets couples, that's where the arguing comes. It's not usually about the money.

It's the fact that how we see life and the way we want to do life is different and that will cause conflict if you're not on the same page. So yeah, I mean, even that's getting with a marriage counselor or a therapist and you guys working out, hey, what do we want our life to look like? That's the bigger question here.

And money is just the tool to create that. Well, there's an interesting piece of this. I want your take, Rachel. If you get the inheritance, but you're married to Winston, how does that, obviously it's our money, but there's still a piece of it where you have to be a good steward of the inheritance, of that legacy that was passed down to you.

And so it can't just be, Winston's like, well, I always wanted to start this business, so I'm going to use that money. It's still money that was given to you to use for your family. Yes. I mean, I see it still as it's come into our family unit. But I think naturally you're going to feel, I think, a level of responsibility a little bit more emotionally. Yeah. I mean, I would say the same is true um you know winston's grandfather was very generous and um he left some

things to the grandkids and when that happened i leaned more on winston of hey what do you think because it's his grandfather like right there's a natural take there like you both get a vote but yeah oh absolutely but i think there's yeah i don't know i feel that way yeah but you both have you both have equal say in it i mean it would be unfair to say well i'm gonna go do whatever i want with this money because it was on my side of the family that feels like that's not that's not a team aspect right that's not the perspective you want but that's the most interesting part of this question uh on top of the relational aspect of just getting on the same page about what we're going to do with this but i would not go blow it on some harebrained business idea.

No, no, no, no, no. Whenever you want to transition into a business like that, we always say the most ideal way to do that is have some footing that you can actually support yourself there so that it's not this big stressful thing, right? Because starting a new business, that's a blessing. Like that's such a gift. Even at Ramsey, if we launch something new, we don't just go launch it. We test it. We verify it. We get the team, the resources, and we do it with cash. And so that's very smart. All right. Amy is on the line in San Francisco. Amy, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I was hoping to get your advice. Basically, my question is, is my family doing okay financially, or should we be working harder and sacrificing more now to create a stable future? the show for two months and I'm just kind of like all in and my husband and I kind of disagree about like the intensity we need to be going at right now. Okay. So how much debt do you guys have?

We have 24,000 in my student loan and then our mortgage is 223,000. Okay. And how much do you guys make a year? $130,000. Okay. How old are you two? I'm 37. He's 40. Okay. And do you both want to pay off debt? Are you in agreement on the goal, or is just the process the part you're not agreeing on? Yeah, we're on agreement on the goal. It's sort of like, I think it really comes back to like our childhood. Like I was poor growing up. I think I kind of operate from sort of like scarcity mentality. It's never going to be enough kind of thing. And he doesn't have that.

He's pretty content with where we are. He thinks we're doing fine. And, you know, I'm thinking of getting a second job to pay off the debt faster. You know, I get really excited about if I make double mortgage payments for six years, I can have my house paid off and this will be great. So he wants to chip away at the debt and you want to take a sledgehammer to it. Yeah. Do you guys have any savings, Amy? I guess I'm getting really excited.

Yeah, we have $27,000 in checking and we have retirement accounts and $5,000 in the money market account. Okay. But if we knocked out the student loan today with the money in checking, you guys would be completely debt free and you'd be on your way to saving up an emergency fund? Yes. What would he say if you told him that? Hey, I want to use the money and checking. We'll then save up. We'll make $130K. We'll save up that emergency fund back up to $25K, and then we'll begin investing and attacking the mortgage. He'd be good with that. I just made $30,000 of payment to my student loan the last two months since I've been listening to the show. Good for you, Amy. We're attacking it pretty hard.

He kind of wants to do Baby Step 2 first or 3 first, I mean, and save up the fully funded emergency fund and kind of keep that there. And then make the student loan payments, keeping that full emergency fund in checking. So I, you know, either way he would be fine with what I think is best. Okay. Well, that's what I would do.

I mean, obviously, because you guys could be debt free by today, which is amazing. And you free up that payment. Yeah. Which is going to help you save up faster. But I, and I do think, Amy, it is so normal. And this is how we are in our marriage, that one of you naturally may kind of be more of a scarcity mentality. One of you is more abundance. My husband's more of the scarcity kind of like, okay, let's save, let's be more

conservative. I'm more like, ah, it's going to be fine. We'll be okay. We're fine. And I have more, more of that natural mindset. But I think, you know, you both can learn from each other. I just don't want you functioning out of a place of complete fear. And now where you came from makes a lot of sense. And actually, if you hold on the line, Christian, I'd love to give her my book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. Because I talk about the childhood classrooms and how much that dictates how you see and handle money today is how you grew up. But there's a healthy way you can view that. Take those lessons that are good lessons to learn that

I don't want to go back there, which is very valid. But how do you shape it in a sense that, okay, I don't have to feel like I'm broke all the time or that I'm running and I'm not getting anywhere? Because you want a level of safety that, you know, that money's a tool to create a life you love. And so that's what I want for you. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Rachel Cruz. If you want to check out some other shows that we produce, you can check out the George Camel YouTube channel, and of course, The Rachel Cruz Show on YouTube and podcasts. And it's all on the Ramsey Network app if you want to check that out as well. All right, let's go to Noel in El Paso, Texas. Noel, did I get that right?

You did. Okay, wonderful. How are you doing? Doing all right. Taking it one day at a time, best as I can. How can we help today? What's going on? So essentially, my question is, you know, I've been listening to your show for a few days. I've been binging on it quite a bit now, a couple of your other podcasts.

And, you know, I've been contemplating bankruptcy. It's been something that's in my mind over the course of the last couple months. Um, and I'm just trying to see if it's a better option to throw in the towel and do that or to continue attacking my debt aggressively, um, based on what I've learned so far on the show. Hmm. Sorry to hear that. Well, lay this out for us. How much do you make and how much debt do you have?

Okay. So, um, I make, I'm approximately, I got two sources of income. One is my job, which gives me roughly about $81,000 a year. And then the other one is disability compensation, which is about $56,000. So about $122,000, $130,000 a year. Okay. And then as far as debt is concerned, I have about $80,000 in debt. Three of them are personal loans. Well, two of them are personal loans. One's my vehicle and the rest is on credit

card debt. Okay. What are the amounts for all those? So the most expensive one is $38,000. That one has about a $616 payment per month um and it stretched out over 16 uh 15 years what which which that is that that one was a home improvement loan that i took out um back in 2022 i was in the middle of a remodel okay of my house all right so i took that money for a remodel okay and. And the second personal loan? The second personal loan was a debt consolidation loan. It's roughly about $29,000. And then the third one is the vehicle, my truck, which is about $26,000.

And then the credit card debt is roughly about $10,000 or $13,000. Okay. How much is the car worth, the truck? The truck is worth about $57,000. Okay. How much is the car worth, the truck? The truck is worth about $57,000. It's worth $57,000? Yes. Good. And you owe $26,000.

Correct. I like where this is going. Do you see where this is going? I do see where your recommendation is going to be. Explain to me why you need this truck when you're on the verge of bankruptcy. Because I'm in construction, and I need the truck to be able to get through the construction site. I just checked Google. They make $20,000 trucks. They do, but I work in heavy civil engineering construction, so I need something that can tow the amount of weight that I need to be able to tow.

And you're telling me there's no $25,000 truck that can tow that amount? Probably so, but it's probably going to be about 15 years old. I'm okay with that. You're on the verge of bankruptcy. You just told us. You got here because you were unwilling to have delayed gratification, sacrifices weren't made, and you made some poor financial decisions. And this is the one on the list that you can undo if you're willing to drive a 15-year-old truck for a season so that you can avoid bankruptcy.

Okay. What's the truck payment? It's $5833 a month so you would have an extra 600 bucks a month to go toward your debt correct yes i mean do you realize that if you're going to file bankruptcy they're going to liquidate and get as much as you know yeah possible anyway so i mean this this this could all be on your terms and it's going to be uncomfortable, and it's not going to look the way that you've been handling your money, but something has to change. Of course, your life is going to look different if you start making different decisions with money, and it's not going to be easy because a little bit of the easy route is the debt route. You can get what you want when you want it. And that's how a majority of people live. But you're finding that it's causing stress. You're calling us for a reason because you're not happy with where you are financially. So something does have to change. So your mindset around money, regardless of work and construction and weight,

I mean, all of that, like if you're in this desperation part, if you get to this place in your life, you're willing to do anything, like anything. And I don't know if you feel that or want to experience that. I've just been through a lot of suffering over the last year. It's not necessarily the whole truck thing.

Yeah, what's been going on? What caused me to make all these poor financial decisions, I suffered a traumatic event back in November 2022 when my son passed away. Sorry. And so that caused me to sell my house. And when I sold my house, it was in the middle of a remodel. Um, and I ended up being upside down about $18,000. So I had to pay $18,000 to sell a house. Um, and then I moved my daughter and I across the country to bring my

son to his birthplace to bury him. Um, and I had to start all over again. So that's what caused me to take out, you know, that consolidation loan for $27,000 or $29,000. And I had a paid-off truck. My truck was paid off. I had a 2,500 ram that was paid off, and I traded that in to get this vehicle because it was a 4x4 and it had more pulling power. I hear you.

I had to buy another house, but it wasn't a house. I bought a mobile home. That was another $121,000 there. So, you know, I spent a couple hours on the budget app yesterday that every dollar spent happened. For some reason, it's telling me that I have $2,600 worth of margin every month left over. That's with your minimum debt payments,

all of your expenses. That's what it should be. Yeah. I mean, I put everything in there, all the payments that I'm making and it still says I got $2,600. Don't get me wrong. I've paid off close to about $3,500 worth of credit cards, full credit cards in the last 30 days.

And, you know, just trying to do what the Ramsey Method is telling me to do. Yeah. You know, and I'm putting $40 away every week in savings to try to get to that $1,000 savings in my underwear drawer to keep it there for a rainy day. Well, outside of the truck, I added it up. I mean, if you sell the truck, you'll have $80,000 in consumer debt based on what you told us. Yes. And so you had said 80 at the top, but you got 80 plus the $26,000 truck loan. That puts you at six figures in debt. And

I'm trying to help you. What's that? That's including it. That's including it. The $26,000. What was the first loan you said? The home improvement loan? $38,000. Yeah. the 26,000 what was the first loan you said the home improvement loan 38,000 plus 29 plus 13 in credit cards 26 yeah

the coordinator of credit card is telling me I got 13 in credit cards and I'm telling you with a calculator it's coming up at 80 and that's without your car loan so i just want you to have a real picture of what your finances are at and that's why i'm so desperate to get you to get rid of this truck and downgrade to number one free you of 26 000 today before your truck goes underwater almost every call people are underwater on their truck so when you said this truck is worth 57 0, I was doing backflips because it gave me some hope

that you can get out of this faster than you think. And if you do that and then do the debt snowball, every extra dollar outside of food, utilities, shelter, transportation, insurance goes toward that $80,000 you have remaining. Smallest to largest balance. I think you can get out of this. You make great money. You're a smart guy who works hard. And know that, I mean, from that information that you just gave us about this last year, which is just the most horrific thing that I could ever imagine is losing a child. So I can't even imagine what that grief does. There's a fog that is there. And when you make financial decisions,

usually in that time, soon after something like that happens, they're sometimes not the best. So that's not to guilt or to shame you. That's to kind of free you to say, hey, yes, as you look back, like, wow, those may not have been the best decisions. I don't blame you for that

because of what you walk through. But I do want to make sure that there's a level of healing that you're getting from this and that the money is that secondary piece. But I do. I pray that for you. Well, I'm so sorry. And yeah, if you stay on the line, Taylor is going to pick up and we'll give you John Deloney's book and Total Money Makeover. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Cruz this hour. Got something new in the Ramsey store for you guys.

Dave Ramsey just came out with a brand new quick read book called Real Estate the Ramsey Way. Subtitle, How to Make Home Ownership a Blessing, Not a Burden. And this is a quick read book, so you can see on the camera. It's very small. It's about, I don't know, 60, 70 pages. Yeah, there we go, 62 pages. And it's a great read that includes Dave's decades of experience with real estate. He got started at 18 years old.

He's been in the game. He owns a lot of it. And he's helped a lot of people buy, sell, and invest the right way with proven strategies. And so he can help you avoid some costly mistakes and pitfalls. And from start to finish, you're going to get a clear plan to help you buy, sell, and invest in ways that will help you build wealth and leave a legacy. And he's going to give you some hope that home ownership is still possible for those renters out there and the home can become your biggest asset. It can be a blessing when done the right way. So get your copy at ramseysolutions.com slash store, gift it to

some people in your life who are maybe about to buy or sell or want to invest and enjoy. Enjoy the new book from Dave. Ryan joins us up next in Denver, Colorado. Ryan, how can we help today? Hey, how's it going? Thanks for taking my call. Sure. So my question today is, with interest rates and home prices so high right now, is it a bad idea for me to continue to rent, and am I making a long-term poor decision if I choose to continue to rent right now? Are you ready to buy financially?

Let's say regardless of the interest rate, as you look at what the payment would be? Yes, I am ready to buy financially, but it would cause me to violate one of these rules that I have developed, which has allowed me to save and live comfortably, which is live off of one income between me and my wife. We live of. The lesser of the two incomes, but unfortunately, because I live in Denver, Colorado, these house prices are just astronomical. It's ridiculous. So lay out your financial picture and we'll let Rachel be the judge here. What is your income and do you have any debt? My income is around $300,000 a year. Woo! Is that household income? I have... That's household income. Okay.

And I have zero debt. Amazing. And how much do you have saved for the down payment alone? So I'd be using a VA loan, which doesn't require down payment, but if we needed a down payment, it wouldn't be a problem

to do about 20%. So... Okay. Give or take. I mean, around maybe $20,000 to $50,000. Do you have a disability rating? I do have a disability rating. So would that waive the funding fee with the VA loan? I haven't looked into it.

I didn't have my disability rating whenever I bought my previous home, which has been sold, but I'd have to look into it. Because the VA loan, it can be a good deal if you get the funding fee waived. If not, I would go with a conventional 15-year fixed rate loan. Okay. Allowing people to get into a house with 0% equity is a really bad plan. Yeah. Yeah. And the 15 year loan, I mean, I would push our home payment up just so high. And right now our rent is, uh, is around 2100 a month. And then we're saving all of my income every month and putting it towards retirement and

investments. So I, so what is your takehome pay every month between the two incomes? I think it's right around, I'll be honest with you, I've never really sat down and calculated it just because we live off the one income, the other one's just savings. But I think it's right around like 20-something thousand dollars.

Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, I mean, Ryan, I think one of the goals for you guys though, would be to buy a home because you can't, you're renting forever. There ends up being, you know, that, that point where you end up, yeah, throwing your money away. And renting is something that we encourage people to do, especially if they're not financially ready to purchase a home. If they haven't purchased a home, but they have a lot of debt.

I mean, there's reasons to rent 100% of the time. But once you get to a place financially, there's a point that it's wise to then step into a home and to be able to say, yeah, we're building equity. This is a big part of our financial picture. And if you guys wanted to wait some and have more saved that it makes you feel more comfortable, that's totally fine. I mean, we have people on the show that save for five, seven years and buy a home in cash, you know, and that's great, too. I mean, as long as you have a plan that you're working towards, and I just wouldn't want completely the interest rate, which obviously does affect the payment. I just don't

want the housing market to be the thing that completely is the only compass you have when buying a home, because I want you guys and your finances to be the reason why you're purchasing a home. So a lot of people try to kind of play the real estate game and they're waiting. And the fear is too that when interest rates drop or if they do we're hoping they do that everyone who's been waiting to buy a house pent up demand yeah I mean it's they're gonna they're all gonna jump in and then prices are going to continue to rise so I mean honestly the best time to buy a house in my opinion right now if you're ready is now but I understand financially if you guys are like now um but i understand financially if

you guys are like hey we want less of a yeah less of a down we want more of a down payment less of a monthly payment and we're gonna we're gonna spend another 24 months to get there that's okay that's your goal that you guys are working towards but i just don't want the idea of the housing market driving that decision does that make make sense? Yeah, it does make sense. And, you know, to be honest, I'm just scared that if we have to go to using two incomes to afford the house, God forbid something ever happens with my job

or something like that, it would almost be unaffordable. Yeah, I mean, and that's, yeah, and that's a fair place to be for sure. And that's why we want you to have an emergency fund as well as you enter home ownership, because if something were to happen, you'll at least have money in the bank to be able to help cash flow that mortgage payment for a few months. And so that that is one thing that will help. And and yeah, and I think the reality of being out of work, unless it's

completely your decision, in my opinion, for for six months or for five months or something like that it's probably not going to happen you're probably going to find another job and have some source of income coming in you know um but yeah so i mean again it's a little bit of that risk but if you guys want to be patient and wait or maybe ryan you guys look and say we're gonna get something way smaller than what we were expecting. Or maybe it's a condo. It's, you know what I mean? That there's something else that you purchased that may not be exactly what you're thinking right now.

And again, I don't want to rush you guys into anything. Cause I don't think that there's a panic, but I do want you guys at some point to get into the game because I think it's just a great picture. I think it's a great part of your financial picture longterm. What price point are you guys looking at? You know, I'm honestly willing,

we're willing to buy a home or a condo or apartment that we don't see ourselves living in long-term, maybe the next foreseeable future. Yeah. But there's really nothing on the market around here that's not $500,000 or $600,000. $500,000 or $600,000, your monthly payment would be near $4,000 a month. But you guys are making, let's say you're after tax but before other deductions like investing,

you guys are probably making $22,000, right? Yeah, something around that. We recommend 25% of your take-home pay on that 15-year fixed. I've got the numbers right here. You buy a $600,000 house, 20% down, 15-year fixed with current interest rates. It's 4,600 bucks. You guys can afford that. That's under 25% of your take-home pay. So I wouldn't make this decision based on one income because the reality is you guys make $22,000 take-home pay, and that's okay. I know it sounds scary, but you guys make an amazing income compared to the average American.

Yeah, yeah, I guess it does. So while it's doubling your rent and that's scary, it's also still a small portion of your world, and I don't think you're going to be out of work that long. I mean, what do you do for a living? I'm an attorney. Okay. There's always going to be attorney work out there. We live in a very litigious society.

You know that. You make good money doing it. And so you don't have a super volatile job where you're going to be out on the street for a year or two where the industry shuts down. So I think we need to push away that fear and get into the real estate game when we're able. And I'm going to send you a copy of Dave's new book, Real Estate the Ramsey Way. Hopefully

it'll give you some confidence as you begin this journey. Facts are your friends, Ryan, and what George just laid out are the facts. Your fear is understandable, but it's not reality. So it's not happening, right? The job loss and all of that. So focus on the facts. There we go. That's great. You guys are The job loss and all of that. So focus on the facts. There we go. You guys are in an awesome position. Well done. You're doing it the right way, my man. All right.

That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to my co-host, Rachel Cruz, everyone in the booth keeping the show afloat, and you, America. Thank you for listening. We'll be back before you next time.