The Ramsey Show - App - I’m 27 and My Goal Is To Be a Decamillionaire (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Saving, Debt, Investing As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

I'm Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, joined today by Ramsey Personality, Dr. John Deloney, and we're here to take your calls. The number is 888-825-5225. We can talk about your life, your money, your relationships, holiday spending, how to get the best deal, how to fix broken relationships, and maybe get rid of some anxiety around the holidays, some of the baggage that's going on. I can't imagine, John, all of the people going to their families and not excited about it. You know what I hear?

Yeah, there's definitely that, especially when it comes to Christmas. I heard something this year that I haven't heard ever. I heard more people opt out. And when you ask them, hey, how was Thanksgiving? They were just overcome with joy. Like, I did nothing. I just had like our neighbors came over and we just ordered pizza.

It was amazing. Or we cooked and it was low-key. I've not heard that level. Usually it's like, oh, we had to drive and do this. It was fine. They're setting boundaries and making choices that are good for them. Yeah, it's fantastic.

Well, let's go to the phones this hour. Andrew joins us in Charlotte, North Carolina. Andrew, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, how you guys doing? Doing great. How can we help today? Okay, so I actually started Financial Peace University two days ago. Awesome. Way to go, man. Welcome to the gang, dude. Thanks. So I'm on Baby Step 2, and I'm a little hung up, so I have $33,000 in debt, uh, 23 of which are student loans and 10 is in a car. I just sold my car. Um, so just kind of trying to hit, hit this as aggressively as possible, but I do have $30,000 in savings, uh, just in a savings account. And I'm kind of wondering how much I should throw at that debt. And there's a caveat to that. I'm the only source of income for my house. I have two kids,

and my wife stays home with my young kids. So just trying to figure out how much of that I throw at that debt. Yeah. Well, you want the good news or the bad news? I'll take the bad news first. They're both the same. It was a trick question. If you go through Financial Peace University, you're going to learn very quickly the baby steps. And this is what's changed millions and millions of lives, including families like yours who have one income, who have kids. It's what changed my life, John Deloney's life. And here's how it works. In Baby Step 1, you save up $1,000, and clearly you have that.

You have $30,000. Here's where it gets interesting. Baby Step 2, we tell you to take everything but that $1,000 and throw it at the debt. And so for you, that means taking $29,000 of your $30,000 and throwing it at your $33,000 worth of debt. Now, where does that leave you it leaves you with four thousand dollars in debt and money back in your life to attack that remaining debt so hang on a second i i hear it in your voice man that puckers you up doesn't it

yeah you don't like you get a little nervous yeah it just um the the fact that, you know, what if I lost my job? Exactly. It should. That's the point. The point is it should. It should. You're in an emergency. Imagine if you lost your job and you got money in the bank,

but you owe $30-something thousand dollars. Right. Right? You're living a liability. It should freak you out get it done and then sprint to get this sucker paid off and to refill that emergency fund gotcha it should it should be a fire in your soul my kids aren't okay because i owe other people their money our money you hear what I'm saying? Okay. Yeah. And that $1,000, that's just temporary.

And right now, you're going to be debt-free within a few months. Am I wrong if you do it this way? No, that'd be right. And then what you're going to do is save up that three to six months of expenses really fast. And so we're talking maybe six months more after that to get to that point?

Right. And then if you're really puckered up, go deliver pizzas at night. Take four months and just work like crazy. Think of it as the safety of your family. By the way, what do you do for a living? I'm a sales manager. Are you planning on getting fired? No. Yeah, then get it done. Can you planning on getting fired? No.

Yeah, then get it done. Can you do this? Yeah, absolutely. I followed the question. Now, I am investing in my retirement because I have a match. Do you think I should stop that? Stop. Pay it off. Pay everything off. They're coming for you, man. They're coming for you and your family

until you get it paid off. And here's the thing, Andrew, when you stop taking that match, you're going to do that for a short amount of time. It's going to drive you crazy. And I want it to drive you crazy. But when you go slow, you can go fast. And when you have all of your income back in your life, you can invest way more than you're currently investing. And so the math is going to work out in your favor if you do the baby steps this way. Gotcha. Thanks for the call, man. Appreciate it. Melissa joins us in Canton, Ohio. Melissa, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you so much. Thank you,

George and John, for having me today on the air. We're glad to have you. How can we help? Well, my husband and I are in Baby Steps 6. Awesome. And thank you. We are super stoked about we bought our house for $170,000 and we still have about $86,000 left on the mortgage. We have a, I have $10,000 in a mutual fund in investment. And we're all of a sudden, like, starting to think about that money and think that maybe it would be smart for us to take it out and put it down right now on the house to try to lower the mortgage. But we've also considered leaving it in there and using it towards kind of the end of our mortgage to pay it off faster. Do you have any suggestions or kind of can help us with that? Because we just want to get our house paid off ASAP. I love it.

Well, I love your intensity around this. You have 86 left and you have 10. And this is just sitting, this is non-retirement, right? This is just like in a general brokerage account? Correct. We have about $50,000 in retirement and my husband's contributing 15%. Awesome. Well, you're doing everything the right way. And if I'm you guys, I'm cashing this mutual fund out and slapping it on the mortgage. And when you see that progress, you're going to get a little giddy up in your step, and you're going to be even closer to paying this house off. So that's my take, and I'll tell you that as a guy who is 32 years old,

and I'm 12 days away from paying off my house. What? 12 days, John. Hey, so I was about to say, Melissa. We're living parallel lives. I am pathological about paying my house off, too. I was about to challenge George to who can get it done faster. Don't challenge me.

I'm super not doing that. But hey, you said we've only paid off this much. You put this $10,000, you're basically halfway home. So flip it around and say, I'm 32 and I've already paid off half of my house. It's incredible. You guys are doing so great. Keep at it. Call us back when you're debt-free, mortgage and everything.

You guys are doing awesome. This is The Ramsey Show. You've got a lot on your plate, a job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your healthcare. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider. big news guys christmas is only 22 days away we know you're planning to do a lot of giving this year that's why our team has put everything on sale we've extended our biggest cyber monday deal

to last till the end of the week so you can get up to 79 off right now we have special deals for everyone on your list, which means it's the perfect day to get Christy Wright's 2022 Gold Planner, my friend Dr. John Deloney's Questions for Humans conversation cards, those are super fun, and Ken Coleman's career assessment, and they're all the lowest prices of the year. So hurry up, get gifts for your friends and family, maybe even yourself. You can shop our Cyber Monday sale at ramsaysolutions.com. And remember, we've got another fun giveaway happening, our Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway. This year, we're giving away $500 every single

week and a grand prize of $5,000. You can enter every single day to increase your chances of winning, and you can go do that at ramsaysolutions.com slash giveaway. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, host of The Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined today by Dr. John Deloney, host of The John Deloney Show. Both of your shows have different names. That's so cool.

Yeah, thank you. I tried really hard on that. You guys didn't try at all. No, I tried real hard. The Dr. John Deloney Show. I just didn't have the pull you have. I have so much creative pull here. Well, give us a call.

Let's talk about your life, your money. The number is 888-825-5225. And next up, we've got Brandon in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Brandon, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Awesome. How are you guys doing today? Doing great. How are you?

I'm fantastic. How can we help? It's an honor speaking to you guys. You too. So I got a question. I've got a goal to become a Deca millionaire. Um, and I just wanted to get your guys an insight on, um, maybe what I should do. Like I'm following the baby steps. I'm in baby steps four and six. Um, so when you're in baby step seven, you just continue to invest in your retirement and just use cash for everything?

Or do you maybe look into, like, run a real estate or single stocks? I just wanted to get you guys' input on that. Before you answer that, George, why a DecaMillionaire? Why'd you pick that number? It's just a goal of mine. I don't know. I'm an overachiever, I guess. I don't know. It's just a personal goal mine um i don't know i i just i'm an overachiever i guess i don't know it's just a personal goal how old are you 27 27 and you're out of debt do you have a mortgage

currently i do okay well man you're you're on track to do some big things i mean i think it's possible it's a cool goal uh i think what john's trying to get at is just kind of curious about the motive behind it is it like is it a number do you want to get an airplane do you want to have like some is it a lifestyle thing for you neat cars like what yeah what is it um i think it it's sort of i guess like yeah it's a lifestyle thing maybe um also i just want to like be able to care for like my family like um just have enough money to i mean one to five million is is great i know dave says um the baby steps is the quickest way to get to one to five million and that's awesome um i just i want to you know i've got like a dream car, a dream house. I want to have another house down south.

And so I guess it's just a lifestyle thing. Sure. Well, at 26, Dave tells the story, but he was bankrupt, had zero, less than, right? And now he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So the answer to your question is yes, you can do that following the principles. And how do you do it? That's a different question. And it sounds like you're already investing 15% of your income. How much do you make right now?

80 grand a year. Okay. And I'm pretty much at the top of my industry. So I wasn't sure if I had to like maybe switch careers or I'm working with an investment pro. What do you do for work? I drive a semi-truck locally. And you can't make more than $80,000 in that industry? It's pretty much at the top. I mean, I work quite a bit of hours, like 10 to 12-hour days. Can you see yourself doing this for 40 years? That's the thing is I don't dislike it, but it's not like my passion. But running the numbers, like I should have $3 million to $5 million in my retirement accounts by the time I retire and a pension.

And so that's not bad, but I would like to get to $3 million. That's incredible. That's not bad. God almighty. We'll go slumming with $5 million in the bank. Come on, man. There's a few things you can do here. Obviously, you've run the numbers to see if I just invest 15% for a long period of time, multiple decades, I can get up to $5 million.

Now, there's other things you can do that we would say are wise things. Dave loves real estate. And so if you want to do some real estate investing, once you have a paid-for house, you can save up with cash and do that. Do not take out more debt at that point, but that can help you build a portfolio, build that wealth to where you might have $10 million in assets. Now, can you get $10 million in cash in your retirement account? Sure. You might need to have a great income, max out your 401k for the next 30 years, which you could easily do. And that could give you 10 million depending on the rate of return. So what I love to do, John, is I like to go to

ramsaysolutions.com and I go to the investing calculator and it's fun to just play around with the numbers. And you go, all right, if I invest $1,000 a month for 30 years with a rate of 10%, where does that get me? Oh, cool. That's 7 million. Okay. What if it's 11%? Oh, that's now 8 million or 9 million. What if it's not a great time and it's 7%? Okay, well, it still gives me 4 million. And so you start to play around with those numbers and you kind of get excited and it makes you feel like you're on track. And so I think you aim at that. And I think if you hit 9 million, you call it good. And Brandon, let me, can I just be honest with you? Just love with just two dudes, not even on the radio in front of millions of people, just two guys hanging out? Yeah, absolutely.

If you work for 40 years in a job you don't like and you have $3 million in your account, it won't be worth it. You've got an opportunity right now at 27 to do something that you love. What do you want to do? What would you love to do? Well, I looked into doing, being a financial master coach training.

So I thought maybe I could do that and build a client base. I already help people for free just because I love talking about money. Do it both. Do both. Or real estate. Do both.

Do both, my man. Because then you can do your trucking and you can do your driving you've got a steady income and you've got a great opportunity to build a side hustle and man some of our coaching clients do incredibly well for themselves and you begin to lean into what i was put on this planet to do i want you to hang on the line brother um and we're going to send you a copy of our friend ken coleman brand-new best-selling book, From Paycheck to Purpose, about stepping back. Dude, you're making $80,000 in 27.

You're killing it. You're doing great. But what I'm telling you is 40 years from now, at the end, man, if you've worked for a paycheck, man, it's great to take care of your family. I don't want to poop on $3 million, for real. But, man, right now, you are somebody who is thinking ahead. You're somebody who's intentional, and I want you to think about, man, if I could really lean into what I want to do.

Do I want to run my own trucking company? Do I want to run my own coaching practice? Like what do I want to do, man? And we're going to give you that book, and it's got the steps to walk you through that. Is that cool? Awesome. I appreciate it so much. I love your podcast, by the way.

I listen to that podcast while I'm driving way better than George's right that hurts I'm just kidding you guys both I love both your both your time I mess with you thanks Brandon hey I want you to keep those great goals keep them out there but I never want you to forget why you're chasing down that money okay all right very cool I love it and on top that, on top of sending you From Paycheck to Purpose, Ken Coleman's new book, we're going to get you plugged into his Get Clear Assessment. And this is really going to help you dial in what was I put on this planet to do? Because that's a big question. It can get a little existential.

And Ken's assessment does such a great job to just put it on paper. You get to read a sentence that can really start to point you in a direction. Because you're in the trucking industry, that's a tough industry. And it's tiring. It's exhausting. You're away from your family sometimes. Obviously, you're doing it locally now, which is great. But I want you to really dig in because I think whatever you put your mind to, you're going to be great at it. You have an awesome work ethic. You're thinking ahead. And like John said, we want you to be doing something for the right reasons, something that gives you purpose, that gives you a little pep in your step in the

morning, and that you'll get there, man. And whether it's $3, $5, $10 million, we just want you to look back and say, man, that was a great life I lived. And I want people listening to hear, this isn't about the dollar amount. I talked to a guy the other day that makes $48,000, and he looked at me and said, dude, I'm in my dream job. Dude, I was high-fiving him. It was awesome. It's less about the money and more about, man, what is going to fill me up and allow me to accomplish my financial goals too. You can fill your tank and your bank account at the same time if you do it right.

I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined today by my co-host, Dr. John Deloney. And on the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Chris and Kara join us. How are you guys? Doing well. We're great. Little Birdie told me you're debt-free.

We are. Congratulations. Thank you. Where are you guys from? Well, we live in McKinney, Texas, which is about- North Dallas. Yeah. Yeah.

About 30 minutes north of Dallas. Don't get them started on Texas. Yes. We love Texas. I know. I can see your hats and your barbecue. I'm just kidding. That's good. But actually, I'm from Franklin.

I grew up here. Oh, nice. Well, welcome back home as well. So how much debt have you guys paid off? $46,500. Wow. Awesome. How long did that take?

It took about 18 months. We did it in 18 months. Wow. Very well done. And what was the range of long did that take? It took about 18 months. We did it in 18 months. Yep. Wow. Very well done. And what was the range of income during that time? It started out at $80,000 and then up to $135,000. Heck yeah.

Great income. Wow. What happened? Oh, that's a good story. You want to tell it? Well, we started out probably 10 years ago with more like $80,000 in debt, honestly. And it's all for medical bills, unfortunately. But when we were really able to start shoveling and making some major progress,

Chris got a really great job that he loved in events. And then he lost his job. Yeah, it was just right after COVID hit. So, of course, it was the first thing to go. What a time to get your dream job, yeah. And we were finally making some progress. So, of course, it was the first thing to go. What a time to get your dream job, yeah. And we were finally making some progress, so that was kind of killer. But then, you're going to let me continue.

We kind of fell into a side hustle that ended up exploding. I was going to say, you went from 80 to 135. Yes. What happened? The majority of it we did while he was unemployed. What? What was the side hustle?

We started flipping furniture. Oh, my goodness. That's incredible. It's kind of funny. It's one of those things I think was like a God talent that he just gave us that we didn't know about. It was probably three days after I lost my job. We were kind of sitting there and just going, what are we going to do? We literally just sat there and prayed about it and said, okay, Lord, you know,

we put this in your hands and we know that you're going to lead us and guide us. And he actually came through, I mean, just a week later. I mean, it's one of those things where Kara was like, I tell you what, I've always wanted our bedroom furniture changed because it's so outdated. I mean, it's what, 18 years old and it was a cherry. So it's really out of style. So she's like, Hey, why don't you, since you're not doing anything, why don't you go ahead and paint this this weekend? And I was like, Chris, I was like, I don't know how to do this. So, uh, we watched a couple of videos and you know what? I just went to town and over the weekend and, uh, we redid our furniture and she just happened to put it on Facebook and it was just

like, um, look what we did over the weekend. And everybody just started going, oh my gosh, we do ours, which I was like, I don't want to, I don't want to mess up your furniture. Wow. So it turned into an incredible job. It did. Yeah. What was the most you guys made from like one flip or one project?

Maybe about $800 off a dresser. Good. Off a dresser. Yeah. Wow. There it is. That's incredible. Is this your gig now?

Well, I was able to step back from my job entirely. He ended up getting a new job at the beginning of what? December, a year ago. A year ago. Next week. So I work for Makita. Okay. Yeah, right now.

So I'm in sales. Congratulations. Thank you. Awesome. Very cool. And you're just flipping furniture? Yes. And I work for Makita. Okay. Yeah, right now. So I'm in sales. Congratulations. Thank you. Very cool. And you're just flipping furniture? Yes. And I stepped back from my job.

I used to be a billing consultant for insurance companies and things like that. So the furniture was doing so well that I was able to step back and run the furniture business instead. You mean you'd rather just run the furniture business

and talk to insurance billing all day? No way. Shocker. No way. So what kind of debt was this? Oh, it was medical. No way. Shocker. No way. So what kind of debt was this? It was medical. It was all medical. All medical.

Wow. What happened? When our son was three and a half, he was diagnosed with autism. Oh, okay. Yeah. And so the treatments that were helping him were not covered by our insurance. Oh, wow. So we continued to take out credit cards to get him better.

Just continue to serve and serve and serve. Yeah, yeah. And at the time, we were really living paycheck to paycheck. And it was always like we had taken – the awesome thing about the story is right before he was diagnosed, we had taken Financial Peace University. So we knew we were there. We were ready, and we didn't have any debt previously we were already ready to tackle baby step number three yep and then that happened and so getting through it we knew what we had to do when we got to like a point where we could stop

you know so what was this point because this is a while back but 18 months ago something changed what happened that got you on this journey? Oh, I mean, since we just knew that we had to do something. It was mainly just me losing my job. I was just like, oh, my gosh, we've got to just cut back, and we've got to get back to the Dave Ramsey and start doing the budgeting. I mean, at that point, it's just a matter of we've really got to budget everything. So that kind of spooked you, and you said, never again.

We're getting rid of this debt. Right, never again. And then going through the unemployment was really like you realize the importance of having that three to six month emergency fund because you just that feeling of how are we going to put food on the table is real you know at that point in our life it was just so real so um yeah once once he got back on his feet and the furniture thing took off, we were like, we're going. Game on. Game on. Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah. We just started baby step number four, so we're very excited. Oh, congratulations. How does it feel to breathe with a fully funded emergency fund? Oh, my goodness. It feels great. Oh, it's so incredible. It is so incredible.

And I don't mean to be dismissive here, but if you lose your job this weekend, it's going to be annoying. It'll be annoying. Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly. It'll be frustrating. You'll get angry. Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly. It'll be frustrating. You'll get angry.

It won't be catastrophic. Right. Right. Wow. That's financial peace. What an incredible transition. Exactly. And the neat thing is that we are like, I call ourselves like the king and queen of

side hustles. We are always looking for a side hustle, even when we lived paycheck to paycheck. It was like whatever we could do on the side to start chipping away at this. And then through furniture flipping, we were asked if we ever thought about doing a YouTube channel. And so we started a YouTube channel about six months ago. We got monetized really quick. Awesome. Yeah.

So now we make money in our sleep off of people watching us flip furniture online. That's so great. This story has come full circle. It's really neat. America, right? Yes. Way to go. That's awesome. That's right great. This story has come full circle. It's really neat. America, right? Yes, that's right. So what do you tell people, a couple like yourselves, they've got the kids, they're sitting with this debt,

they feel the anxiety. What do you tell them the key to getting out of debt is? I would say don't give up. I mean, I know there's a wide range of people that are listening to this, but no matter where you are, if you're in Baby Step 1 or 2, I know it's hard and I'm sure, you know, a lot of us are just used to spending, you know, a certain amount of money. And then all of a sudden you're in this position where you're like, I've got to just budget every single thing and it's going to be hard, you know? And, but I would just say, you know, it's easy to quit, but don't do it. Um, it's

worth it. Uh, if you haven't gone through financial university, definitely do it. It's a small investment, but it's something that's really going to change your life. Like you said earlier, it's just one of those things where the whole weight is just lifted off. Each time you make a milestone, whether it's cutting up a credit card or whatever, getting to the next baby step

is just so rewarding. Don't give up. It's worth it. It's incredible. And you've got the kids with you today. Bring them up here. What are their names and ages? This is Dominic. He's 13.

Hey, Dominic. And this is Scarlett. And she's almost 10 next week. Wow. And they got to watch their parents sacrifice and claw. Get out of this debt. Change their family tree. Change their legacy. Yes.

I love it. Well, we've got a copy of Dave Ramsey's brand new book. It's not even out yet. You get the advanced copy, Baby Steps Millionaires. That's definitely your next chapter as you change your family tree. And we also have a copy of the Total Money Makeover that you can give to someone who says, how the heck did you do this? You can say, furniture flipping and Dave Ramsey.

That's right. I love it. All right. You guys ready? You've been practicing? We're ready. Let's do this thing. All right.

Ready? It's Chris and Kara and Dominic and Scarlett from McKinney, Texas. $46,500 paid off in 18 months, making 80 up to 135, flipping furniture, doing the YouTube channel. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo!

That is where it's at. Awesome. I could do that all day long. Awesome. What an incredible couple. When in doubt, just side hustle it out. There you go. They were resilient.

Nothing was going to stop them. This was an incredible clip until you started rapping. Sorry, you're right. Usually you're the one rapping. And I'm great. Chris and Kara just had a great story, and you tried to rhyme it up here at the end. I'm sorry, John. You're right.

That was a downer. That's all right. Well, they really are an incredible family. It's amazing. And would you say, when in doubt? Side hustle it out. Side hustle it out. No one's ever going to tweet that.

They shouldn't. But that's Chris and Kara's story. Hey, we're proud of you guys. You're an amazing couple. What a great family. Thank you all for inspiring all of us. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. you're listening to the Ramsey show I'm'm George Campbell, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast on The Ramsey Network. Joined today by Dr. John Deloney.

And, John, you've got a new thingy out that has been going bananas. A thingy. It's a deck of cards called Questions for Humans. And here's the thing. Over Thanksgiving, my wife was like, hey, make sure you grab a pack on your way out. That's all I want to do this Thanksgiving. I don't know what did you pay her for that i did not but they started these cars started with um folks writing in or calling in saying all right deloney i turned all the screens off i'm trying to be connected to my family whatever the heck that means and now me

and my daughters are just staring at each other in the living room what do we do now and i realized man many of us for years have been so disconnected from our families that we don't even know how to start that first conversation it sounds so trivial we've forgotten how to connect yes or we go to dinner with our boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse and if we're not talking about politics not talking about covid and we're not talking about our kids we don't got nothing else to talk about or with grandparents you're like god please don't mention that and with the little ones so we created a pack for families like and thinking about young kids and and grandparents and parents something to do in the car on the way home from school that's not just how was your day fine that's not a good

enough answer it's fine um one for friends just out at a bar, grab a drink or grab a coffee. And then we got one for couples. So let's do one real quick. You ready? Okay. We're doing it live. All right. Doing it live. This is a true random selection. I'm going to choose a card from the deck. This is very dangerous. Oh, this is a fun one. What's the most overrated holiday? Oh man. Don't hurt anyone's feelings, John. Yeah. You can't say that. I'm about to get us canceled i know what do you think it is uh you know i'm gonna go valentine's day you hate love huh no i just hate the the anxiety of like we got to get the reservations it's got to be on this day you've got to do it this way and so we just decided you know what just getting a pizza and writing a card

celebrating each other is enough for us. But the marketing around it. So I'll just go back to my original question. Why do you hate love, George? Oh, my gosh. Listen, it's your turn to answer, John. What's the most overrated holiday? It's got to be like a major holiday. You can't choose some rando.

Yeah, probably Halloween. Really? Yeah. Hold on. The guy who's addicted to sugar thinks Halloween's overrated. It's because of that. It's because it's like Diabetes Appreciation Day. It's a terrible holiday where we all just take one night

and we're like, how about we all just die a year earlier by shoving... John's officially renamed it. Can we do one more? Sure, absolutely. Okay. Yeah, we can do one more. Before James takes us off the air here. All right, I'll grab one randomly here.

Ooh, this is a tough one. Who in the room is most likely to become famous? Why? Is neither of us? Neither of us. Yes. I wish Ken Coleman was here. Because he would have said himself.

He would have said Ken Coleman. He would have said absolutely Ken Coleman. He's got the best shot. I think you have a better shot, John, because you are a, you know, you're a tall, handsome guy. Okay, yeah, continue. You have musical abilities. Continue. You've got two phds keep going now i'm done that's all you're getting from me yeah i was gonna say you but i think that wouldn't be true i think i'm most likely to be famous i tried i had a youtube channel at 14 it didn't pan out didn't pan out but here i am i actually think james child is because

yeah he's the only constant around here. He's going to be here forever. That's right. Well, hey, these cars are really fun. I want to encourage people to grab a pack for the holidays as they make the road trips. They're traveling. They're with their families. You can go to RamseySolutions.com, and you can even get the bundle, and you'll save a few bucks by getting all three, and they really are a lot of fun.

It sparks some cool conversation. They have sold like... We way underestimated. Way underestimated the demand. How much they're helping people re-engage with their families. It's great. I'm one of those people who's addicted to their screens. I'm one of those millennials. I've got devices

all over. And I realized, oh my gosh, 20 minutes went by and I didn't look at a phone. And I actually feel pretty good right now. And your body said, oh, thanks, George. It's incredible. Then you fixed it by looking at your watch and your phone and your screen. Yeah, my bad. There you go. Well, let's take some calls here.

The number is 888-825-5225. Lindsay joins us in Columbia, South Carolina. Lindsay, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you so much. Thanks for taking my call. I enjoy all your podcasts. Oh, thank you so much. How can we help today?

Well, I have a quick two-part question. My husband and I, well, my husband actually has a really nice 2021 Dodge Ram 2500 series with a Cummins engine. Wow. But we don't pull anything. We don't need that workhorse. We sold the camper, selling everything and getting out of debt. We are completely debt-free except our house. Way to go. And so we're wondering if we should sell that to put on that money on our house and get something. So the truck's paid for?

The truck is paid for. Okay, that's good news. What's left on the mortgage? He had a little windfall on some stocks, and he paid cash for it. The mortgage is $145. How much is this truck worth? He just got offered $52 from a dealership, so maybe a little more. What did you guys pay for the truck?

We paid, what did we pay for the truck? $50. Wow. So you can make money on this thing and get out of it. Okay, so, hey, the only reason you're calling us, Lindsay, is because one of you wants to keep it and one of you wants to sell it. No, surprisingly, I think you should keep it. I said, you love it.

It's paid for. We'll get out of the mortgage debt anyway. Just keep it. But he says, no, we can get there faster. What's your income? Household income? About $380. $380?

A year? Yes, sir. Hold on. Well, this changes some things for me, John. Because if you love the truck, keep the truck and pay off the house in a year. Yeah, pay off your house in six months. But more than that, Lindsay, do you realize what kind of husband you have? 99% of these calls are wives saying, my husband loves his truck more than me. I know.

We're just both in a hurry to finalize our last. I mean, we owed well over $200,000 in student loans just two years ago. Wow. Being crushed. Yeah. How old are you two? I am 59, and he is 70. And what do you do to make $300,000 a year?

I'm a nurse anesthesiologist. Wow. Well done. With my own business. Very cool. Thanks. Well, I mean, you guys are at a point where it sounds like the goal of paying off the house is more important than having a sweet truck right now.

So is that what we ask ourselves? Is that more important? I'm looking at the priorities and saying, hey, could we buy this truck again a year from now? Absolutely. Let's say it this way. It's right now because you don't have a camper. So let's take the money off the table. You make a jillion dollars. You've got no debt and you're paying off your mortgage. And you only have $170 left on your house? $145.

$145, because you're right there at the end. And we're thinking about selling that the next year. He can smell blood. Your husband can smell blood. If he sells this thing for $50, then he's going to be under six figures on that house payment. He can just feel it. So, really, the question is, do you want a $50,000 toy? And you've got the money to have a $50,000 toy.

You got a husband saying, honey, I want to sell my $50,000 toy and buy a $20,000 toy. And I think you should let him do it. But I also think it's a values decision for you guys. Well, then the other question is we don't have a huge retirement plan. We've got about half a million, $600,000 in there now, but of course I have more years to work, and we have about $20,000 in just a brokerage account because we're maxing out my retirement. Should we take that $20,000 out of the brokerage

and throw that on the house as well? I would. Or just leave it there. Because you can stock that back up real fast and be investing once that house is paid off. You free up that mortgage payment. Now you've got a lot of ammo as you start to save for retirement as you head into hopefully not working forever.

How much is this house worth? $600. Woo! So when you say, not much, you're a millionaire, right? Well, yes. Yes, you're a millionaire. That was a rhetorical question from John. The only answer is yes.

Congratulations. So if I'm in your shoes, I'm going to cash out the brokerage account, take that 20K, throw it on the mortgage, sell this truck, get something reasonable right now. Because guess what? A year from now, you're not going to have a mortgage anymore and you can buy a sweet truck. The mortgage just went down to $75,000 then. There you go. Doesn't that feel good? Make it happen. Congratulations. Call us back when you do your debt-free scream, and we're going to be cheering for you. I'm pumped about this.

I mean, I know you love a good truck, John, but— Not that much. Not that much. No. I'd rather have a paid-for house and be millionaires. All day, every day. That's what it's all about. Good hour, John.

Fun times. Thank you so much for being a great co-pilot here. Thanks so much to James Childs, our producer, Ben Hill, our operating board engineer, Austin Selby, our phone screener, and you, America. We'll be back with you before you know it. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show,

make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.