The Ramsey Show - App - I’m Drowning and Need Help (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

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 this hour by my good friend, some say best friend, Dr. John Deloney. And we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. You jump in, and we'll talk about your life, your money, your relationships, right in front of you for the good of the group. Because we all want to grow, we all need some hope, we all need to cheer each other on, and that's what we do here on The Ramsey Show. All right. Paymon is going to join us up first

in Vancouver. What is going on, Paymon? Hi. Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I'm drowning, and I really need help of you guys. I can explain and start with my debt or wherever you want me to start. You tell us. You said you're drowning. That's pretty aggressive. Let's start there. What do you mean by that? Me and my wife, we're making around $300K growth every year.

We live in Canada, Vancouver. My monthly fixed cost, I can line it up for you. My mortgage payment is $7,200. Property tax, $420. Leasing instruments, saxophone, $50. Gym costs 150. Groceries, 2,000.

Utility, I paid 350. Car loans, I paid 1,000 bucks. Water, city costs 250. And insurance for my house and the two cars about $530. So right about like 12K of my cost. And what's your take-home pay every month? Right now my take-home is about $8,500. Why is it so?

Oh, okay. I thought it was combined. I got scared. No, no. My wife's take-home was 4k before she leave for maternity leave we have a 10 month old baby she's not willing to go back before a year and a half so right now she's making 1600 bucks gross uh from insurance employment and i'm'm making $2,000 on the rental property that I, like, I have a mortgage helper in my house, a two-bedroom that I'm renting out.

Okay, what are you making from the rental? $2,000. $2,000. So that's extra on top of your $8,500. So currently, as it stands, if your wife continues down this road, hey, I'm not going to go back to work full-time right now. I'm making $1,600. You guys are spending more than you make, correct? That's correct, yes. I can see why you're drowning, my friend. Okay, let's try to develop a game plan here. Number one, your mortgage is the glaring problem here. So here's the story.

Two years ago, I bought this house, $1.4 million. Then the payment was around $5,400. $5,400, I was okay. So I was a variable. Now I'm paying $7,200. You have to sell your house, Benjamin. You have to sell your house, Pamela. You have to sell your house. It's too much.

In October, I can reduce it back with the fixed cost. I mean, fixed rate of 4%. I can bring it down to maybe $5,800, $5,900. That's still half of your income. You have to sell your house. That's still over half your income, so it's not going to solve the problem. Our parameter for housing is 25% of take-home pay, and right now you're at 60%, and you're saying, You have to sell your house. it's still a lot of mortgage for where you're at. And obviously the car loans are the other glaring problem. Now, if you sold these cars, could you get out of this thing or are you underwater on them?

The explanation for my car is stupid. I'm still calling it a stupid choice, but I found this rebate from the government. I'm an on-road salesperson, so the only thing I can write off is my car expenses and the home office expenses last year I found this

rebate from the government that I I bought this car for $75,000 and I wrote off $63,000 of it so my return on tax was $30,000 which I have $10,000 and on tax was $30,000, which I have 10 and I already spend 20.

No one built wealth through tax savings. The problem is you're throwing away a thousand bucks right now, plus interest on all of this while you're drowning. So I think at every turn, we were like, hey, this is going to be the life hack. We're going to rent out this room. The government's going to give me a tax break and we're going to get out of this thing. And then life happened. You had a baby, which is a wonderful thing. And your wife said, I don't want to go back to work right now. And it's putting you guys in a bind. I'm assuming you guys aren't on the best of terms, because you want her to go back to work because you feel the pain of the finances. And she's

going, I want to be with this baby, right? I'm okay with her staying out of work, but I don't want her to go back to the regular job that she has. I really want her to open the smallest business that she can. We need a corporate company that I can write off some of expenses. I think that's the way I like to go. Where are you getting this idea that you're going to write off your way into building wealth and getting out of this debt? I don't think write-offs have to sell your million dollar house and your 75 000 your car you can't afford them man

right now in vancouver i'm i'm buying this house is a burnt house and it's 20 years old dude i know it's chaos it is expensive. I cannot defend or explain what the heck is happening in Canada. Don't worry. If I sell this house today and I go, I don't know, if I, for example, I found a rent somewhere, the two bedroom, the smallest apartment goes for 4k, 4,500. Guess what? 4k is actually a reasonable amount for you to pay. And you might have to do that. And you're not throwing away money on rent. That's you building back a foundation because right now you told us you're drowning.

And the reason is not because of a write-off or whatever. The reason is because 60% of your take-home pay is going toward the mortgage. Using your words, brother, you're in the ocean floating, and you used to be on a really nice boat and somebody just just somebody just rode up next to you in a canoe and you're like yeah i'm not getting into that that's not really how we roll and they they they they paddled away and then a small fisherman came by in a small little john boat and you're like yeah that's that boat's gross i'm not getting into that boat and the whole time brother you're still bobbing in the ocean. My calculation could be off, but $7,200 that I'm paying right now, I can break it down to $6,000 if I go fixed rate right now.

And then I'm making $2,000 on the rent, and that's going to put me on the $4,000 same spot again. Do you remember 24 months ago when Canada shut down? Shut down? The whole country stopped spinning? And people who were renting decided to not pay? And they didn't have to? Do you remember that?

It was just a minute ago. Your life is teetering on this one tenant. And if they leave and you can't find another or they don't pay, this whole plan falls apart. We need a sustainable plan that doesn't involve the side rental business. So either you need to get your core income up or we need to sell, downsize, rent for a while, get rid of the debt and restart. But no more tax write-offs, no more justifying, no more the government's going to do this. We've got to figure out a plan that works for the future of your family. And I wish you the best. And I know Canada, the numbers, John, are astounding in Canada.

I know, it's madness. The housing's madness. I can't fix that. But you've got to make a choice. And you've got to choose reality. And the reality is, this is unsustainable. Thanks for the call, Pamon. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Maloney.

As you guys know, this is a call-in show. You call 888-825-5225 while we're on air. If you're lucky, you get patched through to Dr. John. If you're unlucky, you get Ken. I'm kidding. But here's how this works. Occasionally, we'll get voicemails when we're off air, and we thought it would be fun to actually play one of those voicemails. Sometimes we get to schedule these calls, John,

and sometimes, like today, we're going to do a new segment called Sorry We Missed Your Call. So explain how this works, John. What are we going to do a new segment called sorry we missed your call so explain how this works john what are we going to do next um well like when you call me i just don't answer and then i see you in person like oh sorry i missed your call uh this isn't that case that we get we get we get cards and letters and countless thousands and thousands of direct messages and emails and we get phone calls calling into the Ramsey show and they leave messages on the machine.

So we're going to play one of those messages here and then we're going to answer it. All right, let's get into this. Sorry, we missed your call. Hello. I'm a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. I've got a net worth of roughly $8 to $9 million. And my wife is totally frustrated with me

that I only have one pair of shoes I wear them everywhere I wear them with suits I wear them to go on the boat I wear them everywhere and I won't spend any money she's like you make a hundred thousand a month she thinks I'm crazy but i'm paranoid i just don't want to spend any money i'm always thinking about future and i think that's how i got to where i am because i've been this way for 30 years have a good day what an amazing call that's one of my favorites uh my favorite line is she thinks i'm crazy i'm paranoid which is yep all right i also love the dr seuss vibe he had he's like i have one pair of shoes i wear them with suits i wear them with boots i wear them on boats i wear them i wear them with toots all right so here's the deal um when it comes to wearing one pair of shoes everywhere i'd like to

call you uh my hero i'm down to two pair i'm one that i comes to wearing one pair of shoes everywhere, I'd like to call you my hero. I'm down to two pair. I have one that I run in and one that I wear everywhere. And you're a hero of mine. I switch pairs midday. I have my evening shoes. Oh, my gosh. He does.

I get home in my house slippers. I get special creams for his shoes. It's just the whole thing. But this feels kind of disgusting. You told me earlier today the name of your shoes. Yeah, you don't know the model? You get like a make and model. Because a fan out there said,

John, love the dunks. And John had no idea what this man was saying. I said, John, those are Nike dunks. That's the model. It's fine. John is a man of simple taste. This is why you struggle with friendship. So, hey's i love this

here's the um challenge you are living a um out of a heart and headspace of scarcity and so there's this illusion that it's all coming down past the point where it's rational and so when we talk about emotional um health do we continue to feel things that are no longer real and the data is proves it out in front of us yet we continue our body continues to sound the alarms as though these things are coming at us right away right um put in a in a quick high yield savings account um at five percent what's what's eight million dollars oh what it would grow yeah a year okay um so like just sticking eight million dollars just just that's 400 grand a year which is 400 grand a year that's not bad right which puts you in the top one percent of earners he said he's making a hundred

thousand a month so he's making 1.2 million dollars a year yes and he's not spending any of it yes and so when he says i don't want to great don't buy anything you don't want to buy. If you don't spend money because you are waiting for this next shoe to drop, if you grew up very poor or you grew up where money was a stressor and your body sounds alarms around money, and so you have created an imaginary future that you're trying to hedge against, then you're not well. And George and I have taken this call a lot. We recommend people, A, get not reckless, but close. Get really over the top about generosity. Give. Tip 100% at the Waffle House or with your waitress. You can see she's stressed and restaurants have cut their waitstaff all the way down. There's one person running 20 tables. Double the bill for her and leave her a note that says, we saw you and we appreciate you. Be very generous. Go to a local college and say, if you'll cover the rest of this bill,

I'll cover that back half. Get super, super generous. Fund a nonprofit for a year just for fun. Just for fun. And then the other thing is, this is going to be opposite of 99% of people in the world, budget forced spending. You will go buy a nice thing. You will go out to eat. You will buy a new pair of shoes for X, Y, and Zs. I'm going to practice letting this scarcity mindset

that's built into my nervous system, I'm going to practice letting this thing go. I can buy another pair of shoes and I'm going this scarcity mindset that's built into my nervous system. I'm going to practice letting this thing go. I can buy another pair of shoes and I'm going to be okay. I can buy underwear that were purchased this century. I'm going to feel it. And then I'm going to get to the next month and be like, all right, we didn't all fall apart. Right. And if you're making 400 grand on basic interest, right, we're going to be okay.

Yeah, there's definitely a flat tire here where he's great at saving and investing. I applaud him. But he's saying, well, that's how I got to where I am. Now, you got to where you are because you're really talented at something and you worked really hard at it and you had a good savings muscle. But if you want to get to the next 30 years of a great marriage, this ain't it. Yeah, now we're going for a great life. And you've got someone else in your life. So it's not just you. If if it's just you go live in a cave do what you want there's another person in your life and this is not the way this is not the picture they had for man when we have eight million dollars one year we're not going to spend any of it because it's all coming down right so i don't know what uh what our friend needs here it might be some some therapy some you know third party professional help it might be to go budget for

some spending it might be to go budget for some spending. It might be to go give. I think it's all of it. Yes. But the savings muscle, we got that. Let's start to work on another muscle because those are atrophying. And this was going to be practicing the living muscle, practicing the giving muscle. And by the way, if you're listening to this and rolling your eyes, don't. Everybody's fighting a war every day and none of us know what's going on in other people's lives. And so let's cheer this guy on. His generosity may just make its way into your life someday or his appreciation for your craft or whatever you're working on. He might be the new benefactor, right? But everybody's working through something. This guy just needs to practice

saying, I wasn't okay then, I am safe and okay now. And it's cool. Let's practice it and let's get it on, man. You got $8 million. You worked really hard. Let's go have some fun in your life and let's give like crazy. Love it. All right, let's get to the phones. Caleb joins us in Charlotte, North Carolina. What's going on, Caleb? Hey guys, can you hear me okay? Yep. All right. I'm 23 years old. I just finished paying off all my student loans. I was on my debt about a month ago. And so my baby steps three, I've almost finished sitting at my six day month of expenses. And I'm going to start maxing out a Roth IRA this upcoming this October. And I'm wondering if it's smart to hire a financial advisor to take care of my Roth IRA.

And then in the future, my brokerage account, or if I should just do that myself, I hired somebody. Yeah. Do you want to manage it yourself? I mean, not really,

but I also don't want to spend money on somebody for something that I could do myself. So like up front, it's 5.75% commission on the amount I put in. And then there's nothing like on the interest or whatever I make in the account, but I just want to make sure it's not something dumb. Well, it's up to you. And also know that nothing is final and forever. You can do it and hire them and go, all right, they're going to manage the investments. And five years down the road, if you feel like, you know what, I'm going to take this on myself, I know what I'm doing,

then you can do that. But you've got to realize that there's a lot more at play here. There's a lot more advantages to having a financial advisor. Of course, they can help you determine what investments to make. They can help reduce your income tax liability. They can analyze your cash flow and help you make those decisions, planning purchases of life insurance, real estate, other types of insurance, saving for kids' college, maximizing retirement income, estate planning, legacy planning, all of that is part of it. And so I don't want to look at binary of, well, they're just going to help me choose a fund. If that's all you're doing, sure, you can go do that yourself and it can be great. But I don't want to minimize. When I pay a plumber, I'm happy to pay

the plumber because I don't want to screw it up. I don't want to fool with it But I don't want to minimize. When I pay a plumber, I'm happy to pay the plumber because I don't want to screw it up. I don't want to fool with it. I don't want to burn the brain calories figuring it out watching YouTube videos. And the same applies to finances. You'll know when you're like, I've got to reach out to someone. I'm liable to screw this up. And so it may not be now, but there's no rush either. Yeah, I definitely don't want to handle the brokerage account myself,

but I just didn't know for the Roth IRA. I mean, 5.75% commission. I don't know if that's high or low. That's a normal front load. That's a normal commission for some products. And if you want to reach out to some SmartVestor pros, you can do that at RamseySolutions.com. These are investment pros we trust around the country

to help with this next step. And to the people that George and I use in our house to protect our families. So it's not just us selling you something, that's who we use. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Dr. John Deloney. With or without cell phone bands, foundations and personal finance helps with the distractions in the classroom because of its engaging content. The video lessons in this are captivating. They're geared toward high school students, and students can practice using real-life money skills with hands-on activities and interactive budgeting tools. So if you want to make sure the students in your life know how to handle money the right way, go to RamseySolutions.com slash foundations.

This is a gift for parents out there who are going, how do I teach my kids about money? I don't feel capable to just tell them and convince them. Well, don't worry. We've got that covered. This curriculum is amazing. Dr. John Deloney is in it. I am the host of it. I teach in it. Rachel's in it. The whole gang is in there and Dave Ramsey included. And it's super fun. It is not the boring curriculum you're used to when you were in high school. I promise. John and it's super fun it is not the boring curriculum you're used to when you were in high school i promise uh john and i's segment was sticky notes alone i think was a bright spot for me i hear about that almost every time i'm out on the road we were covered kid comes up and they're like thousands of sticky notes that were brightly colored i don't even i think it was a lesson on

compound interest yes i think when we're older we're out, like, man, you have a leviathan-sized cancer. Did you happen to cover yourself with a bunch of adhesives? And I'm like, one time. I think that's how George's girlfriend died in Seinfeld, is from licking the envelopes. The adhesive, man, very dangerous. Yeah, I learned my lesson. Way to bring down a country there, George, with

your sad news. Let's get to the phone lines. Melanie's up next in Charlotte, North Carolina. How can we help, Melanie? Hi, George and Dr. John. I'm so excited to be on today. I told my husband I was not going to fangirl, but I did not know that it was going to be you guys on here. Wow. You're a fanboy, and so it's awesome. It's so kind. Okay, so I guess I'll ask my question first and then kind of give you guys some background. My overall question is, am I being greedy when it comes to buying a house?

So kind of some background. My husband and I paid off $180,000 of debt in January of this year. And yeah, it took a long time, but we made it. Um, so since then we've fully funded our emergency fund with $20,000 and we are in baby step three B and we have about, um, $45,000, um, in our down payment account, uh, right now. So I guess, you know, in listening to your show, you guys kind of talk a lot about if you can get into the market, you should get into the market, you know, because prices are only going up. You know, I guess my kind of question is, I wanted to buy a house that's around $350,000. You know, that's just kind of the area that we want to be in, the size of house that we want to

be in. And that would kind of take us about seven to eight more months of saving to do that. And we could just buy, you know, a smaller, probably $250,000 house in the next couple of months to get into the market, but it wouldn't be exactly like what we were wanting. So I was just kind of curious what your guys' thoughts were on that. What is your after-tax household income per month? So we bring home around $10,000 a month. When we paid off our debt, we did start investing 6% into retirement. We're 29 and 31. So we just kind of felt like we should start a little bit while we started to save our down payment. Okay. So you're okay to sort of sacrifice a little bit and go, Hey,

we could be using that investment money for the down payment. We're going to do a choose your own adventure, which is totally fine in BabySap 3B. You can invest anywhere from zero to 15% when you're in 3B saving that down payment. So you're doing it the right way. Everything's fine, but you're saying, Hey, I want to buy it So you're doing it the right way. Everything's fine. But you're saying, hey, I want to buy it off more than I can chew because I'm getting a little antsy to jump into this house. Is that essentially what's going on here? Well, if I bought the house now, we would just buy, like, just a smaller house that we would move out of sooner than if we just kind of waited the seven to eight months

to get into kind of the bigger house in the area that we wanted to be. But you're saying in seven months, you'll have enough to get the $350 home and do it the right way. Yeah, we're putting about six grand into our house account now, like every month. So I don't think it will take us that long. I don't think this is greed. I just think it's a lack of patience because seven months is going to fly while you guys save. And when you step into that home, it's going to be, this is the house instead of, well, this is fine. But really the next one, it's going to have this. And so I just, you know, I've been around the block when it comes to, you know, buying houses and selling.

And I think it's wise to get in the market when you can, but I don't want you to just buy a house because you should buy a house. Right, right. Okay. So it wouldn't be like beyond crazy to just- If it was five years until you could do that, I would say just go ahead and get it. But seven months is a different timeline. Yeah. I mean, it wouldn't be more than a year, but I think it will be about seven, eight months. Okay. How much do you have in your down payment account right now? We have about 45,000 in there right now. And in seven months do you have in your down payment account right now? We have about $45,000 in there right now. And in seven months, you'll have closer to what? $100,000? $80,000.

$80,000. Yeah, six times seven plus $35,000, so about $80,000. Okay. And that's if nothing changes. What if one of you gets a raise or you work extra or get a side hustle? Yeah. Yeah. So my husband is actually in the process of getting a raise now. So we're just kind of waiting for that. That's what I would personally, Melanie, I would crunch the numbers and go, how can we spend less? How can we make more to make this happen

in five months instead of seven and make it a fun game, make it a fun challenge. And I guarantee you'll get there faster than you think. And then work with a real estate pro. You can jump on ramsaysolutions.com slash agent and you can begin the process to go, okay, are we actually realistic here? Are there houses that we love in this price range? And can we get the deal before someone else snatches it up?

And I would begin the process. I mean, six months is not a long time. What if, Melanie, what if you decided together as a couple, we're going to buy ourselves a house for Christmas? That would be pretty cool. Our birthdays are right here. We share a birthday, too. Okay. So our double birthday Christmas present is we're buying ourselves a really nice home.

Okay. Yeah. And y'all start getting after it. And y'all already have, what, 12%, 15% of a down payment already towards this 350 000 house right yeah yeah so in the next six months if y'all start kind of looking around and you get close to you can pull the trigger now if you want to yeah i know i just you know i don't i that 20 i don't want to get locked into that pmr i know you're not locked into it forever. Once you cross the 20% threshold, you can write a letter and they'll drop it off. Okay. But I'm just saying, I like the idea of y'all

having a destination because it makes it very real. Right. Because you're going to get 20% and if you just keep floating along, it's easy to go, let's get 25%. And then like, well, let's just do 50%. We'll half the house and it just keeps punting it and moving it

and moving it and moving it yeah that that has started a little bit because you know i brought all the debt into our marriage and so um you know i i don't ever want to go back you know what else you brought melanie joy happiness fun and that's priceless he has never ever ever said anything about it he just put his money to it and we got moving and grooving. And that's what tells me this is going to work out. You both are aligned. You're both excited. You're both working the plan. And that tells me it's going to happen faster than you think. And so stay the course. You can start home shopping now, work with that pro. And when the time is right, you'll know. But I don't think you have to jump into something now.

And I don't think you have to wait eight months or else it's not that binary send us a photo for of your christmas home i think that'd be amazing that would be fun i will absolutely do that can't wait congratulations melanie wow it's funny john the people that are working the ramsay plan they're more like and the people that are just impulsive out there like yeah i got I got, the only debt I have is like some car loans and student loans, like, I don't know, 80K. Like they're very nonchalant. And the folks following the plan are like, I don't know. I need that 20.

You know, they're so dedicated, so diligent, so disciplined. But I think you start to feel the peace as you go and you feel more and more like, oh, this plan works, right? And you just, it slowly works its way down the tracks, man. I love it. Yeah, we get a lot of real estate calls on the show, whether it's, should I move? Should I buy? Should I sell?

And our team created a really great resource. It's totally free. If you go to ramseysolutions.com slash real estate, we have lots of free tools and resources to reach your home goals, preparing to buy, home buying, home selling, wealth building, investment property, finding an agent, calculators. I've got a new in-depth home buying course that our team created. And so a lot of great features on there. And one of my favorites is the home payoff calculator. That's where it gets real. You're like, we're paying how much in interest a month? Go look at how much you guys are paying, America, how much you paid in

interest this month. Then do the home payoff calculator, see how much faster you can pay it off and how much interest you'll save. I guarantee that'll put some pep in your step to get to freedom and get that eagle over the door. Have you seen that, John? The eagle over a door represents this house is paid off. Is there anything more American and rock and roll

than that? I can't think of anything. I mean, the Rolling Stones, I guess they're from overseas, so they're not American. I don't like that at all. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. Our scripture of the day, Philippians 419. My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Tom Snyder once said, Misers are no fun to live with, but they make great ancestors. I like that.

See, John? I do have purpose. Agree or disagree, George? Open phones at 888-825-5225. Daniel's up next in San Diego. What's going on, Daniel? Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you so much for taking my call. I feel so lucky. Sure. How can we help? So basically, I am wondering, is it okay to retire pretty much super early with my wife

and live off fixed income that will be coming in for life. Where is the fixed income coming from? VA disability. Okay. How old are you two? I am 35. She is 41. Okay. And we have devised a plan. That sounds awesome. We have devised a plan. That sounds awesome.

We have devised a plan and a budget. We have been using the Dave Ramsey's seven baby steps for five, six years now. We have been completing all the steps, working the best we can. And I've been fighting with the VA for 13 years. And finally, this past year year just won my appeal and I'm now able to claim, I claim a hundred percent disability from the VA, um, which brings me to around $4,000 a month from the VA. Um, that also covers me 100% for healthcare, any healthcare related needs. That also covers my wife through CHAMPVA because I'm at 100% status. She qualifies for CHAMPVA.

So her healthcare will be covered. Okay. So you guys are going to, this is the plan. Retire early, 3541, making $4,000 a month. Are you debt free? Yes. Do you have an emergency phone? Yes, we have been working

on that. Currently, we have a pretty high income-to-debt ratio. I'm a truck driver, so I make around $6,000 a month plus my $4,000 income. She works, she makes

a little over $ thousand um about thirty five hundred a month so between the two of us we have about thirteen thousand coming in okay my car payment is about five hundred you just told me you're debt free that is that is the only thing that um i've been taking double payments on the car we have a two-year plan so i don't plan on going right now. And our plan involves purchasing an RV because we are extreme travelers. Okay. Do you have the money to purchase that RV? That is the problem that I'm running into. That's the question I have. What's the problem? I looked at purchasing an RV and I'm unable to get a loan because I have no

revolving credit. There are credit cards. I don't have any credit cards. I'm unable to get a loan because I have no revolving credit. There are credit cards. I don't have any credit cards. I'm so happy that you could not get financing on this RV because it would be a burden in your life and not a blessing. Okay. So let me ask you this, dude. You wake up at 50 years old. What do you want to be doing?

My wife and I now, we travel a lot. We're extreme travelers. I get that. I like to travel too. I like to go way back in the backcountry. I like all that. What is your purpose going to be when you're 50? What will you be contributing to in the world?

I would like to be doing the same thing I'm doing now, traveling, doing as much as I can to see and live as much as I can of the world. And I guess my thing is with a fixed income, with pretty much the ability for my wife and I, who we are very good with a budget, we don't live above our means. We would be able to live on that. And then also, I'm very handy, too. So there's other things that I could be doing.

I'm a CDL truck driver, so at any given time, I could go back on the road. If we decided, because we wanted to start with a 10-year plan, try it out for 10 years, and see how that goes because we want to travel all around the whole country. All right. Here's the deal, Daniel. Here's the deal, brother. Here's the deal. The data tells me if you retire at 35, your health is going to fall off a cliff. I'm telling you from talking to people who are down the road from you that if you retire, if you exit the work world just to go have fun, to go see stuff, real, real quick, that runs out of gas. But here's the other thing. I would also tell you, you're telling me that you're great with your money and you're great with your budget. Y'all do make a lot of money right now. I mean, you add it all together. 13 grand a month is a good haul. That's good. Um, but I'm also watching you have a two year plan making 13 grand a month,

but you got a two year plan on a depreciating asset. So I would question whether you're good with your money. You make a lot. That's awesome. You don't owe anything else. That's cool. What was left on the loan? Uh, my car is, uh, this 19.5. I've been making double payments on that. We share that between- No, you hear what John's saying. You guys make over 150 grand. Why is it going to take two years to pay off $19,000? But you paid off in two months. Oh, no, no. The car is not going to take two years at all. I have a six-month plan. I plan between the next six to eight months, I want to pay that car. Our two-year plan is my son is going off to college.

My wife, we want to save a big nest egg of money in the next two years with my truck driving and her work. What's a big nest egg? What's the number? Mine is between $25,000 and $50,000 just to have a cash asset or cash available. I wouldn't call that a nest egg. That's an emergency fund. Okay. I think we need to think about what happens later when life costs more than $4,000 a month 20 years from now. I think we need to actually invest.

Are you referring to like inflation? Yeah. So here would be my plan. If you want to go travel for a few months, you can do that. I don't think setting a 10-year plan to do this is wise. I think you need to save up, pay cash for the RV. And before you do any of that, you pay off the car loan, we get an emergency fund, we begin investing 15%, and then we save up to pay cash for the RV. We do that. Our 401k, I have a Roth IRA going already. My wife has her 401k building. I think she has like 25 or 30,000. So what's your question, dude? Like you've already got this plan worked out and it doesn't really matter what we say. Like what's your question? You're answering it for me, I guess, with the purchasing of a vehicle.

My question, I was unable to get the loan. So that's what I was confused about. Is this $100,000? What's this RV going to cost? It's $65,000 and they denied me for a lack of revolving credit, even though I have a 700 and something credit score. So that's not why they denied you then.

There's something else going on. Because I've seen people that should not be driving $65,000 campers get them. Okay. So all I have to say is this. You dodged a bullet like the Matrix. Thank God you didn't get it.

Because the moment you drove that RV off the lot, it would be worth $45,000. And before the year was over, it would be worth $30,000. So would it be better over the next two years to save up and purchase the RV in cash? Yes. And then go on the road? And I would go on the road temporarily or just rent an RV for now and check it out. See what that life's going to be like. See if you like it.

And if you do love it, then set a two-year plan to go. We're going to pay cash. We're going to spend $30,000 on an RV. We're going to travel for a year, and we're going to reassess. Okay. Let me ask you this. I've had some friends in my life. I've run into some folks.

I would call them friends and buddies. 100% disabled veteran, what's your disability? 4,000 a month. No, no, no, no, no. What's your disability? What's the nature of it? Yeah, what's the nature of the disability? So I get 70% for PTSD, and then I have shrapnel wounds to my neck and face.

I have lack of feeling in my face. Okay. I also get from my shoulder and my back a little bit. Okay, good. As a taxpayer, I'm honored to be supporting you for indefinitely. I have no problem with that. Okay. You put it out on the line for me and my family. Okay. But here's what I want you to hear. Thank you.

The folks that I've talked to in the past, there's a sense that screw all of this. I've done what I was put on earth to do. And there's a period at the end of that sentence, now I'm going to go do my life for me. And my challenge to you is this. I want you to consider what is a life well lived between 35 and 95, 60 more years. What if you created a life that the least interesting thing about you was your veteran status. And actually you served your community. You helped people, you grew businesses, you transformed your local community and beyond. And you saw the world in the process. Think bigger than just 35 and I quit. This is The Ramsey Show. Take care.