The Ramsey Show - App - I’m Embarrassed To Talk to My Girlfriend About My Debt (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

Home Selling, Debt, Education, Home Buying, Saving, Relationships 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, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined today by Ramsey Personality, Rachel Cruz, and we are here, the dream team, to take your calls about whatever you want to talk about. 888-825-5225. Corey is kicking off this hour in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Corey,

welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hey, how you doing? How can we help? Doing well, thank you. Hey, got a question. Me and my wife are currently on baby step six. We're a family of six and living in about a 2,400-square-foot home. If everything comes to fruition the way we planned it, the house paid off in about four to five years. When we initially bought the home eight years ago, it was just five of us. Just five. Just five. Just five. Yeah.

An additional child kind of threw us for a loop in many ways, and we're kind of running out of space. And so just wanting to look at, we've looked at remodeling, adding on. It's just with our current layout, it would make it very difficult. Not really wanting to sell. We really love the neighborhood, the land we have, etc., but we're also struggling real bad with space. It's just kind of wanting to pick your guy's brain if you could. Yeah. So have you looked at the market

right now and where you would go and how much that would cost? Yeah. I mean, like everywhere else, we're very fortunate with increased property value. So our homes work more, but of course, other homes are also selling for more as well so i think if we were to buy what you would set us off of our plan by you know maybe additional five to seven years and so uh not really wanting to do that but also like i said really hurting for space right now yeah i mean that's a that's a lot cory i just have three little ones and i feel like we're on top of each other i have just zero and i'm like it sounds like a lot, Corey. I just have three little ones, and I feel like we're on top of each other. I have just zero, and I'm like, that sounds like a lot. I've got a little dog.

I mean, yeah, Corey, I mean, you guys are, y'all are in the baby steps spots, that baby step four through six, where we say like, hey, you don't have to be gazelle intense. You want to have a goal and pay it off, but you also can let your foot off the gas and kind of enjoy life a little bit. So you guys, we're going to be able to pay it off in three to five years. your foot off the gas and kind of enjoy life a little bit. So you guys were going to be able to pay it off in three to five years. Now it'll be five to seven years. And for just the sanity and the state of mind and the lifestyle value that more room can just bring, I think that that's not a bad move. I think for you guys, I mean, as long as you,

again, have that house payment's not crazy and you have a good down payment, all of that, you could still knock it out, maybe even sooner than five to seven years. But that quality of life, you're at the part of the baby steps where you're able to make those decisions and that's not a wrong decision. Yeah. And as long as it's within the parameters that I recommend, Rachel recommends, where the payment is no more than a quarter of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, and I assume you'd have a big old down payment selling this one and going into the next one, right? Yeah, currently we'd have anywhere from $250,000 to $315,000 in equity. That's great. Toward the next home, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you're not doing a bad thing.

It sounds like you were just pumped on paying off this house, and now it's like, oh, man, it's setting us back. But if you kind of zoom out, you are doing so much better than the average American that you guys should be celebrating going, all right, we're going to pay our house off in five years, and we have taken care of this family of six so well, and we're creating the space that we need so that none of us go crazy.

I think that's a great thing. And five years instead of three, in the grand scheme of your life, you're going to have a paid-for house that's even bigger, that's going to cost more to celebrate. So I'm pumped for you guys. I think that's the right move. Obviously, the market's crazy right now, so as much patience as you want to buy as you kind of figure out,

I don't want you rushing into this or being forced into it where you go, well, we're going to put 50 over because the market's crazy. Make sure you're working with a really good real estate agent who can help you land a deal that's right for you guys. Yeah, I appreciate that. I guess one more thing, conversely, too, is in order, homes are going so fast, by the time they go on the market, you have practically four hours to make a decision, which is crazy to me to think about a, you know, 500,000 plus home to have only four hours to make a decision or you'll lose it. Yeah, no, it's stressful. It is. That's why you need to know exactly what you want when you put a payment on, or I'm sorry, an offer in to be able to say,

okay, yep, we feel comfortable when we put this offer in, we feel comfortable if they take this offer, the things around it and the terms to the agreement, we feel good about When we put this offer in, we feel comfortable. If they take this offer, the things around it and the terms to the agreement, we feel good about. And yeah, it is. I mean, it's just, it's a fast moving market. And if you're not financially in a good spot, that's when you can make some really bad decisions. But if you guys financially have a plan,

you have your money, you know what you're looking for, you guys are on a team together, you and your wife, you can make a quick decision, but it feels rushed, which I totally understand. Yeah, and don't go waiving inspections and appraisals and all these things. Those are super important things that you don't want to skip. Thanks for the call. All right, Josh is in Atlanta, Georgia. Josh, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hi, thanks so much for taking my call, Jordan and Rachel. Sure, how can we help? So I'm calling in today because I have a girlfriend for we've been dating for a little over a year now and I'm actually I guess I would say a reluctant Ramsey-ite

that I've known about Dave and you all for a number of years. At any rate, recently purchased a home and basically want to get developed like intense with I'm on baby step two. I only have a thousand dollars emergency fund. My question is, I recently signed up in January is coming up a live financial peace university that I'll be attending. And I wanted to see if I guess my question is, I'm nervous about, I talked to my girlfriend about it, and she wants to do it with me.

I'm about $150,000 in debt, plus my house. She is debt free. And I guess my question is kind of where, I guess, when should we, you know, when is it appropriate for us to sit down and talk money? And I can kind of hear Dave saying, like, oh, well, you need to get married yesterday. And I guess I'm also kind of nervous, like, okay, well, I need to save a ring or try to get on the debt for that. Are you guys living together? That's what I'm calling on.

We are not. Oh, okay. Well, there's no rush to get married here. And you said she's happy to join the Financial Peace University class? Yes. Okay. Well, then this feels more like you're scared to tell her how much debt you're in because of what that might do to the relationship and how she sees you yeah right well i think that's going to come up naturally in the conversation when you attend financial peace i think it's a great place for those conversations to come up naturally. And I think you sound like you're on board to pay this thing off right now, right?

You're on the plan? You're not ish anymore? I mean, wait, did I get on? Are you all in on these baby steps when you go through Financial Peace? Are you wanting to get rid of this $150,000 as soon as possible? 100%. And I guess that's why I even brought it up because... Then let her know that. Yeah, and I think that...

Yeah, because I want to be gazelle-like, which is going to cut our lifestyle. Yeah, totally. And I think, Josh, and I think just being honest with her, be honest with her honestly. But to sit down and be like, listen, this, I hate that this number is following me around

that you know the talk to her about the weight that it feels even the embarrassment kind of the shame and the the regret like let let her in on all of that I mean that's human and to say and I'm even embarrassed to tell you but here's the reality here's what it is and uh let's talk through it if you don't mean like let it be a very be honest about it and let it just be a fluid conversation um i mean if she flips out and she goes well this this is over then hey there's the red flag you needed man but if she's all in on this you're all in on this it's gonna be okay yeah you got this this is the Ramsey Show. Most people know me as the guy who did stupid with a lot of zeros on the end. I made my first million dollars in my 20s the wrong way and then went bankrupt.

That's when I set out to learn God's ways of handling money and I developed the Ramsey Baby Steps. By following these steps, I became a millionaire again and this time the right way. After three decades of guiding millions of others through the plan, the evidence is undeniable. If you follow the Baby Steps, you will become a millionaire and get to live and give like no one else. And now I'm excited to share with you that I've written a new book called Baby Steps Millionaires, and it's available for pre-order right now. You'll learn how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can too. I'll walk you through how to invest, build wealth,

and bust through the barriers preventing you from becoming a millionaire. For those who are ready, it's game on. You can baby step your way to becoming a millionaire. Pre-order your copy today at Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined today by Rachel Cruz. Rachel, how's it going over here? Doing great. You know, if you've had it with living paycheck to paycheck and are sick and tired of constantly worrying about money, I want you to know that you don't have to live like

that anymore. You can break that cycle. No matter how you've managed money in the past or how much debt you have, you can take control of your money. You just need a plan right now and you need the right plan. And that is Financial Peace University. It's helped almost 6 million people take control of their money one step at a time so that they can finally feel like they have control over their lives. You'll learn how to make a budget that actually works, pay off your debts, spend and save wisely and invest in your future. In fact, the average family pays off $5,300 in debt and saves $2,700 in the first 90 days of the class. It's a lot. That's a big turnaround. And we'll walk through the plan, but it's up to you to get started. And you can decide today that you're done

stressing about money and you're ready to take control. Financial Peace University is only available through Ramsey Plus membership. So to get started today or to gift it to someone you know by visiting ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. That's ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. I love it. I remember going through Financial Peace University when I started working here in 2013. And it was a game changer. And the fact that you can just access all of this online for an entire year now with all the tools and every dollar, that didn't exist back then.

I feel like I'm aging myself. Budgeting, I had to do it on paper. Had to do it on paper. So it's awesome. It really is an incredible membership. Make sure you check that out and start your free trial. All right, let's go to the phones this hour. Grace joins us in St. George, Utah.

Grace, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you so very much. Yeah, how can we help? I'm so excited to talk to you guys. Okay, so I just barely discovered you guys about a little over two weeks ago. Oh, wow. And I kind of stuck in the butt a little bit. So I had a financial advisor tell me that I should file bankruptcy.

And I was thinking about it, and anyway, my son showed me your show, and I'm like, oh, maybe they could have some good advice for me and point me in the right direction. I'm grateful you called us. I know, absolutely. So walk us through the situation. How much debt do you have?

So I think it's around $70,000. It's all credit card debt. All credit card? Mm- debt. All credit card? Mm-hmm. All credit card. Okay. And what's your income? So I'm disabled.

And I've been disabled for about almost three years. My income is about $2,399. $2,300. Almost $2,400 a month. Okay, a month. All right. Yeah. And what led you to this point where you've got $70,000 in credit card debt

and you're talking to the financial advisor? What kind of happened? So, I think it was back in May of this year, I served for one credit card debt that was about $9,600. And then recently again, I served for another credit card debt. And on the first one, I talked with the company that was suing me and saying, hey, you know what, I can pay payments. And I've always planned it to be, but they said, no, we won't satisfy us to do that. And so I just didn't know what to do. And I just kind of let it slide.

And when I got the second one done, my son's like, we've got to figure this out. We've got to figure out what we can do. Because I am a single mother of eight living at home. You say single mother of eight? Of eight children? Yes. And how many are living with you right now? All eight?

All eight. Okay. And you're taking care of them with that $2,400 a month? Well, I do have, I do get the stamp in medical too. Just recently sent the first of 2020, they had the rental assistant where you could get rental assistance for COVID in places with families. And that's kind of what kind of saved us a little bit because we were just like, we lose everything. And we've already lost a kind of saved us a little bit because we were just like, we lose everything. And we've already lost a lot of everything we had.

So, Grace, can I ask what the nature of your disability is? You said it's been about three years. Okay. So, my first, my husband died. Sorry. My mother died like six months after I moved in with cancer. And we moved to our current place right now, our current city right now. And we had, in order to survive, we kind of just, I had really good credit.

I was great. I was really good. I guess we were made up on the FICO score. So that's a whole new thing to change in my mind, but I want to. Anyway, so I had really good credit. I could track up cards if I wanted to. I mean, but I came back. I was a specialty nurse.

I had an excellent job when I moved to my current location. I worked full-time plus two part-time jobs. Did we lose her? Grace? No, you're in charge. Okay. You're okay. I'm so sorry you're sorry? Okay. Hey there. Oh. You're okay. I'm so sorry you're going through all this.

I mean, you have had setback after setback after heartbreak after heartbreak. And let me tell you, the fact that you are where you are taking care of your entire family. I mean, I'm just inspired by you on one end and heartbroken for you on another. And we want to help walk you through this. And it's hard to do in a quick radio call. So here's what I want to do for you, Grace. I want to get you connected to a financial coach who can walk through your situation. And to answer your question, no, you should not file bankruptcy right now. I believe you can get through this. You have $70,000 in credit card debt. You can clean up this mess. This is not beyond saving. You are not beyond saving. And so if you

hang on the line, I'm going to have Jenna pick up and she's going to connect you with a financial coach and we are going to pay for that session for you. You won't pay a dime. And on top of that, I'm going to get you connected to a Ramsey Plus membership. Again, we're going to pay for that. That's going to give you one-year access to Financial Peace University, EveryDollar, our budgeting tool. And I want you to, as you can make it through that, watch those videos, start to get a handle on a budget, work with your financial coach, and they're going to walk alongside you, hold your hand,

and get you out of the $70,000 in credit card debt. Does that sound good? Sure. That's great. I'm so sorry you're going through this. I know, Grace. And what all this is going to help you do, because you do have a lot, I mean, there's a lot of dynamics here just in your story, but also in your financial situation, but

we're going to be able to help map out a plan for you very clear and this financial coach will help you set a budget and to know okay here are all my expenses and have a level of control over your money in the right way that maybe you've never experienced before

Grace but also I mean I would also encourage you to I hope you have family in the area or a good church around you good friends around you because this can be a very isolating time for you losing

your husband and taking care of kids I can't I can't even imagine all that you've walked through so I want you also to think about yourself and the healing process and the grieving process and, and to do that really well. And,

and again, a good counselor or a good pastor can walk with you through that part as well. Cause that's, that's almost more important, you know, than the money stuff, the money stuff adds so much stress.

And hopefully we can remove some of that by giving you that plan and you can walk through it, but there's a lot there, Grace. And so thank you so much, though, for calling in and hope and Jen, again, will pick up and we can connect you with what you need. That's a hard situation. Oh, man. And Rachel, we did an episode on the fine print podcast that I hosted. And the episode's called Is Bankruptcy a Quick Fix for Struggling Americans? And I dug into this and we hear stories, we talk to experts. I want to encourage anyone who's going through this, thinking about it, check out this episode of The Fine Print. Hopefully it educates some people and helps show them that hope is out there. And this is not the only path. And I know the financial advisor wants this to be a shortcut to get you on your feet,

but there's another way and bankruptcy doesn't have to be it. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ramsey personality, George Camel, joined today by Rachel Cruz, and we are taking your calls, 888-825-5225. Crystal joins us in Bakersfield, California. Crystal, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. I appreciate you guys having me. Sure. How can we help? So, I'm almost embarrassed to say it, but so my husband and I are, after calculating it today, we have between the both of us, we have $13,000 in credit card debt. And a lot of it was accumulated from his past job where he got paid way less than he is now. And so we're just trying to get out of debt and shred our credit cards for good and just never use them again.

And so we're just trying to figure out, like, what's the best way to tackle that, you know, getting rid of that debt and, I don't know, I guess kind of how to approach it. Sure. Well, Crystal, number one, great job of just looking at it. I think the unknown is scarier than once you bring it all out. And yes, and even if 13,000 feels overwhelming to you and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that. At least it's there. And that takes a level of courage to do that. So I'm just curious, how long do you feel like you kind of lived in the dark versus just today calculating everything? How long has this been?

It's been, I'd say it's been probably over a year now that we, I don't know. It just, I've kind of been on board for a bit, but my husband wasn't so much where it was kind of like he wants to get out of debt, but he kind of continued to swipe his card, swipe his card, and I'm like, we can't, you know, we can't keep doing that. And so, so what's changed since then? What was the, was there a moment? Did you guys do something? Yeah. So actually, uh,

I watch a lot of y'all's YouTube videos and, um, I brought one up and showed it to him and, and I think it was like a huge eye-opener for him and I both, actually. It just, we realized so much because it's like now that the job that we're at, I feel like he's making such great income for what we used to be. And I told him, where's Oliver been going to? And I'm like, wow, look at how much credit card debt we have. Like, we need to be smarter with our money and we need to get out of the set. You know, if we ever want to smarter with our money and we need to get out of the debt. You know,

if we ever want to make something of ourselves and have a home and leave something behind for our kids. That's right. So y'all have had like a, yeah, kind of an, I had it moment. Like I'm done. We see there's a different way and we're ready.

We're ready to tackle. So is there any other debt crystal besides the 13,000 and credit cards? Okay. So there, and this one's big, and we've been talking about just, so we have a truck right now currently. That was an idiot move, but we got a brand new Dodge last year. It's a Dodge Ram, and it's pricey, and so we looked at selling it, and we would actually, if we sell it right now, we would actually make $2,000 off of it for selling. So if we sell it, so we've kind of, we're at the point that we want to sell it, but we just need to get a vehicle that's going to work for us because we do need a truck to be able to haul our horses. And so.

What's the truck worth yeah um the truck is worth i've called different places if i felt it to a dealer which we don't want to do we want to go the private way um it looks like it's about around 62 000 currently what's your household income yeah so our household income, I'm trying to think. So are you asking yearly or monthly? Yearly. Yearly, okay. I should have calculated that. That's okay. What is it monthly?

What's it monthly? It's monthly. Okay, right now we're making $4,500 a month before taxes are taken out. Okay. That's great. Yeah. That's about... Or actually, he is a stay-at-home mom.

So that's about $54,000 gross multiplied out. Okay. And you guys have a $62,000 truck. Yes. That's a lot of truck. Yes, it's a lot of truck, absolutely's a lot of truck absolutely too much truck for us i agree that thing's that thing's getting sold today if i'm you guys and if you're serious about this we are completely serious yes and then chris what you're gonna have to find is a is a truck an old

truck not a pretty truck the The more flaws, the better. It's what they call a farm truck here in the South. I want the paint rusting off that. Yes, that you can at least hook up the horses to so you can work because I know that's part of the gig there of what you're doing. But yeah, you guys, you're going to make some radical changes, some radical changes. And I'm so thankful you both are willing to do that because it is going to take a level of sacrifice. But you guys can do this. Yep. Like, George, sell the truck, the $13,000 in credit card debt.

Is there multiple credit cards or is it just one? It's my credit card and his. We have two different credit cards. Two, okay. So what's the two amounts on each? The two amounts on each. So I honestly just calculated it between the both, and it was like $13,000 if I added it up together.

Which one has the least amount of debt? Oh, gotcha. My husband says. Okay. Okay. So we're going to pay his off. We're going to sell the truck tomorrow the truck tomorrow right so the truck's gonna be gone in our head right and we're gonna take did you guys have any other savings um so we do he just got his christmas bonus so we have i think it's around it's almost 2500 not to be exact i need it okay i need to see but i think

it's almost 2500 okay so i would i would1,000 out of that and have for your starter emergency fund. That'll be baby step one. And then once the truck is sold and you have a couple of thousand, maybe you save up a little bit more. But again, I'm telling you, Crystal, this is not a pretty truck. You're not going to be just saving until the day is long for this thing. You're going to get something quick, something inexpensive that you can pay for. And then you guys are going to do a written budget together and you're going to start squeezing out. Cause you guys have been,

um, there's not to shame you, but I just, I know it cause we get these calls all the time. It's just kind of a, we just live in life. We're kind of just doing it. It's the money's going in,

the money's going out. We don't have any control. I mean, you're going to know like the back of your hand, exactly what every bill is, what the utilities are are what you're paying for groceries and food like you are really really gonna tighten this up and then you're gonna be able to look and say okay man we are we are going out to dinner here we're taking that money and throwing it at the credit card but i would have done shopping or throw it at the credit card all of his swiping because he's just

kind of going done with that that's all going to the credit card. I mean, you really, you guys are going to buckle down and, and you guys can do this. I mean that 13,000, you can pay this off. Crystal, you guys can do this. This is,

this is not a hopeless situation, but it's the behavior that I'm most concerned about with you guys. Right. The idea that it was kind of, we're kind of in and out. We kind of want to, we kind of don't, but once you got it and if you guys commit,

Crystal, if you guys commit 18 months of your life, 18 months of your it, we kind of don't. But once you got it, and if you guys commit, Crystal, if you guys commit 18 months of your life, 18 months of your life, your entire financial trajectory will change. I'm telling you right now. I'm fired up. I might sell this truck for them if they don't. I'm pumped. Have you guys been through Financial Peace University? I'm so sorry. No, we have not. I actually just bought the book through Amazon, and it's supposed to be here soon. It's the, what is it? The one where he's trading the credit card.

The Total Money Makeover. Yes, there you go. That's it. That's right. But no, we haven't done the Financial Peace University yet. Yeah, so maybe Ramsey Plus. Were you going to gift that to them, George? Yeah, you know what?

On top of the book, since you already got that, I want to gift you guys a year membership to Ramsey Plus. While you're reading the book, watch the videos in Financial Peace University, and it's also going to give you access to our premium every-dollar budgeting tool, like Rachel talked about. You guys got to get on a written plan. You got to meet weekly at this point and go, where are we spending money? We got to track this thing. We're not going to

go above what we said we're going to go. And this debt's going to get paid off really fast. I mean, it's $13,000 making $54,000. You guys could do this. This is not impossible, but it's going to take some sacrifice. Thank you, guys. Thank you. I needed to hear that. And actually, he's going to be getting a raise. Come January, he'll be making $5,200 a month. So he's like, we need to do this. And I think that's even bigger. That's great. That's right. Don't let the lifestyle creep happen, Crystal.

I know it's not going to for you. I hear it in your voice. But man, throw all that at the debt and you guys get out of debt quickly. Yep. It's awesome. Hang on. Jenna's going to pick up and she'll get you guys hooked up with a Ramsey Plus membership. Call us back when you're debt-free. We'd love to hear it. This is The Ramsey Show. Our Scripture of the day comes from Philippians 4.8.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Alexander Graham Bell once said, Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Open phones this hour. The number is 888-825-5225. Justin joins us in Denver, Colorado. Justin, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hey, guys. Long-time listener, huge fan. Thank you guys so much for having me on. Great to have you. How can we help today? So I'm just kind of looking for some financial advice. So I'm 24. I have a good-paying job, no debt. I make around $70 to $75 a year.

I have about eight months in an emergency fund, and I try to invest around $1,000 a month into both my IRAs as well as S&P tracking ETFs. Okay. So my main question is, I'm looking to buy a house, but the houses in my area are way out of my price zone, and I don't want to stop investing because I love the personal satisfaction

of throwing money in the market every single month. So I don't want to get in a position where I'm only putting 5% to 10% down on the house, but with the prices of houses in the area, it's looking like that would be the only realistic percentage that I could put down. But then I'm also fearing that in the next five to 10 years where I could save up to a 20%, the interest rates are going to be so high that I'll mathematically lose out on the benefit of buying now. Yeah, I understand your fear. And first of all, you're crushing it, man. Way to go. 24 years old, debt-free, solid emergency fund. You're investing,

making great income. If I'm in your shoes, here's how I'm thinking about this. You live in a very expensive area, Denver, Colorado. And so your options are, you've got some options here when you're in this spot. You don't have to go zero on the retirement. You can split the difference and go, I'm going to lower the retirement and save up. Or you can just keep investing 15% and be a little more patient and save up. And when it comes time for you to find a place, it's really not about interest rate. I don't want you thinking about the fear of what's going to happen in the future. Because we don't know. You just don't know.

It dropped an all-time low in 2020. I mean, yeah, we don't know. You don't know. So unless you have a magic ball that you're hiding from us, here's how I'm thinking about it. You're ready to buy a house when you're ready to buy a house, which means you can afford it. And we've got some great parameters that make it really clear. We say, hey, get a 15-year fixed rate mortgage where the payment is no more than a quarter of your take-home pay, and we want you to put 10% to 20% or more down. If you do it that way, then you can afford whatever house you're looking at, if it falls into those parameters. And however long it takes to get there,

you've got to be okay with that. Especially if you're saying, hey, I really value investing, I don't want to stop that. That's great. But that does mean it may take a few more years to save up for the house that you want in Denver, Colorado. Now, that doesn't mean you're stuck. You can move. I don't know what you do for work. Maybe one day you don't live in Denver, and there Now, that doesn't mean you're stuck. You can move. I don't know what you do for work. Maybe one day you don't live in Denver and there's a lower cost of living area and you can't afford a house there. Your income will go up over time, probably, and you can save up even more. And so there are things that you can do to kind of counteract this, but you're 24. There's no rule that says you have to have a home at 24. And I understand you feel like you're wasting money on rent right now. Oh, yeah, it hurts. Yeah, I'm paying around $800 a month. And it's just,

you know, just going to a sunk cost. It definitely hurts. Yeah, which I totally understand. But like George said, after those parameters are kind of met around the home buying process, that's when the home really is a gift. And it's like, okay, I can enjoy this. Before that, if you go in too quickly, you'll realize, okay, the cost of a house is expensive. The heating and air goes out. I got to replace this. I got to replace that. I got to do the yard work. The closing costs. I mean, there's just so much, so many fees, so much that goes into owning a home. So you want to factor that into to give yourself just a little bit of that like breathing room of, okay, I'm renting.

But it's not, I mean, people think like, oh, renting is just throwing your money away, which I get. I understand. But also, if you get yourself in a really bad situation in a home, that's going to be far worse financially than renting for 24 more months. So take your time, Justin. You're doing great. You're doing great. And I would run the numbers. It sounds like you're very on top of what's going on.

But just run the numbers and say, okay, what if I paused investing for 24 months? Because you can. You have plenty of time to invest, okay? And say, yeah, what if I focused all my energy on this house? And how fast could I be? Or what George said, split the difference. Then how long would it take to save up for a down payment? Or say, you know what?

What if I just throw a bunch of invest and I don't think about this for another year and I come back around to it, right? You have options, but you're gonna do great, Justin. You're incredible, 24 years old, very sharp. He's gonna be a multimillionaire either way. It's just whatever path you wanna take to get there. Thanks for the question. And we do have a great episode of The Fine Print featuring my friend Rachel Cruz. If you want to check that out, you can go to

fineprintpodcast.com and it's called, Is Now the Worst Time to Buy a House? And me and Rachel have this conversation. I talk with experts, we hear real stories, and it really helps give people a little bit of pause and go, just breathe. Yes. Here's what's going on in the market. Here's what I need to know. Here's how I know if I'm ready to jump into that. That's right. So thanks for the question. All right. Aaron joins us down the road here in Nashville, Tennessee. Aaron, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? Yeah. So me and my wife are in baby step four and five. And over the past year, my job wasn't too stable. So my wife and I went to saving mode. Fast forward to today, I got a new job. It's very stable,

but we have about $80,000 to $90,000 above our emergency fund sitting in a savings account. And we have a dilemma on what to do. My wife wants to fully fund my son's college fund. I think it'd be better to kind of put it all on the house and get that paid off sooner and just continue to put monthly into our son's college. I'm seeing what you guys thought. So you have one kid? Yes, just one kid. He's four and a half. That's adorable. All right. What's on the mortgage? I already know what I would say. $155,000.

$155,000 on the mortgage. Okay. I'm going to let Rachel say hers, but I will answer honestly after she's done. We'll see if it lines up. This is exciting. Oh, yeah. Aaron, I love your wife's heart, and I appreciate her willingness to throw money at the college fund. I would still put some money in there, but I would throw

a big old chunk of this at the house, if not all of it. Now, if he was 15, this would probably be a totally different discussion, but you guys are going to have plenty of time. If you think about what you would pay in a mortgage and put that into the college fund every month, with a paid-for house with no risk, all of it, it's going to work out. So mine would be the house. George, I can't wait to hear what you are going to say. Right out of my mouth. Stole my thunder. I am 100% with Rachel on this.

And I always ask the age because I got to know. Do you have time for this money to sit there and grow? And you've got 14 years to save for a thing that may or may not happen. And we don't know what college they'll go to and if they'll get scholarships. What college is going to look like in 10 years. But here's what we do know. You've got a big old mortgage payment that you could get rid of and you could be over halfway done with it with the remaining balance today.

And so that's what I'm doing. How's that feel, Aaron? That makes perfect sense. Tell your wife I'm for her, though, in life, even though we disagree with her decision. It wasn't a huge disagreement. We love her. There's no crazy right or wrong here, but I like to look at the time

frames and go, alright, the kid's four. They've got a long way to go. They're probably going to be okay. And guess what? Once you have that house paid for in a few years, now we can really save up for college. Absolutely. And if it's looking like they want to go to this school and we want to pay cash for it, you'll be able to do that because you haven't had a mortgage payment in a decade.

And what a great job, Aaron. I mean, the idea of even just with the uncertainty of everything that happened, his job was uncertain, so they kind of just paused, buckled down, just put some cash away. What that does, I mean, instead of just living and just not knowing what's going on, I mean, to really focus and have money. Money is not the end all be all, but it gives you options. It gives you the ability to say, okay, now what do we want to do with this? It's a powerful thing. So Aaron, great job to you and your wife. You guys were really disciplined in a really tough, tough year. So great job. Yeah. Fun hour, Rachel. I know, George. Thanks

for hosting with me. I loved it. It's great to be in the pilot's chair with year. So great job. Yeah. Fun hour, Rachel. I know, George. Thanks for hosting with me. I loved it. It's great to be in the pilot's chair with you. This is good times. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Jenna Sears, screen on the phones today, and you, America.

We can't do the show without amazing listeners like you, and we're grateful you joined us today. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.