The Ramsey Show - App - I'm Living on My Line of Credit! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

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Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book, Debt-Free Degree. Yes, you can go to college debt-free, and he can show you how. He's my co-host today. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Kristen is with us. Kristen is in Alberta.

Hi, Kristen. How are you? Not too bad. How are you? Good. How can we help? So I have a question. I bought a mobile home about two years ago, and I did a bunch of indoor repairs and put probably about $20,000 into it.

However, I wasn't smart about my choice in renovating, so I ended up maxing out my visa and my line of credit doing the renovations and then I've been living off of my line of credit for bills and food and everything else since then, since the spending got a little bit away from me. And I was just thinking about some of those things going into buying the place. So I've been putting everything I have extra into my visa, my line of credit, to try and keep my minimum payments low. And it's been about two years, and I came across you in November. So I started your Baby Steps, and I have $1,500 in my savings for the emergency fund, and then I'm working on baby steps, too.

So I've seen, finally, now probably three months in, a decrease in my visa, as I'm working on that with the higher interest rate. And I've run into some more renovations and repairs that I have to do due to the trailer park. So my question is, is it smart for me to just do what I need to do to the trailer park and sell the trailer? It was a foreclosure when I bought it, so I'm most likely going to make money off of it still. I just don't know if it's wise of me to continue working on the baby stuff and pay off my debt and then work on towards paying my mobile home off or if I should just sell. So how much do you owe on your credit card?

So my credit card, I'm at $7,100. And how much do you owe on the trailer? $42,000. And what do you make a year? So I just went up to about $27 an hour, and I get paid about 80 hours every two weeks. And it's just me that owns it. I'm 25. And what can you sell the trailer for? So if I finish doing the outdoor repairs i could probably put

it up for about 80 000 really yeah uh i got a really good deal um we've put in really yeah yeah i got a really really good deal um on this foreclosure. You can really sell a trailer that's used, that you've done a bunch of repairs to, for $80,000 in Edmonton, Alberta? Just the trailer? Yes. Is there land with it? Sorry? Is there land with it?

No, it's in a mobile home. A trailer park? That's trailer park that's hard that's hard i hope you're right yeah me too have you got a professional i don't think you are but i hope you're right have you got an expert to give you the number so i actually brought in the realtor who sold me the trailer when i originally bought it um it had been up for 75 000 and then i bought it for 50 and since then we we installed shut off valves we've done repairs to the furnace flooring electrical all that and so when she came in uh there was a few things that okay well as i finished up listen if you Listen, if you can get that or a lot less, sell it. Okay.

Yes. And you want to know why? Why is that? Because what do you think an $80,000 trailer, let's just pretend it's worth that because you think it is, and I really don't have a good basis for arguing with you other than I'm shocked. But let's just pretend it's an $80,000 trailer. What's it worth in 10 years? I'm going to say probably half the price.

Ta-da. Goodbye trailer. Yeah. It's not a good long-term plan. It turns out to have been a genius short-term plan. If you take 42 and double it into 80, I'm going to just smile for you and cheer you on and say, way to go, you are the luckiest trailer buyer I've ever met, and way to go, you killed it. And if you can get that 80 out of there, you get it out of there and you run as fast as you can go.

Okay. If you can get 60 out of there tomorrow as is, take it and go. Yeah, and that's what she said I could put it up for, given I do the repairs that I'm also told to do at the trailer park. Yeah, how much are those going to cost? I'm trying to do it on a budget, and so I'm doing all of the repairs myself. And how much is that going to cost? Well, skirting and hand railing and fencing deck.

And how much is that going to cost? I'm not too sure. I'm new to this. So I know when I did renovations before, the spending got away, and I didn't plan for that. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of here. If you can take 65 as is and sell it by the weekend, sell it. Okay, because, yeah, between my line of credit and my visa, I'm sitting at about $60,000.

The good news is you're going to make money, and you're going to get rid of the stupid visa bill of $7,100, and you're going to get rid of a trailer that's going down in value. Okay. That's the good news. It's not a good long-term plan to fix this and hold it. Yeah. The hassle of working on this and hold it. Yeah. The hassle of working on this and running up debt working on it has not been a blessing to you.

It stressed you out. Am I right? Oh, for sure, yeah. And you're going to turn $80,000 into $40,000 if you keep it 10 years. There's no reason to stay in this deal, kiddo. Zero. Get out while the getting is good. Apparently, you've made a good deal.

Yeah. At least with the numbers you believe are true, and I sure hope you're right. Highly unusual, I'll tell you that. And it sounds like, Dave, what she's trying to do is put more money in to get to 80. No. Yeah, I know. But sell her for 65 like it is. Exactly.

And don't be out there building a deck in a trailer park. No. Get out of there. Yeah. And you got your money out and you. And go get you an apartment. Got rid of your visa and then just, you know, then start working your baby steps from a simple, inexpensive rental and build your life out that way. And you don't have any debt and you're doing really, really good then.

That's going to be the way to go. So those of you in the mobile helm industry i'm not mad at you uh but those of you that have bought one know that they go one direction when it comes to value down they depreciate they're a car you sleep in that's what they are this is not a home well it's inexpensive it's affordable when you lose half of value, it takes away all the affordability crap that you think you believe. This is not a play. Buy things that go up in value to live in. Simple rule.

This is the Ramsey Show. Imagine a world where people never have to worry about money ever again. At Ramsey Solutions, our mission is to teach people how to get out of debt and build lasting wealth. And if that means we have to take on the toxic money culture that says you need debt to get ahead, then we're okay with that. We've seen millions of lives changed and we will continue to create digital products and services to help people transform their lives. If you want to join our thousand member team on this crusade, we're currently on the hunt for software engineers with expertise in ruby on rails java c-sharp and front-end technologies or if you're a ux designer or an seo and content marketing specialist we'd love to talk with you together we will disrupt the toxic money culture in america find out about all the available jobs by texting careers to 33789.

Text careers to 33789 to find out about all our open opportunities. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one in ten people relocated last year. And that was 2020. A lot of people weren't even moving around. That means this year there's a good chance you or someone you know is planning a big move. I know it feels like that there are a thousand unknowns if you're struggling and juggling with relocating, but you cannot lose focus of one of the most important and personal and financial factors in your move, your housing cost.

I recommend hiring a quality real estate agent like one of our endorsed local providers to help you find the right home in your new city. ELPs are top performing experts in their local market and have years of experience helping folks just like you make successful moves. It's easy to get instantly connected with an endorsed local provider, a high-octane, high-protein agent that knows their stuff to help you with the move. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash agent, and you can talk with a Ramsey-trusted agent

about how they can help you with your relocation. RamseySolutions.com slash agent. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com one of america's great success story this company is yeah you ought to check them out the the number one online retailer of custom window coverings i have bought window blinds from them i love these guys you get free samples free shipping and with the new promos they run every month you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best possible deal. So, Dave, today's question comes from Teresa in Ohio. She says, my husband and I contributed monthly for our son in a state-run 529 plan.

He will be going to college in the fall between the 529 plan and scholarships. He's earned we have almost enough to pay for all four of college yay yeah i love it should we continue to put money in his 529 plan until he graduates college our other options are putting the money towards our daughter's 529 are paying down our 30k mortgage balance well i mean hey you you guys already have his four years taken care of. Should we continue to put money in a 529 plan until he graduates? No. Should you go ahead and continue

and put money towards your daughter's 529? Absolutely. Yep. Bottom line. Easy. I mean, honestly, you could do both. Put money towards 529 and pay down your mortgage at the same time. Exactly. Depending on how much you need. What you need to do is figure out what the target is for her 529 and are you on pace to be there.

If you're on pace to be there, maybe you lean on the mortgage. Absolutely. Or if you're behind, maybe you lean heavier on her 529. Way to go, Teresa. You did it. I love it. He paid for college with 529 and scholarships. Yep.

This is what Anthony O'Neill teaches. Simple. It's too simple. And you go to a school that actually allows you to be able to do that because you can afford the school. Yes. You pick a school based on. Listen, if you got $20,000 to buy a car, you don't need a test drive a Bentley. So you don't need to visit a college campus that's $80,000 a year

if you're broke people. Why would you do that? Because when it comes to education, people lose their freaking minds. They don't think anymore. They're not smart when it comes to education. Now that's an oxymoron. Sam is with us in St.ul minnesota hi sam welcome to the ramsey show hey gentlemen thank you so much for having me it's really an honor appreciate

everything you do thank you how can we help so looking for a little uh what would you guys do question here i for the first time in my life early this week i got a letter from a collections agency saying that i have a three and a half year old stupid red light ticket um and the more i investigate it the turns out they were sent they sent a citation to an old address that i haven't lived at since college and um my of course the thing has now you know tripled in how much i owe and uh how much is it and do you so right now it's at almost 400 started out at 150 and how much do you make and i make plenty i mean i make like 116 and my wife makes like 54 so we can roll the thing over it's more of a matter of principle

well yeah i mean anthony's had more traffic violations than i have maybe he can tell you and man i was barely rolling through and they turned red he gets that porsche up gets it going and then it's pulled over i'm telling you oh yeah well this was a 2008 ford taurus so i wasn't doing that trust me yeah definitely not doing that, trust me. Yeah, definitely not doing that in a Ford. Honestly, I mean, just pay it, man. You got the money. Get it out of here. It's going to take you so much time to fight it. It's not going to really be worth it, bro.

I mean, just hang up the phone, go pay the ticket, call it a wrap. Yeah. All right, will do. It's hard to swallow. Thank you, guys. I don't blame you. It's hard to swallow. It's not $4,000, though.

Yeah. Call it a day. Yeah, you're fighting with the government, and they're incompetent, and they know it, hard to swallow it's not four thousand dollars though yeah call it a day um yeah you're fighting with the government and they're incompetent and they know it and you know it and i know it the only thing that's competent in this whole discussion was the stinking red light camera it actually was telling the truth but um everything after that was not nobody else in the whole story was including i got one of those one time yeah i got knoxville they put them up in knoxville and i was down there for a football game and i roll a red light like all the time I got one of those one time. Yeah. I got it. Knoxville. They put them up in Knoxville. And I was down there for a football game. And I roll a red light, like, all the time.

I mean, he can call them and say, hey, listen, I see this in collections. I wasn't there. I'll give you half of it. I'll give you two-fifths. Try it, but it's probably not going to work. Exactly. Because they got you on that one. I mean, it's a traffic ticket. Right.

So that's what you usually do. You just pay it. I mean, you know. It's a traffic ticket. Right. So that's what you usually do. You just pay it. I mean, you know. In your vast experience. I got pulled over the other day. I know. I just pulled over before the cop even pulled me over.

I'm guilty. I mean, give me the ticket. You were guilty. I'm going to pay the ticket. You were really guilty. And he was really merciful. He didn't even give you a ticket. He didn't. He sure didn't. Thank God. Turns out he was a big Anthony O't even give you a ticket he didn't he sure didn't thank

god turns out he was a big anthony o'neill fan yes lord i've been working hard to get that yes lord when he's i'm serious he was he was nice to you yes all right bob bob's in cincinnati hey bob how are you hey dave Dave, how are you doing? Better than Anthony deserves. What's up? So I got a question about how to utilize or best invest in extra cash that my wife and I have at the end of each month. So currently, we pay off everything. The only debt we have is our house. We pay that off, or should I say I refinanced at the beginning of 2020 on that. And I paid two times the monthly payments. We did a 30-year loan. So I just double up the payments, trying to pay it off early. And so that said, what we have at the end of each month, about

$4,500 to invest. We have three kids and we have a UTMA for each of them. We can max contribute 15,000 each year into those accounts. And then I have a traditional IRA that I put the remainder, usually about 6,000 in each year. And then on top of that, my wife's company has a 403B that she max contributes to, and my company also has a SEP IRA that's typically about $15 to $20 annually. Are you putting 15% of your household income into retirement? No. Okay. What is your household income? All in, let's see, gross, we're probably around $160,000.

Okay. What we teach folks to do is put 15% of their household income into retirement at baby step four. Beyond that, fund your kid's college, what you're doing. And beyond that, put every extra dollar towards the house until it is paid off. Once it is paid off, you max out everything that's available to you and you continue investing at that point. And that's what we call baby step seven when the house is paid off. What do you owe on your home? About $257.

Okay. You're going to be done with this house in no time with the numbers you're giving me. And it's going to be a beautiful thing. You're going to have a paid for home that's worth a lot of money. No payments in the world, which guess what we did then? We just increased your monthly cash flow. Now you've got even a bigger problem on where you're going to invest all this. Oh, darn, I hate it when that happens. Well, I did forget to mention all my kids are girls. Well, there you go.

It won't hurt to have some extra money laying around. Because there's these, you know, may want weddings wedding funds uh you know they're uh they can they can be expensive if you allow them to be like traffic tickets i'm just saying they show up man just uh there's there's all these things in life that just happen so you're doing so good bob way to go man absolutely killing it 15 of your income into retirement, then kids college, then pay off your house as fast as you can. Then baby step seven is you build as much wealth as fast as you can and be outrageously generous. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage.

Open phones this hour here at 888-825-5225. On the debt-free stage, First Baptist Church, Mount Dora, Florida. Pastor Thomas and Sherry Jamison. Anthony, also a former pastor from Florida. This church, First Baptist Church, has become debt-free. Amen. It certainly has. Are you guys in town for the Southern Baptist Convention?

Yes, sir. All right. Wow. Y'all had a little ruckus down there. So you heard. Yeah, I think. It's kind of an every year thing, but some years the ruckuses are bigger than others.

Congratulations. You got this paid off. How much debt did this church pay off? When I became pastor, they had $2,889,000 in debt. They were paying 8% interest on it. Yes. And it took three years for a bank to trust the new pastor to be able to refinance.

And even then, it was only down to 6%. Wow. They had $524,000 of that debt in unsecured church notes to individuals that could be called in at any time with no penalty. And so it really put the church in a precarious position. My goodness gracious, yeah. So we refinanced over a four-year period. When I went, the monthly payment was $23,600.

That was every month. So the crash hit 12 months after I had been there. Of course. My first Sunday to preach on money was September the 9th of 2008. I remember it well. I'm preaching on money and how we need to be good stewards. We're taking a special offering and the banks have all locked up. Great time for a special offering. So we did three special offerings over three months. They collected over $153,000.

And we put that directly on the debt. And Sherry and I, as a sign of faith to the Lord, we had been given wedding money that we had put aside for 10 years that we had kept kind of as our emergency fund, like what you talk about. And we gave the church for this debt all that we had put aside for 10 years, that we had kept kind of as our emergency fund, like what you talk about. And we gave the church for this debt all that we had in savings.

Wow. And what I didn't know would be that it would take us about six years to save money again. And personally, we also forego, we did not have any raises or anything for eight years. We were really careful and trying to make sure that the church could afford staff and pay down the debt. So when I went, there were 39 employees. So it was very, very top-heavy. And that meant we had to cut staff. There was a preschool. It was running in the hole.

We had to do away with the preschool. It was a lot of hard decisions. You were not a popular guy some weeks. If you only knew. I do know. I do know. I told the lady this morning, nothing is as mean as a good, mean Christian. Well, that's really true.

We did go through a little, I hate to say split, splinter. We did have that in 2011 after I'd been there three and a half years. And then all the debt notes, which was over $301,000, were called in. So the church, what we did is we managed, but we had about $35, I think, left in our checking account after we paid all of that off. But it's gone forever then. Exactly. It was gone forever. He's got a strong leader.

He is. He's a strong leader. He's still there. Still there, 14 years. And so, by the way, we suspended all employee benefits except health insurance during this time because our budget fell by 33% from 08 to 2012. It took a nosedive. It was a very construction-based church with no doctors, no lawyers, not even police and fire. I just started praying, God, give us people who earn a salary. We need teachers.

We need doctors. And so I've baptized nine police officers. Wow. And we've seen the Lord work through the years. So when you started at the church, how many years ago? In 2007. Seven. How many people attended?

The day I was voted on, it was around 350 that voted how many today uh well pre-corona we were running we were running around 500 yeah 485 to 500 it's been as high as 550 and and i've been through a ride to get there yes sir yes i'm so proud of y'all so well done we so what what gave you this fire to get the church's finances straightened out? That's not usually a pastoral gift. No, no. Sometimes we have to encourage pastors to do this. My background was business, actually.

My bachelor's was in business. My parents, I was the first person in my family to be called into ministry. And the first person in my church in almost 80 years to be called into ministry. And the first person in my church in almost 80 years to be called into ministry. Wow. And there was a group of little old ladies who prayed every week since World War II that somebody would be called into ministry. So the Lord answered their prayer in 1989. I surrendered.

Went into full-time Christian service, served as a missionary uh went to seminary at new orleans and then after that did my phd and at southwestern yeah and then uh went to work for billy graham and worked for the billy graham evangelistic association and did that for several years and traveled all over the country and uh that's why there's positives to being young and dumb so when i worked worked for Mr. Graham, we would raise $5 million in six months. And I did all of his largest crusades at the end, New York City and Los Angeles. And so I thought when I was young and dumb, $3 million wasn't that much. And so I thought, we can pay this off in 18 months at this church. Yeah, only Billy Graham's not around.

Exactly, exactly. Bit of an issue. Let me ask you this, Pastor Thomas. What was, throughout these 14 years, what was the hardest thing as a pastor to get the church and the community on board to be intentional about paying off this debt? The hardest thing? Constantly refocusing the vision that this matters. It matters in missions and what we can do in the community. We're very active in our community.

We have been the largest benevolence organization in Mount Dora, Florida, a number of years, where our giving in the city is over $80,000 that we're giving away. Our missions giving has been between $100,000 and $250,000 at the same time we were paying down debt. And the buildings were all falling apart at the same time. So we had to replace all the roofs, renovate the preschool. We had to renovate the children's building, the youth building. All of these structures had to be renovated at the same time as paying down debt. So that was the challenge. One of our deacons, who I love dearly, he's 92 years old.

Mr. Ray White is his name. And Mr. Ray White would tell me from time to time when he saw that I was wavering, he'd look at me and he'd say, don't give up. You can do this. He never told me what to do. He was just a faithful steward. So one of the things I did is I called on other leaders, how do we pay this off?

And they said, well, do some dinners and get all the people who give over $100,000 in your church. And I started laughing. And they said, well, get all the people who give over $50,000 in your church. I continued to laugh. I said, we don't have those kind of people in our church. We don't have, you know, I mean, to give $25,000 in your church. I continued to like, I said, we don't have those kind of people in our church. We don't, you know, I mean, to give 25,000 in a year.

So does you guys have, how did you get tied to us? How did we get tied to you? Well, we've taught financial peace in our church for years. We've got a video of the congregation doing their debt-free screen. Yes. I want to make sure we get that on. So proud of you guys. Thank you, sir.

Thank you for this opportunity pastor tom pastor jameson thomas and sherry are with us from mount dora florida first baptist church paid off 100 of their debt i talked to another church this morning down in texas that just paid off 24 million in debt they just cleared theirs and um but it's the same kind of story it was a long slog yes i. They fought through it. But when the bride of Christ can get out of chains, important things happen. Amen. So I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you, sir.

Honored to know you guys. All right, James, let's fire that. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! A church debt-free scream! Woo! Yeah! That is awesome.

Any of you churches that get debt-free that you want to come on and do that, we'll celebrate with you. I promise you. We're proud of you. Good, good stuff. Wow, well done. This is The Ramsey Show. anthony o'neill ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in and we'll talk about your life and your money. Josh is with us. Josh is in Chicago. How are you, Josh? Hi, guys. I'm doing great. How about you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? It's such an honor to be talking to you guys. You guys are both such role models to me. So just to give you a little background, I'm 24 years old. I'm in my third and final year of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. And basically, I'm working my way through cash flowing the program. My question is, I've estimated about $25,000 left from the three semesters I have. In my savings, I have about $33,000. And I have an additional $22,000 in mutual funds. And my question is, am I at a bit of a risk, you know, having a possible change in tuition a little bit? I maybe have like a four or $5,000 margin. Am I good to let those mutual funds continue to

grow? Or do you think I should basically just cash them out to ensure that graduation? Well, let me answer this question. Is the mutual funds covered with the Roth IRA? Is it in retirement? No, there's not retirement. No, it's just regular mutual funds, not retirement. Okay, cool. And you say you have $33,000 in your savings account right now? Correct. I mean, if I was you, you i mean and you only need 25 about 25 i could see it i don't mind leaving it in there because i don't think they're going to go down that substantially if they did go right me too so i mean right i'm sticking with my savings account just to cash flow through school yeah use the savings account first and if you need to dip into the mutual fund you

can uh it might have dropped a little you might lose a little but that's going to be still better than going into debt yeah and and so but you're going to burn your savings first and then dip into your mutual fund that's what you're saying absolutely yes sir i just wanted to make sure that it wasn't in retirement but yeah use a savings account yeah don't cash out a retirement account but you shouldn't have put in putting it in there anyway until you're out of school. So well done. Good. Good.

I love it. Nicole is with us. Nicole is in Kansas City. Hi, Nicole. Whoops, wait a minute. Not there. There she is. Hey, Nicole, how are you?

Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Perfect. Perfect. My question is, my husband and I are in Baby Step 2. We have about $31,000 just in student loan debt and that's it. My husband does have one more year left of law school, but he's smart. So it's a full ride. And by the end of

the summer with his internship, we should have about that $32,000 saved up in savings. But since his payments are being deferred for one more year, should we take that money that we have in savings and just pay it off now? Since interest starts back up in October? We're just not for sure. Kind of, we've just been saving for this moment, you know, and since we'll have all the money, we just don't know what to do. So Nicole, let me get this straight. Your husband has some scholarships, get him through school, 100% debt free, right? Correct. Is there anything that could possibly come up that can change that?

No. At this point, just with his GPA, he's set going into this final year. So he's been on a full ride, luckily, all three years. And they can't revoke that for any reason? Correct. Okay. And how are you paying for the rest of your life um off my income i make about 40 000 a year okay so you pay rent food and so forth with that his school is paid for locked for the last year done correct yeah go ahead and pay it off exactly okay okay we just

weren't for sure and we just didn't know if with payments being deferred and all that here's what's gonna here's the interesting thing that you haven't thought of and you're gonna be able to feel it just by saying it when you pay this off you're going to feel it you're going to physically feel it. Right, right. Okay. That's not a math thing. Right. That's a cleanliness thing.

That's a spiritual thing. Right, right. Yeah, I just wanted some confirmation. So maybe we should, maybe we'll hold on to it until we can start making payments. We just didn't really know what to do. Now, Nicole, let me say this. If there is a 1% possibility that something could come up to where you will have to pay something, then I want you to hold on to that money to make sure that you get through college without racking up any more debt. If there's a 1%. Now, as soon as he graduates, you're going to take all that money and put it

on top of the student loans. But if you know 101% that there is no way that you all will need any more money to graduate, then I'm working with Dave. Go pay off your student loans today. Do not put yourself in any possible position where you have to borrow money to finish law school. Right. When you have the money in your hand and spent it on this. Yeah. So don't do that but it sounds like that they've already made the commitment and even if his gpa went down that he would get that this year is over because they make the commitment one year at a time they being the law school yeah that's what it sounds like to me so hey good question

and what a great job he's done. Obviously, he's a smart cookie. You know, that kind of GPA in law school, enough to get free money, that's a good thing. Real good thing. That's a good thing. And they said it's impossible. Interesting. Tina is in St. Petersburg, Florida. Hi, Tina.

How are you? I'm good. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm hoping y'all can help me with a problem that I have here. I have a $200,000 vacation property that is paid for. It's a cabin on 13 acres. And we also have a $225,000 mortgage on our primary home, which we also use as an Airbnb.

And I'm wanting to know if you think that we should take the investment property, the cabin on the acreage, and sell it to pay off the mortgage that's our Airbnb. I'm sorry. Is it your primary residence or is it an Airbnb? How can it be both? We have some additional rooms that we rent out. Oh, I see. We live in part of the house. I see. Okay. And what's your household income? We have about $93,000 take home per year. Okay. So how quick do you pay off the mortgage if you

keep the lake house? If I can put everything into it keeping my current full-time job um a little under four years yeah you like the lake house uh well i've only been up there once and how long so um um we it's been a little less than a year that we've owned it. Okay. Well, I mean, if you're not going to use it, even if your home were paid for, I probably would sell it. But if you're going to use it and you love it and you want to fight for it and scratch and claw and grind for four years and keep the thing and get your mortgage paid off, I'd be okay with that too. Yeah.

Either one of those is an okay process. The trick is that have a short-term plan to be debt-free and don't keep things that keep you in debt that you don't even use. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, I mean, if you put those two things together, you get your answer out of this, Fax. Mm-hmm. together you get your answer out of this fax um also with that we we had thought about purchasing

an additional duplex to have two more airbnbs but with um with what i've got going on right now i wouldn't be able to do that that free no no yeah no stay away here's the problem some cities are passing uh ordinances against Airbnb. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And if they pass that as a zoning violation in your area after you went in debt to do it, now you just have two duplexes. Right. Yeah.

And so because you're running a hotel is what you're running. Mm-hmm. And some cities are objecting to that from a zoning standpoint. And some neighbors are objecting to that uh from a zoning standpoint and some neighbors are objecting to it yeah as well so um you know it's it's not all roses and rainbows with airbnb so uh you know i'm not saying it's horrible a lot of people are making good money on it but it you know to assume that that is your business model long term is probably not a good plan. Yeah, I agree. I was looking into it, Dave, and I didn't do it, too, because of my realtor.

He said, hey, I don't trust the zoning, especially here in Nashville. Well, Nashville passed a law against it. Yeah, yeah. And it's being challenged in court. Right. Because, you know, Nashville tries to do a lot of communist stuff. Tell me about it. Yeah.

We'll see what they get away with or not. But that's, you know, they did. They flat out shut it down. So there you go. Well, there you go. That puts this hour in the books. Anthony, good hour. Hey, thank you, Dave.

Well done. James Childs is our producer. Kelly Daniels, our associate producer. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. And we'll be back. 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.