The Ramsey Show - App - I'm Looking to Grow My Savings Fast with Bitcoin...Good or Bad Idea? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 26, 2021

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Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, it's the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money and your relationships and your whatever. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality, joined today by Dr. John Deloney, about your life and your money and your relationships and your whatever. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality, joined today by Dr. John Deloney, host of The Dr. John Deloney Show. John, how long did it take to come up with that name? The Dr. John Deloney Show? Probably too many hours.

The amount of hours is embarrassing, and we don't even talk about it anymore. Oh, man. I had some cool names for the show after old heavy metal bands. They didn't go anywhere. There was a lot of discussion. Didn't really go anywhere. It's fine. It's a solid name.

It's good. Strong. Hey, but give us a call. 888-825-5225. We're talking about everything. And hey, we've got a lobby full of SmartVestor pros from all over the country. So good to see you. Wave, everybody.

It's great to see you. They're like kids in a candy shop right now, wandering around here. It's so great. They are pumped up. They're like kids in a candy shop right now wandering around here. It's so great. Exactly. They are pumped up. It's more like kids in a cookie store because there actually

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We'd love it. Just south of Nashville. All right. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. Zach kicks off this hour in Huntington, West Virginia. Zach, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hello. Hey, how can we help? Okay, yeah. So I'm calling because right now I'm pursuing several pastorate positions, and these positions, they come with personages, you know, the house on the, on the church. Um, and I was wanting to know what you thought. My wife is thinking that we should just use a housing allowance and buy a house wherever we're at, but I'm not so sure about that because if I can get the parsonage, it'll, it'll come with utilities paid and I won't have to worry about any financial

decisions. But my wife thinks that it's not secure enough that it could fall right out underneath of us. So I was wanting to know if you thought that I should just go, if we should just go for the parsonage, you know, of the free house with the utilities paid and, you know, all that, the stuff that comes with it. So I was just curious what you guys thought about that. I'll give you my perspective. I'll let George, you hop in here too. First thing is, give me a picture of your total financial picture. So, well, right now I'm a teacher, but if I take this, I will, you know, be a full-time pastor.

How much debt do you owe? I owe about $50,000. Okay. What kind of debt is that? It's student loans from seminary. Okay. And what's this pastor position going to pay you? About $40,000. Okay. And what's this pastor's position going to pay you? About $40,000.

Okay. $40,000 plus a house? Plus a house. Okay. With no utilities. Right, right, right. So they pay all your expenses when it comes to housing? Yes.

Okay. So you have a picture of a house where you're all going to crash, and your wife has a picture of a home where you're all going to crash, and your wife has a picture of a home where you don't crash. It's where you live. In a season when my wife and I owed six figures, she's a doctor too, we have a bajillion degrees in our house, too much, too many degrees in our house. We sold our home, and we moved into a residence hall apartment at a university where i worked and we were faculty in residence and we did that for a year and i took on

two extra jobs and she was a rock star professor and we paid off a whole bunch of money and we had about a year that we could do that and so if if I'm you, I would sit down and say, I dug us into a hole, $50,000 in seminary loans, and this is a way to clear that up in 18 months or so. And I would let her know, hey, our plan is to become debt-free. Let's live in this parsonage, and we're going to have no bills. We're going to have no electric, no internet, no nothing. And we, as a family, are going to suck this up for 18 months or 24 months max.

Tell your bosses at the church, we're going to do this, and then we're going to expect a housing allowance on the back end, and then you'll go buy yourselves a place. But that's what I would do. And that way you can sit down and say hey we can crash for a destination and in our home me and my wife and my my son we made those little chains that you make out of construction paper i mean we set it up this is short term for us we can do anything for short term and then we went and bought a house that we could become a forever house right and not a

forever house but a whole a home that's what we said, set up a home. So that's how I would approach it. Yeah, I love that mentality. What's the housing allowance if you took that? You know, it varies from church to church, you know, but about like $1,500 a month. Okay. And like John said, if you could pay off your debt, stay at the Parsonage, and then could you take that housing allowance down the line if you agreed to that up front? It would definitely cover stuff because I'm in West Virginia. Housing prices are really low here. There you go. Yeah.

So, yeah, one of two things is going to happen. You're going to be debt-free. You're going to have accomplished something together. You're going to have sucked it up. You're going to be able to say, look at what we did. Or you're going to realize, man, living in Parsons is kind of awesome. We call somebody else when something's broken. And now

that we are debt-free, we can just start socking away this living money and continue saving and saving and saving. And at one point, at some point, buy a house with cash. But again, put a short-term lease on this deal. I shouldn't say lease. I'm on the Ramsey Show.

Put a short-term leash, L-E-A-S-H, and then go from there. And is your wife going to be working at all, Zach? It's possible, probably part-time if so. She's an engineer. Okay, that's great. Well, I'm thinking if she can come in and help with this shovel to get more income coming in, and you guys can clean up this debt even faster and get her to that dream even faster. Yeah, you clean up this debt, you'll get a down payment for a house, get an emergency fund, and get out of there, man.

It's great. Good for you. Thanks for the call, Zach. Way to go, man. Interesting scenario with the parsonage. It's a fun word to say, number one. But very interesting scenario where they're paying for you. Basically, you can live here rent-free. man. Interesting scenario with the parsonage. It's a fun word to say, number one, but very interesting scenario where they're paying for you. Basically, you can live here rent-free,

and you experienced something like that in some of your previous careers where they're paying for this, and so we've got to make a financial decision. What does this mean for our future housing? Because I think what the wife is seeing is, hey, we don't own this. We're not building towards anything with them paying for our rent. Well, and you don't feel secure because somebody else owns your home, right? And we get that call from renters a lot. We get that call from,

hey, if I just sold my house and moved in with my parents, me and my five kids and my wife moved in with my parents for a season, right? And I've done it. And for a season, it was magical. And I say magical, it was hard. But in my case, we learned that we could live a lot smaller than we thought.

And every house we've bought since then has been actually small. I mean, we ended up changing our whole trajectory of our life. We got rid of a bunch of stuff. We live a lot lighter. And so we learned a lot about ourselves. And we paid off everything. And it set us up for the next several decades of my life because we made a hard decision there in the middle.

It was not a two or three year decision, right? It was hard with a little one and two working people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So it's meant to catapult you through the baby steps faster, a short term plan with an exit strategy. That's when it can be a blessing. And we wrote down the plan. We were very clear. And then we executed that plan. Right. Brilliant. That's the way to be a blessing. And we wrote down the plan. We were very clear. And then we executed that plan.

Right. Brilliant. That's the way to do it. Get rid of this debt, man. This is The Ramsey Show. In today's world, technology and innovation are crucial for any company's success. But the primary focus should always be on you and meeting your needs. That's why you get the best of both with Zander Insurance and their term life plans. Zander uses time-saving technology like over-the-phone applications, voice or electronic signature, text message updates, electronic policy delivery, and even plans with no medical exams to speed up the process of getting you the protection your family needs.

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just go to ramseysolutions.com slash agent. You can find a trusted pro in your area. That's ramseysolutions.com slash agent. I'm George Camel, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined today by Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls, 888-825-5225. Lisa joins us in Minneapolis. Lisa, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? Yeah, so I'm calling because I'm recently married

and also recently graduated from law school. Congratulations. Huge. A lot of life change. Thank you. Did you pass the bar? Yes, I did. Yeah, congrats.

I know they just went out all over. Congratulations. Yes, I did. Thank you. Appreciate it. So I have $60,000 in debt from law school alone. You said 60? Yep.

How much from undergrad? None. None? Excellent. Yep. My dad is a very large proponent of living debt-free, so my upbringing was very much so structured around the principles that Ramsey teaches. Excellent. Very cool. I was fortunate in that sense. But my husband is still in grad school, structure around the principles that Ramsey teaches. So I was fortunate in that sense.

But my husband is still in grad school and he has another year and a half. He'll graduate in December of 2022. And so my question for you guys is, should we focus on paying off my debt now that, you know, I mean, granted the government isn't requiring us to pay off anything right now, but I know we should be, or should I be paying cash for the rest of his schooling that he has? So the option is he goes into debt to continue grad school or you start paying off your loans? Right. Stop the bleeding. Yes. Okay, so pay his school. Keep cash flowing his school. Correct. Yeah, we want to minimize the damage here going forward for your debt payments.

So can you cash flow the rest of his school? Yes. Great. And as soon as he's out, does he have any debt so far? Like $20,000 from last trimester. Okay. So that puts you guys at about $80,000 total in debt, and that's all student loans? Yep. Okay. Yes. Let's cash flow the rest of his grad school.

And December 2022, he graduates. January 2023, it's game on. We're going gazelle intense with hopefully amazing salaries. What do you think your combined salary will be at that point? Probably over $200,000. It's hard to know if he'll be a chiropractor, so it's hard to know. Sure, as he's getting started. Minneapolis, it's the most saturated market right now. So if you're making $200,000 and you've got $80,000 in debt,

that debt is gone in under a year. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. Get it, get it, get it. And you're going to take cases on the side too. He's going to see people in the garage. You're not going to do whatever you've got to do

to get rid of that. And then you're basically on a two and a half year plan to be completely debt free. And then you're off to the races. And now you're making $200,000, $300,000 in a few years with no debt. And you guys are young. How old are you two? 23 and 24.

Yeah, dude. Congratulations. This is what I like to hear. Way to go, Lisa. We're so proud of you. Cheering you on as he finishes grad school and you guys get this debt paid off. Thanks for the call. Nick joins us in Annapolis, Maryland.

Nick, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. How can we help? So I, a few weeks ago, managed to screw my car up pretty bad. I got it mostly fixed up, but it sounds pretty bad, so I'm not sure how long it has left in it. And I was looking at the used car market, and with everything so inflated, it feels like it might almost be better just buy new. So I was wondering what I used car market, and with everything so inflated, it feels like it might almost be better to just buy new. So I was wondering what I should do in my situation. A couple of questions here. So have you taken it to get it looked at to see about fixing it?

Yeah, I got it fixed up. A good bit paid a good bit to do that, and it still seems like it's probably going to be on its last legs pretty soon what makes you think that um sound steering's pretty bad uh it was already a little old and okay kind of a beater to begin with okay sometimes i have been guilty of in my own life i start finding problems with things because i want to change. And especially after I get in a wreck, I have this feeling that the car is not any good anymore, it's not safe anymore, or I'm just mad at it,

or I just paid a big repair bill so I hate it. And so that's why I'm digging in. Are you done with the car? Are you sick of it? Are you annoyed by it? Does it make you mad at it to get in it because you just had to spend $5,000 to fix it? Or is it really going to fall apart on you? To answer your other question, I think it comes

down to cash and how long you're going to hang on to a car. I'm in the market to buy a used car right now. And I can say that out loud because my wife doesn't listen to this show and it's for her Christmas present. And so I'm buying it early and I'll be buying it in the next couple of days. And I got cash and I'm planning on buying a car that I'm going to drive, that we're going to drive as a family for a long, long time, hopefully for a decade or so. And so the higher price right now, it will make itself up over the next decade. I'm not worried about that. If you're going to buy a car and then sell it in two years and sell it in two years and sell it in two years, yeah, it'd be a terrible time to buy any kind of car.

Right? What is your... Even though you think it's going to be less buying a new car... Well, I don't know. I will say this. I've heard some bananas deals. I haven't seen the numbers. That there's dealer incentives for getting rid of new cars and then you can actually walk into a dealer and buy a new car

for cheaper than you can buy a used car in some situations, especially when it comes to trucks and things. I don't know if that's true or not. That's all anecdotal. What I would tell you is don't do anything on any sort of payment. Do you have cash to go buy a car? I would definitely need to finance. Yeah, absolutely not. Hang on to your car, man. So what's your financial picture? How much money do you have in cash and savings? So in cash and my savings, I think I have about eight grand today. Okay. Eight grand and 401k as well. Do you have debt? Only the house. Oh, just the house. Okay. Yeah, I bought a house a few months ago right before

graduation. So you don't have any debt except the mortgage and you've got pretty much, you're basically in kind of in this baby step three maybe land around there. Is this three to six months of expenses if you add that up? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay. So until that car actually goes kaput, and it's not an emergency because we kind of know this thing's on its way out. If I'm you, I'm going to start to create a sinking fund very quickly where I go, all right, every month I'm going to throw a few hundred bucks at least into a separate savings account so that when this car does go, I'm ready to use whatever money I have to buy whatever car I can get for that amount of money. So it becomes a simple math equation instead of, well, I could get this $25,000 car new and it's actually a good deal because usually they go for 26. That's just some backwards math there. And I don't want you financing like John talked about. So can you create a sinking fund right now? I mean, you must have a little bit of margin in your baby steps now

that you don't have any debt. Yeah. I think I have about $2,000 a month that doesn't go into like critical needs. So wiggle room, you've got $2,000. Are you investing 15% into retirement before that? Right now I think I'm doing 5%. I just got the emergency fund back up, so I need to start doing the 15%. Yeah, let's get that investing up to 15%. And do you have kids? No, I'm 22 okay so all the leftover money after that

15 that's going into a car savings fund and that's going to be my a1 is to get a car that i can afford in cash that is your next goal nick in 10 months you got twenty thousand dollars in an account boom now you can go buy yourself a used car that's not going to be fancy pants but it's going to be safer than when you got don't borrow money on car that's not going to be fancy pants, but it's going to be safer than the one you got. Don't borrow money on a depreciating asset. Don't be fancy pants. John said it best. This is The Ramsey Show. blinds.com's 100 satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color

they'll remake your blinds for free you get free samples shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Rules and restrictions apply. Today's question comes from Caleb in Scotland. Did I do that right?

That was a pretty rough accent, but continue. It wasn't great. It's fine. Today's question comes from Caleb William Wallace in Scotland. Better. He says, my friends have gotten caught up in the Bitcoin market craze

and are making a lot of money trading. I know your company says it's not a secure investment, but I have to admit I'm intrigued by the money they're making. Is it a good idea to put some of my emergency fund in Bitcoin and see how fast I can grow my savings? George, you are a Bitcoin expert. Oh my gosh, John. Okay, so we did an episode on the fine print, all about Bitcoin. We called it, Is Bitcoin Your Ticket to Wealth?

Could Bitcoin Be Your Ticket to Wealth? And what made me laugh at the end there was to see how fast I can grow my savings. And in my head I thought, you mean to see how fast you can lose your savings? That's the question I want you to ask. It's a risk problem, John. I know you're big on this risk analysis. And what we found with Bitcoin is that we're not against Bitcoin. I'm not mad at you if you want to put some money in Bitcoin.

But this is not your 15% retirement. We're not banking on this money to live off of. Now, if you want to do some fun money, if you're debt-free, you're already investing, you've got your life taken care of, you want to put some fun money into Bitcoin, that's fine. Have some fun with it. But treat it like entertainment because right now that's what it is. And so, no, it's not a good idea to put your emergency fund in Bitcoin because guess what? When there's an emergency, you're going to need that money, and it needs to be liquid. You need to be able to pull that out of the account and know it's going to be there.

And with a drop of a dime or Elon Musk saying something on Saturday Night Live, your emergency fund could vanish. Evaporates. That frightens me. So don't do that, man. Put your emergency fund in a money market account, in a high-yield savings account, and keep it there, part for safety. This is not where you want to play with investing.

And for those of you who want to use Bitcoin as a hedge, the dollar's all going down. So we're going to have, please don't, please, please do just a rudimentary risk assessment on how currency works. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Love yourself more than that. Right? That's all I'm going to say.

That's it. That's it, Caleb. Thanks for the question all the way across many ponds to Scotland. Yeah. That's fun. And we can't take away your freedom either. I wish you would have called in and I could have heard that amazing Scottish accent. All right.

Open phones this hour. 888-825-5225. Alan is in Houston, Texas, home of the John Deloney. Welcome to the Ramsey Show, Alan. Hello, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my call. Alan, what is tonight? What is tonight?

You know, I'm actually out of town right now. Oh, boy. Oh, Alan. I'm guessing there's a big game, John. Just try to wake yourself up. First game of the World Series that the Astros are going to win. But whatever. Go ahead with your question, Alan.

Funruiner.com. Alan, speak directly into the phone. We had you nice and clear there for a second. Yeah. Okay. So, unfortunately, last month my father passed away. Oh, man. I'm so sorry.

Yeah, it's still hard. away. Oh, man. I'm so sorry. Yeah, it's still hard. Yeah, absolutely, man. How did he pass away? Cancer. Cancer. Oh, man, I'm so sorry. He fought the cancer for two years when the doctors two years ago gave him eight weeks to live. Wow.

So he did good. He's a warrior. That's right, man man yeah dad dad was always a big-time fighter he he did everything great he really did it's awesome man so how can we help today so i stand to inherit between someplace in the neighborhood of about five to 600,000. Okay. I have been a truck driver for 22 years now. I could actually, with that kind of money, buy my own truck and trailer.

I would then stand to profit probably about an extra 50, maybe $75,000 a year up above what I'm making now. Okay. Do you think that something like that would be a good investment or just putting half a million dollars into a good mutual fund and just letting it do its job there? Well, the latter with you starting your own business is a whole lot more work. I mean if you put $600,000 into a good growth stock mutual fund and it grows at 10% with a rate of return, that's $60,000 a year right there, which is what you said you'd be making profit from the business. Now, if you want to start a business because that's your heart and that's where your passion lies, then I think you start this business. What's your whole financial picture look like?

Do you have any debt currently? About $28,000 on a car loan, and that's it. Okay. And do you have a mortgage? No. I would like to eventually buy a house. Okay. So that was my question is what's the whole picture so we can really look at your goals holistically and go,

all right, if a house is your goal, maybe we do that before we start the business and get into the trucking game. So you're renting right now? Yes. Okay. If I'm you, this is just brushing over it, I'm going to go, all right, I'm paying off this debt, A1, this $28,000 car loan is gone as soon as you get this money followed by I'm going to pay cash for my first house and do that

as a way to honor my dad and the legacy he left well that's really important to me actually in fact the day I get the money I'm taking $4,100 and pledging it to his synagogue because that's what he would

want to do with it to his synagogue because that's what he would want to do with it. Awesome. Yeah, because his wishes are most important right now. I just want to make him proud. Yeah. Yeah. When do you expect to receive a check? It's going through probate right now.

Okay. So I already received about $150,000 from an inherited 401k. Okay. And the rest of it, I have another $250,000, I would say, probably before end of the year. And then there's another $200,200 and change invested in a building that me and my brother now own outright. So it depends on when we sell that and all that stuff. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to do nothing for six months.

Okay. Okay? And this is the advice that I was given by the guy who trained me in crisis response. And it's been wisdom that I've passed on over and over. Nothing will make sense for six months. And you're going to think it does one day and it's not the next day. You clearly loved your old man. He was an awesome guy.

He left you a legacy. He left you with you and your brother with financial security, and you're going to be grieving this and letting this settle for a season. So I don't want you to sprint off and say, oh, I got to go do this. I got to go do that. I want to spend this money before you even have the check in your hand. I want that money to get to you. If it's coming in different investments, you may want to hang on to some of those investments and not cash them out, or you may have to take graduated withdrawals from them, depending on what kind of accounts they are. So clearly sit down with a smart investor pro to walk through

what you've got. But I want you to hang on to this for six months. Dream a little bit. Think about it a little bit. It may be, I want to get out of trucking altogether. Or I love what I do. Man, it's always been my dream. Like George said, I've to get out of trucking altogether. Or, I love what I do. Man, it's always been my dream. Like George said, I've wanted to have my own business forever. Or actually, I just want to buy a small house and settle down for a season and become a local driver, right? It's all those things. It just gives you some space to grieve, some space to make some of those decisions.

Does that sound okay? Yeah, I think that is awesome. Very cool. We'll be thinking about you and your family praying for you and what a cool legacy that your old man left huh yes he did he did he he did very well in life in business but the most important thing too was his family that's all that mattered was family family family incredible incredible thank you so much for the call, brother. Yeah, thanks for sharing that story.

That's awesome, John. I love to hear situations like that where it's not easy, but it makes it easier when you're not left with a financial mess. And instead, there's a financial blessing on the other side. It's such a gift to be able to say, what do we want to do, not what do we have to do? You've got options. And that's one of the best legacies you can leave. Well, financial legacies are great.

And so I just imagine my kids sitting around saying, man, that guy loved me. I can't think of anything more incredible. Wow. Love it. Very cool. Awesome. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. our scripture of the day comes from second chronicles 15 7 but as for you be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded christopher columbus said you can never cross

the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. Amazing we had quotes back then, John. Who was writing these down? 1450s. Yeah, I'm calling. I don't know about that one. He's calling the bluff on Columbus there. All righty. Well, hey, I'm George Camel, Ramsey personality, host of the Fine Print podcast and Entree Leadership podcast, joined today by the amazing Dr. John Deloney, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show. You can find all of those shows on the Ramsey Network, wherever you find podcasts, all the stuff.

John's show is on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, YouTube, podcast, it's everywhere. That's right. I can't get away from it, John. I pull up my YouTube and it's all John Deloney clips. You've taken over. Yeah, see, it's cool. My job is every day. I don't get to just do a series like you do. You've taken over. Yeah. See, I've... It's cool. My job is every day.

I don't get to just do a series like you do. Oh, that hurts. That hurts, John. The amount of work we put into our beautiful narrative storytelling podcast. Let's do 10 episodes and call it good for the year. We're whittling away with a little pick to make a perfectly crafted 30-minute podcast. Well, you found a glitch in the matrix, so congratulations. I have to show up every day to record my show, so it's cool, man.

It's good. Well, it's been a fun ride, guys. Me and John clearly, two hours and 40 minutes is our limit together before John gets snitty. James is about to pop in. I actually don't show up every day either, so it's okay. Well, the way to avoid all of this is to go to the phone lines, John. That's where we do our best work.

And Nina is on the line in Pensacola, Florida. Nina, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. How can John and I help? I have a question about trying to minimize the accumulation of interest

on my loans. On student loans? Yes, sir. I have on my loans. Okay. On student loans? Yes, sir. I have federal student loans. I also have a private loan and I have credit cards as well. Okay.

So you want to minimize interest. What was the thinking behind minimizing interest? Just you don't want to pay more than you have to pay? Yeah. Ideally, I would love to be able to start paying it off. But realistically, I'm in an intensive nursing program right now, and I don't graduate until after the summer of next year. So I wouldn't be able to start working to start paying it off. So I actually tried to transfer my credit card debt to get zero APR for at least a year, try to get that interest down. I don't know about loan consolidation,

if that would help, but try to get the interest down. Are you continuing to take on debt as you finish this program? I am. I'm finding ways to pay for it as the semesters come. I'm not taking any more federal loan debt. I'm not taking out any private loans at the moment. So what are you taking out to pay for this? The money that's been coming in from COVID like um the school's been sending me money for covid like um relief funds and then everything that supplement my parents have been helping me

to cover it yeah okay well the interest has been paused with the student relief um extension being in place until january 31st so fe February 1st, payments are back on, interest back on. And so the best thing you can do is pay off your loans while you can right now. But it sounds like you don't have the cash flow to do that as you continue to finish this program. So the only way to minimize interest on your loans, other than refinancing, getting a lower interest, is to actually pay off the debt as quickly as possible. And so that's why we recommend what's called the debt snowball. And it sounds counterintuitive because what we say is, hey, ignore the interest rate. You're just going to list the debts from smallest to largest, the balances. You're going to pay

minimum payments on all of those debts except for the smallest debt. And on that debt, you're going to attack it with a vengeance, with everything you've got, with side job money, any income. You're going to shave your expenses down to bare bones and attack that debt. Because once you do that, you free up a payment you're making on that debt, and you use that on the next debt, and the next debt, and the next debt. So that is, truthfully, the best way to minimize interest is to get rid of the debt as fast as possible. All right. But since you're still in school, and I do know a special medical intensives, whether it's nursing or nurse practitioners, or you're in your clinical rotations in med school,

whatever, I understand those take up your entire life. You're working 10 to 12 hour, 14 hour shifts, and then you're doing classwork at night, and then you're starting up and doing that over again. Your goal right now is to get through school with no more debt stop the bleeding okay put a put a plug in that in that drain so the water doesn't keep coming out if you're trying to fill up the drain doesn't matter if i mean trying to fill up the sink doesn't matter if if the if it's just all draining right back out the bottom so stop the the drain stop the bleeding i'm going to use as many metaphors i'm just going to use as many metaphors.

I'm just going to use 30 of them in this one call. A lot of medical analogies. A lot of them. Too many. But stop that, and then when you get done with school, you're going to have to make a commitment to yourself that you're going to do what George just said,

put those debts in order, smallest to largest, and you're going to start knocking them off. And you're not going to buy a new car. You're not going to go buy a new house with your big nursing salary. You're going to just spend that first year, that first two years getting out of debt and you're going to set yourself up for a lifetime of peace.

Okay? Good for you. Thanks for the call, Nina. We are going to Selena in Salt Lake City. Selena, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. How can John and I help?

Okay, I just sold my house today, earlier today. Wow, congratulations. Thank you, thank you. I'm currently, I moved out of state, recently moved to Utah, and so I'm currently paying a higher rent than my mortgage was. But I sold my house earlier today, and with the money, I intend to pay off all of my student loan debt, which is about $39,000. Love it. I'm going to take $5,000, add it to my emergency fund, which will bring that up to $15,000, and then I'll have $40,000 left over. And so my question is, what do I do with that?

Because I don't have any car payments, credit card debt. I won't have a mortgage, and I don't want to just put it in a bank and have it sit there. That's awesome. So selling this house has catapulted you from baby step one to four pretty quickly. Yes. Where are you going to live? Currently, I'm in Orem, Utah. I moved here for work from Nebraska. Are you just renting an apartment? Yes, renting a townhome. The market here is actually worse. For maybe a not very nice condo or townhome, they rent about like $400,000. For outdated condos that need all new flooring and on a busy street and a corner spot. And it sounds like your next goal, so you'll be investing 15% with this new job, I assume, into retirement?

I'm currently at 8%, and that's another thing because of my age. I don't know if I should do the traditional or the Roth. I struggle with that. But currently, I'm investing 8% into my 401k work. I'm 42. Okay. I mean, you can definitely connect with a SmartVestor Pro in that area to go, hey, what is my best bet based on when I want to retire, what my goals are?

But on the money side, once you've got – I would bump that up to 15% regardless of if it's in traditional Roth. Don't let that paralyze you in your decision-making process. But once you've got that, it sounds like your next goal is to plant roots there and maybe get a house? Not necessarily. My daughter has two years of high school left, and so there's a lot of uncertainties right now. So you might be moving again in a few years? I might be. And so I'm thinking whether it's buy a house and, you know, either here or somewhere else, I'd like to possibly have that money work for me somehow, but I just don't know where or how. You know, do I open up my own Vanguard account and do a, you know, standard S&P? Do I jump into my retirement, which, you know, I wouldn't be able to use later?

I think beyond the 15%, it comes down to, hey, do I want to save up for a down payment in the future, whether it's in Salt Lake City area or elsewhere? And you can park that money in a high-yield savings account and get a half percent. If it's going to be long-term, if you're talking three, four, five-plus years, you could put it in some index funds in Vanguard. You could put it in some mutual funds to let it grow at a higher rate. But if it's going to be short term, I wouldn't go investing into the market yet, especially if you don't know what the next few years looks like. Okay. So short term would be if I'm not going to less than four or five years? Yeah. One to two years. Yeah.

If we're talking one to two years, that's too short for me to be jumping into the market. But if it's longer than that, if you're talking three to five, you can park that in some index funds or mutual funds and let that grow. Thanks so much for the call. It's been a fun hour, John. Our thanks to James Childs, producer, Austin Selby on the phone screen, and Kelly Daniel, associate producer, and you, America. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously.

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.