The Ramsey Show - App - I'm Not Paying Any Taxes On My Side Hustle (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

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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 am Dave Ramsey, your host, Christy Wright. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. We're here answering your questions about your life and your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Dave is with us in Huntington, West Virginia. Hi, Dave. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Yeah, I appreciate you having me. I love listening to you guys, and I appreciate you having me. Sure. I love listening to you guys, and I appreciate your brutal honesty. Thanks. That's his specialty. We are here for you. It would be brutal to be dishonest. No, I appreciate you guys. I'm a W-2 employee at the VA Medical Center in Huntington.

Love that job. I work in the medical field and also staff surgery centers with anesthesia under a 1099. Maybe a crazy question, but I put off the taxes until the end of the year on my 1099, and whatever my accountant says I owe, I put into my SEP instead. Crazy, not crazy. Won't do it. Your SEP is only a deduction. It's not a tax credit.

Okay. That's all righty. So if you put $10,000 in your SEP, it doesn't save you $10,000 on taxes. If you put $10,000 in your SEP and you're in a 30% tax bracket, it saves you $3,000 on taxes. So you're still going to owe $7,000 in taxes. I appreciate that. Yeah. Okay. So you advocate obviously going to owe $7,000 in taxes? I appreciate that, yeah. Okay, so you advocate obviously paying the quarterlies.

Yes. You're going to be penalized and fined if you do not pay your quarterlies anyway. Now, what you can do if you want to just calculate it, is the 1099 steady? Is it predictable? Yes, yes. You could just up your withholding on your W-2 job for enough to cover it. Oh, okay. Fair enough.

And so, you know, let's say, what do you make at your 1099 job a year? Well, there's four business partners. We've probably got an AR of $750,000 i'm sorry you make 750 1099 income no no no no no our ar is that's i misunderstood the question no mine is probably 80 my cut would be 80 000 a year on that on the 1099 alone on the 1099 yes yeah so you have 80 000 that you have not paid taxes on if you don't file your quarterly okay and what do you make it your w-2 job um right at 200 okay all right so let's just say the taxes i'll just make up a number when you sit with your tax person and they say the taxes on the 80 grand is 24 000,000 okay okay then you would just increase

your w-2 by two thousand dollars a month which is 24,000 a year and then you would have already paid your taxes on your 80 and you would not be susceptible i don't think ask your tax person but i don't think you'd be susceptible to a penalty at that point but if you've done if you've made 80 more than two years in a row and you don't pay quarter lease or you don't somehow have proper withholding done you're going to be penalized for not doing your quarter lease and i'll just saving it up and paying it at the end of the year is not an option it is an option but it's an expensive option to use so you need to get a good tax pro in your corner and either do quarterlies or do what i'm talking about if you don't get penalized the way i'm talking about

not positive about that part of it but that's another way to handle the math philip is with us in spokane hi philip welcome to the ramsey show thanks for having me great how can i help yeah so i'm looking at a new job opportunity that's starting here soon. And the new job, they are exempt from Social Security, so I don't contribute, they don't either, which I'm kind of happy about. And they take the portion that I would contribute to Social Security and they put it into a state pension. And then I would continue to do my 15%, which I've been doing at my previous job, into my Roth as well as 401K. Do I need to worry about not getting Social Security at all and then adjusting a little bit extra into retirement, or am I good just doing 15 and then letting them dump the money into the pension?

You're good with that part, because here's the thing. You've already paid into Social Security. You're going to get some, but Social Security has a negative rate of return. You never get out as much as you put in much less much less any interest okay that makes sense and so but you if you've already been paying in for several years you're going to get something upon retirement that's what they told me to yeah they said they'll get based off what you paid the last 15 years in the workforce and they'll just'll just stop paying into it. You'll probably get the full amount or close, I mean, by the time you get to 65. So if you stay in this job until 65, you know, and you put in 15%, that's going to end up being your biggest, by far, your biggest return,

not the pension and not Social Security. Okay, that makes sense. Do it. Thanks, man. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Christy Wright Ramsey, personality, is my co-host. Robert is in Nashville. Hey, Robert, how can we help?

Hey, Dave, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. How can we help? So, I'm teaching a financial literacy class to a youth group at church, middle school, and the curriculum has been given to us of what we are to teach. And part of the curriculum is teaching the individuals how to go into debt, basically how to borrow money and use credit wisely. And I'm kind of morally

torn about teaching that portion of the curriculum, but it's kind of mandatory. So how do I go about doing that and still feeling morally right about it? Have you talked to anybody about it? No. You're the first ones. Wow. Well, I mean, okay, let me ask you this because I don't want to assume something. Is this a church, a Bible-believing church?

Yes. Okay, so they don't think that the Bible is allegory. They are a Bible-believing church? No, not at all, not at all. But yes, they are a Bible-believing church, yes. Okay, so if you were to sit down with the people at the church and go, it says nowhere in Scripture, not a single place does it say a positive thing about debt. It is wrong for us to use, in a church that believes the Bible to be teaching teenagers

to go into debt and the proper way to do that when the Bible doesn't teach that. Right. What kind of reaction would you get? I would probably get a positive reaction, but, you know, they chose the curriculum and, you know, it was a book written by whomever that we're working out of. So I'm thinking about just actually leaving that whole portion out of the curriculum. Well, how about we just we'll give you some curriculum for free. OK. Yeah. Don't sidestep it, Robert. I mean, not from a communication standpoint, not from a curriculum standpoint. This is a great opportunity for you to communicate exactly like Dave said, what the Bible says

about this and lead up in your organization about this topic of finances. And you don't come in like a bulldozer, pointing fingers, placing blame or saying, hey, here are my convictions. Here's what I've studied. Here's what I believe. Here's a curriculum that is proven that is biblically based, here's what it says in the Bible, and you have all these different angles that you're able to communicate and have a conversation. You could lead to actual change in your church versus just leaving that lesson out.

Yeah, I agree. I don't know if you're going to do it or not, but I'll offer you curriculum for free to teach them out of our high school curriculum. I'll have Kelly pick up and get your contact information. And if you want it and we'll teach that instead, we'll give it to you. And that'll solve the problem. But I think you need to sit down with leadership because leadership's not making a good call here.

It's not a matter of being mean about it. It's just being kind and open and conflict in a healthy organization is a good thing. This is the Ramsey Show. You've got a lot on your plate. A job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your health care. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. That's chministries.org slash budget.

Wow. Nearly 30 years ago, we started this show on a tiny little bankrupt radio station here in Nashville. We talked about the same stuff that we talk about now. We sound a little more country. Living on a budget, getting out of debt, building wealth. About 15 years ago, a guy walked into my office that was working for us and he was kind of one of these uh mad scientist type guys and he said um we need a podcast and i said what's a podcast and uh nobody had a podcast and he said you need a podcast i said we don't need a podcast i never even heard of a podcast why do i need a podcast and we talked about it and laughed about it and um we figured out we could start one it

wasn't that the heavy lifting that we could basically take this show and put it on a podcast the radio show that we were doing every day anyway what we call sawdust in the business you're it's the stuff you're making anyway you might as well use it for lots of repurpose it for lots of different things we also put it on seriousM, and we also put it a lot of other places over the years, YouTube now, that kind of stuff. But what's interesting is The Ramsey Show is one of the top podcasts in the world, if you didn't know, consistently ranking in the top four, five, six podcasts on Apple. And we have become the fifth show in history about a week ago.

There's only four other shows that have done it before us, and we're the fifth show in history to now have had one billion downloads of this podcast. That's incredible. That's mind-blowing. When that slide went up this morning in our staff meeting, I mean, I can't wrap my head around that. Our people, they couldn't cheer because they couldn't get their mouth closed. Yeah. They were jaw dropped.

Yeah. A billion downloads of this podcast. That's a lot. Yeah. That's mind-blowing. And only four of the shows have done it. And there's obviously four of the five or six shows that are bigger than this show and do a great job as well, obviously, in the podcast world. What's interesting is over the years, every year we add up what the debt-free screams have done and how much they have paid off and we've added that up now and now we've

helped callers just on air do debt-free screams for over 500 million dollars and that's just the on-air debt-free screams a half a billion that's just the ones we know about yeah and so what that means is it's at least 10x that and um pretty crazy pretty crazy so uh subscribe and follow the ramsey show podcast and apparently you won't be by yourself yeah on spotify apple google wherever you listen to podcasts uh check out all the podcasts in the ramsey network rachel cruz ken coleman anth O'Neill, Christy Wright, Dr. John Deloney. The new one, The Fine Print that's coming out. Borrowed Future, the famous podcast on the student loan. Epic failure of the student loan system.

And pretty, pretty stinking incredible. So check it all out at DaveRamsey.com. And anywhere great podcasts are, you can find the Ramsey Network. And, of course, this being the flagship show of that. And so, again, a billion downloads. Thank you guys out there so much. You guys have blessed us telling your friends about it, obviously, and listening yourself. And I'm glad we've been able to help you and serve you to that level.

It's pretty amazing to us. It blows my mind. I can't even calculate what that means. A billion downloads. A billion. Wow. Mike is in Indianapolis. Hey, Mike, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

How can Christy and I help? Hi. So this is kind of surreal talking to you on the phone. It's okay. I'm glad you're here, brother. I'm glad you're here for my family. But I need to hear it from your lips. Okay.

Over the last year, my wife and I have paid off all of our debt with the exception of the mortgage and $8,000 in student loans. Okay. student loans. Since then, we have been able to put about $18,000 in the bank just because I was off for COVID for seven weeks and it scared us. Now we need some upgrades to our house, including new windows. We bought a 45-year-old house. Windows are original to the home, but I still have $8,000 in student loans. Do I write the check and get rid of them and then do the improvements to the house? Or can I go ahead and give my wife new windows? Well, you know the answer.

You know the answer. You tell us the answer, Mike. What's the answer, Mike? Tell us. What's the answer, Mike? The biggest problem is that in the winter, where we live is so rural, we have propane heat, and the windows leak so bad that it costs us a ton of is so rural we have propane heat and the windows leak

so bad that it cost us yeah how long have you lived there uh six years wow i know by the way this is what month it's but it's still cold up here i know so on it's not it's not it's not gonna be cold but another month right so this has nothing to do not gonna work mike okay by the way by the way what are the windows cost yeah that's what i was like how much of the windows because how much have you gotten savings 18 000 and the windows are going to cost 6 Okay. So what is your emergency fund fully funded? What should it be, three to six months of expenses? Three to six months of expenses should be at three months,

we would be right around $6,000. We were very lean. Okay. So 18 minus 8 is 10, minus 6 for your emergency fund leaves 4. Why can you not have the windows in by next fall? I don't know. What's your household income? So it's just me.

We homeschool our kids. What's your household income? Take-home is $43,000, but that also includes I have a company car, and the company pays for all of my vehicle, maintenance, gas, everything, so I don't have a travel budget for work. Very nice. Okay. Well, so, I mean, I think you ought to put in windows by the fall,

and I think you're going to pay off your student loan today. You keep your emergency fund aside, and anything above your emergency fund will drag over to a different savings account, and that's the window savings account. You take on an extra job. You have a garage sale. You do whatever else to have the difference and have your windows ready to purchase before it gets cold. You know, I think, Mike, I think COVID scared y'all a little bit. I think you stocked up this cash of $18,000.

I think you liked having the cushion of $18,000, and now the thought of spending some of the $18,000 on windows or your debt scares you because you like having the $18,000. And I just want you to know you're going to be okay. You can pay off your loans. You can get your windows. You can refill your emergency fund. You're going to be okay. It's going to be lower than you're used to because you're used to having this $18,000.

But you have it for that reason to use it for things you need, and you need this. You need to pay off your loans. and you get those windows by fall, and you're still going to have money for your emergency fund, and you keep filling it up. Right. All righty. Thank you guys so much. You can do it. You can do it.

And she can do it. You guys are going to make it. And yeah, you're not, so you're going to have one more month of coolish weather, and you're probably going to survive it. It's pretty amazing. You made it for six years. So. I get like that about stuff in my house.

It's like I'm fine. It's fine for five years, and then I see it, and I just can't unsee it, and I become a one-track mind. And you have to remind yourself, I lived with this for this long. We don't need this right now. It did not become an emergency yesterday because we decided oh my gosh the windows you've lived with it we're going into summer you'll be fine but sometimes you see something oh man you just fixate on it my next book is going to be called the death of the drama queen because there's a drama queen that lives inside of every one of us just the guy to write

it there's a drama queen inside of all of us. We all do that. What you talked about there. I've done it. I may have done it this week, and it's just Monday, right? But we all have this drama queen that lives inside of us. It's like, oh, God, the propane is just going out the window. We're high as a bee.

We all do that crap, right? And once we decide, we fixate on it. We do. And there's something about we fixate on it. We do. And there's something about this little child on the cereal aisle that wakes up and throws a fit. I can't live with those windows another day. That's how we get it. And they live inside of us, and this little child makes our decisions. It's like, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee.

And we just have this little hissy fit. Now, that's a southern term. Sounds just like my kids. You Yankees don't even know what that means. A hissy fit. It's like a duck fit. Those are two non-Yankee terms right there. But it just means your emotions got out of control because you're immature.

I'll help you with that. Okay. Oh, my goodness. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Open phones, 888-825-5225. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. Brandon is with us in Dallas, Texas.

Hey, Brandon. How are you? Yes, sir. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I hope you haven't called anybody an idiot today because I want to give you the first crack at me.

We are starting this strong, Brandon. I cannot wait. I can't wait for this. Well, I've been listening for a couple years. That's not too bad, but I think I should know the answer, but I just don't. I want to feel like I have this unique situation. But anyway, I'm not a teacher anymore. I used to be a teacher.

I taught for 12 years. I'm self-employed for the last two years. In these last two years, I've been making good money, but I haven't put anything away for retirement. And when I look at, you know, what I've made as a teacher as far as retirement, it's just a little under $40,000. I'm not really sure how that works, you know, over time. But I figured after 12 years, I would have a little bit more than that. Anyway, I bought some property. I kept it for a year, decided I wanted to move to be closer to where I work for my, my new job. So I'm in the process of selling that property worth about 90,000.

And I have bought some property in the new city where I live. And so my question is, um, you know, now that I'm making decent money and really I'm in no, you know, I'd like to build a house in the future, but I'm kind of okay renting for the time being. I'm always worried about retirement. So my question is, with the money that I make from selling this property, should I, you know, throw $125,000 into my retirement or should I put that 90,000 towards, you know throw 125 000 into my retirement or should i put that 90 000 towards you know the the new property that i'm that i've just bought and you know try to go ahead and pay that off what are you making um about 150 pre-tax wow good for you nice jump thank you and it's just

cell phone repair, computer repair. Good for you. Okay. Fairly predictable then. That's good. Okay. And that's one thing that I'm worried about, though, because I'm wondering how technology changes.

That's what I'm kind of worried about. Nothing is forever. It's okay. You're going to stay on top of it, and you're going to find something else to work on as whatever you're working on isn't there anymore. We don't work on toasters anymore, but we used to. Yes, sir.

And you'll find something else to work on. The guys that used to work on toasters work on cell phones now. So you're going to be fine. You're the guy that's going to figure it out. So good news is you're making good money. So here's our rule of thumb. We work a thing called the baby steps. And baby step one is $1,000 in the bank.

You've done that. Two is debt-free, everything but your house. You've done that, right? Yes, sir. Three is an emergency fund. Do you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses not counting as 90 grand? I do, yes, sir. Good for you.

Okay, then we're on baby steps four, five, and six. Four is 15% of your income should be going into retirement. You need to go to DaveRamsey.com, click on Smart Vestor, get a Smart Vestor Pro, sit down with them, start loading a couple of Roth. Are you married? I am not, but I do have children. Okay, you need to start loading a Roth IRA. How many employees do you have? It's just me. Okay, then I would look at doing a SEP as well, Simplified Employee Pension Plan, and between that and a Roth, you can get 15% of your income going into retirement with a SmartVestor Pro automatically coming out of your checking account every month, and it'll just be on autopilot. You want to think about it again,

and you're going to retire with a lot of money. How old are you? I'm 38, but can I tell you one more thing here? Sure. I guess my fear overall is that I feel like, you know, I'm making more money than I've ever made, but my fear is, you know, Apple or Samsung is going to make a phone that you can't repair or doesn't need to be repaired, and I may have to go back to teaching. You're going to find something else to work on.

In the meantime, you're going to save 15% of your income into retirement, and baby step five is you're going to start putting something aside for your kids, and baby step six is that you're going to get your home paid off, in this case this land paid off. So that formula tells us that you're going to put the $90,000 towards your land. Okay. And you're going to set up these other accounts, so you quit wringing your hands about the retirement.

Here's the thing. Very few people become wealthy with single deposits. The vast majority of wealthy people did it monthly over an extended period of time. It was not a one-time hit. So when you get to 70 years old and you have $10 million, you're not going to go, it's because of that 90 grand. You're going to go, it's because of a steady life of investing. And I had to pivot my business.

My business had to change and evolve. Because, I mean, back in Aught 21, they had these things called smartphones, you know, back before we had the hologram. You know what I'm saying? Yes, sir. Crap's going to change, right? And you're going to find something else to do and or a modification of what you're doing still within that field. When I started this business, the Internet was not there. There was no such thing.

And the one thing I would add, Brandon, is let that change inspire you, not intimidate you. Let it inspire you to stay sharp on your skills and learn new things and be excited about what you're going to know how to do in 5, 10 years, not be scared that the world's going to move on and leave you behind and you're not going to have a job because you're working on these old phones that no one uses anymore, the toaster in this example. Don't look at it like that. You can look at this and let it inspire you of like, hey, I'm going to stay on the cutting edge of what's going on.

You can be the first guy that works on the brand new X or the brand new Y because you're working and because you're looking for that because you know that 10 years from now you're not working on a smartphone. I'm 1,000% sure of that. Well, thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it. Yeah. That's how I would do it.

That's exactly what I would do. I think your business is as stable as your ability to continue to innovate. And that's everybody, by the way. And it's not going to be the rug pulled out from underneath you, most likely. It's going to be incremental. You're going to learn as you go, like you did to get to this point. Yeah. Now, very few businesses do you just walk, unless you have a single thing with a single product.

Now, if you bet your life on Apple, oh, you could get screwed. Yeah. If you bet your life on Google, you could get screwed. Bet your life on Facebook, you could get screwed. So don't have a business model that allows yourself to be completely vulnerable to any one thing out there any one vendor any one singular process but um you know you you got to have a diversified approach to it and a constant mind for innovation and the next thing but you got to have that in any business right oh yeah any business things are about the only thing you can count on is change

marley is with us marley's in reddington or redding california hi marley how are you great how are you better than i deserve what's up well i am currently out on maternity leave and yay what'd you have yes i have a boy he's just turned three months and then we have a daughter who is about to turn two yay congratulations man you got a lot of noise in your house yeah no sleep they are both napping right now thankfully um but my question is my husband and and I both make fairly good money in our day jobs. I'm a teacher. I make a little over $45,000 a year. My husband makes a little over $60,000 at his day job, but he also owns two small businesses.

And so he makes a little less than $130,000 right now. He did just start a new business that could potentially make a lot more money. He makes $130,000 or we do? We, we. Okay, and of that $45,000 is you? Correct. Okay, so $85,000 is his. I got you.

Okay. What's your question? Yes. My question is I would really like to stay home. Good. And we both kind of talked about it a lot right now we're debt free um we're able to contribute about a thousand dollars a month extra towards our mortgage and like 40 of his income towards retirement but we won't be able to do those things if i stay home that's not

what we teach we don't teach 40 towards retirement retirement. Correct, yes. We teach 15% towards retirement until your house is paid off. If you want to stay home, you're trading kids for money. That's a good trade. What do you think? Yeah, you're in a position to be able to do it. You want to do it, do it. Make the decision to cut back on some things and make the decision for your budget to work and to stick to it. But, you know, set up 15% of his income going into retirement.

You'll be fine. You're going to be just fine. But don't go in debt to do it. Our scripture of the day, Isaiah 41, 13. For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear. I will help you. Julie Andrews, the original Mary Poppins, said perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. So I grew up on her being Mary Popppins but i really really liked the new one too oh i haven't seen it you haven't seen it well it's not brand new i mean it was just a

couple years ago yeah yeah who was it kelly emily blunt yeah she did a great job yeah um i'm not i'm not cool enough to keep up with who's who in hollywood but um but she did that was and uh the guy that played um played dick van dyke's role as well was, yeah, okay. He was fabulous. And I'm not even going to try to do that. But anyway, yeah, he did a good job, too. So, yeah, it was fun. It was fun.

That's a great old story. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Stafford is with us in Charleston, South Carolina. Hi, Stafford. How are you? Hey, doing great, Dave. I appreciate you taking my call. Sure.

How can we help? Yeah, so me and my fiance are getting married in July, which we're very excited about. Yay! Congratulations. I've been following you since, thank you, since I was a kid. My parents followed your plan and passed on those values to me, and so I appreciate that because I've been debt-free since, you know, out of school and been really just trying to stay on that.

One of my life goals is to be consumer debt-free. Great. And so we're getting married, but she's got some credit card debt and some student loans. And so it's not a matter of if to pay off the credit cards and the student loans, but how to go about doing it. And so we've got some cash saved up that we have to pay for the wedding, as well as we want to do some home renovations.

But the question was, is it worth trying to settle on some of this credit card debt by calling and settling directly with the credit cards? Is she behind? She's not behind. She pays her minimum payment, but she doesn't make enough, Doug. No, they're not going to settle. If you're not behind, pays her minimum payment but she doesn't make enough to no they won't they're not going to settle if you're not behind they're not going to settle the only reason they settle is if you're in default and they and you're going to have to

screw up her credit to do that so wait a minute i'm sorry i drove right by something you're going to pay for the wedding how much money do you have i got about 50 000 in savings right now and how much you're spending on the wedding uh we're paying a portion of it so we're probably putting 15 towards the wedding which leaves 35 and she has 37 right so when you come home from the honeymoon you write a check and pay off the debt 10-4 no hunt no home renov. I heard you sneak that through there. He did, didn't he? And then just to drive by.

She's starting to push the wedding back unless we get some of this stuff knocked out. I'm a single guy living at a house for a while. Yeah, well, I mean, we're not talking about putting it off for very long. You're going to have zero debt, and you're going to be on a budget together, and you have your emergency fund in place. You'll be able to save up for home renovations as your next goal gotcha so you're saying don't try to negotiate just try to just pay it off and move on well you're they're not going to negotiate does she want to pay off this debt yes okay because this

is a this is a we need to be on the same page with values and how we handle money in addition to paying off the debt. Because if you pay off the debt and she's still excited about using credit cards, you're going to run into this problem again. No, absolutely. She's ready to get rid of it. She works for a ministry and isn't making enough, Deb. Okay. So what do you make? I make $100 a year.

What does she make? $500 a week and a side hustle. She's doing about $28 a year. What does she make? $500 a week and a side hustle. She's doing about $28 a year. Okay. All right. And whose home is renovating? Who are we moving? Your house, her house, what?

It's my house. And what does it need? How much do you need to spend on it? Probably about $30,000. Okay. All right. And so with a hundred and something thousand dollar household income and no debt in the world, and you knowing how to be on a budget and her learning how to be on a budget,

and we both have one goal, and that's to do some of these renovations, you probably can do them in a few stages. You could start almost immediately on the first stage. Right. And debt-free. Then you're making those renovations debt-free. Yeah. I don't think the credit card company is going to settle with you when you're not behind. I got you.

And I don't think anybody else is either. And I wouldn't recommend you put her behind merely for the purposes of settling. But I think it's real important that the two of you lay out a detailed... See, all I'm doing is, I'm not saying don't do something. I'm saying doing it in a very specific order that gives you the least – that gives you the most money and the least risk. Right. That's why I'm –

That's the thing. Yeah. Because I think we're on the same page in terms of wanting to get rid of it. It's a good thing I don't know about credit card settlement. I guess it's a good thing I don't know that. I just was doing information and reading. Well, you're trying to get everything done at once by paying less for the debt so that you can go ahead and start the home renovations,

which is not a bad question to ask. It's a reasonable question to ask. But here's the thing. The reason anyone, like think about if someone owed you money, the only reason you would take less than what was owed is because you don't think you're going to get your money. And you don't think you're going to get your money because they haven't been paying. And so when you, you know, a lot of these companies that, for instance, they call themselves debt consolidation companies, they're not.

All they do is put you on a payment plan where you start paying them instead of the credit card companies the credit cards get behind and then they settle on after they've destroyed your credit and put you into default and so i wouldn't set out to destroy i don't set out to bill credit but i wouldn't set out to destroy it either not when you have the ability to pay a bill that is legitimate i would just pay the bill and then i do my home repairs as my second order of business which by the way your home repairs are probably all going to be done within 12 months and a whole bunch of them are going to be done by christmas yeah that's not never it's just not right now yeah it's in this specific order yeah and that that's a there's a reason for that so

christy i've done that exercise a bazillion times with people that i'm coaching on the air here or otherwise but sharon and i had to do it you know i mean she's driving one of these ugly blue thousand years ago two-tone blue astro van you remember those yes nasty nasty butt little van it was completely worn out i mean there was stuff growing in the thing we had raised children animals were making homes and yeah we raised children in this van and she's like and we you know where the business was starting to grow and we had a little bit of money and she's like we need to get a suburban and i'm like no i've got this thing at the office we need to do this thing at the business you know and and we got in this big argument yeah are we going to do this thing at the business first are we going to invest in

the business are we going to buy a stupid suburban and you know because i i'm like no i mean we're going to grow the business there's no question no we're getting a suburban there's no question and finally between the two of us were stupid but we finally figured it out. We could do both. Yeah. It was only a matter of which one went first. Yeah. And guess what went first? We started with a Suburban, and then the next batch of money that came through, we used to grow the stuff at the office here.

Yeah. But it's not no, it's just which is first. Yeah. It's not like, no, you can't do this stuff at the business the business no you're never going to get suburban you just have to decide the proper or it's not like no we're not going to do renovations or no we're not going to pay off the debt right uh it's just a matter of the laying out that order and that order indicates what you value and that's why you asked that question about what are what our values are yeah and i think also whenever you're seeing two people come together,

they're getting married, they're so excited. One has brought debt into the marriage. One has been financially responsible, has no debt. You've got to have some of these conversations because habits have to change. It's fine if you didn't have it all together before you got married, but you need to get on the same page so that as a married couple, you're making those decisions together about debt, about savings, about where and how you spend. And sometimes you have to wrestle it out like that example.

Matt and I have had plenty of those conversations of which comes first and which is more important and everybody speaks into it. But that's why I wanted to ask that because I thought, okay, if this is the past, that's totally fine. We'll make sure it's not going to be the future spending habits whenever you're talking about credit cards, that type of thing. We have to get in lockstep, especially a newlywed couple because you're gonna it's the number one thing couples fight about and it's one of the data points we find with the millionaires is that they

not always but the vast majority of them i forget the number their spouses were on board with them they're working together they weren't one of them pulling the other one along. Yep. Yep. And they were, you know, two adults making decisions about their future. And he's going to have a lot better time, and she is as well, making those home renovations, being debt-free. It's going to be a lot more fun to pick stuff out and make decisions. Yeah, not with credit card debt hovering over your shoulder. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a good point. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. 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.