The Ramsey Show - App - Investing During a Down Market (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

George Kamel & Kristina Ellis discuss: Moving to a new job vs. keeping the one you have, Investing, What to do when you lose your job, Taking out a mortgage for a rental property. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the POTS moving and storage studios, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined this hour by bestselling author, Christina Ellis. And we are here for you, America, to take your calls, to give you

the right next step for your money and for your life. So give us a call, 888-825-5225. That is 888-825-5225. Well, Christina, we're back in the saddle here. And it was a big week last week. You hosted with Rachel Cruz for the first time. For the first time. I've never seen you happier, so I'd like that kind of excitement for us today. Can you do that? I can do that, man. Okay.

Well, there's a lot going on in the world, Christina, and a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety, a lot of poor decisions being made this time of year as we start to enter the holidays. Yes. And hopefully none of those are coming from you. Oh, gosh. I hope not. I try not to, but, I mean, no promises. Well, the Halloween fall decor went up at the Campbell household, and I'm proud to say we were under budget.

Good for you. Yes, my wife did very well with that. I'm not a big Halloween decor person as far as spending goes. Yeah, I lean more into the, like like fall decor versus the kind of creepy Halloween. I grew up Arabic Baptist, so we were one of the lights out homes at Halloween, if you know what I'm talking about, America. Do not come here.

Grandma would hand out like the little Christian tracks with the little candy bag. Oh, that's so sweet. That's how I grew up. James knows what I'm talking about. Thanks, Producer James. It was always a fall festival and you could be like a disciple dressed up as like.

Yes. The autumn harvest festival. That's right. But it is an exciting time. I did a media hit this morning with our friends in Dayton talking about how people can save around the holiday times. So a lot of the times it's just impulsive. The marketing is more aggressive than ever, even already in, you know, early mid-October here. We're already seeing

Amazon Prime Days tomorrow stock up. And then you go, wait, it's not a sale. They just marked it up to $100. And then now it's down to 50 and they're telling you it's a sale. It was always $50. Right. Well, it's crazy that they're even bringing fear into Halloween candy shopping. You were saying in your media hit recently that they're talking about how there might be a chocolate shortage. Well, it came from Hershey's. I can't trust them when it comes to candy news. Oh, of course, of course.

They want you to rush out and buy it all. Yeah, I'm not falling for the fear mongering. So it all comes down to planning early, sticking to a budget, do your research. I was at Costco this weekend on a Sunday. Just chaos abounds at Costco on a Sunday. But we got our Halloween candy. We did it.

Good for you. You probably got a big old bag of it too. You have to. It's the Costco way. It's the Costco way. Well, and I think it's so important too right now as we get ready to go into the holidays to set your budget. It's so easy once you get into the holiday mode and you're thinking about who needs a gift and what's going to be, what decorations we need

to just start spending like crazy. But now is the time to start having those conversations with your spouse. You know, what can we afford this year? And for some people, it's not going to be a lot. I did a story recently where somebody was, we were talking about what are the biggest sacrifices you've made with your money in order to get through the baby steps. And somebody was like, one year, we didn't give gifts at all. I know, the horror, right? You don't love your family then, right, Christina? Of course. Gosh.

No, but it was a temporary thing. It was one year and now they're debt free and they're giving great gifts. So it's like, it may be worth it for a year if that's where you're at and that's what you need to do. Set some boundaries, lower the expectations, sacrifice. I love it. Will you call in, jump in,

we'll talk about your life and your money, 888-825-5225. Christy is kicking us off this hour in Knoxville, Tennessee. Christy, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you? So great. How can we help today? So I finished my PhD in May, and I took a position at a regional university, moved across country. I took a non-tenure track position, making $45,000, which is very disheartening coming out of my Ph.D. program. So another college within the university has asked me to apply for a position in a different college, not necessarily my specialty, but it would increase my salary by $25,000 to $30,000. I have about 15 years of work left, and the university puts in 9% retirement for me matching for my salary. And so I'm like, do I take it? Do I jump into something that I don't know as well for the money and the long-term retirement gain, or do I stay

put? Well, they think you're qualified. Why don't you think you're qualified? Well, I'll tell you, I spent 20 years as a special education teacher and principal, and this particular department is in speech and hearing science, which is actually what my PhD is in, but I don't have a speech and hearing science background. So I'm a little nervous feeling like... You have a PhD in this, but you don't think you're qualified? Yes. Goodness, then I'm definitely not qualified. Christy, this sounds like a home run. I think it sounds like there's just fear because you haven't actually done it professionally. Well, Christy, is this something you want to do?

You know, I do. I tell you what, I'm very money driven and I love, you know, making more money. So taking the $45,000 salary was, like I said, very disheartening. So the money itself is super intriguing. What is the job where you're making 45k? What are you doing in that position? I am a clinical instructor, which is about the lowest rung you can get in higher ed. And is it in speech and learning? No, it's actually in special education. So, it's something, it's an area that I know extremely well. I could do it in my fleet.

And there's, you know, there's not a lot of challenge to it. It's just easy to do. I mean, I'm with George. It sounds like you're qualified for the new position. It pays more. And you literally have a PhD. You're not looking for a challenge at this stage of the game. But I'm going to challenge you to take that leap.

I am to a degree. Well, you're a driven person. Anyone who can finish a PhD can do this. And so if I'm you, I'm taking the leap. And it's not much of a leap. They think you're qualified. I think you're qualified. And Christy needs to believe in Christy at this point and go, you know what?

There might be a little bit of a learning curve, but I have a PhD in this area, and I'm going to figure it out because I'm Christy. And instead of being undervalued in the position that you're currently in, you're going to be making $75,000 instead of $45,000, right? Yes. That's worth it. Yeah. If this was Survivor and I said, Christy, are you willing to take a job that you have a PhD in for $30,000? You would say, yeah, I'm doing it. Absolutely. I would. Well, thank you. I appreciate the clarification. I just, yeah, it was shocking. I wasn't expecting them to come recruit me.

So it was a little bit of a curveball, but thank you. Absolutely. Well, worst case scenario, you go back to what you were doing, and you'll probably make more, because they're probably going to base it off of your current salary, which if it's 75, you go back to special ed, and they go, well, if we want Christy, we've got to come up with 75 if we're going to cause her to make this jump again. Right. Yeah. And finishing a PhD, that's not easy. That in and of itself is a big challenge. You've proven that you can do big challenges. So I would, I would take the leap. Yeah. I mean, if Ken Coleman was sitting here, he would be yelling at you to take this job. This is what you put your life's work into with this PhD. So it's

time to step into it. And it might be scary, but I think you're going to look back and say, man, I'm so glad I did that. The fear and the doubt, that voice was louder at the time, but I'm so glad I stepped further than that and took that jump. So we're cheering you on, Christy. Congrats on the promotion.

Well-deserved. This is The Ramsey show you can give us a call at 888-825-5225 you jump in we'll about your life and your money. Maybe you're trying to get out of debt, get on a budget, begin investing and building wealth, buy a house, sell a house, you name it. There's so many pieces of our life that are tied to money, and we just want to help you take the right next step in your financial future. Dean joins us up next in Olympia, Washington. Dean, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you guys doing today? We're doing great. How can Christina and I help? Well, I'm kind of a late bloomer. I'll try to

explain it the best I can. I became debt-free last December, probably made about 90 last year, one income family. My wife's retired retired the only investments or anything I've started as a Roth IRA about 14,000 at the end of the year last year I was able to combine the two years and do it at the end of the year and get both years and into the same time and then I have about 160 K in the bank debt-free mortgage no mortgage house is paid for. It's probably worth $3.25, maybe $3 at the least in this market. Looking to retire in a couple years if possible.

I'd like to retire in a couple years, but I don't really have that many investments going. I just kind of want to maybe get a little pointed in the right direction of, you know, I'm kind of spooked about the stock market and stuff right now. It doesn't appear to be doing very well. Yeah, this is a rough time to get in and go, well, it was a smart thing to invest. Kind of vehicle heavy right now, too. I have two or three vehicles and a boat to sell,

which will probably bring me another 30 or something. So I should definitely have a couple hundred K in the bank, free and clear, by the end of the year. Okay. So that includes your emergency fund. Do you know how much of that would be an emergency fund of three to six months for you guys? It would be included in that. Okay. Subtract whatever the amount would be. 15 grand, 20 grand, you think? Yeah. Okay. So that leaves you in a good cash position. And now I want to make this cash work for you, but it sounds like you're worried to

put it into the market because that money could take a dip between now and the next year. Yeah, I do have an investment broker that my Roth is through that he recommended. He's pretty sharp that I hesitate for a little bit here because he's pretty sharp. What's his hesitation? It just seems to think it's taken quite a dip right now, and I guess his opinion, it wouldn't hurt to wait till the end of the year

and see which direction it's going i thought it was good advice but i don't know enough to know well we we never recommend anyone try to time the market and right now while the stock market is down it's a fun time because the stocks are on sale and so all those shares you buy when the market comes back up the shares go with it And you bought them all at a discount, essentially. Yeah, everything's for sale now, right? Yeah, I mean, it's for sale. It's a good time to be going in. I know that there's a lot of fear right now, but what is it that Warren Buffett says?

What is this quote where it's like? Be greedy when others are fearful. Be fearful when others are greedy. Is that it? Yep. Sounds right. But I also understand being near retirement, it can be a little bit nerve wracking because you want secure investments. We have really great investment professionals, smart investor pros,

if you go to ramsaysolutions.com, that are probably going to be a little bit more confident about going into the market. They're kind of going to advise you not to try to time the market. They're going to advise you to do steady investing and just stay consistent. We always say time in the market beats timing the market. And that's the truth. The longer you've been in the game and the longer you stay there, I mean, how soon would you need to withdraw? Like, are you talking you're 61, you want to retire at 65? Yeah, maybe at 62. But with the way that inflation and everything's going, I'm probably going to have to go until 65. But work for the state, the penalties are pretty heavy.

What's your income? I made 90 last year. I'll probably make 120 this year and make at least 100 every year from here on out. And what are the retirement options through your job? It's PERS, PERS 2. And have you been contributing to that? Yeah, they contribute. They pull it out of your payroll.

So what would that amount to when you retire? They said right now it's sitting about three grand a month. If I bail at 62, it's three grand a month. If I work till 65, it's an extra thousand dollars a month. So for those three years, they're going to keep a thousand dollars a month of it. So we're saying at 65, you retire at 65, you're going to get a pension of four grand a month until you pass away? Yeah, not counting social security. Great. And so with a paid for house and very little expenses, is that not enough? You think you can make it with that? I think so, as long as inflation doesn't keep going super crazy. Another thing that's really beneficial that my wife's tribal, so we have right now it's $100 apiece, and when she turns 65 here shortly,

it'll be down to $50 apiece a month for us for good insurance. Great. And that's one of the big things that's keeping us from people in my line of business from retiring is your medical can be up to 800 apiece to retire, you know, or $1,500 a month for both of us. And ours will be like $100 a month. Yeah. So that's one of the reasons I was thinking about being able to bail at 62. Well, I would keep hanging on for now until you crunch the numbers, and maybe that's where the SmartVestor Pro to go, all right, if I bail at 62, we have more than enough to cover our expenses

and still enjoy retirement. I don't want you to just scrape by because you guys could live another 35 years, and so it's not going to be a fun time in retirement when you're just able to cover your bills and keep up with inflation. Oh, exactly. So I'd get that second opinion. And if you sold those, you know, a car and the boat, you get an extra 30 grand. Now you can invest, you know, almost, what, 150, 160 grand into the market.

And you let that grow for another five, six, seven years while you live off that pension. Well, now we're talking. You could have a few hundred thousand dollars in that account, you account, even if it's a taxable brokerage account, that you could withdraw 4% or 5% from every year, and that can last you a long time to supplement your income. Yeah, like what's the average risk in the market right now? I mean, the chances of losing all your money at once are pretty slim. That can't happen.

We are looking at an apocalyptic situation if it goes to zero. Yeah, if that happens, we've got much bigger issues. Yeah. And so what we're seeing right now is it's down 20%, 25%. And historically, when there's been a dip like this, within two years, we're back to where it was and better. And so the economy has always done better than it was doing when you look back over a long period of time, a long stretch of history. And one of our SmartVestor pros, they can walk you through that to give you that confidence. Right now, I don't want fear letting you sit on the sidelines with your cash just sitting in the bank.

That's not going to give you a great retirement. Yeah, and that money wasn't there until recently, until I sold a rental house, my one and only rental house, and was able to become debt-free and put that money in the bank and all that too. So I made some pretty good decisions over the years to get to this point. Yeah. I mean, at 60, to have no payments, including a house payment, and you have assets you can sell, I mean, even though you guys don't have a million bucks in retirement, you're in a good spot financially, especially because of that pension.

So I would have some hope and confidence that you guys are not going to be struggling in retirement. But I'd also, like you mentioned, be wise with the money you have going forward for the next few years and put it to work. Yeah, I sure appreciate your guys' time. And I will get on your website for sure. Yeah, jump on there.

I don't want any financial advisors spooking you from jumping into the stock market, especially when it is a great time. I mean, if it was real high, he'd probably say, well, now's not a good time. Everything's real expensive. Let's wait and see how it goes. So I would just get a second opinion, and I love our SmartVistra pros. They really do have the heart of a teacher, and they'll educate you. They're not going to make decisions on your behalf. They're just going to help you be confident to make the right next step. Right. And they can speak to that fear. I think

we've even seen that in real estate markets that some agents are very fear driven. Some investment professionals are fear driven. And we want somebody who's going to help you feel peace around your finances, peace around your money, because we make way better decisions when we're not in fear. No one makes good decisions when they're panicked or drunk. So do it from a peaceful place and your life will be better for it. Give us a call. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. One of the most common pieces of advice I give folks trying to get out of debt is to sell the car. But it's important to sell the smart way by using CarWiser. CarWiser is a completely free service that gets you offers from all the top online dealerships instantly. Just enter your vehicle information and boom, you're ready to pick up an offer and get paid.

CarWiser saves you hours of time and hassle. So go to carwiser.com slash Ramsey. That's carwiser.com slash Ramsey. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Christina Ellis this hour. This is your show, America. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. We'll talk about your life and your money.

Joseph is up next in Jacksonville, Florida. Joseph, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you today? Doing great. Happy Monday. What's going on with you? I'm a 58-year-old widower. I have three kids, only one still at home with me. I have about $150,000 in savings, maybe another $70,000 in my 401k, and I have about $52,000 on my mortgage.

I just found out today at 11 a.m. that I lost my job. Oh my goodness. Should I pay off my mortgage or should I just go month to month hoping I find a new job? I was hoping to be debt free in three to five years. Well, what were you doing hanging on to the $150,000 in cash? In all honesty, I just got about half of that because my mom passed away. Oh, I'm so sorry. Man, life has just been happening to you. The last three years have been brutal. I lost my wife.

I lost a niece and a nephew. I lost my mom. I lost my dad. I'm so sorry. How long did you have this job for? Ten years. Wow. What kind of work were you doing?

IT. Okay. Well, obviously, right now, it's so fresh. I think we have to grieve. Have you even taken time to grieve everything you've lost over the last few years? No. You've just been going hard, man, taking care of the kids and just going to work, doing what has to be done? Yes.

Oh, Joseph. I'm so sorry, brother. Well, I think A1 is to take care of Joseph because you're in a great financial position, to be truthful with you. I mean, you've got plenty of an emergency fund to get you by. I don't know who wouldn't hire a sharp IT guy who has that many years of experience, especially in today's world. There's a desperate need in that field. And you've set yourself up for a time like this where you don't have to worry about money

and you can worry about Joseph instead. You said you've got one kid living with you. Yes. Do you know your monthly expenses? He turns 17 in November. Okay. And he's still in school working? Yeah, he's still in November. Okay. And he's still in school working? Yeah, he's still in school.

Okay. And I'll be honest, since I found out at 11 a.m. this morning, I've been trying to cut every monthly expense that I can. I've cut the pool guy. I've cut the yard guy. I've cut piano lessons for my son. I've cut the gym that. I've cut the yard guy. I've cut piano lessons for my son. I've cut the gym that he was a member of. Well, Joseph, the good news is...

I never thought I would find myself in this position. Yeah, no one does. But the good news is you have an emergency fund, and it's there to cover times like these. When life hits you, you're covered, and you can cover the gym membership still. You can cover the piano lessons. And Joseph, you sound like a doer. You said you have your goal of paying off the mortgage immediately whenever you found out at 11, you're going into action, trying to cut things and figure things out. But I do encourage you, like George said, just to take some time to grieve.

Before 11, my plan was three to five years. But after 11, I don't know. But I hear what you're saying. And I think it's okay not to know right now. I think it's okay to give yourself permission to take a little pause, to not take action, to give yourself grace on that three to five years, to just take a moment to breathe like you have been through it you have been through some serious life and this is a moment you have the finances you've been saving diligently you're going to save diligently you're going to get to a spot again where you can reach that goal but But right now, take that space. Take that space to just sit in it,

work through it, rethink through what life looks like right now. Because yeah, you're going through a lot. What are your views on counseling and therapy, Joseph? Have you ever been open to that, looked into it? If I have to be honest, no, I'm not very open to that? Looked into it? If I have to be honest, no. I'm not very open to it. And why is that? Because I'm so old and set in my ways. Well, the truth is we can change at any time.

We have seen folks who are 70 do their debt-free scream because they decided to change, and they thought it was too late, and we gave them a little bit of hope, and they did the hard work, and they transformed because of it. And so I want to encourage you that it's definitely not too late for you. You could live another 30 years. God is good, and I know that. And I know what he has in store for me is probably better than I can imagine. Absolutely. Yes and amen. And God also gave us real wise people in our world, like

counselors and therapists who can walk us through the tragedies of life, the hard stuff, and help us grow. And a lot of the times, the times that we grow and we transform is because of someone else stepping into our life, someone giving us an opportunity, someone coaching us, someone helping us through trauma. And I'm going to gift you John Deloney's book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. We're going to send that book to you because I think hopefully that at least opens your heart a little bit to the idea of counseling, but I would strongly encourage you take some of that $150,000 and you put a little bit of money and invest into yourself right now because you've invested everywhere else, into your kids,

into your financial life, but rarely into Joseph. Well, Ann, I encourage you to watch the Dr. John Deloney show. Just even listen to some of the other calls where people are going through grief and listen to how he counsels them. If you're not quite ready to go to a counselor yourself, just being able to listen and hear other people and how they're working through it could really help inspire you. Yeah.

So Joseph, to answer your question. So don't pay off the mortgage immediately. Deal with me, deal with my kids, deal with the grief. Exactly. And the money's still going to be sitting there. You can put it in a high-yield savings account if it's not already. Is it just in your checking account, your savings connected to that? Savings and credit unions, yes.

Okay. Well, it can grow at probably 2.5% right now with a good high-yield savings account online. If you want to do that, well, you just stay put for now. And when you're ready, maybe you take a month off and just heal a little bit, and then we start looking at new IT jobs. And maybe you find a job that was even better than the one you had, and you get paid even more. What were you making at your old job? My old job, I was making $130,000 a year. Oh, that's fantastic uh i hope you make that more doubtful i will make that but why is that

just who i am did you think you just got lucky in a way yeah i think maybe i did i don't know i. I don't know. I mean, I don't doubt God. I mean, God has proven himself to me through the years, but I'm a stubborn person. Well, we can change that. And again, it's not too late for you. And we're going to send you that copy of John Deloney's book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. Stay put where you're at right now. Take a month. Don't make any rash decisions.

And when you find that new job, go, all right, I got $150K in the bank, and the house is going to be paid off, and it's one less thing to worry about, and now I'm sleeping better. What's your mortgage payment? About $1,200 a month. Boy, you're going to get $1,200 back in your life as soon as that mortgage paid off. Yeah, and as you work through this healing process, I just encourage you to speak life over yourself. I mean, I think even in this call you said, you know, I'm stubborn.

I'm not somebody who sees a counselor. You know, we all have those voices in our head and those identities that we kind of just take ownership of. So I encourage you to kind of change that script. You know, you are going to find another great job. You are going to heal from this. You are going to get through this. And I love to hear about your faith and how you're, you know, you know, God's going to get you through this, but also, you know, believe in yourself and keep speaking life over yourself. I think that stubbornness can actually translate very well. As you come out of this season, you know, you're going to stubbornly go i'm gonna pay off this house i'm gonna get a job making 140 i'm going to keep building this career and that confidence will will take you places man if anyone talked to joseph the way joseph talked to joseph

you would be angry at that person say you don't talk to joseph like that right he's a good guy he works hard he takes care of his family he's been through a lot and uh i think it's it's hard sometimes to get rid of that negative self talk and step into what we were called to do. So Joseph, we're cheering you on. I hope Dr. John Deloney's book helps you hang on the line. Austin will pick up. We'll make sure to send you a copy of that. And we're wishing you the inflation and debt payments. You feel like you're drowning. And you're terrified you won't have enough to take care of your family.

But you shouldn't have to live in fear. But you have to get to the point where you say, I've had it. And then decide you're ready to make a change. Because you can't keep doing the same things with money and expect different results. And that means it's time to try something new. And that thing is Financial Peace University. This is the course that will teach you the proven step-by-step plan that's helped nearly 10 million people beat debt, master budgeting, and build wealth. And you can do this too. Guys, stop letting debt and money stress control your life. Say I've had it and take back your

control. Start Financial Peace University at ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. That's ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk your life and your money. Lacey joins us up next in Atlanta. Lacey, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. Absolutely. How can we help today? Okay, so I have a question. My husband and I, I have been following Dave's advice religiously for about seven years. I took Financial Peace University at my church when I was 29. Awesome. Yeah, I know. It has been awesome. It's gotten us to a great place. So we own a business. Our business is debt free. We are debt free personally. And we're ready to start investing. We have a year's worth of our bills and savings. And now we're past that point. And we've started saving for the kids' colleges. We have money invested. And so the next step is to continue investing. And I'm in real estate. And my dream is to have a cabin in North Georgia, which is like an hour from where we live. And we want to rent it out, like as an

investment property on VRBO, Airbnb, that sort of thing. And so we would only be putting down about 20%, which Dave would say not to do that because we're going into debt, right? But our monthly, um, income is on average about 11 to,000 to $12,000 a month, and our mortgage on our primary home, which is our only debt, is about $1,700. So my question is, if Dave, you know, under his plan, technically we could sell our house and buy a more expensive house and still be within his plan, but why can't we take on the debt that half of our mortgage payments would be income producing? Does that make sense? Yeah, no, I understand. You're making the analogy of, well, if I got the rental property, it would be the same as if I had

a bigger mortgage. Right, but that would be income producing. Yeah, the difference is it's not your primary residence, so you don't live there, and so it's up to another tenant to hopefully produce that income. Your primary residence doesn't produce any income. It's just for you guys to live. Right. So what's left on your mortgage? Well, we owe about $250,000,

but it's worth significantly more because we bought in early 2020 and then prices shot up. And also, we've put a lot of money into it, which we didn't finance anything. We paid cash, so we've increased the value that way as well. How much is it worth now? It's worth probably between around $475, I would say. Okay. Well, one thing is for real estate agents, it's easy to get starry-eyed when it comes to real estate. Of course, you love real estate. Right. And I understand it, right? And so now that I can invest more, I would rather invest in real estate because I understand it and it's a tangible asset rather than put my money in the stock market because I don't understand the

stock market a and B everybody around me keeps talking about losing money and C my parents are baby steps millionaires and they have a significant amount of money in the stock market that's going to be left to us because they are living off of their pension and their social security. So I feel like I'm already invested in the stock market in a way. Okay. Well, you said you follow our stuff religiously, but it sounds like you guys did a 30-year mortgage on that house, right? Well, that is true. Thank you. One point for George. Boom. So Lacey, it's fine. I mean, you guys, you make great income. This is not about the math at this point. And you can math

your way into all kinds of decisions all day long. Our plan is about peace. And as I'm looking down, I'm going, you guys make $12K a month and you're still hanging on to a mortgage for fun? What are we doing here? Pay off that mortgage and how quickly could you then save up and pay cash for this new property and have that be the dream and then you're not worried about tenants? I would be like $50,000 I feel like.

Whoa. By the time I paid off $250,000 and then save up another $250,000. How old are you? And put my children through college. How old are you guys? I'm 36 and he is 41. But also, okay, there's an added benefit. It's like making memories in the country away from technology in the mountains.

You can do that without buying a rental property while having a mortgage. Yeah, you can use Airbnb and VRBO. Be the renter for that. Oh, Lacey, Lacey, Lacey. Listen, if you called to justify your decisions, you're not going to get that from us. Is this going to tank you guys financially? No. You will live to see another day. You're going to be just fine. You mentioned you've got inheritance and you're worried about the stock market. I would encourage you to learn about the stock market and have that be a piece of the puzzle to diversify your portfolio a bit. Because as we've seen, sometimes when the stock market's down, real estate's up, there can be

some interesting relationships there. But no, I can't in good faith tell you to go get another mortgage while you have your mortgage and you guys make great money. You're just not making great use of it. And like I said, our plan's about peace. And when you've got a paid for primary residence and then you invest with property using cash, it changes the game. It changes everything. Right. Well, and you're mentioning putting 20% down on this new property. Throw that 20% towards your current mortgage. You also said you have a year's worth of bills. Again, not something we would tell, six months max is enough for you guys. Right. So I think just taking some of that and throwing it towards your primary residence, you're going to see some big progress fast and

start that momentum. And then with your income, you guys do have quite a good income right now. And I know it sounds intimidating, but I don't think it's going to be 50 before you can pay it off and before you can get a new property and invest in real estate. Make a 12K a month take home. It's not going to take 14 years. I mean, we see people all the time on the debt-free stage paying off houses in a much, much quicker time span. So I believe you can do this a lot quicker and still fulfill that dream of investing in real estate. Yeah. So you can do Lacey's plan and you guys will truthfully,

you're going to be okay. I'm not that worried about you guys. You have a fantastic income. You have some decent money principles going on here. You've got the inheritance, but if you want to do it our way with a lot more peace and a lot less risk, that's what I'd tell you to do. Go low and slow like a crock pot. That's the way to do it. All right, let's take a, well, I don't know if we have time for Benny. We'll have to wait for Benny for the next hour, Christina. I'm sorry.

I hate to do that to him. Be the tortoise. I think especially right now with, you know, inflation and money being tight in people's budgets, I think there's a lot of different opportunities for people to try to use kind of financial trickery. They see the numbers and they see the money and things are, and they're cooler, and it looks like you can make progress faster. But we just encourage you to be willing to use God and grandma's ways of

doing money. It may not be the flashiest thing, but some of these principles, while they're not the quickest, they work. Oh, yeah. They work. And me and my wife, we were on the debt-free stage back in January, doing our debt-free screen for paying off our house. And there's just nothing like it. And people, even financial advisors, I would talk to and they're like, dude, you're an idiot. Why would you pay off your house? You could have invested that in the market and it could have been, and it could have, it could have, it could have is the key word there, could. Could. But I can tell you, we have no mortgage payment. That's a definitive statement when you can sit

in your paid for house and go, there's no goods, there's no risk here. You did have no payments. And you can't really put a number on that. A lot of it is emotional and mental and spiritual. And you can math your way into all of these decisions all day long. But when you decide to do something so countercultural and so different and challenge yourself to make that level of sacrifice for that period of time, it changes your character. Right. Well, and it's like you're aiming towards something.

So much of money, it's about behavior change, not just head knowledge. And it's like when you have that goal that you're working towards, it just provides a fire that you're not gonna have when you're just kind of hoping the numbers are a little bit more strategic. Amen.

Good words, good hour, Christina. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Austin and Ben and James and Zach and Andrew in the booth, my co-host Christina Ellis, and you, America. We thank you for listening. We will be back with you before you know it. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.