The Ramsey Show - App - Is It Ever Worth Taking On Debt? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined by bestselling author, Rachel Cruz, also my co-host on Smart Money Happy Hour. And this is your show. This is where you call in and we'll talk about your life and your money right in front of you and in front of all of America and across the world now. We've gone international thanks to YouTube. And podcasts. And podcasts. So appreciate you guys tuning in and calling in.

The number is 888-825-5225. All right, Hayden is calling from Houston, Texas to kick off this hour. What's going on, Hayden? Hey, so I got a job opportunity to own and sell my own tools. I would own my own truck and everything, but the only thing is I would be going into a ton of debt. I'm thinking maybe $170,000 worth of debt. Oh, my gosh. For what? To own my own tool truck. I'd be like a franchisee.

This opportunity comes at the cost. You're basically buying into the franchise to the tune of $170,000? Yes. This feels like a great deal for them and a terrible deal for you well the thing is i can make like 180 000 a year doing it why don't you do it by yourself on your own i mean because i i wouldn't even know where to start at that point but i was talking to them i have to put like 20 down out pocket on the table and they'll help me finance 80%. I bet they will. I don't like this concept at all.

What are you actually selling? What's the business? I would be driving around to different shops and selling tools. And to buy into it, you need to have the tool truck? Yes, I would have to buy my own tool truck. And I was looking at prices for those. They range anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 because it has to be newer and it has to be low miles. Hayden, what are you doing now for work?

I work at a tire shop. I make $15 an hour. But the the thing is i'm only 19 years old and i think you're sold a dream hayden can i say that because sometimes in these positions and i'm i don't i'm not going to say that this company is like immoral or lying to you but they will throw it's a sales position and so if you're not good at sales you're not going to make 180 you're going to make 30 if that right so so there's a I understand that you'll probably get a commission a percentage over all your sales and they're probably saying you could make 180,000 dollars but that's probably over a course of a long time of of being able, you know, have clients and long-term relationships.

I mean, like there's probably a lot that goes into that. I don't think it's just a light switch situation. And so they're probably selling you on something that sounds really good. And usually, if things are too good to be true, sound too good to be true, they usually are. And with a quick Google search, Hayden, I'm finding some very interesting information about people who are also inquiring about this. Young guys who are thinking they're going to make a lot of money. And there's a lot of wisdom on the Internet. And so I would do some deep research and homework into this. Here's just a quote.

This is not from me. Basically, they get you into a debt trap, force you to buy stuff you may not want. Then they make it hard for you to support your customers with warranty claims and service. They said some people are making good money. They have good territory serving older clients. But with the Internet and the next wave of mechanics coming through, it could be phasing out these trucks for the most part. And so that's my worry is you see other people making money. You think that could be me.

And then here you are sitting with 180 grand in debt and not making as much as you thought. And so if this was a degree, I would also tell you this is a bad idea. Yeah, but I think that you're on the right path, Hayden. You work at a tire shop mechanics, you know, understanding that world, you're probably really good at it, right? And so I would like to see what other positions are out there to move yourself up i'm like you know like i don't know and being creative with what you with what you know and what you have i think it's going to serve you a whole lot better than jumping into something that yeah i mean that's a lot that's a lot of money that's a lot of money and also it's a sales job so why not go apply for a sales job

in that world if you applied at ramsey and we said hey you got the job but you have to pay us 180 grand you would laugh in our face right yeah i would hope you would so i'm i'm glad you called us before you yeah made a bad decision and called us saying i went 180 grand to debt for this snap-on tool truck. What do I do now? Yeah, that will equip you with what you need to succeed. And it's not all the risk is on you, Hayden. They don't have any risk. It's all on you.

It's your personal loan that you're taking out to go deep into debt. So they have no risk. And yeah, I wouldn't play that game. And I just, the 180,000 man that is just a that's a sales pitch and again i'm sure people make that but that's over years and years and years and years and years and years and so um yep i wouldn't do it hayden wouldn't do it okay good to know i know sorry to bust your bubble but i do think there's other great opportunities out there that you can yeah you're making 15 an hour i think you could be making more right i think that um the trades is is something it's a lost art these days right

i'm like there is something there that you can make great money doing this kind of stuff do you want to go into the trades hayden would you actually want to become a mechanic or do you want to stick to sales well i mean i've talked to other people that i know that are mechanics they said it's great for a hobby because right now I have a 91 Vette. The motor just blew up. I'm putting a new motor in there. So, I mean, I've worked in my own cars before, but I don't know that I could do that for a living.

You're talking to full-time mechanics and they said it's a fine hobby, but don't get into it professionally? Right, yeah. That's very strange. Sounds like they don't want the competition from Hayden giving them the smoke. Well, yeah. But I would look into it.

I'm going to help you out because I want to help you take the right next step. And so our friend Ken Coleman, also Ramsey personality, has some awesome tools to help people find the work they're wired to do. So I'm going to hook you up with his Get Clear Career Assessment and his book From Paycheck to Purpose. So hang in the line,

and I hope those resources help you figure out that next step whether it is trades sales whatever it may be but at 19 now's the time to just try a lot of things out but the key is don't go into debt for any of it that's right okay thanks for calling hayden hayden is not pleased we appreciate he's not pleased with our advice but you know what i did my good deed for the day if i steered him away from this 200 grand franchise quote opportunity what did you do you just googled the the i literally here's what i googled hayden in case you're wondering i googled uh on duck duck go thank you tool truck franchise cost reddit because reddit is where they tell you the truth rachel and so there's a bunch of subreddits under tools and forums and people are just sharing their story people like hayden saying hey what do you guys think about this tool truck franchise idea

and so i go there just to see what the conversations are like yes yes and i don't like when all the risk financially is on him and the company's not taking any like and it is it's not an mlm but it is similar in the sense that there's an upfront hey you got to pay to get in there's a startup cost you got to pay us for the tools. And then, oh my gosh, the upside of how much money you can make. They're always promising you. They're showing you the testimonials from the 0.001% of people who actually made good money. And the percentage of people that actually quit and then are left with all the debt, high percentage too. There's the story. And we've seen that narrative happen. And so we speak out of love for Hayden and his future. Good luck, Hayden. We believe in you, though. We're wishing you the

best, man. More of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond

meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget at chministries.org slash budget. I'm George Campbell. She's Rachel Cruz. This is The Ramsey Show. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. Let's go to the phones. Christina joins us in Phoenix, Arizona. Christina, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. Okay, so my question is, my husband and I are looking to buy our first home,

and we see a lot of these auction and foreclosure homes, and we were wondering if you recommend buying them, as well as it looks like auction, you might have to have 100% cash, which we do not. But just wondering kind of information on auction and foreclosure and if you guys recommend one or the other or kind of the details of it. Yeah, I mean, they can definitely be great options. And usually for people, if you're doing investment real estate, this is a great option to go down because you just get the best deal on the front end, right? You kind of get built in equity automatically. But there are some parameters, I'm going to be honest, Christina, I'm not an expert on this. I wish my husband was here because

he does this a lot and knows the ins and outs probably more than I do. But I do know you want to look in and make sure you have title insurance, like want to make sure the deeds are clean, titles are clean. There's definitely some hoops to jump through to make sure that it's a good deal for you. And like you said, sometimes the person that bids and wins does

have a lot of the cash up front. I know that's an advantage there. But yeah, what do you think, George? Is it required? Like it doesn't, it's not always required? I haven't heard that it's always required. I think you can get it on a conventional 15-year fixed. What I would look into is doing your due diligence to see exactly what happened here and what

the condition of it is. You need to be extra cautious to make sure that you're not buying sort of a lemon where you're going, oh, we thought it was going to be 20 grand to do the improvements. It's going to be 100. Yeah, because for some people, as they're getting the auction, they'll just say sight unseen or like no inspection required, right? Just to get their, you know, their up on it, if you will. And I wouldn't want that for you when it comes to your primary home. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, if you had a ton of money and you're like, yeah, if it's bad and we could fix everything with cash, that's one thing. But I wouldn't recommend that unless you just have a ton of cash.

And the process can be slower. So here's my advice. I would choose your home based on the home that's right for you that you can afford. And if it happened to be a foreclosure, that's okay. But I wouldn't just seek out auction foreclosures because you're in a tight place financially. I want you to move from a place of strength. Yeah, okay. That's great advice. Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks, Christina. Thank you so much for the call. And yeah, but those that are looking to invest in real estate for a lot of, and I know for Dave even, a lot of what he bought early on, and even with my husband Winston helping him and stuff. I mean, it was a lot of going to the courthouse steps and doing real estate auctions just to get a good deal on the front end. Because if you have the margin financially to be able, whether it is to go fix

it and all of it, it is a great deal. But to your point, especially your primary home, you don't want a lot of hiccups. And there's a cleaner way, faster way to do it, to buy a home. But with a foreclosure, if you can get it at, you know, 80% of the appraised value minus the cost of repairs, we generally see that as a good quote deal. And you do, you know, Dave said, you make your money on the deal. That's right. That's when you get it. Yeah, for sure. Not with all your fancy renovations that you go to resell. And so as you even do renovations, if you are investing to resell, you want to think about what's actually going to increase the value when you go to resell. And a lot of times it's cosmetic stuff. It's not the super expensive behind the scenes stuff.

They just want a nice looking backsplash. Yep. That's all they want. But Christina, make sure to check out our real estate ELPs there in the Phoenix area. We have some great ones out there and they can really help walk with you through that process because having an expert with you through it is tremendous. So make sure to check out one of our real estate Yelpies. It's a good call. RamseySolutions.com is the place to go. All right. David is in Columbus up next. What's happening, David? Hello. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. I have a question. It's kind of a mixed bag, but I'm somewhat new to the baby steps, and I'm really just trying to figure out how I can make more money.

I have a full-time job. I'm single. I'm 37 years old, and I have quite a bit of debt. And the job that I have right now is I'm very grateful for my job, but I'm looking to try to figure out how I can get into something that makes more money and something that I really love. Um, right now, um, I have about $56,000 in debt and I've tried, I've thought about maybe getting some certifications, but that takes a lot of time and money. Um, and so I'm just trying to figure out how can I transition into a new career

or try to find something that pays a little bit more. I have my $1,000 emergency fund. I just did Baby Step 1 last month. Great. And I'm on Baby Step 2 now. And I have a side hustle that helps me. That's actually how I got through Baby Step 1. So most of my debt is like student loans.

I have a car loan. I have some medical debt. I have some debt to the IRS. So I just feel like if I didn't have all this debt, I could maybe pursue what I really want to do a little bit easier. But since I do have this debt, I need to kind of keep my full-time job and be able to keep whacking away at this day. Yeah. How much do you make a year?

About $67,000 a year. Okay. And what do you do? I work in the public sector. I essentially work with, like, educational grants and administering an educational program. Okay. What do you want to do? Like, what's the thing that you're like, oh, my gosh. You said if I was out of debt, I could do what I want to do. Do you have that thing in your mind?

That's kind of another problem is I'm not entirely sure, but I have some ideas that are kind of all over the place. Like, I've thought about becoming an audio engineer. I've also thought about becoming a voice teacher. And I've also thought about going into technology of some sort. Right now, my main focus outside of like doing something that I really love, like something with music or the art or technology, is really just trying to make more money. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah i mean i think if you found something that was a salaried position that you wanted and

it was more income you could totally make that move during this baby step two process i just wouldn't gamble on something like i'll just make something up voice lessons that you're going to have to have a lot of clients and you're going to have to supplement and it's not there yet but you really want to try it so you're going to to your point, make less for at the beginning. You know, all that. I think that will put you behind on the debt side of paying it off. So I would stick to what you're doing, doing your side hustle, unless another salaried position comes in front of you and it pays more and you feel like, oh, yeah, that could be a great step. I'm just curious, how much do you owe in your car? About $8,000. Okay. Okay. That's great. Well, I'm excited for you, David. You sound like you're, yeah, hustling. And I think that's awesome. I would just keep grinding away at the work side

of it. Yeah, I would add these side hustles and sort of make it your on-ramp to whatever the next thing is. And so if you can find any opportunity, even if it's running the audio board at a local church, for example, and you're just volunteering on the weekends, that will give you some great experience that you can go, all right, I got my kind of feet planted here. What else can I be doing? So have you looked into any opportunities to start doing some of this stuff you're dreaming about? Yeah, I have actually. It's funny that you say that, because just this past Sunday, I went to a church and shadowed their sound crew and learned a little bit about what they do, and I'm looking to do that at my own church soon. And so I'm kind of trying to connect with people and network and see if I can find people are doing what I'm interested in doing and just learn more and see if that leads to some opportunities. That's amazing. Very smart.

And we'll help you with that. It sounds like you're living out Ken Coleman's proximity principle of getting around the right people to do the thing you want to do. So we're going to gift you that book as well as Ken's Get Clear assessment, and that's really going to start to sharpen what this next thing looks like. And along with that, his new book coming out, Find the Work You're Wired to Do, has a free assessment there. So we're going to send you a copy of that because it'll help you actually make use of the results you get from the assessment and hopefully start

to narrow down what that thing is. It may be a mix of all of them for now. You know, audio, voice, technology, they're all very interwoven. And maybe you have a little studio and you help, you know, young people get their start, whether it's vocals, music, engineering. I think there's some great fields there. And we've got lots of audio engineers here. Yes. It's largely Ben running the board right now. We love them.

One of the best audio engineers, one of the greatest musicians I know, and James Child. So they did it, and they're not that great. And if they can do it, anyone can do it. If they can do it. I'm kidding. They're the smartest people I know, and they can do it if they can do it i'm kidding they're the smartest people i know and they can turn off my mic at any time but they've chosen not to out of kindness and grace thank you guys more of the ramsey show coming up this is the ramsey show i'm joined

by rachel cruz i'm george camel open phones at 888-825-5225. Alyssa joins us all the way from Alberta, Canada. What's going on in Alberta, Alyssa? Sorry, what was that? What's the vibe in Alberta? Oh, it's actually pretty nice out right now, so all right. Wonderful. How can we help today?

My husband and I are wondering if you guys think it's okay if we stop investing for two and a half years in order to pay off our mortgage. Whoa, why the aggression? Because we want to be mortgage-free before we have kids so that I don't have to work if I don't want to. Aha. Okay, how old are you two? 23 and 25. And what's left on the mortgage? $167,000. All right. What's the household income? Gross annual income is about $150,000. And that's with you working. So your goal is, hey, you're not pregnant, but once we start to go down that path, you want to be able to stop working?

That's right. Okay. And you would not be able to do that today with the finances? No, I don't think so. We would have to be cutting it pretty tight. Okay. Well, I don't love the idea of you guys pausing investing and unplugging that growth and those contributions, because you look 30 years from now as to what those will turn into, and you'll go, oh oh gosh that hurt my stomach a little bit because you guys have no debt in the emergency fund already right right okay yeah uh gosh Alyssa I'm actually kind of leaning because you guys are so young um and you want to yeah you want to have this lifestyle change of staying home, I may be okay from, I would make it a goal to say, maybe we do it for a year. Maybe we pause

investing for a year. And what would it look like? Because the truth is too, you know, by the time you get pregnant, it's nine months, like you'll have maternity leave, like, right. I mean, like there's some, what's your maternity leave situation with your work? 12 or 18 months, I get to choose. Oh, wow. Paid? Yeah. Paid. Okay, well, there's... Like not full salary, but a portion of it, yes.

Okay. Okay. Well, I would factor that in to this scenario as well. Because if you're doing 15% of your household income, that's $22,000 that you would not invest but throw at the house. So either way, it's not going to knock out the mortgage years sooner by pausing the investing. So I'm just curious, what's stopping you? Let's say you guys wanted to have kids now. Could you do that, take your maternity leave, and then see where the mortgage is at at that point. Yes. It just wouldn't get paid off for another five to seven years from my calculations because I was using an Excel spreadsheet and put in all of the potential lump sum payments that we would be able to do

over the next two and a half years, and that brought the payoff date to September 2026. But yeah, it would be quite a bit farther. I don't know why it would take seven years just by. And I don't want you to not invest for two years straight. And so if this was like on the cusp of this, just a few months of not investing, we can get there. But right now we're sort of talking in theoreticals and hypotheticals. And so I would keep on the path you guys are at. I would aggressively attack the mortgage. I would get that budget down and also make a mock budget and see what life would

be like living off of just his income. Yeah. How much is your mortgage payment a month? About 18, 20. Okay. Yeah. And what's his take-home pay uh together our take-home pay is 110 i'm not sure his growth annual income is about 90 okay i'm just wondering if we can get him to take home about seven grand about 7500 that would put your mortgage right at about 25% and still give you margin to throw extra at it. Yeah. It just all depends on how busy his work is, really, because he has months where there's

not enough for him to make that much. Can he find another job to do when it's slow times? Possibly, but he would have to be able to go into work whenever his boss needed him. Like he's an electrician. So it's just, if they have projects on the go, then it's crunch time. And if not, then, um, yeah, he would be able, he might be able to get a second job, but then you would have to, this job would have to be a priority. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, I'm kind of leaning, Alyssa, I would make it a goal for just a year, but I would be okay because of your age, because you guys are such planners. You know what you want.

You don't want to be working when you have a baby. Like there are these life big things. And if you have to pause for a year for investing in order to make these things happen, I would be okay with it. I would. a year for investing in order to make these things happen i would be okay with it i would um but i but i also would say we do find people that said that they pause investing and then they look up and it's been five or six years because that 22 000 well we we needed to go on a nice trip so we'd wait another year we'd you know you really upgrade the car for the baby that's right that's right yeah you start like kind of bringing in the stuff. And I don't want these years to go wasted for you guys financially, because you've put

yourself you work so hard to be in such a great position to gain so much momentum. But I also understand life choices in the moment. You know, you want to be able to have that piece too. And then I'll throw this out to Alyssa, everybody's stories different with babies, right? I mean, some people it does take an extra year than you, you know, longer, even longer than that, right? So also we have some of this with an open hand and we never want people to not have a baby or not get married because of where they are financially either.

So I do want that for you guys. I want you to be able to start that family, but I do understand the value that you have of wanting to be home, which is understandable too. And yeah, not having $1,800 go out helps with that. That's serious. Yeah. I like the idea of the mock budget and just seeing how tight you can get things and still have a life while you're at it. Because baby step four is intense to intentional. And so you don't have to go full throttle, but you also have a pretty intense goal of wanting to stay at home and go down to one income.

Yep, exactly. So a lot to think about there. Gavin is in San Antonio. What's happening, Gavin? Hey, I'm calling in because I'm basically in a situation where I owe more on a car than what it's worth. Welcome to America. It's about every call we get with a car loan. Well, actually, this one's a little

different. So I got a private car sale and I purchased it in cash. I made the foolish decision not to get a pre-purchase inspection. And effectively, everything looked good, right? Everything appeared good, but I took it to the mechanic just to get, you know, had it looked over, just to ensure everything's okay. And it came back that it turns out it has about $8,000 worth of repairs on a $5,000 car. Oh, my gosh. So you bought the car for $5,000 in cash. Yeah. And you didn't do the pre-purchase inspection?

You did it after? Yes. That was kind of. You did a post-purchase inspection. Okay. It's like getting your house inspected after you live in it. You're like, well, I bought a lemon. Let's see what's wrong with it. Yeah, that was definitely not my proudest moment.

You know, I thought, like I said, I looked over it, and I was like, everything looks fine. There's nothing glaring, but, you know, come to find out... What's the issues? There's a lot of... What is it? Is this like a new transmission? Yeah, what's going on with it?

Well, apparently something about the front and rear catalytic converters, which are expensive. The passenger side front axle. Okay, how is it driving? It drives fine. You really wouldn't notice. I mean, there's some squeaking from under the axle. There is a check engine light on. Sure. Have you gotten a second opinion,

Gavin? I've yet to. Okay, I would do that. Sometimes, and I may be speaking as an ignorant person with cars, but I'm definitely one of those people. You go into the mechanic and you're like, oh my gosh, you got this and you got this. It's like the dentist. And you got this and this, and you gotta do this, you gotta do that.

They're wiping the sweat off their brow like like i haven't seen something like this since 1987 man holy crap i gotta do all this stuff and then you go get a second opinion from just like you know a good old guy who's been doing this for 40 years and he's like no you really just need this and you're like okay i can do that right so like some of this may not just be urgent i don't know or i don't want the car to blow up or something, right? So I'm like, we want to make sure that you're safe. But I would go get a second, even third opinion, because this is such high pricing that they have for you

before you go and do anything. I would, yeah, I would ask around. But I would not pay eight grand to fix it. I see, and I feel that too. So that being said, let's just say I get a second and a third opinion and the repairs are still worth more than the cars worth. I was thinking, and I don't know for sure, but I was thinking maybe best case scenario to salvage this from here is either resell at a loss, right? Because I'm not unethical to do what that yeah, yeah. Or use it as a trade-in

to purchase a car from maybe a lot in cash. Yeah. Either of those options would be better than what you got right now. And it stinks. That's a stupid tax you pay.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell joined by Rachel Cruz. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Well, Rachel, before we get to the lines, we've got an exciting announcement that we launched last week. The Live Like No One Else Cruz. It's back, you guys. I petitioned to call it the Rachel Cruz and have you as the headliner.

Thank you, George. They didn't go with it. But I'm pumped. It's fine. It's fine it's fine so this will be dave ramsey all the ramsey personalities including myself and rachel will be there seven days at sea march 22nd through the 29th of 2025 special guests we got a lot of musicians magicians yeah songwriters uh restaurant tours i'm sure we've talked about this before the original one you guys was set to set sail March of 2020.

Great timing, Rachel. I told you. I know. So we are bringing it back, though. It's a comeback. And it's been almost five years. Isn't that crazy? It'll be five years from when it was supposed to originally happen.

But we've had so many people randomly be like, we were signed up for the cruise. When are you going to do it again? Yeah, there's a lot of you guys out there that really wanted to do this so we're here for you back by popular demand yeah this the last one in 2020 sold out in just a couple of weeks and the cabins are already booking up real fast i've been loving getting the dms saying we're gonna be on the cruise we're joining you guys fun fun so this is gonna be an awesome time and let me tell you guys this is not for everyone this is for those that are in baby step four and above. This is a debt-free celebration. So if you've become debt-free, you got the emergency fund, you have budgeted for something fun to celebrate, the cruise is a great way. We're going to go to

Turks and Caicos, St. Thomas, San Juan, the Bahamas. Book your cabin, ramsaysolutions.com slash cruise. I got to work on my tan. I got one year to get a base tan. I'll give you my spray tan girl, her name. I don't know if that's going to look... I'm going to look real orange. No, no, no. They're very natural looking. Sure. Okay.

Look out for that. I have one. Mine's a week old right now, so it's faded. Oh. Yeah. They're very nice. And it shows. They're very nice.

And it shows. It's fine. We'll have a good time. It'll be a blast. RamseySolutions.com. Put your sunglasses on. Slash cruise. See George?

You're going to be like, oh my gosh. Is that the sun? I'm so pale. No. It's George. Let's get to the lines. Susan is in New York. New York.

Aptly named. What's going on, Susan? Hi there. So I am 58 years old, almost 59, and I have been a public school teacher for 37 years. Oh, wow. Thank you, Susan. What a career. Thank you. I have kids in public school. We appreciate you. I appreciate that. So my question to you is, can I retire in about a year as I hope to? Ooh, this is a fun game. All right. Are you married, single? I have been divorced five years.

Okay. What does your nest egg look like? That's part of my question. I have a little over $500,000 in various investment accounts, including a 403B. So about half of it is post-tax dollars. Okay. So this is in a Roth 403B or Roth accounts? There's a Roth IRA is a small portion, but most of it are investment accounts in the market.

Oh, I see like a brokerage account outside of retirement. Yeah. Yes. Sorry. Yes. I didn't know if you had post-taxes and you've already paid taxes on it? Part of mine was from the sale of my marital home. So that's post and so is the Roth IRA that I have. Okay. And then you have your home? No, that was sold after the divorce. So I have been renting since then. Okay. And is there any other assets or is 500K, that's about your net worth? That and I do have a pension when I retire. Well, yeah. How much will that be? So that will come to about, well, depends how long I teach because each year it bumps it up just a bit. So right now,

if I did retire next year, it would be about $82,000 a year. Okay. Pre-tax. Pre-tax. So the question becomes, what will your expenses be in retirement? And so you can start to calculate that. Of course, there's going to be some variables with health care and cost of living, and you're going to be renting for the foreseeable future, I imagine. Right.

That's another part of my quantity. And you're in the New York area? Yes. I imagine rent's not cheap over there. Will you move from the area? Well, right now my youngest child is still in college, so just two more years. And I do not have any debt at all. And I have an additional kind of side job of tutoring that I use to supplement my income in order to do her tuition and have fun because that's my only extra money.

What's your income? $120,000. Awesome. Well, based on what you laid out for us, I mean, I don't know. With the pension coming in at $ 82,000, that really helps because I was looking at just your nest egg. It made me nervous to go, I'm going to retire next year with half a million because you could deplete that at the ripe age of 59 and you could, you know, live to be a hundred. And so we got to look at what a game plan looks like for the next 40 years,

potentially to live. And so with the pension there, it gives you a base. My real hope is that between my pension and then when I do start to take Social Security, that I do not have to touch the nest egg. Yeah, have you run those numbers for you, just like your lifestyle and everything? Yes, I have. And the only wild card is inflation. I don't, you know, I don't own a home. So that's not a stable expense right now, my rent, but it's manageable right now. It's my lifestyle is manageable for the foreseeable, I'd say 10 to 20 years. But after that, if I do, you know, live into my 80s or 90s, I am nervous about that. Sure. Yeah. And at that point, it may require moving somewhere cheaper, right? I'm like, you know, you think about New York and it is one of the most expensive places. Yes. But yeah, that would be down the road because I don't want you to just go in and get a mortgage

and have to pay off. How much do you have in the brokerage account, non-retirement? I'm sorry, say again? How much do you have in that brokerage account and non-retirement funds? What do you mean by non-retirement? You said the post-tax account? Yeah. So about 200 is in my 403B, which is a retirement fund. And then I've got about 270 probably in just brokerage accounts. Then I've got a beneficiary IRA, which I do have to, that was from the death of my mom. That was $44,000 that I need to withdraw within 10 years. And then the Roth IRA is $28,000. And I do contribute. The brokerage account is what I'm looking at. I'm wondering if it would be wise for you to

cash out the brokerage account and buy something like a condo for your retirement so that you don't have that expensive rent to worry about. And you've sort of covered that, your largest fixed expense, which then lowers how much you would need in retirement. Yes. So that's something to think about. Yeah, it is something I do think about. I just, I have no idea where I want to go once my youngest has flown. I would just wait. I would just keep working until your youngest

is out of college and you know what the next step is and just keep socking away as much money as you can into retirement until then. Right. Yeah. That would be my game plan. So I don't know that I can tell you one year from now you can retire, but I would say once you know where you're headed next and if you can purchase a condo there to limit your expenses, that would make me feel a whole lot better about what the long-term looks like. Yeah. Because I mean, there could be, you know, there's a reality that, yeah, that 270, which in, you know, two years will grow even some as well, could get you, you know, a great townhome, even cheaper in Greenville, South Carolina or whatever. You know what I mean? You could look around and decide where you are because that's a good next move versus trying to tackle something probably in Manhattan or something.

Yeah. But I would start to do your research about where you would go. Would you want to follow the kids? Is that the plan? Well, one's in, you know, they're on the opposite coast, the oldest two. So you don't, I'd have no idea. I think my youngest will stay nearby, but I don't know. Of course, I'd love to follow them if they all would stay near each other. Absolutely. Especially, you know, when it comes to grandkids down the line, it's fun to be near them. So that's something to think about as well. It's just so much unknown right now. And, you know, teaching is a tough gig and I've been doing it, like I said, 37 years is a long time.

And I would like to give back to my community and become an EMT. That's one of my retirement goals. Very cool. I would still tutor and work part time. So I would absolutely still be bringing in some income in addition. Yeah, you're the type that you just like to be out there doing something and serving your community. And we so appreciate that. So thank you for the call. Really interesting conversation. You've done a great job. And so

keep it up and call us back when you're officially retired. Let us know what happened. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Thank you to my co-host, Rachel Cruz, all the folks in the booth, and you, America, will be back before you know it. you