The Ramsey Show - App - Is It Time to Change Jobs? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 26, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios. It's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here.
Starting point is 00:00:40 Open phones at 888-825-5225. That at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Debra is with us in Denver. Hey, Debra, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?
Starting point is 00:00:59 My husband and I bought some properties back about seven years ago, and they're part of a development that went belly up. So we got a really good deal on it. We had the intention of building on them, but it was cheaper for us to buy an already built house. So now we have these four lots sitting, and we've been trying to sell them for a while. We live in a town of about 10,000 people, kind of a boom-bust area. So land moves really slow. And we have this kind of harebrained idea to talk to maybe a builder and have them put houses on the land so that they would sell faster. Does that sound crazy? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:49 Yeah. I mean, it may be some modification of the idea. It's not crazy, but maybe a modification of the idea would keep you from being at risk. Number one, I don't think the builder will be able to pull that off because I don't think a bank is going to lend him money to build a house on somebody else's lot. Okay. And so, but it might be that there would be a way to structure it where you put in the lot and he puts in the house. But that puts you into a partnership, and i'm not going to do that so i'm trying to what am i going to do here it's not a bad idea um
Starting point is 00:02:31 maybe what you could do would be to sell the builder of the lot and hold the paper on it and agree that you would get um your lot price when the property sells. In other words, you would finance it for the builder. Okay. I don't know that that matters, though, because honestly, a builder that comes in, most of them are going to go get a construction loan to build the property and to buy the lot. And so I don't know that that gives them an advantage of having you hold the paper on the lot. The trouble with our area, I actually live in Trinidad, which is four hours south of Denver.
Starting point is 00:03:13 We're kind of at the border of Colorado, so there's nothing around here. So as far as, like, finding contractors or people who regularly do developments, there's none of that. We're so small town. And so I was trying to think of some incentive to get a quality builder to get something done. Yeah, the problem is if they put something up, it may never sell. That's what you're saying. Well, now, the funny thing about our market is the real estate agent that we deal with says the market is empty of houses.
Starting point is 00:03:47 They can't get houses listed fast enough for people to buy them. Because, like I said, it's a really weird community, kind of boom bust. And right now they're on a pot boom, which is lovely. So I was just thinking, okay, so how do we get a record rate? If there's a shortage of houses, I can't understand why builders aren't in their buildings. It is really odd. We had a couple of developments. Like I said, we bought this one from a development that went belly up.
Starting point is 00:04:18 There have been two or three developments. We even had a Jack Nicklaus golf course that went belly up after they built a few houses so they're like partially developed with utilities and streets and sidewalks but then just no house is that where is that your property is on partially developed stuff yes it's partially developed it has all the utilities utilities, and it's right next to the elementary school. So it's, like, fantastic property with great views, and that's why we bought it was to build on it. But you're convinced if there was a house on it, you would sell it?
Starting point is 00:04:57 That's what we're thinking, yeah. And that's kind of what our real estate agent has indicated, that houses are going, land is not. Then I would ask the real estate agent to find somebody that wants to put a house on it. That just isn't logical. Yeah, it's a weird community. Gosh, I don't know how to help you. I really don't.
Starting point is 00:05:19 No, I don't think I would joint venture with a builder with all this other uncertainty going on around this development and around this market you've got a weird market as you've said six times and um i i don't think i want to be in that market even deeper and i am tied back into some guy who's deeply in debt and your lot somehow is in play here so no i think it's just going to be a matter you're going to take a beating on these things because you bought in a really bad location at a bad time. And so you probably just got hurt. That's my guess. Either you hold them and you wait on something to happen. If they're paid for and they're just sitting there and you want to sit on them
Starting point is 00:05:57 and just wait on it to recover, you can do that if you think it's going to recover. But you have to believe it's going to recover to go that route. You can't just be going, oh, I don't think it'll ever recover, but I'm going to hold them anyway. Well, that's not logical either. So you take your beating if that's the case. So anyway, if you can hold them and come out, that might be the best way. But it's going to require patience, I think, because you're in a mess.
Starting point is 00:06:20 I'm sorry. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Being good with money does not happen by accident, especially not in December. So don't run up a bunch of debt where the January, February you hates the December you. If you want to win with money, you need to stick to a game plan, a budget, like our $5 millionDollar users are doing. We've got the budget template all set up for you.
Starting point is 00:06:54 All you need to do is download the app from the iTunes Store, the Google Play Store, sign up for a free account at EveryDollar.com. It takes about 10 minutes to lay out your budget. Yeah, yeah. You have to do this stuff on purpose. It's the only possible way. Brittany is in the Ramsey Baby Steps community and says, Dave, we just started Financial Peace University last week.
Starting point is 00:07:19 So far, we love it. We've been terrible with money. We really want to get on track and be an everyday millionaire good since we're new we don't know what to do next month my husband gets paid every other thursday we just want to start making better choices you do your budget each month with the money you have that month you don't do a template that only that works. You say, in January, what have I got? In January, what's my income? In January, what are my expenses?
Starting point is 00:07:53 Because your expenses are different in January than they are in December. You don't have Christmas in January. You don't have people coming to visit in January, maybe. That kind of stuff. But maybe you've got a higher heat bill. I don't know. Whatever it is. In January, what have we got?
Starting point is 00:08:08 In February, it'll be different. So that's what it amounts to. You add up. You know those three checks are coming. That's at the top of your page. That's your income. And then every one of those dollars in your every dollar budget needs a name. And if you're in Financial Peace University, you've got every dollar plus.
Starting point is 00:08:23 So it's connecting to your bank account and working. That's how this works. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I just love it when companies we work with make it a point to be outrageously generous, especially during the holiday season. Once again this year, Zander Insurance will donate 25% of all sales from their ID theft protection plan in December to Operation Homefront, a very special organization that provides emergency financial assistance and housing to our wounded veterans and their families. To date, Zander has raised and donated over $300,000 with your help.
Starting point is 00:09:25 That's amazing. And if you don't have ID theft protection, there's no better time to get it. Not only will you get the smartest, most affordable plan available, but you'll be helping those who serve and have sacrificed for our country. You can even give it as a gift. Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282 to give the gift a peace of mind this holiday season. There's no better way to protect your loved ones while helping those who protect our freedom. Alisa is with us in Wyoming. Hi, Alisa.
Starting point is 00:10:16 How are you? Good. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. Merry Christmas. What's up? Merry Christmas. What's up? Merry Christmas. Well, my mom co-signed about five or six years ago on student loans when I was going to college at a university out of state. And she has now
Starting point is 00:10:34 recently come up where it's probably two or three times a week that she calls me and wants me to get her off as a co-signer. You can't. And at this point, I don't have a way. You can't. And that's what I've tried to tell her. Her next solution was to get a loan from a bank. So I don't know really where to go with the conversation. So what do you two owe on these loans? Right under $25,000. Okay. And what do you make?
Starting point is 00:11:06 I'm actually a stay-at-home mom. Okay. My husband makes about... What's your degree in? I'm still working on that. I'm going to school for special education and elementary education. So there's nothing being paid on the loans right now? We're making payments.
Starting point is 00:11:23 Why? My husband is just to keep some of the payments down. So what does your husband make a year? We write a little over $100,000. Okay. And how much other debt other than $22,000 do you have? Not counting your house. Probably $25,000. So $50,000 gets you out of debt and you make $100,000? Yes. Okay. And you're paying for school also? Yes.
Starting point is 00:11:53 Okay. And when you finish the degree, you plan to go to work? Yeah, right away. Okay. And how much do you like finishing the degree? About a year or two. Okay. And if you're going to go to work when you finish the degree, why are you not working now?
Starting point is 00:12:17 I recently decided to quit my job, and with the money that I was making as a special ed aide, I was paying for insurance and daycare. And so my husband got a job with insurance, and I decided to stay home. Okay. All right. So you weren't making enough to even cover the costs of you working? Not really. Okay.
Starting point is 00:12:40 But getting your degree in that field will allow you to make more? Yeah. Okay. They start off teachers here at like $46,000 as first-year teachers. Okay. Well, aside from your mom's request, number one, if you guys can get a bank loan and you want to get a bank loan, you can. There's nothing wrong with that.
Starting point is 00:13:01 Okay. That's up to you if you want to do that and if you can do that. Probably a better plan would be let's just pay it off in a year. Let's get on beans and rice, rice and beans. You figure out some stuff you can do while you're at home that generates some income. And I am doing a little bit of that. Okay. And let's do more.
Starting point is 00:13:22 And let's get on a really, really tight written budget. And you and your husband start looking around going, what have we got to do to get out of this debt and um okay you know let's let's let's knock off the 22 000 i think you could have her out her off of this and you off of this in one year um i know you can't should we move that up on our baby step or our snowball well no i mean you you only have two debts i thought 22 and 25 the other i have the 25 and then the other is like student loans from his degree and credit card and oh so that's not your only debt no so it's not 22 and 25000 and $25,000. That's just our bigger. No. Okay. I'll ask you what your other debts other than your house was. And I got $22,000 and $25,000. What else is there?
Starting point is 00:14:12 Just one credit card that we're working on. We have my car payment. What do you owe in your car? I want to say $22,000. No, not $22,000. $10,000. $10,000 on your car. Okay. And so you have a $10,000. No, not $22,000. $10,000. $10,000 on your car. Okay.
Starting point is 00:14:27 And so you have a $10,000. Go ahead. I'm sorry. We have cattle. So our cattle from our calves check goes to the loan every year plus monthly. So you owe money on your cattle? No. It goes on what loan?
Starting point is 00:14:52 Our car payment. Oh. Our car loan. Okay. All right. What is your cattle worth if you sold them all today? Probably $100,000. Not even $100,000. $35,000. Yeah. Sell them. Sell them. um probably a hundred not even a hundred thousand thirty-five yeah sell them thousand
Starting point is 00:15:08 sell them okay and let's clean your debts up okay and um then aside from that okay so we got 35 to throw at these debts i got 22 i got 25 i got on a car, and then there was about, what would you say on the credit card? $800,000. $800,000, so nothing. Okay. All right. Yeah. And so if we sell, if I got it right, there's four debts.
Starting point is 00:15:37 Is there four debts? Yes. A car. What's the $25,000? We have $25,000 for my student loan student loan oh he has like 10 000 student loans also okay all right and what's okay so 10 000 on a car 10 000 on his student loans 22 on your student loans 800 on a credit card and then you mentioned 25 what What is that? My student loans is 25. They're not 22?
Starting point is 00:16:08 No. Okay, so there's not a 22. No, it's just the other ones combined. Okay, so let me try again. All right, so you owe 25 on student loans, he owes 10. You owe 10 on a car,000 on a credit card. Is there anything else? No.
Starting point is 00:16:29 Okay. And so that's $45,000. $35,000 worth of cattle pays off almost everything. Okay. And you'll have her paid off and be debt-free very, very quickly making $100,000. Yeah. That's what I'm doing. And that's not because of her request. It's because it's a smart thing for you guys to do to get out of debt.
Starting point is 00:16:52 Because effectively, if you line it up on a balance sheet, assets on one side, liabilities on the other, it's as if you have borrowed on student loans to buy cattle. Because instead of paying off your student loans you bought cattle we had my husband has had those since he was six okay so they were just there mathematically it is as if since one is on asset and one is a liability on a balance sheet if you list two columns you know assets on one side liabilities on the other, debts and things you can sell on the other.
Starting point is 00:17:27 When you compare them against each other mathematically, it is the same thing. So I'm going to sell all of his sweet little cows and he can get him some cows later when you guys are debt free and he makes more money and you make more money and your mom is not calling you about a co-signed loan that you should have already paid off and uh so yeah let's get it cleared up let's get it done that's what i would do thanks for the call matt is in new york hi matt welcome to the dave ramsey show evan evan i'm sorry i don't know where I got mad. I'm losing my mind. Evan, how are you? Good.
Starting point is 00:18:06 How are you? It's really an honor to speak to you. And it's first time caller, long time listener. So I'm hoping you'd help me out. How can I help? Basically, I've always been debt free. I've been listening to you since I've been in high school on the Fox Business Channel back in the day, many years. Anyway, I've always been debt free, stayed away from credit cards, and been good.
Starting point is 00:18:27 I love my life. I asked her to marry me, and everything is great. But, of course, we have $300,000 in student loans. Good Lord. Is she a doctor or a lawyer? She's going to be a pharmacist. Great. Yeah, that's $300,000 in student loans. Good Lord. Is she a doctor or a lawyer? She's going to be a pharmacist. Great. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:48 That's $300,000. Obviously, that doesn't change anything, but I want to fix it, and I want to move forward with her. But now, real quickly, this is where I'm in a little bit of a dilemma. What I'm thinking about doing is eating beans and rice and rice and beans and just beat the snot out of this debt and move forward. However, this is a federal loan. Listen, you need to pay it off as fast as you can after you're married.
Starting point is 00:19:15 You don't need to pay a dime on it until you're married. But pile up cash as high as you can pile it, and when you come home from the honeymoon, throw as much cash at this as you can. And as long as she is on board with you guys attacking this debt with a vengeance, then she's a keeper. But if she thinks you ought to keep it around like a pet, she might not be. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you're here, America. Matt is with us in Los Angeles. Hey, Matt, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:20:18 So, I'm an FPU coordinator, and one of the couples in my class had a question regarding their 401K. So they have options in all of the funds except for the international. And we dug into all three of the funds, large cap, mid cap, and small cap. And each one of the funds that are available to them already have a 20% investment in non-U.S. stock. So with that being said, would you advise for them to still have an international fund, or is the diversification enough in their current funds to continue with what they are doing? They don't have an international at all. No, they do not. They don't have a global?
Starting point is 00:21:03 No global, no world, nothing. Like I said, it's mostly just growth funds, growth in income, and aggressive growth funds. No international available to them. Well, yeah, I would go with the three that they've got. I mean, if they found three in the three other categories that work and run with that, and then if they're going to reach over at some point and do Roth IRAs, I might load one of those up a little heavier with international to offset that. So even though they already have the 20% invested in international through those three funds,
Starting point is 00:21:41 you would still advise for them to have an international fund? It's pretty standard. Most mutual funds have some international in them. That's not unusual. So that doesn't really change it. So it's not the end of the world either way. The whole point, Matt, and you're doing a really good job. Thank you for being a coordinator, and thank you for digging this deep into something like
Starting point is 00:21:59 this and looking at it. Here's the thing. 90% of why people build wealth is that they steadily invest in mutual funds it's not the expense ratios and it's not the diversification those two things are just icing on the cupcake you follow me so the fact that they're the fact that they're doing these three and that they're out of debt and that they're asking these questions and they got a guy as smart as you in their corner the fact that all of that is there they're gonna win i'm not worried about them it's not like oh god they're bankrupting because they don't they left out one of my funds you know oh lord no it's
Starting point is 00:22:38 nothing like that at all uh the the whole point of diversification is as you know you've taught the class and led the class and you've heard me say it in the investing, that the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, spread your assets to seven, yes, to eight, because disaster may come upon the land. The Bible was the first place that diversification came up. And so spreading your money into different categories gives you a different level of safety and usually as a result, a different, a better rate of return. But there's no magic perfect formula. It's kind of like, you know, I tell people never take out a house payment that's more than a fourth of their take-home pay. But if they take out a payment that's 27% of their
Starting point is 00:23:21 take-home pay, well, okay, I still got the point across, right? It's not the end of the world. It's not like they're not going to make it because they're 2% over or something like that. Or the other guy's not going to make $200 million more because he's at 23%. You know, that kind of thing. The point is the principle of diversification and in something that has a good track record and the steady investing in that. We've got the dragon that we've killed the dragon we slayed the dragon we did that you and i did uh for these folks but uh but
Starting point is 00:23:52 it's good to get down in the analysis and learn some things in there too so i like having international in there it's a good idea but if they don't have one well we're not going to say don't invest you know let's invest in those three. And when they step over into the Roth, load it up a little bit on international, and let's rock on. So, hey, really good question. Thanks again for being such a good coordinator. These Financial Peace University coordinators, folks,
Starting point is 00:24:16 there's 15,000, 20,000 Financial Peace University classes starting right now. And the nine-week class, Financial Peace University, right now, if you didn't know, when you buy the class, just the nine-week class, you get the one-year membership to Financial Peace, which is everything online. You get the one-year membership to that free for the first year. Wow. And so these coordinators that are leading these classes, they make everything happen. They fix everything. And, you know, guys like that right there,
Starting point is 00:24:56 you know, he's leading the class. There's people coming in there. They've got questions. He's got answers. You know, to be a coordinator, you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have a master's degree in finance. You don't have to go to a class to learn how to do the class we'll answer the main questions that was a pretty ticky tacky question there and it was a good one uh but i mean you don't have to know that kind of stuff to be able to lead the class you just gotta be able to put chairs in a circle and love people and he's obviously doing that too so this is good times people it's a good time to get in the class by the way the number of people that do their debt free scream that say they started their class and started their financial peace university class the
Starting point is 00:25:27 nine-week class they started that in january the number of people is huge you list these debt free screams what'd you do i went to financial peace university my church started teaching in january i went in january and the number of people that started their whole walk with this thing started their baby steps in in january is um it's amazing it's a good time to start in other words really really good time to start anthony is in new york city hey anthony how can i help all right so i've been working at uh this new uh casino resort that recently opened up literally i can walk to the place great um i'm making forty one thousand six hundred dollars a, and that's before taxes, but I'm noticing very quickly I'm doing more, taking on more responsibilities and stuff like that, and I'm
Starting point is 00:26:12 wondering, just because a lot of stuff has been promised to me that just hasn't happened yet, and I'm wondering if it's time for me to move on and further my career, I guess, or expand, because I've opened three buildings for this place already, basically without my director or boss, and I'm basically everyone's, I mean, even my family's telling me I should go for an IT project manager role, which pays on average about $80,000. How old are you? 24. Okay.
Starting point is 00:26:47 And how long have you been with this company? I've been with them for about two years now. I opened the casino as one of only three technicians they had. By opening, you don't mean you were the manager when it was opening. You mean you were doing the IT work. Yeah. Okay. All right. work yeah okay all right um well i mean if you can shop around and get an it job with a company
Starting point is 00:27:10 that you want to work for making twice what you're making that's kind of a no-brainer yeah the only issue with the whole thing is it jobs are not very readily in the area that i live in. So in order to move up, it would require me moving either to New York City or out of the state as a whole. Where do you live? Catskills, New York. Oh, you're not in New York City. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 00:27:41 Yeah, you're in a fairly rural community. Yeah. So you're going to have to move to a more, I don't know that you've got to move to New York City to make $80,000 in IT. You can make $80,000 in IT a lot of places, but I don't think you can afford to live in New York City probably. I don't think I'm going to make that recommendation right now. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:59 But, yeah, shop around. The other thing you can do is sit down with um whoever it is that's been making these promises to you and don't be arrogant just say listen i'm very grateful i know i'm only 24 um and i know but i also know the work i've been doing over here and i also know what we've talked about now so i need to i need you to help me what do i need to do to make it easy for you guys to follow through and and let me move on up in income? Because I'm pretty sure I can move to a different city and make double what I'm making in IT. I'd like to stay here.
Starting point is 00:28:34 I can walk to work. Everything's good. I'm not mad. But I feel like I'm not, that I'm missing something. And is there something you need me to do that I've not done in order for me to make more and in order for me to move on up through this organization? So asking a question of how you can cause this to happen instead of going in and shaking your finger at them and saying, you people need to keep your promises, which really never goes very well when you do that kind of thing. So I wouldn't do that.
Starting point is 00:29:00 But so, yeah, that's the thing. Well, let's go in and have a conversation with them and then let's also look and see where we've got uh you know other opportunities around that are reasonable probably from the cat skills to new york city is a bit of a leap you may not want to make may not be the first bite you bite off so good question thanks for the call this is the dave ramsey show Our scripture today, Psalm 46, 1 and 2. God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.
Starting point is 00:30:13 My friend Craig Groeschel says the pathway to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear. Patty is in Raleigh, North Carolina. patty welcome to the dave ramsey show uh thank you dave uh wow uh yeah my question i was looking at my um rollover ira and i um you know i'm looking at the asset allocation, and one of the sections says I have a broken down. I got a bank loan in there. You have a bank loan? Yes. You owe money on your IRA?
Starting point is 00:30:58 No, no. When I'm looking at the breakdown, like the global balance in the large U.S., one section is bank loan. You can't borrow on an IRA. How do you have a bank loan? I didn't borrow on it, but one of the breakdown sections, 8.43%, says bank loan. I don't know what that means. I mean, I guess you need to talk with your investment advisor
Starting point is 00:31:30 that generated this report. Are you doing your investing through a bank? No. No, I have a financial planner. He is one of the financial guys at my church. I took this and I showed it to my FPU coordinator, and he says he thinks it's a cash equivalent or something. But I have a section there that's cash equivalent, which is 4.86%.
Starting point is 00:31:59 Why haven't you called your financial planner? I stopped by his office this morning. He was not available. Oh, okay. His secretary took a message. Good. I sent him an email. If you can't get a response, you need a new financial planner.
Starting point is 00:32:14 But if they're not responsible, I'm responsive when you've got a question about something. But, yeah, I have no idea what it is unless you took out a bank loan. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's going on here. I guess you need to find out what it is. I'm sorry. You shouldn't have a bank loan because you're not a bank and you're not making loans.
Starting point is 00:32:37 And so we know you didn't do a bank loan, meaning you weren't the lender. So it makes it sound like that there is a banking institution that you're working with and you have a loan out with them. That's what it sounds like. But it also sounds like you don't think you have that. So I don't know, kiddo. Just going to have to get at the bottom of it with this financial planner. And it is not a synonym for cash equivalents.
Starting point is 00:33:04 A bank loan is just what it says it is. It's a loan from a bank. That's what it is. Mark is in Boise, Idaho. Hey, Mark, how are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How about you? Better than I deserve.
Starting point is 00:33:16 What's up? I had a question about a medical settlement. My four children are receiving due to an automobile accident. And I just kind of wondered what my options were. Three of the children will be receiving $17,000 and one
Starting point is 00:33:36 of my children will receive $67,000. Okay. Well, it depends on if the court puts any restrictions on you or not, but from a moral standpoint, the proper thing to do would simply be to open investments in the children's name with you as the custodian. Hopefully, you're allowed to put that in a good mutual fund or two or three so that it will grow. Sometimes courts are so short-sighted and stupid that they require you to put it into a CD and you make no money on it.
Starting point is 00:34:09 But, you know, they overreach what I think is their rights, but they do it all the time. So they're doing it in essence trying to protect the child from the parent putting it in some stupid thing like Bitcoin or something. But mutual funds are a far piece from bitcoin so uh you just you know you put it in a conservative investment on the behalf of the child opening the account in the child's name when you open an account in a minor's name with yourself or someone or an adult as the custodian it's called an utma utma uniform transfer to minor's act but that's the same thing as if you open a bank account at your local bank for your kid to have a savings account.
Starting point is 00:34:50 It's the same thing. A minor cannot technically do contracts in any state, so they cannot open a bank account. They cannot open a mutual fund account. So you open one on their behalf in their name with an adult as the custodian, and that sets everything up. And hopefully you can do that in some good mutual funds. If the court will allow that, sit down with your broker.
Starting point is 00:35:11 If you don't have one, click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com and fill in the information there. It will drop down the list of the SmartVestor pros in your area. You can interview them all or talk to them all or whatever you want to do and decide among them which one you want to use to do your investing, and that would include, in this case, your children's investing. And it sounds like you guys went through a horrendous car wreck. I'm so sorry.
Starting point is 00:35:35 I hope everyone's okay. Ashlyn is in Dallas, Texas. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Ashlyn. Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my husband and I are 26 and 27.
Starting point is 00:35:51 We have a 2-year-old who will be 3 this week. Yay! And we are currently really on baby step 3. Like I just kind of, my dad showed me, you guys helped him get him and my stepmom get out of debt a while ago and now they can afford everything. It's awesome. So I'm trying to kind of follow in those footsteps. So I'm really new, but we really, like we both have two kind of beater cars already. We just haven't traded them in or anything. And we really don't have any debt. So we're really on baby step three already. And we just really started. So we have just a tad bit of money saved up, but
Starting point is 00:36:32 we're looking to possibly get a house. It'll be our first house. So I'm not sure how you feel about this. I tried to kind of go back through the history and see, but we're looking at either doing a first-time homebuyer where there's zero down or a USDA loan because we live really in East Texas. Instead of buying a house and then having the 20% down, we just thought maybe we would get a cheaper house with the 0% down. So it's like we put down the 20% almost, if that makes sense. No.
Starting point is 00:37:12 Oh, no. It doesn't make sense. Okay, so like instead of getting, you know. I understand what you're saying. It just doesn't work. Okay. So you're getting started. Well, way to go.
Starting point is 00:37:22 Good stuff. What's your household income? So my husband works. He just started in his field about a year and a half ago. So he's about 46 a year. Are you working outside the home? I am not. I stay home with my two-year-old. Okay, cool.
Starting point is 00:37:37 So here's the thing. Here's what we teach folks to do. You've already got your hands on most of it, that's to be debt free first and you're there and then build your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses that's called baby step three the next thing we teach people to do is to save up your down payment on your house and or that's the point you might move up in car a little bit if you're going to move up in car you're going to do that with cash because we're not borrowing money anymore so we're going to move up in a car, you're going to have to do that with cash because we're not borrowing money anymore. So if you want to move up in a car before you start saving for your down payment on your house, that's fine.
Starting point is 00:38:14 I would not do a nothing down deal on a house. The first-time homebuyer programs, many of them are fine. But you need to put something down on the house. It doesn't have to be a lot, but you need to put something down and i would not do a usda loan that is a subsidized loan and they recoup a hundred percent of what they give you in the event you try to refinance or sell the house and it will i've had that come back and bite our listener many many times you can get really really stuck in one of those loans because of the recoup on the subsidy, meaning a payment is X or Y, and a portion of that payment they are paying for you,
Starting point is 00:38:53 and that's the subsidy portion. That builds up in an account against you for when you refinance or when you sell, and it can really trip you up later, so I would avoid that. But it sounds like you've got a good plan overall. You're thinking. You're moving in the right direction.
Starting point is 00:39:07 Hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover. It will show you exactly how to execute this. And that will be my gift to you. And congratulations on the two-year-old. Life is good. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it.
Starting point is 00:39:22 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. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration subscribe today

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