The Ramsey Show - App - Is My Emergency Fund Enough? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

Take our Audience Survey & Enter to Win a $500 Visa Gift Card: Click here to take the survey   Ken Coleman & Dr. John Delony discuss: Purchasing a home, Covering car repairs with an emergency funds, Drama over family wills, Pausing the baby steps to upgrade the house.   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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving and storage studios, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, specifically your money, your relationships, your mental health, your work, your future. I'm Ken Coleman. Dr. John Deloney joins me. We are Ramsey Personalities. We host our own shows as a part of the Ramsey Network, and we team up today for you. So obviously we're going to take your money calls. We'll also take maybe those sticky work situations. Can I

just tell you that we will change your name and location if it's particularly sticky but john and i like those i mean like they're really like dumpster fire work questions those are fun yes yeah and the dumpster fire at home questions are those two are good and we'll change your name uh location we understand that uh privacy is needed sometimes but uh so we're taking all those calls and your money calls as well, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Let's go to San Francisco, California, where we start off this hour. Carl is there. Carl, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my phone call. I was calling because, to give you a little bit of a background information,

I'm 34 years old. I'm a self-employed electrician. I started my business back in October of 2020, and I'm trying to purchase my first home. Last year, my father passed away, unfortunately, and I tried to purchase his home. But when I was speaking, I believe I spoke to two different loan officers, and both of them were telling me that since I've only been self-employed at that point, I'd only been self-employed for about a little over a year. They were telling me that my only option were non-qualified mortgages. So I was just wondering if I could get some information from you guys on how to go about purchasing a home. How much money do you have saved up for the down payment?

Currently, in my savings, I have $375,000. When the inheritance from my father passed away without a will, unfortunately. So we're going through the probate process. Based on the value of the estate, the four siblings are probably going to get around $380,000, $400,000 each. So you're in the San Francisco area, so what's the price of a home that you're targeting? I think, you know, anything that is, you know, halfway decent is kind of in the $900,000 range, you know. You know, when I look on Zillow and I see houses that have sold recently, like stuff that I would be interested in actually living in is kind of like right there in the $900,000, $920,000 range. Well, you're going to have a tremendously large down payment, so that's great news and that should help you. Well, you're going to have a tremendously large down payment,

so that's great news, and that should help you. John, the first thing that came to my mind is I want him to talk to our friends at Churchill Mortgage and tell them, you know, he called the show. Here's my situation. Here's the whole shoot and match. Tell them the whole story. And I think they'd work with you because of the down payment that you have. You're going to be in really, really good shape.

So I don't want you to be discouraged. I'd like you to call Churchill Mortgage. We'll make sure that we get you connected to them after this phone call. But with the amount of money you're going to be able to put down, I just want you to be encouraged. You're going to be able to easily get the loan, the small loan that you're going to need. Do you guys recommend going on a 15 or still putting it on a 15? Just playing with those numbers.

Listen, when I worked with Churchill, the first thing the guy told me, he's an incredible man, he said, I'm going to sit down with you and I'm committing now. I'm not going to take your money if this is not in your best interest. That's how they started the conversation with me. Okay. So great people. And they'll walk you through, here's what I need from you. Here's why I need it from you. And here's what we're hoping to do. Here's the other thing is home purchasing. Um, people have stopped taking out loans. It's just kind of fallen off the map. And so you should be able to find somebody that

will work with you. Start with Churchill because I trust those good folks. Yeah, for sure. It seemed like when I was looking, everybody was putting me on the back burner. They just kind of wanted me to talk to them when I was literally a week away from making a purchase or something like that. How long ago was this? Hopefully, it was in in april yeah a little bit different market now there's a lot of mortgage people sitting around uh playing wordle right now uh these things have slowed down if you've paid attention to the news i i i don't know what was going on there and and there's no need to try to break that down i want you to i literally want you to call churchill and say look i called and i talked to Ken and John on the Ramsey show,

and they told me that you guys can help me. The fact that you're self-employed should not be that big of an issue, given that you've been there for a year and you have enormous down payment. Now, you know, having that inheritance needs to be a part of this conversation. So you may have to be patient. Are you renting right now? I'm renting a room right now. Yeah. So here's the deal. Relax. And not to say that you're not, but let's get that in. Let's get that inheritance. Let's get that big nest egg because that's going to be that big down payment. And that's going to be your, I would believe, guarantee to get a mortgage. And a small mortgage, 15 year, because you're going to pay that off quickly. You're going to have a tremendous rate on that. And you're going to pay that off quickly. You're going to have a tremendous rate on that, and you're going to pay that off, and you're going to be crushing it.

Hey, I want people to hear your story. What were you doing before you became a self-employed electrician? Were you working for somebody else? Were you apprenticing? What's the story? I was a union electrician for the IDW. I still maintain my membership with IDW. Good. How's business going for you? Things have definitely slowed down. Calls aren't coming in like they used to six months ago, but I'm still getting projects here and there, and I have nothing to complain about.

Good. You like working for yourself? Yeah. It's definitely been a reality check. There's been some very high highs and some very low lows. Here's why I ask that. Overall some very low lows. All right. Here's why I ask that. Overall, I would never. Go ahead. I want you, don't get in a hurry to buy a house. Houses are still going to be there.

And that massive down payment through the inheritance on top of what you already have in savings is going to be there. You're in your first year. So many businesses, small businesses fail in their first year year and a half you've got a reality check October is going to be year two I know that's what I'm saying you've made it past most small business owners and so you've made it and you've seen the ups and the downs let's keep building that electrician business let's keep going there don't be in a big hurry do call Churchill Mortgage but really focus on growing that clientele and that business because that is going to be huge for you given your great financial position. But you should

be really encouraged. And Carl, it's also okay to get this big inheritance and park it and to rent your own apartment for a year. And I know apartment rents are sky high, all that, but there's a graduated step between renting somebody's room and having my own place. And man, just taking a break, your dad passed away, still mourning that, having that money. There's just this, I got to go do something. Nah, you really don't, man. You can, you can do this in stages and you're going to not stress yourself out with a home, home purchase. At the same time, your, your personal business is slowing down a little bit. Yeah.

You know, there's something about people just don't want to rent because they feel like they're wasting money. And I just love to just remind people, Stacey and I rented for two years when we moved here just because we knew we were planting for a long time. Yeah. And it just gave us options. We didn't think of it, oh, I'm throwing money away every month. It was like, okay.

No, I'm buying peace of mind. Yes. Great way of saying that. And so just that and so just buying freedom right now it gives you options folks you're not wasting that money all right thank you so much for the call carl we love small business owners the best is yet to be for you my friend i promise you that and call churchill mortgage they'll help you all right don't move more Ramsey Show and more of Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. We're here taking your calls. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. We're here taking your calls, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Let's go to Doug in Sacramento, California. Doug, how can we help? Hi, Ken. Hi, John. How are you guys doing? We're having a blast, Doug. What's going on? I'm in a not great situation, and I'm trying to get some advice. Hopefully some advice that saves me from going further into debt. Okay. We can't give you that advice. You just have to choose to not go into debt.

All right, now go. Okay. Well, that's the hard part. A couple years ago, I was debt-free, and I went through a divorce, and I went into debt to get a lawyer in order to have more time with our shared child. And ever since then, it's just been a struggle to survive. I'm in a new city. I don't have anybody else to help me take care of him. And I was driving a beat up car. I had my thousand dollar emergency fund and I was paying down debt as fast as I could. And there was my car broke down and it costs more to fix it than the car is worth.

And now it's already sold to the junkyard, and I need a car by Monday morning so I can get to work. And I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. How far is your work office from your house? 30 minutes, 20-minute drive maybe. Okay. of 30 minutes 20 minute drive maybe okay and you can't get to that office any other way than owning your own car well i could i could uber um my friend you don't have to go into debt right now is what i'm trying to say i understand everything you just laid out and it sucks but you don't have to buy a car to get to work. Not in today's world.

True or false? That's true. Now, we need to get you a car. I'm in no way saying that you're going to Uber for the next, but we don't want you going into debt. So is your emergency fund completely gone? I have, no, I have my thousand dollar emergency fund and I have $500 that I got from the scrapyard for my car. Okay. What do you do for a living, man? I'm, um, I'm a machinist. I'm like, uh, I'm a machinist. And did you move to a new town so that because your ex-wife moved to a new town, you want to be with your kid? Why'd you move to Newtown? Yeah. Yeah, that's why. How long have you been divorced? The paperwork was completed about five, six months ago.

Okay. But the process started right about when COVID happened. How much debt have you accumulated now? All of it together adds up to $23,000. What's all of it together? All of it together. So there's nine that goes directly to the lawyer. There's $7,000 on a credit card.

There's another $5,000 on a credit card. There's another $5,900 on another credit card. And then there's $800 that goes to back rent because I was out of work for a couple of months and I wasn't able to pay rent during that time. What kind of money are you making now? I guess pretty good. I make $29 an hour. That's pretty good. Over time, yeah, it guess pretty good. I make, I make $29 an hour. Yeah, that's pretty good. Overtime is, yeah, it's pretty good. Overtime is like, um, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I wanted to know your overtime. How much can you make on overtime right now?

It comes and goes. It's not very, when they, when it's there, I work it, but it's not very dependable. I do have a side, um, you know, I, I drive for DoorDash on the side, and it brings in some, but it helps speed my car up, too. Okay. Yeah, so you're a machinist, which means you can do a lot of different things with your head and hands, correct? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've got to tell you right now, I would be looking to sell everything you could possibly sell. What kind of side work can you get over the next two to three weeks?

Making really good money, jumping in anywhere and everywhere. I mean, when you don't have the kids or when you're not seeing the kids, you're not sleeping. You're doing everything you can. Let's get you a $5,000 car or a $4,000 car or whatever. Get you back on your feet so that you can attack this debt again. How possible is that? Well, in order to get a $4,000, $5,000 car, I would have to go out and get a credit card to cover the extra.

No, no, no. You missed what I said. I didn't say go buy it now i'm saying go make some money sell something do whatever it takes borrow somebody's car you know if you got an uber for three straight weeks that's what you do but you work as hard as you can to come up with that money you can at 29 an hour okay uh in two months uh less, you could come up with five grand to get a car. In my mind, the car has to come before, because I don't know how I would get to all the places that I'm going to do the work.

Well, I appreciate that it's in your mind, John. I'm missing the connection. Doug, here's the thing. Let me ask you this, Doug. Why did you get divorced oh man um uh uh we weren't getting along we were not getting along why not a lot it's it it goes both ways it was okay a lot of her and a lot of me okay um here's what here's on this side of it and maybe i'm reading too much into this man you sound exhausted and you sound defeated.

It sounds like you wake up every day, and your first thought when you're washing your face in the mirror, if you even bother to do it, is, how the hell did my life end up like this? Am I right? Yeah. I'm in a strange town in a job that is fine. I'm just trying to hang on to my kid.

And let me tell you this. You're a good dad. You fought for your kid. And you fought with every claw and scratch you could. And you're exhausted. And when you get exhausted, when we get exhausted, and when we get lonely, we cut corners. When we cut corners, man, you find yourself in a hole you can't dig out of. Or that's going to take you, instead of two months, it's going to take you two years.

Don't do it, man. So it's a matter of, like, kids, this is scorched earth. This is old school, before everyone had credit cards. Our dads and our granddads just had to figure crap out. This is you right now. And it might be two months of you telling your wife or your ex-wife, I'm going to give up my time with my little one for 30 or 60 days because I refuse to put me and him in another hole like I've done before.

And we're going to get a car, and then we're going to work like crazy. And then you're going to look up in a year and this is going to be a totally different picture. What Ken and I have the blessing to do is to see people in your mess and then we get to talk to them a year from now and they breathe different and they sleep different and they laugh different.

And you're just in the hole, man. And so we got two guys in the light saying, hey, walk this way. And I get, it's like you can't even see it like i don't how am i possibly supposed to do any more work and what we're telling you is just for just go for it yeah you got to work your way out of this you don't want to add another five thousand dollars in credit card debt at whatever interest rate you're already at when you can bust it like we're telling you and you can buy a decent little car for four or five grand that'll get you from point a to point

b or two grand do it for two grand get a piece of job for two grand yeah it stopped door dashing that's a door dash can i just say this door dash is great any all work is worthy but for you a machinist i wish i could do stuff that you do. I could be so much more valuable for Stacy around the house, but I'm an idiot. I can't fix anything, but you are so talented and you are so needed. You could find work all over the place, side jobs here and there using your skills. True or false? Yeah, I could.

Come on, Doug. Come on, Doug. Do you believe you're talented or not I'm good with no I do I could do I could do so much more than I'm doing go do so much more so tied down you do you do I get it I get it you got through round one and you got your head knocked off but you're not unconscious and you're now you're on the stool and Ken and I are your trainer looking at you we just put your mouthpiece back in and we're telling you get up and go out there and start swinging the fight's not over it's just round one yeah you got your bell rung in round one

now the we're all watching to see what are you going to do next commit to not borrowing money man move forward not backwards Doug, you can do this. You've got so much more strength than you could possibly imagine. Believe in yourself and just go work yourself out of this hole. You can do it. We believe in you. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney.

And we're thrilled to be here with you today, taking your phone calls, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Los Angeles, California. And Drew is there. Drew, how can we help? Hi, Ken and John. How are you doing? We're having a blast. Drew, what's going on? So I have a question about a will. About in 2014, my grandfather died and he had a substantial amount of wealth. So that's forward to today.

And the way his will was designed was that it was supposed to be divided up amongst half to take care of my grandmother, and then half was supposed to go to my dad and his sisters. However, my grandmother did not want to honor my grandfather's will. So she went to the executor of the will, asked if she had to do it, and they went to a lawyer. Somehow they changed the will, and that will was not being honored. I was wondering if this was legal or if my family should be looking to take action on this or what would you suggest well who so she hired a lawyer and you said went to the executor the well the executor of the will was not was nobody in our family it was a accountant trusted by my grandfather right and when she went to the

executor uh she told him i don't want to honor this. Can we change it? So they found a lawyer who somehow found a way to change it. How much wealth are we talking about here? I don't have an exact figure. I know that it's a very substantial amount. Substantial like a million bucks? Substantial like a hundred million bucks? What do you guess?

Probably north of five, ten million. million okay here's what i'm getting at um a i've never heard of what you've described and i spent my career around attorneys i know a lot of people don't want to honor a will but that's what a will is for it's a it's a legal document so um if you have reason to believe that something nefarious happened, like somebody went and changed somebody's will and is channeling money elsewhere, then you can go get an attorney and fight that. That's your legal recourse.

I'm kind of torn because, I mean, that's a declaration of war against your family right but also your grandmother doing that is also a declaration of war against her against your family so i mean it's it's kind of tit for tat yeah i just am curious john i i if the the lawyer can't do i mean yeah i've never heard of so who what you're not i don't know the rest of the story and i'm not sure you know the rest of the story. Meaning, when the lawyer who was hired by the executor and grandma got the will changed, did it go before a judge? So as far as I know, no.

However, apparently there was a legal loophole where my grandmother did not have to honor this will. I've never heard of that. that yeah we're not legal experts so we can't there's there's very little we can do other than to say if you want to challenge this you want to sue your grandma go go go get a lawyer and tell the lawyer the story but you better have your facts before you start spending lawyer money you don't have you don't have a claim to the suit because you're not you're not a beneficiary in the will your dad does so your dad's gonna have to sue his mom and get to the bottom of it that's right sorry and then yeah that's no that's that's the other part of it it's just kind of disgusting i've watched a lot of matlock when i was growing up you don't even he doesn't even know who that is i'm sure he's too young matt luck yeah oh but yeah we're not lawyers here's the messy thing um my guess is there's a lot more mess in this family

oh i was getting ready to say to you what do you see in that we got grandmama and she's going i don't want my kids to get the money or grandma's got dementia or an attorney friend or the accountant reached out and said hey there's a way we don't have to give this money away there's a lot below the surface here a whole bunch um he thinks thanksgiving dinner's not been very warm exactly so here's the deal you're you can sue your grandma and you can hire an attorney to do uh a forensics accounting of what what the will original will was and where's the assets and who's got them why and who tried to change it is there any criminal baby you can do that absolutely oh sure and thanksgiving's different forever it's it's already different Where's the assets and who's got them and why and who tried to change it? Is there any criminal? You can do that. Absolutely. Oh, sure.

And Thanksgiving's different forever. It's already different. I think it already is. It already is. Probably hadn't been very nice for a long time. That's right. That's unfortunate. Sorry, brother.

Yeah, sorry that we aren't legal experts, but I would talk to Pops, and he needs to fight if he wants to fight. And reach out and get an attorney. Yeah, let's get to Cincinnati, Ohio. Brady is there. Brady, how can we help? Hey, Brady, how are you guys? Or, sorry.

You're Brady. You're Brady. What's going on, man? We're doing great. How can we help? So, my grandpa told me about Dave Ramsey a couple years ago. Didn't really listen. Didn't really think I would need it.

And then I find myself almost $400 negative on my bank account. So I started looking at Dave Ramsey finally, and I've been looking for about a week now. My wife's on board with it, but we just have absolutely no idea where to start. All right. Give us a picture. I'm hoping for a push or some advice. All right. We'll give you some advice within the baby steps, which are pretty simple to understand.

Give us a picture of what's going on with you financially. Let's start with debt. Okay. Debt. So we've got mortgage, about $150,000. I've got a truck of about $40,000, which I know is ridiculous. That's probably the first thing I need to take care of. Yeah. Well, let's stay right there. Let's get some momentum on the truck. How much is that truck worth? It's only worth about 37 private sale based on Kelly Blue Book. All right, keep going. And I owe 40 on it.

Okay, keep going with the car. What's the car? Okay, and then my wife's car, it's worth like 13. She owes about nine on it. So we've got a little bit equity in that one. And then we've got various credit card debts, personal loan, and then a lot of medical debt as well. How much credit card debt? Total like five grand. Okay. What's the medical debt? I have to get it all together, but I would say probably close to 10 grand, maybe a little bit under.

10 grand. Okay. All right. And what do you have in savings? Any cash? I've got no savings in cash. All right. What's your income?

I make about 46. I get a raise in nine days, and I'll be making 56 a year. Does your wife work outside the home? She only works every Friday and gets paid a hundred dollars every Friday. Do you guys have kiddos? We do. We have two. Okay. All right, John, you want to walk you through the baby steps or, I mean, this is tag team here. So first thing we're going to do is... Oh, man. You got a mess on your hands. Actually, you got a mess on your hands,

but you can start cleaning this up today. So here's baby step one. You're going to sell some stuff and get $1,000 in the savings account. Full stop. And we are working on that we've got everything on facebook marketplace there you go we can part with everything i want those two kids to be like are you are you are we going on marketplace right

that's that's the goal right everything right your old guitars that you're like no dude i'm gonna get the band back together you're not right now you're not right you got two mowers because you're that guy sell one of them right whatever you got to do um you've got a truck that is about your annual income that's what you owe on it that's insanity you know that right i know i i 100 agree i would probably if i find myself in your situation i would go down to um take both cars and sell them both and leave with two old used Camrys that's what I would do okay

this is an emergency situation you got two little kids and you've got negative dollars in your checking account this is not a time to be like yeah but I know man you're a long way off from that got it right and let me back up before you get the $1,000 emergency fund dude you need to have a target of what you're a long way off from that. Got it? Right. And let me back up. Before you get the $1,000 emergency fund, dude, you need to have a target of what you're trying to hit. You've got to be a grown-up and go pull your credit report from one or two of the service providers.

And you've got to know exactly how much you owe in order from smallest to largest, right? And you're going to go through these things and start knocking them off one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. You're going to work extra. Your wife's probably going to have to work. You're going to have to call on people to keep the kids. You're going to have to get after it. Brady, you can do this.

Hang on the line. We're going to gift you a free membership, trial membership, whatever we do, guys, to FPU, Financial Peace University. But you've got to watch the video. Listen, you've got to stay with it. Let's give him total money makeover as well. And John's right. I'd sell those cars instantly and work

more overtime side jobs than you ever have in your life. You're really close to getting out of this. You can do this. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. My colleague is Dr. John Deloney. He joins me this hour, 888-825-5225 is the phone number, 888-825-5225. Hey, listen, folks. We want to know what you think.

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Ramsey Solutions dot com slash survey. Tell us what you think. Be kind. Be gentle. But be honest. Actually, be honest. I'm not going to read it. Somebody else does. They'll read it to us. They'll tell us. Actually, be honest. I'm not going to read it. Somebody else does.

They'll read it to us. They'll tell us. Yeah, yeah. It's great. All right, back to the phones we go. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the Steelers. John is there. John, how can we help?

Hey, guys. How you doing? Thanks for taking my call. You bet. What's up? So a couple questions. Both kind of revolved around pausing the baby steps if possible. One is about getting a house.

We have a house, a townhouse, and we're looking to upgrade two kids, boy, girl. We only have two bedrooms, so we want them to have separate bedrooms eventually. And then emergency fund, if I dip into it, do I pause the baby steps to pay it back well first don't dip into your emergency fund for something that's not an emergency so so we just did there it was it was a surgery my wife had would that be considered there's a few thousand dollars and we don't know if we should cash flow it which it might take a little bit of time, but it started to come in, so we took a couple thousand to start to pay. I would not call that an emergency

if you could cash flow it. And remember, emergency fund is for that true emergency. Something comes out of nowhere, and we didn't plan for it, and it is a significant expense, and it needs to be paid, and it needs to be dealt with right now that's that's how we would define an emergency am i right yeah i had a procedure done a few weeks

ago but i knew it was coming a couple months in advance and so we my wife and i prepared for it what so it is all we didn't know was coming so i didn't know okay sure yeah yeah i mean if you all of a sudden you need emergency surgery or hey you gotta you have to have surgery next week yeah that's what the emergency how much did. How much did you take out? It was $3,000 out of it. All right. So are you asking if you pause the baby steps until you replenish? Yeah, because we could pay it back within a month.

But do I pause the investing and my kid's college and those things to pay it back real quick, or do we just slowly cash flow it back? No, slowly cash flow it back. You wouldn't pause the rest of the baby steps. I mean, it's $3, doing okay correct right right yes yeah yeah we're about a year out of debt good man good for you man listen i listen john i know what you're talking about i had i had a um i had a uh well i had an idiot moment it's probably worth sharing uh i had a small leak in my living room john in the corner if i told you this story yeah and uh i love idiot stories yeah well i am good at these so long story short john from pittsburgh and john here in the studio is uh we had a leak uh in the

winter time uh it was the corner of the roof right in the living room and i started to see one night little bubbling up uh you know and i was like uh-oh and we'd had heavy rain for two or three days and so I went up like Clark Griswold up in the ceiling in the attic and made it all the way across walked across the boards you know in my moccasins like a complete idiot you know and I saw where the leak was okay it's not a disaster but we've got a we got a nail hole or something i'm gonna have to call the roofer on my way back yeah you know where this is going don't you john right through yeah i uh i uh had some uh flex seal that i sprayed you know that guy that yells at you you can put your boat back together i bought that i thought well that'll keep it until and so the cap wasn't on and so as i'm walking across the uh the the the tube of you know the'm walking across the floor joists, I looked at the cap and decided to adjust the cap while I was walking on the high wire and stepped through my ceiling.

About broke my leg. I mean, it was disastrous. I'm not kidding you. Like half my leg is hanging through our living room ceiling. You know, that kind of stuff can happen. That's right. You know, and so there were several damages. That's what the emergency fund is for right there.

That's what the emergency fund is for because I needed it fixed immediately and we hadn't budgeted for it. We could have cash flowed it and moved the budget around. The point is, small amount out. But I hate touching my emergency fund is my point. Makes me crazy. So, John, I totally get where you're at. I always like to replenish that emergency fund when we have to use it almost immediately

because I hate using it. However, in this case, don't pause the baby steps. You're going to replenish it pretty quickly. Okay? And what about the upgrade of the house, which is like a 3B kind of thing? Do we pause because we feel like we're close

to the way the market is in our area, but we need a little bit more. We feel down payment to get to the 15-year mortgage. If you think you can do it in six months, I'd be all right with it. If you think you can do it quickly. That was my question. I think we can do it in six months.

If you can do it in six months and you just want to hit the gas on this real quick thing, fine. Yeah, I say so. Because you're talking about college investing and then your normal 15%. Is that what you're talking about? Yes, correct. That would free up a good bit. And if we just went back to bizzle and tense for six months like we were, college investing and then your normal 15 is that what you're talking about yes correct is that

free up a good bit and if we just went like back to like bizelle and pens for six months like we were we could have the cash to get into yes but i want y'all to write it down and i want you to commit to a blood oath because here's the deal whenever you give somebody a little bit it's like a little bit of wiggle room you're going to find yourself going out to eat five nights a week and doing this and let's go ahead and buy this house instead of this right see what i'm saying so to put the plan down six months my wife and i okay let's stick this six months and then we'll get back to where we were like come what may we're doing this right and maybe even go to your um to your hr representative at your at your office and say for six months then we want it to automatically trigger back

to start the withdrawal again or whatever that looks like but take it out of your hands as much as possible and y'all commit we're gonna we're gonna look at this every week to make sure we're staying on this thing but if you think you can knock it out in six months i'm okay with pause and stuff but don't do it much longer than that man because you're gonna end up costing yourself down the road right okay yeah and hey i would re-adopt that gazelle intensity that you guys displayed to get where you are. So it's a sprint. We're not going out to eat. We're not buying stuff.

We're going to have a very sparse Christmas. We're just going to knock this out. Yep. Because, listen, I get where you're at, too, on the townhouse and the kids and everything. But again, you can create an urgency that's really not urgent. It's a manufacturer. The kids are fine. And I get it.

You want to separate them and get them in different rooms. I get all that. But take your time. You don't want to sacrifice. John laid that out beautifully. So, hey, man, great job on being debt-free and working the baby steps. And this is a really great call, John. Really, really, really is a really great call, John, uh, really,

really, really happy for you guys. And that's, that's why the baby steps are so brilliant. Even in their simplicity, they're brilliant. They just give you, you understand this about human behavior.

Talk about the power of riverbanks, you know, to have, okay, this is where I'm running. Well, I think that's, I think we as a culture are wrestling with that because we don't like them.

And now we've got this tiny little sliver in human history when we can temporarily avoid all boundaries. We can just make it up as we go. You don't like the way you look? Fix it. You don't like the car? You just borrow some money. You can just go fix it. We are living in, we're trying to live in a boundary-free life. The problem is, as the great Bessel van der Kolk

says the body's keeping the score we're not designed to live without boundaries and it's frustrating to submit to that and we've got scientists trying to um to smooth out all bank riverbanks right let's just let this thing just go any way we want to whatever you feel like just go ultimately we got to live within the boundary span and it's frustrating and boundaries have been used throughout history to abuse people i get that and at the same time math is just math man it just is peace is just peace and you can you can play outside the boundaries all you want man but it's going to come at a cost and so i i identify with with this guy so much.

You get through, and then it's like, ah, now I finally want this car. You mean I've got to go two more years to save up for this car that I want? Yep. And it's just adopting those principles for the long haul over and over and over again. It's frustrating, but that's good life. John, you're a stud. Borrow the name from that great football franchise in Pittsburgh and steal your resolve. You guys got this. You got the plan, and you're a stud. Borrow the name from that great football franchise in Pittsburgh and steal your resolve.

You guys got this. You got the plan, and you've done it. Big thanks to my colleague, Dr. John Delaney. Thank you, James, and the entire team behind the booth. Most importantly, thank you, America, for watching and listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Dave here. We just launched a brand-new audience survey for The Ramsey Show,

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