The Ramsey Show - App - Is Now a Good Time To Buy a House? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

George Kamel & Kristina Ellis discuss: What a 17-year-old should do with money from a job, When is the right time to buy a house, Going to back to school to advance a career, What to do with extra income, Continuing to invest after retirement, Paying off the house vs. buying a car, Buying a car without going into debt.   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

Девочка-пай From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you get control of your money, get ahead in your career, and get on the path to living well. I'm George Campbell, your host today, joined by Ramsey personality and bestselling author, Christina Ellis. And we are excited to take your call, 888-825-5225. We'll talk about your life, your money, the economy, what you're worried about, what you're excited about. We'll celebrate your wins. We'll help you walk through whatever you're walking through. We are here for you, 888-825-5225. Joseph kicks us off in Grand Junction, Colorado. Joseph, welcome to the

show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? So my question for today, I started working for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and I'm 17 and was wondering if I should start a 401k and how much I should be contributing, putting into that. That's awesome, man. Well, congrats on the gig. That's fantastic. Do you have any debt?

Thank you. I do not have any debt. I love everything that you guys teach and I've followed all the baby steps. So far, I have my emergency fund and all of that. Wow. That's incredible. At 17, how'd you find out about this stuff? My parents have taken your class. And when I was a freshman in high school, I started, I took your guys' adult class. And I just kind of like, man, this is pretty awesome.

I enjoy this. So I've just throughout the many years, listened and tried to see how to manage my money best. You are wise beyond your years, Joseph. We love to hear it. So, go ahead, Christina. Is this the job that you want to do long-term? Yes, ma'am. I am pursuing Game Warden, which is also part of the Parks and Wildlife. So I started a maintenance job with them until I could possibly pursue that. Is there any further education that you're going to need? Any college or anything that will cost money to get educated?

Yes. With pursuing game warden, you need a biology degree. And I'm pursuing fish and wildlife biology. And that's a four-year degree. That's awesome. When does that start? I'm already taking college classes because of the cheap costs with being a high schooler. And I'm going to a community college to get all my gen classes done. And then I'm going to a community college to get all my gen classes done, and then I'm going to a university to take the major classes. You're a rock star. I'm so impressed right now. I'm like, is this a prank call? This guy is just crushing the game. So Joseph, to your question,

should you be contributing to retirement? The reason we're asking all these random questions is because we're trying to figure out if this money would be better used to make sure that you can cash flow the entire college experience and get out debt-free. That's the only goal you have right now at 17 years old. Yes. How much money do you have saved?

I have currently about seven grand. Seven grand. Do you know how much the entire four-year degree is going to cost? So for the first two years with the community college, it's probably going to run about $8,000 for two years total. Okay. And then the remaining two years? I believe that's probably going to be about $4,000 a year because it'll just be the major classes, $4,000 to $6,000 probably.

Okay. I'd get real clear on that number and that becomes your A1 goal for the next few years is cash flowing that. So no, I would not be contributing to retirement right now because we have this very near goal ahead of us to cash flow many thousands of dollars. And so that you don't have any risk of going into student loan debt is definitely going to set you up for success. Yeah. And what we've seen, Joseph, is, you know, some bright young people like you call into the show. And what I don't want is I got 20 grand in my 401k, but I'm broke and I have to go a hundred grand because I didn't think about saving for college. And I thought my parents had a plan. And so that's what I don't want for you. I see that happen too often where people are going, I should really start investing at 15 years old. And I love the spirit of that and the heart behind it. And I think you're going to be

a multimillionaire before most Americans. I'm not worried about that. What I am worried about is making sure that we invest in Joseph right now, get through college debt-free, get that job. And once you're a game warden, now we can invest because we don't have any huge financial goals ahead of us, except for maybe, you know, upgrading in a used car, maybe saving up for a down payment, things of that nature. Okay. And you'll be able to save really aggressively too. It's holding off on doing your 401k right now so that you can ensure that you get a debt-free degree, and then you're going to walk out of college with no debt, really ready to save up. Crushing it.

Awesome. Thanks for the call, man. Bryson joins us up next in Billings, Montana. Bryson, welcome to the show. Hi there, George and Christina. Thanks for having me. Sure. Can you hear me okay?

Yeah, it's a little bit muffled, but we can get through it. Is this any better? Much better. What's your question? Okay. Yeah, so I'll try to lay a little bit of groundwork. Root of my question is, is it the right time for my wife and I to prepare to maybe buy a home? We got married last summer, and we've we've been, uh, renting a little house here in town ever since. And it's been great. We, um, we're on baby step three B ish, four ish. My wife is graduated with her bachelor's and she's working full time. And, um, I'm working part-time and going to school full-time, uh, to become a

nurse. Um, we, our lease is, um, up here at the end of March and we've been preparing, we know that homeownership is a, is a major goal of ours. Um, and we've been trying to prepare to be ready to make that move. If it feels right, but we're kind of just not sure on the timing of it, if we've got a good enough window that we should maybe try to buy a home here or rent in the mean until I'm done with school. So how much money will you have by March when your lease is up towards the down payment? We'd have about 70. We'd be pretty ready for a healthy 20 to 30% down payment. And you've looked at homes in the area and you're going, all right, we could do this.

Yeah. Yeah. It feels like we could, I mean, whenever you're looking at homes and you're a millennial looking on Zillow, obviously you look at a lot of things that feel like maybe out of reach and very fancy and stuff, but yeah. And then everything else feels like, well, that sucks. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you keep talking about how I feel about it and I want to move from feelings to just facts on paper. And so what we say is 15-year fixed rate mortgage with a payment that's no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. And if you can have 20% down on top of that and still have that payment be a quarter, then I am good with that. That's how you know you're ready. And if you're done leasing and you're not ready, you might need to go month to month for a little while until you are ready. But don't rush into it.

It is the largest purchase you will ever make in your entire life. So move slowly, do it with wisdom, do it with patience, and do it when you're ready. Thanks so much for the call. We've got more of that coming up. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. ស្រូវានប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប� I'm George Campbell joined by Christina Ellis today you're listening to the Ramsey show you guys know the housing market is hot it has has been for a while, and your house could be worth a lot more today than it is when you bought it. And that means your old insurance policy might not give you enough coverage anymore. And what's the point of paying for insurance that won't swing the cost to repair or rebuild your home? Now, some policies will automatically raise your coverage to cover rising home prices or material costs, but not all of them.

So if your home's value has gone up or it's been over a year since you checked your homeowner's policy, you got to talk to one of our endorsed local providers. Our ELPs are independent agents who will compare multiple policies to find the best coverage for your home and your budget. That's why they're Ramsey trusted, because they'll put you first, period. Go visit ramseysolutions.com slash home to talk with a trusted home insurance pro today. That's ramseysolutions.com slash home. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. Eli joins us up next in Los Angeles. Eli, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Absolutely. How can Christina and I help? Hi, yes. So at my job, I make $110,000 and I've been encouraged to go back

to school to move up further up at my job. I'm just wondering if it's worth it. What do you do for a living? I'm a registered nurse at a mental health hospital. Cool. And the position I'm seeking is becoming a psychiatrist. Aha, so what does that entail as far as education? Well, my retirement age is 57, I'm currently 37, so I know becoming a psychiatrist will probably take at most 13 years. So just wondering if it's worth going through it. Who's pressuring you to do this? Who's telling you you've got to go be a psychiatrist?

Myself. I find an interest in doing it. Okay, so this is on you because you said it felt like there was outside pressures, which is never a good motive to do anything. But if this is your heart's passion, then it may be worth doing, but you want to do it a smart way where you can cash flow the entire experience. Yes. What specifically makes you want to be a psychiatrist?

I'm just interested in mental and physical health. I used to be a personal trainer, so I'm pretty fit. And I used to be a yoga instructor, so I'm pretty peaceful in mind. I could understand people pretty well, so I think I'd help being a psychiatrist. That makes sense. Do you think that there's any way that you could do that with being an RN, getting some of those things that you really enjoy doing, being able to do that in your career without going back to school for 13 years?

I can. I could probably do that, yeah, because there's a lot of overtime also being a nurse. Do you have any money saved up to go back to school? Do you have any thoughts on how you'd pay for it? Getting a student loan is probably it. Well, we're never going to encourage you to get a student loan, that's for sure. I mean, we're all about education and supporting people getting higher education. But I do wonder if there's a way that you can reach some of those goals, get to fulfill that passion of working with people in the mental health world, helping them be well with the career that you have without going into debt. If you can cash flow it,

fantastic. But if it involves student loans, we're definitely not going to encourage that. You mentioned initially that you're partially doing this because you want to increase your income. Partially, that's like a benefit of it. But the problem is, you know, increasing your income while then having a half million dollars in student loans on the other side, you're not going to feel like you got a raise. Okay. And so that's my worry for you is you get out of school and you go, oh my gosh, my student loans are $4,000 a month.

And so the extra $3,000 a month I'm making feels like nothing. And you said your retirement age is 57. Is that just when you'd like to retire? That's the earliest I could retire at my current job. I'm putting in 20 years of state service. What does that do for you? Is that a pension thing? Pension, yes. Okay, all right. Well, I want you to explore all the options. It sounds like you want to be a psychiatrist, you want to help people in a different way, and there's a lot of paths in your field. I mean, you could be a nurse practitioner, you could do a lot of different

things in that realm, and so I want you to really take a good hard look at kind of a cost-benefit analysis and go, all right, to be a psychiatrist is going to take 13 years and $500,000. Or I could be an NP and it would cost $100,000 and take three years. So start to really look at all of your options and then figure out how you're going to do that with cash. Take that off the table and then get creative and go, okay, what can I do and when can I do it if I'm cash flowing it? Yeah. And I would definitely write out all the details because I mean, you may even find 13 years sounds like a long time for a psychology degree. So make sure that that's accurate. I actually have an associate's degree. So I said 13 years might be the max, but it might be like 10 years since I already have an associate. I could just transfer, you know.

I would definitely, we're all about getting all the options on the table. Get every detail, every program that you're interested in, every career path that could be a possibility, you know, weigh out how much does it cost. And like George said, the cost benefit analysis to see really truly what your options are and how much they're going to cost in total.

And what if you could do the, you know, yoga instructor and personal trainer, you could do that as a side hustle while staying in RN and you can make an extra $100,000 that could help cashflow, you know, the, the education you need, or you go, this is, this is fulfilling to me. I don't need to go be a psychiatrist now. Okay. So just, I'm just trying to get you to think outside of the box. Cause right now it feels like there's two options. Stay in our end making $110,000 or I need 13 more years to be a psychiatrist to make an extra $100,000 or $200,000. So just start really do some research, talk to people who are in those fields, get a feel for what's possible for you. But no matter what you do, we want you to cash flow the experience so that you're not sitting here on the other end trying to pay lenders while stepping into a new field. I understand. Cool. Well, we're cheering

you on, Eli. Thanks so much for the call. Crushing it. That's awesome. Amy joins us up next in Chicago. Amy, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me on today. Absolutely. How can we help? I am 50. My husband is also, he's recently retired from police work and he has a pension. So his income is basically the same as it has always been. He just picked up a job working halftime as a teacher. It's not going to be a lot of income, but I'm just wondering what we should do with that income should I invest it in a traditional IRA or Roth currently have like five hundred and sixty five between my 403 B and his 457 so the 457 I know we could draw from at any time that he's retired from police work so is it okay to just take a full

check and put it in a Roth or at our our age, is that not worth it? Do you guys have any debt currently? $12,000 on a car. And we just upgraded all our cars, so our cash is down low now. So do you not have an emergency fund? No. I mean, I've got like $10,000 in the bank. Okay. You've got $10,000 in the bank.

You owe $12,000 on the car. Any other debt? No, none. House is paid. Everything else is paid. We've got college funds for the kids. We'll have to start paying on the third kid's college because we don't have enough savings for them. But I feel like we're able to put away about 5,000 a month now and just live on my income because the house is paid off. Well, you guys are in a good spot. You got some goals ahead of you now. Well, number one, we're going to pay off that car ASAP. And if that means dipping into all the savings minus $1,000, keep that in there, then we're going to pay off that car next month. And then we're going to be about the business of

getting a three to six month emergency fund in place, and then we can start investing. But until then, we've got priorities. We've got to get rid of the debt and have a solid financial foundation because one thing goes wrong right now and you guys don't have the money to pay for it. That's a scary place to be. Right. And then once you do that, once you have that solid emergency fund and you have, you know, all the debt paid off, then start dreaming up what do you want retirement to look like? Do you guys have a vision for what that looks like? What kind of money you need to have in order to make that happen? And then sit down with a SmartVestor pro and they

can walk you through how much you need to be saving each month in order to reach that goal. Absolutely. You can get in touch with one at ramseysolutions.com and click on trusted pros there. But I love the idea of having a vision. When do we want to retire? Oh, and by the way, we're in our 50s now. There's some great catch-up contributions we can make in our IRAs. So look into all your options. A SmartVestor Pro can help with that. I want you guys to retire with dignity, with no debt, sending all the kids to college completely debt-free. Man, how's that for retirement? I love that plan. Way to go, Amy. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined today by Christina Ellis,

and we are pumped to take your calls about life and money. The number is 888-825-5225. If you just need a third party to give you some confirmation, you're at a crossroads, you're not sure what to do, you think you know, you got some bad advice from your brother-in-law on Get Rich Quick, on crypto, we're here to help you with whatever you're facing in life. 888-825-5225. Jim joins us up next in Billings, Montana. Jim, welcome to the show. Hello. Hey, what's going on? Well, we retired in 2015 and we followed the Dave Ramsey baby steps and are totally debt-free, have been since we retired. And I was just wondering at this point in time, would it be better to try and invest anymore

or just live off of our retirement funds and our pensions, or what should we be doing now? How much do you guys have in retirement? About $600,000. Okay. And what about the pension? The pensions are about $6,000 a year, I mean a month. Okay, $6,000 a month. Is that enough to live off of, the pension alone, without touching the retirement accounts? Yeah, we haven't touched anything since 2015.

Nice. And you've had a great retirement so far? Yeah, we do everything we want to do, and we donate at least 20% to charities, and we do everything we want. And we've got emergency funds and everything in place. Wow. And you still have margin left over after that. And you're going, what do we do with this money? Yeah. That's a good problem to have. Yeah. Is your house paid off? Yes. That is fantastic. I mean, this is the dream, Jim. People are listening in going, how do I be Jim when I grow up? This is awesome. So to answer your question, should you continue investing? Yeah, investing is a great thing to do, even in retirement. Do you have kids? Yeah, we've got two adult children.

Great. Well, you said you guys are how old? We're both 73. 73. Okay. Well, let's say you can go another 20 years. Is this pension for life? What's the details of this? And is there a survivor piece to the equation with the pension? On mine, yes, there is. I'm retired military, so I set it up that about 50% or 60% will still go to my wife if I pass away. Great. I just want to make sure that she's taken care of. You have $600,000, which is not nothing, and as that money continues to grow, if you don't touch it, you're going to see, let's say, 9% or 10% growth. That's some serious growth over the next 10, 20 years. Right. Especially if you're not touching. Yeah, all we touch is the

required minimum distribution. That's all we take. The RMDs. Okay. That's awesome. Are you working with a financial advisor? Yes. Okay. And do you like them? They've been treating you well? You feel like they're teaching you? Yeah, we got him early on. He was an ELP, and he's moved on from that since, but we really liked him, and he's always done good for us. Great. I want to make sure you have someone in your corner who's looking out for you and crunching all the numbers, going, hey, here's what this money looks like for the next 20 years. But absolutely, if you've got money left over and you're living the best life you can live, having amazing experiences and you're not pinching pennies in retirement, then I think it's wise to continue to invest and they can help walk you through what those options are at your age. How much is your house worth? About $400,000. That's amazing.

So you guys are officially Baby Steps millionaires. You followed the plan, and you're living the life. Yeah. One day we're a millionaire, and the next day we're down to $950,000. I never called in for the millionaire show because I never know exactly where I am. Depends on what the stock market's doing. Well, with that pension, that changes everything for you guys. So that's awesome that you have that extra income. And thank you so much for your service, Jim.

Yeah, our pensions are about, well, everything that rolled into one is a little over $80,000 a year or so. That's not bad. That is awesome. I love that you guys are living out that so that. We have so many people calling in talking about the struggles of having debt and trying to save right now, and they're a lot younger in their journey, and you guys are setting the example of what that so that looks like. You're able to give generously. You're able to live and do all the things that you want in retirement, so really good job. You can hear the levity in his voice.

He's just like, I got some extra money. What do I do with it? Life's good. Thanks so much for the call, Jen. Appreciate it. Jan joins us up next in Kansas City. Jan, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you so much.

How can we help today? Well, my husband and I are both still working. We're in our late 50s. We got married late in life. We weren't good at saving before then. But right now we are within arm's reach of paying off our house. Awesome. Otherwise we're debt free.

We actually have enough in savings to go ahead and just write that check and pay it off. But my husband is looking to need a new car. He's got a 275,000 miles on his car. And so we're kind of trying to decide, do we just keep plugging money away to eventually get him a car when he finally, you know, kicks the bucket? Or should we go ahead and bite the bullet, pass the house, and then, you know, hit real hard, put all that money that we were putting in the mortgage into saving for a car? Yeah. What's your income, household? Together, about $110,000.

Okay. And how much is left on the mortgage? $25,000. Love it. And how much do you have total in cash and savings? $26,000. And how much of that is your emergency fund? All of it. Okay. Well, it doesn't look like we're doing either of them right now, but you're so close. You're going to be there. My guess is about 15 or 20 of that is going to be a three to six month emergency fund for you guys? Right. Okay. So let's say we have an extra,

let's call it 20 grand is the emergency fund. So right now you have 6,000 of money. You can do whatever you want with. You can throw it at the house. You can put it towards the car. And personally, what I did was I waited. I had a crappy car, and I waited to upgrade it until I paid off the house. And that's just me personally. I need kind of the carrot dangling in front of me to keep me motivated for my goal.

And that might be the same for you guys based on your personality. Right. What do you think, based on your personality. Right. What do you think? You know your husband. Yeah, I mean, he would like a different car. It doesn't have any AC in it. Oh, boy. In the Kansas City summer?

Yeah. How much is it to fix it? Quite a bit. Quite a bit. You know, he's had to dump quite a bit of money into it that is cheaper than his car. And the dashboard sometimes doesn't work, so that's kind of dangerous. That's comforting. Yeah.

Well, there may be a stopgap solution where we go, all right, we're going to get a car. It's going to be better than the one we have, but we're going to spend six to seven grand to get him a different car right now, a used car. Then we're going to attack the house, and then once we have the house, we're going to start saving up to get him a better car. That's what I would do if I was in your shoes. Christina, she may have a different take.

No, I think that sounds great. That's what I was thinking. I do wonder about how long Christina, she may have a different take. No, I think that sounds great. That's what I was thinking. I do wonder about how long do you think it'll take you all to pay off the mortgage if you do that strategy and you buy the car, $5,000, $6,000 with the cash you have. How much longer are you looking at to pay off that mortgage? Well, right now we're trying to do double payments. And so we're looking at maybe two or three years. Three years to pay off 25 grand. I feel like you guys can do better than that. Okay. That's my challenge to you.

What, a year? Making 110 with no payments except for the house, you know, you could do this. Well, we've been slamming stuff into, you know, savings every month, too, for the emergency fund. That's awesome. Or car funds. So that's kind of where we've been. So we should put more towards the house is what you're saying. That's what I would do.

I mean, I'd get them something for now. That sounds like miserable just driving around that thing. You guys are working too hard to be driving that thing around. So upgrade that. Attack the house. And there's always another car out there we can get later on. But do it with cash. Don't go into debt. Call us back when you're debt-free. We love to hear it.selling author and Ramsey personality, Christina Ellis,

and we are taking your calls about life and money right here on The Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. Tony joins us up next in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tony, welcome to the show. Hey, George. Hey, Christina. How are you? We're doing great. What's going on with you? I just have a question. I know I had kind of sold my vehicle about a year or so ago to kind of fast track becoming debt free, which I am now. Nice. actually had a car that was kind of just sitting at my parents' house, her old car. So I kind of fixed it up, put about 2000 bucks into it and kind of have driven that since last year sometime, beginning of last year. And I think it was kind of for my niece. She's going to be graduating high school soon. So I knew her parents weren't going to have the money to fix it up. So it was

kind of a win-win for both of us. But I know she's going to be getting her license pretty soon. And I knew this ahead of time, but I did become debt-free. I don't want to go back to getting another auto loan. I'm scared that might affect me in saving towards my emergency fund or also home buying later down the road. So I just want to know what my, exactly what my options were now. Well, your options are to buy a car with cash. And that means we're going to buy a car with cash and save up and buy a car with cash. Save up. It's that simple. So what kind of car would you be looking at? I know in my research, I definitely know now I want a toyota or honda just a basic you know sedan corolla civic good man you know something you sold okay so have you looked at your area

in raleigh and said hey what is a you know what's a 2012 civic gonna cost yeah i have um you know i just know now with my you you know, my emergency fund, I'm at about $4,000 or $5,000 now in that emergency fund. And I know she's going to be, you know, her parents don't live here. They actually live in Greensboro. So I know that I'm going to have to be giving her that, you know, that car back soon. So that's where the worry came in. So we got to get the emergency fund beefed up, but also get you a car ASAP.

Yeah. How soon do you have to give it back? I would say within the next, I would say maybe five, six months or so. Okay. And you got the car for free, but you put two grand of repairs into it? Yeah. Is that the idea? Okay.

Yeah. So if we got a few months, what's your income? About $50,000, $52,000 a year. Okay. What do you do for a living? I'm in an operations airport. Cool. Well, how quickly could you get a $10,000 emergency fund and then save up another six or seven to get a car. So we're talking another $15,000 saved within four months? Yeah. What would that take? Could you take some side jobs, some side hustles?

Yeah, I could. Work overtime? I don't know what your situation is at work. Yeah, I could work some overtime. Definitely have a few jobs here or there just to make up the income. Yeah, and this is for a short season. I'm not talking two years of this. I'm saying for four months, can we basically double our income in order to be in a real good spot when we have to hand over this car? And I would get really clear on the timeline of this.

Like you're saying maybe five to six months, but obviously if we're trying to save super aggressively and get to that goal of a car, a month or two is going to make a huge difference. So I would have that conversation as soon as possible just to figure that out. So then you can map out, you know, what do I need to save each month? How many extra jobs do I need to get? What does this journey actually look like? And you also may want to adjust the type of car you get. Like if you're, if they're like, Hey, we need this car in two to three months, I mean, maybe you're looking at a $5,000 car for right now, and then you can save up and get something better in the future. Yeah, that's a great point there.

And if you could just say, hey, listen, I'm going to have this money by March. Does that work for you guys? Can I give her the car then? And if they're a little bit flexible or she can borrow a car for now and give you a little more time, that's going to really help your situation. Okay. Are they pretty flexible? Sounds good. Yes, they are. They are. I guess I just kind of got caught up in the, I guess, further, I guess, further down the road, you know, where we are now and, you know, just rent prices and things like that. I kind of started to get a little worried, you know, that that would kind of affect the budget, you know, just rent prices and things like that, I kind of started to get a little worried, you know, that that would kind of affect the budget, you know, in terms of if I were to get another car or if they're not, you know, flexible, if I do have to give it back.

So I was just kind of a little nervous, just a little nervous about that. Well, have no fear. We're going to create a sinking fund line item in your budget that is for that new car and we might put that in a separate savings account versus your emergency fund because it can get all squirrely when you're just looking at one savings account going well i have enough for a car but i don't know if i have my emergency fund now so i would separate the two and get set up a new savings account just for the car and that way you know exactly where you stand at all times sounds Well, your A1 is getting that emergency fund beefed up to three to six months of expenses. Do you know your monthly expenses right now?

Yeah, I would say about $2,500. $2,500. Okay. So four months would be $10,000. I would say maybe about $1,700. I'm sorry. $1,700. Oh, okay. So we're talking about $10,000 or so would be a fully funded emergency fund, and you're close to that. And so within a few months, you'll be there. And then the next few months, you're going to be focused on saving up for that car. And whenever you have to give it back, whatever car we can get for that amount of money, that's what we do. And it may mean getting scrappy, and we're going to Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist and negotiating, doing it with a cashier's check and trying to get a deal, but that's going to be your best bet.

Sounds good. Well, and it's obvious to you that you're willing to drive a car that you fixed up and that that's what you've been driving recently. So I think if you just kind of keep that mindset of, like, I'm not really going for a nicer thing. No one's going to be impressed with this car, and that's okay. We're running our own race, and Tony's good with that. Appreciate the call, man.

James is up next in Columbus, Ohio. James, what's up? Hey, George and Christina. How you guys doing? So great. What's going on with you? I'm good. So I had a question. I'm currently in college and I'm going into my junior year. And my question, so I guess to give you a little bit of backstory first. So my first year of college, I actually ended up taking about out about $3,000 in student loans. And I've been working really hard to try to make sure I don't have to do that anymore. So over the summers, I've been working different internships and, you know, trying to save some money that way.

But I've also been working during the school year as well. So during the school years, I have a part, I guess, sort offers to work part-time for two different companies outside of the school. And I guess my dilemma with that is working as a laboratory assistant has been really good because it's sort of more flexible with my school schedule. So I feel more comfortable, you know, being able to get my schoolwork done and also, you know, them sort of understanding, you know, how my schedule is and working with that. With these two job offers that I got, I'd be, you know, working outside of the school. Do they understand you're a student? Will they be flexible with your schedule? So I think they do.

I had a conversation with both of them. I think they do understand. The thing though there is that with those two job offers, those would be more so in my career field. I should clarify, I'm an architecture major. Cool. So working with those, you know, one of those two companies that, you know, just had the chance to talk to, it would, one, you know, help me get experience, but two, also allow me to collect hours towards my exam that I would have to take to become a registered architect.

Is it also a bump in pay? Say that again, I'm sorry. Is it also a bump in pay? Say that again, I'm sorry. Is it also a bump in pay? So pay is about even across the board. Yeah, I'd say that all the positions would be relatively even playing field as far as pay goes. Okay, have you had... You've gone down that path then.

Yeah, that's great. I mean, it's in your career field. You've got to be in communication with them and say, this is what this looks like for me to take this part-time job. Are you good with that? And have that in writing and then move forward with it, man. That's awesome. Get clarity because I think this could be a great opportunity.

Make sure you completely understand the hours, the opportunity, and what's involved. As Ken Coleman says, clarity breeds confidence. There you go. Ken Coleman quote to end this hour. Thanks to Christina Ellis, all the folks in the booth, and to you, America. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with you before you know it. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.