The Ramsey Show - App - Is This Hurting My Financial Future? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

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Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. Rachel Cruz, multiple number one best-selling author, Ramsey personality, co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour, and my daughter is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Nicole is in Salt Lake City. Hey, Nicole, how are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:01:13 Well, I'm so grateful to actually get to speak to both of you, especially another working mom. I'm concerned with whether or not I would be harming my family's financial future if I take an extended maternity leave with my second child. I didn't take that with my first child, and I've had a lot of regret about that. And my husband and I are considering whether or not I could take a year or two off of work. If I did, we wouldn't be able to put as much toward our debt snowball as we have. We've paid off about $217,000 in 2020. What do you do, Nicole? I'm an attorney. What do you make?
Starting point is 00:01:55 Net take-home for both of us. No, I said what do you make? I think my net take-home is $120,000. What about your husband? His is about maybe $60,000, I think my net take home is $120,000. What about your husband? His is about maybe $60,000, I think. No, it was $70,000 last year. His net was $70,000. What's he do?
Starting point is 00:02:14 He owns some car washes. Okay. So you're going to cut your income by 60%, 65%? Yes. Okay. And then we would still have $86,000 of my student loan left. It's our only debt besides our mortgage that we still have left to pay on, but we've been paying on it.
Starting point is 00:02:38 And so it's going to set us back. We'll be able to make the minimum payments and maybe a little bit more with distributions, but maybe inconsistently. And I guess I'm just, I'm concerned because we started a family later in life. We'll both be in our early forties by the time I wanted to go back to work. And so obviously having that debt and then having not invested that long, I'm just concerned this is going to cause harm long term. I kind of want to like relieve you from from that, Nicole. I don't think it's harm long term. I mean, I think, yeah, your your goals are going to shift if your family goals shift. And that's a reality. But it's not like you're putting your family in massive danger here
Starting point is 00:03:26 right i mean i have some other ideas that we can talk through here in a second but um this so many women feel this and especially since you're the breadwinner of that i have to be the one to save everything and it's up to me and i'm going to put my family in danger i'm you know like this language that you're using it's uh it's very heavy and i think it's, what I would say is that it's, you're putting more pressure on yourself than needs to be there. Yes, getting out of debt is a huge goal. And it's one that I want you guys to work towards and one that you've made such significant progress to. But like we said, the last hour of the show, we talked so much about how debt is a tool to create, or I'm sorry, money is a tool to create a life that you love.
Starting point is 00:04:07 And you guys have to look at your family unit and your family is a priority, Nicole. I mean, your family is one that you're like, okay, what is best for us right now? And as a mom, I get it like that. I mean, I pulled back from work after my third because I was like, I just, I want to be home more. And so all of that is real. Now, does that mean we want to stop everything you guys have been doing and the progress you've made? No, I wouldn't suggest that either.
Starting point is 00:04:30 And so I think I think a wonderful middle ground, Nicole, for you is to have because I mean, an attorney, I'm like, that is such a stressful job and the hours you work. I mean, I can't even imagine. So what does life look like if Nicole stays home and her career shifts and your career looks different for a year or two? What does that look like? And so I would start, you know, having that kind of conversation of, and I don't know this world, Nicole, so you probably can direct me better in this conversation from this point on in this sense, but is there work to be done that you could do, outsource your skills at some level, some degree,
Starting point is 00:05:07 that is significantly less stress and less time than what you've been doing and still be bringing in some kind of flow, right? To offset the student loans that are there because of law school. Right. So let's use the law degree to clean up the law degree mess. But does your life have to look like it? Maybe not in a traditional right attorney setting right what rachel's saying and rachel says she pulled back she pulled back she's not uh but she's not out of the saddle either she's you know her social footprint has grown uh she's still doing appearances she's still on this show still launched a number one best bestselling kids book a few months ago. And so, and did all of that on, you know, less than a full-time
Starting point is 00:05:52 hour slate. In an office. Yeah, correct. Yeah. In the office. And so, you know, but we just shifted around how, what we're doing with her brand and how we're doing that for a season here while the little one is there and so for you that's what i would present to you what does what does that shift look like right because there is a you know there's a level of responsibility that you guys have financially right that you have to fulfill you have to make these payments and getting out of debt as you know uh lifts so many burdens right if you didn't have this debt then you could have the option to stay home full time if you wanted right so um but but i do think that there's
Starting point is 00:06:29 something there that there still can be money to be brought in i think you have to think creatively and that's probably what i would encourage you to do to have something and then he honestly nicole will probably have to step up his game if you guys keep this momentum uh with paying off debt i just don't want you to think it's an all or nothing yeah things can shift and um harm is not the right word rachel's right that's an overstated word a get a mom guilt word in this because you the you guys can't win okay you get mom guilt if you're at home because you feel like you should be at work and if you're at work you get mom guilt because you feel like you should be at home i mean it's a no-win and there's always some moron on either side of the coin telling you you should be doing the other one right and so um and so we're not
Starting point is 00:07:13 going to be either one of those but probably some kind of a uh a change a hybrid approach because i i there's a part of me that says okay okay, you went to all the trouble and the expense and the debt to be a lawyer, to go cold turkey doing nothing with that, while you've still got $80,000 of it outstanding, that doesn't feel right either. Okay? But also not addressing this need that you've got, this desire you've got to be at home doesn't feel right. And so I think somewhere in there along Rachel's suggestion is the proper answer. But I want to take the, I'm with Rachel, I want to take the guilt thing of are you doing irreparable harm? No, you're not doing irreparable harm. you just kind of got to think through i spent a lot of who i am in money time debt effort
Starting point is 00:08:09 brain power to be a lawyer and to cut that off completely even for just two years feels pretty extreme yeah and nicole and everyone's obviously created so differently but considering what you've done and as you listed all that, Dave, I was thinking like, you know, you might look up in six months and be like, oh my gosh, I'm crazy. I'm not happy because I need some output. You know, so you may find that in you, how you're wired, you're going to want to do something as well.
Starting point is 00:08:39 And so that's a possibility too. So you're doing great, Nicole. You're going to be okay. You're going to do good. You're going to do good. You're asking the right questions. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer,
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Starting point is 00:10:44 It's crazy out there, y'all. Did you guys know that stupid has a gravitational pull? That you can get stuck in an orbit around stupid? You know how you break an orbit? You know how you break the cycle? A burst of energy. That's how you break an orbit. And if you're ready for a change, we're going to help.
Starting point is 00:11:07 We're doing the biggest live stream we've ever done. Right now, there are over 400,000 people registered to view our live stream tomorrow night, Thursday, January the 11th at 7 p.m. Central. It's by far the biggest one we've ever done. It's called Break the Cycle. It's Dr. John Deloney, Rachel Cruz, George Camel, Jade Warshaw, me, navigating money anxiety, bad money habits that keep you stuck, practical money tips that actually work, and we're giving away $10,000, $1,000 to 10 different people, a total of $10,000, to people who are actually viewing this tomorrow night. If you're on the live stream,
Starting point is 00:11:48 you're going to be automatically signed up to be a possible winner. No purchase necessary. The whole thing's free. RamseySolutions.com slash break the cycle. RamseySolutions.com slash break the cycle. Rachel, what you and Jade have put together, the things y'all are going to be working on,
Starting point is 00:12:07 it's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, it's going to be great. We're really going to talk through what it looks like to change, right? And that change is uncomfortable, but what are the actual tactical things you can do to break the cycle? And yeah, and one of those is budgeting.
Starting point is 00:12:21 And EveryDollar is a huge, our budgeting app, it's a huge tool. It's a huge proponent in your life, in your financial life, to walk with you and for you to have. That's so convenient on your phone to really do this. I mean, like there really is something about being proactive with your money, and the budget is really the best way to do that, and EveryDollar is that. So we're going to kind of talk through a bunch of ideas, including that one, and it's going to be a good night. Dalton is with us. Dalton is in Knoxville. Hey, Dalton, welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:12:50 Hey, thank y'all for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Hey, my wife is scheduled to graduate from psych nurse practitioner school a year from now in January. Right now, we're about $40,000 in debt from our student loans, but that's all that we have. Everything else is paid off. And after she graduates, she's working part-time for a company that she plans to go full-time for. And they have a program where if you work with them for two years, they'll pay $50,000 off of your student debt. And so my question was, should we wait two years and let them pay off the $50,000 and we just make sure it stays below $50,000 off of your student debt. And so my question was, should we wait two years and let them pay off the $50,000,
Starting point is 00:13:27 and we just make sure it stays below $50,000, or we hurry up and pay off beforehand? She graduates in January. When do they give you the $40,000? Two years later? Maybe $50,000. Two years later. You don't have $50,000 in in debt you said they pay off up to 50 so it's 40 yeah well we got 40 000 right now i think after she graduates we're
Starting point is 00:13:54 after we do the math it's going to be about 70 75 000 okay so you called me up about getting out of debt while you're going further into debt. I guess I did. What do you make? I make about $40,000 a year. Is she working? She's working part-time, so I'll make around maybe $10,000 this year. And we got two kids. What are they going to pay her as a psych nurse
Starting point is 00:14:26 uh starting off 118 000 wow that's awesome yeah thank you uh uh okay so it really doesn't matter um you're not going to pay anything on the debt between now and the time she graduates if we got if you really rolled up your sleeves you might just avoid adding so much but that maybe keep it down to 50 instead of go to 75 uh you know you guys really really really buckle down and not go so far in debt um but there's not so the question really comes up when she goes to work they're making a hundred do we wait two years from then for them to pay off 50 or do we just use her hundred to pay off the 50 the first year yeah so the question really it doesn't even come up until a year from now yeah here's what i would do i would immediately when she goes to work
Starting point is 00:15:40 save up the fifty thousand dollars and put it in a separate account and let it sit there a savings account and then if this place is hell on earth and she needs to walk out the door you can write a check yourself and pay it off and you've not got golden handcuffs and she has to stay in a horrible situation for two years all right because you guys are used to living on 40 or 50 with her 10 000 part-time and you're getting ready to go to 150 when she comes out so you ought to be able to save 50 really fast does that make sense yeah makes complete sense yeah so i want you to do the same thing as getting out of debt and just pretend like you don't have that savings account over there
Starting point is 00:16:30 and then if she does stay two years obviously they're going to write a check pay it off and you've got an extra 50 grand laying around yeah yeah because usually dalton in these situations what we hear is you have to be in the job for seven plus years or like this crazy extended amount of time for this kind of benefits. We hear that a lot. And that's what I would not advise. If it's a long period of time, I'm just on my own.
Starting point is 00:16:52 I'm going to pay it off. So I have the autonomy over my life. Two years is really, it's encouraging. Yeah. And how much she's going to be making right out of the gate. I'm like, holy crap. It's like, she has a really great deal.
Starting point is 00:17:03 I mean, you guys are in a really, really blessed situation in that sense that she's found, you know, who she's working for and all of it. I mean, like it's, there's so many upsides. Yeah. For you guys. So that's a, I think that's a great idea. Try to cashflow the next year, Dalton, really set yourself a goal that we're not going to go any further. And, and then continue that goal of like, this is what we're going to use to pay this off if something were to happen. So it still gives you an out. There's still this kind of like,
Starting point is 00:17:29 we can eject if we need to. And maybe I'm praying she loves it. She's getting paid well. They're going to pay off the debt in two years and I'm praying she stays with it and it's great. But don't trap yourself in somebody else's world. Let's say you don't go 75, but you end up 57,000 in debt
Starting point is 00:17:47 when she graduates, okay? Well, I would say, obviously, pay the seven off immediately and then put the 50 aside and then let them pay off that 50 within the two years. And I really want to have as much detail and as much in writing from these folks that this is going to occur also.
Starting point is 00:18:12 I don't want some vague promise that a recruiter made and it's never been written down anywhere. It needs to be part of her signing bonus, her employment agreement when she comes on board or whatever else, that there's a written promise to do this because I don't want someone having a memory problem later. That's a great point. Such a great point. Juliet is with us in Greenville, South Carolina. Juliet, I'm going to bring you up after this coming break
Starting point is 00:18:43 because I just looked down and saw the clock, and I don't want to answer your question in 15 seconds. That probably wouldn't be a thing. So let's distinguish because Rachel, you made the point on his call, the seven-year plan, the 10-year plan to get somebody to pay your debt off. No. A two-year plan, yes, but that's not a government plan there. That's a private hospital that is desperate for psych nurses. And so one of the things they're throwing out is a corporate benefit. It's not a failed Biden plan. This is a real company. That's why I said get it in writing thing.
Starting point is 00:19:24 And then you're going to be okay if you do that hey guys we could use your help around here if you want to help us out here's how you can do it you can subscribe to the show if you're a youtube follower or a podcast follower click the subscribe button the follow button that kind of thing you can share the show if that particular platform has the ability for you to share by a share button do it if not just click the link out cut the link out and send it to somebody on email say hey we've been listening to these ramsey guys and it's uh i'm learning something so spread the word for us we would appreciate it leave us a nice five-star review subscribe share follow like all those
Starting point is 00:20:11 kinds of things it helps a bunch uh we know it's helping because we uh just hit number one on Apple podcasts of all of them and um it's kind of crazy but we've had over a billion downloads now with a B. A billion with a B. It's just mind-blowing, but thank you. It's your fault. Thank you, guys. We appreciate you. Juliet is with us in Greenville, South Carolina, as promised.
Starting point is 00:20:38 Hi, Juliet. How can we help? Well, I wanted to ask your opinion. Me and my husband last year had about $250,000, and we invested in a CD at our credit union, and it has matured. And we're wondering if we should go back to the same thing, invested in a CD, and are to look elsewhere. And we really don't want to take a risk with the money. So we're both 80 years old, and we didn't feel like we wanted to take a risk in the stock market. But we wanted your opinion of what you thought we should do. I would go right back and renew that CD.
Starting point is 00:21:29 You would? Yeah. Okay. It doesn't pay very much. It's not a very good long-term investment, but it gives you a lot of peace, and you told me three times you didn't want risk, and I heard you. Right. And I heard you.
Starting point is 00:21:43 Okay. Okay. Okay. you didn't want risk and i heard you and i heard you okay okay so i'm six i'm 63 and i don't have any cds all of mine is invested in mutual funds in the stock market but i'm comfortable with that risk and i can tell by talking to you that if you did that with your000, you would be awake at night scared. You're probably exactly right. And the last thing I want to cause is a sweet 80-year-old person to be awake at night. Okay. Now let me ask you the second question.
Starting point is 00:22:16 Do you think that any of these investment companies, would their CDs pay more than the credit union? They might, but it's not enough to fool with. Okay. In other words, what are you getting on this CD? What are they offering you when you renew it? Well, I think she said 5.5. That's not bad at all. Okay.
Starting point is 00:22:43 Okay. If you got six, but you were dealing with people you didn't know and trust, like your credit union, again, this is about sleeping well at night. And I wouldn't go jumping around and get a half a percent more and lose sleep. Right. Because you're very comfortable with this credit union, and the NCUA does have a $250,000 guarantee on this, so you're covered on your guarantee. And if the credit union failed, in other words, like an FDIC, but with a credit union, it's not FDIC, it's called the NCUA.
Starting point is 00:23:18 But anyway, yeah, you're fine there. I personally would just tell you to stay right there. Okay. That's what I wanted your opinion. So, but you need, but I'll say it again for the sake of our listeners. That's not because it's that five and a half percent is a great long-term
Starting point is 00:23:37 investment. Cause it's really not. It's because I want you to be able to sleep and five and a half percent is a good CD. And we're talking about your comfort here, not about a 20-year investment horizon. That's right. Okay, so if Juliet called, she's 80 years old, and she says, Dave, we got $250,000.
Starting point is 00:23:57 We just cashed out the CD. What would you do if you were us? And she wasn't fearful of the risk. Juliet was. Again, I appreciated you taking care of her because yes we don't want her to be stressed out but if somebody is 80 years old with $250,000 and they're not worried about it as much what would you do at 80 years old well with some of my investments at 63, it would also be more true at 80. I'm already realizing that some of the investing I'm doing is not for me because I'll never touch it. Yeah. It's really for the next generation. Yeah. And so you guys, the Ramsey, you know, the Ramsey kids
Starting point is 00:24:40 are going to be getting this stuff. And so when I make an investment decision now, unless it's a five or a 10 year horizon, if I'm buying something out there long term, I'm obviously thinking about, you know, the next generation after I'm gone. And so, you know, if we're to superimpose that on her situation, if you've got $250,000 and you're putting it into a CD, that tells me you're not living on it because that CD is not paying you monthly. So you don't need a return on that. So they've got other money that they're living on.
Starting point is 00:25:11 So they very likely, unless something comes up and they need this money, but they very likely are doing their investing for the next generation at 80 years old. And so if you took that mindset, it'd be easy to put it in mutual funds because you might not be here five years, but the next generation will be. Sure, yeah. And they could leave it alone. Just, we're gonna dump 250,000 in mutual funds and then when we pass, it'll pass to the kids. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:38 And you never touch it. You're not really investing for yourself at that point. Yes, okay, so here's what's funny. I was telling you during the break, Winston and I sat with our Smart Investor Pro this morning. We do it once a year and kind of like look at all the investments. And I was actually telling someone in the lobby, Avery, she's 15, and she was talking about her Roth IRA. And I told her that I looked at when I started mine and when i started working for you guys even in high school and all of it and and as we're talking through all the numbers and looking at everything you know our
Starting point is 00:26:10 investment pro he was like okay this is good you know here and here and here and he's like and what's crazy is what you guys are investing here you probably won't touch it'll be for your kids and so as you're saying this to me your daughter you're investing money that you won't touch i'm investing money i probably won't touch and that you guys is a family tree change like when we say that what you're doing today when you don't need the money to live you start to yeah to pass that on and when you give dignity to your kids parents out there with little ones and teach them to work and and you know be able for them to live out the principles on their own regardless of what their parents are doing
Starting point is 00:26:49 and then they teach it to their kids right it's just this big big legacy snowball effect that just keeps turning over and over when everyone does their part in each generation it just keeps it going down the line i mean it's pretty's pretty remarkable, and it's really encouraging all to you out there that are on baby steps one, two, and three, and you're really grinding it out. Well, and if you blink. You start to do this. If you blink, it'll be 20 years, because that Roth IRA you did as a teenager is 20 years old.
Starting point is 00:27:18 Mm-hmm. And that money that you were working, and, you know, I filed a tax return. I paid the taxes on it and it was an 800 initial investment yep and that funny he pulled it up it was 800 that that was what your earned income was that year yeah and that's what you're allowed to report and i put that in into a roth and then the next year i think it was probably 1500 or something or whatever i mean several years in a row we did that with each of you as you worked. But, I mean, 20 years later? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:47 It's amazing what that becomes. It's great. It's great. Lindsay is in Illinois. Hi, Lindsay. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. So my question for you is if I should keep the house that I have
Starting point is 00:28:00 or if I should sell it and buy a less expensive home. How much is your house payment? It is $525 a month. How are you going to get less expensive than $525 a month? Well, that doesn't include my homeowner's insurance or my real estate taxes. Yeah, okay. How much do you make, Lindsay? I make $40,000.
Starting point is 00:28:26 $40,000. Is there something wrong with the house you're in? No, it's just very big, and I have a hard time paying the real estate taxes. How much are your real estate taxes? $3,500. That's $300 a month, which makes you have an $800 house payment making $40,000. You ought to be able to do that on a budget.
Starting point is 00:28:52 Sounds like you've got debt in other places that are causing the strain, or you're not budgeting, one of the two. Your real estate's not your problem. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling authors, author of several books, including the latest kids book, I'm Glad for What I Have. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:21 And it blew up, and we've sold out of them. We've got the reorder back in now. We're back on. Amazon's still sold out. So come to RamseySolutions.com to get a copy and just to do a shout out i know this is a show all over the world but i'm doing a book signing at the books a million in mount juliet on saturday you are yep i'm gonna do a two readings old-fashioned book sign i am i know at 11 I am. I know. At 11 o'clock Central Time. We used to do those before the Fauci pandemic. I want. I do. I love a book signing.
Starting point is 00:29:50 I love hanging out with people. I want to. That's cool. I know. The Mount Juliet Books A Million reached out and we were like, yeah, let's do some local book signing. Books A Million is a great company too. I've done a bunch with them over the years. So anyone in the Nashville area, come out on Saturday.
Starting point is 00:30:06 And the Mount Juliet, that's got a fairly new store out there. Yeah, it's a nice area out there now. Yeah, beautiful. Or not now. It always is Mount Juliet. It always has been. Yeah, there you go. Well, I mean, it's all kind of blown up, and there's a bunch of new stuff.
Starting point is 00:30:17 Yes, yes. Rachel is in Sacramento. Hi, Rachel. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. Happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. How can we help?
Starting point is 00:30:27 So my husband and I own a house that faces a pretty busy road, and we've been discussing what the next plan of this part of our life is, and there's been a project on this road to widen it. You're kidding. There's road construction in California? I know, right? The steak flour is an orange cone. It's got to be beautiful, Dave.
Starting point is 00:30:55 It's got to be beautiful. In any case, we're concerned, or I am concerned, I'm more concerned than my husband, about eventually getting an imminent domain situation where we would have to sell it. We kind of want to make this our home home, and so we put a lot of sweat equity and have some good equity in it. So I would prefer to sell the investment now
Starting point is 00:31:22 and go and find something that we can actually make our home or we kind of gamble and see whether or not they take our whole house or just up to our front door. Because your quality of life, Rachel, changes drastically, right, when this happens? Would you say? I mean, do you feel that? Yeah, I'm like that. Yeah. It changes again. Are they for sure going to take something? Or are you just thinking, wait a minute, have they already announced a lane widening that is going to take some of your yard?
Starting point is 00:31:53 Or you're just thinking that pretty soon they're going to? So they have announced and are actively working on the street we live on to widen it. But they take it like block by block so we are the next block but they haven't announced that and they have there's a process so this wouldn't be like right now i'm just preparing we've been yeah but your buyer your buyer would know all of this um it's so they might know all of this. It hasn't been announced that our block is actively being worked on and they have to get,
Starting point is 00:32:30 you know, a whole bunch of permits and grants and things. So it'll be a few years, but that's why I'd like to sell before this is incentivized. Go ahead and sell it. What's wrong with selling it now? Um, the, we are adjacent to the area we'd like to be in, is in front of us. Yeah, go ahead and sell it. What's wrong with selling it now? We are adjacent to the area we'd like to be in,
Starting point is 00:32:52 but those houses are selling for like $700,000, and we only have about $200,000 in equity. So we would either have to be really stretched. $440,000, $460,000. Okay. All right. Well, okay. Do you need to Well, do you need to move? Do you need to move? Yes.
Starting point is 00:33:09 Do you need to double the price of your house? No. Okay. So, I mean, there's some other options on the table here somewhere. I mean, you guys could, Rachel, go rent somewhere for a year or two, save, and then go to where you guys want to be. What's your household income? We have about $92,000 annual right now.
Starting point is 00:33:31 I just got another job, though. Okay. Well, I guess you guys talk through. What we tell folks to do is never take out a mortgage more than a 15-year where the payment's more than a fourth of your take-home pay. If you can make a move to another neighborhood that fits that that gets all of this um uncertainty out of your life then yes i would do that no i would not use this as an excuse to overbuy and put yourself in a pinch
Starting point is 00:33:57 on the other side and go oh well we had to no you didn't no you didn't uh you didn't have to you didn't have to get yourself bankrupt. So just buy a home where the payment, after you put your down payment, your equity from your other house is no more than a fourth of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed. If you're doing that, I'm all for your move. If you're going to take out more than that, I'm not for your move. And that's the guidelines that we use around here. Jacob is in Rochester, New York.
Starting point is 00:34:26 Hi, Jacob. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you today? I'm good. Good. How can we help? So I am 18 years old.
Starting point is 00:34:35 I'm attending. I'm a freshman at a small university in upstate New York going for astrophysics. And what I'm calling about today is, unfortunately, a couple months ago, my father passed away. Oh, no. What happened? He had a heart attack while he was mowing the lawn. How old was he? How old was he, Jacob? He turned 60 in July.
Starting point is 00:35:04 I'm so sorry. My July. I'm so sorry. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. Oh. Wow. Thank you. Oh, that's tragic. So, yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:13 So the reason that I'm calling is because he also left me a pretty substantial amount of money through his life insurance policy, which was $334,000 in cash. And so my question is what I should be doing with that. I do have a thought in the back of my head right now. Obviously, paying cash for college would make sense, I would think. Right now, it's going to be about $80,000 to $100,000 to finish my degree. How were you paying for the degree before it was passing? Well, my mom had about $35,000 saved up in a college fund. It was a little bit more before the pandemic, and then it went down a little bit, but that's what she had to do so she was so we were going to take out student loans you know as you do and just pay them off you know like any normal person would so okay so that was the original plan wow so here here's this sounds like when you've gone through a tragedy and when you're 18 years old this sounds like it's a lot of money and it's not it will
Starting point is 00:36:27 evaporate if you're not very very careful so you have to that's what i'm really worried about yeah you have to like raise your right hand and pretend like that money's not there swear off of it okay the only the with the the only exception being just paying college tuition and i want you to drain down the college fund before you even touch this for those purposes so what i want you to do is number one swear off of using the money i want you to figure out a way to get through life with no student loans and without burning this money so we're not going and buying a car we're not going to buy a house we're not going on a trip we're not doing anything buying a car. We're not going and buying a house. We're not going on a trip. We're not doing anything like that, okay? We're simply going to get through school and live on beans and rice while we're doing it.
Starting point is 00:37:12 That's it. Then when you get through school and have your degree, go get a job, and then that money's sitting there and can grow as an investment and be a huge blessing to you later on. Okay. So let's pretend that 330, you use it up. You use 80 and finish school. That leaves you two 50.
Starting point is 00:37:32 If you'll leave it alone in seven years at 25 years old, that two 50 will be a half a million. If you'll leave it alone in seven years, that half a million will be a million at 32 at 32 years old you're a millionaire if you'll figure out a way to live and use eighty thousand dollars of this for tuition and leave your hands off the rest of it that's kind of cool yeah that would be amazing yeah yeah that's what the numbers will do but that the big problem is not the money. The big problem is you keeping your hands off of it.
Starting point is 00:38:07 And that's in a mutual fund. Yep, that's in a good mutual fund. So jump on RamseySolutions.com and click on SmartVestor and sit down with a SmartVestor Pro and learn about mutual funds and talk through how you can use 80 of this to finish your school, get a job, live with your own earnings and keep your hands off of this. And it'll make you a millionaire when you're 32. That's kind of cool. Sorry, you're going through this, but it could be a huge blessing.
Starting point is 00:38:35 Obviously, this is The Ramsey Show. Thank you.

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