The Ramsey Show - App - It IS Possible To Go to College Debt Free!

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

It IS Possible To Go to College Debt Free! What to do if only one of your kids is college-bound, The decoupling of college from reality in our current culture, How to plan for college while your kids are still young. 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

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Christina Ellis, Ramsey Personality Best-Selling Author, is my co-host today. This hour, we're going to take your calls about your life and your money, and we're going to particularly also concentrate on going to college debt-free. It's a financial literacy month this month, and we're doing a bunch of things to celebrate financial literacy around here right now at Ramsey. We'll be talking about that through the hour. But if you have questions about college, you have questions about paying off student loans,

you have questions about going to school debt-free, this would be your hour. We're going to hold open a couple of lines just for you guys. Christina is an expert in that area for sure, probably knows more about it than anybody else in this building right now. And so we'll take your calls. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Christina is our latest Ramsey personality to join the team. She had a best-selling book before she came here,

Confessions of a Scholarship Winner, where she outlined how she got a half a million dollars for scholarships and got a degree from Vanderbilt University and a follow-up master's degree from Belmont. Did I get that right? Yep. Okay, got it wrong last time I was on the air.

I got it backwards. I had you getting your master's at Vandy, I think, last time. I mean, that's cool, too. Either way, it'll work, except that it has the inconvenient thing of not being true but yeah so um anyway you were able to gather up a lot of scholarship money you wrote a best-selling book about it and so we know we have proof positive sitting next to me that you can go to college on scholarships but there's a lot of other things that enter into you going to school

debt-free or sending your kid to school debt-free? First, it begins with a mindset. Yep, absolutely. I'm so thankful my freshman year of high school, my mom had a real conversation with me about money and the realities of what I'd be responsible for after graduation. You know, a lot of students, they get to senior year and the first person they talk to about money with is somebody trying to sell them a student loan and that's just not okay they haven't had a lot of experience with debt or running a budget or anything like that and so it's so important to have these money conversations early on like we want parents to be the first people talking to their kids about money yeah and talking to them with a different mindset the mindset okay, let's just draw a line in the sand.

We're not borrowing money for college. Period. End of statement. Now, how do we go to college? Okay. And there's three or four things that enter into it at that point. A, you're probably working. You didn't have to.

You got a half a million dollars in scholarships. But most of us, when we were in college, we worked. And it's not child abuse. And your snowflake won't melt. They can go to school. In fact, it's good for you. There's actually studies that say that students who work while they're in college are actually more successful academically. I think having that discipline of having to show up and have structure to your schedule is a good thing on many levels. Yeah. I was talking to a college coach the other day. I was having breakfast with a college coach, and he was saying that assuming the student has gray matter, you know, that the athletes typically have a higher gpa um because they also have to manage their time because they have a job

it's called being an athlete and it takes up a lot of time it versus people like me that went to school and i all i did was go to school and work and and then people that don't even work they just play beer pong i mean it's just you know it just goes downhill and so um you know this idea that you're that you're not going to be able to get through school if you work is ridiculous i worked 40 to 60 hours a week when i was in school and i got through in four years so i mean it i lived off campus it can be done it can be done but um i mean i was a little business nerd i was a little you know had my little time management system i'm selling real estate estate, you know, 18 years old.

I mean, I was way, you know, I was an old man in a little kid's body. But so that's different. I understand that. And I don't want to be a nerd like that. Well, I know, but I don't want you to be $200,000 in debt either. So maybe work is good, okay? And you get experience. So you walk away from college with that much more experience under your belt.

A lot of employers, one of the first things they ask what's your experience and it's like you've already got that done while you're in college yeah and well and you've you know you've experienced some workplace things where you go you know what i don't want to work for that guy people who act like that i don't want to be around somebody treats me that way and so when you go in for an interview you can kind of smell that a little bit you know and you pick a better job than if you're just going cold and everything looks wonderful because I don't know anything, right? So, yeah, working is good. Getting scholarships is good.

And you talk about that, of course, a lot. It is one of the key elements of your expertise as you came to us. And so talk about how to get scholarships. Yeah, well, I won over a half a million dollars in scholarships going into college. And man, I treated it like a part time job when I was in high school. I mean, when you do the math on the amount of money I earned per hour, it was completely worth it. I was making over like $1,000 per hour when you factor in how many hours I put into applications versus how much money I got. So, you know, if a student spends two hours filling out an application and they win $1,000 per hour when you factor in how many hours I put into applications versus how much money I got. So, you know, if a student spends two hours filling out an application and they

win $1,000, that's like making $500 per hour. Where else can you make that kind of money in high school? So I encourage people to really take this process seriously. Start as soon as you can. It's hard, though. It is hard. You have to scratch and claw and dig them up. And they're more rare, I think, than they used to be now. Do you think? Yep. I mean, there's a lot of them, but you just have to scratch and claw and dig them up. And they're more rare, I think, than they used to be now. Do you think? Yep. I mean, there's a lot of them, but you just have to really decipher through them and decide which ones are the real ones, which ones apply to you.

Some of them are just clickbait. They're just trying to get your name and stuff. They're just trying to collect you and pull you into a SoFi student loan or something, right? Yeah. A lot of them are what they call sweepstakes scholarships, which is basically like a marketing ploy. They're trying to get your email so they can sell you something else. And I usually recommend either avoid those or don't take them as seriously.

Whenever you're filling out scholarship applications, I recommend you get a separate email address because some of them can send you quite a bit of spam. But make sure you actually check that email address because I've talked to several scholarship programs who have actually given out a scholarship and the person didn't follow up. They didn't check their email. They weren't on top of it.

So with every step in this process, I want you to be very intentional. Be intentional about building your resume throughout high school. So one of the beautiful things about my mom telling me freshman year of high school that I was on my own for college was I started thinking about scholarships my freshman year. So I started reading a bunch of books and just interviewing alumni from my high school asking, what did you do to stand out in the scholarship application process? And I learned that a lot of them took on leadership roles. They were super involved in extracurricular activities. They volunteered. And so I started thinking through, you know, what can I do to stand out in the application process? None of your scholarships were academic or athletic.

They factored in because merit-based scholarships, they factor in those elements. Right. But it wasn't because you were like the valedictorian. Right. Right. My test scores were not the best. I was not the top in my class. And that's one of the encouragements I give to people is that you don't have to be perfect to win scholarships.

When you really think about it, the people who give out scholarships, it can be anyone. So there are people who literally had B averages and went on to be successful. And now they've created scholarships for people with B averages. So it's like there are scholarships given away for almost anything and everything. You got to find the ones that fit you. You're actually talking about me. I got a 2.97 average, and I give out scholarships. Okay. All right. I'll just go with that. Okay.

Oh, I love it. Christina Ellis, Ramsey Personalities, my co-host. It's a financial literacy theme hour. We're talking about going to college without any debt. If you want to talk about it, we'll let you in right now. The phone number is 888-825-5225. I get asked all the time, when in the baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it right time to buy life insurance. My answer is typically now. Life

insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use.

Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Christina Ellis Ramsey personality best-selling author is my co-host today Christina one thing that we all share in common uh older young regardless of the region of the country you're from almost every one of us can point back in our years and see a teacher's face that changed our life that impacted the trajectory of our life teachers are a big deal so part of our financial literacy month to celebrate our high school curriculum being in about 50 of the the high schools 48 percent of the high schools in america teaching our high school curriculum right now part of the way we're celebrating that is a teacher appreciation giveaway we're giving away five thousand dollars

to two different teachers in cash you do not have to be teaching our curriculum to win you do have to be a actual teacher not like i taught my dog to sit that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about you actually teach like in a classroom and stuff people get confused about these things we have to clarify but um and so if you're a homeschool teacher and you have one child you're not a teacher that's not what we're talking about i appreciate you doing that that's a wonderful thing that's your choice that's cool i'm talking about teachers in the classroom and this is who we want to give this money to. We want to say thank you to you guys, $5,000, and then we're going to give three more teachers $1,000 each. The giveaway will happen in just a couple of days on April the 30th,

and so you need to go to ramseysolutions.com slash teacher. You teachers do. No purchase is necessary. And register, and this is brought to you by the documentary that just won the number one documentary this year by the Webby Awards. And that is our documentary on student loan debt called Borrowed Future. Borrowed Future. All right. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com.

Blinds.com has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they'll remake your blinds for free. Free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Here's the promo code RAMSEY to get the best possible deal. Today's question comes from Rebecca in Pennsylvania. I have two kids, both in high school.

One is college bound, but I don't believe the other is. Is it fair that we pay for school for one while the other doesn't get anything? Gosh, that's a tricky question. But I personally would say that it is, especially if that money was specifically set aside for education. And you've been very clear about that. You know, obviously, you need to talk to both kids and give them both the equal opportunity to get an education. But if one chooses not to, then, you know, ultimately that's their decision. However,

I would also make sure to talk to that kid about their educational options. You know, college, it's not the only way to get educated. Perhaps your other child might want to go to a trade school or vocational school and you can help them with that and kind of just encourage them along the way and set them up for success. Yeah. Fair is where cotton candy and the tilt-a-whirl are, okay? Fair is not equal. Equal is not fair. If I work twice as many hours as you work, I should get paid twice what you get paid. If I'm a doctor and I went to school for 43 years and you got out of the eighth grade and I make $600,000 a year and you make $6,000 a year, that's fair. That's fair.

A doctor should, they paid a price. They have a higher level of education, a higher level of expertise. The culture, the services that they provide, we, the culture, value that higher. It doesn't mean the human being is a better human being. Sometimes it means the opposite. It doesn't mean that one person is worth more than another person. I'm talking about economics. Fair is not equal, and equal is not fair. Socialism and communism is the only place that attempts to happen and it doesn't even work there because it turns out the people running the communist country have all the money

hello so it's not even fair or equal there either so let's just be clear about that so once we say all of that then we say all right now how do we apply that to this question that fair is not equal um i would have a tendency to say let me ask you if you believe this because you've studied this more than i have you've done a lot of work in this area um it feels like to me in today's world that some post high school education would greatly increase your chances of success whether it's trade school uh whether it's tech and you're you're doing some kind of mentoring or apprentice program or whether it's a four-year academic degree in a useful area of study of an area that's useful but i i mean if you're going to be a farmer you ought to learn more about farming than they teach in high school right but

you may not need a four-year degree in agriculture right okay i'll go along with that all right uh so but but i think you got to have a knowledge level above a high school level uh and even people who are hugely successful who are high school graduates only they went and gathered knowledge somehow somewhere in addition to high school you you see what i'm saying is you feel like is there in your experience is there any data that lines up with that right yeah that's the thing is it's like there's a lot of disruption in higher education right now especially post-covid a lot of people are questioning is a four-year degree worth it and the thing is is it may or may not be for you, but education is still worth it. Like you said, it's still key to get an education, you know, in whatever you do, whether it's a certificate

program or a vocational degree, getting educated to do your job well is important. I know you said earlier, you know, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Just because there's a student loan crisis and things are really being disrupted right now doesn't mean people shouldn't get educated in one shape or form. But they should do it debt-free and figure out what's really going to be useful for their career path. Yeah. So in this case, you've got one going to college. You're going to help them with it. I'm going to encourage the other one to do something.

Right. And I will help them with that. It might not cost as much. going to encourage the other one to do something correct and i will help them with that it might not cost as much i might spend half as much on their trade school to be a welder as i spend on the one over here getting the four-year degree so fair is not equal equals not fair but i am going to push both of them to a life of continuous learning because very you know we tell people around here all the time i have people interviewing for a leadership degree or leadership position here at ramsey and i'll ask them you know what's the latest book you read and they have to think three seconds i they don't if you're not reading you

don't need to be leading you need to be reading if you're going to lead absolutely readers are leaders leaders are readers i mean there's just no you have to be reading something because your brain has to be jacked up and your brain goes to sleep watching Netflix crap. You know, your brain just shuts off and starts to deteriorate like you're smoking dope or something. I mean, it's just so you have to read. You have to read. And so, you know, there's a continuous learning life is part of the success formula, whether or not it is higher education, we can say that's okay. Right.

Well, and I think some parents, they get frustrated when they hear their students say, you know, I don't want a four-year degree. And then they kind of lose that spot of influence in their students' lives because they're just pushing, pushing, pushing for one route. But it's like if you really stop and listen and say, what is your passion? What do you want to do? And then you help them map out that journey to get there. You know, you can help them find that right education process for them. Yeah. But, I mean, I know a young man that, you know, had a yard cutting business in high school.

And he went and got a two-year associate's degree in horticulture or whatever. And, you know, continued to grow his landscaping business and then took some business classes and you know came to entree leadership and he runs a big stinking business that's you know a big bit very successful way more successful than you know financially and otherwise than a lot of people who get useless four-year degrees so you know and that's a very low-tech trade school type thing. I mean, in welders right now, a good welder is making $100K. A good diesel mechanic is making $100K.

So I'm okay with that. So I'm going to take a junior that's not going to college and say, hey, nothing is not a plan. Something, and we'll help you with the something. Let's figure out what that is. The Bible says, train up a child, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Train up a child in the way he is bent. The Old Testament.

The Old King James says, in the way the child is bent. The way the child is designed. And so if you've got one that's designed for the trades, then let them go into the trades. But I've got to be the best at it. Right. You know, there's a reason they're starving artists. They suck. Well, they need that mentorship stuff. try not sucking at your trade right and then you won't be starving at it it's just

you know that's the thing right i don't care what you want to do but just go be the best at it and you can always make a living being the top five percent of something right so get after it baby yeah so equal is not fair fair is not. But continuous learning is a necessary part of successful living. That's good. There we go. There's some principles to go with. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Christina Ellis, Ramsey Personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today as we do a financial literacy theme hour.

We're celebrating our foundations and personal finance curriculum that has been taught in 48 of america's classrooms if you have a high school classroom and you'd like to get that into your classroom please contact us we'd love to help you do that sometimes we even have local businesses that will pay for your school and pay for it for your school and if you're a local business and you want to, hey, my old high school needs to teach this stuff. Well, you're right, it does, and why don't you furnish it for them? That would be an awesome thing for you to do, to give to your community that way.

All of that can be done at RamseySolutions.com. Get in touch with our team here, the Ramsey Ed team. We put the high school curriculum, middle school curriculum. We have a college curriculum, all teaching the financial principles that we teach. Celebrating all of that today. We're doing a teacher appreciation giveaway, awarding two teachers $5,000. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash teacher. That is brought to you by the film Borrowed Future,

our documentary on the epic failure of the student loan crisis in America. Christina is actually featured in that documentary before she came to work here. She was one of our featured experts on the student loan crisis. Teachers, if you want to screen that documentary on the evils of student loans for your team, they can watch Borrowed Future in your classroom for free. We will not charge you a dime to show it to your students. And it just won the number one Webby just this week. We got a big award on it.

And so go to BorrowedFuture.com. Contact us if you're a teacher. We'd love to do that for you. And it is so rewarding to have these teenagers learning this material keith is with us keith is in colorado springs keith you got a question about going to college yes uh my son's eight years old and i was just trying to get the what's the best strategy for uh putting money away for his college or education yeah well we definitely recommend a 529 plan. There's a lot of tax benefits. It's a great vehicle for education. You can use it for K-12 and also for college.

We actually were talking about earlier, we do not recommend using it for student loans, but it can even be used to pay off $10,000 in student loans. So the things that you can do related to education with the 529 are just really great. There's also an ESA. There's income limits around it, but that's another great spot to save for college. Always use good growth stock mutual funds, not prepaid college in the 529. And you can set it up with your SmartVestor Pro. Click SmartVestor at RamseySolutions.com. They'll set up an automatic draft. You can put $50, $100, $200 a month into it and be sure that you're ahead. The other thing I would do as a parent who has now my youngest is 31 years old,

all three of my children went to a four-year university. All three graduated debt-free. I paid for it. And all three graduated in four years, which is sometimes known as a miracle. And the reason that happened was we didn't wait until they were leaving to go to college to start talking about this. We started talking about the importance of education when they were eight. And we started talking about using sense, common sense with your education. And so you're going to go to a school that makes sense economically.

You're going to study something that is usable in the marketplace. Ramses are utilitarian, meaning we actually want some value for what we spend. We're not aesthetics. We don't just gather up degrees to feel good about ourselves. We gather up degrees to get the knowledge to go win in the marketplace. And, Christina, you said something at the break that I think is good as a parenting conversation. So, Keith, I'm saying take the 8-year-old, begin to train them. Talk to them about the importance of their grades now.

That study habits turn into life habits that study habits turn into grades which give you access to good schools at lesser cost and you can you need to start talking about that one when they're eight right well it's it's interesting i talked to a lot of parents who have seniors and they were you know i'm giving a presentation about scholarships and talking about getting involved in extracurricular activities and all these different things. And they say, how do I motivate my senior in high school? And I start asking them questions about what have they been doing? What activities are they involved in?

What do they do? And they're like, they mostly play video games or kind of lay around. And it's kind of hard to instill that motivation now. A lot of that starts when they're eight. It's going out and volunteering as a family. It's getting them involved in extracurricular activities, talking to them about college and the future and helping them start to have ownership

over their future and their responsibilities. That conversation starts early. Yeah, to my knowledge, the scholarships awarded to video gamers is fairly limited. I mean, they probably do have video game scholarships. I think they do, but I think they're pretty limited. Right. I think they're pretty limited.

I'm thinking Halo, that'll get you in, you know, but oh my gosh. Well, it's interesting. I even give an example where it's like if you love video games, there's nothing wrong with that. But be intentional with it. So you could even like start an online community with other video gamers, host a local group where you bring people together and talk about things. You could turn everything into a positive. You're so nice. I'm just going, don't be a deadbeat. Don't be sitting on the couch eating Doritos, playing video games and expect you to be a success in your life.

OK, come on. Really make the most of your life, okay? Come on, really. Make the most of your passions. Yes. You're something else. That's amazing. Well done. You said something at the break that I also want to visit back for Keith's benefit as we talk about parenting youngsters towards an education. And I think this is where society has created the epic student loan failure off this one comment this

one phrase i'm going to steal it i'm going to use it over and over and over again because it's so good um it's what it's what's caused this whole discussion around higher education and to tell the audience what you and i were talking about the break yeah we're talking about how college has become decoupled from reality so a lot lot of people feel like even people. Stop. That was a mic drop. College has become decoupled from reality. See, that's how you go spend $250,000 to get a master's degree in sociology to make $38,000 with the state as a caseworker. Because you are decoupled from freaking reality. Your parents are. You are. are your counselor is your congress is and now you have a mess in your life that decoupled from reality

that's that's good we need to recouple yes yeah i was watching a video the other day where the person was talking about how we wouldn't give an 18-year-old a $150,000 business loan. Oh, that guy's funny. That's a comedian. He's like, yeah, I think I'll need $150,000 so for the next four years I can stay slam drunk. That was his line. It's hilarious. You're going to bar – what banker is going to loan this guy money?

Oh, we are. It's called student loans, right? Oh, my gosh. Right. Yeah, it's like you see these people who are normally responsible even parents who are normally responsible and have you know their money figured out and then their kid goes to college and then they let them take out forty thousand dollars in student loans or a hundred thousand dollars in student loans and it's like you wouldn't you wouldn't do that in another scenario you wouldn't let them take out a personal loan

they wouldn't loan you a hundred thousand dollars to buy a ferrari when you're 18 right so why do we loan you a hundred thousand dollars to go to vanderbilt i mean my god it's the same stupid stuff well ferraris go down in value but so is your vanderbilt education oh my god this is unbelievable well and some of it like it's not even centered around like what are they actually going to do with that four-year degree like i love that you use left-handed puppetry, but it's like they'll take out $100,000 in student loans for a degree that's not really focused on what they want to do. And so it's like there's just kind of a, in a lot of senses, a lack of intentionality. Well, it's an expensive way to find yourself. Yeah.

Oh, my God. I need to find myself. Well, let's not go on a journey that costs $200,000 to find yourself. Let's just drop you in the Amazon and see if you can get out oh my gosh well and that's part of why borrowed future is so powerful because it shows the reality of that it's like hey wait a minute these are these there's a lot of people in that documentary who were told you know get a degree no matter the cost it's all going to work out and it's like wait a minute but you guys need to hear this that is there's insight in that statement right there we have decoupled education from reality the parents the students the educators in higher education

and the congress who loans them the money, and me, by God, the taxpayer they funded it. We have decoupled it from reality, and that's where all this level of disgust comes in. We're disgusted with it. It's ridiculous. I would fire somebody that acted that way if they worked for me. This is The Ramsey Show. Christina Ellis, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today. It's a financial literacy theme hour here on The Ramsey Show.

Our scripture of the day is Proverbs 14, 23. In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty thomas edison said opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work there we go kind of been a theme today all day long all right up next is valerie in san antonio hey valerie welcome to the ramsey show hi how are you doing great how can we help? I just needed some, I guess, financial advice. Real quick synopsis. Widowed in 15. I remarried last year. I have four children remaining in the household that are mine from the previous marriage. Husband had no children. We just had a newborn about six weeks ago. We're trying to still figure out how to merge assets together.

I had over 700,000 of more equity assets. He had liquid, I guess, like cash flow, for lack of a better word, because I don't work, about 150 of retirement, and we still can't figure out. I think a lot of the argument is a lot of financial aspects because it's kind of penny-pinching each other because we don't want to join them together. We don't want to, you know, I don't want it to be unfair for him

with four additional children, and he doesn't want it to be unfair for him with four additional children, and he doesn't want it to be unfair for me, you know, so much, you know, feeding off of us. I paid, I bought a house in cash, $525,000. I took a small mortgage on it. All right. How old are you? How old are you?

I'm 38. How old is he? He's 38. What old are you? I'm 38. How old is he? He's 38. What's his income? His income's about $87. Okay. He knew you had four children when he married you, right? Well, I actually have seven, yes, before they're living with me, yes.

He knew you had four children that he was going to be helping to raise the rest of the way they come with the package didn't he yes and i you knew he didn't have seven hundred thousand dollars in equity but had a good income didn't you i did this is what you both signed up for combine it and shut up okay you want the marriage to be you want the marriage to be right or you want to keep your stuff i wanted to be right yeah that's what i think and i'm that's why i'm being so harsh with you okay because here's the thing you guys are you know if you want to back up and do some kind of prenup but i think it it'd be ridiculous on our postnup or whatever you call those things. I think it'd be ridiculous on this amount of money. I think that you love him.

He's committing his the next decade of his life to finish raising your last four and pouring a lot of his income into it while you stay at home. You're committing your equity to this situation. And the two of you love each other. And you're going to spend the rest of your lives together. You're only 38 when you're 88, and it's been 50 years, and you look back. All of this should have been melded together, shouldn't it? Yeah, I think so. It's the only way it's going to work.

And so if he thinks he's some kind of cool dude because he brings an income, or you think you're some kind of cool chick because you've got some equity, then you two are going to be at each other the rest of your lives. Okay. Am I wrong? I hope you're not because it's not working the way we're doing it now, so something has to change. Yeah, I agree.

So here's what here's what i'm perceiving from the outside and and i'm being kind of smart aleck with you and tough on you but what i'm perceiving from the outside is that you guys need to flip what it is that you think is most important my observation of people who have high quality marriages and build wealth over all these years over these tens of thousands of people I've worked with, is that they put their relationship ahead of their money. And you guys are putting your money ahead of your relationship. Makes sense.

Okay. Is that fair? Well, yeah, I think it is. It is. It. It is. It could go bad. It could go bad. But guess what? If it goes bad four years from now, the judge is going to give you all your equity back

because you owned it prior to the marriage and you're in Texas. Okay? He's not going to give half of your stuff after four years of marriage to your husband. Okay? He's just not going to do it. Now, after four years of marriage to your husband. Okay? He's just not going to do it. Now, after 30 years of marriage, yeah, probably. But if it goes bad soon, the law accounts for your concerns. I'm not a lawyer, but sadly, I've had the opportunity to walk through a lot of these situations with folks who were going through divorce so um but but you have to decide what it is you value more let's concentrate on that and

that means the other is going to take back seat and so you guys are trying to say all right the money's the most important thing and how do i do that and still have a quality relationship very difficult yeah that's so well said i think it's a mindset shift for sure it's it's going from this is his money this is my money too it is our money and we're doing this together now we always tell young couples and you guys aren't you're not baby children i mean you're not 21 or something but um we always tell young couples you have to be french once you're married we we we we we own stuff our stuff you don't have my stuff your stuff our stuff and um you know my wife has not earned an income

outside of the home in over 30 years but we have a wonderful income because we're french we we right i mean that's a big deal yeah and so um you know and you know and we have to be real careful because sometimes she'll go well you know you're making all this money no no no no no no no we are making all this money i happen to be the one down there at the office but we are making all this money it is our money there's a we here and you have to really work on that and work on your pronouns because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks the bible says so uh we tell folks to come to work here don't talk about they or you guys you're a we once you're here and when you don't want to be a we anymore go work somewhere else because we is we

and same thing working here you change your pronouns when you're ramsey on the ramsey team you're we we this is we don't do it that way we we believe this we and we'll argue with each other because we argue about what we think you know inside this building and you do that in your marriage too if you're smart so um it's a good question valerie and you're you know you're you're how you got here is reasonable but as you said what you're doing is not working. And you may want to do this under the guidance of a good marriage counselor or a good pastor walking you through. It's not like you're about to get divorced, but there is a rough patch here, and having somebody help you put language to it might be really, really, really valuable. All right, it is a financial literacy theme hour.

We're celebrating our Foundations in Personal Finance class being in about 48% of the high schools in America. We're appreciating teachers with the teacher appreciation giveaway. Two more days, the giveaway ends April 30th. $5,000 to two teachers' cash will be given away. No purchase necessary. You don't have to be teaching our curriculum. You don't have to be a teacher. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash teacher.

It's brought to you by the documentary, Borrowed Future. And in the one minute that we've got left, the most important thing, if you want to go to school debt-free, the most important mathematical variable is college choice. Choosing a school that you have the money to pay for. Vanderbilt is $54,000 a year tuition. The University of Tennessee is $12,000 a year tuition. Plus room and board in both cases.

Okay? Nothing wrong with either university. You went to Vanderbilt. I went to the University of Tennessee. We can argue about that later. But neither one are bad, neither one are evil, neither one are inherently good, neither one of us are better for having gone one place or the other place. It's a college. You were able to pay cash for that with scholarships. I was able to pay

cash for the University of Tennessee with hard work. Either one's okay, but adjust your college choice to fit your budget. You cannot buy a Bentley when you're 18 years old if you have the budget for a used Chevy pickup. Buy a used Chevy pickup. Number one problem that causes student loans is students decouple the college cost from reality and go, I could just go anywhere because it's education and math doesn't count. Yes, it does count. Go where you can afford. That simple.

Good show, Christina. Great being here. This is fun. That was a lot of fun. Good day today. All right, to James and Kelly and Zach and the gang in the booth, I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it.

In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.