The Ramsey Show - App - It Takes Time To Build Trust (Hour 2)

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Jade Warshaw & John Delony answer your questions and discuss:  "How do I make a budget off commission?",  from the blog: How to Budget With an Irregular Income When to know if it's time to sell your business,  The inspiring story of a social worker and a civil engineer that didn't give up on their Debt Free Journey, What to do when deciding if you should keep or sell family land. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance at $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSgvwy Shop our bestsellers during the $10 Sale! https://bit.ly/TRS10Sale Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live, it's the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money, your relationships, your marriage, your mental health, your work, everything. I'm Dr. John Deloney joined here by my good friend, Jade Warshaw. And we are taking your calls on just about everything. We got an opinion on it. I promise you 888-825-5225. And listen, I read the data. I know your marriage is struggling. And I know you are looking at your kids who just got out of school and they already have a screen in hand, and they're in front of another screen, and you're thinking, I don't want to do another summer like this, and you're looking at your budget, and you are not going to be able to make that vacation that you promised everybody. Give us a call, 888-825-5225, and we will help you navigate the wildness that is our lives these days, Jade. It's mayhem.

It is mayhem, but we'll walk you through it. We'll do the best we can. In the meantime, let's try to help Brady out. He's in Little Rock, Arkansas. What's going on, Brady? Hey, y'all. Thanks for having me. Hey, what's going on? Hey, so I work off of commission as a real estate agent, and I was just curious as to how I should build a budget off of commission as a real estate agent and I was just curious as to how I should build a budget off of that. So we're basically talking about an irregular income that is like how much do you fluctuate like on a normal month to month? Well it actually fluctuates quite a bit because I live in

a real small rural area. I mean on average the last two years I've made right at 50,000 both years. But you know, one month I might make 15,000 and then next month I might not make anything. So I totally understand that my husband and I were in entertainment and it was very much like that. I call it feast and famine because one month you could like score big and have some great shows. And then the next month you're like asking your agent, like, where's the work? Where's the gig? So I totally get that. And at the end of the day, it's really setting up your budget in a way that you're paying

the non-negotiables first. And so you're making sure like you understand no matter what, I've got to pay these bills, right? That's like your four walls, making sure that you've got food, transportation, right? You're keeping the car running, you're keeping the rent going. And then anything else falls below that line. It's like, okay, and then when I get extra money, I do this, this, this and that. So once you know those numbers, let's just say you have, let's say theoretically, hey, in order to make my house just stay on, I need $2,000 or I need $3,000, right? But let's say you have a month where you make $10,000. You know that you've got

to look at that 10,000 and go, okay, hypothetically, I could stretch three months out of that if I needed to, right? So you start off at that bare bones. And then as more money comes in, it's kind of like you can work your way down the list and do a little bit more because you've got more set aside for the next month. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. So initially starting, should I go off of like say what I made the previous month or. Do the previous year. Say, so you've got a good baseline. You've made $50,000 two years in a row.

This year, has it been harder this year? No, I'm actually on track to make just a little bit more. Okay, great. That's perfect. I would keep that number at 50 and then divide that by 12. And that's your basis for how much it takes you to get through a month. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. And when you look back, you might start to see that there's a certain seasonality or certain trends that set up like, hey, it just seems like no matter what,

for whatever reason, August, we always make more money or for whatever reason, you know, in December, we're just killing it. You're going to start to see those trends develop. And that's also going to make it easier over time to budget and see what you've got. I also, you know, is your wife working? No, ma'am. She is a stay-at-home mom. Stay-at-home mom. She does work. She works PRN as a registered nurse at a local clinic, but that's just one day a week. So I'll be honest and take from this what you want. But when I was in that situation of having such an irregular income for my husband and I, it gave us such peace to find a couple of things

that we also did that gave us a stable, like no matter what, we know we're getting this money. And I don't know what that looks like for you. It might be something else that you do on the side where it's like, no matter what I know, and I can always plan that I'm getting this $2,000 or I can always plan that I'm getting, do you see what I'm saying? And I feel like that could go a long way. It doesn't have to be a large amount of money, but that goes a long way when it's paired with irregular income to give you just a little bit of peace of,

I know I can count on this. And as long as I do X, Y, Z, I know we're good and I know we're gravy. But at the end of the day for you, a lot of this is being able to have the muscle to hold back and not spend and be like okay i know that we've got ten thousand dollars sitting here but this month we're only spending four thousand and the other six thousand has to wait until the next month or until you get another um influx of

cash let me i'm on a hundred percent commission too let me tell you there's not really a you can do this any number of ways here's how we've done it in our house number one the emergency fund is not this uh what i would call a flex fund like jade was talking about your emergency fund is in a separate account for when you got to replace your roof or your air conditioner goes out it's not to bail you out month to month and then when we first were practicing this my wife and I we kept what I would call a rolling fund that was about three months of our average salary because I was new to this whole thing I had worked in education for my whole career and I just got a paycheck every month no matter how much I worked or how much time I had off and this is different now and so I it's the months that you

have that are really big and I was blessed to spend some time in West Texas where I grew up around, I was around some farmers. One year may be insane. You may make $2 million one year and you may lose 300,000 the next year, depending on how much it rains. And so the goal here is when you get those $2 million years, you have to look ahead for the next year and the next year.

And you're just going to do that on a month to month. So if you have that $15,000 a month, oh my gosh, it's going to be so tempting to go out to eat and to go get a new van and do all those things. You got to look and say, okay, I need at least the next two or three months because this is going to pay my bills in case I've got nothing, in case I got nothing. And then once a year, my wife and I might roll some money into our retirement account or we might roll some money into long-term savings or into a money market account or something like that once we know we have caught up with our

month. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. And I've somewhat done that. What I do is I take 30% of every commission check that I get and I just stick it back into an account. But I do that for year-end taxes. Okay. I don't have to worry about that. But that's different. That's a totally different account. That's a third account. What you're doing there, that's super smart. But that can't be the money that, hey, if we come on hard times, we take that money. Because the government's coming.

Exactly. So you've got, it's a combination. You've got to have your three to six months of expenses. In your case, because of the nature of your work, you want six months of expenses. So that's savings set number one. Number two, yes, put aside 25, 30% of what you're getting because you know that you're going to have to pay taxes. And then three, as I said, if you have a big month come in, every time you have a big month come in and you know there's a lot of margin, let's set aside a little of that margin until you've got a little bit of a cushion so that you can start to live your life like a normal life. So if you come in a couple of thousand short, you've got a piece that you can pull from, but it also lets you do the things that you need

to do depending on the baby step you're on, like investing or putting aside. Do you know what I'm saying? Because you want to feel like you're able to do those things and you're not just waiting. The name of this game is discipline and it's just tough. It's just that's the only difference is that she's got to be disciplined. You do. It's not easy, guys. Living on irregular income, it is not for the faint of heart, but you can do it. It just takes a little bit of discipline and a little bit of

really intentionality on your part, but you can do it. This is The Ramsey Show. 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, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So, if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981.

And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Hey, what's going on, guys? This is The Ramsey Show.

I'm your host, Jade Warshaw, joined by Dr. John Deloney. I love that. I think it's cool when you have a doctor in front of your name. It just gives you the clout, man. It sounds great until your friends get a hold of it. And it's not that great. And besides, like when you get a doctorate, your name changes. Like you go from John Deloney to Dr. Deloney. But in my house, my mom and my wife were Dr. Deloney before me. And so I've got these two gangster women ahead of me. And by the time I came around to it, they're like, oh, that's cute. Take out the trash. It didn't matter. That's amazing. I love it. Well, give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And we will

chop it up with you. In the meantime, we got Abigail who did just that. Abigail, what's going on? Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Hi, this is very exciting. Thank you for taking my call. Most definitely. How can we help? So I'm thinking about selling my dog grooming business to my contractor because I'm burnt out and I really don't make enough money managing it.

Wow. Interesting. So if you were to sell it, like, have you done the research? What are, you know, what could you sell it for? Do you have a buyer? What would you do next? Those are my questions. Yeah. So I've looked first out like a couple of lawyers or appraisal places, but they only really do like real estate and we don't have real estate. It would just be like my client list and my equipment and stuff. Um, and then I would be looking to sell it to my contractor.

She works for me full time. Um, she has a lot of health issues, um, which is why I'm feeling a little burnt out lately. Um, I'm just having to do more work in the business, but still not making enough on it. So let me, it's funny you say that. The first question that came to my head when you said you were burnt out with your business was, are you truly done with this part of your life? Right? And I've been there too. Or are you burned out by the ecosystem you've created around this job? Here's my question. If you

fired this person, would that bring joy back into your business? And would it bring cash flow back into your business? No. She helps me basically run it. She works full-time. We're usually booked about six to eight weeks in advance, like full-time, four to five dogs a day kind of thing. How are you not making enough money though? Increase your prices. We have. We increase like every year. The problem is she makes 60% plus tips. So she makes too much in my opinion. And I'm only taking home about 15%, maybe that. But she works for you? Yeah.

Don't you get to decide? You get to decide. She's been working with me for three years, and I don't feel right about taking an income away from her, if that makes sense. Okay, but you're willing to lose your job. Yeah. So I have a dog boarding business, which is my full-time other business, and then I have two kids at home.

So this is kind of the side on the side right now. Okay. So let me back up. What's your question? We just started answering your questions. What is your question? Should she sell it? My question is, yeah, so I guess I'm wondering, like, how to present the idea to her and, like, what it's worth and everything.

Mm-hmm. How much are you guys pulling in monthly and yearly? Last year, the gross income was about $82,000. Okay. And how much of that did you see? $12,000. And how much of that did you see? 12,000. And how much of that did she see? Like, what'd you pay yourself and what'd you pay her? She made about 47,000 last year. And what'd you make? 12,000. Wait, what? Hold on. It's your business. And I'm sorry, we're not laughing at you. We want to make sure make sure we understand no i'm trying to think of what dave ramsay would do if if i was like hey man uh i make 60 percent

of this company she's got it best backwards yes thank you say it right yes because this is your business you should be making the bigger percentage she's your employee or like you've set this whole thing up. You're bringing it, you're doing all the work and you've got somebody that you're contracting in. I'm help me understand. Cause I'm so confused how she's making so much more than you more, more than double triple. Yeah. So I just do the managing. So I stay at home. Um, I'm with my kids and then I do my boarding business about 36 hours a week. And then she works full time at the salon. So that's why she makes more than me. So I do like the managing and

everything. So you're just almost a passive owner then. But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I got to call something out because I'm not trying to be funky fresh here, but I need to understand because on the one hand, you are making it sound like it's like oh I'm doing all this work it's not worth it but then now on this side you're like oh I only I only do the management does that make me make sense I'm just trying to understand yeah yeah no I yeah for sure um so I do I'm supposed to be in the managing but because she's had so many surgeries and health issues I had to go in on my time. Got you. And actually, I'm working like 12 hours a day

catching up on all the appointments that we can't just cancel. Got it. So is she paid salary and not by dog or not by total profit? No, she makes commission. So if she's not cutting and she's not working, then she's not making any money

when she's out on her surgeries, right? Mm-hmm. So you're having to come in and do it so it's not the money you don't need the money per se you just don't have the time so why can't you hire another contractor and that way you can keep earning off the business but you don't have to pick up her slack and then that 47k would just be split between two people and then you're still making your 12K, which, hey, you're making money, whatever. If on your own words, it doesn't take a whole lot of work. It's just you managing from your house. And then you've got another contractor that picks up the slack when old girl can't do it. Then now you're going.

And now you've just got another business here that, like you said, you don't make a ton off of, but you're running it. And at any point, if you wanted to expand it and take a bigger portion of it, you could, unless you're just like, hey, I hate dogs. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm out. You know, definitely not it. I guess I feel like if I were to hire another contractor, I would be babysitting more. I trust this groomer and I, I feel I can leave her when she is up and running and I trust her with the money and I trust her with the dogs and everything. And I feel like it would be more work for me. You should another contract. It for sure would be, but you'd make more money. It sounds like you are, you do not want to be in the business of leadership. Yeah. Because leadership's hard, and it's investing, and it's exhausting.

Yes and no. I mean, I do have... She's got the other business, though. That's what I'm saying. This is where it's painting me. Here's where, as a person who has owned a similar type business, and my husband still runs it, it's a delicate balance in doing what you should be doing and having other people doing the other things. And it's because this is, if this

was like totally in left field and you're like, Hey, I'm, I'm a chiropractor and dah, dah, dah. And I also wore dogs. And I'd be like, okay, maybe this was just a thing that you did for a while, but you've got the other business that's also with dogs and it I just I don't want you to get out of the business simply because you haven't necessarily handled it right up until this point and and and at the end of the day do what you want to do and do what you feel to do but my biggest thought is you might need another buyer because you've said this other person, they can be, they're not able to do their work right now. So her taking it on full time, how is she going to do that? I guess I had thought about still helping her, um, by her contracting Neo if she

needs another surgery. You've got to make a choice. I've been managing it. Here's what it sounds like you want. It sounds like you want to make more money. You want to go back to doing less work. You want to not deal with management issues but you do want to be a manager and you want to hold her accountable but you don't want to like hurt her feelings because she's been with you for a long time and you don't want to add anybody new because you trust the old person but the old person doesn't work anymore. You got you got to just make some hard calls. Look.

You're going to be uncomfortable one way or another. So just choose your discomfort and move forward. Choose your discomfort and move forward. Let me say this. You have someone you trust now and it took time to build that trust. You can find someone else that you trust. You can add more people and build trust

and learn their integrity over time. That's how it works. But when it comes to the sale of this thing, I would net present value it out. If this is me, I'm just making up numbers. It's so small that you're going to two or three years, and that's what I would sell it for. That's just me. I mean, she's got the assets that she can sell off and her list of clients. Yeah.

Yeah. Multiply that by, I don't know, three to five. Three to four is usually how it works. All right. Make your choice, Abigail. This is the Ramsey show. You are listening to the Ramsey show and in the lobby of Ramsey solutions on

the debt free stage. We got Clint and Lori from Cleveland, Ohio. What's going on? Clint and Lori from Cleveland, Ohio. What's going on, Clint and Lori? How are you doing? Hey! How we doing? Awesome. So good.

Wait, you guys' energy is out of control. I'm excited. I know. I just know that you guys paid off a monster of debt. We did. We did. What is it? $153,053 months.

Hey! Wow. $153,053 months. Hey! Wow. 153,000. Wow. What do you do for a living? I'm a civil engineer. I'm a social worker. Okay.

I love it. Outstanding. So you guys are going to have to break this down. Tell us a story. Tell us how all this, tell us how it went down. Well, we had credit cards we had um student loans car loans you name it we had it normal yeah yeah so um that at the end of the year I always kind of take a time to do like a little self-evaluation um going into a new year and that year I just felt like

God was saying to me you've got to get this right with your money. And then I checked out our church webpage and there was a financial peace class starting two days later. And I'm like, we're going Clint, cancel your plans for Wednesday night. We're going to be there. So we went and it was Clint's second time taking the class, my first time. What was it like having a touchy-feely social worker tell the engineer, we're going to a class about money? Oh, he's used to it. Yeah, if she tells me, I go.

That's a genius engineer. I love it. That's the last class of engineering college. They're like, hey, by the way yes just say yes so you get signed up for fpu you get into it just just shoot me straight what was your first impression were you like yes or were you like like were you skeptical did it take you a minute to get on board tell me about that so right when we started, we wanted to give up right away. Lori will kind of tell you why. I worked for the government, so we were on furlough in 2019. Okay.

She can kind of tell the rest. Yeah, so I think we kind of knew a little bit about what the program was. Clint had gone through it by himself when we were engaged. And then we, yeah, so we started the class, maybe like two weeks later, our hot water heater went out. And then two weeks after that, he went on furlough. And we were like, oh my gosh, we wanted to quit so bad. And I felt like just getting through that hurdle,

those two hurdles alone was enough to kind of just like propel us through so it was like okay okay it's gonna be okay we took an eleven hundred dollar hit like right off the bat and then we're like oh my gosh can we do this every part of us wanted to go and just be like this doesn't work we're quitting we're giving up wow and we didn't we kept going well it probably also made you see like how precarious your situation can be right like all it takes is a water heater going out or being furloughed for you know just the dominoes to fall all over the place yeah people think they get a job in the government it's going

to be stable and slow forever until it's just one tuesday afternoon it's just not anymore right yeah yes so 153 000 over the course of 5353,000. What was your income during that time? It was $120,000 to $150,000. Wow. And what accounts for that increase? Just pay raises over the years. Pay raises over the years. Yeah. Very, very cool.

Okay. So what did you do when you got furloughed? Because the psychological data tells me that when you lose your job, when you get sent home, your body responds as though you've just lost a loved one. It's damaging to the psyche. It's damaging, especially for a breadwinner. It's a lot of shame involved to sit down and tell your wife, hey, I don't have a paycheck anymore. That whole thing is scary. You go home.

What do you do next? So I went to work a lot I've been working part-time and I work at a hospital and I was like I will take any shift you can give me yes I went to a bigger hospital like you know north of where we live I usually work south of where I'm like whatever whatever you have I'll take your weekends i'll take your holidays i'll take whatever you can give me and um so we i mean i was just grinding it out i cranked it up to full time and we tried to you married well my brother i know that's right i agree stepping up yes so what did you do though um so we... You potty trained our middle child. I potty trained our middle child, yeah.

No, no. No, John, I respect that. No, I'm saying that's worse than anything you could have done. And so we had a snowstorm, like, right when it happened, like 15 inches of snow. We ran out of diapers. He was 19 months old. And we just, I'm like, okay we just i'm like okay now's the

time we're like there's 42 a month we can save it you can stay here in potty training okay i know that's right yeah that's an instant race you're the only guy in the government who was on all fours every night just begging god please let me go back to work. Please. Oh my God. Waiting for it to open back up. That is so funny. I mean, most of the time when we talk to people, we're like, what was the hardest part? And they're like, oh, the budget. And you're like, potty training.

And she's like, hey, I'm going to go to every hospital in Northern Ohio. She was happy to go to work. So, okay, so you're furloughed. We've taken extra shifts. We're potty training the kids. I want, like, what were some of the crazy things that you guys did?

Because everybody's got that crazy story of like, oh, no, we only ate Chef Boyardee, you know, seven nights a week. What was the thing that you did that was like, if you told your friends, hey, we're doing this one thing to pay off debt, that they would think you're crazy? Well, for me, I let her create the budget. She's a free spirit. She won't get on the same page until she. And so when she started creating the budget, we were finally on the same page. Although it drove me nuts because her handwriting was all over the place. She had scratches.

Oh, the written budget oh yeah it was awful wow so you're doing this budget on a legal pad like on a piece of paper not not a spreadsheet i love paper i do not like spreadsheets oh my gosh we gotta hook you guys up with some every dollar before you get off of here and get you guys into into the 2000s all right but let me let me ask you this in all seriousness. That journey, 55 months, that's a long time. That's a long time. And there are nights when you look over and he is asleep or she's asleep

and you can't sleep and you're staring at the ceiling and you're done with the whole thing. You're done with your little boys not being able to go do stuff. You're done with not being able to see your kids because you're working 50 shifts a week you're done with the government job but you know where else to go you're done with all of it how do you if someone is sitting right where you were and they're three three weeks in or they're three months in and the whole thing falls apart what do you tell them how'd you keep going i think the the

boys were really our why i mean um what i guess the other piece that wasn't covered in in why the journey took so long was that um throughout the course of this we found out that our youngest child has a extremely rare genetic disorder and so we cash flowed tons and tons and tons of medical appointments a hospital stay a bunch of GI procedures and therapy I mean we paid so thousands in medical on top and we were able to cash flow that and I think part of it was like we want to get to that point where we have the peace like when we you know like Dr. John Deloney says all the time like where we can sleep at night and know that that we're going to be okay and that they're going to be okay and if he needs more things down the road that we can continue to do

that we can continue to cash flow it and also just have that peace of mind mentally as well. That's incredible. Incredible. Man. There's always more to the story, John. There always is. But I just can't help but wonder if that whisper in the night, you're going to have to get your money right was you're about to head through a dark tunnel for a while. It's going to be tough. Well, I'm so proud of you guys. So, so proud of you guys. You guys are rock stars and of course we've got that live and give box for you.

You can gift it to somebody else. It includes a total money makeover, baby steps, millionaires and of course a year of FPU. Let's count them down. Alright, click Lori. 153. Bring up the kids. Let's get a 3-2-1. Go quick,'s count them down. Up against the clock. All right, Clinton-Laurie, 153. Bring up the kids. Let's get a three, two, one.

Go quick, go quick. We're up against the clock. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Three, two, one. We're dead free! Woo! I love it, I love it, I love it. That's what I'm talking about.

Clinton-Laurie paying off 153K in 53 months. Making 120 to 150K. That's how you do it,. Clint and Lori paying off 153K in 53 months, making 120 to 150K. That's how you do it, guys. We're proud of you. This is The Ramsey Show. What's up, guys? You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw, your host, joined by Dr. John Deloney to my right.

I like to call you JD Money. I'll take it. I like it. I'll take it. Guys, if you're wondering whether to buy or sell a home this year, here's what you need to know about the housing market. There's still more demand for homes than there are homes to buy. So home prices probably won't plummet, but ongoing interest rate hikes are making mortgages unaffordable for some buyers.

Let's be honest about that. So home prices aren't expected to spike either. So what does this all mean for you? That is the question. It means if you're buying a home, you may still face some competition and big price tags. And if you want to sell your home, chances are you can still make a nice profit, but you may have to be patient for the right offer to come. Imagine that. Of course, all that depends on where you are, where you are, because every market is different. Okay. That's why you need to work with an experienced real estate agent when you're ready to start the home buying or selling process. You want someone who's done this hundreds of times before and knows how to negotiate a strong deal based on a current market. You can find agents like that who are Ramsey trusted through our endorsed local providers program.

They are top performing agents around the country who we trust are going to serve you well. To get connected today, go to ramseysolutions.com slash agent. That's ramseysolutions.com slash agent. And y'all know I'm always going to tell you, I'm going to shoot you straight. I have used Ramsey endorsed local providers for real estate. John, when we moved here, I'm going to shout her out. Mandy Linfesty. She came through in the clutch, man. Amanda Lewis was mine.

And she was awesome. She worked with me for nine months. At one point, she sat me down and said, you are being unrealistic. And she let me have it in the right way. And man, we landed on a dream place. So it's been awesome. Yeah, man, they shoot you straight. They do not lie. I remember, I kind of wonder, I need to ask her, I feel like maybe we might've been tough clients. I think Amanda's exact quote to me was, you're a very tough client. We're sorry. We are high maintenance people over here. I'm not going i'm not gonna lie about that a little bit of drama maybe william's a little better than us

william in minneapolis what's going on in your world hi guys it's a pleasure to speak with the both of you i'm very new to ramsey solutions so uh bear with me welcome to the cult my man not cult don't say that this is for sure a cult, William. Welcome. You guys are great. Well, I'll be coming into a pretty sizable inheritance that will be in the form of cash and land. But my question really has to do with the land side of this. The land is worth in the neighborhood of $3 million. So it's a pretty sizable amount of land that my family has amassed and passed down

since my family immigrated here. So the generation before my parents made it very clear to them that their wish was that the land was not meant to be sold. And my parents honored that and added on to that land by buying up the acreage next door to it and so on and kept building out. So they honored that wish and they didn't sell it, but they did not place that expectation on me. I have moved away and simply don't want to manage the land, even though there are ways I could generate income from the acreage, like logging or renting out the fields to cover the taxes. But I just don't necessarily want to do that. And so essentially, do I have a moral obligation to

keep this land? Oh, Jade, do you mind if I jump in on this uh go for it john so as somebody who is scratching and clawing with almost every spare penny to purchase land that's going to be generational land for my family this one's hard um anytime you've got a moral question that is tough for you to answer, I always want to look at the people you are not talking to. And so have you sat down with your parents and said, hey, what's the expectation with this property? So when we did have these conversations, essentially what my father was big on is it's going to be your decision, but this is how our family and generations that have come before us have felt about it. The ball's in your court. My dad was pretty clear he's not going to put that kind of pressure on me, but he was very clear on how the previous generations have felt about this land. How has the land generated income previously?

Honestly, it hasn't. There's been a couple times where we've logged it, and then we've rented out a couple fields. I mean, because it's 1,000-plus acres, but really a lot of it is just for recreational use, right, four-wheeling, hunting, but I don't do any of that. So really it was meant for enjoyment, really, for the family. How is it appreciated over the last 25, 30 years? I'm not sure because, like I said, it's been in our family for well over 100 years. I'm not sure exactly how it's appreciated, but I know my parents have, again, some pretty good deals on the neighboring pieces of land because they're so familiar with our

family. Let me back out and ask a different question. Do you need this money? And here's what I'm asking. If you were given $3 million in a 401 portfolio, couldn't touch it until you were 55 or 65, whatever it is. That'd be a pretty incredible gift that hopefully would appreciate it at what the average has been over the last hundred years, which is about 10 to 12%. I can't imagine having this much land sitting on this for the next 30 years or however old you are. would you not sell a 100-year-old family legacy and turn around and dump this money into a retirement account that may or may not perform as well as this property?

See what I'm saying? I mean, I do. And I mean, to your first question, do we need the money? I mean, my wife and I, we're young. And I mean, to your first question, do we need the money? I mean, my wife and I were young. We're 25 and we don't need the money in the sense of we're out of debt. And we unknowingly have been following your guys's principles. But we were out of debt. We have our 401ks max that we have about $75,000 in our 401k. Paid for home? Not yet. We have about $228,000 left, but we'll have that paid off by the end of next year. Let me ask you something.

Let me go back to land real quick. How much is it going to cost you out of your pocket to maintain this land? Whether it's keeping it up or taxes, whatever. Yeah, with taxes and everything, it'll be in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $40,000. A year? A year, yeah. Yeah, but you can put some cows on it and that goes away. I mean, there's so many things you can do with it. Yeah, yeah.

A lot of it's late-crime property, so that's what adds the taxes. I feel like when you call in, you know, all we can tell you is kind of what we would do. You know, at the end of the day, you're going to go home and do what you think is best. And you've kind of framed it to where you framed it up to where you understand the weight of this. But there's also kind of you're out there. Your dad gave you an out. But obviously, that initial cause, that's what's tripping you up and it i i want to encourage you to take your time on this i want to encourage you how long have you had this inheritance well when did you get it we haven't it's not in our name yet we're still kind

of going through okay process but then yes known years. Yes, but now it's happening. And that's different from something being hypothetical is different from when it actually happens. And so I want you, this is weighty to me. This doesn't feel like you're just going to up and decide. I want you to take time with this because you're 25. And let me just tell you some of the decisions I made at 25. If I could go back and do

it I would do it differently if I could turn yes 100 you never should have started that job take your time to answer your question like on I don't think it's a moral issue in terms of a sin issue or something like that I'll'll tell you, we have a disposable world and we are all about the tragedy of selling a hundred year old property for $3 million. So y'all could buy a nice big 9,000 square foot house. Makes me just sick to my stomach. So to answer your question all the way through, man, I don't know that it's a moral issue. You're not an evil person. It's not, it's not moral. You couldn't pry this land out of my hands is what I would say. Yeah, I don't think it's moral, but I do think it's questioning some things.

He's got a lot of things to think about. This is The Ramsey Show. Slow play, man. Hey, it's Dr. John Deloney. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to ramsesolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramsesolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.