The Ramsey Show - App - I've Spent My Life Bailing My Family Out of Financial Problems (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

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live from the headquarters of Ramsey solutions broadcasting broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio. This is the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. My name is Anthony O'Neill, host of the popular YouTube and podcast show, The Table with Anthony O'Neill. And co-hosting with me today is number one national best-selling author and the host of the Christy Wright Show, the one and only Christy Wright. And we are excited today, you guys, because we get to talk to you, America. We get to talk to you about your life, your money, relationship goals, family goals, money goals. And if you are a young lady or woman out there and you're trying to figure out how to balance life and how to find your purpose or even start a business, the expert is in the building today. And that is Christy Wright.

And we would love for you to give us a call. We have just maybe one phone line open. So give us a call at 888-825-5225. Again, that number is 888-825-5225. And Christy, I feel like going straight to the phone line. Let's do it. Let's do it. That number is 888-825-5225. And, Christy, I feel like going straight to the phone line. Let's do it. Let's go.

Let's do it. Brandon is with us in Austin, Texas. Good afternoon, Brandon. How can Christy and I help? Brandon? Good. How are you guys doing? Doing good, man.

Good. How can we help, bro? I had a question. So my wife and I have house paid off, no student loans, no credit card. The only debt we have is our two vehicles. We have the cash and savings, but vehicles are one of those things I hate spending money on because they immediately, the day after you pay them off, are already worth less than what you paid for. Should we continue to finance those or pay them off? Okay, let's talk to me about them.

How much do you owe on both the cars? About $50,000 on both of them, between the two of them. Okay, so $50,000 in cars. How much do you have in your savings right now? We've got about $65,000 in the savings. Okay, so we've got about $65,000 in the savings. Okay. So we got about 65K in savings. All right. And this is your only debt. So no student loans, no credit cards, nothing, just $50,000 in car loans. Correct? Correct. Cool. Great. Let me ask you this question. Why do you want to keep paying interest on something on a depreciating asset? I mean, the interest is low enough that it's always been one of those things that I felt better to save the cash

than to invest into a vehicle that would be worth less the next day if we were to get in a wreck or something were to happen. So even if your interest is at 1%, 2%, you do understand that you're paying more money on the car that you're saying is depreciating. So wouldn't you rather save yourself money in the long run and pay it off? Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Yeah. Well, it doesn't change the numbers.

If the interest was low, it was... Yeah. You know what I mean? It doesn't change the numbers. If you own it or if it's finan mean it doesn't change the numbers if you own it or if it's financed the value of the car is going to be the value of the car the value of the car is not dictated by how it's financed yeah the value you just kind of playing this game with yourself right you know what i mean so it's like let's just pay it off you've got the money paid off and also i mean brandon it's going to feel so good to be completely debt free like you're're right there. You're one click away from

being completely debt-free, including your house. That's insane. And you've got $15,000 left over in savings. You're going to be in a sweet spot. I think it's just that last... It's almost like a security blanket. It's like, oh, I'm so comfortable. I'm used to this. I feel good about it. We got to go. If you're going to grow outside of this, you're going to have to get a little bit uncomfortable from your old ways of doing things. But it's going to be so worth it. I tell people all the time, Brandon, the voice of debt is always the voice of regret. And whenever you pay that off, you're going to feel more free than you've ever felt in your life.

And you can just keep adding to that savings, and you can do anything you want to. Absolutely. It's a good feeling. Brandon, hang up the phone from us, man, and go pay off your car. You got it. Right now. Do it. In two minutes, Brandon's about to be totally debt free exactly and if you do it within the next two minutes call us back let's do a debt free scream on the air oh that'd be fun pay it off okay

pay it off all right you got the money that's awesome that's funny alex is with us in where's oh he's in chicago good afternoon, Alex. How can Christy and I help? Hi there. Thanks for taking my call. Yeah. How can we help? So I'm 23 right now. I graduate in May from school. I've got around $19,000 in student debt. In 2017, I had like $30,000 fall into my lap. I didn't know what to do with it. So I just invested it. I didn't want to touch it. So right now it's at $50,000. I don't know what I want to do with that. Like I want to, you know, have it grow as much as it can, but I don't know if I want to tackle my student debt. Because of COVID, there's no interest on any of my debt until September, which is awesome.

So I don't know if now is the time to pay off my student loans or if I should, I mean, I've been listening to your show all day. I might as well just pay it off, but I do want to hear what you have to say. Yeah, but let's talk about this first. This is a little different. Yeah, it's a little different. Your $50,000, what is it invested in? Is it invested in retirement or is it just invested in just regular mutual funds or single stocks?

It's a mutual fund. It's a mutual fund right now. It's not covered by retirement accounts, like a Roth IRA, a traditional IRA or anything like that, right? Correct. Okay, cool. So and you have $19,000 in student loans? Yes. Okay, yeah.

So because it's not invested, I want to make sure this is very clear to the people who are listening. Because it's not invested into a retirement loan term account, I would definitely say take out $20,000 and pay off your student loans. Then take the other $1,000 and at your age bracket, go ahead and invest that into a retirement account. Go ahead and put into a Roth IRA, traditional IRA. But before you do any kind of flipping over there, I would want you to talk to a smart investor pro

that can walk you through the process and educate you on why and how to do this. But I will go in ahead because there is not covered with a traditional or Roth or retirement plan. Go ahead and pull it all out. So not all of it. Twenty thousand so you can pay off your student loans and then get on the phone with a smart investor pro who can walk you through how to invest the other $30,000 to cover you long term so you can get more interest. You can set yourself up to win. So I would definitely go that route. But you're graduating in May outside of the $19,000 in student loans.

Do you have any other debt? I don't. That would be it. So no car notes? No. You don't have a credit card for emergencies? No. No. You sure? Absolutely not. card for emergencies? Nope. Nope.

You sure? Absolutely not. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well done. I'm just making sure because you sound like a smart, smart individual.

So I just want to make sure that we have a clear understanding here that we don't do debt. Let me hear you say that. We don't do debt. Repeat after me. I don't do debt.

I don't do debt. There you go. I like that. Say that one more time. Say it louder. Say, I don't do debt. Yeah. I don't do debt. There we go. I like that. Say that one more time. Say it louder. Say, I don't do that. Yeah. I don't do that.

There we go. You're so bossy today. You're so bossy. Listen, the only other thing I would add to this conversation is that you want to start saving up. You're at a transitional stage in life. So whether you are going to be moving, moving out, buying a house at some point, start. You're going to be debt free. And you got a little

bit of investment, start saving up to have a good emergency fund and transition money for these life transitions coming up. No, this is, this is so, so, so, so good, Christy. One of the key things I tell young people graduating college, especially in the midst of a pandemic right now of what we're facing is focus on the things that you can control and do not sweat over the things you can't control you know and as of right now uh this individual had the income to go ahead and pay off the student loans invest this thing properly get a good job start investing some more uh by the time alex turns 40 50 years old i mean that we're looking at millions you know and so this is very important.

Focus on the things you can control and don't sweat over the things you can't control. This is The Ramsey Show. Your number one wealth building tool is your income.

For business owners, this comes as no surprise. As you're used to putting in extra hours and watching your bottom line. That's why Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, is a great option for those who are faith-focused and budget-conscious. CHM is not health insurance. Rather, it's a health cost-sharing program. It's not harder, but it is different. To learn if CHM is a fit for you or your business, visit chministries.org slash budget. and host of the Christy Wright Show. And we are taking your phone calls today, 888-825-5225.

Again, the number here is 888-825-5225. And we're talking about a little bit of everything. So if you just have a general question about life, give us a call. We love talking about that. We love talking about money, but we also love talking about other things as well. But I'm excited.

What's on your heart, Christy? Here's the thing. We've been hearing a lot of calls in the last hour or so, and a lot of them around debt, which is pretty typical. That's what a lot of Americans are struggling with. And you may be listening to this right now, and you might be feeling like, well, debt's just a way of life. I'm always going to have this debt. I'm always going to have this payment. It's normal. I'm used to it. You may feel like you're never going to actually have extra money for those goals, these things that you want to do. If this sounds like you, it is time for a new way of thinking.

So here's the deal. You have to believe that you can get rid of debt and take control of your money because you can. But if you don't believe it, you won't try. And here's the good news. We help millions of Americans do just that. And it won't take nearly as long as you think it will. With Ramsey Plus,

we're going to kick you off with 90 days of guided help so you can put more of your money back into your bank account. Translation, you get to keep your heart on money. You'll learn the practical ways to get small, consistent wins that add to big results and better habits. And that means that you get to be where you want to be faster and debt free, spending your money without worry. This year, you can make more progress on your debt and saving than you ever have before. Get Ramsey Plus and start living the life you want faster. To reset your money and start Ramsey Plus for free, free trial, go to DaveRamsey.com. That's DaveRamsey.com. It's a free trial, y'all. Listen, this is the plan you need to win. And we know it because we've seen millions of Americans do it. You can too. That's DaveRamsey.com. DaveRamsey.com. Catherine's with us in Kentucky. Good afternoon,

Catherine. How can Christy and I help? Hey, thank you guys so much for taking my call. I appreciate it. Yeah. I guess my question is, my husband and I are doing decently well financially. We're actually starting on the baby steps and will be through baby step four, according to my calculations, in about 16 months. However, I'm thinking about my parents' future, which I know just sounds a little silly, but they're in their mid-60s. I'm 27. They're not in the greatest health. One is still pretty able-bodied and has been struggling finding employment throughout the pandemic because she lost her job. My father is on partial disability right now and trying to continue

working for a few more years, but unfortunately, they spent their entire retirement on their divorce five years ago, and they didn't have much to begin with. How would you suggest my brother and I and my husband trying to help figure out what to do for their futures in case their health fails and they're unable to take care of themselves and need more assistance? Well, I got a question before Ayo jumps in on this one, because Catherine, this is a, while it's a financial question, it's also an incredibly personal question. It's a values question. It's a family question.

I'm curious, what are some of the conversations y'all have already been having? Because I'm guessing you're having them. What are some ideas you're tossing around? Is there a tug or something that you're starting to kind of wrestle through as a starting point for me and Anthony to help you, kind of guide you in the right direction? I'm curious what the conversations are looking like already between you guys. Well, the conversations between my brother and I have been just filled with concern. His financial situation is finally starting to look up. He actually filed for bankruptcy a couple of years ago himself. So he's not, you know, hasn't been in the best financial situation,

but he's also starting to work through the baby steps. So our conversations have been kind of like, well, we're just trying to help ourselves at this point, get to a better situation. And if we can help them, how can we help them? But, you know, our values are you take care of family, but I think our family has a history of helping family out to the point of hurting each other unintentionally. You know, I helped pay mortgage in high school, which is fine. But my parents have borrowed money from me in the past, taken it out of my account. I finally took them off my account right before I got married, you know, so it was bailing one person out to get themselves in trouble. And I've always been the person to bail out my entire family

because they keep bailing each other out. So I guess I've always had this feeling of I have to help them because I'm in the best financial situation of the four of us. So I don't know where to go from here. And this is always a hard conversation to have because I hear in your heart that you love your parents, that you want to be there for your parents. But then I also hear in your heart, I need to be here for my family. You know, I need I need to do the right thing for my family.

And and so I want to say this. This is not Dave Ramsey saying it. This is not Christie Wright saying this is me. I'm going to put my family first my wife my kids first your household yeah I'm going to put our household first I want to make sure that I am not jeopardizing my home because I am responsible for my home my wife would be responsible for her home if If we think about someone else's home before ours, we're just setting ourselves up to fail, to have arguments that are unnecessary, to have things that are unhealthy in our homes. And so for me, I'm going to suggest,

again, I'm not a relationship expert, sit down with your husband and say, oh, babe, can we? Is there anything that we can do? And if y'all two come up together and say, baby, no, there's nothing we can do. There is nothing wrong with that. Because right now the priority is home. Chrissy, you're married. You know, you and your husband, I'm pretty sure, have had these kind of conversations in the past with family. What would you say?

Yeah, it's interesting. I would say that it's a, to me, it's a two part thing, Catherine. So I totally agree with what you said, Anthony, of sit down with your husband. And what I would say is because you're a baby step four, you're close to baby step four, you're in a stable position financially, which is awesome. So what I would say is it would look like a conversation like this. You and your husband sit down and you say, what amount of money, if any, or what amount of blessing,

whether it's we're going to buy them groceries, what does that look like? What amount do we feel good about? Giving to bless them with no strings attached, no expectations. It's a gift. It's not a debt to be repaid. And we're going to bless them.

At the same time. I want to just encourage you, Catherine, to remind yourself regularly that you are not responsible for your parents' poor financial choices. And if you feel responsibility, which is unhealthy and inaccurate, then you are going to lean toward what Anthony's saying, which is giving more than you're able to give and even enabling their behavior to continue to make poor financial decisions. You're going to fund poor financial choices at your own family's expense. So I would just say you want to have a conversation with your spouse and say, do we want to bless them?

And that's what it is. It's like out of the abundance you bless and take care of family, not to jeopardize your own family. But just as what you're saying, your heart of we take care of family. This is jeopardize your own family. But just as what you're saying, we take care of family. This is how you're going to do it, but with a limit. It's planned. It's strategic. It's intentional.

You're on the same page with your spouse, and it's with no strings attached, knowing that if they completely blow it and they don't have dinner that weekend, that is not your responsibility. Does that make sense? It's hard, though. I'm making it sound very easy. It's not easy at all, but I think it gives you some guardrails, some structure to the thought process,

which is highly emotional, highly personal, but it helps you move forward with some type of structure around your thinking so the emotions don't get, you know, run away with you. And then after you have that conversation, like Chrissy said, and y'all set those guardrails, what I would do is go have a conversation with you and your husband with your parents and say, Hey, mom, dad, this is what we have in mind, what we can do to help you all, but make sure that they're a part of the conversation. And then also jump on the phone, one of our smart vets or pros. So we can sit down and see, okay, Hey, how can we help them win with the finances they have coming in right now? So we're going to give them a little bit if we can as a family, but then they have some kind of income coming in right now. What can they do with that income to set them up to win

in the future? And it take less stress or a lot more stress off of you, your family and your siblings. So Catherine, I hear it in your heart, you know, um, that you love your parents and, um, I'm praying for you. Christie's praying for you.

Um, and I believe that God is going to give you all the wisdom and the knowledge to make the right decision for you, your family and your parents, but just make sure that you don't put your personal household at risk. This is the Ramsey Show. I heard a statistic recently that absolutely blew my mind. 43% of Americans are not protecting their loved ones with life insurance. This drives me crazy, people.

What are you thinking? Taking care of your family has to be a top priority. Think about it. If you died today, would you be the hero by making sure that your family had the money necessary to carry on their life without struggle and hardship? Would they be able to pay the bills and plan for the future? That's what term life insurance is all about. Regardless of where you are in the baby steps, you've got to make this a top priority.

Have I gotten my point across yet? That's why I talk about Zander Insurance every day. They keep it simple and make sure they find you the best rates out there. Zander will do their job to find you the best rates and make sure they find you the best rates out there. Zander will do their job to find you the best rates and make sure you're served like I expect. But you have to take the first step. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Welcome back to the Ramsey show my name is Anthony O'Neill Ramsey personality and joining with me is actually joined with me is Christy Wright also Ramsey personality number one national

best-selling author and host of the popular um YouTube and podcast show you can check her out every Tuesday on YouTube and anywhere you listen to podcasts called the Christy Wright show where she helps you break through what's holding you back create a life you're proud of and build confidence in yourself and the God who created you

Christy let's talk about your book though real quick before we go to the blinds.com question your balance we've got our living true 40 days to get back to you we're talking about so many things today but this has been really cool because we even this morning i had a time with all the women here at ramsey solutions we wrapped up the last 40 days together i'm going to kick off another one on april 6th though you know i've talked about this a 40 is such a uh biblical number And so this devotional walks you through who God is, who you are, where you are, and where you're going.

And as you walk through that, these different sections, you really not only get back to who you are, but you get back to who God created you to be. And it's been really powerful to hear the testimonies and the success stories and the reviews coming in of how God spoke to someone exactly what they needed to hear on that day through that. So if you're interested in that, that's Living True, 40 Days to Get Back to You. It's my new devotional, and you can get that at RamseySolutions.com or wherever books are sold. Absolutely. Before we get to TheBlinds.com, go follow her on Twitter and on Instagram, because if she does it, she's going to do it live on Instagram. So go to ChristyBWright.

ChristyBWright, ladies, be a part of that because I promise you when Christy gets to preaching, she gets to preaching. So you want to be there. So what's our blinds.com question of the day? Yes. So blinds.com 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they make your blinds for free. Get free samples, free shipping. And with the new promos they run every month, you save even more. Use the promo code RAMSEY to get the best deal.

Rules and restrictions apply. All right, today's question comes from Courtney in New Jersey. Here's what she says. I own a small speech therapy practice in New Jersey. I'm currently the sole provider for the practice, but have an ever-growing wait list of individuals looking for services. I'm considering hiring a part-time employee to assist with the growth. I'm wondering how much you recommend having saved in a business savings account to ensure that I'm still able to pay an employee what they're due even in the event of low-income months. Okay, this is great.

And what I love about this question is this is actually really helpful for anyone with a small business, whether you're a sole proprietor or not, a solopreneur or not. So we always recommend that you have three to six months of business expenses in a savings account that is accessible, just like we recommend on the personal side. This is called retained earnings. This is going to help you if your computer crashes, your vehicle has a problem, you need new tires on your delivery vehicle. Same concept for business, three to six months of business expenses. That would help you cash flow the payroll in the low months if that happens. Now, I will encourage you to take this a step further, Courtney, because you're talking about your first hire.

Anthony, your first hire is your hardest because it feels scary and risky. Are they going to do as good of a job as I do in my business and that type of thing? So I want to give you three things to think about if you are a solopreneur and you're considering hiring your first person. Number one, you are ready to hire your first person when you are maxed out. Now you get to define maxed out. Maxed out for you might be 10 hours a week. If you're a stay-at-home mom, you're busy with your kids, you've got other things. This is side business. You don't want to give more be 10 hours a week. If you're a stay-at-home mom, you're busy with your kids, you've got other things, this is side business, you don't want to give more than 10 hours a week, that's fine. Maxed out for you might be 80 hours a week. You get to decide what your definition of maxed out is.

But when you are maxed out, by your definition, you might be ready to hire someone. Number two, when you actually have the money to pay them. Not you hope you'll have the money when they get there. Because guess what? It's going to take them a couple months in most businesses to actually bring in an ROI, a return on your investment. Some of them, they're just learning the ropes. They're learning what you need to do.

They're training. They're not necessarily producing money for your revenue for your business on that first day or even first month or two months, which means you need that savings account we talked about to be able to pay them because they're still going to expect to get paid even though they have not produced revenue for your business yet. But the third one is probably the most important, Anthony, and this is really important for people, especially in the side gig generation, people that are solopreneurs, they've got home-based businesses, that type of

thing. I want you to think about if you want to lead another person. No one asked this question. They think, well, the demand is there. I need to grow my business. I'm going to hire people. But here's what happens when you hire people. You are by definition a leader, which means you're responsible for training that person, hiring that person, leading that person,

paying that person, dealing with every aspect of leadership. Now, if you want to lead, cool. You got the money, cool. You're maxed out, cool. You're ready to hire someone, go ahead and do that. But if you don't want to lead, if you just love doing your thing, it's just you and your business, you get to do what you want. You're not responsible for other people. That's fine too. Might be time to raise your prices and figure out other ways to scale and grow outside of hiring. Hiring is not the only way

for you to grow. For example, Courtney in New Jersey, I'm just going to throw out an idea for you. Let's say that you're one of those people that doesn't want to hire, but you want to grow. You can raise your prices. You're making more money per client. You could even create a course, an online digital course that helps parents do speech therapy with their kids at home. And then that course is mailbox money for you in the background. Boom, you've scaled your business beyond yourself in the dollar per hour rate, and you never hired a person to do it. I just want you guys to get creative and really think about is leading right for you. If it is, awesome.

You could hire and learn how to be a good leader for that person or people. But if it's not, just know there's not a ceiling on your business. You have opportunities to grow, scale, and make more money without hiring. Christy, you on point. You good at what you do. Give me some love, Christy. I like giving them steps. Here's your steps.

One, two, three steps. Here we go. I love it. Christy's good. All right, let's go out to Fort Lauderdale and talk to Jared. Jared, good afternoon. How can Christy and I help? Hey, how are you guys to Fort Lauderdale and talk to Jared. Jared, good afternoon. How can Christy and I help? Hey, how are you guys doing?

Doing good, man. Thanks for calling in. All right. Okay, so kind of a layered story here, but in essence, my mother actually passed about two or three months ago. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And thank you, guys. So I'm left with a house.

My brother and I live here. We don't own it. There's still a mortgage on it. I, however, am debt free and I plan on moving very soon. I'd like to move to Colorado. And

I'm basically looking at a small nest egg. Um, there were a couple inheritance we got and I'm looking at what do I do with the house? So, you know, if we sell it, let's say we're both in terms of the equity. If I did my math, we're both going to end up with about 60,000 each. So if I add that to my small nest egg, I'm probably looking somewhere around $100,000. But my thing is I don't have a big income, so I'm just wondering what I should do. Because some people have told me, you know, try to buy your house, buy your half of the house from him, make it an investment property, or do I go buy a house somewhere else? What do you guys think?

Well, let's break this down. How old are you, bro? I'm 22. How old is your brother? He's 24. 24, okay. Do both of you all want to stay in that house long term? No.

No, he wants to move to Colorado. So does he want to stay in the house long term? No, he does not. Cool. Sell the house, man. Definitely. Sell the house and definitely sell the house um um and and do that asap you don't want to be managing a rental property from colorado yeah i mean that's just a i guess that's

better yeah yeah yeah so that that's easy that that's an easy question let's talk about your life you're saying you're not making a lot of money right now what do you do for a living i just work in a warehouse. Okay. Well, that's a job. You work in full 40 hours a week? No, I'm working part-time. I had stopped working full-time because I wanted to take a test that I had gone to school for,

but I'm honestly kind of leaning away from it. I don't really care for the subject anymore. I wanted to be a nurse, and that's not really for me anymore. Okay. All right. All right. So here's the thing. Right now, sell the house.

That's game plan number one. Do you have any debt? Real quickly. Yes or no? No. Debt free. You're debt free. Okay, cool.

Go ahead and get you a fully funded emergency fund, which it sounds like you already have. And then I'll take that money and figure out, okay, get you a job, figure out what you want to do as far as in a life. You know, what do you want to do? Where you want to go? Yeah. If you want to be a nurse. Cool. Great. Cash flow that you got the money to do that. If you want to be a carpenter, you got the money to go to carpenter school. The next big thing for you is to sit down and ask yourself, what do I want to do? Where am I going with my life? Then once you identify that, then backtrack and figure out what is the plan what is the process what are the steps i need to take to go there and to do that uh but sell the house get the money

next step figure out what you want to do with your life thanks so much for calling in man this is the ramsey show Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. My name is Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality. Joining me is Chrissy Wright, number one national bestselling author and also Ramsey personality. We're taking your phone calls here live on the air. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Going back to the phone lines, Christy, we have Jackson in New York City. Good afternoon, Jackson.

How can Christy and I help? Good afternoon, guys. How are you? Good. What's up? Hi. guys how are you good what's up hi um so i do football card selling on ebay and i know i found you and i'm 13 oh awesome yeah so i'm about to acquire five thousand dollars due to um cards that i'm currently shipping out and i was wondering what I should do with that money.

This is so fun. Jackson. This is so cool. This is probably the best call all day. I like this. Thank you. All right, so talk to me, man. $5,000 is what you're going to get here pretty soon because you're working hard.

You're making some money, so that's great. Where do you see yourself going in the future do you see yourself going to college or not going to college my parents want me to but i don't know i i probably will end up going but i don't want to i mean i already i already invested in the stock market okay um and i've been thinking about um going into real estate investing. Okay. And also investing in, like, companies, like venture capitalism. Okay. Okay, Jackson.

I'm loving this. I'm loving it, too. I'm loving it, too. Real quick, then I'll let Chrissy come in here and give you some wisdom, man. Cause she's the, she's the queen of starting businesses and stuff like that. I, um, I want to advise you to listen to your parents wisdom as far as in school. Okay. I'm not saying that you have to go to school, but what I am saying is listen to your parents wisdom and guidance. So this $5,000 that you have, I would not invest it. What I would do is I would save it. I will put it into a savings account. Keep making money. Keep putting money in that account. So this

way, if you and your parents, key word there, you and your parents decide that college is the best route, you can come to the table and say, mom, dad, hey, I have $15,000 now that can go towards my college experience. Then let's say you decide to go to real estate school, you and your parents, then you can spend that money to pay for real estate school and then invest the rest. So what I would say is i wouldn't worry about making more money right now i would part this money in a savings account until you can figure out what you are going to do you're 13 years old i'm pretty sure you're not driving i can put like a you know a million dollars on it right now you're not driving yet and so you may need to use this money to purchase a

car and so what i always recommend young people is don't think about how you can make a lot of money fast right now. No. How can you set yourself up to win and be successful in the season you're in right now? You're 13. You still have a new car coming that you're going to want to purchase here soon. You have prom coming up. You're going to want to go to and you have college. Those are the three big things that in your age bracket you have coming up. And I want you to actually take some ownership in some of that. If you

purchase the first car, say, mom, dad, I'll put twenty five hundred dollars in if you all can put twenty five hundred dollars in. That would speak volumes and you'll be driving a car that you actually helped purchase and you'll be a ball it in in the young people's words. I love it. The one thing I would encourage you, Jackson, is there are very few people in life that know what they want to do for the rest of their life at a young age. Now, you have them. You have those people that,

oh, I remember being six years old and I wanted to be an artist and then they become an artist. That's the exception, not the rule. The vast majority of people change their mind about what they want to do about 15 times. I have. I never in a million years imagined that I would be doing what I'm doing. And I love what I'm doing so much more than even the dreams that I had when I was young. And the reason I say that, Jackson, is because you're going to figure out what you want to do with your life, with your money, with your

job, with your college, with your time, with your career by trying stuff. That's how you're going to figure it out. You're not just going to have this perfect plan. Most likely, you're going to figure it out by experimenting. And what I love about you, Jackson, is you're already doing that. You're selling football cards right now. You're making some money. You've got some options. You might try a different business when you're 15 that involves you driving. Maybe it's something else entirely, but you're going to figure out what you love and what you want to do more of by trying some stuff. And because you're trying so early and you're experimenting and you're starting to benefit the rewards of your hard work, even financially, you're going to figure that out a lot sooner.

And because of that, you're going to have a lot more fun and make a lot more money. But I just want to encourage you to give yourself permission to try some stuff. And you're going to have a lot more fun and make a lot more money. But I just want to encourage you to give yourself permission to try some stuff. And you're going to have this in your savings account. And you're going to keep trying little side gigs or turn those into small businesses even before you get college age. And you're going to know a lot more by then. So don't feel the pressure to have it all figured out. But keep doing what you're doing. You're doing awesome.

Absolutely. Jackson, stay on the line. I'm going to have Kelly. Kelly's going to send you a copy of my Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox Kit. You're already killing it right now. But I want to help you make a lot of money during this season. And so I'm going to send you this kit on me and on Christy so you can learn how to expand your business and make, you know, another $10,000, $15,000 this year by doing it right. So stay on the line. Kelly will get that taken care of for you.

And we're going to go out to Dallas, Texas and talk to Lane. Good afternoon. How can Christy and I help? Christy, thank you so much for taking my call. I want to jot down. I got some numbers here for you. My wife and I were both 24, been married for about eight months here. We're working on baby step 3B. Currently have six months in our emergency fund. We're able to save about $4,000 a month towards our house down payment. We currently have $85,000 in savings for our house down payment, and we're looking to buy a house in the $300,000 to $400,000 range. Here in the North Dallas area, the market is very hot, and houses that are at an appraised tax value of $300,000 are typically selling in the day to two

days for $360,000. So my question to you two, with my wife and I already being pre-approved at a 2.375 rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage, what would be the best route for us to go over the next three to six months in purchasing our first home to not overpay simply based on the extreme demand we're seeing here in Dallas right now. Yeah. So you already have your 20% down because in between 300 and 400, you're looking at about 60 to $70,000 in a down payment. So you already have your 20%. So you two are already on a go. You all are making the right moves. The good thing here- There there no PMI over here? There's no PMI, you said, in Texas?

No. The two of us aren't. I was about to say, there's PMI everywhere, brother. I get what you're saying. I love that. Here's how you win. You have to find a real

good realtor. You have to find a real good realtor. OK, you need to find you a real good real estate agent who can help you make the right decisions on this journey, who can fight for you and make sure that you do not overpay because you've already done the good stuff when you're in your debt free. You already have the 20 percent to put down on a home. You already know your budget in between $300,000 and $400,000. That's great. Now you take all that information, you go over to a real estate agent, and you tell

them, hey, here's our budget. This is the max we can do. But if the house is only worth $300,000, we are not paying $360,000. If the house is only worth $400,000, we're not paying $410,000. Go find us a house that we like that is in our budget, and they will do that. And you have to trust them and give them the opportunity to fight for you. Yeah, Lane, I would say we are actually experiencing something so similar right now in the Nashville market.

It is one of the top places in the country to move from California, from all over with the pandemic and those different regulations. And it is absolutely killing our real estate market. People are overpaying crazy prices here in Nashville. I do agree with Anthony that a real estate agent is going to help advise you, especially because it's your first home. A couple other options I just want to throw out there, and they may advise you on this as well, depending on what the market looks like.

It may be something where you wait a little bit. You're not in a bad position. You are saving a crazy amount of money every month. You have a great down payment. Don't make a short-term rushed wrong decision just because you're excited to buy a house and you have the money and overpay, just like Anthony said. The other thing is, ask your agent and talk to your spouse about this. Is there something a little bit rare that you guys could live with? A different area that's not as hot? Something about this house that isn't as popular where you could be more competitive for a more accurate price that other people wouldn't be as competitive for? But hey, at the end of the day, you are winning. Yeah. We are proud of you.

Six months in the emergency account, $80,000 already saved to put down in the house. Man, come on, let's go. That's what we are here to do to help people win like that. It's been a great hour. Kristen, James, Kelly. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, guys, this is Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show. Did you know that over 16 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week?

And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.