The Ramsey Show - App - Jade & Rachel Share Their Own Personal Budget Busters (Hour 2)

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Jade Warshaw & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: "Should we pull from retirement to pay off the house?" Why you shouldn't get a loan to buy a mobile home for a rental, Jade & Rachel share their own personal budget busters, Getting a masters degree. 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 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

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help you build wealth, we help you do work that you love, and we help you build actual amazing relationships. I'm your host Ramsey personality Jade Warshaw and I'm joined by my co-host Rachel Cruz host of smart money happy hour host of the Rachel Cruz show and we're taking your calls today give us a call the number is 888-825-5225 whatever you call in with we're going to talk about it. Whether it's something going on with college, how are you going to pay for college, what

to do with your student loans, how to buy a car, how to buy a house, whatever it is, give us a call. We want to take your call. And we're going to go to Andrew in Alberta, Canada. Ooh, what's going on, Andrew? What's up in your world? Not much. Thank you for taking my call.

I really appreciate your time. You're very welcome. So I'll just get, my question's pretty short. Long story short is my wife and I are both 34. We're on baby steps four, five, and six. We could be on seven. We don't have much of a mortgage left. We have about 108,000. And I really want to pull from our retirement accounts just to finish paying off the house, but my wife's a little bit hesitant. And so I'm just wondering if it's a good idea or if it's not. So most of the, well, all of the time, Andrew, at least here in the States,

we do not recommend cashing out retirement because there's fees and penalties before you're 59 and a half. And in Canada, what is there? What's the age limit there for pulling retirement? Well, like, oh man, it depends. Like, I just know like we, cause you guys have a Roth IRAs, we have the tax free savings account. So in our tax trees, they're basically maxed out. So we have about 150 cash.

It's like a GIC that's cashable at five percent for two years um and then the other hundred and whatever thousand is all mutual funds and we're investing about a thousand dollars a month into our accounts okay retirement now are the mutual funds is it within a tax-free system for specifically retirement or is that more just overall investing and there would be no penalties except for taxes? There's no penalty, so I could take it up whenever. I just know, so like all in all, between like, so I have locked in a retirement account that I can't touch till I'm 65 and we have our tax-free that's liquid. It's still invested at like 5%. But the thing is, so we have close to 300 sitting between

all the accounts and then our emergency funds, like another 40. What's your income? It's varied. It went from about 180 down to like 30. And then it went kind of back up to about 120. What do you do? My wife's a nurse. I do water and sewer, but we actually ended up moving overseas for several years as missionaries. We literally went from 180 back down to like 30, and then now we're back working, and so it's up to about 120. Okay. Well, Andrew, you guys make great money. You could pay off the house with just the money you guys earned in three years. Absolutely. How quickly do you think you could do it? Because we think you could do it in two,

three years. Well, our mortgage is up at the end of next December. And then we obviously don't want to renew because our interest rate is so low. It's at like 1.8%. So I think we could do it. We could probably get it down to about half by the end of next year the thing is we've had house repairs i've had some medical bills that were all cash flowing we haven't had to touch our emergency fund um but the medical stuff is the big one like it's it's fairly substantial that i have to pay so that's been yeah so you said something i just want to clarify um for myself any maybe anybody listening am Did I hear right? In Canada, your mortgage is variable for a certain amount of time and then it has the ability to change.

Is that correct? Is that what you meant when you said the mortgage is up? So ours is a fixed rate at 1.8% until the end of next year. And then we would have to renew at whatever the current rate is with our bank. So you're trying to avoid it going higher. Yeah. So honestly, even like I'm, I'm really a go getter. Like I want to be out of debt so bad. I'm kind of OCD about it.

My wife's very hesitant, which I understand because she's more cautious, which is what I need. But we're just in such a good spot financially that I just see like, well, let's just pay off the house, be completely debt free and then just stash cash away as much as possible. You're in such a good spot.

What would happen? I mean, how far could you cut down your finances? Because what I would do, I would even go for a year and say, how much can we pay off on this for a year and try to cash flow that? I mean, if you had non-retirement, you know, money set aside that were investments, you know, you could pull from that. But it sounds like, I just want to make sure we understand his investments correctly. And I kind of... Yeah, the $100,000 in the mutual fund, is that based on retirement? Andrew, is that just overall just general investing you guys are doing, but thinking... So we have about 110 in locked in retirement plans that we can't touch so we're 65 that's all mutual funds um and then yeah so then in our tax

free which is like our is that like a brokerage okay uh just with our bank but then like the Roth IRA is basically maxed out so we have about 150 in it now a little bit less yeah that's like a cashable GIC. So technically I can pull it out at any time. We're making a bit of cash on it. So it's kind of like if we had Roth IRAs and you could take out your contribution at any point, as long as you don't touch the growth. Yeah. The thing is, Andrew, if things are earmarked for retirement, we just leave those alone and just say, don't cash out for multiple reasons. Number one, making sure you have retirement, which I know you guys will. But also, we don't want you hit with taxes and fees and things that are unnecessary to be

dinged with versus just letting them grow, right? When you can use your income, which your income is so high, as the tool to go and say, hey, let's use this tool to go and pay everything off. So what I would say, Andrew, is I would do what I could because, again, it's $108,000 and you guys make such great money that I'm like, oh, I'm with Jade. I'm like, get as far down as possible. And even if you had to re-sign the mortgage for six months, it's not going to kill you. I hesitate taking anything that is earmarked for retirement and is not just general savings.

So either way, honestly, Andrew, let's be honest. Either way, you guys are going to be fine. Right. You're going to be fine. If you took a little bit of money out and you're not, you know, and it is earmarked for retirement, but it's different, right, in Canada

that you may not be hit with all of the penalties that you would be here in America and you guys want to use it, then you, and pay up that, that's great. And then continue to max out retirement. It's different, right, in Canada that you may not be hit with all of the penalties that you would be here in America. And you guys want to use it and pay up. That's great. And then continue to max out retirement. You're going to be fine. And then if you guys just said, hey, let's just buckle down for two years and use our income and maybe have a little bit of a high interest rate at the end of this and knock it out, you're going to be fine, too.

So either way, it's fine. And I lean to use your income as the thing that helps you get out of debt in retirement. I would, too. And I feel like there's probably a way that... Are you like, oh no, my wife is winning this argument right now? Basically, yeah, she is. That's totally what she said. I know. Yeah, that's where I lean. Well, there's probably a way you can increase your income too for a while. I mean, you're both working your jobs. If you were really as intense as you're saying, maybe there's a way you can both pick up a little bit of extra work and knock this thing

out. I'm excited for you guys. It's a great and you guys are so young. You really are. You're going to be OK. Either way, you really are. Take a take a take a deep breath. Yes. You're going to be good. That's right. Yeah. There's no way to screw this up. I'm excited for them. No matter how you slice it. Yes. Two years from now, they're not going to have a mortgage. You're killing it. It's awesome. That's what it's all about, guys. This is what we want. We want freedom for you. The things that we're teaching is not to hold you back. It's to push you forward so you can be like my guy, Andrew in Alberta, Canada, paying off his mortgage. That's what I'm talking about. This is The Ramsey Show. 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 at chministries.org slash budget. Thanks for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw, Ramsey personality, and to my right, Rachel Cruz. Rachel, I enjoy hosting with you. This is fun when it's two lovely ladies.

I love it, Jade. I love that you're here. We're talking money. And you and I, we're going to be doing some fun stuff starting next week. I'm excited. If you did not hear, guys, we announced something super exciting that me and Rachel are personally very excited about but this is it we and all the other personalities are going to be leading financial peace university we're going to be coordinating the classes ourselves yeah we are live from the interwebs we're going to be coordinating it and we want you to come join our classes so I got to do this last

month with a group of folks it was like a thousand of us guys unbelievable it was amazing um and rachel and i are the first of the two ladies first yes to be hosting that's right and um may 8th yep your your class is in the evening that's right eight eight central nine eastern time i see okay so yeah in the nights nights after kids go down, dinner's done, all of that, you can hop on with Jade or I'm gonna do during the lunch hour. So 1 p.m. Eastern time will be my class and we're gonna do Mondays and Wednesdays.

It'll be about four weeks. I think we're skipping the week of Memorial Day. That's right. Because there's a lot of things happening there. So to bump that down and if you've never done Financial Peace University, do it and do it with us. Sign up.

And it's amazing that the amount of turnaround that happens with people and their money when they go through Financial Peace University. It's so powerful. It's incredible. So Jade and I are so excited to walk with you guys through it. So it's going to be so fun. So make sure to sign up if you go to FPU, Financial Peace University dot com and click on a class. Jade and myself, again,

we start this coming Monday. So just a few days, a week from today, and yeah, we're going to walk through the whole class. And let's be honest, we want to beat the boys. That's right. Let's just be honest about that. They're doing it later this summer. Don't, I mean, they'll be great too, but. I mean, if you can choose between

George and Rachel come on I'm way more fun than George I mean John might be funnier John versus Jade come on now no Jade's way more fun way more fun yeah it's gonna be great sorry John I might hear about that later but we didn't even talk about Ken Ken's hosting a class Eddie Cullen everybody's hosting this is exciting yeah any class jump in again the personalities were doing it throughout the summer so different times uh different days different starting points but jades and i starts a week from today all right guys in the meantime go ahead and give us a call here on the show right now the number is triple eight eight two five five two two five we got daniel and san bernardino what's going on daniel? Hi, Jade. How are you?

Doing good. How are you? Good. Richel, thank you. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. How can we help?

Well, I have a question. I want to invest on a house. Well, I want to invest on a rental. I have a property here and I have a piece of land that's about a one and a half acre lot. I only use half of that and the other space it's empty. So I want to set another, a manufacturer home on a lot and rent it out. Is it okay if I ask for a loan for that? It's going to be 50% of the loan because I already have the 50% for the down payment. Okay. How much will the total home be? $220,000 to $230,000 at the most. Okay. And how much do you make it your daniel i'll make it about 180 180 okay yeah and no other debt

um no no and do you have any savings besides the half that you have saved up for this uh 40 for my emergency okay that's great so daniel when it comes to real estate, we are all about paid for real estate when it comes to especially beyond just your main home that you're in. So taking out a loan, even if it's half, even if it's 50 percent, honestly, I would not recommend doing that because it just adds in risk. And even with those types of homes, they do still go down in value. Absolutely. Other real estates, like single family homes or condos, you know, obviously the real estate market's been nuts the past few years. And as you can see, it's actually gained a lot the past few years. But always, you almost always,

always come out above when it comes to real estate, except for these types of homes that you're talking about. I mean, mobile homes, anything with a motor and wheels traditionally goes down in value. And so it would not be something I would recommend investing in or especially taking a loan out for. Absolutely. And if I understand correctly, you've got this land. Are you living on the other half of the land?

Yes, I am. Yeah, I feel like putting that leverage on your own personal property, your own personal land at that kind of debt, especially, it just feels, I don't know, it puts a knot in my stomach. I wouldn't go through with it. Is there a way that you can start saving up cash because I have to come up with everything. I have to go look for the manufacturer home. I have to get to people to do the utilities. So it's a lot of work. And plus my work, it's kind of hard for me to do all that stuff instead of just going to the manufacturer and then they do all the work for me.

Yeah, I wouldn't do it. I mean, Rachel's telling you, I'm telling you, we would not go into debt to put a mobile home on your property. We just wouldn't do it. There's no peace in it. I think one route takes longer and it requires it requires more and sorry go ahead no i was just going to say it requires more sacrifice on the long haul um whereas the other one feels like a quick fix but at the end of the day there's a lot more risk attached to it and there's a lot less peace attached to it yeah and daniel i'll be honest too being a landlord to someone that is a hundred feet away from you also just plays into your quality of life. You know, for some people it's, it works out totally fine. Other times that the,

if something breaks or whatever it is, whoever's renting from there is going to be knocking on your door and you're right there. The proximity of it, honestly, it kind of just sets you up. If you don't need to do this, you know, for some reason, then there's, I don't see a need to. It doesn't fast forward your financial plan fast enough. It's not this like get rich quick kind of thing. There can be a lot of headaches involved from a relational standpoint. And also, you know, if the person doesn't pay,

it's like, yeah, you're on the fence for the rent and all of it. So, I mean, how much rent can you draw from a mobile home? Well, out here, because I have a couple parties that does that too. So they're making about $2,000 to $2,500 a month. I just think $2,000 a month to take out $230K in loans. That's just, I mean, it's going to take you forever to pay that back.

You could probably find a way to make more than that and figure out a way to then buy this in cash does that make sense you could go out and side hustle and make 25 to 3 grand a month and bring that money in in another way and then save up to buy cash I just don't think it's worth it to go into the debt for it but you know I know, I get it, Rachel. Everybody doesn't see eye to eye with us on that pay cash for real estate. I think for a lot of people, it's a lot of time, you know. Yeah, and what real estate has become,

not always, but what ends up happening in my husband is what he does for a living. So I'm going to try to like, Oh, let's hear it. I'm trying to like maybe get him to come on so he can talk about it too. I would love that. Because just the headache, like this idea that, yeah, it i'm trying to like maybe get him to come on so you can talk about too because i would love that because just the headache like this idea that yeah we're just

kind of real estate and rent it out and make a bunch of money there's so much it ends up being a part-time job there's risk involved the renter does not pay every single month on time these are these are people with situations with you know a death in the family or a sickness, a medical diagnosis, a job. I mean, things just happen. And so again, if real estate is something you love, and I come from a family that loves real estate, so it's not a bad thing by any means. If anything, in Baby Step 7, once you've maxed out retirement with investments, paid for

real estate is a great option. And so I'm all for it. But doing it in the right order and the right way, because I just see it just, I just see it on Instagram. I see it on TikTok and like all this. Passive income. Yeah. It just makes it seem so easy and fluid. And it's just not that easy. And especially when you take on debt and take on more risk with it, it's just not worth it in the end. Yeah. I think people forget about the risk that's tied to it. They're thinking, oh, I can cashflow 2000 a month or 2,500 a month. And they're not thinking about what happens when you can't rent it out. What happens when that

person doesn't pay? What happens when it's not as passive as you thought it was? And you've got to get into things that you didn't know you were going to get into. So we're trying to get you there. We just want to get you there the safest, smartest way possible. And that's by paying cash people for real estate. Rachel Cruz knows what she's talking about. This is The Ramsey Show. It's The Ramsey Show. I'm your host, Jade Warshaw. And Rachel Cruz joining me today as my co-host. Guys, I am like tripping a little bit because during the break, we decided that we are going to pull back the curtain. Rachel, we are going to expose ourselves because here's the thing. We were always talking to you guys about your budget and how you need

to be spending your money. And this is how this is how it goes. And y'all are probably sitting back there going, I bet y'all are not perfect i bet sometimes you go over budget jade and rachel i bet sometimes you guys don't track your financials jade and rachel i bet sometimes you guys you know spend more on groceries or more on going out than you said you were and you're're right. You're right. You're right. It happens, man. And so I'm pulling up my every dollar. I have pulled up my every dollar app. I have it is right here. You can see the green banner, every dollar. And I'm going to look at April because May just started. And I'll be honest with you. I actually want to say something,

but you guys might laugh at me. What? Okay. Since I started working at Ramsey, I used to work from home. Yeah. And since I started working at Ramsey, I spend so much less money because I'm working. I like, I'm not at home. Oh, yes. Totally. I think when my office was at home, I would look around and be like, oh, I need this or I need that.

And I spent more money. Yeah. I hardly spend any money now. Sam, Sam Warshaw is in the, in the lobby and he's putting two thumbs up because he knows I have probably saved us hundreds. Okay, so what we do with our budget, Jade, which I know not everyone is this, because again, I think you go more detailed with the budget.

I go more detailed with the budget. For some people, you don't have to. You can go more broad categories if you want, right? If you've been budgeting for a while. So I just went through a few of our months because if there's anything new added to the budget that's not in an obvious category, we just create a new line item at every dollar.

So I went through February, March, April. Okay. So here we are. Oh, you went back far. That's good. Well, I just went back real fast during the break. Okay. So summer camps.

Ooh. In February, Jade. And I remember this happening. I don't know if it's like this everywhere, but in Nashville, where we live, to sign your kids up for like cheer camp at the local high school for the week or a church camp.

If you go to the church for the day, our kids, they're little, so they're doing elementary school stuff. These people, stuff is signing up in February. And it was crazy to me. So it's like a waiting list. It was nuts. So I had to get all organized and all of this.

So we had a whole line item, Jade. And they're doing like three camps each through the summer. They're each a week long. So there's like a cheer camp. Caroline's doing a little dance camp. They're both doing church camp. And they have swim lessons. Wow, that's good.

And all of this came in February. So I had a whole line item with camps that are not cheap. I'm like, which granted, if you have my kid all day for five days, I get that I'm going to pay for it. True that. But it's a lot. So summer camps was like one that it cost us way more than I ever thought. And I had to sit there and like redo the budget to get the money for summer camps. That was February.

Then Winston had some doctor's visits that we weren't expecting. Nothing major, but just some like checkups and that kind was February. Then Winston had some doctor's visits. That we weren't expecting. Nothing major. But just some checkups. And that kind of thing. But they all fell in March. So we had a whole line item. For doctor's visits. Amelia's birthday is in April.

Early April. But we did a skate party. So I had to rent the skate center. A little birthday thing. In March. So that was. Yeah. That was what I was not expecting in March.

I was thinking April birthday. But no. We had to pay for it in March. Oh good call. Yeah. And then this past month. One of our team members, Nicole. Hi, Nicole. She helps with my social media, is getting married.

And I was like, I want to get her a great gift. And so, you know, I figured out kind of how much we could spend. But, you know, but I created a whole other line item for Nicole's wedding gift for it. So, yeah, so stuff. I mean, it does. It will just, life happens throughout the month. And things just pop up. Okay. How about you, Jade? What's yours? Okay. So I only looked borrow it. So yeah, so stuff, I mean, it does. It will just, life happens throughout the month and things just pop up. Okay, how about you, Jade?

What's yours? Okay, so I only looked at April. I don't know why I didn't go back further. And I am very detailed. Like we do a line item that's got like all of the giving that we wanna do. And it's like tallied out by like tithe, by fun giving, like that kind of stuff.

We love giving tips like that's yeah a line item to give extra tips i love that fun all right so let's see here well that's a great thing i need to add that i love in our giving area yeah in our budget because then specifically when we go there i'll be like hey do you want to use some of our tip budget which makes it great because then it doesn't come out of your restaurant line item exactly rachel i hear you jade that's it that's how we play this i hear you i hear you all right so i'm gonna all right let's see here i would say that the thing that popped up was my son's school enrollment ah the application fees

for his school for the fall yeah for the fall i look at all this stuff happens and so i put it just a separate line item there because i was like, well, here it is. I went over my date night budget. It's in the red. It's red. Hey. Yes, it is. If there's any line item to do that, that and clothes. It's red.

I will justify that one. But my grocery budget is not, I did not go over my grocery. Like I didn't even hit all of it. Oh, good. And I'm just going to say this because I said this on live the other day and people came at me. The average amount for a family of four to spend on groceries is between $800 to $1,200 the last time I checked. Wow.

I spend $1,200. Do you? Yeah, I do. You know what? I'm not going to fault you on that because I have a different line item. Do you do Costco? Yeah, I have a household items line. Okay.

But just grocery store just grocery store yeah and that's what they say and i'm like i could spend 800 as a matter of fact for a while i did and then i was like you know as you have the margin as you come up in margin it's okay but there are a lot of people i did a facebook or instagram live about it and a lot of people were like yeah me too me too and i was like i do buy a lot of like organic i was gonna say that the quality of food to too, you buy it. You pay for it. You pay for it.

So that makes sense. Totally. I mean, it just goes to show there's plenty of space where you can cut money. Now, kids' birthday came up. Both of my kids are born in the month of August, the 18th and the 21st. And so there were more expenditures there because we weren't going to do as much. And then it always, you know. You say it.

And then as it starts happening. And honestly, the weather became nice. And I was like, I feel like it would be nice to have a few more plants in the backyard. And I got some. Yes. That was not. You know what? I had to come out of another category for that one, Rachel, if I'm being honest with myself.

You know what Winston did? And not to blame him because it looks beautiful. But but in April we have literally we have a line item but what and it's called rocks it's really called rocks because he got these like stepping stones to create this like little sidewalk from our garage to our back porch uh and that's nice and it it and it it was nice Jade because I see the dollar amount next to rocks. It's not just rocks out there. We bought some nice rock. Doesn't it make you feel weird that you have to buy rocks? And we put it in the budget.

We do. We're such nerds. But again, you guys, it all goes back to the idea of stuff is going to happen, number one. Number two, it's your budget. So you get to shift categories. You get to figure out, like you were saying, being flexible. Shift categories to make it work for you. Detailed, realistic, flexible.

And it feels like permission. It's like, yes, there's the amount of money we need for rocks. Yes. Go get some rocks. Now, I'll be honest. I try not to, like, if something comes up that I want to do or that, quote, I'm going to put need in quotes because it's rarely a need. Let's be honest. It's usually a want. I try to, if I have to, you know, do a little magic work on the budget, I try not to ever

pull from like the savings, you know, I try to pull it from another category. And so like in this case, I had a certain amount budgeted for counseling, but I ended up not seeing my counselor as much. So I had a little chunk of change there and that ended up going towards plants. Yes. Yeah. But that's great. And that, yes, that's the game to play is don't if you if you guys are past especially baby step three and you just have some you know if you have money left over at the month and you're putting it in a

save in savings that's what we do and we try to hit a number yeah every month and it's a it's a great game of discipline yes to go through the budget and say, okay, where can I move up? Because like, even our miscellaneous category can start to grow. Yes. And I can look to be like, wow,

we've, we can cool out. Yeah, we can like, we can shrink that and pull money here. Our out to eat, it had more,

it's funny because we spent more on groceries than out to eat last month. So we had some margin there. Yes. Right. Then I'm like, okay,

there's, yeah, we can pull money there and you, you can just go through it. It ends up being kind of like this game. Maybe we're just sick in the head, Jade. I don't know what it is, but it feels like a game.

So it feels like a game because you think, OK, I can find that I can find that extra, you know, whatever it is and all these categories. I will. And again, it just it allows the discipline, the discipline to come in. So what's one thing that you are like, if like this, I must spend money on. Like it's, it's a want, not a need that you're like,

no matter what, this has got to be in the budget. Please Winston. I have a, I have like a clothing personal line item and it's not the Rachel. We have the Rachel line item, but then I have a separate one for like clothes and makeup and my hair, all that.

Gotta have it. I do. It's just like my, it's my outlet. I feel that I'm the same way. I gotta have my nails done. I know. Gotta have it. I do. It's just like my, it's my outlet. I feel that. I'm the same way. I gotta have my nails done. I know.

I must have my nails done. I just, I'm not the same woman if I don't. All right, folks, go back and look at your budget and now you won't feel so bad because you see we're real people. We're all trying to cut our way through this. We're all trying to make sure we stay on the budget. And we

do. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. Thanks for listening, guys. I'm your host today, Jade Warshaw, joined by Rachel Cruz. And let me tell you something. If this show has helped you in any way, if you enjoy listening, maybe you just find us entertaining. I would suggest, and I would love it, we would all love it here, if you would share the show. If you would go on there, like the show,

subscribe to the show, and leave us a review. Leave us some comments, but only the good comments. As a matter of fact, I was laughing with Rachel about some of the comments that I see, and sometimes I screenshot them because some of them are just ridiculous so so only put things that are factual number one let's not start rumors in the comments um but we would love for you to share comments good ones we like for you to share it review it um because this this boosts us in the ratings it helps us with the analog is it what is it called not analog did you what is it algorithm thank you james for saving my life there the algorithm the

more you like it it boosts it and so you see it for the next time and that's good for all of us so we appreciate that and without further ado we're going to go to the calls if you want to give us a call give us a call at the number 888-825-5225, and we'll take your call. Josie is in Salt Lake City. What's going on, Josie? We were just in Salt Lake City last week. Yeah, we were. I know.

How exciting. Yeah. Thank you for taking my call today. You're welcome. How can we help? All right. So I will be graduating from college in a year, which is pretty exciting. And I just want your opinion on if you think it will be worth

it for me to pursue my master's, even though my husband and I are planning on me being a stay-at-home mom in the future. Okay. Are you married now? I am, yes. My husband and I got married in December. Okay, well, congratulations. Newly married. And for, yeah, staying at home, will you guys want a family soon? Do you think you'll wait a little bit? Have you guys talked about timeline in that regard? Well, so that's kind of tied in with the question. And so my husband just graduated, actually, this a couple days ago with his bachelor's and he's getting his master's and he'll have that in two years. And so if I graduate in a

year, I would work for a year to save money for house down payments and things like that. And then we've talked about maybe having kids then once he's out of his master's or I have an opportunity to get my master's while I'm working. But it would take four years because it's a summer program for, I have a teaching, I'll have a teaching degree. So in the summers, I could get my master's in four years and we would wait to have kids till after that. And so that's the thing is, but I wouldn't, it'd be nice to have my master's, but I probably wouldn't use it because we would just start having kids. Although it's nice to be educated and especially, I mean, you're working women, you know that I just

kind of wanted to have your way in on that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think if you're doing it from an ROI perspective, you're going to want to kind of map out, Josie, okay, here's how much this is going to cost, the schooling. Here's how much I will make. Are you able, in Utah, I know it's different per state, are you able to graduate from college with the degree you have and go into the classroom, or do you have to have your master's? I should be able to go in the classroom. You can, okay. So your master's degree for teaching would simply, it would be a pay raise, correct? Correct. Okay, and that would be the main reason you would get it. Is that right? Besides, or unless just education is really important to you and you want to do that, but is the main motivation? It would also be a pay raise and kind of a safety

net. You know, I plan on being a stay-at-home mom, but if anything ever happened, you know, where I'd have to support our family, it would be a bit of a safety net because it would be a pay raise. Okay. And how much of a pay raise would it be? Do you know? Oh, that's a good question. I'm actually not sure. Okay. That's an important one because you want to know what you're getting for what you're paying for. How much is it going to cost free to get your master's? So I would actually, it would be free. I would have no cost. I would have a scholarship. Oh, okay. That's great. That changes my thoughts dramatically. I will say. What about your husband? What's his going to cost? So he we're both graduating debt free. He also has no cost for his master's. We've been able to

work hard and have academic scholarships. So the cost is really just the amount of time you'll be able to work full time because right okay interesting yeah I mean I mean honestly Josie at that point it's not really a financial question it's really kind of a values question at that point you know what what do you what do you want I mean if you know in your heart of hearts that my husband probably is gonna have a great job and you really want to be home uh be a stay-at-home mom, which I think is a very honorable way to live your life. A hundred percent. We love stay-at-home moms. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. It's such a gift. But, and you know, like, yeah, that that's probably in my future sooner than

later. And I'm good maybe taking a job for a year or two. And if I have, you know, if we get pregnant and we have babies, then I'm going to be home and you won't have a need for a master's. I wouldn't get a master's as a safety net for something in the future that is not happening now, if that makes sense. That is true. But again, Jessie, on the other end of the coin, if you really do, I mean, some people, this is not me, but some people love education. John's a lot, he's like this and he's like, I just love learning and school and higher ed and all of that. And that's something that is just that you just really enjoy and it's a value to you and a passion for you and it's free. And you want to take the time and go and get that for yourself.

And that feels like a big accomplishment for you. Then I would say go for it. But at that point, it really is a it's a it's a values a values question on what you want, Josie, you know, for your future. Yeah, and I'm thinking of two sides of this as well. I'm thinking of, if you know, after a certain period of time, you're gonna wanna go back into the workforce, there could be some merit to having this

because I'm thinking once you have kids, you don't have the same amount of time. Sometimes you don't have the same amount of capacity. However, there's the other side of me that's thinking sometimes after you've had kids, you want to do just something for yourself. Yeah. And you want and it's kind of like cool having that waiting for you. Like, OK, like I'm going to pour into myself. I'm going to go. And I'm wondering, will this opportunity to get the master's for free, will it still be there on down the line? Or is this like limited time only? I'm not sure, right?

Because I don't have an offer waiting, but it's just almost everyone that does this program at my college, it's paid for. They always have scholarships for, they only accept three people every year for this opportunity. So I haven't even applied, but there's not many people in my major at this college. And I think I'd have a chance, but maybe that is something I could do down the line. You're giving me lots of things to think about. Well, research it. I think right at this point, I think you still have a lot of research to do to really be able to funnel out your options and see where each one leads. You know, finding out how much of a pay raise you would get, find out, you know, how likely it is that you actually get this free opportunity, find out how long it would be available after you've gotten your, you know, your initial degree,

your grad degree, how long, you know, if it's still going to be there. And, you know, that'll kind of lead you on down the line. As long as you're not going into debt over this, I feel like you've got lots of options. Yeah. And I think a safety net too, Josie, is that you can still go into the classroom without this. Like, if it was the only thing blocking you from doing, from, you know, being able to be in the classroom and teach, I would probably push for you to get it just, just so that you have the ability to do that job. But if you can do that job still for two years, and it's something that you've got your degree in and that you love, and a master's degree is not stopping you from that. A part of me say just go on in the classroom and do some work for a few years.

And then again, when you guys want to start a family, since you know that's going to be your passion, do that. And then by the time like Jade is saying, if you ever did want to go back and get your master's, honestly, Josie, from the way I'm going to just predict, I could be totally wrong. But from the way you're talking and how mature you guys are and probably hardworking, you'll probably just cash flow it even if the opportunity wasn't there. Yes. And in eight, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 years down the line too. So I would be up to probably just go in and just start teaching for a few years until you guys start a family. But again, that's just me, Jos. If John Delaney would probably have a different answer if he was sitting here too, because there's not a right or wrong. There's not a right or wrong when it comes, especially to the financial part of it. It's just really what you want to do. And what do you think, Josie,

what are you leaning towards? Oh, man, so many things to think about and such great advice. I think maybe I am leaning towards just going into the workforce because I think I was worried that this is the only time I'd have this opportunity, right? But you're saying that that's not the case. And, you know, my life doesn't end once I leave college, right? Yes, that's right. That's right. Very cool. Well, thank you so much for the call. That was a good one. I enjoyed talking about that. That's great, Josie. Thanks for calling. It's a great question. Very cool. Yet again, I just love the calls, Rachel, when people call in and they're not backed into a corner. They've got options. And I love that both of them, they've got this

opportunity to get their master's for free. Which is amazing. Because I'm not going into debt for that one. That's amazing. Very, very cool. Well, folks, that does it for this hour of the show. Be sure to join us next time. And I want you to remember this. When it comes to changing your life and your money, you can tell me that you can't do it, but don't tell me that you won't do it.

Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade. Look, if you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps, go to ramseysolutions.com and click the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramsaysolutions.com and click Get Started.