The Ramsey Show - App - JADE RANT: Be a Crockpot in a World Full of Microwaves (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

Join the free Building Wealth Livestream Event on January 12th! George Kamel & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: Paying off the house vs. investing, "Should I keep a HELOC or refinance?" IRA: Roth vs. Traditional, "I took out student loans to invest and lost my money" "Should I sell the condo?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined by Jay Borshaw this hour, and we are taking your calls about life, money, taxes, investing, getting out of debt. We want to help you take the right next step for your financial future. The number to call is 888-825-5225. And it's been a fun week of Ramsey shows so far. And I say that biasly because I was co-hosting every single one. But here's some of the crazy calls we took. There was a guy who wanted to buy a house before he got married as a premarital asset. I remember that call. So he was strategically trying to get this

in there before he proposed. Oh, yeah. Interesting call there. I remember that one. And we talked to a sweet woman who was enabling her niece in a toxic family situation. Mom was in a cult. Nieces in Australia freeloading off the aunt. It was a complicated one there. Yikes. And this one was a doozy, Jade. We talked to a woman who was $500,000 in consumer debt,

and her husband refused to work with her as a team and said, I'm just resigning myself to bankruptcy. Oh, Lord. It all goes down. Oh, gosh. And as someone who got out of almost half a million dollars in consumer debt. Man, I feel her pain. I feel her pain, but I'm also super proud of her. Yeah. That was a tough one. And of course, Christina Ellis shared her no spend challenge that she's doing in January. And many of our audience members, her followers on Instagram are doing that as well. Have you ever done the no spend challenge? George, the first seven years of my life with debt was a

no spend challenge. It wasn't a cute trend back then. No, dude, I did seven and a half years of no spending. I can't go back. I won't go back. You're done with that life. Well, it's a fun exercise. Of course, you have to pay your bills and all that. But the idea is to spend on no luxuries, only the necessities to spend on no luxuries, only the necessities to get by, and it's a great way to advance in your financial goals. It is. You can solidify those habits. I love it.

So, hey, if you miss any of these calls, any of these episodes, you can check them out on your favorite podcasting platform and, of course, on our YouTube channel. Be sure you catch up on that. Always good times. So let's get to the phones. Max joins us in Stanford, Connecticut. Max, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, George and Jade. It's great to be talking with you and pumped to be on the show. All right. What's going on, Max? So quick question. My wife and I are actually looking into 2023, planning our goals financially. And we have just moved into four, five, and six.

So we purchased our first home back in October. So we've kind of completed that big milestone. And, you know, we were in a period of time where we were just stashing away money and trying to look forward to the purchase. And now we're in a bit of a different mindset. And we're trying to figure out exactly where to put our eggs in which basket. We're looking at really the home of paying down the mortgage a bit more, even though we know we're not going to be here for the long term.

It's a stepping stone home for us for the next five to seven years versus putting money into a mutual fund and doing that type of investing for the next several years. Well, that's a good question, Max. You know, you said you just entered into Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6. And so we're always going to teach for you to walk out those Baby Steps in order. And when it comes to Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6, you're doing them simultaneously, but you're also doing them in order by priority. So we do want to make sure that with Baby Step 4, you're investing 15% of your income into mutual funds, whether it's through your 401k through work or if you're doing an IRA or Roth IRA, something like that. But when you have the

money left over, then you can start putting that towards the house. How does that sound to you? Yeah, that sounds great. I mean, me and my wife, we both do 15% into our Roth 401ks at work. I guess the question was more so like an outside brokerage account. Should we start putting dollars in there and prioritize that versus paying down the home, knowing that we more than likely won't be here as our forever home? Well, we won't be here on this earth either for forever. So I like to just think of it this way. That money that you are paying into the mortgage is not disappearing. You're paying it into the equity. And when you go and sell that house seven years from now,

my goal for you would be that you pay this thing off and then you have extra money even before you move. So that would be my goal is to pay it off. When you sell it, all of that equity gets rolled into your next property. That's right. George makes a good point. Your house is a forced savings account. So it's not like that money is going down a dark hole. You're going to get that money again.

So a great time to go beyond your normal mutual funds, your normal 15% would be after you've paid that house off. Right, George? Once you get there, that is baby step seven. And then you can really start building wealth at a higher rate. So you can increase your investing, you can increase your giving, you can increase your spending.

That's really where it becomes a choose your own adventure. But until then, do 15% only. And if you max out the 401ks, there are other options. You can do backdoor Roths, depending on your income. There's a lot of other options. And then if you run out of all of those options, you can move to the brokerage account. But right now I'd be focused on paying off that house with any extra margin you guys have. Do you guys have kids? No, not yet. Just two cats.

All right. Cat daddy. I love it. All right. Yeah. George is giving you great advice. And yeah, I would do exactly that. And if kids come into the picture, then of course, you'll be looking at Baby Step 5 as well. Love it. Thanks for the call, Max. Let's move on to Angela in Canton, Ohio. Angela, welcome to the show. Angela, are you with us? Yes, I'm here.

Oh, you got me nervous. Okay. How can we help today? It's trying to cut out all of a sudden. I'm not sure what happened there. Through the airwaves. I have a question for you i currently have an equity line at a variable rate okay it's a small amount of money it's like 33 000 and i started to look because of rates changing i started to look

into possibly going back into a conventional loan the reason why I did the equity in the first place was through a divorce. It was my legal obligation and with this that I have to make the decision on is I had done a bad thing in the way of co-signing for my children's cars. So in order for this to happen, they have to pay off the vehicles or, or, you know, basically they're going to take that amount of money and suck it into the mortgage. So now instead of a $30,000 mortgage, I'm looking at a $60,000 mortgage. Now, of course, my kids would still pay me for the cars and stuff like that. But I'm thinking now I'm playing. I said to the gentleman, I said, now I'm paying closing costs as well. Is this really the smartest thing for me to do? Of course, he's still in the mortgage.

So, of course, he says yes. None of this sounds like the smartest thing to do if we're going to make a list. So what are your other options here? Well, she could stay in the loan she's in. Well, yeah, I could stay in my 8%, and it's a variable. I'd be attacking that thing with a vengeance versus rolling more and more debt into this with a refinance. And try to get out of that co-signed loan with your kids as quickly as possible.

Yeah, could they refinance out of this into their own names? I don't know. I guess I could have them look into it at this point. Yeah, I'm going to do some more homework, Angela, to see how we can get your names off of all of this debt and stop going further into debt and start to dig ourselves out of this. If that means extra income, cutting expenses, doing whatever you have to do to get this HELOC out of your life, I'm sorry for what you went through. That's a really tough situation. Not something you ever would have chosen, but we are rooting for you to get this debt gone ASAP. More of the Ramsey show i'm george campbell joined by jade warshaw this hour

if you're a pastor listening today, we know you've had a hard few years, long hours, lower church attendance, all while trying to keep your own house running. And you've had to take care of so much. And so here at Ramsey Solutions, we want to help take care of you because you deserve a safe space to talk about the hard things you're dealing with, especially if you're struggling with money. And that's why we created a free pastors only version of Financial Peace University. Over six weeks, you're going to be with pastors learning with them from all over the country how to pay off debt and build wealth so that you can retire with confidence. And what's really cool is that this class is led by folks on our team who understand the pressures that pastors are under, and they've got a heart for

you. So if you want to join this free pastors only Financial Peace University, go to ramsaysolutions.com slash pastor. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash pastor. And if you know a pastor in your life, in your community, please let them know about this. We'd love to have as many people impacted by this as possible. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Roger's up in Denver, Colorado. Roger, welcome to the show. Thank you, Jade. Thank you, George, for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? Well, I want to open up an IRA in a brokerage account so I can invest in mutual funds. And I've heard Dave ask the question,

do you want to pay taxes on $1,000 today or $1 million tomorrow? So I'm wanting to find out which one is the best one for the best tax advantages. It's a great question, Roger. It's like an old riddle, and there's so many factors that go into this, and, of course, we're big fans of the Roth option in general because it's going, you know, you're using after-tax dollars. It's growing tax-free, but you withdraw it tax-free. There's no required minimum distributions. But it also factors in how old you are.

So what is your age? 57. Okay. And how much do you have right now in retirement? Oh, not much. 30,000. Okay. And how much do you have right now in retirement? Oh, not much. $30,000. Do you have any other assets that you would consider part of retirement? A home?

No. Okay. So you're renting right now? Yeah. Okay. I own a company. I've been buying uh i own a company i've been buying uh equipment so i buy buying uh commercial trucks and what is your income on the road and uh right now it's about 800 000 a year wow my goodness hey i have a question

what has kept you from investing up to this point? Cupidity. I didn't know if it was debt or, you know. No, just, you know, at the end of the month, you always wonder, where did my money go? I don't have a big stereo system. I don't have big screen TV and all the CDs. Well, how long have you been making $800K? Oh, for, I'm going gonna say about four years roger i just i just put a big chunk of money into equipment,000 and a trailer for $36,000.

All right. Okay. So I just want to double check because you said you own your own business. The $800,000, that's bottom line, right? Like that is pure profit, correct? That's gross profit. I'm going to say it'd probably be around $200,000. Okay. That's a whole different story. So $200,000 is what you're bringing home. That's your net. That's what you're bringing home to buy the bacon, all right? Still an excellent income.

But I think that you got to get your priorities in line. We got to stop creating more debt. We got to stop buying new trucks. You've got to save for retirement. It's creeping up on you. It's peeping and it's creeping. And if you don't make changes, you are not going to be ready. I love that you're calling in here asking about investments, but there are some steps that you need to take first in order to really set yourself up to be ready to go. And we got to eliminate this

debt. We need to walk out these baby steps. All right. Oh, I will. That debt will be gone within by the end of this year. Are you, are you on every dollar? Are you using a budget? Yes. Okay, sweet. So you've got a plan to win. Yeah, I've got it all planned out. I've got it down to how much money, you know, to the penny what I make and how much, where everything's going. Good, good. I know that by November of this year, everything will be completely paid off okay so i just want to make sure right now you're just looking towards the future right because you know the way we teach we're not investing until we get the debt paid off and

the reason for that is so that you can throw as much money as you're at your debt as possible so you can get it knocked out so i'm happy that you're doing research now but i also want to reiterate it's not time for that yet but let. But let that light a fire under your butt to keep going and get this debt paid off with a vengeance. You got to move. So Roger, is it just you in this business? Yes. Okay. An option you can look into, because here's the thing with the IRA, you are 57, so you are eligible for the catch-up contributions, but that's still only going to be $7,500, which isn't quite enough to retire on. Now, how long do you plan on working for? Oh.

Do you want to retire someday? Yes. Let's start planning for it. I wanted to retire 10 years ago. And so part of that is this debt is holding you back from retiring because it's holding you back from investing and stocking away a whole bunch of money. And so my A1 is to get rid of this debt,

and I'm questioning if you need this truck. Is there another option? Because I'm guessing this truck is for your business, right? Well, yeah, it's a semi. It's a high-haul refrigerated goods goods is there another option that you where you could sell this truck and get a cheaper used one uh no not at this not at this time okay this is this is a used one okay that i'm getting so the ra1 is to use that 200 grand income to pay off this what 156 grand156,000 of debt,

which I think you could do in under two years. Does that sound reasonable? By November of this year. Wow. How are you going to do that? I have no other debt. I mean... It's just the truck. The cost of food.

Okay. So you're going to live on nothing, is what you're saying. Right. I love it. I mean, I spend a couple hundred bucks on food. Are you a renter or do you have a mortgage? Neither. I don't maintain a house or wherever the truck is.

You're living out of the cab? The truck I just bought is going to be, I'm putting a driver in it. Okay. So here's another thing to think about, Roger. I want you working with an investing professional who can help guide this whole process over the next several years to show you a plan and say, hey, here's when you're going to be able to retire based on the numbers we're laying out. And they're going to also show you options where you can invest as a person who's self-employed into something like a solo 401k. So that way,

you have way more options than just that IRA limited to $7,500. That's right. And a good thing about that solo 401k, George, is that you can do contributions on each side as the employer and then also as the employee. So that's helpful when tax day comes. Yeah, to catch up because you're obviously behind on the retirement side, but you have a great income. And I just don't want you having to work for another 10 years, if you're even able to, versus saying, hey, if I can get this income up to $250,000, $300,000, and I'm throwing, you know, $100,000 or $200,000 away, even if it's outside of retirement in a brokerage account, in a savings account, you'll be able to have a retirement with dignity at that

point, which is my goal for you. Yeah. How's that sound? Now, did you say it was the Roth that it has the best? So Roth is going to go in with after-tax dollars, grow tax-free. With your age, it may be more beneficial to do the traditional IRA. And so that's another thing to bring up with your SmartVestor Pro. You can reach out to them at ramsaysolutions.com. We've got them in your area in Denver. You can click on Ramsey Recommends and get in touch with one of them to walk through all of those options. And Roger, one more question for you. The way your business is set up, does it require you working to bring in money or is it something that you'll be able

to manage as you get older and have others? Does that make sense? Could you hire someone and delegate? Yeah, it'll be something that I can manage because the new truck I just bought, I put a driver in it. It's leased on with a company. Good. Basically, they keep that truck moving. I can go sit on the beach and try 10 trucks. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you had it.

I wanted to make sure you had it set up in such a way that you're not having to do the brunt, the hard labor as you get on up there in age and that you can still bring in some money. And be sure you get rid of this debt and then run that business debt free, Roger. That is the best path to an earlier retirement for you. We're wishing you the best, man. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw this hour. Open phones at 888-825-5225

well Jade we saw this headline earlier this week from Yahoo and I'm curious to get your thoughts on it here it is half of Gen Zers said they don't see a point in saving money until things return to normal instead they're investing in themselves George that looks like you know i have thoughts on this that's why i brought it to you jade so many thoughts so many questions so little time number one the what the whole part about until things return to normal we talked about this a little before the segment and i'm like are they talking about the pandemic because the pandemic is over we need to define normal what is normal what well normal is broke we know that that's true okay okay but they're wanting it like normal to them i think is yeah everything's great

the economy's perfect i have a perfect job in the perfect place and i can afford everything i don't think that exists that is utopian it does not exist. And let's look at it from this angle. I mean, if you don't view times as normal, if you're still viewing times as, you know, kind of like state of emergency or like crazy inflation, whatever, that's the best time to save, right? Like that's when we should be saving our money. That's when we should be pulling back a little bit. That's not really the time. I don't know. I feel like the thought here is a little bit backwards for me, but I'm not a Gen Zer, so maybe I'm missing something. 56% of them put their retirement planning on hold during the pandemic, which if you're in a time where you're fearful, I feel like saving more money would be

beneficial. That's what I'm saying. You should be saving. And more questions, again, more questions. Gen Zers, so this is young America. I'm thinking, and here's my thoughts here, because I want people to retire and I want them to invest in their retirement early because we know that when it comes to investing, time is your friend, right? But it's also making me wonder,

you're investing already do you have debt are you working the baby steps like there's a way to do this and do it right you know and they talk about here they're prioritizing making up for those missed years during the pandemic with exciting experiences and good memories george why are you provoking me i'm poking the bear here investing in myself so what like starting my own business again the the the mentality here is not making sense because on the one hand we're like oh it's crazy times you know we want to we don't want to save our money like we want to wait till it goes back to normal but on the other hand we're talking about business ventures i don't know there's just a side of this that's not making a whole lot of sense it feels like it's a good way

to justify doing whatever i want to do because saving is like eating your vegetables facts and so like hey it's not the time to eat our vegetables people okay we're in a time of crisis yeah the brussels sprouts can wait yeah they're they're this is like me time for these people but these quotes are just their bet i love that they're betting on themselves we're investing in our cell is very eat pray love like i'm gonna go find myself in europe and while I'm a big fan of investing in yourself so that you can have a better career, if that means furthering your education, things like that, that's great. But we don't do that at the expense of our financial future. Definitely not. And I mean, I think you can really have this pie in the sky when it comes to like

betting on yourself in business. But I read a stat that said 18% of startups fail in the first year and 50% of startups fail in five years. So that's risky. Like if we're saying I'm gonna take my retirement money and bet on myself. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all about like chasing a dream and like going after stuff. But we're not at the expense of like reality like we've got to think this thing through there's a right way to do this we want to set ourselves up for success right like let's pay off our debt let's get some great savings in place you know let's start saving up to to bet on yourself but let's pay cash for it like let's not go out and get like business loans and no latida you know what i'm saying there's a way to do this the financial planner quoted in this said

talking about their clients, said right now they may be thinking, I don't want to put money into a retirement account because that's taking away from the dollars that I've been able to invest in myself and what I'm trying to do to achieve my dreams and create an impact for the world. LOL.

What in the we are the world is this mentality? I don't know, George. I'm confused by it because there was another part that said, they are seeking some sort of control because the consumer price index, it's distressing. Stubborn inflation, the stock market volatility. It says Americans are facing financial strain due to rising housing, grocery costs.

It's also difficult to put faith in the stock market, which has seen significant ups and downs. So they're literally burying their head in the sand and going, I'm just going to go to the beach because life is expensive. Well, they're like, the stock market is going up and down. I don't know what to do. That is really the heart of this is there is a microwave mindset in our culture today. We're not thinking long term.

We see the stock market go down. And so they go, well, why would I invest in that? I'm just losing money. And the thing they need to remember is, for you guys watching the stock market does this but it does this as it goes up so it goes up and down while continuously traveling up so we know that you know if you look at the past okay we can look at the past 30 years in the s&p 500 it's still having an annualized rate of return 10.7 percent and we're gonna look at up this time in history 10 years from now we're gonna go oh look at that little dip you gotta zoom out zoom

out be a crock pot in a world full of microwaves yeah invest into your future regardless of what's happening in the economy yes and you'll be far better off but do it in the right way gen zers let's get our debt paid off because i know y'all got student loan debt. Oh yeah, they're trying to do 17 things at once. Yeah, you got to focus. All right, good stuff there. Eric joins us up next in Minneapolis. Eric, welcome to the show. Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So I'm 19 and I just got my real estate license early September. And I made some stupid decision and I invested a bunch of money about a year and a half ago. And it was around 18,000. And now it's down to about 13,000, 14,000. So pretty much over $4,000. But I have no income and I have about $9,000 worth of debt. And normally I would just ride the roller coaster, but...

Well, we just had a great conversation about this, Eric. I hope you were listening. We did. What did you invest in? Was this single stocks? Yeah, it was, I mean, it was index funds and single stocks and now uh yeah like i said normally uh i take that back and this was like your entire world this money i bet and this was your life savings yeah pretty much i i just have to ask and i'm not doing this to poke fun i i just want to know did you get this advice from the gram did you get it from tiktok did somebody tell you hey dude this is what you need to take

all your money and put it here I'm just curious because I know there's a lot of that out there right now no I don't I guess I don't really remember where I didn't even have social media at the time but uh but where did the idea come from to go, hey, I've got $9,000 in debt. I've got $18,000 in the bank. I'm going to just let the debt sit. I'm going to invest this all. That's what I want to know. Well, so I actually, yeah, so the debt came, I didn't really find the show until probably three or four months ago. The debt came after all the investments I actually invested. I got student loans out in order to invest it. And then I saw Michelle, and then I realized I screwed up. All right.

You just got your real estate license. I think you need to get any job right now because it could be six months to a year before you actually see commission on your first sale, right? That's right. Right. And so we need income today. And so I'm going to go find the best job that I can with the skills that I have that pays the most money

so that I can create a financial foundation. And as far as the stocks go, you might just need to cash out because you need money right now. And so this 5,000 that you lost, I'm calling it a stupid tax and I'm going to learn to never do that again and only invest into my retirement and have a long-term mindset so that my butt doesn't get

taken from me when I lose $5,000. And he can take that money and pay off his debt. Yeah. Because it's going to be $13,000 that you're going to receive, right, Eric? Yeah, and the other thing is I'm living at home still, so it will last me a long time so I feel like part of me feels like if I just hang on to it and be very well we're gonna work the baby steps you're gonna work the baby steps you're gonna cash out this stock you're gonna take 9k of the 13k you're gonna pay off your debt and then you're gonna put the next bit of money well you're gonna keep a thousand as an emergency fund and you're gonna pay off your debt and then in the same day you're gonna start putting towards three months of expenses.

And we're going to just walk up the line and work these baby steps and get a real job until real estate is making you money that you can let go of that job and do real estate full time. And, man, once you touch that hot stove once, it never happens again. So I'm glad you learned it early, man. We've all done stupid with zeros on the end. And you'll look back at this and laugh one day when you're a millionaire and you follow these baby steps. That's right. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, co-host of this show, of course, as well as Smart Money Happy Hour with our good friend Rachel Cruz. Join this hour by Jade Warshaw. We're taking your calls at 888-825-5225.

Now, if you're listening to this show, I imagine you enjoy it. Hopefully, it's helpful for you. It motivates you on your financial journey. And here's my one ask because it is a free show. Would you consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with a friend? We want to make big impact in 2023 with this message and help people become debt-free and build wealth. And that is the best way to do it is by word of mouth, leaving reviews, subscribing, make the algorithms love it, all of that good stuff. So we appreciate you guys doing that. Let's get to the phones. Alex joins us in Des Moines.

Alex, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hello. What's up? How's it going? Thank you so much for taking my call. Funny, George, that you mentioned making a big impact in 2023. Why is that? Excuse me.

What you got going on, Alex? 2022 for me and my wife was a year of stork mode and stupid tax. I'm currently looking at the beginning of this year with $31K in student loans and about $800 in medical. And a condo that we currently live in with about $20K to $25K in equity, depending on how good a sale we get. My question is, should I sell the condo to blow off Baby Step 2? What's your take-home pay? Take-home pay for our household, it fluctuates a little bit based on the year, but we're looking at about $53,000. $53,000 or $100,000? Yeah, $53,000. $53,000 for the year. Okay.

And when it comes to this condo, what would you guys do if you sold it? Would you just rent for a while? We would go into renting. I just recently, well, May, took a job as a pastor in a smaller town that's about a 45-minute commute currently, we would rent somewhere there. What's your mortgage payment right now? Our mortgage payment, accounting the HOA fee, is $7.95 a month. Okay.

That's good. That's reasonable, at least. Rural Iowa for the win. I mean, looking at these numbers, nothing to me says fire mode, sell the condo. It feels like a lot right now because you're staring down $32,000 and you're bringing home $53,000. But these numbers are really encouraging to me if you guys get intense about it. Okay. How much could you throw at the debt each month if you went scorched earth we're on a

budget written plan we're not eating out shaving all the subscriptions expenses working extra how much could you throw at the debt each month honestly i don't know like i said when the baby was born we went into stupid tax i my wife and i need to really what does that mean, stupid tax, to you? Did you guys just haul off and buy a bunch of stuff that you didn't need for the baby? Like, did you go into debt? Not quite that far.

Because I see the medical debt and student loans. Our stupid tax was more we paid off our last credit card before we got the final bill for the baby. That's why we have medical debt right now okay and then we our fast food budget quadrupled from where it was in july i get it you got a newborn at home nobody feels like cooking it's like you're exhausted at the end of the day let's just order take out look i get it definitely been there i'm George. I mean, I think you guys need to sit down and crunch some numbers.

It sounds like you've kind of been, you know, in la-la land a little bit and join a new baby, getting your life together because your life is totally different now. You've just had a major life change. And, you know, that's cool. Give yourself a little bit of grace there.

But now you see what's going on. It's time to get... Yeah, you're ready to make some changes. Get on the ball. How much money do you guys have in the bank? We have our $1,000 emergency fund, and then at the moment, we're at about $3,400, just checking that's going in and out for bills. Okay. So your next day one sounds like that medical debt, which you can knock out within the next paycheck?

Alex, oh, sorry. You should be bringing home about $4,400 a month, right? Somewhere around there? Are you doing a budget? Yeah, we run through every dollar every month. Okay. So I want you to really look at that. And I want to, right now I feel like we have kind of like fake numbers. They're kind of like in the clouds. Squishy. It's very squishy. I think that we can, I want you and your wife to look at this tonight. I want you to get on every dollar and I want you to have solid numbers in your brain going forward. This is the amount that we have extra that we can put towards things are very fluid and it's not a real number, then there's a lot of room for anxiety and fear. Whereas, and it's like, I don't know if we can do this. Maybe we can if we buckle down. But if you really just get those numbers, then you'll know what you can do. And every dollar is great. It'll help project like exact dates for you, like payoff dates. There's a debt snowball calculator in there.

And here's what happens. You start to enter the numbers and you go, we got 500 extra bucks and it's going to take us 40 years to pay off this debt. That sucks. We can do better than that. What if we could double that? Okay. You get the side job. We cut this number. We're going to shop our insurance. We're going to change our withholdings. We're pausing all investing. Wow. Now it's going to take us 18 months. And you start to feel that hope and that progress. And then you go, if I just live out that plan we put on paper, we're going to be there 18 months from now, no debt. That's right. You need to use the tools that we have for you and let those tools motivate you. Plug in the numbers, get excited, bring your wife on board. You guys can do this.

How's that sound, Alex? Thank you. Did you leave any more hopeful than you came? A little bit. I guess I might have just been impatient too. Well, that's part of it. When you start on the Ramsey plan, there's a lot of impatience. Yeah. Because you're like, oh, I can be debt free.

Yeah, I want that like now. Yeah. How do we speed up that process? And that's a great feeling to have. And you got to use that fuel and turn that into actionable steps and habits that create momentum and it's addictive and jade you experienced this when you and your husband were paying off your massive mountain of debt you go how much more could we do next month oh yeah and next month well that's the thing you know i can tell he's excited because he's like willing if you're willing to

sell your house you're excited you know what i'm saying next level intensity that's next level so it's just like what you said george finding a way to focus that in in just the it's like a laser right you don't want it to go crazy it's like just focus that in just the right direction really get intense because you know they don't have to sell the house I mean if they hated the house or they just want to rent you know like sure that's an option but you know I don't think they need to do that I think just getting on using those tools getting excited you know I know the feeling you want to get out of debt tomorrow, but sometimes you just have to walk out the process. And here's the thing, there is something to be said for that process. It's a wonderful thing if you have, you know, a large asset that you can sell off and

become debt free. I'm not mad at that. I'm not knocking anybody who does that. But I will say there's something that happens in the process of debt snowballing that you can't, I mean, it's invaluable. It does something in your character. It does something in your habits. It does something in your faith. It does something in your relationships. And you cannot duplicate that in any other process. So I tell people all the time, man, don't try to skirt the process. If you don't have to, go ahead and walk through it. It's worth it. It is worth it. That sacrifice is worth it for what's on the other side. Yeah. Selling the condo while an intense step doesn't necessarily change the habits that got

us into the consumer debt in the first place. And so I love the idea of going, what am I willing to sacrifice? And you realize, oh, I didn't end up really needing that. And I didn't really miss it. I didn't miss that old life, except for maybe the eating out. That is something we can all say, I'm excited to get back to that once I'm debt free. Oh man, I know that's right. And you know, I have to say this because somebody asked me about debt consolidation

the other day. And I was like, that's the other thing with debt consolidation. You put it all together. You feel like you did something. You feel like you did something. You think, oh, I have one payment. I have less debt.

And you're more likely to take on more debt. And you don't do the debt snowball process. Listen, when I clean my house and it all goes in the junk drawer and everything looks clean, I go, I did it. It's a trap. Nope. The junk is just not to be seen right now. It's still there. There is purpose in the process, people. Love it. Good hour. Thank you so much to my co-host, Jade Warshaw, to all the folks in the booth. We got Austin, Ben, James, Zach, and Andrew, and you, America. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back real soon on The Ramsey Show.

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