The Ramsey Show - App - Learn How to Take Control of Your Money (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 8, 2018

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. Sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour, I'm Ken Coleman. I host The Ken Coleman Show on SiriusXM daily. It leads into The Dave Ramsey Show. And I'm joined in studio this hour by my good friend, best-selling author of Love Your Life Not Theirs, Rachel Cruz. Rachel, how are you?

We've got a hit. There it is right there. Am I there? You are always there. I am here. My presence is very real. My voice may not be. I'm doing great. Thanks, Ken. Well, we're excited. Before we get into your phone calls, and we are going to get to your calls,

888-825-5225 is the number, 888-825-5225. As an organization, we're really excited. Yesterday, the Ramsey Solutions organization launched Everyday Millionaires, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too. That is Chris Hogan's brand new book. We launched the pre-sale. You can pre-order the book now at DaveRamsey.com or ChrisHogan360.com. And we got a couple of crazy deals we're going to tell you about.

And the first one is you can get the book now. It comes out in January. January 7th is when you'll actually get the book, but you can buy it today for $20. And when you buy it today for $20, you get $50 in free bonus items, including the audio book, Chris reading the book, the e-book, which I love e-books, Rachel. I like the audio book for Chris. I'd pay to hear his voice read the book. It's pretty amazing. You'll also get a video lesson from Chris, How to Retire Inspired, and then a video lesson from Dave Ramsey, It's Okay to Be Wealthy.

So those are the goodies, but we've got an even more valuable bundle I'll tell you about in a few minutes. But, Rachel, I know that you're very excited about this book as well because it comes with some unbelievable research. Yeah. I mean, it's just the whole book idea of it. I was kind of jealous. I was like, Hogan, this book is, it's fascinating. So we actually did the largest study here at Ramsey Solutions for this book. They studied over 10,000 millionaires, 10,000 millionaires, and found some very interesting results. And so kind of the overarching, the big themes we saw,

which I think were just kind of hilarious, is that most millionaires stick to a budget and avoid debt. Shocking. Shocking. It like works. I was like, oh my gosh, yes. Most millionaires use coupons when shopping and use a grocery list. I'm a grocery lister. You don't do the groceries, do you? Do you go shopping for groceries? You know what? It's 50-50.

Oh, yeah. You have to. So when you go, you don't have to. I usually go there. Anyways, do you make a list? I got a working wife. Do you make a list? Yeah, I make a list.

Yes. I, I, you know, I have ADHD. I'll get in the grocery store and lose complete focus of why I'm there. And will not become a millionaire, that's for sure. Because millionaires stick to a list, which I love. And they say that they live on less than they make. And you know what I love about all of this? When I read that, I'm like, you know, you have this idea of what a millionaire is.

Like, if you just say, in a cliche, stereotypical world, what is a millionaire? And I just see some guy in a suit driving a a really nice car living in a penthouse and like you go in his closet and it's like every suit is like perfectly aligned right you just have this like Hollywood picture of what a millionaire is and I love it because this kind of debunks a lot of it like not a lot of millionaires are very cool like they make grocery lists right like they're not like wanting dining all the time but that's how they became millionaires. And I also think, who is a millionaire that's around me? Because there's a lot more than who you give it credit for. And it's usually the people that you don't think are millionaires.

So I just love that it debunks a lot of the myths we have and these stereotypes. And it gives you the facts of what a millionaire is or how they became millionaires. And then a total plan on how can you become that because that's fun. That's changing your family tree right there. Well, speaking of changing your family tree and this study, basically what we found out is that millionaires are doing things that Dave teaches in Financial Peace University. So if you're new to the Dave Ramsey Show or new to Ramsey Solutions

and you've not taken Financial Peace University, we've got a special offer with Chris's book, okay? So you can add to the purchase of the book if you want. You can get the number one program, Financial Peace University, and Chris's new book, Everyday Millionaires, together. It's a bundle for $129, and you still get all those free bonus items I talked about just moments ago. The e-book, audio book, yep.

Yeah, so you'll get the e-book, the audio book, a couple of lessons, one from Dave, one from Chris, and Financial Peace University. Get started walking the baby steps. All of that available for $129, and you get that, again, DaveRamsey.com, ChrisHogan360.com. And when you pre-order, the book will show up in uh mailbox january the 7th so there you go 888-825-5225 is the number let's go to zach who's on the line oh whoops i went the wrong one there here we go there's zach orlando florida zach how can we help how are you good how can we hey so yeah so um Zach from Orlando.

I'm 24 years old, and I have a pretty good job right now. But long story short, my question is that I was investing a little bit last year. My company offers a 401K, and I started a Roth IRA. But I do want to purchase a house. And so at the end of last year, I stopped my investments. And this entire year, I've been taking all that money that I was using for investments on top of what I was saving for a house fund. I've just been shoving it over into a house fund. And so I plan to stop doing that in December and then restart my investments.

But I wasn't sure if that was like with the Orlando market being white hot right now and houses being pretty expensive where I'm living currently over in Windermere. It just, I don't know if what I'll have is enough. And so I was just kind of wondering what you would think about potentially restarting my investments while continuing to save or if I should just keep holding off on investments and continuing to save until I feel like I got an appropriate payment. Yeah, Zach, do you have any debt? I do not. You're not completely debt free. That appropriate down payment. Yeah, Zach, do you have any debt? I do not. You're not completely debt-free.

That's amazing. At 24 years old, are you married? No, not currently. Okay. And so you know what area, you've been in Orlando long enough to say, okay, this is where I want to be settled. You're not going to be transferring or moving in the next couple of years that you can foresee. Yeah, I'm going on it. Yeah.

Okay, perfect. Yeah, so what you're doing actually is correct. So that is, we call saving for a down payment for a house Baby Step 3B. And so Baby Step 1 is that $1,000 emergency fund. Baby Step 2 is completely out of debt, which you are. And Baby Step 3 is to have three to six months of expenses. So do you have a fully funded emergency fund

of three to six months of expenses minus what you've saved for the house? I do. Awesome. Zach, you're like killing it. Yeah, I want to ask. This is fun. Zach, how much, what's the amount you're trying to save?

What's the number amount? So originally I was looking at 30, and I'm almost there. If you dock my emergency fund, I actually do. I've got about 31, 32 right now saved up, but that's including my emergency fund, I actually do. I've got about 31, 32 right now saved up. Okay. But that's including my emergency fund. Yeah. And so originally I wanted to hit 30 separate from my emergency fund,

but with the Orlando market right now, I don't even know if that's going to be. Sure. Well, and we suggest putting, you know, 10 to 20% of a down payment, you know, saved for a down. So whatever, I mean, so the goal you're saving for is going to depend on the house purchase and the amount of house you want, making sure your monthly payment is no more than 25% of your take-home pay on a 15-year mortgage. So those are kind of the boundaries. So if you're in that 10% to 20%, put that down, Zach, and then go back to investing.

Well, that's why I asked him about that number. He's closer than he realizes to getting there, and then he can go to the investing. So it's not that much farther. Do what Rachel said, Zach. You're so close. So fun at 24. Yeah, you've got plenty of time to invest. Oh, boy.

I like it. Good stuff. Coming up next, more of your phone calls about your life and your money. Don't move. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Can you believe this real estate market? Home shopping has become so competitive. There's a ton of new buyers in the market, and bidding wars are the new normal. Folks are under a lot of pressure to offer more money to get into that house. Don't do that. Get certified instead. The Churchill Mortgage Certified Home Buyer Program is a game changer. You can quickly

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Welcome back, America. You're listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour. Thrilled to be joined by my good friend, Rachel Cruz, as we take your calls about your life, your money, career, whatever you need help with. We are here for you. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. And let's start it off with Sarah, who's on the line in Spokane, Washington. Sarah, how can we help? Hi. My husband is switching careers,

and in the next month or so, we are going to be going into full-time ministry. And we are working with an organization that sends pastors into rural communities that can't afford a full-time pastor. So we're going to be selling our house, and once our house sells at the end of this month, we will have all of our debt paid off and a fully funded emergency fund, and we will have about $25,000 left over. And I was hoping to get your advice on what we should do with that. We had talked about sticking it into a retirement account or putting it down for our kids' college funds,

or the other thing we had talked about is buying a piece of property and building a house on it. My husband's in construction now, so he could build it, and then using that as a rental to help bring in extra income, and then so we would have somewhere to go when we retire from ministry. Okay, so would that house, would that be more like a rental property, not your primary residence, correct? Yes, it would be a rental property. The churches provide housing for the pastors, so we would live in a parsonage until we retire.

Okay, I got you. What does your expenses and income look like when you guys are going into full-time ministry? We're looking at probably around $3,000 a month. We won't have a house payment, and the churches are strongly encouraged to provide utilities. So it would be just mainly like car insurance and cell phone bills and food bills and stuff like that. Okay, and how much? So that's your expenses.

How much will you guys be bringing in? Are you having to raise funds? We are, and we're almost done with that. We will bring in, before taxes, we are expecting right around $3,000 a month. Okay, and you have your fully funded emergency fund. Okay, so my gut is saying I would keep some of this and make a bigger emergency fund because this transition into ministry is going to be a different

one. Just with your lifestyle and everything, the change of it all and having to raise support and all of that, I would personally want a little bit of an extra cushion there. So you do have three to six months or is it six months saved?

We will have three months worth of an emergency fund saved up. Okay, perfect. So what I would do is I would stick maybe another ten in there just to make sure you have a fully funded six months just, again, through this transition. And in a year from now, you may look up and be like, oh, no, we don't need that. We can go back down to three months if you want. But I would take that out. And then, yeah, you'll have about $15,000 left. So I would really recommend contacting one of our smart investor pros to see, okay, is it best to open up maybe

a Roth IRA in each of you and just putting some money in there? Or even, you know, you said looking into kids college, which is great. I would start some investing if you guys don't have a Roth IRA already. But definitely sit down with one of our smart investor pros. And you go to DaveRamsey.com and find one near you guys to see what to do with the rest of that 15K. So I would definitely bump up that emergency fund to six months instead of three and then take the remainder 15,000. And they're probably going to tell you to open up to Roth IRAs if you're both employed to do that. Which is a good start, because they can put their full contribution in and be really set, depending on what that ministry, maybe the organization or denomination they're with

probably has some type of retirement plan as well. So you can get that started. But I agree with you 100%. When you're out there raising support, let's be honest. That's a straight commission deal. You're not selling anything. You've got to raise support. I think you're right on six months. And especially, I think they have kids.

I think she mentioned that, or I was getting a feeling of that. So I know as a mom, and women have this. So one of women's greatest fears when it comes to money is this lack of security. That's right. Wanting to know, okay, no matter what we're going to be taking care of, it's going to be okay. And so, like Winston and I, we have an emergency fund with another emergency fund. I'm like, I just need a really big pile of money to know everything's going to be okay, right? I mean, there's just this sense of security that a lot of women have.

And so, I think that would give you guys some breathing room and to enjoy the process. Because if you're strapped down every single penny every month and your expenses line up right with your income and in a sense you're living paycheck to paycheck. You're not because they have that savings. But it just feels good to have that extra cushion. Well, but it's really smart, too. You're addressing the feeling, which I think is absolutely spot on. But let's remember, if you don't need it, you can move those funds.

That's right. If you get eight, nine months down the road and support's coming in and everything's great, again, you just move the cash around. That's right. But it's really smart, smart money sense there, and that's really good advice. 888-825-5225 is the number to jump in. Let's go to Logan, who's on the line in Muncie, Indiana. Logan, how can we help?

Hey, Ken. Hey, Rachel. I'm calling to ask if I should get life insurance. I'm 18 years old, and I live with my parents. I have my own job, and I don't know if this is relevant, but I just started college. What's your suggestion on that? Do you, is there anyone in your life

dependent upon your income if you have a job? No. No, so you're completely self-sufficient in that sense. I know you're under your parents' insurance and all that. Yeah, do you have any savings? I do, I think. Okay, do you have any savings? I do, I think. Okay, do you know how much? I have a saving account.

I am not offhand, no. Okay, yeah, so what I say to someone in your position, Logan, that the biggest reason you have life insurance is if someone is dependent upon your income and something happens to you, then those people, in a sense, are stranded. They need your income. But since you are not in that position,

you really do not need life insurance. I would say to save up enough to cover if something were to happen, burial costs and that kind of thing so that that's not on your loved ones to take care of financially and just having some of that set aside. And that could be in an emergency fund.

We talk about saving up $1,000, getting out of debt in a fully funded emergency fund. And so college, it's a little different, but pretty much those steps. So I would say any kind of savings you have would go towards that if something were to happen. So to answer your question, Logan, no, you do not need life insurance. Not yet. It's a good question, though. Very thoughtful.

I know, right? Very responsible. I don't know if I was thinking about that at 18. Not me. I can tell you that right now. 888-825-5225 is the number. Andrew's on the line in Phoenix, Arizona. Andrew, how can we help?

Hi. So at my work, there's the possibility going around that there could be a labor union strike. And we're right at the end of baby step two. Like in a week with my next paycheck, I could pay off our debt. And then we would probably have about two or three thousand or so started into our actual emergency fund. But I'm wondering, should I hold off on paying off the debt and just bank the cash pending whether or not we're going to have a strike? I mean, as of right now, we're not sure if we're going to. And if we do, we don't exactly know when it's going to be.

There's a lot of negotiations going on. And I'm really kind of wanting to just go ahead and pay off the debt, but I'm not sure if it's the right way to go or if I should be saving the cash just in case. Well, Andrew, let me ask you a couple of things. If the strike happens, what are the restrictions on you? I assume you're a part of the union. Is that correct? Is that a correct assumption?

Is it a union situation? Or just tell me what's going on there. I don't want to get into too many details, honestly. Let me ask. I understand. There's a contract there that. Okay. Well, I understand now.

So let me not put you in a corner. Here's my point. If the strike happens, are you by law or by the contract that you have, you're not allowed to go make money any other way? That's what I'm trying to understand. Can you go work while you're on strike? Can you go just do whatever it takes to make some money, or are you restricted? As far as I know, if I need to go work at Walmart, I could.

Could I go work in my field? I don't believe so. No, I know that. I know to go work at Walmart, I could. Could I go work in my field? I don't believe so. No, I know that. I know you can't work in your field. Okay. So that's what I wanted to know. So pay the debt off, okay, because you don't know if the strike's going to happen. Right.

And you said in one fell swoop, okay, one just one chop with that next check, you've paid off the debt and you got two to,000 to go towards that emergency fund. What is that three- to six-month number that you're shooting for? One-sixth, and that'd be closer to 30. Okay, great. So you've got some time there. So here's the point. You can, Andrew, go out, and with that extra cash that you've got, that would be a short-term

emergency fund for this, and you can go make some money outside of your field. The economy is so strong right now. People are looking for people like you. So I would pay the debt off. You're going to be in a much better position financially, even though you don't feel like it. But eliminate the risk, and the strike may not even happen. That's exactly right. And you can go keep everybody fed, everybody clothed, and everybody housed.

You can do that outside of your industry. So hey, play it smart. Pay the debt off. Good question. Hopefully the strike doesn't happen. All right, folks, coming up, more of your calls about your life and your money. I'm Ken Coleman. She is Rachel Cruz, and you're listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, y'all. I'm Christy Wright, and I'm all about equipping women to make money doing what they love. One of the questions I hear all the time is, how do I know what business I should start? Some people have a ton of ideas, while others have a hard time coming up with one. Finding your idea can be overwhelming,

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Sign up for Business Idea Bootcamp at businessboutique.com. That's businessboutique.com. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Welcome, America. It is your show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined in studio by Rachel Cruz. We are sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour. Thrilled to have you with us. And we are also thrilled. This is a big time here at Ramsey Solutions. Our good pal, Chris Hogan, launching book number two, the pre-sale. Now, the book hits the streets, I believe, January the 7th. But we launched the pre-order opportunity yesterday, and it is going bananas. And we wanted to tell you about it.

Two specific offers that I'm going to tell you about in a minute. But first, Rachel Cruz, this is, as I said yesterday, sat in on the show with Chris. It's more than a book. We're talking about one of the most, the most robust research study on this topic. The title, Everyday Millionaires, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too. This is quite a study and that's why we're so excited about how it's going to help people. I know. It's fun. It was over 10,000 millionaires.

The largest millionaire study, like you said, ever done. And it's just fascinating. I mean, when you, I know for me, when there's things in life, I'm like, oh, that would be fun to do, whether it's, you know, a hobby or a career path or whatever it is. And it's like, oh, you kind of want to read up on it. You're interested about it. And a millionaire, I'm like, oh, I'm just, I remember when I was hearing about it, I was like, I just want to know the results. I'm just curious, right? And so the book is chock full of all of that. And also a game plan to motivate you all that are doing the stuff to get there where your money doesn't control you. You're controlling it and you're living on a budget and getting out of debt and making

those steps to build wealth. And I love as well that our message, including in this book, is not just to build wealth for the sake of building wealth or not just to get out of debt for the sake of getting out of debt. But really what it does is it changes your family tree in a financial sense, but also in an emotional sense, in a tactical sense. I mean, all of it together. It's pretty amazing when you can pass down a legacy of this magnitude. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, the data is extraordinary. We shared yesterday, Rachel, on the show that most of those millionaires came from middle class or even lower middle class status.

So this is not that you got the big head start from daddy. Right. And so I think that's extraordinary. There's so much of that information in the book that will encourage you. At first, it's kind of like, wow. And then you realize, wait a second, I actually can do it. And I love that's in the subtitle and how you can too. It's a terrific book.

We're really excited about it. So I want to tell you about two special offers that you can get today. If you decide to pre-order today and in the next few days as we put this out there, you can buy the book now for $20. That's a great deal. So that's less than the retail value. And when you buy it for $20, you've got a couple of options. You get one option, $20, and then you get $50 in free bonus items. One, of course, is the audio book, Chris Reading the Book, then the e-book of Everyday Millionaires,

and then we have two bonus lessons, a video teaching from Chris on how to retire inspired, and then from Dave Ramsey on It's Okay to Be Wealthy. Two great lessons that will equip you and encourage you. So that's the $50 in free stuff that you get when you buy the book today for $20. You can get it at ChrisHogan360.com or DaveRamsey.com. Now, we've also got a bundle. Rachel and I were talking about this during the break. What's amazing is that this study of 10,000 millionaires revealed that

Financial Peace University works for a reason. What Dave's been teaching, those baby steps work. And a lot of these people, whether they knew us or not, because a lot of these millionaires have never engaged with our tribe or the show, we just went to them because we wanted to know how you did it. And they essentially did it, as Dave says all the time. Grandma's ways, God's ways. And so Financial Peace University, our number one financial program,

the seven baby step that's helped millions of people change their family tree, you can get Financial Peace University and the new book, Everyday Millionaires, for only $129. So that's a bundle. So we take FPU and the book, put it all together, $129, extraordinary value. And for those of you who have yet to dive into Financial Peace University, this is a great, great bundle for you. So you can get them.

You get the book by itself or the bundle, ChrisHogan360.com. And if you get it with Financial Peace University, you still get all the free stuff of the audio book and the e-book and everything. Yeah, you still get all the free stuff. A lot of free stuff just going around. So making it worth your while, it's a great purchase. Well, and I'll tell you, it's something that, again, we teach a lot of, which I love is since that like we it's now backed up by a study but it's the it's the tortoise and the hare right i mean it's just this idea you know you just invest a little bit at a time you're out of debt you live on the scene you make you live intentionally

you're on a budget and that over the course of years and decades build something and it's just it's a it's math at that point, right? When you put in the money to invest. And so, that's what I love is a lot of these people, they didn't even have like crazy jobs, they had crazy salaries. It's just a little bit at a time over and over and over. In our world today, as Dave always says, everyone's like ADD, right? We're like hairs. We're just like all over the place. We're going to just try to do 18,000 things with our money and try to build wealth and changing jobs. It's just all this crazy stuff. But you just stick the path and slowly but surely you win.

And same with getting out of debt, right? Just a little bit at a time. You just keep working it. Well, it's a great point. All the hares, those rabbits, they get all the press. They get all the glory. But it's the tortoises. These people, these 10,000 people represented in this new book from Chris Hogan, they're

the ones that they're winning as well, and nobody sees them winning. That's right. They're sneaking up on you. That's right. They're next to you in the parking lot at Walmart. Right. And you have no idea. That's what I love about them.

And they're just laughing. They're the people, by the way, I think that smile at you when you're walking by them and you're busy, and they just look at you and they give you the unprompted smile and a, how do you do? And you go, well, they're nice. Oh, maybe. They're probably really rich and they're just happy about it. And they're not very stressed. And they're just looking at you.

And they're probably, and generosity is one of the things as well. And they're just giving money away. They're just, it's just like. Yeah. You're scrambling. They're like, poor kid. Or they see someone get out of like a brand new Mercedes and they're like 18 years old and they're like, oh yeah. Yeah they see someone get out of a brand new Mercedes, and they're like 18 years old, and they're like, oh, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Car payments. Love it. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Austin, who's on the line in Columbia, South Carolina. Austin, how can we help? Hey, guys. So I am 22.

I have an 11-month-old baby at home, and I just got engaged. And I am currently debt-free. I have a 529 account for my daughter already opened and I'm putting a little bit more than 15% away into savings and everything. My question is as far as the money that I am saving for like a new car or vacations or just miscellaneous stuff that I'm not planning on spending for a little bit, should I pull that money out of the bank, keep it in cash, keep it in the bank and just let it sit there, or put it into like a mutual funds account? Sure. Well, the way I look at this is that savings that you're talking about,

I kind of want there to be two different ones, two different accounts, okay? And I would say both can go into a standard money market account, which is just basically a savings account with a little bit more of an aggressive interest rate, but not a ton, or savings rate, I'm sorry, or interest rate, yeah. And so I would say to get three to six months of expenses cashed. Do you have that saved up? I do, yes, ma'am. Okay, perfect.

So where is that right now? That is sitting in a savings account. Actually, that was my other question is should I put that into either a money market or a very, very safe, low-risk mutual fund? Yeah, I would not put that in a mutual fund because your money market account, you want to be able to get to quickly. I'm sorry, your emergency fund, get to it quickly if something happens. So, for instance, mine, we just have ours in a money market account.

So a savings account, money market account, it's there. The purpose of that is not to build wealth with that money. That's there. It's almost like insurance. It's just there in case of an emergency. Now, the other things you're talking about, which my husband and I have as well, is an account that you put in. You're like, yes, to replace the car later if we want to go on vacation. So all of that usually is going to be used at some point five years or less. And so that is when you want just a traditional money market account as well. And those can be two different accounts. I like to have our separate so I can see, okay, here's our emergency fund and here's all the other savings we have.

But anything you're saving for five years or more, you said you are putting 15% away. I do want that in retirement. So you do want to put those in mutual funds within Roth IRAs or if you are working a 401k, that kind of thing. But your emergency fund and saving for large purchases can both go into a money market account. But I would have two separate accounts of that so you're not dipping into your emergency fund.

And Austin, congratulations. Yeah, that's true too. 22 years old, got his head on the right way, thinking ahead. And so here's what I'm going to do. Why not just give away a copy of Chris's other bestselling book? That's fun, yeah. We know that Everyday Millionaire is going to be a bestseller, but Retire Inspired is the book for you, buddy. Yep.

You're 22. You're ready to go. That's right. And so hang on the line. Kelly's going to give you a copy of Chris's book, Retire Inspired. Read it. Practice it. And, buddy, you are going to be a millionaire.

That's fun. There's no question. Congrats on the baby. Yeah, how fun. Seven months. Oh, that's fun. Rachel loves the babies. I do love babies.

That's fun stuff. All right, folks, coming up, more of your questions about your life and your money. Don't go anywhere. More Dave Ramsey Show right around the corner. You know what I've learned after talking to so many people who have been victims of ID theft? They feel violated and they have a sense of fear and intrusion. It can be overwhelming. It's scary and infuriating at the same time. People question your character.

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Do not wait until it's too late and you have to go through this nightmare on your own. Go to Zander.com. Welcome back, America. You're listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you aboard. My name is Ken Coleman, and I am in studio with Rachel Cruz this hour as we take your calls. 888-825-5225 is the number. You can also jump in via social media.

You can submit your question on Twitter. That's at Ramsey Show. And also at Dave Ramsey on Instagram and of course Facebook. Millions of people out there as well. How about we take a Twitter question, Rachel? You good with that? Here we go. Kevin tweets, I am closing on a first home soon.

Not sure how to budget for furniture expenditures. Any tips? I don't know if there's anybody more qualified to answer this question than you. I don't know about that. A, furniture is way more expensive than what we give it credit for. It is true. It's so expensive. I'm like, what?

But there's a scale, right? So you can go as expensive as you want or you can go as cheap as you want. And so I always like to say, or for me, when I'm thinking of this kind of thing, I like to buy investment pieces. Pieces that you're going to use all the time. Your couch. Yes. Your mattress.

Your kitchen table. Things that are going to be used all the time, I would invest more money in. Because, again, that's what you're going to be using the most of. But maybe the random little room off of random parts of your house that has a couch or something, like a formal living room or a dining room that no one really goes in. You really just go in your kitchen and main living room. If you have something like that at your dining room table, you could really find something great off Craigslist and paint it and get creative with that.

So I would spend more on the pieces that you know you're going to use all the time. That's where I would put my money. But again, go as cheap or as expensive as you want because there's a range of it. But man, it's so sad how expensive it is. I'm like, man. Well, and here's what happened. Some people go, well, we've got this house, we've got these rooms, we've got to fill them. And they go down to, I'm not going to name the companies, but they finance it for seven years, a couch. And Ken, do you know what happened to Winston and myself? So we moved during the recession when we got our house. So we got our house in foreclosure and it was a almost brand

new house and the whole development went under all of that during like 08 or 09. So when we moved in, we had just gotten married and the way our floor plan is laid out is it's very open. Like you walk right in and there's stairs up to the right and then there's two rooms, kind of like a formal living,

dining, and then our big living room in our kitchen like it's a very open floor plan and we had no furniture i mean we had just come out of college we had a little bit of savings and again we bought a coffee table a couch our bed a kitchen table stools like we bought like a few things but we had two rooms in our home that were empty yeah empty and and not just like a random where you close the door like when you walked in our house it was obvious we did not have enough furniture to fill the house but in it so it was like i mean it was kind of embarrassing like the first little bit we had people over i was like i was like preparing them like so we don't really have a lot of furniture i had like i was feeling

i had to justify it and then a few months later when someone's like stop being embarrassed by it rachel like we don't have the money to pay for furniture yeah we don't we're gonna save up and we'll we'll get it furnished one day, but it's not right now. But that's a hard, or at least for a woman, or for me, a hard pill for me to swallow. It'd be like, oh my gosh, it's kind of embarrassing. It's like empty rooms everywhere. But take your time. It's not worth it.

It's not worth the, yeah, 90 days, same as cash deal. No, if you don't have the money, don't buy it. Or Craigslist is a beautiful thing, too. Pay cash, and if you don't have the cash, then you're going to have to wait. Very simple. There you go. And guess what? I'm alive, Ken. cash deal. No. If you don't have the money, don't buy it. Or Craigslist is a beautiful thing, too. Pay cash. And if you don't have the cash, then you're going to have to wait. Very simple. There you go. And guess what?

I'm alive, Ken. Yeah, you are. I didn't have a room furnished, but I'm alive. When people came over, they didn't sit in the empty room. They sat where you were. And they don't care, either. That's the other thing. You put expectations on people on those things in life, they don't care.

Nobody cares. No. 888-825-5225 is the number. We go to Chad, who's on the line in Destin, Florida. Chad, how can we help? Hey, Ken, Rachel, how are y'all? Thank you for taking the call. Doing great.

So I have $185K plus my $15K in a savings account. I have $8,000 in an employer 401 with my mortgage at $250,000. Although I may be laid off within the next year or so, I was wondering, should I play catch-up and push this into the employer 401 or funnel into the mortgage or just pause and hold. And you are funding 15% of your income into retirement. Is that correct? Correct. Into that 401k.

Yeah. I mean, if I were you, I would be throwing some cash probably at the house and get that mortgage done because you have no other debt, correct? Correct. Yeah. Nothing. And so your savings, you have six months saved or three months? Six months. Six months.

Six months. The 15K. That's great. And so if you are, you said you possibly might be laid off? Correct. Yeah, that's it. Right now it's about a 50-50. So I'm not holding my breath, though.

Okay. And are you, would you be able to find another job pretty quickly in your field? I believe so, yeah. I work on the water, so I believe there's a good market. I may have to relocate, though. So I'm on the Gulf Coast here, so I may be relocating further west. Okay, yeah. Well, I don't think it would be a bad thing to put a little bit more in that emergency fund

since this is something that may be coming up. Are you married? I'm single. Single, okay, cool single okay cool so yeah so that's great i mean so really in that case if you if there's no kids do you have kids none okay so i mean in your case six months should be a pretty great savings to be able to get you through even a job layoff if you wanted to buffer it a little bit more you could but i would throw a big chunk of that at the house for sure um because once you start lowering that down yeah and you can have your house paid off If you wanted to buffer it a little bit more, you could, but I would throw a big chunk of that at the house for sure. Because once you start lowering that down, yeah, and you can have your house paid off really quickly. I mean, you've done a great job, $185,000 saved.

That's amazing. I mean, it really, really is. So I would put some of that money. And I would say even with that amount, you can enjoy some of that. Like if there's a trip you've wanted to take or something like that, I mean, you're at the position. You can take your foot off the gas a little bit. You don't have to stroke a check and put it all towards the house. I would say enjoy a little bit of it, too. Yeah, great job, Chad. You're in good

shape. Keep on rocking. I would definitely pay that house down because that just puts you in even more stability. Right, absolutely. Really great stuff. Take five and go enjoy yourself. Take a trip. Take five. Literally. But he lives in Destin, for heaven's sakes. I know.

What do people from Destin go? I've always wondered things like that. Maybe he goes where it snows. Who knows? Let's go to Tanner, who's on the line in Austin, Texas. Tanner, how can we help? Hey, Ken and Rachel. Quick question for you.

I actually went through the Financial Quotes Master Training that you guys hosted back in March. Oh, awesome. And I'm trying to switch through the Ken Coleman show. I'm trying to switch careers to be like an investment advisor. Okay. My question is, when do I, if I switch, when do you say, you know, don't invest your money with me, even though that's my paycheck, but to get them to win with their money, even though it's hurting my income. I'm not sure I understand that question. Can you say that differently? Yeah, like if you, I don't want you to invest with me.

I want you to go through the baby steps, even though they're trying to invest too early. Oh, I see. You're saying once you become that financial counselor and they come to you for investing and you know that they should do it dave's way that's what you're talking about yes well i think you should do that because i i think that's what we want our smart investor pros to do dave talks about the heart of a teacher he talks about all the time how he wants his listeners to go interview them say all right i've got some questions they're working for you i've heard him say that a million times. And the reason Dave says that is because he wants to make sure that the people that are representing us out there do have that heart of a teacher and are going to say what you just laid out, which is, okay, glad you're here, but here's the deal.

But you have $78,000 in student loan debt and two car payments. You don't need to invest your money right now. And so, yeah, it's the heart of the teacher. You're helping the person. And we say around here, if you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money. And you will get those people that will be investing and you will have lifelong clients because a lot of people, it takes about two years to get out of debt. And then maybe a little bit more time, obviously, to save up for that emergency fund. But you're going to have

clients for life if you win people over because you are giving them the right instructions. So, yes, it may seem to hurt your income in the short term. But, man, you're building that relationship with people and you're putting them in a good position because you're going to be helping them do the right thing with their money. That's right, Tanner. You don't have to choose. The answer is you don't have to choose between your livelihood or giving people the right advice. That's right. A high percentage of those folks are going to come back to you and go, hey, you steered me in the right direction.

Thank you. I did what you told me to do, what Dave Ramsey teaches. Now I'm in a position. And by the way, you're going to make more money off of them when they come back than you would have if you helped them out and did what you think you had to do. Don't you wish there were more? And we have a ton of those investment professionals, good people that are in our SmartVestor Pro. But man, I mean, I think about all the 28-year-olds out there with, again,

tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt. They're living paycheck to paycheck, but they're like, we need to go and invest. And all the investment people are like, yeah, give us your money. And they're still paycheck to paycheck making payments, credit card debts. I'm like, oh, if there are people out there that taught this, get out of debt and then invest. I wish there were more people like that. Keep it up, Tanner. Great job.

Thanks for the call. Thanks for listening to the show as well. Hey, big thank you to Rachel Cruz. Thanks for sitting in. Thank you. I appreciate you so very much. Almost as fun as my show on YouTube. Wow.

We'll let that one go. Hey, I want to thank our producer today, Zach Bennett, and our associate producer, Kelly Daniel. But most of all, you, America, it is your show. Thank you so much for listening. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread

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